The Girl Who Preached to the Chickens

Tonight's story is about a girl who grew up on a Mississippi farm without running water or electricity — where she practiced her voice by preaching to the pigs and chickens, and her grandmother taught her to read before she'd even started school. Through Oprah Winfrey's journey from that farm in Kosciusko to becoming the first Black female billionaire and the host of a show that reached forty million people every week across a hundred and forty-five countries, families discover the power of turning pain into purpose, wrapped in calming breathwork, guided visualization, and affirmations to send little dreamers off to sleep believing they don't need a perfect start to have an extraordinary finish.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Future Me, the podcast for dreamers, doers, and champions in the making. Get cozy, take a breath, and let's begin. Did you know Oprah Winfrey was the first black female billionaire in history? She built her wealth not from inheritance, not from luck, but from a television show she hosted for 25 years that was watched by an estimated 40 million people every single week. 40 million? That is more people than live in the entire country of Canada, tuning in every week to hear one woman talk, listen, and connect. She started that journey with nothing, less than nothing, and she changed the world with the power of her voice. Tonight I want to tell you how she got there, because the beginning of Oprah's story is one of the most remarkable things I have ever heard, and I think it'll stay with you for a long time. Hey there. Welcome back to Future Me. Tonight we have one of the most extraordinary stories we have ever told on this podcast. Get comfortable, pull your blanket up close, take a slow deep breath in, and breathe it all the way out. One more time, breathe in, and breathe out. Let everything go. You've made it to the end of another day, and that matters. Good. You're here now. Tonight's story begins in a place called Casciasco, Mississippi, in 1954, in a small house with very little, and a baby girl who had no idea what was waiting for her on the other side of all the hard years ahead. Her name was Oprah Gail Winfrey, and this is how she changed the world. Oprah's early years were genuinely hard. She was born into poverty in rural Mississippi. Her parents were very young and not together, and Oprah spent her earliest years being raised by her grandmother, Hattie May, on a farm without running water or electricity. Her grandmother was strict but full of love. And she saw something in Oprah very early on. Oprah could talk. Not just talk, she could hold a room. She would perform for farm animals, preaching to the pigs and the chickens, making speeches to anyone who would listen. Her grandmother saw this, and instead of shishing her, she encouraged her. She taught Oprah to read before she started school. She brought her to church where Oprah would recite Bible verses, and the whole congregation would stop and listen to this tiny girl with the enormous voice. From the beginning, words were Oprah's gift, and she knew it. But life threw hard things at her. She moved between her mother and her father, growing up in difficult circumstances that no child should face. There were times when she felt completely alone, when the world felt unsafe and the future felt impossible. And through all of it, she read. She read everything she could find. Books were her escape, her comfort, her window into a bigger world. She once said that books showed her there was a way out, that what she was going through was not all there was. At school, she was exceptional, brilliant, outspoken, full of ideas. She won a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. She got her job in radio while she was still a teenager. And then, at 19 years old, she became the first black female news anchor at a Nashville television station. But here's the moment that could have ended everything. She was moved to a morning talk show, and her bosses thought it was a demotion, a setback, something lesser. Oprah walked into that talk show studio and she was home. She wasn't reading from a script. She was listening, connecting, making people feel seen in a way that television had never quite done before. Within months, the show was number one. Within years, she had her own show, the Oprah Winfrey Show, which would run for 25 years and reach audiences in 145 countries. She used that platform for everything that mattered to her. She championed books, and when Oprah recommended a book, millions of people bought it overnight. She championed education, funding scholarships for thousands of students. She built a school for girls in South Africa. She gave and gave and gave, because she had never forgotten what it felt like to have nothing, and she was determined to use everything she had built to lift others up. She was told no, she was underestimated. She faced obstacles that most of us will never have to face, and she turned every single one of them into fuel. Because Oprah Winfrey understood something that took her from a farm in Mississippi to the most powerful seat in television. Your story does not define you. What you do with it does. I want you to think about something Oprah has said many times throughout her life.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

She says that the most important thing any person can do is to turn their pain into purpose. What that means is this.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

They don't have to be the end of something. They can be the beginning. The beginning of understanding, of empathy, of knowing what it feels like to struggle, so that one day you can reach back and help someone else through the same thing. She used them. Every difficult thing she had been through made her better at sitting across from someone who was hurting and say, I see you.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

I understand. You are not alone. That was her superpower. Not just her voice, her heart. And here's what I want you to hear tonight as you drift towards sleep.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

You do not need a perfect start to have an extraordinary finish.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Whatever your life looks like right now, whatever is easy or hard, whatever feels big or small, it is all part of your story. And your story is not finished yet.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Not even close. Let's say these phrases together. Make them yours. My story is not finished yet. I turn hard things into stepping stones. My voice has the power to change things. I do not need to have a perfect start to have an extraordinary finish. I am future me. As you drift towards sleep tonight, I want you to think about something hard that has happened to you. Something that hurt or felt unfair. Or made you wonder why. Now I want you to ask a different question about it. Not why did this happen to me, but what could I do with this? That is the question Oprah learned to ask. And it changed everything. Picture yourself taking the hardest thing in your life and turning it into something that helps someone else. Maybe it's a long way off. That's okay. Just let yourself see it. That is purpose. And it is one of the most powerful forces in the world. You are stronger than your hard moments. You are more than what has happened to you. And your story, all of it, is leading somewhere wonderful. Good night, champion. See you next time on Future Me. A note for parents. Oprah's story opens up a wonderful conversation about turning hard things into purpose. If your child is still awake or tomorrow morning, you might ask simply, Is there something hard that's happened to you that made you stronger? And then listen. Oprah once said that the biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams. You are helping your child begin that adventure every single night. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

It matters more than you know.