23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
'Making Oprah' Is on The 100 Best Podcasts of All Time
History
Any person with a passing interest in Oprah Winfrey should check out this thoroughly researched, captivating dive into the media mogul's Chicago years as the host of the Oprah Winfrey Show from 1986 to 2011. The podcast focuses on how the daytime TV icon changed American attitudes toward race, gender, and politics. But the series also branches out into a larger discussion of the massive impact talk shows in general had on societal attitudes in the 1980s and 1990s. Host Jenn White interviews producers, executives, and Winfrey herself to learn what makes Oprah different from any other luminary in pop culture. It might not be entirely surprising that it has a lot to do with her work ethic and meticulousness, as demonstrated by an entire episode dedicated to the massive amount of preparation and logistical coordination that went into the famous 'You get a car!' moment. The WBEZ Chicago team repeated the same formula with a follow-up season, Making Obama, and has since experimented with a more sprawling format with one-off episodes covering figures like (more controversial) Chicago native Kanye West and, most recently, an entire season on the creation of daytime soap operas.
