You guys are here because of real basic qualities and that's honesty, integrity, hard work,

and a level of resilience.

Those are the kind of things that you can't buy and you can't teach.

Hi everybody.

I am Michelle Obama and this is the Michelle Obama podcast.

On this episode we are revisiting the mentor-mentee relationship but this time we're looking

at it from the other side.

On a recent episode I spoke with my dear friend and mentor Valerie Jarrett about how the

best mentorship experiences grow and evolve over time and in this episode I want to talk

with some people who have been important in my life.

So I want to welcome three very special young women, China and Kristen and Yenay to our

podcast today.

These three all started out working with me in various capacities in the White House and

they've all stayed in my life for years.

Each of them has grown and matured and impressed me at every turn.

While I like to say I've known them since they were babies, today I count them as true

friends and I know that I've learned as much or more from them as they have for me.

So in this episode I just want to talk about our relationships and also what's been going

on in the world and what it's like to be black women in this moment in history.

So why don't you all start by introducing yourselves?

I'm Kristen Jones and I think I met you back in 2009 when I was an intern in the first

White House class which was pretty cool.

...