The Renegades: An Unlikely Duo

By Jack Fenner

Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen. Two seemingly completely different people who came together through their friendship to make a podcast. This isn’t like most podcasts, it doesn’t have a story to tell or any single topic to cover. Every week it's just two good friends who talk about their lives, with vastly differing discussions every week such as their favorite music and major impacts in their lives. This podcast is extremely down to earth and is sure to interest all kinds of people. 
The style of the podcast is one that is extremely interesting. It is as if you are just sitting in a living room with the two of them hearing them have simple yet profound conversations. You can really see how great of friends the two are through the podcast. Their input with each other on each of these topics gives the listener a look at how even difficult upbringings can create the most passionate minds. 

Photo from The New Yorker

While you would probably never expect a rockstar and a former United States President to have similar thoughts about their life experience, this podcast goes to prove you wrong. Their stories are not the same by any means, but their ability to draw connections between the two shows the overarching theme of the podcast, which is how even vastly different people can find commonalities between themselves. 

One of these connections is their relationships with their fathers. For Bruce Springsteen, he had a father in his life, but it was someone who he never desired to emulate. For Barack Obama, it was a complete lack of a father that shaped his perspective. Their differing familiarities with this topic both tie together in the end. It both impacted their views on masculinity as a whole as well as on how some of the more radical expectations of masculinity were problematic, such as the necessity of being seen as powerful. 

Photo from The New York Post

I think their ability to intertwine their differing experiences is ultimately what makes this podcast worth the listen. It shows how putting yourself in others shoes is a great way to connect and understand people. It also shows the importance of conversation in creating deeper bonds with others, which is extremely important especially now when everything seems so divided. 

This collaboration of two dissimilar people was what I believe to be the ultimate goal of the podcast. It showed listeners that to develop a greater sense of love and respect for those around you, you just have to take a step back and talk.