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Fresh Air

Best Of: Malala Yousafzai / Ken Burns On The Revolutionary War

25 Oct 2025

48 min duration
7637 words
8 speakers
25 Oct 2025
Description

We know Malala as the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, the girl who survived a Taliban bullet at 15 for advocating for girls' education in Pakistan. Now in a new book, she's reintroducing herself to the world. It's called Finding My Way, and in it she writes about the messy, funny, and flawed experiences that come with age, while carrying both the honor and the weight of being an activist for women’s rights. TV critic David Bianculli reviews a new documentary series about Martin Scorsese. And Ken Burns talks about his new PBS documentary on the Revolutionary War. It includes the perspectives of women, Native Americans, and enslaved and free Black people–the people initially excluded from the declaration “all men are created equal.” Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Transcription

Full Episode

0.335 - 14.833 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (announcer)

Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right. Learn more at RWJF.org.

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16.653 - 40.871 Tanya Mosley

From WHYY in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. Today, Malala Yousafzai. We know her as the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the girl who survived a Taliban bullet at 15 for advocating for girls' education in Pakistan. Well, now she has a new book where she's reintroducing herself to the world. Her new memoir is called Finding My Way.

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41.412 - 56.216 Tanya Mosley

And in it, she writes about the messy, funny and flawed experiences that come with age while carrying both the honor and the weight of being an activist for women's rights. Also, Ken Burns talks about his new PBS documentary on the Revolutionary War.

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56.837 - 75.938 Tanya Mosley

It includes the perspectives of women, Native Americans, and enslaved and free Black people, the people excluded from the Declaration, All Men Are Created Equal. And TV critic David Bianculli reviews a new documentary series about Martin Scorsese. That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend.

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76.745 - 92.67 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (announcer)

Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right. Learn more at rwjf.org.

92.69 - 112.8 Tanya Mosley

This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. College is often a time to figure out who we are, to fall in love for the first time, to experiment, to fail, to question what we believe. But for my guest today, Malala Yousafzai, it was different. She spent her college years under scrutiny and 24-hour security.

112.84 - 131.213 Tanya Mosley

When she was 15, Malala survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, a gunshot to the head while riding home on a school bus. But long before that, she'd been standing up to them, demanding the right for girls to go to school in her hometown of Mingora and Pakistan's Swat Valley.

131.234 - 148.407 Tanya Mosley

The Taliban had taken control, closing schools, banning women from public life, and brutally punishing anyone who resisted. After the shooting, Malala's life changed overnight. She became a symbol of resistance, praised, politicized, and picked apart.

149.148 - 170.105 Tanya Mosley

While the world saw an unshakable young woman with a message, Malala was also a teenager, undergoing surgeries to reconstruct what was destroyed by the Taliban, experiencing post-traumatic stress, and navigating others' expectations of who she should be. Her new memoir, Finding My Way, reveals the person beyond the symbol.

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