Ahead of her immersive Las Vegas experience, the media icon opens up about the inner voice that’s guided every major decision in her decades-long career.

Oprah Winfrey is once again proving that reinvention has no expiration date. The billionaire media mogul is bringing an all-new immersive experience to the Sphere in Las Vegas from April 2 through 4, and in a recent sit-down with USA TODAY’s Executive Editor of Entertainment Wendy Naugle, she opened up about the spark that pushed her toward this next chapter — and the one that’s guided her entire life.

How a Night at the Sphere Sparked Something New

Winfrey explained that the idea took shape during a concert at the venue last September, when she attended a show and found herself completely disoriented by the technology surrounding her. She described losing track of whether she was indoors or outdors, convinced she could even smell the ocean through the immersive visuals. While everyone around her celebrated the spectacle, Winfrey said she stood in stillness, struck by a bigger idea: using that same technology to help people grasp their place in the universe and reconnect with one another through shared wonder.

The Power of Intuition, From the Porch to the Boardroom

That feeling, Winfrey said, wasn’t new. She traced her lifelong reliance on gut instinct back to childhood, watching her grandmother — a domestic worker without running water or electricity — hang laundry on a line. Even at five years old, she said she felt a deep, unshakable certainty that a different life awaited her, despite being warned to keep such thoughts to herself. That same internal compass, she explained, later nudged her out of an extra role in film, into radio, then into television news, and eventually into daytime talk despite widespread predictions that she’d fail against an established competitor in Chicago. She said she trusted that instinct even when a rival station dangled a bigger salary, a new car and a free apartment to keep her from leaving.

Winfrey emphasized that this sense of intuition isn’t something rare or reserved for a select few — she believes everyone carries it, and the key is learning to actually listen.

Getting Misunderstood — and Pushing Through Anyway

Reinvention, Winfrey noted, has rarely come without backlash. She recalled introducing a talk-show segment in the 1990s focused on helping women reconnect with a sense of self beyond their careers and families. Critics at the time accused her of building a personal religion or preaching at her audience, she said, when her real intent was simply to get viewers questioning whether there was more to life than checking boxes. She pointed to that era as proof that even well-intentioned innovation can be misread — and that pushing forward anyway is part of staying true to a calling.

Winfrey also pushed back on the idea that reinvention has an age limit. She acknowledged that change gets harder with time, since people become more set in their patterns, but insisted it’s never too late for a breakthrough moment of clarity.

Legacy, Measured in Lives, Not Landmarks

Asked how she hopes to be remembered following the recent deaths of Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem, Winfrey said she isn’t worried about her legacy at all — because she says she already knows what it is. She credited a conversation with the late Maya Angelou for reshaping her perspective, recalling how Angelou dismissed the idea that a school Winfrey built in South Africa would stand as her greatest achievement, insisting instead that true legacy lives in every person whose life was touched along the way.

Winfrey shared that she’s encountered that truth constantly, from strangers around the world crediting her decades-old broadcasts with helping them leave abusive relationships, return to school or find the courage to speak up about trauma. That impact, she said, is worth far more than any building bearing her name.

Her message today remains largely unchanged from four decades ago: everyone has a purpose to fulfill, and living it out fully — rather than getting swept up in distractions — is what makes a life well spent.

Source: USA Today