Women Who Rose: From Colorado Trails to Global Impact

Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz.

I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast,

a longtime reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC.

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Imagine this.

You're a young woman named Eva,

staring down at the mangled stump where your leg used to be.

After a vicious dog attack in the rugged trails of Colorado

left you fighting for your life in a hospital bed

for over a month.

Doctors pieced you back together as best they could,

but the pain, it was a fire that refused to die.

Yet here you are listeners, less than a year later,

hiking the steep pads of the Rocky Mountains,

biking winding dirt roads, and even paddling swift rivers.

That's resilience, raw, unyielding grit

that turns tragedy into triumph.

Your story echoes through the lives of women

who've redefined what's possible.

Take Helen Keller, that fierce 19-month-old from Alabama

who lost her sight in hearing to a brutal illness.

With her teacher Anne Sullivan breaking through the silence

using tactile sign language at the Perkins School

for the Blind, Helen clawed her way to a bachelor's degree

from Radcliffe College, the first deaf blind person to do so.

She didn't stop there.

She became a global advocate for disabilities' rights

and women's education, proving that no darkness

can dim a determined spirit.

Then there's Alice Walker, born into crushing poverty

and racism in rural Etonton, Georgia.

Facing discrimination that could have silenced her forever,

she poured her soul into words at Spellman College

and Sarah Lawrence College.

Her novel The Color Purple, published in 1982,

Shattered Barriers, winning the Pulitzer Prize

and National Book Award while she fought tirelessly

for civil rights and feminism.

Alice showed us that from the red play of the South,

a voice can rise to heal the world.

Fast forward to Michelle Obama,

growing up on Chicago's South Side,

where dreams felt distant.

At Princeton University, she battled isolation

as an African-American student,

but her drive propelled her to Harvard Law,

a meeting with Barack Obama and eventually the White House.

Through her memoir Becoming,

she shares raising daughters Malia and Sasha

amid public scrutiny, launching Let's Move

against childhood obesity and reach higher for education.

Michelle's journey whispers to every listener become more

no matter the odds.

And don't forget Indra Nui,

who climbed from no female CEOs in the Fortune 500

to lead PepsiCo all while mothering her family.

In her memoir My Life and Full, she reveals the juggle,

equal family duties, equal payfights,

proving leadership and love can coexist.

Cheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook,

balanced executive power with motherhood,

advocating workplace support after personal loss,

lighting the path for working moms everywhere.

Listeners, these women, Eva, Helen, Alice,

Michelle, Indra, Cheryl, aren't superheroes.

They're you, me, us.

Their stories scream empowerment.

Resilience isn't absence of falls.

It's rising every time.

And women's stories, we celebrate that fire in you.

Thank you for tuning in.

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