November 20, 2025 • 47 mins
In this episode of the Vlogging Pod, Eri speaks with Dr. Zafra Lerman, an Israeli-born chemist, educator, and peacebuilder whose life’s work blends science, human rights, and diplomacy. Dr. Lerman shares how her childhood in a developing Israel and the values instilled by her parents led her to risk her own safety in the Soviet Union to support dissidents and fight for their freedom, work that ultimately helped secure the release of political prisoners. She describes her belief that science education is a human right and explains how she transformed chemistry teaching by using music, dance, drama, and storytelling to reach underprivileged students, homeless youth, and prisoners, many of whom went on to study science. The conversation follows her journey from single mother and immigrant to global advocate, founding the Malta Conferences Foundation to bring scientists from across the Middle East and other conflict regions together, using science diplomacy to build trust where politics fails. Along the way she shares personal and often funny stories from her memoir “Human Rights and Peace: A Personal Odyssey,” including family history, the symbolism of her mother’s ring, and a memorable hotel mix-up in Morocco, all underscoring her core message that ordinary people, acting on their values, can help create a more peaceful world.
#GlobalPeace #ScienceDiplomacy #HumanRights #EducationForAll #MiddleEastDialogue #ConflictResolution #WomenInScience #InternationalVoices #InspiringStories #ChemistryEducation #PeaceBuilding #RealConversations #VloggingPodLive #AuthorsOfImpact #MemoirJourney #ImmigrantVoices #STEMForChange
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hello and welcome to the Vlogging Pod.
Tonight we are joined by Zafra Lerman,
and I'm hoping I'm pronouncing that right.
Welcome to the
room. How are you this
evening? Wonderful. Lookingforward to
hearing yourvoice.
(00:26):
Awesome. Did Ipronounce your
name right?Becausepronunciation
is mydownfall. No,
no, everyAmericandownfall. So
don't. They'rebed I gave up
on collecting.
I'm horribleat it I'lleven ask
Google andeverything and
I still I getso tongue tied
(00:48):
even on themost normal
words I'm I'mthe worst atpronunciation
so don't feelbad about my
name becauseeverybodymispronounced
it. But if youwant to
pronounce itcorrect it's
Safra. South
like tea. OK,
Safra. Am Idoing it
right? It'slike this. You
(01:09):
can.
Well, you'revery gracious. Thank you very
much.
Now I have tolet everyone
know you areand it's in
the bio of theroom just in
case anyonehasn't seenit. But you
(01:31):
are a worldrenownedchemist, an
educator, apeace builderwho has
pioneered theuse of sciencediplomacy to
foster. Dialogue andcollaboration
in the world'smost volatileregions. I
feel like Ineed toapologize for
that. Hold ona minute. We'll give
another one.
Yeah. Ohh.
(01:53):
I'm joiningyour recording
in applaudingnow. When you
think back tothose late
night walksthrough Moscow
to meetdissidents,
what gave you
the courage tokeep pushing
for humanrights?Even
(02:13):
when it put
your own
safety on the
line. I think
that probablymy upgrading
game AH gave
me values and
strengths to
do things that
not manypeople would
do them. For
(02:34):
me it wasimportant that
they sent thissentence that
did nothingwrong, such as
to lead thecountry they
live in, andfor that they
were firedfrom work and
then blamedthe Esperanza
side. Few weresent to
prison. Yourwords and your
(02:56):
how late willand must
smell. And Ifelt that it's
my obligationto help these
people. So Idid not feel
fear. Fearfirst. I took
a crash courseand rushed so
I would notuse a KGB
translator. And this made
(03:17):
it easier todo what I had
to do. Butfrom the other
point of view,if you walk
with atranslator, atleast you walk
with somebody. It's midnightand dark eyes,
right? I didit all by
myself. I hadto enter the
Soviet Union. With the groupof scientists
(03:38):
and during theday we gave
lectures andyou'rejustice. And
then at dinnertime I wouldidentify
somebody thatI'd sell wouldnot judge
stand. Usuallyit was the
woman that Ithought thisbrave enough
for me totalk. And I
would saylisten. Don't
ask mequestion, butif I'm not
(04:01):
here tomorrowfor breakfast,just call the
American
Embassy. And I
went, I didn'tseal, seal
when I did it.
And I look at
that today, I
think it was alittle bit
crazy, butwhen I did it,
it was for menatural that
(04:23):
this is what I
had to do. Becauseeverything I
did wasillegal. Itwas illegal to
distributescientificmaterial tothis
discernment. It was illegal
to give them aseminar. What
I did to acrop in the
morning, inthe dark, at
the IT wasillegal tobring their
(04:45):
CVS's back,and I brought.
And a lot ofthese people
are free todayand wanting
and because Irisk my life.
But thebiggestpleasure is to
see that thepeople are
free and happy
is one of thegifts. Adams
wrote a letterabout me to
(05:07):
nominate. Miguel deAndre Sacto
was a word in
human eyeswhat I
received, buthere all by
myself, I Iwondered what
makes a personliving in
freedomdestroying thelife of
somebody thatthey don't
even knowthat. Of those
(05:29):
on the otherside of the
globe and thenhe writes I
realized thatthe suffering
person and hisAmericanAngel. The
refers to meand have
something incommon and
they did forscience and
messy job thatyou cannot.
Mind on pagesof scientific
(05:51):
journals. Theymade science
human andhumane and I
love thissentence that
you wrote intherecommendation
letter becausefor some of
these people,the people
that were inthis person.
Was in hardlabour in
Siberia. Hejust wassticking to
(06:14):
his values. Hewas refusing
to do what he
was told to do
and. We
followed hisown beliefs
and I followed
my belief and
they. It'shuge pleasure
to see that
you can bring
(06:35):
freedom to a
person thatdoesn't have
if I. Buttoday, I don't
know.
You have to bea little bit
younger. Ithink it. I'mnot sure I'm
somebody. I, I
don't know, Ithink if the
(06:55):
need is strongenough, youknow what I
mean? Yeah,need. Theresolve is
strong enoughat any age. You canaccomplish
that. I did alot, though. I
am in China. Irisked my life
too, so. It
takes, and I
would not say
you to beingbrave. It's
(07:16):
beingcommitted tothe cause
right now. Your book is
titled HumanRights and
Peace. It's apersonal
odyssey, so.
This is theSkype my
childhood and
the way I grew
up. And thenhe described
(07:38):
my careerswill sayresearch
scientist,then building
a big scienceinstitute
where Ideveloped this
method ofteaching
science. Art,music, dance,
drama, rap,poetry,animation who
walking forhuman eyes who
now being thepresident of
(08:00):
the MaltaConferencesFoundation
that usessciencediplomacy as
which is inthe Middle
East. Nice. Sotell me, tell
me how youcame to where
you are now inyour life
growing up inIsrael fromthe time until
now, I grew upin Israel was
(08:21):
a developingcountry. Idescribed in
my book thatas a littlegirl.
I eat Ienjoyed every
minute becausewe did not
have specialclasses forgifted
childrenwithinremember afterschool
programs. Wedid not have
(08:41):
cars, SUV'sfor the
mothers, thedrivers all
day round and. Theadversarial
loan for aminute, Umm
And I used to
think growingup like that
gave us a lot
of opportunityto developcreativity
becauseeverything we
(09:02):
had to find
out how toplay after
school, how toplay. Games,
we did nothave toys, so
we had to makethem. In
addition, Inever I felt
like I am veryrich. My
father was oneof thepoliticians
(09:22):
involved withthe PrimeMinister Ben
Gurion. But we
do not haveeven hadshower in the
house, butthere was onein the middle
of town. Sofrom a very
young age, 4year old, five
years old, allof us kidswent together
to take ashower. It was
(09:43):
a big eventand one day
I'd come home. In my father's
surprises meand shows me
that we have ashower. I
cried fordays. I'llsend you visit
on purposestrenuous, butif you spoil
my sociallife, I like
to go with the
kids to take ashower here I
(10:05):
have to bealone. Why?What you're
doing to me, Ithought that
it was thebiggestdisaster that
happened tome, that we
had a heartproblem now at
home. So itshows you that
you grow upverydifferently
and. Your mind
is setdifferently. Ithought it was
(10:27):
great not tohave it at
home and goingwith the kids
together. Soyou it's avery different
way of drawingup. Forexample, when
I was sixyears old, my
father wholeft a letter
in my shoes. I
I went toschool a year
earlierbecause Igraduated fromkindergarten
(10:49):
in one day. Ohh wow. I
went and I sawthe teacher
finished thechild and I
came home andI said I'd
finishedkindergartennow was make
sure I could
go to. Yeah, I
will not go
back. And
(11:09):
that's whathappened. So
by 6:00 Icould read. So
here wow, left
me a. Letter
in the lettersaid today is
your 6thbirthday. Ihope you will
grow up to beloyal to your
country, toyour nationand to your
family in thisorder for six
(11:31):
years, adultssomethingbuilt in then
he said I'mgiving you
this amount ofmoney or
supplies. Andfor your birth
date and you
will divide it
to three. One
said you will
give to to the
orphans, thechildrenacross the
parents in theHolocaust and
(11:54):
they don'thave talents,
so you willdonate. Ohh.
