Are you itching to take a trip without breaking the bank?
Head to Expedia, the one-stop travel site where you can find and book flights hotels, rental cars cruises, vacation packages and activities and get great deals on all of them.
When you bundle your flight and hotel on Expedia, you not only make travel planning easier, you can also save on your trip with everything in one place.
Setting up price alerts ahead of time really saves me time and money and I'll never travel without it.
Book your next trip with Expedia today.
It's stock up September at Whole Foods Market.
Find sales on supplements to power up for busy weeks.
Plus, pack your pantry with pasta, sauce, and more everyday essentials.
Enjoy quick breakfast for less with 365 by Whole Foods Market seasonal coffee and oatmeal.
Grab ready-to-heat meals that are perfect for the office.
And save on versatile no-antibiotics-ever chicken breasts.
Stock up now at Whole Foods Market, in-store and online.
I'm Oprah Winfrey.
Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast.
I believe that one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time, taking time to be more fully present.
Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now.
Maya Angelou has been a writer, dancer, singer, artist, professor, director, and activist.
She's traveled the world, speaks seven languages, and is one of the world's greatest poets.
But to me she's my mother-sister friend, as I call her, the woman I've looked to for strength and inspiration for more than 35 years now.
Maya Angelou was born in St.
Louis in 1928.
By the time she was seven, She'd already suffered a life-changing event.
She was raped by her mother's boyfriend.
Maya told her family what had happened, and when the man was later found murdered, she believed in her seven-year-old mind that it was all her fault.
Convinced that her words had the power to kill, young Maya didn't speak another word for several years, retreating into a private world populated with books and poetry.
In fact, it was poetry that helped her find her voice again, as she learned from one of her teachers that great poetry must be spoken.
And speak she did.
Maya grew into a confident and accomplished force of nature.
As an adult, she became a fierce civil rights activist, working closely with both Malcolm X and Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
Her seminal autobiography I Know Why.
The Caged Bird Sings, published to international acclaim, was named by Time magazine to be one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time.
And she just finished her latest piece of work in Inspiration, sharing some of the deepest personal stories of her life in Mom and Me and Mom.
She's given motherly advice to millions and is certainly, as I've said many times, like a mother to me.
Well, we've known each other for so long now.
I actually do feel like your daughter.
You are my daughter.
I am your daughter.
Yes, ma'am.
Yes.
And you are my mother.
Yes, I am.
You are my sister.
Yes, I am.
And have been a friend.
I am all that.
From the very first day we met.
And you know, when I first met you and asked if I could do that interview with you so many years ago, I had no.
I just think how great God is because in that moment I allowed myself to be vulnerable enough to take the risk of being turned down by you.
I think I was in my early 20s.
If that.
Really?
Yes.
But when you said, Dr. Andrews, I said, no, I'm afraid I can't really.
I thank you, but I'm going to be speaking.
You said, if you'll give me five minutes.
I promise you I will only spend five minutes.
So I said, all right, all right, because of your persistence.
And you had good questions.
You listened to my answers and you had another good question.
And then you said, thank you so much, Dr. Angelo.
I appreciate it.
And goodbye.
And I looked at my watch.
It was exactly five minutes.
I asked you, what did you say your name was?
What did you say?
Tell me your first name again.
Yes, you literally said, in my memory, you said, who are you, girl?
Who are you, girl?
That's right.
Yes.
In Maya Angelou's latest book, she shares the deepest personal story of her life the relationship with her mother, Vivian Baxter.
Former nurse who ran her own gambling club, pool hall and boarding house, Vivian Baxter, could be as fiery as she was nurturing.
Their relationship, like a lot of mother-daughters, was powerful but complicated.
When seven-year-old Maya stopped speaking, Vivian sent Maya and her brother Bailey away to live with their grandmother in rural Stamps, Arkansas.
Then, when Maya turned 13, Vivian called Maya and Bailey home to San Francisco.
