david: i don't consider myself a journalist. nobody else would consider myself a journalist. i began to take on the life of being an interviewer even though i have a day job running a private equity firm. how do you define leadership? what is it that makes somebody tick? oprah: hello. david: the live audience does not intimidate you, right? oprah: not a bit. i feel right at home actually. it is the one thing i miss from the daily show. every now and then someone will say, do you miss the show? no, i don't miss the show. what i miss is the people, the camaraderie, because what i did every day is have my own after show with the audience. i would talk with the audience probably half an hour to 40 minutes after every show starting 10 years in. at first, i did autographs every day, and i would stand there by row and never look up. then, one day i decided i don't want to do that anymore, but what do i really want to do? i want to talk to this audience. i want to find out where they are from. i started talking to them 10 years in. that became my favorite part of the day. it was my own personal focus group. it is the reason why we were number one for 25 years because i used the information i gathered every day from people who were the greatest resource. they were the people who were viewers, who had taken the time to come with their family members. a few husbands would be like, well, i came to oprah. that's going to be good for at least two months. [laughter] david: that show was on for 25 years in chicago. when you did it, you won almost 50 emmy awards. it was voted one of the best tv shows in the history of tv. you ended it after 25 years to do other things, and we will talk about that, but no regrets about ending that show? oprah: no, no regrets whatsoever. i did not want to be punchdrunk in the ring, still trying to come up with what is the next thing, because over the years, we became our own greatest competition. when i first started, i went national in 1986. every time there was another talkshow, then i realized that you run your own race. if you take the time to see what everybody else is doing, you lose your ground, and i could be a better me than anybody else. no need to try to compare myself to other people. once i got that, we hit our own rhythm, and once i discovered it was not just a show, but a platform in which to speak to the world, and then, that was about 1989, when i thought, what do you want to say to the world? how do you want to be used and not have the tv use you? david: what drives you to keep working so hard? you and i are in the 60's category, and you have lived more than you will live. when you realized you have lived more than you're going to live, why not relax a little bit, ease up? why have you decided to work harder than you did before? oprah: the thing that works for me all these years, whether the magazine, which i still have, or whether it was the show, i understood that there is a common denominator in human experience, and i want the same thing you want, which is the same thing you want and you want. what we all want is to be able to live out the truest, highest expression of ourselves as a human being. that does not end until you take your last breath. what is the truest, highest vision you hold for yourself? no matter where you are, there is always the next level to the last breath, so i feel i always knew i would be done with the show when i felt i said as much as i could say here on this platform, and then how will i be used? if there were a theme song to my life, "amazing grace" would be one, and keep on using me to use me up would be another one. [laughter] oprah: so i feel that until you have used your value as a human being, you are not done. david: today, if you look back on what you have achieved already and suppose you have a long way to go before you are finished achieving everything, what would you say are the greatest pleasures you have received or what are you most proud of? oprah: this is good. thank you. david: i watch your interview shows. i know how to do some. [laughter] oprah: i think the thing i am most proud of, it reminds me of when i had done my school in south africa. i have a school in south africa for girls. [applause] david: it just celebrated its 10th anniversary? oprah: it just celebrated its 10th anniversary. i've girls from brown to stanford to eli all over the united states. i have 10 graduations to attend in 2017. i remember when i started the school and said to my beloved friend maya angelou, i am so proud. this will be my greatest legacy. maya said to me, you have no idea. [laughter] you have no idea what your legacy will be because your legacy is every life you have touched. that shifted the way i saw legacy. maya was explaining to me that everyone who decided they would go back to school, lose weight, no longer hit their children, get out of a bad marriage, all of those people who have seen and experienced your voice, and the same thing with everybody here, you have no idea what your legacy will be. your legacy is every life you have touched. we like to think of it -- i know you have done amazing things with your philanthropy. we like to think that these great philanthropic moments are the ones that leave the impact or make the huge difference in the world, but it is really what you do every day, how you use your life to be a light to someone else. it is how you use your work as an expression of your own art, whatever that