Renegades: Born in the USA: Recommendable podcast series starring President Obama and rock star Bruce Springsteen!

In Renegades: Born in the USA President Obama and Bruce Springsteen converse during 8 podcast episodes on Spotify. They talk openly and frankly about topics like their friendship, their upbringings, race issues, music, family, and the USA and much more. Below I have briefly described the contents of each episode.

 Episode 1: President Obama and Bruce Springsteen discuss how their unlikely friendship came about. They share views on how race and racism in their hometowns defined their feelings of belonging and how it was to grow up as teenagers in the 1960s and 1970s.

Episode 2: President Obama and Bruce Springsteen exchange hopes for a reunification of the American society, and they ask themselves what it is that define cultural appropriation. Bruce Springsteen shares his memories from when he wrote Born in the USA.

Episode 3: President Obama and Bruce Springsteen discuss how it was to start a family, their feelings when their children were born and the balance of being a father and having careers. They reflect on what they have learned from being fathers and husbands.

Episode 4: President Obama and Bruce Springsteen discuss openly their complicated relationships to their fathers and what it means to be a man, father figure and role model.

Episode 5: President Obama and Bruce Springsteen talk about money and class and how it was to grow up in a society of economic inequality. They reveal what it means to be unaware of one’s deprivation of economic privileges prior to American economic and cultural changes in the 1980s.

Episode 6: President Obama and Bruce Springsteen talk about the loss of American innocence up through the 1960s. They relate to the romantic idea of the endless highways which they have both traveled. They discuss the time when they settled down, built a home and their definition of what a home means.

Episode 7: President Obama and Bruce Springsteen exchange memories about popular music, their earliest musical heroes and the inspiration to the Springsteen Broadway shows. They share some of their favorite artists such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell and many more.

Episode 8: President Obama and Bruce Springsteen discuss protest songs, the reconstruction of the American society and their relationship to civil rights champions like John Lewis and Bruce Springsteen’s friendship with the late Clarence Clemmons

I swallowed the 8 podcast episodes with Obama and Bruce. I found them extremely fascinating to listen to and how far the two unlikely friends came around in the universal topics of life. They discussed exciting and current topics which not only concern Americans but also other people in the world. In fact, I found the podcast series so exciting to listen to that I almost forgot that I was doing my garden – but only almost. You can easily listen to the two gentlemen no matter what your political views are or your musical preferences.

The two men of the world and in many ways opposites – the academic and the rock musician – discuss the selected topics with humor, seriousness, and irony. There are lots of laughter and anecdotes during the 8 episodes and you are well entertained despite the often-serious topics they talk about.

The podcast series Renegades: Born in the USA can be found on Spotify. Happy listening.

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