At that time, Maya began to truly get to know her mother.
Independent and energetic, shrewd and gutsy, Vivian Baxter was someone to be reckoned with.
You've written a new book.
I know it.
Mom and Me and Mom.
And we're gonna talk a lot about that today because I know what Vivian Baxter meant in your life.
And you say that your mother's love encouraged you to live your life with pizzazz.
Would you say that you've had a life filled with pizzazz?
Yes, I have.
You have such a long list of achievements as we were compiling them.
You were the first black street car conductor in the city of San Francisco.
I was 16.
You were 16?
Yes.
I was black, 16, and had the nerve to walk.
I saw women on the streetcars with their little changer belts, you know that, and they had caps with bills on them and they had form-fitting jackets.
You liked the uniform.
I loved the uniform.
So I said, that's the job I want.
And- They'd never hired a black person?
They had never, no.
So did you see that as the accomplishment that it was at the time?
No, my mother did.
Because mother, I said, I went down to place an application and they wouldn't even give it to me.
And so I went back to my mother and I said, They wouldn't even allow me to apply.
She asked me, why?
Do you know why?
I said, yes, because I'm a Negro.
She said, yes, but do you want the job?
I said, yes.
She said, go get it.
Here, I give you money.
Every day you go down, be there before the secretaries get there.
You sit there in the office.
You read one of your big, thick Russian books.
I was reading Dostoevsky or Tolstoy or something at the time.
She said, and then when they go to lunch, then you go.
Go to a good restaurant.
You know how to order good food.
Go back before the secretaries get there.
I did all of it.
And then sit there until they leave.
They laughed at me.
They pushed out their lips and used some negative racial things.
But I sat there.
At 16?
Yes, but look in here.
Here's the thing.
I sat there because I was afraid to go home.
I was afraid to tell my mother that I wasn't as strong as she thought I was.
Wow.
So I sat there for two weeks every day.
And then after two weeks, a man came out of his office.
He said, come in.
And he asked me, why do you want the job?
I said, I like the uniforms.
And I said, and I like people.
And so I got the job.
Amazing.
What's amazing is the story that you tell in Mom and Me of your mother knowing that you were a 16 year old on the streetcars and that she followed you in her.
You tell the story.
About four o'clock in the morning.
She would wake me up with my bath already drawn.
I'd take a bath, put on my uniform, and she would drive me out to the beach.
And she had her pistol on the seat of the car.
And she would follow the streetcar all the way from the beach down to the ferry building, right through San Francisco and back again out to the beach until daybreak.
I mean, stay close so that nobody got on that she didn't see.
And then at 6.30 or 7.30.
That's a mother.
She's a mother.
That's a mother.
She was really all of that.
And she asked me once, she said, now, what did you learn from that job?
Because when it was time for me to go back to school, I went back to school.
I said, I learned that I like to work.
She said, what else did you learn?
I said, I don't know.
She said, about yourself.
You learn that you're very strong, the determination, dedication and you can go anywhere in the world anywhere, and I've gone everywhere in the world.
So, as we list all of your achievements, the first black street car conductor dancer singer poet playwright, film producer director actor, civil rights activist, professor of American studies at Wake Forest University, recipient of more than 70 honorary doctorate degrees and author of more than 30 books.
Is there anything you wanted to have on that list but didn't get a chance to do?
One of the things I wanted was to have a daughter.
I have a son who is in my heart.
Wonderful young man.
Wonderful person.
Good human being.
Daring and loving and strong and kind.
I wanted a daughter.
And I've taken people's daughters.
I have certainly taken you.
I took my daughter-in-law because I know I'm a good mother.
I care and I dare.
I care enough to let you go. but I dare enough to follow you.
I will say that too.
And I will say, you know, one of my, part of my nature is to be obedient.
I'm obedient to God's call.
And over the years when I would call you for advice, sometimes I would take it.
I know it.
Most often I would take it.
