Barack Obama said on his new podcast, with guest Tom Hanks, that he suspects raising a son would have been harder for him than raising daughters Malia and Sasha. He related that thought to his loving but difficult-to-understand relationship with his grandfather.
The comments came as Obama and Hanks discussed Gilead, Marilynne Robinson’s 2004 novel, and a passage about how fathers and sons can love each other but still fail to understand one another. Obama said he did not know his own father and described his grandfather as someone he loved but did not comprehend; he called that relationship an “object lesson” in what not to do as a caregiver.
On Michelle Obama’s podcast in July 2025, he had similarly said he might have been more judgmental and harder with a son. He added that father-son relationships could have been more difficult for him without a father around to show him how to navigate them. Michelle agreed that raising a son might have been harder.
