[bright music]
- Well, I'm joined today by a woman who has worn many hats.
First Lady, Secretary of State, bestselling author,
democratic nominee for president.
And you're adding a new title,
which is masterclass instructor.
Why masterclass and why now?
- I have to say, Sam,
when Masterclass approached me and asked if I would
participate in this series, I said, well,
what would I talk about?
And they said, well, you would talk about your life.
You would talk about ups and downs
and resilience and setbacks and keeping going.
- Let's talk about the speech, which is, for me,
it was the highlight, how hard was that, to read out?
- It was so hard when Masterclass said,
we'd really like you to read for us, the speech,
that you would've given. If you had been elected,
I was like, oh wow.
No, I really can't do that.
and they made a really persuasive argument, they said, look,
there's so much in that speech about you,
how you think about our country right now,
how you think about other people.
There's a ending that is about my mother,
because I wanted to connect, our past in the country,
my personal past with my mother's struggles,
with what I wanted to do as president.
I'd never had the chance to read it to anybody.
I'd read it, I'd worked on it
I didn't think I was going to lose
so I didn't even have a concession speech prepared.
And when it got the time and the cameras were rolling,
I could barely get through it in part because
of what we know happened since.
Look I want any president of the United States,
whether they're up my party or not to be successful
for the good of the country of our people, the world,
it was not only painful personally,
it was painful on reflection because I want us
to get together and to work together
and to support each other.
And I don't think that's some kind of naive hope,
I think that's how we're going to get things done.
It turned out to be emotionally, really cathartic for me.
- Oh, what I thought was really refreshing
is seeing you lean into the emotion of the end
when you were addressing your mother
and you weren't afraid of it.
- How does a woman in the public eye show vulnerability,
which we all are, show emotion?
Because so often it is still, not accepted,
men can express emotion and they're given points for it.
And for women, it's such a narrow line to walk
because if you are not hitting exactly the right tone,
then people will say, well, she can't handle it.
Or that was fake, or why is she showing emotion?
Or that makes me uncomfortable.
I mean, it's a never ending challenge
and therefore, I think you just can't worry about it.
You just have to be yourself to the best you can be.
But even when I was running for president,
I would encounter situations particularly as maybe famously
known in the second debate with Trump,
where he was behaving in such an obnoxious way,
and I knew it was meant to both send a message
to his supporters, this is, me being alpha male,
look at how I could dominate the stage.
And it was also meant to intimidate and maybe throw me off.
Well, so what was I supposed to do?
If I had reacted and turned and confronted him,
some people would have applauded
and a lot of people would have said,
can't take it, if she can't deal with Trump,
leering and leaning over her shoulder,
how is she going to deal with, you know, fill in the blank.
It's a constant balancing act and, it's not easy.
And I wish that we could get beyond it,
and women would be judged for their ambition,
for their vulnerability, for their emotion,
the same way men are,
but we still have a way to go before we get there.
- Well, you looked back at a lot of these moments
in your life that can play into lessons
that I think for the audience they can learn.
You talk about in terms of dealing with the unexpected,
having missiles thrown at you and during speeches,
what were the kind of the funnest moments
for you to relive in that Masterclass?
- What I really liked is that I kept coming back
to this very simple idea.
Well, how will my experience relate to the viewers?
I have to confess, Sam,
I was particularly thinking about young women.
[both laughing]
And when you're scared to do something,
how do you get over your own fear?
How do you know whether it's a risk worth taking or not?
When you do encounter criticism, which is part of life,
it's not just part of being in politics or public service.
What do you do with that criticism?
How do you deal with it so that you can learn from it,
but it doesn't bring you down?
I really feel like we covered so much ground
that I think there's something in those classes
for practically anybody.
- One of the moments that really stook out for me was
when you talk about public speaking,
which you were so good at,
you talked about a lot of female politicians.
They don't have the presence of maybe a tall man
walking into a room.
And the stories of these women standing on boxes
and helping, you know, to give a speech.
What are your advice for our audience members
that want to be seen and heard,
and don't feel that they have the presence
of secretary Clinton?
- Public speaking in a lot of surveys
is the number one fear people have,
it's ahead of drowning or dying in a fire or being,
attacked by gunman.
I mean, it is at the top of the list of fears.
And what I hope that I did in the class is to say,
everybody feels that way.
I've given thousands of speeches, you still get nervous.
You are still apprehensive,
are you gonna connect with the audience?
Are they going to understand what you're saying?
And so I think for glamour women, you really do have to be
willing to practice,
just so you feel comfortable speaking up,
just so your voice will be heard.
The first woman prime minister of the United Kingdom,
as you know, Margaret Thatcher, she took voice lessons.
She worked on lowering her voice because the fact is
people pay more attention to more manly sounding voices
than higher voices.
So it's not something that people are just born with
you really have to work at it.
And I hope that your audience will not be so frightened
and the best way to overcome that fear is to think about it,
to imagine it, and then to practice.
- When you're talking about criticism
and you're saying to take it seriously and not personally,
which I think is a really important lesson.
Do you think you have this notion of
I'm just going to be very straight
because I'm not running for something
I'm not trying to be elected.
Is that something you're trying to get across
in the Masterclass?
- Well, it is.
And I tried to do that even during my career,
but it was a lot harder as you know
because when you're in the public eye,
you're going to get criticized.
And so therefore stop and think,
where is the criticism coming from?
And sometimes it comes from a good place,
but a lot of times it doesn't,
and you can't allow that to eat away at your confidence.
Now that doesn't mean wall yourself off from criticism
because sometimes a fair-minded critic
can be your best friend.
I mean, if someone says, you know, Sam, what about this?
Or why didn't Sam Barry do that?
Or Hillary Clinton, why didn't you think about that?
Well, maybe that's worth considering,
and you can learn something from it.
But there's so much toxicity right now in the public arena.
And social media has empowered so many people
who literally spend all day every day,
trying to tear other people down,
trying to attack them, insult them, diminish them.
You cannot let that control
who you are and what you want to do.
- And you talk as well about,
there were kind of the double bind that women are in
and ambition and sexism.
And we're seeing even recently an uptake in the stories
around female CEOs and their management style.
We've seen a lot of reports about the VPs management style.
Do you think some of those reports
are gendered and play into that double-bind?
- I really do, now again,
I'm not somebody who says all criticism is illegitimate,
I think again, you can learn things from criticism.
But when you look at the amount of coverage
that women receive for how they look, for their appearance,
for the tone of their voice, for their management style,
I mean, it just goes on and on.
It is gendered, it is part of that old double standard
where men are just not judged the same way.
- You talk about legacy at the end of the Masterclass.
What do you want your legacy to be?
And then also what's next in that legacy making
of Hillary Clinton?
- I don't think a lot about legacy
because I feel like I'm still very much in the present,
in the here and now.
I want to keep doing the work that I have been doing,
standing up for people, particularly children and women
in this country and around the world.
I want to keep speaking out to defend democracy,
stand against bullying, whether it's on the street,
against children online or in our government.
So I will probably be better able to answer that question,
in some years from now, because I don't want to look back.
I want to keep looking forward, Sam.
I think we're living at such a consequential time
and the pandemic has been so disorienting for most people.
How do we pick ourselves back up?
How do we, get back out into the world?
How do we support each other?
I mean, these are the questions that are on my mind and,
I want to keep being as useful and to live a life of purpose
for as long as I can.
- Thank you so much, Secretary Clinton
as always an absolute pleasure.
- Thank you.