Barack Obama launches book podcast with six titles on Audible
Barack Obama will host a six-episode podcast about books that have shaped his worldview, debuting exclusively on Audible on 24 September (The Guardian; USA Today).
Titled A Great Book with Barack Obama, the series is produced by Amazon-owned Audible in collaboration with Higher Ground, the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama. In each episode, Obama will discuss one of his six chosen titles with a guest. Those guests have not yet been announced (The Guardian).
The reading list spans American fiction and non-fiction across the second half of the 20th century, with one 21st-century exception. The titles are:
- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
- All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
All six were published in the 20th century except Robinson's Gilead, which came out in 2004 (The Guardian).
Robinson occupies a distinctive place on the list. She and Obama struck up a correspondence after he invited her to dinner at the White House, and in 2012 he awarded her the National Humanities Medal (The Guardian).
The podcast announcement builds on a habit Obama has made public each summer. In late July he published his 2026 summer reading and music lists, which included Kin by Tayari Jones, Vigil by George Saunders, The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout, Transcription by Ben Lerner and Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead (The Guardian).
For listeners, the podcast offers something his seasonal lists do not: extended conversation. Where the summer picks arrive as a slate of titles with no commentary, A Great Book pairs each book with a dialogue — Obama and a guest, working through a single text per episode. The format gives the reading a frame of argument and anecdote rather than recommendation alone.
The exclusive deal with Audible also continues the platform's investment in marquee names — Amazon's audio division has previously hosted originals from figures including the Obamas through Higher Ground, which has produced both film and audio projects under its deal with the company.
Six episodes, six books, six guests still to be named. The series arrives on Audible on 24 September.
