美国国家公共电台 NPR 'There's Something About Her': Podcast Explores How Oprah Became Oprah

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: 

Thirty years ago, a new face debuted¹ on daytime television.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING²)

OPRAH WINFREY: Hi there. My name is Oprah Winfrey.

SHAPIRO: That's from an audition³ tape that Oprah submitted for her first talk show called "A.M. Chicago." Journalist Jenn White dug up the recording for her podcast "Making Oprah" produced by member station WBEZ. The story stretches from her early days...

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "A.M. CHICAGO")

WINFREY: I'm Oprah Winfrey, the new host of "A.M. Chicago," and I am thrilled...

SHAPIRO: ...Through to the biggest, most outrageous⁴ moments when 40 million people a week were watching her show.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW")

WINFREY: You get a car. You get a car. You get a car.

(CHEERING)

WINFREY: So you get a car. You get a car. You get a car. Everybody gets a car.

SHAPIRO: It all began with a station manager in Chicago, Dennis Swanson. He was the one that spotted⁵ something in the young woman and saw a big future, one Oprah herself couldn't even imagine.

DENNIS SWANSON: And she says, well, you know, I'm black. I said, well, I think I have that figured out. So I said, we're over that hurdle⁶. She says, you know, I'm overweight. And I said, well, so am I, and so are many Americans. I said, here's the deal. If we get this thing worked out, I don't want you to change thing.

SHAPIRO: Swanson's only fear was that she'd be too successful and fame would go to her head. I asked podcast host Jenn White how Oprah handled that rise from local talk show host to media mogul.

JENN WHITE, BYLINE⁷: Well, I think you have to remember that Oprah came from a television station in Baltimore where she was doing a show there with a co-host who was a white man who would, as the story's been told, touch her on the leg when she was allowed to speak.

So I think an early experience like that gives you some sense of the importance of having control (laughter) of your stage, having control of your microphone. I think it makes you maybe value it a little bit more. And Dennis Swanson said, you know, don't change anything about yourself. And to me, that opened a door for Oprah to be exactly who she was on television.

SHAPIRO: There's some really fun reminiscences from the early days when nobody knew who she was and the staff was struggling to put on the show. And I mean, like, one story they tell is trying desperately⁸ to book Don Johnson...

WHITE: For the first national show - yeah (laughter).

SHAPIRO: ...For the first national - they, like, sent him a special pair of sunglasses and a mink⁹ teddy bear. And they still couldn't get him to do the show (laughter).

WHITE: Yeah, no callback from Don Johnson.

SHAPIRO: It's really charming listening to this to hear how you make no effort to conceal¹⁰ your own personal connection to the Oprah story and your...

WHITE: I didn't cover that up at all (laughter)?

SHAPIRO: ...Devotion to Oprah Winfrey. I mean you had the brilliance¹¹ to put yourself on tape the moment your producer told you that Oprah had agreed to an interview.

WHITE: I wish I could claim that was my idea. It was my producer Colin McNulty's idea.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter) Let's just listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "MAKING OPRAH")

COLIN MCNULTY, BYLINE: So we're going to meet Oprah.

WHITE: (Laughter) Are you kidding me?

MCNULTY: No, so that's happening.

WHITE: Oh, my gosh.

MCNULTY: Yay.

WHITE: Oh, my gosh, Colin.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: That's in the first episode of the podcast. You describe getting a new dress, a pedicure, flying to Los Angeles, sitting in a dressing¹² room between Channing Tatum and Simone Biles.

WHITE: (Laughter) It was pretty incredible.

SHAPIRO: For you, why was it so meaningful to meet this person who was more than just a celebrity¹³ to you?

WHITE: I started watching Oprah when I was about 12 years old. I'm a child - 1 of 7 children. And I was one of the chattier ones I think it's fair to say.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITE: But as I was growing up, my mother would always say, you have the gift of gab¹⁴; you're going to do something with that. So when Oprah appeared on television, my mother would point to her as a model for what I could do. So that became ingrained in me, and there was something really powerful about growing up watching an African-American woman on television in control of the microphone.

SHAPIRO: You're also African-American, we should...

WHITE: I am African-American, yeah. And that was a really powerful model for me to grow up watching. And when I took the job at WBEZ, my mother said, you're going to meet Oprah. And I said, well, Mom, she doesn't actually live in Chicago anymore. Like, the studio's closed down. She's not there. She was like, I just have a feeling you're going to meet Oprah. So it's sort of a closing the loop, you know, in my life...

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

WHITE: ...Professionally because she's been a part of who I am today.

SHAPIRO: One of the interesting things about Oprah generally is that it seems as though over the years, to a lot of white America, Oprah is a person who - and I use this phrase with some hesitation¹⁵ - transcended¹⁷ blackness. And yet she was getting an Oscar nomination¹⁸ for her role in "The Color Purple." She was very active in these conversations about race. From her perspective and, my impression is, from the perspective of many black Americans, she did anything but transcend¹⁶ blackness.