is. i think i would say the girls as i get to watch them now graduate from college and move into their lives, but really there is a moment that happened to me just about a year after i went national. there was a woman in ann arbor, michigan, who wrote me a letter -- i will not have a tombstone, but if i would have a tombstone, it would go there. she said, oprah, watching you be yourself every day makes me want to be more of myself, and i just don't know of anything better than that, so i am most proud of -- just yesterday, i went to see -- and in a bathroom, a woman comes up to me and says, you know, i have watched you all these years, and you did so much for me. i used to hear people say i love you and watch your show, and about 10 years and, i started talking to the audience i would , stop people and say, so tell me what is it that moved you? why do you love the show? this woman said to me just yesterday, you helped me to be more of myself. david: being oprah, is it hard to go to the bathroom in these public places? [laughter] isn't that kind of challenging at times? oprah: as a matter of fact, because there was another lady talking to me because she thought i did not do enough for mrs. clinton. somebody else came out of the stall and said leave oprah alone. she's just trying to pee. [laughter] david: did they follow that advice? oprah: and she followed me out. talking about what i could have done, should have done. david: very few people are known by one name, oprah, elvis, jesus, very few people. [laughter] oprah: it is only when i was challenged with the idea of changing it that i thought no, i am going to keep my name. ♪ david: do you think about what you accomplished? you came from modest circumstances. you didn't come from a wealthy family. oprah: modest is not the word. [laughter] david: i was trying to be polite. oprah: i was actually poor. a lot of the girls at my school, actually all the girls from my school are poor, and i was just in south africa for a graduation, i was saying you all come from the same circumstances. you were poor. one girl raised her hand and said i don't like using that word. i go, if you are not poor, you should excuse yourself. that is why i am paying for you. [laughter] oprah: i don't have a problem with the word. i don't have any shame about it. i think probably earlier in my life or career that the word would have bothered me, but i was poor. no running water, david, or electricity, living with an outhouse, ok? that is poor. david: you were shuttled between your mother, grandmother, father, and so forth, and it's disconcerting to be shuttled back and forth. so at what point did you realize you had some skills that would enable you to rise up? when you were young, you had skills as an orator. oprah: i think in kindergarten, i kind of felt it. [laughter] david: did other people agree that you are going to be special? oprah: my grandmother used to raise me on this acre, i used to call it a farm. i went back and saw it, but it wasn't a farm. it was an acre. i remember my grandmother taught me how to read. i grew up learning to read. i read bible verses. that's what i grew up reading. by the time i was six and got shuttled to milwaukee, the grace for me is that i didn't spend a day in a segregated school, so i did not have one moment of ever being conditioned to believe that i was less than anybody, so when i walked into my first kindergarten class, the first time i had ever seen little white children that my grandmother did not work for, and everybody was doing their abc things, and i was like why are the children doing abcs? i wrote my kindergarten teacher a letter and said, i do not belong here. [laughter] oprah: because i know a lot of big words, and then i proceeded to write every big word i knew, and anybody who reads the bible knows it was shadrach, mishrac, abednego. then i put in elephant and hippopotamus just because. i saw the impression it made on her. david: speaking of big words and bible, your first name came from a biblical source, but it was supposed to be horpa. how did it get to be oprah? oprah: misspelled the first day i went to school and stayed that way. david: very few people are known by one name, very few people, oprah, elvis, jesus. but suppose your name which was just mary or jane? oprah: it would not have worked. i remember once being in baltimore, and i had a director when i first came to work in baltimore had said to me we have to do something about that name. we need to do something about that because nobody is going to remember it or know how to pronounce it. up until that time, i wanted to have a name like everybody else, so it was only when my bosses told me i needed to think about changing it and they mentioned suzy, because suzy is friendly. nobody can say suzy and not say suzy winfrey, eyewitness news, a friendly thing, but it was only when i was challenged with the idea of changing it that i thought, no, i'm going to keep my name. when i started in baltimore, your mother can tell you, she was there, they started me with a campaign called what is an oprah, trying to explain to people how to pronounce the name. david: for those who may not know your background, you went to college in tennessee, then you worked in the tennessee broadcasting operation, and then you were recruited to get a -- go to baltimore. and what you are referring to is that my mother would watch you and call me up and say there is a terrific person