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43 - Sister Megan Rice and Malala Yousafzai
45 Plays28 days ago
This week, Jeff and Sam bring you the stories of two fearless women who took on the world in their own ways.
📖 Jeff tells the story of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist who survived an assassination attempt at age 15 and went on to become a global advocate for education and the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in history.
✊ Sam shares the story of Sister Megan Rice, an 82-year-old nun and activist who, along with two fellow protesters, broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee in an act of civil disobedience against nuclear weapons. Their protest was described as "the biggest security breach in the history of the nation's atomic complex."
Enjoy.
🎧 Visit us on Linktree for all the links, Instagram, or email us at downtherabbitholepod@gmail.com.
🔗 Sources:
Jeff's Sources:
- Malala Yousafzai's Nobel Lecture
- I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban – Malala Yousafzai & Christina Lamb
Sam's Sources:
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Jeff Rogers
Hello, Sam. Hi, Jeffrey.
00:00:24
Jeff Rogers
This is Down the Rabbit Hole with Jeff and Sam. I'm Jeff. And I'm Sam. Hey, Sam. Hi, Jeff. How are you? I'm well. How are you? Long time no see. It's been a while, yeah. And long time, I mean 48 hours.
00:00:36
Jeff Rogers
forty eight hours
00:00:39
Jeff Rogers
24, 48, 36. Yeah. yeah That's a long time in our world. It is. It is. Thank you for listening, folks. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Amazon, if you choose. Spread the word.
00:00:54
Jeff Rogers
And you can also find us on Instagram at downtherabbitholdepod. And you can reach out to us on Gmail at downtherabbitholdepod at gmail.com. And we are going to be here for you every Thursday from here on out, as we always say, and a few Mondays.
00:01:11
Jeff Rogers
Every other Monday, every Monday, every third Monday. Whenever we're feeling frisky. Whenever we're feeling frisky, you're going to get an episode on Mondays.
Listener Reactions and Food Stories
00:01:21
Jeff Rogers
Real quick.
00:01:22
Jeff Rogers
See. So, Kim texted me, my sister, texted me and said, oh my god, I'm listening to Monday's episode of the podcast.
00:01:35
Jeff Rogers
You and Sam are catching up on your weekends, mainly about food. You're telling Sam about your messy Diablo burger. You mentioned what was going on and saying, it was so good.
00:01:46
Jeff Rogers
And Sam softly saying, it makes my stomach royal. Made my butt clench a little bit. With your...
00:01:54
Jeff Rogers
With your soft podcast voices and descriptions of the food, I was crying laughing because it reminded me of the Molly Shannon and Anna Gasteyer skit from Saturday Night Live, Spuddy Balls.
00:02:06
Jeff Rogers
yeah
00:02:09
Jeff Rogers
She called me and told me that. And then I said, ta text me that. Like, send me a text with that in it so i can read it because that, I was laughing so hard. She said, you guys were just missing the hypersexual innuendos.
00:02:22
Jeff Rogers
We tried that one time and it was horrible. It was horrific. And I'll honest to God when she said that i was laughing so hard. And I don't even remember like I remember a little bit of the conversation about the Diablo burger.
00:02:35
Jeff Rogers
But then you say it makes my stomach royal. And then and it made my butt clench a little bit. That's so funny. and then she said how hot it is. That cheese was hot.
00:02:46
Jeff Rogers
Well and you put extra jalapenos on it. And so I was like oh
00:02:53
Jeff Rogers
Shreddy balls. Shreddy balls. That was hilarious, Kim. Thank you for that. Honestly, i cringe whenever somebody says I say something or we said something. I'm like, God, what did I say? Truly. That one just made me laugh.
00:03:08
Jeff Rogers
Well, yeah. And I mean, we have said this many times before, but as soon as we stop recording, we forget what we've talked about, um what we told stories about. So when you guys reach out to us or say something to us at work or something, just keep in mind that we have no idea what you're talking about, but we're glad that you're entertained.
00:03:27
Jeff Rogers
I often know if you're approaching me with that look on your face, it's something that I've said maybe. And so I just kind of smile. I'm like, oh, God, I hope it's good. hope it's good. Or when somebody says they've listened to the show, I'm like, oh they know that I'm crazy.
00:03:44
Jeff Rogers
ah Yeah. Yeah.
Personalities and Plans
00:03:45
Jeff Rogers
You know, you do a really good job of hiding it and pretending at work. Thank you. But you just, you yeah. It's exhausting. It's exhausting.
00:03:54
Jeff Rogers
i don't do that. You don't. You just put it all out there for the whole world's sake. I am who I am. This is me. Some might say. You look cute. You got a nice shirt on. Well, because we have a fancy date tonight. we have a fancy date tonight. We're going to do a talent.
00:04:08
Jeff Rogers
I don't even know if we want to talk about food anymore.
