Interview With Nicholas Kristof: Traveling and Tweeting Under 'Half the Sky' - Features - World Hum

Interview With Nicholas Kristof: Traveling and Tweeting Under 'Half the Sky' - Features - World Hum: "World Hum: The issues explored in “Half the Sky,” from sex slavery to violence against women to health, are often dire, but you and your wife temper that reality with a message of hope. How do you manage to stay optimistic?

Nicholas Kristof: I’ve encountered brutally depressing atrocities from Congo to Cambodia, but side by side with the worst of humanity I always seem to encounter the best. In a violence-filled nook of Congo, surrounded by war and rape, I found a Polish nun who was struggling singlehandedly to save orphans from warlords. At that moment I wanted to grow up to be a Polish nun. And when I return from the hellholes, I’m typically less depressed by the warlord types than inspired by the Polish nun types. In fact, what does depress me sometimes is when I come back to the United States and find many people uninterested in any cause larger than themselves."