on a show here. she is going national. i said, really? people from baltimore don't go national. oprah: your mother knew. david: she was right. you should listen to your mother. when you went to baltimore, you went to become an anchorwoman. it didn't quite work out. oprah: yeah, i got fired. [laughter] demoted. david: they had a contract, so they did not say goodbye. how did you work out to be on an afternoon show where you actually got to be an interviewer? how did that happen? oprah: this is what i now know with age and perspective, that many times getting demoted is an opportunity for something else to show up, or getting fired. lots of people i have interviewed over the years they , have stories about the best thing that ever happened to you. i was not a good television reporter. i was too emotional. i would go out on stories and then try to take blankets to the people. david: you were young, 21? oprah: i was empathetic and always getting written up for getting myself involved in other people's business. i was making $22,000 a year, and my best friend gayle, she was also working there. she said, oh my god, imagine when you are 25, 30? i would be making $60,000 about now, $62,000. [laughter] oprah: that did not work out. once i got demoted, they did not want to pay out my contract. i was making $25,000 a year. they did not want to pay me the $25,000, so they kept me on and said we will put you on this talkshow to run out the contract. david: the person who wanted to demote you, has that person risen in the broadcast world? [laughter] oprah: as a matter fact, they did, they moved on. worked out. david: when did you realize you have a skill as an interviewer? oprah: my skill comes from my listening ability. what gave me the power in the seat and the power with a microphone was i always saw myself as the surrogate for the audience. ♪ david: the show worked very well, and all of a sudden your contract is up for renewal and somebody comes along and says how about a show in chicago? why don't you do a show in chicago? you decided to leave, is that right? oprah: i decided to leave. my contract was not up at the time. i started feeling like -- i think everybody knows i have moved my whole life on instinct. i feel now it is time to let the show go. i feel it is time to move on, because i have grown as much as i can grow. when i grow as much as i can grow in a space, that is my instinct to move. i started to feel like i needed to move someplace else. new york felt too crowded, too hard to get around, the number one market, everybody wanted to come here. as a matter of fact, i had an agent at the time and said to the agent, i just want to be a substitute for joan lunden. remember joan lunden? could you just get me a job as a substitute for her when she goes on vacation and maybe she wants to take a break? and that agent said to me that will never happen because they already have one black person. i said, really? he said, yes, it is bryant gumbel. i said it's the wrong station. he is on another station. so maybe they will take one more, but he said, no. i let that agent go. i ended up going to chicago because i was on somebody else's audition tape. one of my producers had gone there. she called me up and said, dennis swanson just saw you on my tape and wants to know if you would be interested in doing a job here. that is how it happened. david: you got there. it was an existing show. you took it over, and it became pretty popular and they change the name to the oprah winfrey show. oprah: people were calling it the oprah show. they weren't calling it "in chicago." every single other person than my friend gayle said you are going to fail in chicago because i was going up against phil donahue. david: phil who? [laughter] [applause] david: come on. oprah: it didn't matter to me, because i did not think he was beatable, and i actually said it to my boss, who has gone on to do great things in television. dennis swanson said, we know you can't beat him, so don't worry about it. just be yourself. and that saved me. imagine little chubby me being told now you have got to go and you have got to beat phil donahue. he just said we are a local show, and so if you can get a number, we will take it. i had no pressure, no pressure, so i just went on the air and was myself. david: he ultimately left chicago and moved to new york because of the competition i guess, i'm not sure. oprah: i beat him, david, i did. [laughter] [applause] oprah: i wasn't even trying to, but it is just like -- david: i'm sympathetic to white men with white hair, but you did very well. oprah: he was so gracious, and i have always said had there not been a phil donahue, there could not have been an oprah show. he paved the way for that kind of audience, smart women at home, many of them stay at home mothers taking care of their kids, some of them going back into the workforce in the mid-1980's when i started who were interested in talking about purposeful things, meaningful things. he opened that door. david: when did you realize in chicago or baltimore that you had a skill as an interviewer that was really better than anybody else, and where do you think it came from? oprah: i never thought it was better than anybody else. what i do have that is uniquely my own is my ability to connect to the audience because my skill comes not from my interviewing ability. my skill comes from my listening ability, and my skill comes from me knowing fundamentally