00:04:12
Jeff Rogers
You just stopped mid-word, not even mid-sentence, just mid-word. We're having Italian food. Which is my happy place. It is your happy place. And then we're going go see Anora.
00:04:26
Jeff Rogers
Honestly, it's one of those movies that won everything at the Oscars, so I'm half expecting to hate it. But I kind of think we're going to like it. I don't know. Usually whenever there's a movie that wins so many awards for the Oscar, you watch it you're like... Disappointment. What was that about, really? How did that win?
00:04:44
Jeff Rogers
Who? So anyway, that's our plan for the night night. That is our plan for the night. It's going
Work Challenges and Costco Adventures
00:04:48
Jeff Rogers
to lovely night. And you know what? It's Saturday. I didn't even realize that. I am working an overtime shift tomorrow. yeah Kayla was originally working Sunday, but we switched and I was supposed to work Saturday.
00:05:03
Jeff Rogers
I texted her at 10 o'clock this morning thinking it was Friday. and I was like, hey, what day am I working? am I working Saturday? Thinking, okay, well, if it's Saturday, then phew, good. I have whole like night.
00:05:14
Jeff Rogers
you know After the fact, I was like, wait second. that It's 10 a.m. m So if I was supposed to be working on Saturday, I'd be screwed. like When you're a nurse and you do nothing but 12-hour shifts, you don't even know what day of the week it is.
00:05:30
Jeff Rogers
Yeah. Well, especially because for me, my shifts start on one day and end on the next. so
00:05:38
Jeff Rogers
And Thursdays are just like Saturdays. They are. I mean, but better because when we're off on the weekday, it's so much less crowded in any touristy place I've ever lived.
00:05:49
Jeff Rogers
Weekdays are the days to do anything you want to do because the whole horde of people haven't you know arrived for the tourist stuff yet. Not even just that, just the basic daily living things, you know, like going to Costco or the grocery store. You can do it at 10 a.m. on a Thursday and not be fighting the entire crowd of people that are trying to buy for the week, right? I went to a Costco when I lived in Hawaii.
00:06:14
Jeff Rogers
It was, I think, my first time ever going to a Costco.
00:06:19
Jeff Rogers
There's two on the island of Oahu, I think. I think there's two. There's one out on the west side and there's one in Honolulu. I went to the one on the west side and i was like, what in the hell is this? It was so crowded.
00:06:34
Jeff Rogers
People were offering you food on every turn. There was somebody offering you food. Well, and then you went. i thought That was the last time you had gone. You haven't been since then. And you you went on a Saturday.
00:06:46
Jeff Rogers
here and i remember i think you called me or you text me afterwards and i was like i am so overwhelmed i don't know what just happened to that was insane yeah there was actually a post about that recently that i will share with you off go to costco on monday morning or wednesday morning wednesday morning not saturday morning no never that was just mistake that was just mistake never will do that one again there yeah You learn.
00:07:16
Jeff Rogers
Look at you. Hey, um there's a guy named Porus. I'll just keep it with his last name. Let's feed his ego a little bit. Should we?
00:07:26
Jeff Rogers
I don't think so. Do you think that ego needs feeding? No. No. No, he's got a big ego. Anyway, he's leaving us. He is. He's going to go be a flight paramedic.
00:07:38
Jeff Rogers
Oh, yay. Poor us. That's so cool. Oh, we're so excited. Twat. But we love you, Porus. We do. We'll miss you.
00:07:49
Jeff Rogers
Yes. I told him we would give him shit on this record. so there's your shit, buddy. But he's one of those people that always
Listener Interactions and TV Show Recommendations
00:07:56
Jeff Rogers
listens to every show. And then he comes back to me and he says the crazy shit that I've said.
00:08:00
Jeff Rogers
And he points it out to me. Yes, he has done that to me as well. And... He said something one time and I was like, wait, what? And then um the I think it was like so one of the last stories that I did.
00:08:18
Jeff Rogers
Not the last one, but one of the last was Virginia Hall and b Brian. My Brian. Your Brian. Sam's Brian. Who I don't know, but I'm going to thank you, Brian.
00:08:30
Jeff Rogers
I've known Brian since we were Wee Tots. Okay, well Brian didn't know it, but he gave me the idea. No, he didn't give me the idea. Brian, I'm really sorry about that because on that same episode, we were talking about how we weren't getting recommendations and yeah little did I know that we were getting recommendations.
00:08:48
Jeff Rogers
But Brian reaches out to me and says, hey, like basically screw you. I told you to do Virginia Hall months ago and sure as shit. I looked in my messages and it was in there from December.
00:09:00
Jeff Rogers
Brian. You know Sam very well. Yeah. I know Sam very well. Yeah. And we both know she's horrible with the phone and the text messages. She will have a conniption fit if she looks at somebody's phone and sees 100 emails unread, sends her over the edge to a place I don't even recognize. It's horrible.
00:09:19
Jeff Rogers
She has probably right now 87 unread text messages. I don't know. Just guessing. So Brian... I hope I did Virginia Hall proud for you. Wait, I only have 42.
