Usha Vance launches podcast ‘Storytime with the Second Lady’
In an interview with NBC News, second lady Usha Vance spoke about her relationship with the vice president.
Second lady Usha Vance gets naked.
From motherhood to disagreements with Vice President J.D. Vance, Usha Vance got candid about aspects of “everyday life” in an exclusive interview with NBC News.
She said that although the couple doesn’t always agree on every issue, the “candid” conversations that disagreements spark are “always very productive” and provide “meaningful input” from the perspective of those who love him and want him to succeed.
“I’m not on his staff,” Usha Vance said. “I’m not involved in this in a professional sense. … We can’t expect to see eye to eye on everything.”
In addition to her role as her husband’s trusted advisor, the second spouse has taken on a new role as a podcaster.
Usha Vance’s podcast “Storytime with the Second Lady,” which launched on March 30, “is designed to inspire a lifelong love of reading” in young people.
The inspiration for starting the pod came from her own experience teaching her three children to read, but Vance also cited “alarming” statistics about declining literacy rates, especially among children, as a driving force.
“If I’m going to do anything, this is what I need to focus on right now,” Vance said. “There are a lot of things people can do at home without huge resources or effort.”
Usha Vance says her podcast is ‘really for kids’
Vance’s children will be invited to participate as “special readers” in the podcast studio they helped design and decorate and read children’s books aloud.
Each episode features a different reader and ranges from 10 to 15 minutes depending on the interaction.
According to the second woman, the target audience for the podcast is children in late pre-school to early elementary school. The first three episodes are available to stream on YouTube and Spotify.
Vance was the first reader to read “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” followed by racing legend Danica Patrick and Paralympic athlete Brent Poppen.
“This is really a podcast just for kids,” Vance told NBC News. “The concept is to have someone come in, what we call a special reader, and read a fun book and have a very short, short conversation about something related to the book, maybe about the person’s career, or about someone who has some kind of interesting background.”
“And we encourage kids to pick up the books themselves. It’s kind of like a reading promotion,” Vance added.
A book club run by Costco that is essential to daily life
Vance, who is pregnant with her fourth child, works to maintain a sense of normalcy for herself and her family despite the uproar. Costco operations and book clubs are part of that effort, Vance said.
“We get all of our favorite things. They choose their lunchbox items from there. It’s kind of a family tradition,” she said. “It’s the kind of thing you don’t want to let go of when you have a family life and move to a place like Naval Observatory.”
Vance also said that sometimes she just does normal things like run to the grocery store or the library because “people don’t recognize me that much.”
“But most of the time, that’s all I can do,” Vance said. “And I try not to be afraid to go out. And I’m always pleasantly surprised.”