inside myself that i am no different than the audience, so what gave me the power in the seat and the power with the microphone was that i always saw myself as the surrogate for the audience, so i would ask people questions that i would not normally ask. i would ask embarrassing questions and not because i wanted to know the answer, but because i thought the audience did, and then i thought i would not ask with the audience wants next time. i put myself in a bad situation. i asked sally field when she was dating burt reynolds, i asked gayle, i askeds, sally field if burt slept with his toupee on. david: what was the answer? oprah: i would never do that today. i wouldn't do it. i did it because i was getting pushed by the producers. people want to know. i was thinking i was doing it on behalf of the audience. she shut down, and i could see that it embarrassed her, and i never got another thing from her. so i thought that was wrong. i learned from that. david: while you were doing the show, you got the opportunity to be an actress in "the color purple." [applause] oprah: yes. not just an opportunity. i don't even have time for this story. i never wanted anything more in my life, david, and haven't wanted anything as much since as much as i wanted "the color purple." i read the book. i had seen a review in "the new york times," so i started hearing there were going to do a movie. long story short, i auditioned for the movie only because quincy jones happened to be, quincy jones was going to chicago, my little show, "am chicago" was on. they were looking for an actress to play this part. i did not know quincy jones. he is coming out of his shower after taking the redeye. he is there for a deposition because he is testifying on behalf of michael jackson, someone said billie jean was their lover or whatever. he is there in chicago, coming out of the shower, and he sees me on "am chicago" and thinks, i think that girl can be in a movie, so he tells his people, who call me. i had been praying and hoping to be in this movie, "the color purple," and i get a call. one day i am just in my office and the casting agent says i'm calling about a movie we are doing. would you be interested in coming to audition? the movie is called "moon song." i said i was not praying for a movie called "moon song." i said i was praying for movie purple."he color that is what they were calling -- he said it was called that because that is what they were calling it. i went to audition for it and i knew, of course, it was "the color purple." david: you got the part? oprah: i got the part. god knows i do. i killed him dead before i let him. david: you were nominated for an academy award, should have won, but did not win. oprah: it's ok. the dress didn't fit and i would not have been able to get of the chair anyway. [laughter] [applause] david: was that hard to give up chicago? oprah: i don't feel sad at all. i feel a great sense of pride. i think what we were able to do at that show every day. i am just proud of the work, then i realized it was time to let that go. ♪ ♪ david: let's talk about your show. you ended the show in 2011, but around that time you decided you would build the own, which is oprah winfrey network. o-w-n. oprah winfrey network. david: that was a joint venture between you and discovery channel. and you were still doing your show in chicago and they say let's do a network, and so you are still finishing the show and the network is starting, so it did not go as well as you would of liked at the beginning, but then you finished your show and it worked out pretty well. oprah: doing very well. we have some really great, successful shows on there. -- thisered with ava do than past year to create this drama series called "queen sugar." [applause] another drama series, soo, i am now, it is the next level for me. every day on my show for 25 years, i was a storyteller, helping people to let their stories out into the world in such a way that it enhanced them or help them see themselves differently, or however it showed up for them. and now i get to use drama, the platform of drama, to create stories that allow people, particularly african american people, to see and feel themselves in a way that shows us as people of value, as people who care about the things that everybody else cares about. the one thing i was always trying to do through all my work, particularly all those years of the oprah winfrey show, was let people see what maya always said, that we are more alike than we are different, and when you get into somebody's home and you are sitting around the kitchen table, i don't care who you are or what your kitchen table looks like, or how many square feet you have, that the feelings are the same, that we find our deepest humanity at the that kitchen table, and when i opened the door and look in your house and your house, which i used to do on the oprah show. i used to just love going into people's houses. i wonder what you are doing for dinner, just dropping in and saying, hey. david: to do own you moved from chicago to the west coast. was that hard to give up chicago or you didn't mind? oprah: no, i think everybody, particularly, you know this having hit 60, there comes a point, and i am really good at this, at not holding on to what was and being able to live in this present moment. you know, i was never one of those women who was afraid to tell your age or trying to be something you're not. i mean, i