Oprah says we're 'numb' to the world. She has an antidote | Exclusive - USA Today

Blame an unseasonably warm September day in New York City, but apparently, I'd gotten a little bit shiny. Before we roll cameras, she hugs me warmly, then goes to work with a tissue.

She does it in a way that makes me feel comfortable and cared for; only later does it strike me to be a little bit mortified.

That's the magic of Oprah Winfrey. She sees you, cares for you like a friend. As I watch a few other people come and go in her orbit that afternoon, every one of them says something like: "That was amazing." "I told her about my mom." "She let me take a photo." "That was bucket list." They walk out smiling, lighter, uplifted.

It's a rare gift to be able to not only energize people, but also change their perspective, tilt their view of the world and what's possible.

That's exactly what she hopes to do with a brand new, one-of-a-kind event called "Oprah Winfrey's AHA."

She's hosted live events before, such as The Life You Want Tour in 2014, and SuperSoul Sessions, which gathered thought leaders and cultural figures about purpose, wellness and mindfulness.

But while Winfrey, 72, will take the stage during the two-hour Las Vegas show, the experience will be completely different, she says. The one-weekend-only event (April 2-4) brings musical artists and visual storytellers together, and is designed to take guests on "a profound journey of wonder."

It's an extension of the mission she laid out on her television show that started 40 years ago this month: to help people "to understand the power they have to change their own lives."

Here's what inspired her latest big idea, how it fits her life's work, and who has the power to tell the Oprah Winfrey "no."

This interview has been edited and condensed.

You have created a television show, films, a magazine, an entire network. What is it about this experience at Sphere that allows you to do something none of those were able to do?

Oprah Winfrey: It's the culmination of all those things. I've said it and said it and said it – this allows for an opportunity to say it with some of the world's greatest collaborators who are the best in their field.

This is how it came about. I was at Sphere in Las Vegas, to see Bono and U2. Loved the concert, had a great time. And at one point I turned – I was seated next to Jim Dolan, who built the thing – and I said, "What is happening? Are we now outside? Is that the sun coming through the dome?" I couldn't figure out what was going on, and I could smell the sea.

And he was just like, "Calm down, it's going to be OK." I was literally a little disoriented because I wasn't prepared for [this] immersive experience.

[Afterward] I had this feeling as I stood there in silence, just sort of taking it all in: What if you could take people to the edge of space, and allow us to see our relationship to Earth and the stars, the galaxies, how enormous it is, and yet how small we are, and how miraculous it is that we have come from that? It was just a feeling I had.

It was very much like the first time I remember having that feeling: I was on my grandmother's porch, watching her hang clothes on a line. She was a domestic worker, and she'd brought the clothes home from her clients to boil in the backyard because we didn't even have a washing machine. No running water, no electricity. And I remember seeing her from through the screen door saying, "You, Oprah Gayle, you better pay attention and watch me now, because one day you're going to have to learn to do this for yourself."

And she's showing me how to get the clothes, and hold it up with the clothespin. And I just watched and I had that feeling, "No, I'm not. This will not be my life." Now that feeling also said to me, "Don't tell her because you gonna get a whipping if you say that out loud." [She laughs.]

That same feeling, that same calm – in a way, that's what it felt like.

Why do you think people need a sense of wonder right now?

Because that's how you are able to move yourself from confusion, exhaustion, being overwhelmed, being stuck.

People need wonder. They need joy to feel more alive.

And I think a lot of people are numbed. I think they're numb from their phones. They're numb from their work. They're plumb numb from what's going on in the world in the news.

Everybody's just shut down. So this is an opportunity to bring a sense of vibrancy and aliveness – not to preach or tell you anything that you don't already know. That's why it's called a-ha. Because every a-ha moment I've ever had or you've ever had has only been a reminder of what you already knew. "A-ha! I knew that, I just forgot it." It stirs something inside you to remind you of what you already knew.

And what I'm trying to remind people is that there is a light that we all carry. That each of us has a calling to do the work that we've come to do, and not be overwhelmed, but to be about the business that is truly your life and not get sucked into all the things that [people tell you should be] part of your life.

Your TV show debuted 40 years ago. In the very first episode, you said your mission was to show people that they have the power to change their own life.

How did you always have that certainty of vision? It came up even when you watched your grandmother hanging laundry. How did you protect and preserve that?

That feeling that I had watching my grandmother on the back porch was so strong. Even at 5 years old, I knew it was real and I started listening to it for other things. "Don't go there, go there." "You should do this." "No, you shouldn't join them after school, you're going to get yourself in trouble."

It was so strong, I could feel it. I knew it was saying, "This is not going to be your life." I was like, well, I like that idea!

I have been listening to that voice, that sense of intuition, my whole life. It was the thing that when my father said, "No daughter of mine's going to be an actress," I said, "OK, then I'll be a teacher."

And then I ended up getting a job in radio. And when I got the first call to be on television it said, "You got to do it. You should make that move [to Chicago]." It was a thing that said, "You've been in Baltimore long enough," even though everybody said I was going to fail.

