Friends from the Beginning cover art

Friends from the Beginning

The Berkeley Village That Raised Kamala and Me

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Friends from the Beginning

By: Stacey Johnson-Batiste
Narrated by: Nidra Sous la Terre
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 A vivid, intimate portrait of the friendship forged between Stacey Johnson Batiste and her childhood best friend, Vice President Kamala Harris—and of the community in which they were raised, and the lessons offered by those they loved and admired from childhood, through their teenage years, and up to the present day. Friendship Politicians Politics & Activism Relationships Women

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Growing Up Biden cover art
Tears of My Mother cover art
Growing Up X cover art
Legitimate Kid cover art
Everything Beautiful in Its Time cover art
Think You'll Be Happy cover art
Walk Through Fire cover art
Ten Doors Down cover art
Grace & Steel cover art
Stronger cover art
The Lighthouse Effect cover art
The Light Within Me cover art
Love & Courage cover art
Postcards from Cookie cover art
My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me cover art
Jojo cover art

Critic reviews

“It’s my honor to have known Stacey and her family (Robert, Doris, and Ronny) since Stacey was a young girl in Berkeley. FRIENDS FROM THE BEGINNING is an articulate, heartfelt story about Stacey and Kamala Harris from their childhood to adulthood. What a role model for generations to come!”—Eddie Henderson
"It indeed takes a village, and Stacey Johnson-Batiste's memoir of her coming of age with Kamala Harris in the 'Berkeley Village' of the sixties and seventies is a poignant, engaging look at the characters and the inclusive, progressive environment that shaped them both. Johnson-Batiste—whom Harris calls her 'best friend for life, from the beginning'—provides a unique window into the formative influences that shaped the nation's first female, first Black, and first Asian American vice president."—Jackie Calmes, Los Angeles Times national columnist and author of DISSENT: The Radicalization of the Republican Party and Its Capture of the Court

"A tender look at the author’s lifelong friendship with Kamala Harris, FRIENDS FROM THE BEGINNING is an earnest and affecting love letter to the girl who grew up to be vice president and the neighborhood of families who helped raised her."

—Lisa Dickey, New York Times bestselling author and ghostwriter
“An affectionate homage to a treasured friend.”—Kirkus
No reviews yet