Will helpthem, one said
you will giveto the
national fundfor planting
trees in onecell. You can
do what you
want and if by
the age of 6
you grow uplike that,
(12:14):
that youalready have
to share yourmoney with.
Importantthings withwith helping
the orphankids with
planting treesand they saw
you go verydifferently
and you youfeel always
the need tomake the
planet abetter place
(12:36):
for everyoneand This is
why. They didwhat they did.
So you startedfrom a veryhumble
beginning. Butyou youaspiredgreatly. You
became thescientist thatyou are, a
chemist andeducator. Tellme how that
leap happened. Yeah, I'lltell you a
story. When Iwas in 3rd
(12:58):
grade, I wasseven years
old. I wouldteach children
not to come. So theprincipal came
in and said Iam going to
teach nowalgebra in 8thgrades. Your
teachers nothere. So I
came to takeall of you to
the classroomwhere I will
(13:19):
be. You willsit on the
floor. And andbe quiet. And
he took us andwe sat there.
He wasteaching thegrinderalgebra,
algebra. Andthen he wrote
the problem onthe blackboard
and he saidwho can solve
it? Nobodycould solveit. It started
then who cansolve it after
(13:40):
a few times. Iraised my
hand, remembersitting on the
floor, 7 yearsold, and he
said why areyou raising
your head? Isaid because I
can solve it. He said that
somebody saidto algebra. I
said no. Isaid, but I
can solve it. I went to the
(14:01):
black box. Allday. And he
started sayingexcellent inevery language
she knows. Andthen he wrote
to my parents
that I am likea sentence
from theBible, like a
tree that isgrowing on the
banks of theriver.
(14:23):
It was a big,
big deal. Butsince then I
knew alreadythat I'm going
to be ascientist. I
knew itearlierbecauseeverything was
I had anunbelievablepriority. When
I was threeyears old, I
sat with myfather. And
(14:43):
there was abox, andsuddenly I
held them inthe box. This
is the voiceof Jerusalem.
And I lived inHaifa. So I
said to myfather, I'm in
Haifa, how doI hear thevoice of
Jerusalem? Howis itpossible? Andpeople
couldn't lookthe address ofmy question.
And so I knew
(15:05):
I'll be. And
then in high
school, we had
already like,
majors in high
school likeliterature,
economics andlaw,communication,
and we had
math andscience. And
we had to taketests and then
(15:26):
they replacedus and I ended
up to be theonly girl in
my class. Thisis how I had
to go throughhigh school,
so. I already
was on thedirection to
become ascientist.
Umm. So. Butyou didn'tjust do
(15:46):
scientists,you went. Youdid your
chemistry, youbecame ascientist, and
then youleaned more toteaching. Now,
what pushedyou more towant to be
able to teach?Almost
identicalchild already.
OK, I gotmarried very,
very young and
had the childas an
undergraduate,so he attended
(16:08):
my bathroom. Master and
PHD's numberone. I did
research and Ienjoyed the
research. Butthere are
differentthings in life
made me feel
that I'm not
doing it on
the level I
want to do it
(16:28):
on the level I
did before. And I always
believed thatscience
education is ahuman right.
That belongs
to all and I
was verybothered going
to scientificmeetings and
see that it'svery
homogeneous. There was no
(16:50):
diversity andit bothered
me. So I
decided thenthat. Everyone
go toeducation and
I got an offer
I could not
refuse. I got
an offer from
a president in
a school andearn college
for art andcommunication.
(17:14):
That wasaccredited as
a liberal, notas announcedconverter
liberal artsand theyneeded science
and they didnot have and
the presidentjust made me
an offer togovern and
build sciencefrom scratchbuilt a
department andlike. The very
(17:35):
successfulsciencedepartment.
This old andnew methods of
teachingbecame veryfamous. I
received a lotof money and
grants, andthen he wanted
me to build abig science
institute thatbecame veryfamous, said.
And I did notlike for
(17:58):
money. Becausethe National
ScienceFoundationwanted me to
go. I'm now in
Evanston, IL,well,Northwestern
universities,but it's next
to Chicago. And theNational
ScienceFoundationgave me money
to work withthe teachers.
(18:19):
In the innercity in
Chicago andshowed them
how to teachwith my
methods. Tomake a Long
story short,it became very
successfulwithunderprivilegedstudents and
students thatnever thought
that theywould. Thatscience
(18:40):
suddenlyrealized that
they can besuccessful so
I worked withhomeless kids
that severalof them went
to studyscience and to
even did a PhDin
biochemistry. I want with
prisoners and.
I really feltthat I'm
(19:03):
making adifference and
I almost toldmy students
that scienceis a way of
thinking. It'sa criticalthinking, it's
a logicalthinking. And
I used to tell
them always ifyou go to.
Withdemonstration,I don't care
what side youfeel you want
(19:25):
to be all the
time, you doit from a
knowledgeable,intelligentpoint of view.
So somebodyasked you, why
are you inthisdemonstration?
You know toanswer very
well. Why are
you there?Istood
demonstrationthat we sawstudents from
(19:46):
ColumbiaUniversitythat werestreaming
differentslogans thatdid not even
understandwhat theymeant when
they were inthere. Youdidn't just
teach thescience andchemistry and
all that. Whatyou did was,
and I foundthisinteresting.
You discoveredthat music,
dance andvisualstorytelling
(20:08):
could reachyour students
even moresuccessfully. Delighting The
disturbancetaught methat.
OK, theyshowed me that
they can learnbetter in
different wayswhen they just
startedteaching a
dance to I
(20:30):
when I tried
to explain thechemical
reaction andfew students
were. Hazel is
that mostchildren'sdata and
assigneddifferentstudentsdifferent
chemicals inchoreograph
the dance andthe student
says oh now I
can see that I
(20:52):
understand it.
So I said, oh
I better learnfor my
students. Up
to 2, and they
were my bestteachers and
therefore,like a music
student, yeah.
I told thestudent I
hated toaddressbecause I
(21:13):
hated that Ihad one hour
to show myknowledge and
what if Idon't feel
well in thishour? So I
told mystudents that
we had a veryfamous. Their
bodies. Hisname wasdelayed and hesaid
everything youhate to bedone to you
(21:34):
don't do toyour friends. I told my
students,because everyone of you is
my friend, Icannot do for
you what Ihated to be
done to me. You can showyour knowledge
in any mediayou want. You
Can Dance. Youcouldn't see,
for example,their music
student did anexcellent job
explaining thedepletion ofthe ozone
(21:57):
layer, and he
sang it all as
his song Ihave plenty of
ozone to themusic of I
have plenty of
nothing. And
it was justbeautiful. And
it one moreadvantage to
that is that
not only Ievaluate the
(22:19):
student, thewhole class is
involved inthat. So it's
all was a very
a verydifferentatmosphere in.
For us, right?
So in yourmemoirs you
trace yourjourney fromwar-torn
Israel tointernationaldiplomacy.
