LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Oprah Winfrey had a vision. She was at a U2 concert at the venue known as Sphere in Las Vegas. The band was on stage, but the real show was happening on the walls and even the ceilings. It's all one big digital screen at Sphere. It's an overwhelming experience - the images, the sounds, the sensory overload - as it wraps around you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FADEL: Oprah felt inspired to create something of her own for that space. It'll be called "AHA," and it's coming to Sphere in April.
OPRAH WINFREY: At the end of the U2 concert, I just stood there saying, what just happened here? I, at one point, thought I was outside, but I wasn't outside, so I was looking up and around like that wasn't the sun coming through. Although it was so bright, it felt like the sun. And I just stood there quietly. And this feeling came over me, like, oh, you could use this place to take people to the edge of space. I can see shooting stars. I can see the Earth in the distance. And the experience of it is what I want people to feel and allow people to see our lives in relation to the whole universe.
FADEL: Walk me through what "AHA" is, 'cause it's not a talk show, and it's not exactly a musical. Like, what is the experience?
WINFREY: So I'm going for 100% of what the Sphere can do. And it is a visual, immersive experience into nature, into awe, into wonder, into - we're filming right now - scenes around the world. My goal and role throughout life has been to use storytelling, using the mechanism, all those years of the show, to show people to themselves, to allow other people's stories to mirror yours so that you can find hope. You can find survival. You can find triumph, victory, joy in other people's stories. So I know how to do that myself, but the idea of combining with some of the world's most fantastic creators.
I mean, Max Richter. So from the moment you walk into Sphere, you will hear Max Richter's incredible musical accompaniment. Jacob Collier, who I had seen at a Wonder seminar, turning audiences into their own performers - Jacob Collier is also going to join us. I mean, it's a light show, a music show, a visual show, a meditative show. I am trying to remind us all, our relationship to one another, our kindness to one another, our sense of shared values that we hold is what's really more important to us in this time than ever before.
FADEL: I've heard you talk about having an internal GPS and how every time you've made these big decisions, even when people tell you, don't do that, you're going to fail, you've been obedient to that internal GPS. Is this a moment like that...
WINFREY: Yeah.
FADEL: ...For you?
WINFREY: I feel that. The reason I feel so intentional about it and that I didn't know how it would turn out, but I believed it was the right direction for me is because I had this feeling when I was a little girl standing on the back porch, watching my grandmother hang out close on the line that I wasn't going to be living in Kosciusko, Mississippi, my whole life. And then...
FADEL: Yeah.
WINFREY: I remember being in Baltimore, and all my bosses in 1983 told me I would fail if I left for Chicago, that if I accepted that job...
FADEL: Oh, wow.
WINFREY: Every single person told me I was going to fail.
FADEL: They were wrong.
WINFREY: Yeah. My point is I felt like this. I didn't know how I was going to do it. So I feel that we're certainly on the right track. And now that I've got people paying to come to actually sit in the seats, I feel both excited and a little nervous.
FADEL: (Laughter).
WINFREY: A little - like, ay, ay, OK.
FADEL: So you still get nervous?
WINFREY: I normally don't.
FADEL: Yeah.
WINFREY: But you know what?
FADEL: This is something new.
WINFREY: Leila, you don't get nervous until you're stepping out of your box. I'm not stepping out of my box. I'm stepping out into the Sphere. OK. So on that night, I will probably be nervous, I will have to say.
FADEL: Yeah. Oprah Winfrey, she's putting together a show called "AHA" at Sphere in Las Vegas for the weekend of April 2 through the 4. Oprah, thank you so much. What a joy.
WINFREY: Leila, thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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