Barack and Michelle Obama sign multiyear deal to produce Spotify podcasts
Barack and Michelle Obama are taking on even more producing duties, and this time, they're venturing into podcasting.
The former president and first lady's production company, Higher Ground, has signed a multiyear deal with Spotify to produce podcasts, CNN reports. The Obamas will "develop, produce, and lend their voices to select podcasts, connecting them to listeners around the world on wide-ranging topics," Higher Ground said.
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In a statement, Barack Obama said that podcasts "offer an extraordinary opportunity to foster productive dialogue, make people smile and make people think, and, hopefully, bring us all a little closer together," Variety reports.
Obama is just the latest former president to get into podcasting. Former President Bill Clinton last month launched a podcast with the Clinton Foundation called Why Am I Telling You This?, sitting down in the first episode with humanitarian and Clinton Foundation partner José Andrés. The George W. Bush Institute also earlier this year launched The Strategerist, with the 43rd president himself being interviewed on a May episode.
No specific projects have been announced as part of this Spotify deal yet, but CNN reports the first podcast likely won't arrive until 2020.