What part ofthat? What
(22:40):
part of that
do you feelshaped your
voice themost? What
part of my
journey?Yes, I
think my myupgrading
you'reoffering the
values thatwere installed
with me in me
always to make
(23:02):
sure to help
others, always
to make sure
to be honest.
And to do
everything I
can to do.
To make theworld a better
place, andthis wasinstilled in
(23:23):
me and veryyoung, veryyoung.
I've never had
any doubt. I
always felt
that this is
my mission,
this is my
calling tohelp people
to, to, tostop
(23:44):
conflicts, tobringdissidents.
The freedom tomake scienceeducation
available toall, it's allone package.
So let me askyou this,
because do youever find that
those valuesthat wereinstilled in
you from avery young
age? And Iapplaud yourparents for
that. Butthose things
(24:06):
that wereinstilled inyou and after
workingmultipleconflict zonesand
negotiatingscientificcooperationsacross
politicaldivides, whatkeeps the all
of that stillalive in you?
That you'reyou're growingup values the
hope even onyour hardestdays, What
keeps all thatalive?Continue
to keep goingforwardstronger
(24:29):
because Ibelieve that
we can speak
this I believe
that we canhave better
world and what
stands in the
way is manytime
politician youknow because
the I. Ibelieve in
that peopleand I believe
(24:50):
in everybody. You know, I
have beautifultitles. Youknow, you're
still on thefellow Doral
Society ofChemistry and
all these. Butto me, every
person hasthankfulsense,something I
respect, everyperson. That
works in tries
to do their
(25:11):
job and dosomething
good. Irespect this
people becauseI thinkbasically
people want to
see a peacefulworld. People
want to be
able to seeeverybody
educated. Butlife just
divides us all
the time, andstaying unite
(25:34):
us. And I'mtaking people
from the mostdivided
region. Ibring togetherscientists
from all thecountries in
the MiddleEast, and they
are. Callingconflict with
each other inwars. In all
that in, Igive them a
(25:54):
platform tosee whatunites them,
not whatseparatesthem. I'll
give them aplatform tostop
demonizing theunknown. Add
in a platform
that can. Cancollaborate
and developfriendshipsthat can
overcome thechasm of
distrust andintolerance
(26:15):
And and you
know, after a
few days, you
don't know whocame from
which country. It's, it's
just a family. Voting
togetherbecausescience is
internationalsciencedoesn'tsupport,
doesn't seemlegit, doesn't
(26:36):
seek culture,doesn't see
language. It'sit'sinternational.
So theyalready have
aninternationallanguage and
science. Andthey should
they feel thatthis wasunites them.
And I Iremember whenthe Iraqis
came the firsttime they came
(26:57):
with tears intheir eyes to
me and theysaid wow, all
of our life welearned that
his family somuch till that
day evenlookeddifferently.
And here wefind the
nicest peopleliving the
greatest time. Hmm. All our
life we will
(27:17):
love to. So I
believe we'repeople. I
agree withthat and what
I do. I meant
to resemblethe admissionadmit
administrator. I am apermanent
mentor. Ireceived from
Bill Clintonin thepresidential
world formentoring but
(27:39):
but I feel
that if. Naked
men to manypeoples to be
successful, tobe, to try to
help others,to try to save
theenvironment. Icontribute and
I want mystudents to do
the same. Andthis is what
(27:59):
I'm doing andmy book. It's
real, it's amemoir. It has
a lot of funnythings. Somebody told
me that Icould not stoplaughing
there. Let meask you, let
me ask, let meask you this.
For those thatbar listeners
and for allthose who
(28:19):
reach for your
book. And intoday'ssphere,
everythingthat we seegoing on
around us, andthat can be
from any I I'min Ohio, in
the States. And if mostpeople have
listened to mypoliticalcommentary,
you probablyunderstandwhere I'm
coming from. So when youhave people
(28:41):
reaching foryour book. What is it
your hope andthoughts thatthey'll take
away from thatand what they
will use themost in their
in this worldtoday? My my
book is reallyalmost foreverybody
because whenit came to the
States, I wasa single mom.
I got adivorce, I got
(29:03):
remarried. But
I tend to the
state alongwith the
child, norelativeswhatsoever, no
nobody couldhelp me, not
financially,nothing. And Ibecame
successful andI won this
blog forpeople that
came in mysituation. For
(29:24):
allowing thissituation to
see that theycan be
successfultoo, the book
is showing a
lot of changes
I made in.
Life ofpeople,everybody you
don't needappeared inchemistry to
welcome humanrights, tohelp people
(29:46):
that theirhuman rights
is abuse. Youwant to want
to do it. And
my book isreally
confusing. Nowwe lost you
for a second. Well, you're
back. Yeah,there you are.
OK, there youare. Go ahead.
What is OK?So, but yeah,
(30:08):
we, we fizzledthere for a
second, but goahead. My book
is an example. But one woman
can do aforeigner,
immigrant. In
general. Umm.
2. Beats that
I want peopleto get. In
(30:29):
addition, Iwant to say I
donate allthat to myproject of
sciencediplomacy as abridge to
please send methe list
because we area group ofvolunteers
that are inthis program.
Every penny weraise goes to
bring themiddle. Easternscientists to
the conference
cost a lot of
(30:51):
money. Everyconference we
raise themoney. So all
the profits of
my boom goinggo towards
death foreverybody that
buys my book.
Part of itgoes towards
sciencediplomacy. It's a glitch.
It's in themiddle.
Commendable. Verycommendable.
(31:13):
We have havinga conference
coming up next
May, so thefundraising is
already goingand I hope
that a lot of
people willbuy the book,
said. Will it
help us in thefundraising
because theparticipants.
(31:33):
Don't pay. We
pay for all of
them and theyare coming for
five days andseveral Nobel
lawyers and wehave to pay
for all thatand there's
the money. Sothis is
helpful and ifanybody wants
to know more. About this
(31:54):
project, Thewebsite for
the project isMalta
conferencesfoundation.organd there
there is a way
how to donateand it
describes theconference and
everybody thatreads my book
part of their
money. The paygoes towards
(32:16):
theconference. So
I if I'mtruly, yeah,
go ahead, goahead. I just
want to saythat it came
now out inpaperback, so
it's much moreaffordable. Wonderful. I
have. This hasbeen adelightful
conversation. I actuallywould love to
(32:37):
have you backon. And
breakdown evenmore if youwant to on
differentstories youwould like to
from from yourbook, fromyour past. Any
bit of it. Iactually find
myself lost inlistening to
you. If you
will read thebook, you'reletting people
don't needthat. Theycould not put
(32:58):
it down. Therewere peoplethat told me
this blessingthe bookreally wassupposed to
be. More than
one book, but
I did not have
because I was
under a lot ofpressure to
write a book
on the on theeducation part
and. In the
(33:20):
book there isa huge chapter
on that butpeople wanted
a book andmore details.
But we have anew tool that
shows allthese creativeprojects that
the studentsdid. Lovestory from
sodium andfluorine toform table
salt writtenlike Romeo and
Juliet. LikeShakespeare,the bottom
(33:42):
father that istied the
chemical bondexactlyfollowing the
Godfather.
Star Wars onthe depletion
of those oldlayer there
areunbelievablethere are
tenses ondifferent.
Antibioticsubject so.
(34:05):
I was underpressure towrite this
book, but theylooked at the
time. Then Iwas underpressure to
write about myactivities onhuman right.
You know that. Then there was
the pressureto write aboutscience
diplomacy. There is 1chapter in my
book title forMissionImpossible. Mission
(34:25):
possible andit describesthe obstacle
to find thecountry to
give a visa to
own this goalnot counted.
This groupcould not come
to the US 37countries. We
have a bannerthat they
cannot enterwith nocountry.
Launch all my
(34:47):
group. So it'sa whole
chaptershowing all
the methods I
had to use in
order to get
the visa foreverybody to
come therearound likeSherlock
Holmes, our
own 007. Took
it to get thevisa, so
(35:07):
people wantedtheir book on
there and Iwanted thebooks that
will not bemore than 200
pages. Todate, peopledon't read
more than 200pages. I
didn't want itto be so, but
I think Imanaged thatthe. Essence
and if everanybody elsequestion or
(35:27):
more they canalways contact
me or invite. I'm giving
webinar, a lotof webinar.
