Sarada Peri is a speechwriter and communications strategist. She was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Speechwriter for President Barack Obama. Prior to joining the White House, she was a Principal at West Wing Writers, where she worked with corporate, political and nonprofit clients on speechwriting, speech delivery, op-eds, books, and message strategy. She was also a member of the 2012 and 2016 Democratic National Convention speechwriting teams. As the political season heated up in the fall of 2015, the rhetoric against minorities and immigrants got ugly. Many people, including the White House, were concerned and even fearful. So when President Obama was asked to speak at a naturalization ceremony at the National Archives, we speechwriters saw an opportunity. On this episode she discusses the speech she wrote for President Obama and what it meant for her.