00:09:31
Jeff Rogers
But I leave them unread. You have half of what I said. But I leave them unread because i want to remember to go back and read them. But the problem is is that I leave them unread and then I forget to go read them. and then when I look at all the notifications,
00:09:46
Jeff Rogers
And to all the people we're involved in group text messages with, sometimes I reply on behalf of the both of us because I'm Vince. Vince, Ashley, Alan, Kathy, everyone. Sorry. I'm replying on behalf of Sam.
00:09:59
Jeff Rogers
As Brittany says, we are one. and So ah will feel obligated to say this is for me and Sam. So yeah there's that. What else do we have?
00:10:11
Jeff Rogers
um but I told you that I started watching a new show. yeah. yeah I can't wait. The medicine is actually really good. And you know ah that I love that. um The only other show that does medicine right is The Fall.
00:10:27
Jeff Rogers
um But this one, it's the it's called The Pit. It's on...
00:10:35
Jeff Rogers
something. I don't know. The pit. The pit. Easy to find. It's like the new age version of yeah ER. r Um, The one thing that they don't do correctly, and I have yet to see a show that does this correctly, they don't put their stethoscope in correctly. They put it in facing the wrong That's an easy tell right there. Always.
00:10:56
Jeff Rogers
But everything else is so good. um But the show is good. I had a patient one time tell me I was putting it in wrong. i was like You watched too much Grey's Anatomy. Yeah, you watched too much Grey's Anatomy. Yeah. Yep.
00:11:06
Jeff Rogers
um But I think you would like it. it's I mean, i'm I've only watched a couple of episodes, but it's... The life in the ER, it's the interactions between the nurses and the docs and um it's pretty daggone accurate. It's a very busy yeah ER r in Pittsburgh and it's good so far.
00:11:27
Jeff Rogers
uh i'm watching criminal minds evolution which is okay so my mom god rest her soul when she was alive she was obsessed with the show criminal minds i love that show obsessed with that show and law and order i hate that so do sound oh god that just is like post-traumatic for me i love it wehe anyway so she would watch criminal minds law and order like on repeat all the time And I love Criminal Minds.
00:11:56
Jeff Rogers
So I didn't realize there was a 16th season and a 17th season. Pandemic. Pandemic. This was post-pandemic. Yeah. 2022. Yeah.
00:12:05
Jeff Rogers
Garcia is back on the show. I'm obsessed with Garcia and she so reminds me of Ashley because I don't, I'm not good at snooping around or trying to find something about a certain person, but Ashley, I'm stalking. Yes. It's a gentle way saying stalking. She said it. I didn't actually, I'll be like, Hey, Garcia, that's my Garcia is Ashley. I'll say, can you find this?
00:12:28
Jeff Rogers
Or look this person up. Oh, so you stalk by proxy. Absolutely. There's no shame in that. Always by proxy. There you go. As long as you can can't get connected to you. And then I want to shout out Cassidy, Casey, and Emma, who are my cousins down in Alabama. I just love them.
00:12:49
Jeff Rogers
And they had a birthday party thing for my dad last night, and I wish I could have been there.
Vacation Plans and Online Humor
00:12:55
Jeff Rogers
But my nephew Landon was with his cousin, and I have to show you this picture.
00:13:04
Jeff Rogers
So Landon is with his cousin, John Taylor. First of all, this is the whole clan right there. And swipe over. Yeah.
00:13:16
Jeff Rogers
And you see the gingers. That's so ginger. that is Those are redheads. Aren't they cute? So who's this one? That's John Taylor. That's Casey's son. Okay.
00:13:28
Jeff Rogers
And he's adorable. He's real cute. Oh, and the eyes. Look at those big blue eyes. Uh-huh. Yep. So that was last night. That's so sweet. Yeah, I just wanted to shout them out because they're cool. They're amazing. Hopefully I'll see them soon.
00:13:47
Jeff Rogers
You know what i realized? What? By the time this episode comes out, i will, well, when it actually drops, I'll still be at work. However, just a few short hours later, i will be on a beach in Aruba. Oh, good for you.
00:14:00
Jeff Rogers
um one thing that i'm flying there are you what driving thought it was like a cruise no no that's in july oh that's not to aruba though but yes i'm flying to aruba are you swimming to aruba honestly cruise didn't even cross my mind i was like i guess what i get there you gonna swim there honey know it i support you do love the water um I don't spend a lot of time... Checking texts.
00:14:33
Jeff Rogers
Well, okay, we've already crossed that one. Oh, sorry. um I don't spend a lot of time on my phone, really, period. yeah And you know how people doom scroll? I don't doom scroll. yeah I do have Instagram.
00:14:44
Jeff Rogers
But last night, I don't know what it was. I guess last night was my night to maybe doom scroll for a minute. And I spent five solid minutes laughing hysterically at some of the things that were on there because they were...