I'll give alot oflectures
because a lotof people read
the book andask questions.
There is adescription on
my book aboutmy mother.
That they werenine children
(35:48):
and theBolsheviks
held it wasRussia,nowadays
partiesUkraine, but
it was Russiakilled the
parents andthe older
brother andthey were left
8 orphans allalong. My
mother was 1. Before the
youngest, soshe was very,
(36:09):
very young andtheir mother
had thenecklace, thegolden
necklace. Sothey didn't
know how towho to give
it. So theydecided all
the eight ofthem when they
arrived toIsrael veryyoung. Well
don't wasmaybe 14 to
(36:29):
melt it andmake a ring
for everybodywith theirmother initial
on them. Butthe people
that lived inthe book and
see me call
me. Can we seethe ring?
Yesterday Ihad dinnerwith two
people thatthat my book. The first
(36:51):
question iswhere is the
ring? The ringis on my
finger, butthey theyimmediatelythe first
question andwe see therain people
one daybecause hedescribes
their how theydealt with
that so. Toask me where
is the ringwhen I met
with them. Butif any of your
(37:13):
listeners oryou or yourfriends or
your familyget the book,
please write areview onAmazon. And
because thiswill help usand remember,
I don't takethem. Panic
from the book
it's all goes
to help peace
in the MiddleEast. How
(37:34):
blessed peopleto live with
living thisand not this
world enoughpieces piecespriceless
peace ispriceless and
damaged. Ishow how. It
didn't reachit. Theproblem is
that there arebillions andbillions,
trillions ofdollars for
(37:54):
weapon of massdestruction,right? Yeah
the exactly. Ohh smallpotion of
death wouldbring peace,
but we have tobeg like
beggars to askfor money. And
deep and theyknow that to
be able to dowhat we do and
we've I wouldadd more moneymore people
(38:15):
could beinvolved. Thiswould have
come fast. Yeah, Itotally agree.
There's a lotof oligarchycontrol going
on. This is 1of this rich
people thinkcarry all theconference.
Ohh my gosh.
$100,000 aconference forthis rich
people, it'snot enough. There's
there's a lotof depravity
(38:36):
in the worldthat could be
ended justfrom onepaycheck of
some of thered Colette.
Umm, I want tothank you so
much. I wantto thank you
so much forbeing on.
Thank you verymuch. Thankyou very much.
And it was apleasure to
talk to you. Ijust, I'msorry I cannot
(38:57):
see you.
I'm sorry, I'min mypresentation,
I'm sitting inmy PJ's. I
would not bepleased to
look at, youknow, I had
the studentshere till the
minute thereyou're way
Lincoln and Isaid to him.
(39:19):
One good thingthat it's not
on Zoom or anyother platform
that they have
to see me. I
don't have toput belt up.
I'm wearing mysweatshirt.
I just, weused to do alot of things,
but I havefound thatthis justmakes it more
(39:41):
relaxed. Ilove my gueststo be able to
just feel likeyou're sittingdown having a
chat with afriend andhaving a cup
of coffee ortea orwhatever. You
wish I couldhave a cup ofcoffee with
you. Youalready knowOhio, not too
far. Stillneed not this
out, not thishouse. You can
come toChicago. The
dinner will beon me. I'm
(40:03):
inviting you.
You need totalk. I'mtelling youright now,
you're morethan welcometo come back
anytime. I amsure thatthere aredozens of
stories thatwe can talkabout. Ohh,
there are veryfunny storiesthat I can
tell you thatare in mybook. Wonderful.
Well, hit meback up. Let'slet's get back
(40:24):
up on POD. Batch and we
can make someroom. I canpeel as the
beginning ofthe next yearcomes. We can
actually lotyou off somespaces if you
really want todo it. OK,good. I'd like
to talk toyou. You arenice. Well,
thank you. Ilike to bethought of
that way. Iknow you'renice. You're
(40:45):
laughing. Theothers arevery serious
where they'renobody'slaughing like
you're you'relaughing. It'snot thank you,
thank you. Itry to make
it. I love forpeople to give
their theirviewpoint onthe world and
you're talkingaboutsomething I
would agree onpeace. I agreethat people
should cometogether andso. I will
(41:07):
always makeroom on my
platform forthat. Alwaysadjust.
Muzzled themonths ofAugust in
Israel. I sawmyparticipants
from the WestBank too. I
was on theborder with
Gaza. Yeah. Idon't just
talk. I do. It's been like
(41:27):
ohh yes you doand Iappreciatethat. Well
thank you somuch for beingon with us. I
actually hadto create 2videos because
I did not wantto stop youtalkingbecause I
truly enjoyit. We triedto do 20
minutes and weare way overthat but I've
got nowhere.
No, I'm gonnabe editing awhile putting
(41:47):
it alltogether, butthat's fine.
If I have todo severalslots, it's
fine. I reallyenjoyedspeaking with
you, and likeI said, I
thought it wasa lot of funnyexperiences.
Are you stillrecording? Ifyou recall,
take thisstory out.
But. Wasinvited to
lecture in theconference in
(42:08):
Morocco and itwas inMarrakesh.
Beautifulhotel. But you
know in the US
you you enterthe first
floor buttaking the
rest of the ofthe world's
first flow isa flow above.
So I arrivedvery late in
all. What Iremember is
(42:30):
that the theperson that
helped me, wetook an
elevator andthe way the
numbers were,the first
number was thenumber of the
building,second numberwas the
number. Of theof the floor
in the lasttwo numberswhen the
(42:50):
numbers of theroom, so it
was late atnight. I don't
know wherewhere I amafter
breakfast I goto my room. So
I remember Itook anelevator. I
must be on the2nd. Look
cycle throughthe 2nd floor.
My my room is
(43:10):
53. I put it
in, it doesn't
open. I go tothe reception
and I said itdoesn't open.
They said, did
you put it in
your key nextto your cell
phone? I saidyes. They said
therefore youcannot openit. So they
watch yournumber. So I
(43:32):
said one thebuilding 2,
the floor 53. So they give
me the keys, I
go, I put itin the door
open all darkand the man
jumps out ofbed. So I said
to myself. Like deepenough or
whatever, theysell this. What the hell?
Either you'reselfish like
(43:53):
that. Damn, Ididn't know.
Ohh. I'd saywhat are you
doing here?And he said
what are youdoing here?
Size 10, It'smy home. And
he said it's
my home. So wego there,
folks likethat. And then
in the dark I
(44:15):
see a hugeblack suitcase
and mine isorange. Sign
right away. And I got my
mistake and Ientered thereception
before hecould run to
complain and Isaid I made
the mistake. It's 1145. And
he gave me thekissing like
disappear tilltoday I don't
(44:37):
know who wasthe man, but
he wasprobably wasin my
conscience andknew I was,
but they nevertold me. But
my firstreaction Isaid, oh, I
was told abouta lot of
services inMorocco, butthese. Yeah,
there's nobodytold me this
was myself sayaction. So
(44:57):
when I cameand told it to
everybody,they said onlyto you
something likethat.
Ohh my, wellI'm glad itwas dark.
Can youimagine? Youthink you are
(45:18):
going into youin the minds
of ohh, mygosh, I think
I would havepeed myself a
little. No, Isaid. What are
you doing here?
They don'tleave.
I justreceived and
he wasn'texactlydressed, he
(45:38):
was with hisunderwear.
Ohh, mygoodness. Well, thankyou so much
for being withus thisevening. I'm
gonna I I'msadly I haveto cut it here
because I'mgoing to beediting for a
little whiletonight, butyou were so
worth it. Thank you somuch for being
with. Thankyou. You makeme laugh and
(46:00):
laughing isbeautiful dayhell. It it
did. Thank youvery much. Well, thank
you. Thank youto ourlisteners,
guys. Untilnext time, goahead. Safer.
No, I wantedto say happyThanksgiving.
