CBS This Morning - Oprah Winfrey on love, friendship and philanthropy

So this show that's just getting underway nationally, it's going to do well. And if it doesn't, I will still do well. I will do well because I'm not defined by a show. You know, I think we are defined by the way we treat ourselves and the way we treat other people. It would be wonderful to be, you know, acclaimed as this talk show host who's made it, that would be wonderful. But if that doesn't happen, there are, you know, other important things in my life.

But I also feel the same way. That's exactly what I thought. I feel the same way about where I am right now with our network. I believe that it will work. As I said, I feel better about it than I ever have. I believe that people want to see television that is fun, that is entertaining, but that is also meaningful. What I want to do is to use it as a platform for transforming people's lives. That's why I'm in New York, to do Life Class. But if I see that that's not what the audience wants, then I will move on to the next thing. I literally, I mean, I will always be okay because I live in the center of myself.

Yeah, yeah. So what's Life Class? Life Class is, this is the reason why I did a network. It is an opportunity to bring some of the country's leading thought leaders. Tonight, it's Tony Robbins live on OWN, beginning at 9:00. But I'm also taping with Deepak Chopra, which will air the next week. And it's giving the audience around the world, so we are on Facebook, we're on Oprah.com, we're talking to people all over the world, twittering and taking their questions about what matters to them in life with people who can help them lead a better life. So they essentially drive, all these people from around the world are driving this Life Class.

People want to talk about their fears. They want to talk about letting go of anger. They want to talk about why they get stuck in life. They want to talk about why, you know, people really do know, even though we're in this, you know, electronic age where everybody's, you know, tweeting and all the time, people really do know that there is a loss of connection and that there is a deeper reason for being in the world. And I think every human being really ultimately wants to do what you all get to do here every day for yourselves, what I've been able to do in my life. What everybody wants is really to fulfill the highest expression of themselves. Everybody feels that, but isn't quite sure, how do I break the wall and get into living the best of myself, the stream of the best of myself.

I think innately there is a desire to connect more, because I think we all know that all of this isn't really real. No, we've been in the car, five people in a car, and we're all on the phone, nobody's talking to each other anymore. Does that happen to you?

Indeed, yes. Yes, I think that's, I think there needs to be, can I just talk about this? Friendship is very important. It is one of life's great things. This is friendship here, and she doesn't want me to talk about that, but I want you to talk about it.

She's going to cry. That's the executive producer. You know, I know who Chris is. Yes, I said to Chris this morning, Mr. Mickey, hello. He's the brainstorm behind all this. From, we've been friends since we were 21 and 22. 21 and 22. There is not a better human being in the world, as far as I'm concerned. She's going to become everybody's best friend on this morning show. I can see that. People are reacting. They say that to me in the streets about her.

That's why when she came to CBS, I was like, I am so happy for her. People are like, aren't you upset? I was just so happy for her. I knew this was where she was supposed to be. I think this is the combination, y'all. I think CBS has finally gotten it right.

No, you're not, because otherwise you wouldn't be here. You'd be like, okay, I don't want to go where they're not doing it right. The best of y'all. But I want to do, let's do Erica, that Shaquon, Julie. Yes, we do. So we have a little bit, so you just spoke with Shaquon Julie. This is just a heart story. Spoke with her last week. We have a little bit of that we want to play first.

I don't remember. You don't remember if he awakened you? You would have to remember that. You would have to remember whether your son awakened and knew that you were trying to kill him. Yeah, she's a mother from South Carolina. I remember that story. Got sentenced to 35 years without parole. Yeah, but the powerful thing is you were in the moment there. You showed compassion, but it also said to me that you weren't totally buying it. That's why I was so fascinated. You know, for me, I am always looking for, and have been since I was, you know, a young reporter in Baltimore, I've always been trying to look for what is the deeper meaning in every story. So as I'm talking to her, which isn't the first time I've talked to mothers who murdered their children, I'm thinking about everybody who's watching who's depressed. I'm thinking about everybody who's ever thought about taking their life or taking the life of somebody that they loved and making them come along with me. That's why I was so persistent and say, when you say I wanted them to go with me, go where? Let's think that through. Go. And what I kept trying to emphasize to her throughout the interview, even off tape, is that it's no longer really about you. The only reason to hear your story is that somebody can see themselves in you and be able to make a different choice for themselves. So that to me is ultimately, as I know you all do here on CBS, is the standard. Yes, the standard for interviewing. That's the point. It's not for us just to be voyeurs in other people's lives, but how can I use your story to open up the heart space for myself.

