WEBVTT 00:00:05.769 --> 00:00:08.690 I want to tell you about my search for purpose as a journalist 00:00:08.714 --> 00:00:12.134 and how Dolly Parton helped me figure it out. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:13.038 --> 00:00:15.649 So I've been telling audio stories for about 20 years, 00:00:15.673 --> 00:00:17.594 first on the radio and then in podcasts. 00:00:17.981 --> 00:00:21.195 When I started the radio show "Radiolab" in 2002, 00:00:21.883 --> 00:00:24.620 here was the quintessential story move we would do. 00:00:24.645 --> 00:00:26.178 We'd bring on somebody -- NOTE Paragraph 00:00:26.203 --> 00:00:28.797 (Audio) Steven Strogatz: It's one of the most hypnotic 00:00:28.821 --> 00:00:31.265 and spellbinding spectacles in nature, 00:00:31.289 --> 00:00:34.384 because, you have to keep in mind, it is absolutely silent. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:34.409 --> 00:00:37.068 Jad Abumrad: Like this guy, mathematician, Steve Strogatz, 00:00:37.092 --> 00:00:38.504 and he would paint a picture. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:38.528 --> 00:00:40.827 SS: Picture it. There's a riverbank in Thailand, 00:00:40.851 --> 00:00:42.424 in the remote part of the jungle, 00:00:42.438 --> 00:00:44.861 you're in a canoe, slipping down the river. 00:00:45.535 --> 00:00:46.956 There's no sound of anything, 00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:50.273 maybe the occasional, you know, exotic jungle bird or something. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:50.297 --> 00:00:52.622 JA: So you're in this imaginary canoe with Steve, 00:00:52.646 --> 00:00:56.177 and in the air all around you are millions of fireflies. 00:00:56.201 --> 00:01:00.296 And what you see is sort of a randomized starry-night effect. 00:01:00.606 --> 00:01:03.566 Because all the fireflies are blinking at different rates. 00:01:03.590 --> 00:01:05.091 Which is what you would expect. 00:01:05.487 --> 00:01:08.178 But according to Steve, in this one place, 00:01:08.202 --> 00:01:10.884 for reasons no scientist can fully explain -- NOTE Paragraph 00:01:10.908 --> 00:01:12.058 SS: Whoop. 00:01:12.996 --> 00:01:14.177 Whoop. 00:01:14.924 --> 00:01:16.121 Whoop. 00:01:16.145 --> 00:01:19.073 With thousands of lights on and then off, all in sync. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:19.097 --> 00:01:26.097 (Music and electric sounds) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:26.327 --> 00:01:27.763 JA: Now it's around this time 00:01:27.787 --> 00:01:30.978 that I would generally bring in the beautiful music, as I just did, 00:01:31.002 --> 00:01:33.010 and you'd start to get that warm feeling. 00:01:33.034 --> 00:01:34.816 A feeling, that we know from science, 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:36.760 kind of localizes in your head and chest 00:01:36.784 --> 00:01:38.237 and spreads through your body. 00:01:38.261 --> 00:01:39.879 It's that feeling of wonder. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:39.903 --> 00:01:43.143 From 2002 to 2010, I did hundreds of these stories. 00:01:44.693 --> 00:01:48.138 Sciency, neurosciency, very heady, brainy stories 00:01:48.162 --> 00:01:50.860 that would always resolve into that feeling of wonder. 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:53.419 And I began to see that as my job, 00:01:53.443 --> 00:01:55.817 to lead people to moments of wonder. 00:01:56.269 --> 00:01:57.753 What that sounded like was: NOTE Paragraph 00:01:57.777 --> 00:02:01.585 (Various voices) "Huh!" "Wow!" "Wow!" 00:02:02.094 --> 00:02:03.259 "That's amazing." 00:02:03.283 --> 00:02:05.316 "Whoa!" "Wow!" NOTE Paragraph 00:02:05.340 --> 00:02:08.371 JA: But I began to get kind of tired of these stories. 00:02:08.720 --> 00:02:10.673 I mean, partially, it was the repetition. 00:02:10.697 --> 00:02:13.387 I remember there was a day I was sitting at the computer, 00:02:13.411 --> 00:02:14.807 making the sound of a neuron. