I watched this show at her suggestion. (Aka we were scrolling through Netflix until I finally decided on something she had already watched).
The 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, is necessarily almost always framed as an eminent and sophisticated public figure. Because of this, it is striking to find him behaving as a normal American man. In the first installment of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, David Letterman has a fairly casual and honest conversation with Mr. Obama. They discuss the history of civil rights, the polarization of American politics, and the difficult task of leaving a child at college.
One notable aspect of this interview was the humility our former president revealed. Letterman asks a few personal questions throughout the interview. They discuss family life after the oval office (i.e. does the coffee maker work) and gradually build to the emotions of taking a child to college for the first time. Obama describes what emotions ran through his head as his family brought their eldest daughter, Malia, to university. He said “[he] was pathetic.” This got a laugh from me along with a little feeling of surprise. I had heard the man who led this country for the majority of my childhood jokingly call himself useless and pathetic. To me, this was one of the first times I felt like I could see a real person in him. I know people say Obama is essentially the president everyone remembers as the most “relatable” one. He was the president who seemed the most like a normal person. However, I never have followed any kind of news regarding any political figures until very recently, so I was relatively unaware. Regardless of whether or not I knew how the public saw Barack Obama’s personality, it is truly refreshing to see a former president be so humble and personable.
Though much of the interview had personal stories and humor, Letterman and Obama also discussed current politics. What stood out to me the most is when the former president explained how Google's algorithms tailor search results differently depending on what you like and agree with, such as your political views. A conservative’s vs liberal’s google search of the same exact term will have very different results. If it weren’t for such biased news sources, such as Fox News, this would be helpful. However, this type of algorithm does not help the ever-present divide between the American political parties. As Obama says in this episode, listening to a biased news station is like being “on another planet.” If these algorithms make this bias all you see, there is no way to see and consider the other side’s argument. It is training yourself to see the opposing viewpoint and immediately demonize it. If there is a way to lessen the heat and civilize political arguments, it is to make search results more generalized by loosening certain search algorithms and reduce biased media’s influence on us.
Works Cited
“Barack Obama”, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, directed by Michael Bonfiglio, Netflix, Jan 12, 2018.
It is refreshing these days to see a humble politician, isn't it? In addition to his humility, Obama's commitment to "going high when others go low" is something I've always admired about him. Some of the questions in the interview seemed bait for eliciting critical comments, but his answers were consistently thoughtful and generous under the circumstances. Obama is a gentleman.
ReplyDeleteObama's comments about the media algorithms inspired me to look outside of my own little NPR echo chamber. I plan to add sources that are known to at least attempt neutrality to my phone news feed, and I'm trying to listen more with an open mind. It's very important that we (young people like you, especially) start seeking to understand those who hold opposing viewpoints, instead of imagining our political situation as "us against them."
I didn't expect such poignancy from a David Letterman interview. I'm glad we watched.
It sounds very interesting, particularly for a young person such as yourself, who has known President Obama as the leader of the free world for much of your childhood, to see him relaxed, outside of his political role, just being a regular dad. While I greatly respected Obama in his public persona as a history making president, his private roles as husband and father, such as were visible, were a very appealing part of his overall image.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your very personal response to Obama's humble self-disclosure about his feelings around taking his child to college, an experience many people share.
And thank you for the useful information about how biased search algorithms contribute to further polarizing political discourse. It's a troubling phenomenon, and now that we know one big contributing factor, we can try to get out of the echo chamber, at least a little bit, and broaden our views.