Obama's 'A Great Book' and the Spread of Literary Curation

Updated Oct 2026: this editorial has been rewritten and now cites its sources.

When a former president devotes six episodes of a podcast to discussing novels and essays, the publishing industry takes notice. A Great Book with Barack Obama, an Audible Original produced with Higher Ground, debuted on September 24, 2026. It is the most recent instance of a long-standing pattern: trusted public figures serving as curators who can steer readers toward particular books. This editorial examines what the series is, what the evidence indicates about curated recommendations, and what it suggests about the ways books now reach readers.

What the series is

Audible and Higher Ground, the media company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama, announced the series on August 10, 2026. Audible described it as a six-episode series debuting exclusively on its platform on September 24, and as the sixth release under the companies' exclusive first-look deal.

The six books are James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men and John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. In an update on September 17, Audible identified the guests: Tom Hanks on Gilead, Ta-Nehisi Coates on The Fire Next Time, Jill Lepore on All the King's Men, Ben Rhodes on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Percival Everett on Song of Solomon and Lauren Groff on All the Pretty Horses.

In Audible's announcement, Obama said: "Great books have always helped me figure out who I am and what I believe. The six books featured in this series have stayed with me throughout my life, and each one has something to teach us about the human experience." Variety reported that the series would later be available on YouTube and other podcast platforms.

Audible's editors also released a companion listening list that pairs each featured book with a book by the guest on that episode.

A different kind of pick

The series departs from most celebrity book clubs in one significant way. Its six titles are established works published between 1946 and 2004, not new releases. That makes it a test of curation for the backlist, the older titles that seldom receive launch-style marketing.

It departs in format as well. The conversations are audio, released first on an audiobook platform. The Association of American Publishers' StatShot Annual report for 2025 noted that print formats accounted for 76.3% of trade revenue, while its chief operating officer said digital audio remained strong. A podcast about books, hosted by an audiobook company, sits at the point where those two markets meet.

What the evidence says about curated recommendations

No sales figures have yet been published for the books in the series, and this editorial makes no claim about the series' effect on them. The record of earlier curators does, however, show how large such effects can be.

A study by BYU economist Richard Butler and two student co-authors, reported by BYU News in December 2004, examined the 45 non-children's titles Oprah Winfrey selected for her book club between 1996 and 2002. Only 11 had appeared on USA Today's bestseller list beforehand, and the highest position any of those had reached was 25th. Of the first eleven books Winfrey selected, all climbed to the top four within the week she recommended them.

NPR reported on Sep 3, 2019 that the 26 picks of Reese Witherspoon's book club had, according to NPD BookScan, sold almost 700% better than the average, and that the first five picks of the "Read with Jenna" club had outperformed the fiction market by about 500%. Vox reported on Sep 13, 2019 that none of Reese's Book Club's 28 picks had sold fewer than 10,000 print copies, while a debut by an unknown author can sell as few as 3,000 copies and still be considered to be doing okay.

Those studies concern book-club picks, some of them older titles. Whether a podcast about classics yields a comparable effect remains an open question, and one that sales data will eventually settle.

Gatekeeping, reconsidered

The original framing of this piece presented the series as a blow to legacy gatekeeping. The evidence supports a more cautious conclusion. The six books are long-established works, and Variety's list of guests includes a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Jill Lepore, and National Book Award winners Ta-Nehisi Coates and Percival Everett. The series draws on the existing literary establishment rather than going around it. What it demonstrates is that the power to direct attention is now distributed across more channels than review pages and bestseller lists: book clubs, social platforms, podcasts and audio services.

That shift has been apparent for years. The Oprah study describes the influence of a television host in the late 1990s. The Reese and Jenna data describe clubs operated through social media and morning television. A Great Book adds an audio platform with its own distribution and its own companion reading list.

What publishers and authors can take from it

• Backlist can be news. A curator can return decades-old books to the conversation, which rewards keeping titles in print and well presented.
• Curation follows trust. The clubs with documented effects are led by figures with large, loyal audiences.
• Formats overlap. An audio series about print books connects two of the largest segments of the trade.
• Measure before concluding. The size of any effect from this series is not yet known.

The larger picture

Readers have always depended on someone to help them choose. What has changed is the variety of people and platforms doing the choosing. A former president discussing Baldwin and Morrison on an audiobook service is one more indication that the conversation about books now unfolds in many places at once, and that publishers who make their books easy to find in each of them stand to benefit.

Readers who want to begin with one of the featured books can find Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon.

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