Most often I took it, right?
Yes, that's true.
And sometimes I didn't.
But you have never been the kind of mother that says, I told you so.
No.
So when I didn't take it and the mistake inevitably happened, you were not the kind of mother to come back and say I told you.
No, but you were the kind of daughter who said, I was wrong.
I was wrong.
I should have listened.
I should have listened.
First of all, have you ever tried and failed at something?
Yes, many times.
Many times you forgive yourself for every failure.
Yes.
Because you tried to do the right thing.
God knows that and you know it.
Yeah.
Nobody else may know it.
Yeah.
Because one of the great lessons that I've learned from you, and it's so interesting.
I was just interviewing Sissy Houston and she recited to me what I have learned from you and I've now recited to other people.
So now it's coming back to me.
And she said, well, you know, when you know better, you do better.
That's the ticket.
That's the ticket.
That's it.
And that's why you forgive yourself.
Yes, ma'am.
Because if you'd known better.
I'd have done better.
Yes.
Of course.
Just forgive it.
I mean, mind you, we ask the Creator to forgive our stupidest actions cruelest, mean-hearted things.
And say, God, forgive me.
Forgive me.
Or people will say, I'm not perfect.
Yes.
That's right.
So then you forgive.
And it relieves you.
You are relieved of carrying that burden. of resentment, you really are lighter.
You feel lighter.
You just drop that.
I know you often say love liberates us, but actually forgiveness does.
Also.
But I mean, you can't forgive without loving.
Yes.
And I don't mean sentimentality.
I don't mean much.
I mean, having enough courage to stand out and say, I forgive.
I'm finished with it.
If you're an adult struggling with obesity, if you've struggled for years and years, you are not alone.
But Zepbound Terzepatide is changing what's possible when it comes to weight loss, along with diet and exercise.
Proven to help lose weight and keep it off.
Zepbound is a prescription medicine for adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems.
Zepbound should be used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity.
Zepbound injection is approved as a 25 5 75 10, 125 or 15 milligrams per 05 milliliters in single-dose pen or single-dose vial.
Don't use with other terzepratide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines.
It is not known if Zepbound can be used in children.
Don't take Zetbound if allergic to it or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2.
Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck.
Stop Zetbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction.
Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems.
Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes, depression or suicidal thoughts before scheduled procedures with anesthesia.
If you're nursing pregnant, plan to be or taking birth control pills.
Taking ZepBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar.
Side effects include nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems.
Discover the weight loss you could be bound for.
Ask your healthcare provider about ZepBound or call 1-800-545-5979.
Explore savings options regardless of insurance status at saveonzepbound.com.
Terms and conditions apply.
So the Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor any one person can receive in our country.
What were you thinking when you were sitting there and the president placed that medal around your neck?
I thought of my grandma.
And I thought of my mother and my brother.
My grandma.
When I stopped talking, my grandmother said to me sister, my father's mother.
She said sister mama, don't care.
These people say you must be an idiot and you must be a moron because you can't talk.
Sister, mama don't care.
Mama know when you and the good Lord get ready, you're going to be a teacher.
Sister, you're going to teach all over this world.
I used to sit there and think, this poor ignorant woman.
Didn't she know I would never speak?
And now I teach all over the world.
She also told me, sister, when you get, give.
When you learn, teach.
And so, when this incredible medal of freedom was given to me, I thought of all the Africans who were brought to this country, longing for freedom, coming on a nightmare and wishing for a dream.
I thought of the Jews.
I thought of the Arabs.
I thought of people coming from Ireland when the potato blight had absolutely wiped out Ireland.
I thought of all the people who came looking for freedom.
I was so overcome, Oprah.
The truth is, if I had been asked to speak, I couldn't speak at that time.
I thought of all those people at Ellis Island, all those people in Virginia who got off the slave ships in Jamestown.
I thought of Asians coming to this country building the railroads in 1850, unable legally to bring their mates for decades.