I thought weare finishedalready. We
are now thatyou've tasted
hope you willnot. You will
(46:21):
not. You will
not leave thelast laststory. You
will take itout. OK. Ohh.
Would you wantme to take it
out? Well,this storyabout the man
you want toyou know, I
think it's Ithink it'sawesome. We're
live it's wayout there. Ohmy God.
(46:44):
It's live,it's alreadyout there. I
loved it. Ilove thatwe're leaving
it and youcome back. Talk to me on
Pod Match andlet's makesome dates. We
can makeseveral acrossthe board for
this comingyear and youmade my year.
Very thankfulfor having youon and
thankful forwhat you dofor the world.
In general. Sothank youagain, thank
(47:05):
you to ourlisteners. Until nexttime guys,
bye, bye fornow.
Hello and welcome to the Vlogging Pod.
Tonight we are joined by Zafra Lerman,
and I'm hoping I'm pronouncing that right.
Welcome to the
room. How are you this
evening? Wonderful. Lookingforward to
hearing yourvoice.
(00:26):
Awesome. Did Ipronounce your
name right?Becausepronunciation
is mydownfall. No,
no, everyAmericandownfall. So
don't. They'rebed I gave up
on collecting.
I'm horribleat it I'lleven ask
Google andeverything and
I still I getso tongue tied
(00:48):
even on themost normal
words I'm I'mthe worst atpronunciation
so don't feelbad about my
name becauseeverybodymispronounced
it. But if youwant to
pronounce itcorrect it's
Safra. South
like tea. OK,
Safra. Am Idoing it
right? It'slike this. You
(01:09):
can.
Well, you'revery gracious. Thank you very
much.
Now I have tolet everyone
know you areand it's in
the bio of theroom just in
case anyonehasn't seenit. But you
(01:31):
are a worldrenownedchemist, an
educator, apeace builderwho has
pioneered theuse of sciencediplomacy to
foster. Dialogue andcollaboration
in the world'smost volatileregions. I
feel like Ineed toapologize for
that. Hold ona minute. We'll give
another one.
Yeah. Ohh.
(01:53):
I'm joiningyour recording
in applaudingnow. When you
think back tothose late
night walksthrough Moscow
to meetdissidents,
what gave you
the courage tokeep pushing
for humanrights?Even
(02:13):
when it put
your own
safety on the
line. I think
that probablymy upgrading
game AH gave
me values and
strengths to
do things that
not manypeople would
do them. For
(02:34):
me it wasimportant that
they sent thissentence that
did nothingwrong, such as
to lead thecountry they
live in, andfor that they
were firedfrom work and
then blamedthe Esperanza
side. Few weresent to
prison. Yourwords and your
(02:56):
how late willand must
smell. And Ifelt that it's
my obligationto help these
people. So Idid not feel
fear. Fearfirst. I took
a crash courseand rushed so
I would notuse a KGB
translator. And this made
(03:17):
it easier todo what I had
to do. Butfrom the other
point of view,if you walk
with atranslator, atleast you walk
with somebody. It's midnightand dark eyes,
right? I didit all by
myself. I hadto enter the
Soviet Union. With the groupof scientists
(03:38):
and during theday we gave
lectures andyou'rejustice. And
then at dinnertime I wouldidentify
somebody thatI'd sell wouldnot judge
stand. Usuallyit was the
woman that Ithought thisbrave enough
for me totalk. And I
would saylisten. Don't
ask mequestion, butif I'm not
(04:01):
here tomorrowfor breakfast,just call the
American
Embassy. And I
went, I didn'tseal, seal
when I did it.
And I look at
that today, I
think it was alittle bit
crazy, butwhen I did it,
it was for menatural that
(04:23):
this is what I
had to do. Becauseeverything I
did wasillegal. Itwas illegal to
distributescientificmaterial tothis
discernment. It was illegal
to give them aseminar. What
I did to acrop in the
morning, inthe dark, at
the IT wasillegal tobring their
(04:45):
CVS's back,and I brought.
And a lot ofthese people
are free todayand wanting
and because Irisk my life.
But thebiggestpleasure is to
see that thepeople are
free and happy
is one of thegifts. Adams
wrote a letterabout me to
(05:07):
nominate. Miguel deAndre Sacto
was a word in
human eyeswhat I
received, buthere all by
myself, I Iwondered what
makes a personliving in
freedomdestroying thelife of
somebody thatthey don't
even knowthat. Of those
(05:29):
on the otherside of the
globe and thenhe writes I
realized thatthe suffering
person and hisAmericanAngel. The
refers to meand have
something incommon and
they did forscience and
messy job thatyou cannot.
Mind on pagesof scientific
(05:51):
journals. Theymade science
human andhumane and I
love thissentence that
you wrote intherecommendation
letter becausefor some of
these people,the people
that were inthis person.
Was in hardlabour in
Siberia. Hejust wassticking to
(06:14):
his values. Hewas refusing
to do what he
was told to do
and. We
followed hisown beliefs
and I followed
my belief and
they. It'shuge pleasure
to see that
you can bring
(06:35):
freedom to a
person thatdoesn't have
if I. Buttoday, I don't
know.
You have to bea little bit
younger. Ithink it. I'mnot sure I'm
somebody. I, I
don't know, Ithink if the
(06:55):
need is strongenough, youknow what I
mean? Yeah,need. Theresolve is
strong enoughat any age. You canaccomplish
that. I did alot, though. I
am in China. Irisked my life
too, so. It
takes, and I
would not say
you to beingbrave. It's
(07:16):
beingcommitted tothe cause
right now. Your book is
titled HumanRights and
Peace. It's apersonal
odyssey, so.
This is theSkype my
childhood and
the way I grew
up. And thenhe described
(07:38):
my careerswill sayresearch
scientist,then building
a big scienceinstitute
where Ideveloped this
method ofteaching
science. Art,music, dance,
drama, rap,poetry,animation who
walking forhuman eyes who
now being thepresident of
(08:00):
the MaltaConferencesFoundation
that usessciencediplomacy as
which is inthe Middle
East. Nice. Sotell me, tell
me how youcame to where
you are now inyour life
growing up inIsrael fromthe time until
now, I grew upin Israel was
(08:21):
a developingcountry. Idescribed in
my book thatas a littlegirl.
I eat Ienjoyed every
minute becausewe did not
have specialclasses forgifted
childrenwithinremember afterschool
programs. Wedid not have
(08:41):
cars, SUV'sfor the
mothers, thedrivers all
day round and. Theadversarial
loan for aminute, Umm
And I used to
think growingup like that
gave us a lot
of opportunityto developcreativity
becauseeverything we
(09:02):
had to find
out how toplay after
school, how toplay. Games,
we did nothave toys, so
we had to makethem. In
addition, Inever I felt
like I am veryrich. My
father was oneof thepoliticians
(09:22):
involved withthe PrimeMinister Ben
Gurion. But we
do not haveeven hadshower in the
house, butthere was onein the middle
of town. Sofrom a very
young age, 4year old, five
years old, allof us kidswent together
to take ashower. It was
(09:43):
a big eventand one day
I'd come home. In my father's
surprises meand shows me
that we have ashower. I
cried fordays. I'llsend you visit
on purposestrenuous, butif you spoil
my sociallife, I like
to go with the
kids to take ashower here I
(10:05):
have to bealone. Why?What you're
doing to me, Ithought that
it was thebiggestdisaster that
happened tome, that we
had a heartproblem now at
home. So itshows you that
you grow upverydifferently
and. Your mind
is setdifferently. Ithought it was
(10:27):
great not tohave it at
home and goingwith the kids
together. Soyou it's avery different
way of drawingup. Forexample, when
I was sixyears old, my
father wholeft a letter
in my shoes. I
I went toschool a year
earlierbecause Igraduated fromkindergarten
(10:49):
in one day. Ohh wow. I
went and I sawthe teacher
finished thechild and I
came home andI said I'd
finishedkindergartennow was make
sure I could
go to. Yeah, I
will not go
back. And
(11:09):
that's whathappened. So
by 6:00 Icould read. So
here wow, left
me a. Letter
in the lettersaid today is
your 6thbirthday. Ihope you will
grow up to beloyal to your
country, toyour nationand to your
family in thisorder for six
(11:31):
years, adultssomethingbuilt in then
he said I'mgiving you
this amount ofmoney or
supplies. Andfor your birth
date and you
will divide it
to three. One
said you will
give to to the
orphans, thechildrenacross the
parents in theHolocaust and
(11:54):
they don'thave talents,
so you willdonate. Ohh.