00:14:59
Jeff Rogers
about, i guess I follow a bunch of ADHD pages. i don't know why, but squirrel they, um, They were too funny. And then also i saw this picture of a cow that had been washed and blow dried. And oh my God. The dumbest stuff that entertains If you haven't seen it, fucking to. I think you sent it to me. Did you send it to me? Probably.
00:15:25
Jeff Rogers
it was so good. You also sent me that Irish horror movie. Doesn't it look great? Yes. Okay. so Absolutely. He's talking about the the first... um Let me see if I can pull it up.
00:15:38
Jeff Rogers
Your message. The first movie. Where are you?
00:15:44
Jeff Rogers
The first ever Irish language horror film. Yeah. It's actually, i don't know what it's called. does it say Oh, it's called The Ghost, but in the Irish language, that's on Topsy.
00:16:00
Jeff Rogers
And it looks. So it's not going to be in theaters. Oh, is that a question? i don't know. You said something on Topsy? No, no, no. that's the name That's what ghost is in Irish.
00:16:12
Jeff Rogers
Oh, yeah I thought that was a streaming service. No. On Topsy.
Animal Nicknames and Dinner Anticipation
00:16:17
Jeff Rogers
was like, I'm not signing up for a streaming service called On Topsy. I mean, i would I would sign up for an Irish streaming service.
00:16:24
Jeff Rogers
God, love that accent. You know, i've already got the BritBox. Yeah, so do I. I think I've seen everything on BritBox. I think I've exhausted it. um I want to share just this quick little nugget with you, and I'm going to try and make it heard on here because it's something just to make people happy for a moment. It's for existing things.
00:16:47
Jeff Rogers
Stingray, sea pancake. Crocodiles, murder one. Flies and bugs, sky raisins. Bees, spicy sky raisins.
00:16:59
Jeff Rogers
Penguin business coosers.
00:17:16
Jeff Rogers
a brick should be called a danger pez ah that's funny it's true oh god kangaroos are veloci rabbits so that was one of the things that just had me laughing so hard last night thought i would share it because but that's a good version of doom scrolling right I guess. I mean, i that's all I... There's so much bad doom scrolling lately.
00:17:39
Jeff Rogers
It's good to find the happy ones. Yeah. Okay, should we do this thing? Let's do it. We chatted for 17 minutes. Oh, shit. Time goes by, right? It does. Okay, what are you drinking? I am drinking bubbly coconut apple.
00:17:55
Jeff Rogers
And am drinking a bubbly blueberry pomegranate. Ooh.
00:18:02
Jeff Rogers
It's going to blow up. Watch out. I'm just kidding. So funny. I know.
00:18:09
Jeff Rogers
And then we got to go eat. Got to go eat some Italian food. Italian. ah Italian. I'm from Alabama. You do. It's ah Italian. um Okay.
00:18:21
Jeff Rogers
Now we cheers quiz. Cheers quiz.
00:18:28
Jeff Rogers
Okay. And now this is the point. How is it?
00:18:33
Jeff Rogers
That's delicious. Oh, my God. This is so good. Very refreshing. That's really good. Bubbly coconut pineapple. Bubbly.
00:18:43
Jeff Rogers
Does it taste like a beach vacation? It tastes a little bit like a coconut and a little bit like pineapple. Wow. Yeah. Aruba.
00:18:54
Jeff Rogers
And a little bit like vacation. And a little bit like aruba. Can't wait. Okay. Now we pick a coin. so Yes. Sat. so
00:19:04
Jeff Rogers
Oh, we got one of Kelsey's coins that she did one of her magic art projects. I don't even know what this is called. I would say engraving, but I don't think that's right. On one side, we have a zombie nurse. And on the other side, we have a cool dill pickle. Oh, here's the dill. you know, i love a dill pickle. You do love yourself a dill pickle. I do. You're to be the pickle, obviously. Okay.
00:19:32
Jeff Rogers
It's the pickle. You, for two weeks in a row, have not dropped a coin. And that was as big as your hand. No, you just jinxed it. It's going to happen Pressure's on. I take no responsibility. Okay. This one you're going to know.
00:19:44
Jeff Rogers
And I wrote the intro so that you could tell me who it was. Oh, God. you know No, no, no. It's no pressure. It's no pressure. But I know that you know I was reading this book. It's not my girl.
00:19:56
Jeff Rogers
Don't worry. Okay. But it's a strong-ass woman because it's still March, okay? Oh, it is still. Oh, my. And then oftentimes when I've seen this person on TV, I will stop and watch an interview with her because I think she's so remarkable, okay?
00:20:17
Jeff Rogers
All right. Phones on focus. Okay.
The Inspiring Story of Malala Yousafzai
00:20:22
Jeff Rogers
So when she closes her eyes, she can still see her bedroom. It's an unmade bed, hopeful fluffy bankt blanket messed up on the bed.
