22 Jun Laura Ling
Speaker: Laura Ling
Journalist, Host, E! Investigates, Co-Author, Somewhere Inside
Topics:
- Journey of Hope
Laura Ling is an award-winning journalist whose harrowing 140-day detention in North Korea brought her face to face with fear, isolation, and the real possibility that she might never come home. Her survival and eventual release after former President Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang to secure her freedom became one of the most dramatic international stories of 2009.
140 Days in North Korea
In 2009, Ling and her colleague were detained by North Korean soldiers while reporting along the Chinese-North Korean border. She was sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in what became a terrifying ordeal that tested every ounce of her strength, faith, and will to survive. The world watched as diplomatic efforts intensified, and in August 2009, former President Clinton personally traveled to North Korea to negotiate her release. The experience transformed her understanding of resilience, hope, and the power of human connection.
Strength in the Darkest Moments
Ling’s presentations are deeply personal and profoundly moving, reminding audiences that strength is not the absence of fear but the decision to keep going despite it. Her keynotes deliver powerful presentations on resilience and perseverance through the most extreme circumstances, finding hope and strength when everything has been taken away, the power of human connection and support in times of crisis, and the courage to continue pursuing meaningful work after life-changing adversity.
Journey of Hope
As a journalist, Laura Ling has spent a large part of her career focusing on human rights issues and struggles for freedom. Ling talks about these experiences in addition to her own personal loss of liberty being held prisoner in one of the world’s most secretive, repressive nations and sentenced to twelve years hard labor for doing her work as a journalist.
Ling recounts her time in captivity, from moments when she feared she might never see her family again, to glimmers of humanity and compassion directed towards her by her captors, to the ways in which she fought to win back her freedom. She talks about what sustained her throughout that terrifying period of isolation and how she was able to maintain hope.
