Hello from the Heartland. My name is Jenna and this is Smarter News, news when it matters and why it

matters. Our Smarter series features unique people who help us think and live smarter.

Let's start off with the basics, Holly. Where are you right now?

Right now I am in the north of Afghanistan in Mazar Sharif. So it's one of the few major cities actually left standing in Afghanistan.

So it's sort of right now it's fairly surrounded. But the situation is super calm and the troops here sort of have

a grip on at least the outskirts. So I'm not too worried. How long have you been in Afghanistan?

I got into country about a week ago. So I was in Kabul and then I had, I flew north to do some

work sort of up here and the northern provinces, is crazy, is what's being taken so much.

So I really wanted to come here and understand what was happening and kind of, yeah,

really report from the ground this incredibly sad moment in history.

I just want to take a moment and recognize what you're doing because it's really important for people to know that a lot of the major news networks, media outlets all over the world have pulled out their journalists. And this has happened for years. So the amount of information that we're really getting from the ground, solid information from journalists like yourself who have very

established had been to war zones all over the world is very rare. It's also very dangerous.

And I want to hear more about all of this. So why are you pulled to these particular areas,

Holly? This is not the first time that you've been in Afghanistan.

I think for me, first of all, it was sort of this curiosity of feeling like I was just being

thrown numbers and it didn't, it didn't really make sense to me. And I wanted to understand

what was really happening. And I really, I think most importantly, wanted to understand the faces

behind those numbers and what the human cost of war was. And that's sort of what initially drew me.

And then I think when I sort of started to do it a bit, I just felt I was very calm in situations

where most people weren't. And I felt very at home with people and just really riveted by

stories. I mean, they're just the most incredible stories of survival, Janet's just people that

women that have just done the most incredible things, and they're feeding their children in a

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