00:20:30
Jeff Rogers
It's like a dream. She had to rush out for school because she was late for class. She sees the school schedule opened up on her desk, and it's open to October 2012. She had her uniform on.
00:20:42
Jeff Rogers
She can also hear the other kids in the neighborhood playing cricket in the alley and a hum from the bazaar down the street. And if she listens closely, she can hear Safina tapping on the wall they share.
00:20:54
Jeff Rogers
Safina's wanting to tell her secrets because they're best friends and they live next door to each other. She smells rice cooking as her mom works away in the kitchen. Her brothers are fighting over the TV remote, arguing over whether they want to watch WWE Smackdown or cartoons.
00:21:11
Jeff Rogers
You know, the big stuff. Soon her father would call out to her in her nickname, Johnny, which means dear one. Her dad would ask how school is going. She went to Cushaw School for Girls, which her dad founded.
00:21:26
Jeff Rogers
you know? When you know, you know. You know. That morning that she is remembering October 9th, 2012 is the morning that she had to leave her beloved country of Pakistan.
00:21:39
Jeff Rogers
She left home. She left a home that she loved. She left trophies on her bookcase, among other things. Someone else lives in that home now. And now when she opens her eyes, she's in a new bedroom.
00:21:51
Jeff Rogers
It's in a chilly place called Birmingham, England. The house has large rooms, shiny wooden floors. It's full of furniture. It's also really quiet. No women downstairs chopping veggies and cooking rice and gossiping gossiping with her mom.
00:22:06
Jeff Rogers
No men downstairs smoking cigarettes and debating politics. She can hardly even hear through the walls because the walls are so thick. But oftentimes she can hear someone one from the family crying for home.
00:22:19
Jeff Rogers
Then her dad will come to the front door and say, Johnny, how was school? But now there's a hint of worry in his voice because he's afraid she won't be there to reply because of what happened before.
00:22:32
Jeff Rogers
Because before she was nearly killed. She was nearly killed simply for speaking out about her right to go to school. She was 15 in the ninth grade in Mangora, Pakistan.
00:22:43
Jeff Rogers
She had stayed up too late studying for school. It's 7.30 and she's late, so she's hurrying. And her mom nudges her, wake up, she said. She gulped down some food. Her youngest brother was complaining about her. He said he was just complaining on and on about it that morning. And her dad said, well, when she's prime minister, one day you can be her secretary.
00:23:03
Jeff Rogers
He said that to the brother. She got ready. She jumped on the truck or the bus with her other friends and off to school they went. It was oddly quiet in Mangora that day.
00:23:13
Jeff Rogers
That's where she lived. She made it to school. She passed her exams. For days, though, she had this strange feeling that something bad was going to happen. She was with her friend, Monoba, Moniba, when they got on the bus to go home and they were gossiping. The bus driver was the usual bus driver that they had.
00:23:34
Jeff Rogers
He always had a magic trick to make them smile, make them laugh. And there were 20 girls on the bus, two teachers, They headed down Haji Baba Road, a few women in beautiful flowing gowns, men on scooters, honking and zigzagging.
00:23:48
Jeff Rogers
They passed this little store, and there was a bend in the road, and the bus came to a stop. She said to Moniba, it's so calm today. Where all the people?
00:23:59
Jeff Rogers
She doesn't remember anything after that, but this is the story that was told to her. Two young men in white robes stepped in front of the bus, got onto the bus, and said, Is this Kushal Bus School?
00:24:11
Jeff Rogers
The bus driver laughed because the name of the school was written on the side of the bus. Another man jumped onto the back of the bus. He looked at all the students and he yelled, Who is Malala?
00:24:22
Jeff Rogers
Nobody said anything, not one word. But a few of the girls looked at Malala. They were scared for her. The man raised his arm up, pointed toward Malala.
00:24:32
Jeff Rogers
Some of the girls screamed, and she squeezed Moniba's hand. This is the story of Malala Yousafzai. i can love this book. It's incredible.
00:24:44
Jeff Rogers
she's She's brilliant, this human. Malala was born July 12, 1997 in Mangora, which is the largest city in Swat Valley.
00:24:55
Jeff Rogers
She describes Swat Valley as a heavenly place full of mountains, flowing waterfalls, and clear lakes, with a sign at the entrance to Swat Valley that read, Welcome to Paradise. She's the daughter of Ziardin and Tor Pekai Yusef Zai, and she has two brothers.
00:25:13
Jeff Rogers
At a very young age, Malala developed a thirst for knowledge. For years, her father, a passionate education advocate himself, ran a learning institution in the city, a school that was a big part of Malala's family.
00:25:25
Jeff Rogers
She later wrote that her father told her stories about how when she was a little toddler, she would toddle into the classes even before she could talk and acted as if she were the teacher. In 2007, when Malala was 10 years old, the situation in Swat Valley rapidly changed for her family and for her community.