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:14.831 --> 00:02:15.982 (Crackling sound) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:16.006 --> 00:02:19.325 You know, take some white noise, chop it up, very easy sound to make. 00:02:19.349 --> 00:02:23.214 I remember thinking, "I have made this sound 25 times." 00:02:23.238 --> 00:02:25.252 But it was more than that -- 00:02:25.276 --> 00:02:27.443 there was a familiar path to these stories. 00:02:27.467 --> 00:02:29.959 You walk the path of truth, which is made of science, 00:02:29.983 --> 00:02:31.133 and you get to wonder. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:31.157 --> 00:02:33.185 Now, I love science, don't get me wrong. 00:02:33.209 --> 00:02:35.332 My parents emigrated from a war-torn country, 00:02:35.356 --> 00:02:36.578 came to America, 00:02:36.602 --> 00:02:41.427 and science for them was, like, more their identity than anything else, 00:02:41.451 --> 00:02:43.518 and I inherited that from them. 00:02:44.268 --> 00:02:46.737 But there was something about that simple movement 00:02:46.761 --> 00:02:48.047 from science to wonder 00:02:48.071 --> 00:02:49.908 that just started to feel wrong to me. 00:02:49.933 --> 00:02:52.051 Like, is that the only path a story can take? NOTE Paragraph 00:02:52.945 --> 00:02:54.599 Around 2012, 00:02:54.823 --> 00:02:59.076 I ran into a bunch of different stories that made me think, "No." 00:02:59.466 --> 00:03:00.632 One story in particular, 00:03:00.656 --> 00:03:04.673 where we interviewed a guy who described chemical weapons 00:03:04.697 --> 00:03:07.325 being used against him and his fellow villagers 00:03:07.349 --> 00:03:08.587 in the mountains of Laos. 00:03:08.611 --> 00:03:10.547 Western scientists went there, 00:03:10.571 --> 00:03:13.140 measured for chemical weapons, didn't find any. 00:03:13.164 --> 00:03:14.791 We interviewed the man about this, 00:03:14.815 --> 00:03:16.449 he said the scientists were wrong. 00:03:16.473 --> 00:03:17.878 We said, "But they tested." 00:03:17.902 --> 00:03:20.362 He said, "I don't care, I know what happened to me." 00:03:20.386 --> 00:03:22.537 And we went back and forth and back and forth, 00:03:22.561 --> 00:03:24.449 and make a long story short, 00:03:24.473 --> 00:03:26.167 the interview ended in tears. 00:03:26.981 --> 00:03:28.131 I felt ... 00:03:28.751 --> 00:03:29.901 I felt horrible. 00:03:31.036 --> 00:03:34.249 Like, hammering at a scientific truth, when someone has suffered. 00:03:35.045 --> 00:03:36.997 That wasn't going to heal anything. 00:03:37.021 --> 00:03:41.589 And maybe I was relying too much on science to find the truth. 00:03:41.918 --> 00:03:43.776 And it really did feel, at that moment, 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:45.879 that there were a lot of truths in the room, 00:03:45.903 --> 00:03:47.838 and we were only looking at one of them. 00:03:47.862 --> 00:03:50.053 So I thought, "I've got to get better at this." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:50.077 --> 00:03:51.648 And so for the next eight years, 00:03:51.672 --> 00:03:55.230 I committed myself to doing stories where you heard truths collide. 00:03:55.254 --> 00:03:57.394 We did stories about the politics of consent, 00:03:57.418 --> 00:04:00.299 where you heard the perspective of survivors and perpetrators 00:04:00.323 --> 00:04:01.530 whose narratives clashed. 00:04:01.554 --> 00:04:02.807 We did stories about race, 00:04:02.831 --> 00:04:05.457 how black men are systematically eliminated from juries, 00:04:05.481 --> 00:04:08.305 and yet, the rules that try and prevent that from happening 00:04:08.329 --> 00:04:09.529 only make things worse. 00:04:09.553 --> 00:04:12.093 Stories about counter terrorism, Guantanamo detainees, 00:04:12.117 --> 00:04:13.893 stories where everything is disputed, 00:04:13.917 --> 00:04:16.258 all you can do is struggle to try and make sense. 