think for everything there is a time and season. the bible is completely right about that. i think, i think, and you know in your own self when it is time to move from that. i remember last year we were going through the building and i was going through with gayle, who has been through everything, she was like, i feel bad. don't you feel bad? i said i don't feel sad. i feel a great sense of pride. i think of what we were able to do with that show every day, sitting really in the heart of america, allowing people to see the best and sometimes worst of themselves through their neighbors, dysfunction, the ideas we brought to them, but i am just proud of the work, and then i realized it is time to let that go, so no, i don't feel bad at all. the only thing that was hard was when the building came down. i sold the building, which was really like a campus. there were five buildings. and when that first main building came down and the somebody instagramed it, that was the only time i had the like, uh, it was really happening. have you ever gone back to your house where you used to live and the house is gone? david: i went back to my childhood home not too long ago with my mother for a tv show and knocked on the door and said, can i come in? i used to live here a long time ago. they called the police. [laughter] they thought i was a robber. anyway, so you mentioned a couple of times gayle, and gayle king is here. she is your best friend. had he maintained a relationship when you live in different cities over a long time? oprah: i say to the girls in my school, you wish yourself, you all wish to have a friend like auntie gayle, who wants the most, the best, and highest for you. i have never seen a person like gayle. i have never -- [applause] david: yes. everybody, especially if you are on the rise in your career and have had certain friends, and they all act like they are happy for you, but not everybody is happy for you. and every now and then you can hear a tiny bit of jealousy. you can hear it. you can sense it. i have never had a moment of yle and 30 oddga years of friendship, except the one time i was on stage dancing with tina turner. [laughter] oprah: that is the only time i had gayle go, i wish that was me. [laughter] david: people call you all the time and say give me money for this, give me for that. oprah: i don't. i don't pay any attention to that. helping girls, because i was a poor girl and know what that feels like, it resonates in my spirit. ♪ ♪ david: you have been very public over the years about your weight issues, and now you are a big shareholder in weight watchers, so how do you deal with the weight issues over the years? oprah: i try to let that work for me. actually, weight watchers called me up, and as i said, i don't do anything that does not feel too full or organic. so they were asking me to be a spokesperson, and i said i have never been on the program. i was thought about the people who had to count points. i don't know about those people. [laughter] oprah: the fact that weight watchers was calling me, that is how bad it got. [laughter] oprah: weight watchers called -- you know, that is a sign, when weight watchers says, let us help you. [laughter] david: right. oprah: you go look in the mirror and go, i see what you are talking about. ok. [laughter] oprah: so i was just doing what i always do, and that is not just trying to be a spokesperson, but listen, how can i own a piece of it, because since the days of the oprah winfrey show -- you know that worked out for me -- the biggest, greatest decision i made with the oprah show was own to own it myself. the very first time we came up for renegotiation of the contract -- because my bosses at abc had given me a really hard time when i was doing "the color purple." they had said to me you only have two weeks vacation, and i wanted to do that movie more than anything i want to do in my life. i said i will give up my entire 's vacation if you would just let me do the movie, so i had a smart attorney at the time, jeff jacobs, who said, you never want to be in that position again where you have to give up yourself, your life, so when the contract negotiations came around the second time, i said, what if i own the show and you don't pay me unless the show makes money? and we make money together, so let's split it. so i approach everything that way. if i am going to be of value to you, it should also be of value to myself. david: you are now the ceo of your company. you are the owner and ceo, and you have thousands of people working for you, and as a ceo, you have to say no to people all the time? and is that hard to do? oprah: you get other people to say no. [laughter] david: ok. oprah: saying no is hard. that is one of life's big life lessons for me. i grew up raised in the south, raised in the south, needing to please, wanting to please everybody, so it took me a long time to get that lesson of only saying yes to what you intend to say yes to what i wanted to, and so i tried to do all of my business decisions and personal decisions based upon my intention. david: when you developed this a had, whate success you have comes along with it in our society is money. and when you make the money you have made, and i am fortunate to make it as well, you can't spend it all. oprah: you can try. [laughter] david: it's tough. oprah: you can have a really good time trying. [laughter] [applause] david: it's tough. how many things can you