00:25:45
Jeff Rogers
The Taliban began to control the Swat Valley and quickly became the dominant socio and political force throughout much of northwestern Pakistan. Girls were banned from attending school and cultural activities like dancing and watching television were prohibited.
00:26:01
Jeff Rogers
Suicide attacks were widespread and the group made its opposition to a proper education for girls a cornerstone of their terror campaign. By the end of 2008, the Taliban had destroyed some schools.
00:26:15
Jeff Rogers
Determined to go to school, with a firm belief in her right to an education, Malala stood up to the Taliban. With her father at her side, Malala quickly became a critic of their tactics.
00:26:26
Jeff Rogers
How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to an education, she once said on Pakistani TV. In 2009, Malala started to blog anonymously on the Urdu language site of the BBC.
00:26:42
Jeff Rogers
She wrote about life in the Swat Valley under Taliban rule and about her desire to go to school. Using the name Gol Makai, she described being forced to stay home and she questioned the motives of the Taliban.
00:26:55
Jeff Rogers
Malala was 11 years old when she wrote her first BBC diary entry under the blog I Am Afraid. She described her fear of a full-blown war in a beautiful Swat Valley and her nightmares about being afraid to go to school because of the Taliban.
00:27:10
Jeff Rogers
Pakistan's war with the Taliban was fast approaching and on May the 5th, 2009, Malala became an internally displaced person, an IDP, after having been forced to leave her home and seek safety hundreds of miles away.
00:27:25
Jeff Rogers
On her return after weeks of being away from Swat Valley, Malala once again began to use the media and continued her public campaign for her fight to go to school. Her voice grew louder and over the course of the next three years, she and her father became known throughout Pakistan for their determination to give the Pakistani girls access to free quality education.
00:27:48
Jeff Rogers
Her activism resulted in a nomination to the International Children's Peace Prize in 2012. That same year, she was awarded the pakistani our Pakistan's National Youth Peace Prize, but not everyone supported and welcomed her campaign to bring about that change in Swat Valley.
00:28:06
Jeff Rogers
On the morning of October 9, 2012, a 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban. Seated on a bus headed home from school, Malala was talking with her friends about schoolwork.
00:28:18
Jeff Rogers
Two members of the Taliban stopped the bus. A young bearded Talib asked for Malala by name, fired three shots at her. One of the bullets entered her head and it exited her head and went down into her shoulder.
00:28:31
Jeff Rogers
Malala was seriously wounded. That same day, she was airlifted to a Pakistani military hospital in Peshawar and four days later to an intensive care unit in Birmingham, England.
00:28:43
Jeff Rogers
this is how This is how she describes in her book, Waking Up in England. She woke up with all of these people looking at her. They had four eyes, two noses, and two mouths.
00:28:54
Jeff Rogers
She blinked, but that didn't help. She was still seeing double. Her first thought was, thank God she's not dead. mean, she didn't know where she was and she was seeing double, but at least she wasn't dead.
00:29:06
Jeff Rogers
She didn't know who they were though, all these people, and they were speaking English, but they looked like they were from all different parts of the world. She could speak English. It wasn't her first language, but she could speak it. So she tried, but no sound came out.
00:29:20
Jeff Rogers
There was a tube down her throat and the tube had stolen her voice. Her bed was up high and there was all of these machines beeping. it was then that she understood she was in a hospital.
00:29:32
Jeff Rogers
She began to panic. If she was in a hospital, then where were her parents? Where was her father? Was he alive? What happened to her? She knew it was something bad. a lovely woman in a headscarf named Rahana came to her side and started praying in Urdu.
00:29:47
Jeff Rogers
She listened to Rahana as Rahana recited the beautiful words of the Holy Quran, and she dressed off. The next time she opened her eyes, she was in a bright green room with no windows.
00:29:58
Jeff Rogers
There was a doctor and a nurse looking at her, and the doctor was speaking to her in Urdu. He told her she was safe and she had been brought to a place called Birmingham, England. Once she was in the United Kingdom, Malala was taken out of the medically induced coma.
00:30:13
Jeff Rogers
She would require multiple surgeries, including repair of a facial nerve to a fit to fix the paralyzed left side of the face. She had suffered no brain damage, though.
00:30:25
Jeff Rogers
The nurse brought Malala in a small white mirror. Malala was surprised by what she saw in the mirror. Who was this girl, she thought. Half of her head was shaved, her face was swollen, her left eye was really bruised, and the corner of the left side of her mouth was turned down, sort of like a frown.
00:30:44
Jeff Rogers
Dr. Fiala had told Malala that she had been shot in the temple in the left eye, near the left eye, and the bullet had traveled 18 inches down to her left shoulder where it had stopped.
00:30:56
Jeff Rogers
Dr. Fiona had napkins or tissues beside Malala so that if she became upset because of what she saw in the mirror, she could use the tissue. Malala said she wasn't scared. she said She said this, actually.