Will helpthem, one said
you will giveto the
national fundfor planting
trees in onecell. You can
do what you
want and if by
the age of 6
you grow uplike that,
(12:14):
that youalready have
to share yourmoney with.
Importantthings withwith helping
the orphankids with
planting treesand they saw
you go verydifferently
and you youfeel always
the need tomake the
planet abetter place
(12:36):
for everyoneand This is
why. They didwhat they did.
So you startedfrom a veryhumble
beginning. Butyou youaspiredgreatly. You
became thescientist thatyou are, a
chemist andeducator. Tellme how that
leap happened. Yeah, I'lltell you a
story. When Iwas in 3rd
(12:58):
grade, I wasseven years
old. I wouldteach children
not to come. So theprincipal came
in and said Iam going to
teach nowalgebra in 8thgrades. Your
teachers nothere. So I
came to takeall of you to
the classroomwhere I will
(13:19):
be. You willsit on the
floor. And andbe quiet. And
he took us andwe sat there.
He wasteaching thegrinderalgebra,
algebra. Andthen he wrote
the problem onthe blackboard
and he saidwho can solve
it? Nobodycould solveit. It started
then who cansolve it after
(13:40):
a few times. Iraised my
hand, remembersitting on the
floor, 7 yearsold, and he
said why areyou raising
your head? Isaid because I
can solve it. He said that
somebody saidto algebra. I
said no. Isaid, but I
can solve it. I went to the
(14:01):
black box. Allday. And he
started sayingexcellent inevery language
she knows. Andthen he wrote
to my parents
that I am likea sentence
from theBible, like a
tree that isgrowing on the
banks of theriver.
(14:23):
It was a big,
big deal. Butsince then I
knew alreadythat I'm going
to be ascientist. I
knew itearlierbecauseeverything was
I had anunbelievablepriority. When
I was threeyears old, I
sat with myfather. And
(14:43):
there was abox, andsuddenly I
held them inthe box. This
is the voiceof Jerusalem.
And I lived inHaifa. So I
said to myfather, I'm in
Haifa, how doI hear thevoice of
Jerusalem? Howis itpossible? Andpeople
couldn't lookthe address ofmy question.
And so I knew
(15:05):
I'll be. And
then in high
school, we had
already like,
majors in high
school likeliterature,
economics andlaw,communication,
and we had
math andscience. And
we had to taketests and then
(15:26):
they replacedus and I ended
up to be theonly girl in
my class. Thisis how I had
to go throughhigh school,
so. I already
was on thedirection to
become ascientist.
Umm. So. Butyou didn'tjust do
(15:46):
scientists,you went. Youdid your
chemistry, youbecame ascientist, and
then youleaned more toteaching. Now,
what pushedyou more towant to be
able to teach?Almost
identicalchild already.
OK, I gotmarried very,
very young and
had the childas an
undergraduate,so he attended
(16:08):
my bathroom. Master and
PHD's numberone. I did
research and Ienjoyed the
research. Butthere are
differentthings in life
made me feel
that I'm not
doing it on
the level I
want to do it
(16:28):
on the level I
did before. And I always
believed thatscience
education is ahuman right.
That belongs
to all and I
was verybothered going
to scientificmeetings and
see that it'svery
homogeneous. There was no
(16:50):
diversity andit bothered
me. So I
decided thenthat. Everyone
go toeducation and
I got an offer
I could not
refuse. I got
an offer from
a president in
a school andearn college
for art andcommunication.
(17:14):
That wasaccredited as
a liberal, notas announcedconverter
liberal artsand theyneeded science
and they didnot have and
the presidentjust made me
an offer togovern and
build sciencefrom scratchbuilt a
department andlike. The very
(17:35):
successfulsciencedepartment.
This old andnew methods of
teachingbecame veryfamous. I
received a lotof money and
grants, andthen he wanted
me to build abig science
institute thatbecame veryfamous, said.
And I did notlike for
(17:58):
money. Becausethe National
ScienceFoundationwanted me to
go. I'm now in
Evanston, IL,well,Northwestern
universities,but it's next
to Chicago. And theNational
ScienceFoundationgave me money
to work withthe teachers.
(18:19):
In the innercity in
Chicago andshowed them
how to teachwith my
methods. Tomake a Long
story short,it became very
successfulwithunderprivilegedstudents and
students thatnever thought
that theywould. Thatscience
(18:40):
suddenlyrealized that
they can besuccessful so
I worked withhomeless kids
that severalof them went
to studyscience and to
even did a PhDin
biochemistry. I want with
prisoners and.
I really feltthat I'm
(19:03):
making adifference and
I almost toldmy students
that scienceis a way of
thinking. It'sa criticalthinking, it's
a logicalthinking. And
I used to tell
them always ifyou go to.
Withdemonstration,I don't care
what side youfeel you want
(19:25):
to be all the
time, you doit from a
knowledgeable,intelligentpoint of view.
So somebodyasked you, why
are you inthisdemonstration?
You know toanswer very
well. Why are
you there?Istood
demonstrationthat we sawstudents from
(19:46):
ColumbiaUniversitythat werestreaming
differentslogans thatdid not even
understandwhat theymeant when
they were inthere. Youdidn't just
teach thescience andchemistry and
all that. Whatyou did was,
and I foundthisinteresting.
You discoveredthat music,
dance andvisualstorytelling
(20:08):
could reachyour students
even moresuccessfully. Delighting The
disturbancetaught methat.
OK, theyshowed me that
they can learnbetter in
different wayswhen they just
startedteaching a
dance to I
(20:30):
when I tried
to explain thechemical
reaction andfew students
were. Hazel is
that mostchildren'sdata and
assigneddifferentstudentsdifferent
chemicals inchoreograph
the dance andthe student
says oh now I
can see that I
(20:52):
understand it.
So I said, oh
I better learnfor my
students. Up
to 2, and they
were my bestteachers and
therefore,like a music
student, yeah.
I told thestudent I
hated toaddressbecause I
(21:13):
hated that Ihad one hour
to show myknowledge and
what if Idon't feel
well in thishour? So I
told mystudents that
we had a veryfamous. Their
bodies. Hisname wasdelayed and hesaid
everything youhate to bedone to you
(21:34):
don't do toyour friends. I told my
students,because everyone of you is
my friend, Icannot do for
you what Ihated to be
done to me. You can showyour knowledge
in any mediayou want. You
Can Dance. Youcouldn't see,
for example,their music
student did anexcellent job
explaining thedepletion ofthe ozone
(21:57):
layer, and he
sang it all as
his song Ihave plenty of
ozone to themusic of I
have plenty of
nothing. And
it was justbeautiful. And
it one moreadvantage to
that is that
not only Ievaluate the
(22:19):
student, thewhole class is
involved inthat. So it's
all was a very
a verydifferentatmosphere in.
For us, right?
So in yourmemoirs you
trace yourjourney fromwar-torn
Israel tointernationaldiplomacy.
What part ofthat? What
(22:40):
part of that
do you feelshaped your
voice themost? What
part of my
journey?Yes, I
think my myupgrading
you'reoffering the
values thatwere installed
with me in me
always to make
(23:02):
sure to help
others, always
to make sure
to be honest.
And to do
everything I
can to do.
To make theworld a better
place, andthis wasinstilled in
(23:23):
me and veryyoung, veryyoung.
I've never had
any doubt. I
always felt
that this is
my mission,
this is my
calling tohelp people
to, to, tostop
(23:44):
conflicts, tobringdissidents.
The freedom tomake scienceeducation
available toall, it's allone package.