Building, be better. Could you use the word fixing? Fixing or building. As soon as I said fix, I was thinking building. No, but building, we're building a network, which is a huge demand on time. But you have a huge life as well.

You got a big old life and a big old house.

Right, that's true. It's exactly right. That is true. But are you going to, two things, politics and show business. Are you going to be out there supporting?

No, you're trying to build a network.

I'm also, but you know, I mean, I just say too, I, you know, when you say I, I mean my team, Sheri Salata, Erik Logan, and Discovery. You know, with all the stories about will Discovery support her, and they have been stellar. David Zaslav and the Discovery board has been 100% behind me. And this is what gets me, when I started, everybody said, everybody including Lorne Michaels said to me, it's going to take three to five years to get it right. And I said, even then, I go, well, I think we can do it in a couple. He go, no, it's going to take three to five years. And now I've been there literally eight months and everybody's like, what's going on? I say the same thing about it. We'll build this thing viewer by viewer by viewer by viewer.

But I also understand this. I also understand that because I had a 25-year reputation that I built, that there was a big expectation. And the one thing I didn't want to do, because I'd learned this, do I have time to tell this? 30 seconds, because I know how y'all say at the end, you got five seconds, which that's the one thing that makes me crazy.

No, no, go. Where were we? We got the... The one thing I knew was that, what I always knew, and I learned this lesson when I went to Baltimore and my name was on the back of every billboard and they did this whole big promo campaign. When I came to Chicago, I said to the management there, don't do any publicity. I just want to start and let it go word of mouth. And when we started with this network, I was the only person saying, let's not make it big, let's just start small. Let's not do a big, big, big, big thing because you set an expectation that you cannot live up to. It's better for people to have lower expectations for you to overdeliver rather than to underdeliver. Because you have 25 years and the company structure was set up that way. Nothing is small with your name, you know that. Nothing is small with you. I was saying, guys, let's just start small. Let's not do the big publicity. Let's just kind of come on the air and sort of build it. Next thing I know, I'm talking to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. I went, nothing small about that.

The academy. Well, this is the most exciting thing. Two of my girls were competing in the United Nations, the Model United Nations conference at Cornell this weekend. They were part of the South African debate team. And I'm telling you, to see girls who five years ago living in Soweto, living in villages, some of them carrying buckets of water on their head, now sitting at Cornell debating, debating about the Cambodian Civil War. Extraordinary.

Well, Stedman keeps reminding me of that too. He was saying, look at how hard the school was. It's actually sort of parallel because lots of people said it wouldn't work. You're 8,000 miles away, how are you going to do that? And there were times I wanted to give up on that too. There were many days that I said, if I had it to do over, I wouldn't do it that way. And the payoff is having girls now, 100% of the first class all going to colleges. And the guy who's here tomorrow, who, Stedman, oh, Stedman's here tomorrow, and he'll spend about an hour with me on my program. It's great to have you here. Continue. You just feel so much more relaxed than I thought. It's comfortable, right? So you could come back whenever you'd like. So relaxed. This is good. You guys are really doing great. Really great. I love the set. So whoever was in charge of that, could you please say hello to our crew. You know how we feel about a crew. We do have the world's greatest crew. Well, I would have to say that Gayle is the one person who over the years, she loves the crew. She can tell you the name of every crew member she's ever worked with since she started in Kansas City.

You will do that in person too. Would you like to throw to weather? Could you, would you like to do that?