00:04:16.282 --> 00:04:18.964 And this struggle kind of became the point. 00:04:20.031 --> 00:04:22.427 I began to think, "Maybe that's my job." 00:04:22.451 --> 00:04:24.444 To lead people to moments of struggle. 00:04:25.015 --> 00:04:26.483 Here's what that sounded like: NOTE Paragraph 00:04:26.507 --> 00:04:28.594 (Various voices) "But I see -- I, like --" NOTE Paragraph 00:04:28.618 --> 00:04:29.919 "Uh, I --" (Sighs) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:29.943 --> 00:04:31.935 "Well, so, like, huh --" NOTE Paragraph 00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:33.379 "That, I mean, I --" NOTE Paragraph 00:04:33.403 --> 00:04:37.546 "You know -- golly -- I --" (Sighs) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:37.570 --> 00:04:40.355 JA: And that sigh right there, 00:04:40.379 --> 00:04:43.119 I wanted to hear that sound in every single story, 00:04:43.143 --> 00:04:46.176 because that sound is kind of our current moment, right? 00:04:46.200 --> 00:04:50.566 We live in a world where truth is no longer just a set of facts 00:04:50.590 --> 00:04:51.751 to be captured. 00:04:51.775 --> 00:04:52.942 It's become a process. 00:04:52.966 --> 00:04:55.312 It's gone from being a noun to being a verb. 00:04:55.336 --> 00:04:57.419 But how do you end that story? 00:04:57.443 --> 00:05:01.300 Like, what literally kept happening is we'd be, you know, telling a story, 00:05:01.324 --> 00:05:03.507 cruising along, two viewpoints in conflict, 00:05:03.531 --> 00:05:06.229 you get to the end and it's just like -- 00:05:06.253 --> 00:05:07.404 No, let me see. 00:05:07.428 --> 00:05:08.721 What do I say at the end? 00:05:08.745 --> 00:05:09.896 Oh, my God. 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:11.951 What do you -- how do you end that story? 00:05:11.975 --> 00:05:13.745 You can't just happily-ever-after it, 00:05:13.769 --> 00:05:15.277 because that doesn't feel real. 00:05:15.301 --> 00:05:16.451 At the same time, 00:05:16.475 --> 00:05:18.864 if you just leave people in that stuck place, 00:05:18.888 --> 00:05:20.729 like, "Why did I just listen to that?" 00:05:20.753 --> 00:05:23.309 Like, it felt like there had to be another move there. 00:05:23.333 --> 00:05:25.943 Had to be a way beyond the struggle. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:25.967 --> 00:05:29.772 And this is what brings me to Dolly. 00:05:30.254 --> 00:05:32.777 Or Saint Dolly, as we like to call her in the South. 00:05:32.801 --> 00:05:36.445 I want to tell you about one little glimmer of an epiphany that I had, 00:05:36.469 --> 00:05:39.631 doing a nine-part series called "Dolly Parton's America" last year. 00:05:39.655 --> 00:05:41.336 It was a bit of a departure for me, 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:44.539 but I just had this intuition that Dolly could help me 00:05:44.563 --> 00:05:46.316 figure out this ending problem. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:46.340 --> 00:05:48.094 And here was the basic intuition: 00:05:48.118 --> 00:05:49.396 You go to a Dolly concert, 00:05:49.420 --> 00:05:52.118 you see men in trucker hats standing next to men in drag, 00:05:52.142 --> 00:05:54.031 Democrats standing next to Republicans, 00:05:54.055 --> 00:05:55.206 women holding hands, 00:05:55.230 --> 00:05:57.483 every different kind of person smashed together. 00:05:57.507 --> 00:06:00.372 All of these people that we are told should hate each other 00:06:00.396 --> 00:06:02.126 are there singing together. 00:06:02.150 --> 00:06:05.570 She somehow carved out this unique space in America, 00:06:05.594 --> 00:06:07.983 and I wanted to know, how did she do that? NOTE Paragraph 00:06:08.007 --> 00:06:12.705 So I interviewed Dolly 12 times, two separate continents. 