On Grief and Moxie with Maryum Saifee

Maryum Saifee is living, becoming, rethinking and rewriting the American dream. She is her parents' greatest wish come to life, and she holds herself to the highest possible standard when it comes to serving the country that made her. She challenges herself, and all those around her, to face each day with conscience, courage, and moral clarity, and she does it with humanity and grace. Her credentials are impressive, from time spent serving with PeaceCorps to AmeriCorps to the U.S. Foreign Service. She experienced the Arab Spring up close in Cairo. She witnessed the impacts of the U.S. troop withdrawal from her post in Baghdad. She helped shape the State Department's approach to tech and diplomacy, and she is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, but what comes to the surface in this conversation is not just where she's been - it's how it has changed her. Despite being separated from her vocation against her will one year ago, Maryum is not done. She's not looking away from the many contradictions that make us who we are. She continues to hold us all accountable: to ourselves, to each other, and to the promise we made to form a more perfect union.

Stick around at the end of this episode for a special visit from Maryum's mom, whose relentless courage and incomparable work ethic have rippled throughout her community and across the globe through her own service, and her daughter's.