RENEGADES: Born in the USA chronicles the conversation Obama and Springsteen began in Spotify’s podcast of the same name, which is the most listened-to podcast globally on the Spotify platform. During these intimate conversations, they share exclusive stories and ruminations about life, music, and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions. Published in an oversized, fully illustrated format, RENEGADES also features rare and exclusive photographs from the authors’ personal collections and never-before-seen archival material, including Springsteen’s handwritten lyrics and Obama’s annotated speeches, offering a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders—one Black and one white—who have helped shape the American story.

‘Over the years, what we’ve found is that we’ve got a shared sensibility. About work, about family, and about America. In our own ways, Bruce and I have been on parallel journeys trying to understand this country that’s given us both so much. Trying to chronicle the stories of its people. Looking for a way to connect our own individual searches for meaning and truth and community with the larger story of America’
– President Obama

In RENEGADES: Born in the USA, readers are invited to sit alongside these two longtime friends, in a recording studio stocked with dozens of guitars and during at least one Corvette ride, as they discuss marriage and fatherhood, race and masculinity, the lure of the open road and the call back to home, some of the most inspiring American heroes of all time, and music. . . . they talk a lot about music.

Along the way, they reveal their passion for—and the occasional toll of—telling a bigger, truer story about America throughout their careers and explore how our fractured country might begin to find its way back toward unity.