really buy? can you talk about your philanthropy, how you decide to give away money. by the way, you just recently became the biggest donor to the african-american history museum in washington. [applause] oprah: thank you for that. i agreed to be on that board 13 over 13 years ago. i believe you are nowhere and life in you know where you come from, and that understanding the true root of what has been paved for you is necessary for a people to move forward, so i wanted to leave the legacy of that for generations to come, particularly for african-american children, but also for people of all races, to understand who we are as a people and as a culture and what that has meant to america. david: so now you decide how to give away money by virtue of a foundation, of a staff. how do you decide? oprah: i don't have the staff. i don't. i do have a foundation and people working there, but nobody tells me -- david: but people call you all the time and say give me money for this, give me money for that. how do you deal with that? oprah: i don't pay any attention to that. so in the beginning, i used to. in the beginning, i was so overwhelmed by it because i could not figure out when your salary is published in the paper , how much money you make and everybody knows it, so you can no longer say i don't have it, i could not figure it out. i was like, people were leaving their homes, leaving their husbands, boarding trains, coming to see me. i had people standing outside my door in chicago and i was overwhelmed by it, then i started to -- i mean, i got lots of advice from a lot of people about what to do. i now only do what i intend that comes from what is important to me. so, helping girls, because i was a poor girl and know what that feels like, it resonates in my spirit. i know that when you change a girl's life, you do not only change her's, but the entire community because they get back to the family, so saving girls around the world is important to me. educating growth and power in women feels like a natural thing. david: have you ever thought that given the popularity you have that you could actually run for president and actually be elected? [applause] oprah: i thought, oh, gee, i don't have enough experience. i don't know enough. now i'm thinking, oh. david: all right. ok. [laughter] ♪ ♪ david: let me ask you a question about politics. you avoided politics throughout your career, and you have had no politicians on your show. you had said they were not really what you wanted to do, and then somebody named barack obama was running for president in 2008 and you said, i am going to violate my principal and i am going to endorse him, and it seemed to work out. it helped him a great deal, you might say, i think. oprah: interestingly enough, it was not the kind of thing, again, i operate from what feels like the right thing to do. you would be stunned about how little i thought about was it the right thing or what it was going to cost me. i did it because i felt compelled to do it. from the time i saw him in 2004 at the convention, and i was in chicago and had seen him as a senator around, and i saw him like everyone else did at that in 2004.n and i was alone in my house and i thought, he is going to be president some day and i hope i am around to help him do it, so i started telling him in 2004-2005, when you run for president, let me know. when you run for president, let me know. i had a group of african-americans at my house who had all been really major legends for me. so i was having this big party -- i like having parties, so i had this big party and i had diana ross, sisley tyson, maya coretta scotturoda scott king, and all these wonderful legendary women to thank them for paving the way for me, then i had a bunch of young women like mariah carey, janet jackson to help me thank them, and i have barack obama come to my house and speak in 2005, where i had all these people there, and i said to that group in 2005, this man is going to be president of the united states some day and i hope i am a life when it happens, and if i am, i will do whatever i can in my power. i will quit my job. i will go work for him. i will canvass for him, and they said, what is his name again? [laughter] oprah: what is his name again? that was in 2005, so i felt like this is something i can do. david: did some of your viewers criticize you for getting into politics? andh: oh, major criticism, i was surprised by that because i never thought about it. it did not occur to me that people did not know that i've voted one way or the other. david: so the first night he was inaugurated, 2009, january 20, 2009, so upstairs in the white house, you are invited. oprah: how did you know? david: well, i know. african-americans are in the white house, the president is an african-american, and this is a house built by slaves. and what was the emotion like that first night. you helped him get elected. what was that like? oprah: it was indescribable. i don't think there are actually words they can -- i heard dave chapelle actually on saturday night live talking about looking over and -- it wasn't the same as inaugural night. it felt surreal, and obviously you are looking at all the paintings on the wall, the past presidents and leaders who were all white. it was surreal. we could just kind of -- i remember walking out afterward stedman, andtedma, gayle her kids and we were like, did that just happened? it felt surreal. david: barack obama