Pushkin

Inspirational is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but it's hard to think of a better way to describe the woman you'll hear in this episode.

Malala Yushaovsai grew up in a remote part of Pakistan, then ruled by the violent militants of the Taliban.

Life for women under this oppressive regime was incredibly hard, and Malala, though just a child, spoke openly about the restrictions placed on her and her peers, and how it had become hard just to attend school.

And then one day, on a bus ride home from an exam, two Taliban gunmen approached her vehicle.

Who is Malala, they asked?

The next thing Malala remembers is waking up in the hospital.

She had survived a gunshot wound to the head, but instead of wavering, she began championing harder and louder for equality in girls' education worldwide.

And at the age of 17, she became the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Recently, I was lucky enough to host a live event with Malala at my residential college at Yale, and I thought all my happiness lab listeners might like to hear not only her inspirational story, but also to listen to a remarkable woman like Malala.

Talking about burnout, self-criticism, guilt, family frictions, and even relaxing with Ted Lasso.

Everyone at Yale, everyone around the world who's joining us, please join me in welcoming Malala.

So settle in to hear some happiness lessons from Malala.

With me, Dr. Laurie Santos on The Happiness Lab.

I'm imagining that talking to a professor like this over Zoo, one of like clunky internet connection must take you back to like when you switched to remote university back at Oxford in 2020.

I'm just curious that time was so difficult for my students at Yale. Like what was it like for you and kind of how did you handle it?

This was a tough time for students all around the world when the pandemic hit. No one was prepared for how it would impact their studies. I took my exam from home, I graduated from home, and then again, I was stuck at home.

I was so excited for life after university. I was just waiting for that moment when I would be able to move out and just explore what was out there.

It was quite difficult because you realize that it's not just you. It's like it's everybody. It's all of us.

And unfortunately, some of us were impacted more than others because of where they come from in which geographies they were based.

I do advocacy for girls education and I dream of a world where we see the number of girls who are out of school reduced with time.

But when when COVID hit at Manala fun, we did a research which showed that 20 million more girls are at risk of dropping out because they're stuck at home.

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