00:06:12.729 --> 00:06:14.500 She started every interview this way: NOTE Paragraph 00:06:14.524 --> 00:06:16.864 (Audio) Dolly Parton: Ask me whatever you ask me, 00:06:16.888 --> 00:06:19.087 and I'm going to tell you what I want to hear. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:19.111 --> 00:06:20.119 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:20.143 --> 00:06:22.800 JA: She is undeniably a force of nature. 00:06:22.824 --> 00:06:25.102 But the problem that I ran into 00:06:25.126 --> 00:06:29.617 is that I had chosen a conceit for this series 00:06:29.641 --> 00:06:32.054 that my soul had trouble with. 00:06:32.078 --> 00:06:34.014 Dolly sings a lot about the South. 00:06:34.038 --> 00:06:35.673 If you go through her discography, 00:06:35.697 --> 00:06:37.967 you will hear song after song about Tennessee. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:37.991 --> 00:06:40.879 (Music) DP: (Singing, various songs) Tennessee, Tennessee... 00:06:40.903 --> 00:06:42.369 Tennessee homesick ... 00:06:43.150 --> 00:06:47.617 I've got those Tennessee homesick blues runnin' through my head. 00:06:48.682 --> 00:06:49.796 Tennessee. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:49.820 --> 00:06:52.678 JA: "Tennessee Mountain Home," "Tennessee Mountain Memories." 00:06:52.682 --> 00:06:54.419 Now I grew up in Tennessee, 00:06:54.443 --> 00:06:56.459 and I felt no nostalgia for that place. 00:06:56.483 --> 00:06:59.478 I was the scrawny Arab kid 00:06:59.502 --> 00:07:02.784 who came from the place that invented suicide bombing. 00:07:02.808 --> 00:07:05.069 I spent a lot of time in my room. 00:07:05.093 --> 00:07:06.689 When I left Nashville, 00:07:06.713 --> 00:07:08.848 I left. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:08.872 --> 00:07:10.324 I remember being at Dollywood, 00:07:10.348 --> 00:07:14.149 standing in front of a replica, replica of her Tennessee Mountain Home. 00:07:14.173 --> 00:07:15.912 People all around me were crying. 00:07:15.936 --> 00:07:18.309 This is a set. 00:07:18.705 --> 00:07:19.872 Why are you crying? 00:07:19.896 --> 00:07:22.185 I couldn't understand why they were so emotional, 00:07:22.209 --> 00:07:24.759 especially given my relationship to the South. 00:07:25.356 --> 00:07:27.991 And I started to honestly have panic attacks about this. 00:07:28.015 --> 00:07:30.154 "Am I not the right person for this project?" NOTE Paragraph 00:07:31.491 --> 00:07:32.641 But then ... 00:07:33.297 --> 00:07:34.447 twist of fate. 00:07:34.471 --> 00:07:36.301 We meet this guy, Bryan Seaver, 00:07:36.325 --> 00:07:38.562 Dolly's nephew and bodyguard. 00:07:38.586 --> 00:07:41.959 And on a whim, he drives producer Shima Oliaee and I 00:07:41.983 --> 00:07:43.261 out of Dollywood, 00:07:43.285 --> 00:07:45.269 round the back side of the mountains, 00:07:45.293 --> 00:07:46.697 up the mountains 20 minutes, 00:07:46.721 --> 00:07:48.150 down a narrow dirt road, 00:07:48.174 --> 00:07:51.366 through giant wooden gates that look right out of "Game of Thrones," 00:07:51.390 --> 00:07:54.921 and into the actual Tennessee Mountain Home. 00:07:57.048 --> 00:07:58.397 But the real place. 00:07:58.421 --> 00:07:59.575 Valhalla. 00:07:59.599 --> 00:08:01.176 The real Tennessee Mountain Home. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:01.200 --> 00:08:03.356 And I'm going to score this part with Wagner, 00:08:03.380 --> 00:08:05.007 because you've got to understand, 00:08:05.031 --> 00:08:06.197 in Tennessee lore, 00:08:06.221 --> 00:08:09.007 this is like hallowed ground, the Tennessee Mountain Home. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:09.031 --> 00:08:11.785 So I remember standing there, on the grass, 00:08:11.809 --> 00:08:13.650 next to the Pigeon River, 00:08:13.674 --> 00:08:16.044 butterflies doing loopty loops in the air, 00:08:16.068 --> 00:08:18.334 and I had my own moment of wonder. 00:08:19.012 --> 00:08:21.758 Dolly's Tennessee Mountain Home 00:08:21.782 --> 00:08:25.545 looks exactly like my dad's home in the mountains of Lebanon. