You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity

every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. I honestly believe that the truth is the real oxygen for democracy.

So when you're when you're undermining truth, you're undermining democracy itself, which obviously is not perfect.

It can be messy. It can be painfully slow sometimes.

But the opposite of it is destruction.

That is the former president of Kosovo, Vyosa Osmani Sadryu.

She spent her life fighting for both truth and democracy. As a child of war,

she once huddled in the mountains with a battery-powered radio, hoping the world's leaders would come

save her people. She grew up to become one of those leaders, and she never forgot what brought her there.

There are millions of children around the world who are now listening to today's leaders

hoping that someone would not turn a blind eye on their suffering.

And it's about continuously fighting and never giving up.

In this conversation with journalist Angus Hervey, she reflects on what it truly takes to defend democracy

in a world where truth itself is under threat. The conversation is coming up right after a short

break. And now our TED Talk of the day.

President Luzmani, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me. It's a great honor.

You've just left office under circumstances you didn't choose.

And you're not alone. Democracy right now looks like it's losing ground everywhere, against populism,

against cynicism, against sheer exhaustion. What lessons has this experience taught you about what

it actually takes to build and sustain democracy? I'd like to say that the lessons that I've

learned don't only belong to my mandate as president.

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