I was so filled that when I was taken out of that room, I sobbed in gratitude.
When you left that room?
Yes, ma'am.
At the White House?
At the White House.
I sobbed in gratitude.
Thank God.
I thank God I'm myself, and I thank God for the life I'm given to live.
And I thank God that I can see and hear and smell and taste him.
I thank God for friends and lovers and beloveds.
And I thank God for knowing that all those people have already paid for me.
This is one of my favorite lessons.
These words originally came from Maya's dear friend, the novelist James Baldwin.
These words are sacred to me.
Your crown has been bought and paid for.
All you have to do is put it on your head.
It's a reminder that you already have the power.
You already have what you need. because of those who paved the way and came before you.
You've already been paid for yes, by people who never even saw your face, didn't know what name you would have.
They paid for you already.
And so it behooves you then, to prepare yourself so you can pay for someone else, who is yet to come, whose name you'll never know, face you will never see.
Amazing.
So you just keep it going, the good thing going.
You paved the way.
Yes, ma'am.
For other people to, first of all, see themselves differently.
Yes, ma'am.
Yes, yeah.
And it all started with, I know why the caged bird sings.
That's right.
And Time Magazine just recently named I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time.
What a blessing.
In the history of books.
What a blessing.
For many of us, certainly for me.
I Know Why.
The Caged Bird Sings was my introduction, my first encounter with you, as I've often shared on The Oprah Show and any time I was talking about how I met you.
It's the first page.
It's the opening page.
Yeah, what you're looking at me for.
I didn't come to stay.
I didn't come to stay.
I only came to say happy Easter day.
It was the first time I as a Negro girl because we were called Negroes at the time had ever read about somebody else's life who so closely resembled my own.
You were raised by your grandmother.
I was raised by my grandmother.
You grew up in the church. reciting Easter pieces and Christmas pieces and all that, that life.
So, for the first time ever, reading a book and I loved reading as a child, but it's the first time I ever felt validated.
And I felt like someone knows me, knows who I am.
And I think that's what all of your books do.
And particularly now as I'm reading the story about you and your mother.
There's something about the stories of your life that resonate with the stories of all of our lives.
Is that why you wrote it?
Well, I don't know if that's why.
That's one of the whys.
Yes.
One of the whys is because I can write.
And writers write.
And writers write.
Also because I wanted to see my mother a little apart from me so that I could really love her life.
And once you love somebody's life, it means you understand their lives.
Yes.
And so you can understand why a person does a certain thing.
Because you say in the book and I've heard you say before about her that she was not a good mother for young children.
She was terrible.
Terrible for young children.
Yes.
And my mother explained to me once to ask her to never tell it again.
Two years old, two or three years old, that she had.
I had asked for something and she didn't give it to me.
And I had slapped her on her leg.
And I was, we were sitting on the porch and she back ended me off the porch into the dirt.
She said, I didn't have what was necessary for a for a young mother.
I didn't have that.
But this woman was the greatest mother of a young adult.
Incredible.
Just fantastic.
She told me once when I was 22, we were walking down the street, and she said, baby, stop a minute.
And I stopped.
She said, you know, I think you're the greatest woman I've ever met.
I was 22 years old.
And I looked down at this woman that people call Lady, because I named her Lady.
And also, she owned hotels and things.
And people admired her.
And some were frightened of her, rightly.
She said, Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt, and my mother, you're in that category.
Give me a kiss.
And she kissed me on my lips and went across the street to get in her car.
And I thought, you know, suppose she's right.
Suppose I really am going to be somebody.
Maybe I should stop smoking and stop drinking and stop cursing.
Well, I did stop cursing from that day to this.
I still don't.
Really?
Really.
It's rare for me to use a profane word.
Very rare.
I have to ask you, you've put out so much art in the world.
What part or piece of art are you proudest of?
Is there one?
Are there several?
Is it the body of art?
Yes.