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:26.023 --> 00:08:29.705 Her house looks just like the place that he left. 00:08:30.276 --> 00:08:33.575 And that simple bit of layering led me to have a conversation with him 00:08:33.599 --> 00:08:34.857 that I'd never had before, 00:08:34.881 --> 00:08:36.991 about the pain he felt leaving his home. 00:08:37.015 --> 00:08:39.058 And how he hears that in Dolly's music. 00:08:39.082 --> 00:08:42.900 Then I had a conversation with Dolly where she described her songs 00:08:42.924 --> 00:08:44.186 as migration music. 00:08:44.210 --> 00:08:46.098 Even that classic song, 00:08:46.122 --> 00:08:48.669 "Tennessee Mountain Home," if you listen to it -- NOTE Paragraph 00:08:49.610 --> 00:08:51.571 (Dolly Parton "Tennessee Mountain Home") 00:08:51.595 --> 00:08:55.816 "Sittin' on the front porch on a summer afternoon 00:08:56.570 --> 00:09:00.324 In a straight-backed chair on two legs, 00:09:00.348 --> 00:09:03.888 leaned against the wall." NOTE Paragraph 00:09:05.356 --> 00:09:09.737 It's about trying to capture a moment that you know is already gone. 00:09:09.761 --> 00:09:12.507 But if you can paint it, vividly, 00:09:12.531 --> 00:09:16.150 maybe you can freeze it in place, almost like in resin, 00:09:16.174 --> 00:09:18.374 trapped between past and present. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:21.239 That is the immigrant experience. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:21.801 --> 00:09:24.952 And that simple thought led me to a million conversations. 00:09:24.976 --> 00:09:28.928 I started talking to musicologists about country music as a whole. 00:09:28.952 --> 00:09:31.365 This genre that I've always felt so 00:09:31.389 --> 00:09:33.460 having nothing to do with where I came from 00:09:33.484 --> 00:09:36.332 is actually made up of instruments and musical styles 00:09:36.356 --> 00:09:38.285 that came directly from the Middle East. 00:09:38.309 --> 00:09:42.086 In fact, there were trade routes that ran from what is now Lebanon 00:09:42.110 --> 00:09:44.534 right up into the mountains of East Tennessee. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:45.007 --> 00:09:48.816 I can honestly say, standing there, looking at her home, 00:09:48.840 --> 00:09:51.967 was the first time I felt like I'm a Tennessean. 00:09:52.957 --> 00:09:54.424 That is honestly true. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:54.802 --> 00:09:56.489 And this wasn't a one-time thing, 00:09:56.513 --> 00:09:57.877 I mean, over and over again, 00:09:57.901 --> 00:10:01.830 she would force me beyond the simple categories 00:10:01.854 --> 00:10:03.380 I had constructed for the world. 00:10:03.404 --> 00:10:06.225 I remember talking with her about her seven-year partnership 00:10:06.249 --> 00:10:07.427 with Porter Wagoner. 00:10:07.451 --> 00:10:11.658 1967, she joins his band, he is the biggest thing in country music, 00:10:11.682 --> 00:10:14.119 she is a backup singer, a nobody. 00:10:14.143 --> 00:10:16.602 Within a short time, she gets huge, 00:10:16.626 --> 00:10:17.785 he gets jealous, 00:10:17.809 --> 00:10:20.602 he then sues her for three million dollars 00:10:20.626 --> 00:10:21.840 when she tries to leave. 00:10:21.864 --> 00:10:24.785 Now it would be really easy to see Porter Wagoner 00:10:24.809 --> 00:10:28.070 as, like, a type: classic, patriarchal jackass, 00:10:28.094 --> 00:10:29.406 trying to hold her back. 00:10:29.430 --> 00:10:31.464 But any time I would suggest that to her, 00:10:31.488 --> 00:10:32.645 like, come on. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:32.669 --> 00:10:35.495 (Audio) This is a guy, I mean, you see it in the videos too, 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:37.383 he's got his arm around you. 00:10:37.407 --> 00:10:41.343 There's a power thing happening, for sure. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:41.367 --> 00:10:43.904 DP: Well, it's more complicated than that. 00:10:43.928 --> 00:10:45.689 I mean, just think about it. 00:10:45.713 --> 00:10:47.301 He had had this show for years, 00:10:47.325 --> 00:10:50.451 he didn't need me to have his hit show. 00:10:50.475 --> 00:10:54.009 He wasn't expecting me to be all that I was, either. 00:10:54.348 --> 00:10:57.312 I was a serious entertainer, he didn't know that. 00:10:57.336 --> 00:11:00.586 He didn't know how many dreams I had. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:00.610 --> 00:11:02.285 JA: In effect, she kept telling me, 00:11:02.309 --> 00:11:05.332 "Don't bring your stupid way of seeing the world into my story, 00:11:05.356 --> 00:11:06.856 because that's not what it was. 00:11:06.880 --> 00:11:09.824 Yeah, there was power, but that's not all there was. 00:11:09.848 --> 00:11:11.582 You can't summarize this." NOTE Paragraph 00:11:13.501 --> 00:11:15.017 Alright, just to zoom out. 00:11:15.041 --> 00:11:16.318 What do I make of this? 00:11:16.342 --> 00:11:20.533 Well, I think there's something in here that's a clue, a way forward. 00:11:20.557 --> 00:11:22.263 As journalists, we love difference. 00:11:22.287 --> 00:11:23.888 We love to fetishize difference. 00:11:23.912 --> 00:11:26.348 But increasingly, in this confusing world, 00:11:26.372 --> 00:11:29.213 we need to be the bridge between those differences. 00:11:29.237 --> 00:11:30.770 But how do you do that? NOTE Paragraph 00:11:31.261 --> 00:11:34.070 I think for me, now, the answer is simple. 00:11:34.094 --> 00:11:36.443 You interrogate those differences, 00:11:36.467 --> 00:11:38.991 you hold them for as long as you can, 00:11:39.015 --> 00:11:42.189 until, like up on that mountain, 00:11:42.213 --> 00:11:43.414 something happens, 00:11:43.438 --> 00:11:45.105 something reveals itself. 00:11:45.800 --> 00:11:47.705 Story cannot end in difference. 00:11:47.729 --> 00:11:49.544 It's got to end in revelation. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:50.277 --> 00:11:52.999 And coming back from that trip on the mountain, 00:11:53.023 --> 00:11:56.435 a friend of mine gave me a book that gave this whole idea a name. 00:11:56.856 --> 00:11:59.450 In psychotherapy, there's this idea called the third, 00:11:59.474 --> 00:12:01.064 which essentially goes like this. 00:12:01.406 --> 00:12:04.667 Typically, we think of ourselves as these autonomous units. 00:12:04.691 --> 00:12:07.356 I do something to you, you do something to me. 00:12:07.380 --> 00:12:10.197 But according to this theory, when two people come together 00:12:10.221 --> 00:12:12.769 and really commit to seeing each other, 00:12:12.793 --> 00:12:15.427 in that mutual act of recognition, 00:12:15.451 --> 00:12:17.539 they actually make something new. 00:12:17.563 --> 00:12:20.229 A new entity that is their relationship. 00:12:21.006 --> 00:12:25.095 You can think of Dolly's concerts as sort of a cultural third space. 00:12:25.119 --> 00:12:27.825 The way she sees all the different parts of her audience, 00:12:27.849 --> 00:12:29.039 the way they see her, 00:12:29.063 --> 00:12:31.927 creates the spiritual architecture of that space. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:33.293 --> 00:12:35.626 And I think now that is my calling. 00:12:36.237 --> 00:12:37.816 That as a journalist, 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:39.729 as a storyteller, 00:12:39.753 --> 00:12:41.681 as just an American, 00:12:41.705 --> 00:12:45.094 living in a country struggling to hold, 00:12:45.118 --> 00:12:48.094 that every story I tell has got to find the third. 00:12:49.001 --> 00:12:52.342 That place where the things we hold as different 00:12:52.366 --> 00:12:54.504 resolve themselves into something new. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:55.792 --> 00:12:56.942 Thank you.