00:31:09
Jeff Rogers
It doesn't matter what I look like. I am alive. I am thankful. She said, maybe the old Malala would have cried. But when you've lost your life nearly, a funny face in the mirror is simply a proof that you are still here on Earth.
00:31:25
Jeff Rogers
In March 2013, after weeks of treatment and therapy, Malala was able to begin school in Birmingham, England. After the shooting, her incredible recovery and return to school resulted in a global outpouring of support from rala for Malala.
00:31:41
Jeff Rogers
On July 12th, 2013, her 16th birthday, Malala visited New York and spoke at the United Nations. Later that year, she published her first book,
00:31:53
Jeff Rogers
The autobiography called I am Malala, the girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban. On October 10, 2013, in acknowledgement of her work, the European Parliament awarded Malala the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
00:32:14
Jeff Rogers
In 2014, through the Malala Fund, the organization she co-founded with her father, Malala traveled to Jordan to meet Syrian refugees and to help open a school, to Kenya to meet young female students, and finally to northern Nigeria for her 17th birthday.
00:32:30
Jeff Rogers
In Nigeria, she spoke out in support of the abducted girls who were kidnapped earlier that year by the Boko Haram, a terrorist group which, like the Taliban, tries to stop girls from going to school.
00:32:41
Jeff Rogers
To Malala, this is the best kind of ra revenge revenge she can give to those men who shot her. And for Malala, there was still one more big speech to give. In October of 2014, Malala, along with Indian children's rights activist Kailash Sajjarthy, was named as a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
00:33:04
Jeff Rogers
At 17, she became the youngest person to receive this prize. But there was a tiny little distraction because she's 17 and that means she had to focus on her school exams.
00:33:15
Jeff Rogers
She's the only Nobel Prize winner to ever have to focus on her high school exams.
00:33:21
Jeff Rogers
She soon... That's crazy, right? She soon aced those exams and now she could focus on her speech. Malala wanted her speech to be the voice of girls and the voice of children.
00:33:35
Jeff Rogers
She invited five girls from Nigeria, Syria, and three from Pakistan who were injured that day on the bus with her because they all had a story. In Malala's speech, she said, i would like to thank my parents for their unconditional love.
00:33:50
Jeff Rogers
Thank you to my father for not clipping my wings and for letting me fly. Thank you to my mother for inspiring me to be patient and to always speak the truth. which we strongly believe is the true message of Islam.
00:34:05
Jeff Rogers
I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed. The second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose to speak up. I decided to speak up.
00:34:17
Jeff Rogers
The terrorists tried to stop us and attacked me and my friends on the school bus in 2012, but neither their ideas nor their bullets could win. We survived, and since that day, our voices have grown louder and louder.
00:34:32
Jeff Rogers
I tell my story not because it's unique, but because it's not. It's the story of many girls. I am those 66 million girls who are deprived of an education.
00:34:43
Jeff Rogers
And today I'm not raising my voice. It's the voice of those 66 million girls. In her book, I Am Malala, she talks about people that she met in the UK and in in America.
00:34:56
Jeff Rogers
She met John Stewart, whom she really liked. She said he took her Malala Fund very seriously. and She even met President Barack Obama. She said she was very respectful, but she had to tell him that those drone strikes in Pakistan, even if they killed one bad person, they kill innocent people, and terrorism spreads that way.
00:35:18
Jeff Rogers
She told President Obama that if America spent less money on war and more money on education, the world would be a better place. She decided that if God has given her a voice, she had to use it, even if to disagree with the President of the United States.
00:35:35
Jeff Rogers
She met Queen Elizabeth. She met Prince Harry. But it was still her, still just Malala, the girl who likes to crack her knuckles as loud as she can, the girl who draws pictures to explain things, the girl who hates pasta but loves cupcakes and who will always eat her mother's rice, a girl who has to stay up late studying, and a girl who worries if her best friend is mad at her.
00:36:02
Jeff Rogers
a girl like any other. She ends her book with these words. I am Malala. My world has changed, but I have not. And that is the story of Malala.
00:36:18
Jeff Rogers
So good. You did that so well. Thank you. Oh. That. You know, ah didn't do that one until yesterday. I was like, I got to do the story for tomorrow.
00:36:30
Jeff Rogers
I sat down at the computer and it just kind of writes itself. Her book is amazing. I've read the book two times now.
00:36:40
Jeff Rogers
She's just such an extraordinary human. and She is And she in the book, she writes...
00:36:48
Jeff Rogers
as her, I think she was maybe like 17 when she wrote the book. but And you you feel like it's a 17-year-old, but you also feel like, wow, this is somebody who has the wisdom of 80-year-old, you know?
00:37:01
Jeff Rogers
After what she's been through. After what she's been through, after what she's done. yeah That's wild. ah La la Okay.
Activism and Protest Tales
00:37:13
Jeff Rogers
Well, I'm going to follow that. um not
00:37:20
Jeff Rogers
I think it is also an incredible story, but it's different. love it. That's what we do. What if we ever show up with the same story? I feel like the Twilight Zone.
