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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stop? Mom? Never told you?

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Speaker 1: From houstuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: This is Molly. I'm Kristen, and today Kristin and I

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Speaker 1: are going to start off with a shout out to

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Speaker 1: one of our sister house stuff Works podcasts, that ever

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Speaker 1: popular stuff you missed in History Class, starring Candice and

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Speaker 1: Jane True. And they did a podcast that was really

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Speaker 1: interesting called uh to Political Parties Influenced the First Lady's Duties,

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Speaker 1: and they went over you know, they sort of made

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Speaker 1: a generalization that Democratic first ladies are more political partners

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Speaker 1: with their presidential spouse, whereas Republican first ladies in general

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Speaker 1: are more like marriage partners. They have more of a

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Speaker 1: traditional role. Well, that was recorded during during the election,

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Speaker 1: before we knew who our first lady was going to be,

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Speaker 1: and now that Shelle Obama is our official first lady,

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Speaker 1: Molly and I thought that we would take a look at, um,

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Speaker 1: how that has UH stood up so far. We're almost

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Speaker 1: to the one hundred day mark of President Obama's term,

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Speaker 1: and so we thought we'd look at the duties the

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Speaker 1: first Lady and how Michelle Obama has taken that on right,

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Speaker 1: because you can interpret the first lady duties anyway you want.

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Speaker 1: The roles are not defined, right. They really started out

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Speaker 1: as just sort of a social hostess, say, did white

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Speaker 1: house redecoration, sort of like overseer of the house, very

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Speaker 1: traditional feminine household roles. Yeah, and that's part of what

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Speaker 1: Candice and Jane cover. It's really interesting she looks from

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Speaker 1: that podcast. But before she became First Lady, Michelle Obama

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Speaker 1: was pretty adamant that she was going to be one

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Speaker 1: of those more traditional first ladies. Her role was basically

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Speaker 1: going to be mom in chief. She's going to take

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Speaker 1: care of Malie and Sasha. And you know she's done

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Speaker 1: that to some extent, but she's done a whole lot

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Speaker 1: more in the past few months as well. Right, and Molly,

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Speaker 1: it's interesting you bring up the mom and chief part um.

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Speaker 1: According to The New York Times, MSUs Obama has the

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Speaker 1: highest favorability rate of any incoming First Lady since nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty and they said that her approval rating really soared

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Speaker 1: after she sort of shifted the focus of her potential

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Speaker 1: first Lady rolls to that of wife and mother first

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Speaker 1: and foremost, which I thought was kind of interesting. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's sort of a statement on the fact that we

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Speaker 1: do kind of want a homemaker in chief. You know,

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Speaker 1: during elections, we always uh, you know, want to know

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Speaker 1: what the potential first ladies cookie recipe is, you know,

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Speaker 1: what dishes they make for their husband, despite the fact

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Speaker 1: that once they get into the White House, they don't

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Speaker 1: do any cooking at all. Right, Um, and Michelle Obama

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Speaker 1: comes into the White House with a pretty impressive list

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Speaker 1: of credentials. Um, she was educated at Harvard Law School.

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Speaker 1: She was the president of Community and External Affairs for

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Speaker 1: the University of Chicago Medical Center. I mean, this woman

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Speaker 1: was very busy, had a very impressive career, and now

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Speaker 1: that's sort of you know, she kind of left it

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Speaker 1: behind a little bit to become first, right, sort of certain, right,

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Speaker 1: it sort of seems like that's something she had to

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Speaker 1: make a very clear statement that she was doing that

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Speaker 1: during the election for people to almost accept her. Um.