was the first african-american to be elected president, and now we have had somebody who is a media figure, you might argue. [laughter] david: now we have never had a woman elected president of the united states, so have you ever thought given the popularity you have, we haven't broken the glass ceiling yet for women, that you could run for president and actually be elected? [applause] oprah: i -- [laughter] oprah: i actually never thought that was -- i never considered the question, even a possibility. i just thought, oh, oh. [laughter] david: right. it is clear you don't need government experience to be elected president of the united states, right? oprah: that's what i thought. i thought i don't have the experience. i don't know enough. now i'm thinking, oh. [laughter] [applause] david: right. all right. [applause] david: now speaking of "oh" that is the name of your magazine. [laughter] oprah: yes, it is. david: so couple of questions as , a we wrap up and you consider whether you will run for president of the united states. oprah: no, that won't be happening. i did used to think that you had but anyway.uch, [laughter] david: today, if you look at what you are doing, your highest priorities are developing own, acting, and also executive producing. david: yes, i just finished the immortal life of henrietta -- [applause] s were used inl the polio vaccine and other things, and your role in that is -- oprah: her daughter. david: will you continue acting? oprah: i will continue acting, developing shows that speak to the humanity of people in a way that makes them want to live better and do better, that exalts their victories and lets them know that they are important and meaningful in the world. i would have to say that every day, david, that show was such a, it was like therapy for me, kind of like now. david: right. oprah: every day the show was, i paid attention. right? i have never been to a therapist, but i have paid attention all those days on the show, and i made therapy acceptable for a lot of people who thought not me. so one of the things that i started to get around mid-to-late 1990's was that everybody that i had on the show, at the end of the show they would say something to me like, was that ok? was that ok? how was that? was that ok? at the end of the interview. i started to then track it. it did not matter if it was, i had gone and done a show where i was in a prison and i was interviewing a father who was in jail for life for murdering his twin daughters. and at the end of th the interview, even behind bars he said to me, is that ok? how did i do? and barack obama said it the first time he sat in the chair the first time. and george bush said it. beyoncé said it. she taught me how to twerk and then said, is that ok? [laughter] oprah: david: so that is an acquired skill? david: so that is an acquired skill? twerkings, that e thing, but this is what i learned sitting in that chair for 25 years, that at the end of the day, whether you are interviewing me or i get to interview you, what ever your profession is, wherever you are in your life and your relationships, every person that you encounter, every experience, a person wants to know, was that ok? was that ok? and what i started to hear was that what people are really saying is, did you hear me? did you hear me? and did what i say mean anything to you? and so i started to listen with that in mind, with that intention of validating you being here, you speaking to me, your taking the time to do this, is important because you matter, and that is true for everybody watching or listening, that every argument you have, every encounter, the person just wants to know, did you hear me? did you see me? david: how do you relax? oprah: i would say that the word for me now is i am content. i'm not just relaxed. i am content. because i know a lot of rich people who are not happy, but i am not one of them. [laughter] oprah: i am one of the happiest rich people you are ever going to see. [laughter] [applause] david: when you are trying to get away from it all and get away from everything, you relax at one of your homes? oprah: yes. and also it does not take a lot for me to relax. i can be happy looking at a leaf. gayle will say to me, are you sitting out under the trees with your thoughts? i can be happy with a book. i can be happy in front of the fire. i can be happy with my dogs. i can be happy reading poetry hear it i can be happy in front of a fire. david: thank you for doing this. i realize one of the great pleasures in life is not being interviewed by me, so i appreciate you giving me the time to do this. oprah: it is. it has been a pleasure though. david: thank you. it has been my pleasure completely. this is a low-budget show compared to yours, and so were going to get a car out to everybody, but smaller than the cars you usually get out. [laughter] [applause] david: it is a car -- oprah: really? oh, this is great. david: so we can't afford a big car, but thank you. for that. oprah: that is so cute. david: all right, well, that was great. thank you. thank you. ♪ ♪ jonathan: from new york city to our viewers worldwide. i am jonathan ferro. with 30 minutes dedicated to fixed income, this is "bloomberg real yield." ♪ death,n: coming up, taxes, a rate hike all but guaranteed at next week's meeting. how long before the ecb follow suit? another ugly week for treasury bowls. yields at the highest level so far this year. in the face of rising