Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama discuss race in America on Renegades podcast

‘How do you hold the same country that sent man to the moon with being the same country of Jim Crow?’

Bruce Springsteen and former President Barack Obama have an in-depth discussion around race in America in the second episode of their just-released joint podcast, Renegades: Born in the USA.

“How do you hold the same country that sent man to the moon with being the same country of Jim Crow?,” the singer asks Obama. "You don't make peace with that obviously, but how you sort of hold that being the same America?”

The former president responds: “I think that it is, partly, because we never went through a true reckoning – and so we just buried one huge part of our experience and our citizenry in our minds.”

“Is the country ready to deconstruct its founding myths?,” asks Springsteen. “Or is it prepared to consider reparations? Do you think we're at that place right now?”

“If you ask me theoretically, ‘Are reparations justified?,’ the answer is yes,” Obama replies. “There's not much question. Right? That the wealth of this country, the power of this country, was built in significant part, not exclusively, maybe not the even majority of it, but a large portion of it was built on the backs of slaves.”

Renegades follows former First Lady Michelle Obama's self-titled podcast, which launched last July. The Obamas signed a deal with Spotify in 2019 to produce programming.

Renegades' first two episodes are available to stream now, and were initially announced at Spotify's "Stream On" virtual event.

The first Renegades episode, “Outsiders: An Unlikely Friendship”, looks at how the former president and “Born in the USA” singer struck up a friendship during the 2008 presidential campaign.

“It is a personal, in-depth discussion between two friends exploring their pasts, their beliefs, and the country that they love – as it was, as it is, and as it ought to be going forward,” a statement from Spotify reads.