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Speaker 1: And while she's sort of still maintained that role in

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Speaker 1: the White House, she's doing a lot more. I mean,

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Speaker 1: she has started this garden in the White House lawn

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Speaker 1: to you know, promote healthy eating. She's been visiting military families,

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Speaker 1: she's been visiting school children. So all the people who

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Speaker 1: are buzz about a first Ladies role are just watching

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Speaker 1: her trying to figure out how all these various activities

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Speaker 1: are going to come together to form a platform, because,

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Speaker 1: as Candis and Jane were saying, these democratic first layers

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Speaker 1: are more likely to have kind of this policy platform

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Speaker 1: that they promote and at the same time balanced with

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Speaker 1: that policy platform. I think one of the most challenging

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Speaker 1: aspects of being first ladies that you have to do

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Speaker 1: all these things in the public sphere, supporting the military, families,

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Speaker 1: middle class women, etcetera. But Michelle Obama is also on

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Speaker 1: the cover of Vogue, and she is being at her

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Speaker 1: every start coo. Real choice is being documented, and I

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Speaker 1: have to say, I hate to have to bring it

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Speaker 1: up again, but we are nationally obsessed with her arms.

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Speaker 1: Her arms are beautiful, yeah, I mean their tone, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's awesome. But I mean you're right, there's all this

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Speaker 1: constant speculation about whether she's pregnant. I mean, she's very

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Speaker 1: much a tabloid figure now, which has led Christian and

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Speaker 1: I had a sort of ponder the question is First

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Speaker 1: Lady the hardest job in the world because in addition

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Speaker 1: to all these people watching your every personal choice, you know,

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Speaker 1: evaluating your marriage, looking at your arms, you're also sort

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Speaker 1: of required now in this modern age, to have this

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Speaker 1: policy platform, right, And I would say that even more

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Speaker 1: than the president, we look to the First Lady as

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Speaker 1: the barometer for the health of you know, the First

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Speaker 1: family and how that kind of reflects on the entire

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Speaker 1: national tone because right now things are really difficult with

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Speaker 1: the economy, and we have these ongoing conflicts in Iraq

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Speaker 1: and Afghanistan, and I think that, you know, one of

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Speaker 1: Michelle Obama's kind of unspoken duties is to re lead, uh,

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Speaker 1: keep the First family healthy, something something positive for the

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Speaker 1: nation to be able to look to and kind of

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Speaker 1: get us through this storm. Right. So, with the situation

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Speaker 1: in the world, in combination with the fact that she's

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Speaker 1: one of the you know, the most recent first lads

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Speaker 1: to deal with young children in the White House, she's

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Speaker 1: got a pretty tricky role to navigate, which is why

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Speaker 1: you know, people are obsessed with her every move. But

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Speaker 1: she's really coming in um as part of a generation

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Speaker 1: of First ladies. There was a political science professor named

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Speaker 1: Robert Watson, who defined different generations of First ladies and

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Speaker 1: whether each was sort of you know, activists, the ones

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Speaker 1: that were more quiet, and how you know, from Martha

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Speaker 1: Washington on, we've had to deal with this evolution of

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Speaker 1: a role since no one really knows what it means. Right,

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Speaker 1: the first lady has really come to be more of

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Speaker 1: the president's partner rather than just his at home spouse

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Speaker 1: who hosts dignitaries and sets up social events and decorates

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Speaker 1: for Christmas. Right. So Michelle Obama's firstly gender ration really

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Speaker 1: starts back with Betty Ford, who was one of the

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Speaker 1: most politically active First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt, who was

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Speaker 1: sort of, you know, kind of a stick out figure

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Speaker 1: because there was no one like her at that time.

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Speaker 1: But in terms of modern women, this movement that Michelle

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Speaker 1: Obama belongs to really start with Betty Ford, who was

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Speaker 1: a pretty cool lady. Right. Among the things that she

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Speaker 1: was really outspoken about were feminist platforms at the time,

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Speaker 1: specifically Equal Rights Amendment that she was strongly for, and

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Speaker 1: she made breast cancer really big issue as well with

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Speaker 1: her own fight against the disease. Right. And then after her,

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Speaker 1: we have Roslyn Carter who really emphasized performing arts and

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Speaker 1: support for the mental health community and the elderly. And

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Speaker 1: she's still active today with the Carter Center and their

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Speaker 1: global outreach, right. And so Roslyn Carter was actually the

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Speaker 1: first first Lady to have a budget. Um when Jimmy

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Speaker 1: Carter was in office, he passed a bill seventy which

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Speaker 1: was when the first Lady was given a budget and

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Speaker 1: a staff. Probably to that first ladies might have brought

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Speaker 1: in friends, frankly to host like their events basically, right.