So let me askyou this,
because do youever find that
those valuesthat wereinstilled in
you from avery young
age? And Iapplaud yourparents for
that. Butthose things
(24:06):
that wereinstilled inyou and after
workingmultipleconflict zonesand
negotiatingscientificcooperationsacross
politicaldivides, whatkeeps the all
of that stillalive in you?
That you'reyou're growingup values the
hope even onyour hardestdays, What
keeps all thatalive?Continue
to keep goingforwardstronger
(24:29):
because Ibelieve that
we can speak
this I believe
that we canhave better
world and what
stands in the
way is manytime
politician youknow because
the I. Ibelieve in
that peopleand I believe
(24:50):
in everybody. You know, I
have beautifultitles. Youknow, you're
still on thefellow Doral
Society ofChemistry and
all these. Butto me, every
person hasthankfulsense,something I
respect, everyperson. That
works in tries
to do their
(25:11):
job and dosomething
good. Irespect this
people becauseI thinkbasically
people want to
see a peacefulworld. People
want to be
able to seeeverybody
educated. Butlife just
divides us all
the time, andstaying unite
(25:34):
us. And I'mtaking people
from the mostdivided
region. Ibring togetherscientists
from all thecountries in
the MiddleEast, and they
are. Callingconflict with
each other inwars. In all
that in, Igive them a
(25:54):
platform tosee whatunites them,
not whatseparatesthem. I'll
give them aplatform tostop
demonizing theunknown. Add
in a platform
that can. Cancollaborate
and developfriendshipsthat can
overcome thechasm of
distrust andintolerance
(26:15):
And and you
know, after a
few days, you
don't know whocame from
which country. It's, it's
just a family. Voting
togetherbecausescience is
internationalsciencedoesn'tsupport,
doesn't seemlegit, doesn't
(26:36):
seek culture,doesn't see
language. It'sit'sinternational.
So theyalready have
aninternationallanguage and
science. Andthey should
they feel thatthis wasunites them.
And I Iremember whenthe Iraqis
came the firsttime they came
(26:57):
with tears intheir eyes to
me and theysaid wow, all
of our life welearned that
his family somuch till that
day evenlookeddifferently.
And here wefind the
nicest peopleliving the
greatest time. Hmm. All our
life we will
(27:17):
love to. So I
believe we'repeople. I
agree withthat and what
I do. I meant
to resemblethe admissionadmit
administrator. I am apermanent
mentor. Ireceived from
Bill Clintonin thepresidential
world formentoring but
(27:39):
but I feel
that if. Naked
men to manypeoples to be
successful, tobe, to try to
help others,to try to save
theenvironment. Icontribute and
I want mystudents to do
the same. Andthis is what
(27:59):
I'm doing andmy book. It's
real, it's amemoir. It has
a lot of funnythings. Somebody told
me that Icould not stoplaughing
there. Let meask you, let
me ask, let meask you this.
For those thatbar listeners
and for allthose who
(28:19):
reach for your
book. And intoday'ssphere,
everythingthat we seegoing on
around us, andthat can be
from any I I'min Ohio, in
the States. And if mostpeople have
listened to mypoliticalcommentary,
you probablyunderstandwhere I'm
coming from. So when youhave people
(28:41):
reaching foryour book. What is it
your hope andthoughts thatthey'll take
away from thatand what they
will use themost in their
in this worldtoday? My my
book is reallyalmost foreverybody
because whenit came to the
States, I wasa single mom.
I got adivorce, I got
(29:03):
remarried. But
I tend to the
state alongwith the
child, norelativeswhatsoever, no
nobody couldhelp me, not
financially,nothing. And Ibecame
successful andI won this
blog forpeople that
came in mysituation. For
(29:24):
allowing thissituation to
see that theycan be
successfultoo, the book
is showing a
lot of changes
I made in.
Life ofpeople,everybody you
don't needappeared inchemistry to
welcome humanrights, tohelp people
(29:46):
that theirhuman rights
is abuse. Youwant to want
to do it. And
my book isreally
confusing. Nowwe lost you
for a second. Well, you're
back. Yeah,there you are.
OK, there youare. Go ahead.
What is OK?So, but yeah,
(30:08):
we, we fizzledthere for a
second, but goahead. My book
is an example. But one woman
can do aforeigner,
immigrant. In
general. Umm.
2. Beats that
I want peopleto get. In
(30:29):
addition, Iwant to say I
donate allthat to myproject of
sciencediplomacy as abridge to
please send methe list
because we area group ofvolunteers
that are inthis program.
Every penny weraise goes to
bring themiddle. Easternscientists to
the conference
cost a lot of
(30:51):
money. Everyconference we
raise themoney. So all
the profits of
my boom goinggo towards
death foreverybody that
buys my book.
Part of itgoes towards
sciencediplomacy. It's a glitch.
It's in themiddle.
Commendable. Verycommendable.
(31:13):
We have havinga conference
coming up next
May, so thefundraising is
already goingand I hope
that a lot of
people willbuy the book,
said. Will it
help us in thefundraising
because theparticipants.
(31:33):
Don't pay. We
pay for all of
them and theyare coming for
five days andseveral Nobel
lawyers and wehave to pay
for all thatand there's
the money. Sothis is
helpful and ifanybody wants
to know more. About this
(31:54):
project, Thewebsite for
the project isMalta
conferencesfoundation.organd there
there is a way
how to donateand it
describes theconference and
everybody thatreads my book
part of their
money. The paygoes towards
(32:16):
theconference. So
I if I'mtruly, yeah,
go ahead, goahead. I just
want to saythat it came
now out inpaperback, so
it's much moreaffordable. Wonderful. I
have. This hasbeen adelightful
conversation. I actuallywould love to
(32:37):
have you backon. And
breakdown evenmore if youwant to on
differentstories youwould like to
from from yourbook, fromyour past. Any
bit of it. Iactually find
myself lost inlistening to
you. If you
will read thebook, you'reletting people
don't needthat. Theycould not put
(32:58):
it down. Therewere peoplethat told me
this blessingthe bookreally wassupposed to
be. More than
one book, but
I did not have
because I was
under a lot ofpressure to
write a book
on the on theeducation part
and. In the
(33:20):
book there isa huge chapter
on that butpeople wanted
a book andmore details.
But we have anew tool that
shows allthese creativeprojects that
the studentsdid. Lovestory from
sodium andfluorine toform table
salt writtenlike Romeo and
Juliet. LikeShakespeare,the bottom
(33:42):
father that istied the
chemical bondexactlyfollowing the
Godfather.
Star Wars onthe depletion
of those oldlayer there
areunbelievablethere are
tenses ondifferent.
Antibioticsubject so.
(34:05):
I was underpressure towrite this
book, but theylooked at the
time. Then Iwas underpressure to
write about myactivities onhuman right.
You know that. Then there was
the pressureto write aboutscience
diplomacy. There is 1chapter in my
book title forMissionImpossible. Mission
(34:25):
possible andit describesthe obstacle
to find thecountry to
give a visa to
own this goalnot counted.
This groupcould not come
to the US 37countries. We
have a bannerthat they
cannot enterwith nocountry.
Launch all my
(34:47):
group. So it'sa whole
chaptershowing all
the methods I
had to use in
order to get
the visa foreverybody to
come therearound likeSherlock
Holmes, our
own 007. Took
it to get thevisa, so
(35:07):
people wantedtheir book on
there and Iwanted thebooks that
will not bemore than 200
pages. Todate, peopledon't read
more than 200pages. I
didn't want itto be so, but
I think Imanaged thatthe. Essence
and if everanybody elsequestion or
(35:27):
more they canalways contact
me or invite. I'm giving
webinar, a lotof webinar.
I'll give alot oflectures
because a lotof people read
the book andask questions.
There is adescription on
my book aboutmy mother.
That they werenine children
(35:48):
and theBolsheviks
held it wasRussia,nowadays
partiesUkraine, but
it was Russiakilled the
parents andthe older
brother andthey were left
8 orphans allalong. My
mother was 1. Before the
youngest, soshe was very,
(36:09):
very young andtheir mother
had thenecklace, thegolden
necklace. Sothey didn't
know how towho to give
it. So theydecided all
the eight ofthem when they
arrived toIsrael veryyoung. Well
don't wasmaybe 14 to
(36:29):
melt it andmake a ring
for everybodywith theirmother initial
on them. Butthe people
that lived inthe book and
see me call
me. Can we seethe ring?
