TED Talks Daily What I got wrong about changing the world | Malala Yousafzai
38 snips
Apr 14, 2026 
Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize winner and girls’ education activist, reflects on how her view of change evolved after surviving the Taliban and watching Afghanistan unravel. She talks about losing faith in powerful leaders. She explores acting through despair, supporting secret schools, using film and football as resistance, and pushing for gender apartheid to be recognized in law.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
From Childlike Faith To Hard Political Reality
- As a child, Malala Yousafzai thought change meant telling leaders what was wrong and trusting them to fix it.
- After the Taliban banned girls' schooling, she blogged, protested, and spoke publicly, then learned real policy change demands long, exhausting advocacy.
Afghanistan Shattered Her Faith In Progress
- Malala Yousafzai's belief in steady progress collapsed when the Taliban retook Afghanistan while she recovered from surgery.
- She called Afghan activists from her hospital bed, heard experts insist the Taliban had changed, and watched those assurances prove false.
Start With Something When Hope Feels Gone
- Start with something, even when the crisis feels too large to reverse.
- Malala Yousafzai could not undo Afghanistan's collapse, so she backed underground schools where girls study by radio, cassette tapes, and secret book-sharing.