00:37:33
Jeff Rogers
It'll be a rip in time, and then everything will end.
00:37:39
Jeff Rogers
Okay. This is a quote from Johnny Zuckovich, who's the executive director of Pax Christi USA. It is incredible to consider how the bravery of this small, smiling, unassuming woman in standing up to the entirety of the United States military-industrial complex could bring so much awareness to the devastation our nation's idolatry of nuclear weapons inflicts on the people here in the United States and around the world.
00:38:08
Jeff Rogers
We give thanks for her witness, for her life, and for the challenge that she issued by standing up nonviolently for a better world for all of us.
00:38:20
Jeff Rogers
I love her already. She's cute. Megan gillles Gillespie Rice was born in New York on January 31, 1930. nineteen thirty s Her parents were activists who met with well-known Catholic writer Dorothy Day during the Great Depression and crafted solutions for societal problems.
00:38:40
Jeff Rogers
Her upbringing by and so and around such powerful figures instilled ah deep-rooted desire to help others. Her older sister took religious vows, and at the age of 18, Rice followed in her footsteps.
00:38:54
Jeff Rogers
She entered the Society of the Holy Child of Jesus, and in 1955, she made her final vows. She became Mother Frederick Mary. One of the things her parents did as she was growing up was show profound empathy towards African Americans.
00:39:09
Jeff Rogers
This greatly influenced Megan, and she decided she wanted to teach in Africa. In order to do so, she was required to have a graduate degree. She decided on a master's degree in cellular biology.
00:39:22
Jeff Rogers
Anan.
00:39:25
Jeff Rogers
During her program, she used radioactive isotopes and learned much about nuclear radiation. Again, Anan. um love that. She earned degrees from Villanova and Boston University.
00:39:37
Jeff Rogers
Her knowledge on the topic was expanded by the influence of her uncle uncle, Walter Hook, who had been a driver for Paul Yamaguchi, the Archbishop of Nagasaki, Japan.
00:39:48
Jeff Rogers
He had witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by the World War II U.S. attack on the city. She taught at elementary schools in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
00:40:00
Jeff Rogers
Then, She got her dream. She went to teach in Africa. She worked in Nigeria from 1977 to 1986, and then in Ghana until the mid-90s. Intermittently, she would travel back home to New York to care for her elderly mother.
00:40:15
Jeff Rogers
While in West Africa, she began hearing of the plowshares movement, based on the biblical passage referring to the end of all war, they will beat their swords into plowshares.
00:40:27
Jeff Rogers
During her trips back to the U.S., she would join in protests and take her elder mother with her. She said, quote, I felt drawn to the peace movement.
00:40:39
Jeff Rogers
I felt very inspired by direct action on nuclear issues. She retired from missionary work due to the after effects of malaria and typhoid. She took the opportunity to launch full force into human rights and primarily anti-nuclear weapons activism.
00:40:57
Jeff Rogers
She was arrested over a dozen times oh yeah in acts of civil disobedience. She was jailed repeatedly for trespassing during protests against torture at the Army's School of the Americans, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
00:41:17
Jeff Rogers
She served two six-month prison sentences. In 2012, at the age 82...
00:41:24
Jeff Rogers
She and two fellow Catholic peace activists cut through several fences, spent hours outside a bunker that stored a large quantity of the nation's bomb-grade uranium to hang banners.
00:41:37
Jeff Rogers
They prayed, they spray-painted peace slogans, and hammered on the bunker of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. They were arrested and charged with felony sabotage.
00:41:49
Jeff Rogers
Rice testified regarding her decision to break into the facility as, quote, an attempt to stop manufacturing that which can only cause death.
00:42:00
Jeff Rogers
Although her lawyers asked for leniency, the judge was unmoved. She was sentenced to three years in federal prison. After only two years, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the charge and she and her companions were freed.
00:42:15
Jeff Rogers
During her sentencing, she said, please have no leanency leniency on me. To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest honor you could give me. Rice died of congestive heart failure in October of 2017. And I'll end with another quote.
00:42:33
Jeff Rogers
Sister Megan lived her life with love full of action and zeal. Her commitment to build a peaceful and just world was unwavering and selfless. Carol Giuliano of the American Province Leader to the order.
00:42:47
Jeff Rogers
Oh, that was good. Sister Megan, you said? We need more Sister Meghans. We need more Malalas. We do. And yesterday I had such an awesome experience um doing my own little part, little light protesting.
00:43:04
Jeff Rogers
um It was a really, really cool experience because there were all those people just out there speaking their mind and doing their part. It's very moving. That's awesome.
00:43:15
Jeff Rogers
That was another good one that we did. That was good. That was good. We hope you guys enjoyed it. It doesn't matter. I did. I did too, which means probably, i mean we're pretty twisted. So there's probably some other twisted people out there that enjoyed it too.
00:43:30
Jeff Rogers
um