WBEZ Podcast “Making Oprah” Reveals the Beginning of a Media Master
New podcast from WBEZ looks at how media magnate Oprah Winfrey built her empire.
There’s a new podcast miniseries from WBEZ that focuses on the evolution of media magnate Oprah Winfrey.
It’s called “Making Oprah,” with host Jennifer White.
“I knew I was stepping into destiny in a way that I could not even explain for myself,” Winfrey tells White in the podcast. But, Winfrey adds, she didn’t know how big her career was going to become.
“I did not think it would become what it did. I did not think ‘Oh, I’m going to be famous,’ or ‘I’m going to have a national talk show.'”
This year was the 30th anniversary of the beginning of Oprah’s mega-hit daytime talk show, and it’s also the year that the Harpo Studio building was torn down in Chicago to make way for a McDonald’s headquarters.
Oprah is still active as a media entity and still conducts interviews, but she’s largely stepped out of the spotlight. Which means it’s not easy to track her down for an interview.
When White landed the interview with Oprah and flew out to Los Angeles to meet with her, she jokes she had to “center myself” as the interview approached.
“Here’s what you have to understand,” White says in the first episode of the podcast, “I’m a 40-something-year-old black woman who spent her career working in the media. Oprah means a lot.”
To hear White speak with Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson about the making of the podcast, click on the audio player above.