Yesterday Ihad dinnerwith two
people thatthat my book. The first
(36:51):
question iswhere is the
ring? The ringis on my
finger, butthey theyimmediatelythe first
question andwe see therain people
one daybecause hedescribes
their how theydealt with
that so. Toask me where
is the ringwhen I met
with them. Butif any of your
(37:13):
listeners oryou or yourfriends or
your familyget the book,
please write areview onAmazon. And
because thiswill help usand remember,
I don't takethem. Panic
from the book
it's all goes
to help peace
in the MiddleEast. How
(37:34):
blessed peopleto live with
living thisand not this
world enoughpieces piecespriceless
peace ispriceless and
damaged. Ishow how. It
didn't reachit. Theproblem is
that there arebillions andbillions,
trillions ofdollars for
(37:54):
weapon of massdestruction,right? Yeah
the exactly. Ohh smallpotion of
death wouldbring peace,
but we have tobeg like
beggars to askfor money. And
deep and theyknow that to
be able to dowhat we do and
we've I wouldadd more moneymore people
(38:15):
could beinvolved. Thiswould have
come fast. Yeah, Itotally agree.
There's a lotof oligarchycontrol going
on. This is 1of this rich
people thinkcarry all theconference.
Ohh my gosh.
$100,000 aconference forthis rich
people, it'snot enough. There's
there's a lotof depravity
(38:36):
in the worldthat could be
ended justfrom onepaycheck of
some of thered Colette.
Umm, I want tothank you so
much. I wantto thank you
so much forbeing on.
Thank you verymuch. Thankyou very much.
And it was apleasure to
talk to you. Ijust, I'msorry I cannot
(38:57):
see you.
I'm sorry, I'min mypresentation,
I'm sitting inmy PJ's. I
would not bepleased to
look at, youknow, I had
the studentshere till the
minute thereyou're way
Lincoln and Isaid to him.
(39:19):
One good thingthat it's not
on Zoom or anyother platform
that they have
to see me. I
don't have toput belt up.
I'm wearing mysweatshirt.
I just, weused to do alot of things,
but I havefound thatthis justmakes it more
(39:41):
relaxed. Ilove my gueststo be able to
just feel likeyou're sittingdown having a
chat with afriend andhaving a cup
of coffee ortea orwhatever. You
wish I couldhave a cup ofcoffee with
you. Youalready knowOhio, not too
far. Stillneed not this
out, not thishouse. You can
come toChicago. The
dinner will beon me. I'm
(40:03):
inviting you.
You need totalk. I'mtelling youright now,
you're morethan welcometo come back
anytime. I amsure thatthere aredozens of
stories thatwe can talkabout. Ohh,
there are veryfunny storiesthat I can
tell you thatare in mybook. Wonderful.
Well, hit meback up. Let'slet's get back
(40:24):
up on POD. Batch and we
can make someroom. I canpeel as the
beginning ofthe next yearcomes. We can
actually lotyou off somespaces if you
really want todo it. OK,good. I'd like
to talk toyou. You arenice. Well,
thank you. Ilike to bethought of
that way. Iknow you'renice. You're
(40:45):
laughing. Theothers arevery serious
where they'renobody'slaughing like
you're you'relaughing. It'snot thank you,
thank you. Itry to make
it. I love forpeople to give
their theirviewpoint onthe world and
you're talkingaboutsomething I
would agree onpeace. I agreethat people
should cometogether andso. I will
(41:07):
always makeroom on my
platform forthat. Alwaysadjust.
Muzzled themonths ofAugust in
Israel. I sawmyparticipants
from the WestBank too. I
was on theborder with
Gaza. Yeah. Idon't just
talk. I do. It's been like
(41:27):
ohh yes you doand Iappreciatethat. Well
thank you somuch for beingon with us. I
actually hadto create 2videos because
I did not wantto stop youtalkingbecause I
truly enjoyit. We triedto do 20
minutes and weare way overthat but I've
got nowhere.
No, I'm gonnabe editing awhile putting
(41:47):
it alltogether, butthat's fine.
If I have todo severalslots, it's
fine. I reallyenjoyedspeaking with
you, and likeI said, I
thought it wasa lot of funnyexperiences.
Are you stillrecording? Ifyou recall,
take thisstory out.
But. Wasinvited to
lecture in theconference in
(42:08):
Morocco and itwas inMarrakesh.
Beautifulhotel. But you
know in the US
you you enterthe first
floor buttaking the
rest of the ofthe world's
first flow isa flow above.
So I arrivedvery late in
all. What Iremember is
(42:30):
that the theperson that
helped me, wetook an
elevator andthe way the
numbers were,the first
number was thenumber of the
building,second numberwas the
number. Of theof the floor
in the lasttwo numberswhen the
(42:50):
numbers of theroom, so it
was late atnight. I don't
know wherewhere I amafter
breakfast I goto my room. So
I remember Itook anelevator. I
must be on the2nd. Look
cycle throughthe 2nd floor.
My my room is
(43:10):
53. I put it
in, it doesn't
open. I go tothe reception
and I said itdoesn't open.
They said, did
you put it in
your key nextto your cell
phone? I saidyes. They said
therefore youcannot openit. So they
watch yournumber. So I
(43:32):
said one thebuilding 2,
the floor 53. So they give
me the keys, I
go, I put itin the door
open all darkand the man
jumps out ofbed. So I said
to myself. Like deepenough or
whatever, theysell this. What the hell?
Either you'reselfish like
(43:53):
that. Damn, Ididn't know.
Ohh. I'd saywhat are you
doing here?And he said
what are youdoing here?
Size 10, It'smy home. And
he said it's
my home. So wego there,
folks likethat. And then
in the dark I
(44:15):
see a hugeblack suitcase
and mine isorange. Sign
right away. And I got my
mistake and Ientered thereception
before hecould run to
complain and Isaid I made
the mistake. It's 1145. And
he gave me thekissing like
disappear tilltoday I don't
(44:37):
know who wasthe man, but
he wasprobably wasin my
conscience andknew I was,
but they nevertold me. But
my firstreaction Isaid, oh, I
was told abouta lot of
services inMorocco, butthese. Yeah,
there's nobodytold me this
was myself sayaction. So
(44:57):
when I cameand told it to
everybody,they said onlyto you
something likethat.
Ohh my, wellI'm glad itwas dark.
Can youimagine? Youthink you are
(45:18):
going into youin the minds
of ohh, mygosh, I think
I would havepeed myself a
little. No, Isaid. What are
you doing here?
They don'tleave.
I justreceived and
he wasn'texactlydressed, he
(45:38):
was with hisunderwear.
Ohh, mygoodness. Well, thankyou so much
for being withus thisevening. I'm
gonna I I'msadly I haveto cut it here
because I'mgoing to beediting for a
little whiletonight, butyou were so
worth it. Thank you somuch for being
with. Thankyou. You makeme laugh and
(46:00):
laughing isbeautiful dayhell. It it
did. Thank youvery much. Well, thank
you. Thank youto ourlisteners,
guys. Untilnext time, goahead. Safer.
No, I wantedto say happyThanksgiving.
I thought weare finishedalready. We
are now thatyou've tasted
hope you willnot. You will
(46:21):
not. You will
not leave thelast laststory. You
will take itout. OK. Ohh.
Would you wantme to take it
out? Well,this storyabout the man
you want toyou know, I
think it's Ithink it'sawesome. We're
live it's wayout there. Ohmy God.
(46:44):
It's live,it's alreadyout there. I
loved it. Ilove thatwe're leaving
it and youcome back. Talk to me on
Pod Match andlet's makesome dates. We
can makeseveral acrossthe board for
this comingyear and youmade my year.
Very thankfulfor having youon and
thankful forwhat you dofor the world.
In general. Sothank youagain, thank
(47:05):
you to ourlisteners. Until nexttime guys,
bye, bye fornow.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.