Your words.
Yes.
It would be songs, lyrics, some music.
I think my greatest blessing, my greatest blessing has been the birth of my son.
My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine.
It's my greatest blessing.
And sometimes, you know, I have- You know what your greatest gift to me is?
Is that every one of us who considers ourselves to be your daughter or your sons, every one of us thinks we're the most special.
So I think that is the mark of a great mother is to make everyone feel like they are the special one.
It's true.
And you know, you really are.
Thank you for that.
I remember that when Gail's mother passed and I spoke at her mother's funeral, all the sisters said we thought we were her favorite.
Each sister thought that they were their favorite.
That's the gift.
That's the gift that a mother can give.
The greatest story ever.
All the stories I've heard in this book and heard you tell about your mother over the years.
And I had the pleasure and honor of meeting Ms.
Vivian Baxter myself and seeing her at your house.
But the greatest story is when you were I don't remember how old you were when you were working and you'd gotten off of work and the guy picks you up at work.
Yeah, tell that story.
The man, who was a loving man and loving romantically as well, picked me up and drove me out to an area in San Francisco called Half Moon Bay.
Half Moon Bay.
He asked me to get out of the car.
I got out of the car.
You'd been dating him for a while.
Yes.
And he was really wonderful, I thought.
And when I walked around The car I thought we were at a romantic place out by the bay, and so forth.
And he hit me with his fist.
And he had been a prize fighter.
He hit me, beat me.
And sometimes I'd go unconscious.
And I'd come to and look at him.
And he had a big plank.
And he hit me.
And I'd go out again.
The next thing I knew I was in the back of his car and he drove to a restaurant in San Francisco at that time called Betty Lou's Chicken Shack.
And he pulled up there and he called the men over and showed them.
He said, this is what you do to a bee who is cheating on you.
And the people looked and they went back in and told Miss Betty Lou, this man has your friend's daughter in the back of his car.
I think she's dead.
Miss Betty Lou called my mother and my mother went to her pool hall And she got two of the brownies.
Because she owned the pool hall, right?
She owned the pool hall.
Yeah.
She went there and got the baddest, the most scarred up people she could find.
She said, I want you to come with me.
And she found where the man lived.
And she knocked at the door.
Now, how long were you there?
That's what I couldn't tell.
About two or three days.
He held you captive?
Yes.
The next thing I heard was loud shouting in the hall.
And my mother said, break the SOB down, break it down, my baby's in there.
And the two huge men broke down the door.
So she rescued you.
This is what I love about the story.
Your mother comes through the door.
She breaks through the door.
After three days, she rescues you.
Nurses you back to health.
Yes.
Takes care of you.
Yes.
And then one day says, go get him.
This is where he is.
And she had friends who knew him, and she'd put the word out on him.
I wouldn't mess with Vivian Baxter.
No, never.
You do not mess with her.
She wasn't playing.
She wasn't playing.
She said, I laugh and joke, but I don't play.
Tell me this.
You say words are things and that they're so powerful.
Do you have a favorite word?
Oh, love.
Love is your favorite word?
Yeah, maybe.
Are there words that you, Maya Angelou, as a writer, just like the sound of?
I like murmur.
You like murmur?
M-U-R-M-U-R.
Yeah, it sounds good, doesn't it?
It does sound good.
Murmur.
You can't shout murmur.
It is murmur, murmur.
You can't shout murmur?
No.
The one thing that I think that I have admired and loved about you that I couldn't articulate.
It just occurred to me now.
I remember once being in your house and somebody was telling a joke.
And you were on the other.
We had a party.
It was a lot of noise in the room.
And they were telling a joke.
And it was a racist, homosexual joke.
And you stopped the party.
First of all, I couldn't believe, I was like, how can she hear that?
And she's all the way over there.
But you stop the party and ask the person to excuse themselves and leave your house.
Yes, exactly.
I say, is this your coat?
