IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson · Higher Ground

Your Turn Will Come with Carol Burnett

January 14, 2026·1 hr 14 min·6 clips

Carol Burnett explains why she insisted on real audience questions, risking embarrassment to keep her show honest.

The welcome is almost too much. Michelle is teary, Craig is speechless, and Carol Burnett steps into a room already crowded with childhood memory. They begin with awe because Carol belonged to that family television hour, the one that made the grown-up living room feel bigger. Then Craig asks about leaving home, and Carol follows it back to New York. A friend from a South Pacific scene gets her out of the Algonquin and points her toward West 54th Street. The Rehearsal Club sounds like something from an old movie, but practical too: young women chasing show business, a house mother, rules, and somehow one cot left. Carol calls it a godsend. She calls the helpers Clarence, using the movie language that made trouble feel a little like fate when she was young. Michelle asks if she was afraid. Carol says she was too innocent for fear, still carrying the Mickey and Judy belief that maybe you could just put on a show. The confidence is funny, then weirdly accurate. At UCLA, she told friends she would be on Broadway and directed by George Abbott. She admits she was bragging, and then the story catches up with the brag five years later. Craig wants the nuts and bolts: how an agent happens, how the break happens, how fantasy turns into an audition. Carol never sells success as a neat plan. It is boldness, luck, nerve, and people opening doors at exactly the right time. The ending softens. Michelle says Carol brought smart, courageous, bold womanhood into their home and showed another way to be. Carol is touched. Then they sing the goodbye song together, laughing at younger listeners who may not know the ritual but can still feel why it mattered.

As heard by us

A warm, funny tribute to the hard-won path behind Burnett's ease.

Burnett comes off as both a heroine and a benchmark for the smart, courageous, bold woman the hosts wanted to see on television. The memory of watching The Carol Burnett Show gives the discussion its warmth, and the Lucille Ball story adds a sharp, funny edge that keeps it from…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For when you want Carol Burnett's rise told with affection, laughs, and real show-business grit.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson