The Obamas' Production Company Will Adapt Heather McGhee's Book into a Podcast
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
“Hearst Magazines and Verizon Media may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.”
Higher Ground, the production company of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, has optioned Heather McGhee’s New York Times bestseller The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together for adaptation as a podcast series for Spotify.
In the book, McGhee, a frequent panelist on NBC’s Meet the Press, takes readers on a sociological odyssey of sorts across America in an attempt to further understand the country’s racial divide—and to dispel many pervasive, insidious misunderstandings.
Along the way, McGhee speaks with white people who’ve felt that their economic misfortunes are in large part a result of the progress made by and for people of color. They are people who subscribe to the "zero-sum paradigm," the idea that the increasing opportunity for those who have been traditionally marginalized means the marginalization of others. McGhee’s book brims with significant, candid conversations about inequity and inequality.
The podcast, McGhee said in a statement, “will take listeners along as I hit the road again in the wake of the pandemic, in search of more signs of the America we’re becoming—where people from all walks of life come together to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own." The podcast will also "delve deeper into the lives of some of the most memorable characters in the book.”
She added: “The Obamas’ Higher Ground—with its mission to inspire through powerful storytelling–is the perfect partner for The Sum of Us.”
The Obamas founded Higher Ground in 2018 as a way to develop dynamic stories—including a slate of documentary films—that embody what they tout as their core values. In 2019, the company announced an exclusive partnership with Spotify to produce audio series, one of which is The Michelle Obama podcast, which premiered last summer and features the former First Lady in conversation with friends, family members, and colleagues.
Last month, McGhee, the Board Chair of Color of Change—the nation’s largest online racial justice organization—wrote an op-ed for Oprah Daily about the Derek Chauvin trial. As she listened to the emotional testimonies of the bystanders, she said she “reflected on the human superpower that is empathy, the superpower that racism tries to choke off.”
She added, “I’ve spent the last three years writing about the hidden costs of racism to us all: the traumas that radiate out beyond the intended victims and the ways that racism in our politics and laws leads to dysfunction and needless suffering.”
The Spotify podcast promises to illuminate more of those hidden costs, to foster further discussion about how we can begin to heal the wounds of racism that continue to fester.
“The Sum of Us is a deeply empathetic and heartfelt analysis of the real impact of inequality and racism on everyday Americans,” said Dan Fierman, President of Higher Ground Audio. “Heather not only understands and captures the broader history of how we got here, but she also truly cares about the many people impacted today by our biggest societal failures. We are thrilled to work with her to amplify the beautiful stories from her essential new book.”
You Might Also Like
