The first episode of Michelle Obama's new podcast has been flooded with abuse from trolls. The podcast, called IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson—short for "in my opinion"—was announced on Monday by Higher Ground, the media company founded by the former president and first lady in 2018. It aired its first two episodes this week.

Why It Matters

Online abuse and trolling are pervasive on social media, but Black women are disproportionately targeted. A 2018 study from Amnesty found that Black women were 84 percent more likely to be mentioned in abusive or problematic tweets in comparison with white women. One in 10 tweets mentioning Black women were either abusive or problematic.

Additionally, a 2025 study from Forbes found that 27 percent of African American women have reported an incidence of online abuse.

What To Know

The first two episodes of the podcast were released this week and featured an introduction as well as an interview with Emmy-nominated actress Issa Rae. Both episodes were released on Wednesday.

The comments section of the podcast has been flooded with negative comments from trolls. A significant portion of the comments were directly critical of the former first lady, and of her gender, with many users writing that she is a man, calling her "big Mike," and referring to the podcast as being done by two brothers.

Other comments were more directly critical of the podcast, with one user writing "Forced, scripted, not authentic," and another commenting, "This podcast is only entertaining bc of the comments."

Some were more explicitly oriented toward politics, with one user writing, "I know there's a DNC staffer whose job it is to read these comments and gauge engagement. This comment is to let you know that we don't want PODCASTS. We want POLICIES that will IMPROVE OUR MATERIAL CONDITIONS."

However, sentiment was not entirely negative. One user commented, "Michelle and brother Craig, keep up the good work. Your sharing is very important to those of us listening in. You are both an inspiration to our people." Another user said, "Thank you. We Americans are disoriented, complex some injured... any kind efforts to invite us back to our humanity... priceless right now."

Michelle Obama's influence has remained strong following her husband's tenure. Her 2018 memoir, Becoming, broke records and became the best-selling book released that year after 15 days of publication, selling 2 million copies in that time span.

Additionally, The Michelle Obama Podcast was released in 2020 and "was the most successful original in Spotify history, bringing in more women listeners over 40 than any other podcast," according to her website bio.

What People Are Saying

One YouTube user commented on the episode: "They're gonna have to disable comments next episode."

Another YouTube user commented: "This is really cringe. The comments are priceless though."

Another YouTube user commented: "Love you both! Congratulations on the first episode!"

What's Next

New episodes of IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson will be released weekly and will be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and other podcast platforms.

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