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Speaker 1: And I think it was Jackie Kennedy who brought in

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Speaker 1: the first press secretary and she had desperate permission to

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Speaker 1: do so. But now Michelle Obama has the liberty to

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Speaker 1: really create whatever kind of support staff that she wants

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Speaker 1: and needs. And I have a feeling that since she

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Speaker 1: has a pretty pretty heavy load, like we've been talking about,

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Speaker 1: that's probably pretty extensive staff, right, And having a support

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Speaker 1: staff is important for the first Lady because she has

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Speaker 1: really three main overarching duties, and that would be social affairs,

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Speaker 1: which you know is the traditional things of inviting diplomats,

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Speaker 1: which is very important part of politics, uh, and then

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Speaker 1: press relations and policy issues, and with policy issues. The

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Speaker 1: first Lady has such a unique sphere of influence because

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Speaker 1: she is with the president, you know, in the quiet

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Speaker 1: times when he's outside of the public eye, and really

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Speaker 1: you know, maybe influenced whatever legislation or policies that he's

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Speaker 1: working on. Right, And I think that's what makes people nervous,

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Speaker 1: because you know, we don't elect the first lady. People

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Speaker 1: don't really look to that when they're looking to elect

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Speaker 1: a president. And you know, often we're told families are

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Speaker 1: off limits during elections, but then all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: they're in office, they seem to have all this power.

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Speaker 1: You think about Hillary versus Laura, Hillary Clinton versus Laura

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Speaker 1: Bush and the very different roles they check on us

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Speaker 1: first lady, Right. Hillary Clinton made made waves when Bill

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Speaker 1: Clinton appointed her to head of the Task Force on

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Speaker 1: Healthcare Reform, and as we know now, it didn't really

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Speaker 1: pan out so well, and she sort of had to

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Speaker 1: pull back a little bit from from the public space

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Speaker 1: and maybe take on more of the traditional first lady

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Speaker 1: duties that some people were really upset that she wasn't

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Speaker 1: immediately embracing. Right, It's very much a damned if you do,

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Speaker 1: damned if you don't situation because Hillary was very much

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to promote an aggressive policy that advances,

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Speaker 1: you know, an issue that people care passionately about, whereas

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Speaker 1: UM then when we had a change of office in

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Speaker 1: Laura Bush came into office, she had the platform of literacy.

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Speaker 1: But you know, I think it's fair to say that

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Speaker 1: a lot of people may not have even have known

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Speaker 1: that until they read the extensive White House bio to

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Speaker 1: see all the things she did with that. Well, so far,

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Speaker 1: we're not too far into the Obama administration, but it

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Speaker 1: seems like Michelle is doing a really great job with

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Speaker 1: kind of balancing the public policy zeal of Hillary Clinton

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Speaker 1: and the more homemaker type of image that Laura Bush projected.

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Speaker 1: But I gotta wonder, Molly, how the idea of the

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Speaker 1: president's spouse would change if we had a female president.

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Speaker 1: What if we had a first gentleman or first dude

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Speaker 1: as uh Todd Palin likes to call himself, right, And

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Speaker 1: I guess those um gubernatorial relationships provide a sort of

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Speaker 1: a uh model of how that would go. But I

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Speaker 1: know that you're reading some interesting stuff about Germany where

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Speaker 1: they do have a first man. What did they call him?

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Speaker 1: Do you know, I don't know what the official name

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Speaker 1: for it is, but Angela Merkel is the first female

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Speaker 1: Chancellor of Germany. And the interesting thing about her husband

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Speaker 1: is that he hasn't really changed his life that much.

