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Thirteen years ago, the Taliban shot a fifteen-year-old Pakistani girl in the head—attempting to murder her for speaking out about their ban on girls’ education.
But Malala Yousafzai survived. And overnight, the world decided who she was.
Most people think they know the story. The fearless activist. The youngest Nobel Prize winner. The global symbol of courage. But there’s much more to it. Much has happened in Malala’s life since then.
What gets lost is the humanness—the complexity, the struggle, the person still trying to figure things out.
For Malala, this crystallizes in a single haunting line: “I’ll never know who I was supposed to be.”
My guest today is a young woman at the beginning of her life, newly married, navigating ordinary everyday experiences in surprisingly relatable ways. She’s here to share her side of the story—the Malala behind the global icon, a side of herself you’ve never seen before, and just might surprise you.
Her new memoir, Finding My Way, is about exactly that: finding and defining yourself, carving out your own identity and path, irrespective of what others—or in her case, the world—expects from you.
“I’ll never know who I was supposed to be.”
- MALALA YOUSAFZAI
Today, we discuss:
- Surviving the Taliban & the PTSD That Came Years Later
- Mental Health, Therapy & Redefining Courage
- Afghanistan’s Gender Apartheid & the Fight for Girls’ Education
- Oxford, Identity & Finding Her Way Beyond the Icon
- Collective Activism vs. Performative Posts
For those who prefer a visual experience, the conversation is available on YouTube. And as always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Peace + Plants,
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- Connect With Malala: Website | Instagram | TikTok
- Book: Finding My Way
- Nobel Peace Prize
- Watch on YouTube: The Tonight Show: Malala Yousafzai Is on a Mission to Get More Girls in the Game with Recess
- Watch on YouTube: BBC World Service: Malala Yousafzai on surviving Taliban attack and her stance on Gaza activism
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Thank The Team: I do not do this alone. Send your love to Jason Camiolo for audio engineering, production, show notes and interstitial music; with additional audio engineering by Cale Curtis and additional music by Moby; Blake Curtis & Dan Drake for video, & editing; graphics by Jessica Miranda & Daniel Solis; portraits by Davy Greenberg, Grayson Wilder & Gizelle Peters; copywriting by Ben Pryor; and theme music by Tyler Piatt, Trapper Piatt & Hari Mathis.
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