I chased desire, I made sure I got what's mine.

Today on We Can Do Hard Things, we are speaking with and mostly listening to Gloria Steinem.

Gloria Steinem is Gloria Steinem, she is a writer, lecturer, political activist, feminist

organizer, and lifelong listener. She is the author of The Truth. We'll set you free,

but first it will piss you off. My life on the road, moving beyond words, revolution

from within, and outrageous acts in everyday rebellions, and a founder of New York magazine,

Ms. Magazine, the National Women's Political Caucus, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the

Free to Be Foundation, and the Women's Media Center in the United States.

Although she wants us to be linked and not ranked, it's true that she is widely regarded

as the iconic leader of the second wave feminist movement. She has spent decades traveling

in this and other countries as an organizer and a listener. She is particularly interested

in the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles, and child abuse as roots

of violence, a non-violent conflict resolution in the wisdom of indigenous cultures, and

organizing across boundaries for peace and justice. In 2013, she was awarded the Presidential

Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, and in 2019, she received the Freedom Award

from the National Civil Rights Museum. She lives in New York City and in the DNA of every

woman who is trying to give birth to a movement or to herself.

Welcome, Gloria. Thank you for doing so many hard things with such tenacity and wisdom and

humor, and most importantly, with the refusal to leave anyone behind.

Well, thank you for that introduction. I'm already worrying about, can I live up to my...

But I'm really looking forward to this talk today because I know I'm going to learn too.

Oh my goodness. So we would love to begin where it all began with Ruth, your mother.

...