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Speaker 1: He is a scientist, and if you want to interview him,

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Speaker 1: it's got to be about his career, and he doesn't

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Speaker 1: really do that many public appearances. He's very withdrawn from

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Speaker 1: this kind of public role as as the chancellor's husband.

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Speaker 1: So I wonder how the same thing would fly in

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Speaker 1: the United States. Because we love gos, we want it.

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Speaker 1: We would still want to know what the first the

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Speaker 1: first spouse would be up to. But yeah, exactly, but

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Speaker 1: he might have a little more leeway to really pursue

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Speaker 1: his own his own interests and kind of carry on

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Speaker 1: his career, especially since the closest we've had to that

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Speaker 1: situation has been Hillary and Bill Clinton. Whereas we all

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Speaker 1: sort of knew who Bill Clinton was, who would have

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Speaker 1: come into the Oval office with a persona already established

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Speaker 1: in the mindset in the public exactly, and he could

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Speaker 1: probably carry on with his foundation's work and all of that.

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Speaker 1: It probably wouldn't drastically change our perception of the first couple, right,

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Speaker 1: And so it is an interesting thing to ponder since

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Speaker 1: especially I feel that the things we've talked about in

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Speaker 1: terms of a homemaker role in addition to a policy role,

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Speaker 1: we have very specific ideas about how the woman should

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Speaker 1: fall into this role, and I don't know if we

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Speaker 1: would apply those same homemaking you know, social gala function chief. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I really I cannot imagine. I can't imagine Bill Clinton,

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Speaker 1: you know, getting really into hosting social luncheon. Actually well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I just I think that he would. I

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Speaker 1: think he kind of farm out the organizational duties, right,

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Speaker 1: you know, But maybe I don't know. Maybe I just

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Speaker 1: don't know old Bill well enough to say. But going

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Speaker 1: back to this question of is first Lady the hardest

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Speaker 1: job in a or in the world. Probably not, Okay,

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Speaker 1: probably not. That's kind of an exaggeration, but it's such

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Speaker 1: an extreme balance. It's sort of every woman's societal role

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Speaker 1: all wrapped up into one, right, and no matter what

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Speaker 1: she does, whether she's too active or not active enough,

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Speaker 1: at some point someone is going to have a complaint

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Speaker 1: about it. So there's no way to succeed, I think,

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Speaker 1: in this job. But I think at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, we can all agree on the fact that

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Speaker 1: Shelle Obama has banging arms. Those arms are awesome. Well,

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Speaker 1: ending on that intellectual high note, we would like to

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Speaker 1: direct you to the wonderful article How the First Lady

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Speaker 1: Works written by Stephimiss in History Class co host Candice Keener.

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Speaker 1: But Molly, before we go, I think that we need

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Speaker 1: to read some listener mail. We have an awesome question

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Speaker 1: sent in from Kristen. It wasn't me, I promised it

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Speaker 1: was another Christian for a lot of email to herself.

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Speaker 1: I'm not just trying to to boost the pad the

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Speaker 1: mom stuff in box to make us feel better about ourselves.

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Speaker 1: But with that out of the way, uh, Kristen had

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Speaker 1: a question related to our podcasts on egg donation. Well,

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Speaker 1: I've got some bad news for your Kristen. No sex.

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Speaker 1: Sex is usually off the table, and also no antidepressants.

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Speaker 1: As we were talking about in that egg Donation podcast,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of psychological screening that goes in to

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Speaker 1: the decision of whether someone can be an egg donor,

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Speaker 1: and usually antidepressants would be a mark of uh no,

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Speaker 1: go right, So there you go. Egg donation pretty strict process,

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Speaker 1: as we discussed, and should I donate my eggs. If

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Speaker 1: you miss that one, better come back through iTunes. And

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Speaker 1: if you have a question like Kristen who is not

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Speaker 1: my co host Kristen, you can email us at mom

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Speaker 1: stuff at how stuff works dot com for moralness and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics because it has to works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand

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Speaker 1: and twelve camera. It's ready. Are you