WHITE: Yeah, and that's something - I'm glad you used the transcend race (laughter) carefully or cautiously. This is something I've been giving a lot of thought to over the last few weeks as I've been hearing from people in response to the podcast. And what's at once inspiring about Oprah's story is also I think something that we have to be really careful about. And that's using a singular story as an example of success or the ability to, like you said, transcend race or anything else.

We can't look at her narrative¹⁹ as being one that's easily translatable across the spectrum²⁰. It was a single story. But there is something about her and her authenticity²¹ that allowed white America to see her not as Oprah Winfrey the African-American talk show host but simply by the end of it as just Oprah. People felt like they were on a first-name basis with her. What that is I haven't quite figured out yet, but there's something about her.

SHAPIRO: So you conclude with a question of why she ended the show. And the answer she gives you is basically that they had gone as far as they could go.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "MAKING OPRAH")

WINFREY: We literally²² sat in a room saying, what about outer space? Do you think we could take the audience to outer space? Somebody did bring that up. Like, we could get Richard Branson. We could get an in. We could go. We could take the audience, and you could go to outer space.

SHAPIRO: And so she decides she needs to end the show. And I wonder what you think has filled the niche²³ she left behind.

WHITE: Truthfully, Ari, I don't think anything has filled the niche because there's so much splintering in media. I think we've gotten to a point where we are almost able to just self-select what we want to hear. It's harder for us to challenge ourselves and challenge our belief systems because we have so many choices.

And having a show that was able to capture that many eyes and ears every week was so powerful, and it was transformative for American culture. I truly don't think we'll ever be in a place where that happens again. And whether that's for the good or ill (laughter) of American culture, you know, well, I guess history will tell us that story.

SHAPIRO: Jenn White is host of the podcast "Making Oprah" from WBEZ. Thank you so much.

WHITE: Thank you, Ari.

1 debuted   

初次表演，初次登台（debut的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• In late 2003 a full-size SUV, the Pathfinder Armada, debuted. 2003年末，全尺寸SUV的探路者无敌舰队，推出。
• The album debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. 专辑一亮相就荣登排行榜第二名，很快就取得了白金销量。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 audition   

n.(对志愿艺人等的)面试(指试读、试唱等)

参考例句：

• I'm going to the audition but I don't expect I'll get a part.我去试音，可并不指望会给我个角色演出。
• At first,they said he was too young,but later they called him for an audition.起初，他们说他太小，但后来他们叫他去试听。

4 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。

5 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

6 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

7 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

8 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

9 mink   

n.貂，貂皮

参考例句：

• She was wearing a blue dress and a mink coat.她穿着一身蓝色的套装和一件貂皮大衣。
• He started a mink ranch and made a fortune in five years. 他开了个水貂养殖场，五年之内就赚了不少钱。

10 conceal   

v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽

参考例句：

• He had to conceal his identity to escape the police.为了躲避警方，他只好隐瞒身份。
• He could hardly conceal his joy at his departure.他几乎掩饰不住临行时的喜悦。

11 brilliance   

n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智

参考例句：

• I was totally amazed by the brilliance of her paintings.她的绘画才能令我惊歎不已。
• The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。

12 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

13 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

14 gab   

v.空谈，唠叨，瞎扯；n.饶舌，多嘴，爱说话

参考例句：

• The young man had got the gift of gab.那个年轻小贩能说会道。
• She has the gift of the gab.她口才很好。

15 hesitation   

n.犹豫，踌躇

参考例句：

• After a long hesitation, he told the truth at last.踌躇了半天，他终于直说了。
• There was a certain hesitation in her manner.她的态度有些犹豫不决。

16 transcend   

vt.超出，超越(理性等)的范围

参考例句：

• We can't transcend the limitations of the ego.我们无法超越自我的局限性。
• Everyone knows that the speed of airplanes transcend that of ships.人人都知道飞机的速度快于轮船的速度。

17 transcended   

超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的过去式和过去分词 )； 优于或胜过…

参考例句：

• He wanted assurance that he had transcended what was inherently ambiguous. 他要证明，他已经超越了本来就是混淆不清的事情。
• It transcended site to speak to universal human concerns. 它超越了场所的局限，表达了人类共同的心声。

18 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

19 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

20 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

21 authenticity   

n.真实性

参考例句：

• There has been some debate over the authenticity of his will. 对于他的遗嘱的真实性一直有争论。
• The museum is seeking an expert opinion on the authenticity of the painting. 博物馆在请专家鉴定那幅画的真伪。

22 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

23 niche   

n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等)

参考例句：

• Madeleine placed it carefully in the rocky niche. 玛德琳小心翼翼地把它放在岩石壁龛里。
• The really talented among women would always make their own niche.妇女中真正有才能的人总是各得其所。