Did you come with anyone?
Both of you come this way.
I know.
No, no, no.
No, no, no.
So and everybody else is like, whoa, what just happened?
And then you said to all of us, I will not allow it in my house.
That's right.
It's vulgarity and it's poison.
And this is what a person must know.
I know there are black people who say, oh, you can use the N word to me because I'm black.
No, it is poison.
All of that, any racial pejorative, sexual pejorative, any of that stuff is created to make a person less than human.
And that means it's poison.
Nobody can use it safely.
I mean if poison is poison that you get from a pharmacy and it has P-O-I-S-O-N on it and skull and bones.
Yes.
You can't take that content and pour it into Bavarian crystal and make it otherwise.
It's still poison.
Yes.
And you don't want it to cling to the walls.
Get into the upholstery in your clothes and, sooner or later, right into you.
Right into you.
Yes, ma'am.
OK, so this is what I want to know.
Where did you get the courage to not allow it in your space?
Because there have been many of you are watching right now.
People say things that make you uncomfortable.
They start a joke.
That's going to be.
You know it's leading down a racial path or homophobic path or whatever.
And people just sort of people laugh nervously at it because they don't know how to stop it.
How do you stop it?
You don't stop it by doing it immediately.
You develop courage.
Courage, Oprah, is the most important of all the virtues.
Because without courage, you cannot practice any other virtue consistently.
You can be anything erratically, now and then.
Kind, fair, true, generous, just blah blah.
But to do that thing time after time.
So what you do is you do it in small ways.
I mean, if you wanted to pick up a hundred pound weight, you wouldn't just go pick up five pounds and ten pounds.
Well, that's the same way you do with courage.
You do the courageous thing, a small one, and you like yourself.
And then you do another two or three and you like yourself better.
And before you know it, you're able to say, excuse me, not in my house.
You don't you don't paint my walls with poison.
And vulgarity.
You will not do it in my house.
Out.
Is this your purse?
Thank you.
Oh my goodness.
Bye.
I've seen it.
I know.
Because you believe that words are things.
Yes, ma'am.
I know they are.
They are things.
Absolutely.
You can put some words together and make people want to go to war.
Put another few words and make them long for peace.
Yes.
Words are so important.
And this is what you take to God.
Words.
You may not frame them, but God knows your heart.
So when you go down on your knees or in your bed or riding in a car and you pray, you're using words.
I'm lonely.
I'm hungry.
I'm lost.
I'm in pain.
Whatever your words are, help.
They are words.
They inform not only God, but anybody around you. how you really feel.
You're able to speak in nuances.
So be careful how you use them.
Yes, ma'am.
Because they carry the power.
Yes, ma'am.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Maya Angelou.
Thank you very much, Oprah Winfrey.
I'm Oprah Winfrey and you've been listening to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast.
You can follow Super Soul on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
If you haven't yet, go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe, rate, and review this podcast.
Join me next week for another Super Soul Conversation.
Thank you for listening.
Wednesday season two has the whole world buzzing and it just released its jaw dropping finale episodes.
If you haven't started watching yet, now is your chance.
Starring the incredible Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Adams, alongside legends like Catherine Zeta-Jones playing Morticia Adams and Fred Armisen playing Uncle Fester.
Their chemistry is hilarious.
This season is packed with twists you'll never see coming, and the finale promises shocks, laughs and an ending that will leave you as breathless as a corpse.
If you love The Addams Family, you're in for a ride.
Go watch the final episodes of Wednesday Season 2, now playing only on Netflix.
With Plan B emergency contraception, we're in control of our future.
It's backup birth control you take after unprotected sex that helps prevent pregnancy before it starts.
It works by temporarily delaying ovulation, and it won't impact your future fertility.
Plan B is available in all 50 US states at all major retailers near you, with no ID prescription or age requirement needed.
Together, we got this.
Follow Plan B on Insta at planb1step to learn more.
Use as directed.