The only person that said I wasn't was my friend Gayle [King]. But I just thought, "Oh, well you're my best friend." She goes, "I think you can beat Donahue." I go, "It's impossible." But I listened to the voice, even when WJZ in Baltimore offered me double the money, "We'll give you an apartment, we'll give you a new car, we'll give you this." That same feeling said, "You should go no matter what they offer you."

Whenever you innovate or change or do something different, people react. So you've faced criticism in your life. Have you felt misunderstood and how did you push through?

Many times. Let me share this with you. In the '90s, I started talking to the audience after every show. It started because I didn't want to sign autographs any more. And I thought, "What do I want to do? I want to talk to people about why they came and what's going on in their lives." And that's where we got all of our show ideas. I started at the 10th year just talking to the audience.

Women were sharing with me that they had done all the things: They'd gone to college. They'd had the kids. They'd had the white picket fence and got the Volvo. But they felt like something was missing.

And I started to say, there's a thread here. I thought people had lost their sense of self [because they'd] given everything to everybody else. How do you get your self back, and what is your "self"? It's the spirit of you, the soul of you. And we started a segment called "Remembering Your Spirit."

It was a tiny little thing. And it was the most misunderstood, misinterpreted. All the critics said I was trying to start my own church, preach to people. It wasn't that. It was just trying to stir the thing when people ask, "Is this all there is? What do I want? Why am I really here?"

It's the first time we started talking about purpose.

So yes, I was criticized. And I'm sure I will get some criticism for this [at Sphere], but I know it's the right thing to do in this moment.

You're doing this at a point in your life when a lot of people start to slow down. What do you say to people who think it's too late for reinvention or that the window has closed on a third or fourth act?

Until the last breath. You get to get it right, until the last breath. You keep trying. It's harder to transform when you're 72 and 82. It's harder because you're so set and stuck in your ways. But it's never too late to have an a-ha moment. It's never too late to be reminded of a part of yourself that you had forgotten, or that you had let go numb, or that you had neglected. It's never too late for that. Until your last breath.

You could do anything. Who is the person who tells you "no"? Or maybe, "that idea is a little crazy"? Is that Stedman [Graham, her longtime partner]? Is it Gayle [King, her lifelong friend and CBS Mornings cohost]?

It's Gayle and Stedman. And there's another guy. The person who tells me the truth the most is Bob Green. He used to by my quote "trainer," but he became my other best friend. He's the other best friend that people don't know. He's now business manager for me. He is the person that will say "no" quicker than anybody or will tell you, "You know, the emperor ain't go no clothes, go put something on."

We recently lost Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem. A lot of people are taking stock of their own lives and thinking about their legacy. When people eventually describe your legacy, what do you hope they understand that can't be captured by ratings or the awards or the influence? What do you hope they remember most?

I am not the least bit worried about legacy, because I learned the lesson from Maya Angelou when I opened my school in South Africa. I came back to her house to tell her, "Maya, this school is going to be my greatest legacy!" And Maya said, "You have no idea what your legacy is going to be. Your legacy is not your name on a building. And it may be what you do with the lives of these girls. But it's actually every life you have touched."

So how will I be remembered? I already know how I'm going to be remembered because there is not a place or a space, a restaurant or a beach, or a desert or a cave that I have ever gone to where I don't meet someone who either watched the show or their mother or grandmother watched the show. They came home from school, they were a latchkey kid. There's nowhere I have been on this planet where somebody hasn't come up to me and said, "I watched you, you did this for me."

I was at a restaurant in Capri, and a woman passed my table and said, "I am 55, and when I was 18 I was watching with my 16-year-old sister when you were talking about abuse, and I started crying. And then my sister started crying, and I said, 'What are you crying about?' And she said, 'Why are you crying?' And it was the first time either of us shared that we were being sexually molested by our stepfather. And together we had the courage to speak up after watching that show."

So now I'm standing in the restaurant and we're both crying. She said, "I have to thank you because it saved my life, because I became a different human being after that." I hear stories like that over and over and over again.

So I am very clear that what that show did is unparalleled. After 9/11, everybody was afraid of Muslims and we did a whole show with Muslim women in the audience and people were saying [with a sneer], "Why do you have to wear that on your head? And what is that called?" And by the end of the show, people who were accusing them were hugging them.

I'm very clear that the legacy is real, that's it's not one thing, it's every life you've touched.

So if you think of it in terms of the big thing that you're going to do, the money that you're going to leave, the building that's going to be named after you – it means nothing compared to every life you've touched. So no, I don't think about it. I know I've don't that. I have done that thing.

And it's the same for you. The gift that I have been given to obey the call of my life is everybody's gift. And you are only off track when you are obeying somebody else's call and not your own. But when you get to live in the calling that is your life, when you're able to follow that, lean into that and surrender to that, you get to live out the fullest expression of yourself as human being. And that's what I'm here to remind people of.

"Oprah Winfrey's AHA" is a collective of global artists including Grammy-winner Jacob Collier, poet Ocean Vuong, artist Es Devline and many others. Musical direction by Max Richter and directed by Ethan Tobman. Tickets start at $145 at ahalive.com. Official presale begins Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 1 pm ET. General on-sale begins Sept. 25 at 1 pm ET.