Latest / Pediatrics Now: Cases Updates and Discussions for the Busy Pediatric Practitioner / Resilience Under Fire: Lessons from War Correspondent Benjamin Hall

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Resilience Under Fire: Lessons from War Correspondent Benjamin Hall · Pediatrics Now: Cases Updates and Discussions for the Busy Pediatric Practitioner

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We got onto the New York Times bestseller list yesterday. Oh, congratulations.
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Wow. Very, very pleased about that. That's incredible. New York Times bestseller list. Yeah.
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So I'm excited to talk to you about your book.
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So we'll just go ahead and start. I'm Holly Wehment, and this is Pediatrics
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Now, brought to you by the Department of Pediatrics at UT Health San Antonio
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and University Health's new Women's and Children's Hospital.
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Here today, joining me on the show from England, is war correspondent Benjamin Hall.
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Benjamin, thank you so much for being here today on Pediatrics Now.
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It's such an honor. Oh, what a pleasure. The honor's mine.
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So, you are a father, a war correspondent, husband, and now an author.
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You've been through so much. What does the word resilience, what does that mean to you today?
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Goodness, it's something that I've thought a lot about over the last few years.
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And before that, you know, I was a war correspondent. And for 15 years,
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I was in and out of conflict zones, on the front lines.
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One of the things that amazed me most was watching people on the front lines
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and then watching families who were caught up in war find an inner strength
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when they're in an almost impossible situation.
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Find the ability to stand up, to keep moving forward, finding the ability to
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save others, perhaps to put their own lives at risk if it was going to save
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a scenario or save someone.
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And time and time again, I saw people do that.
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Around the world, even our own soldiers, and I say that despite the English
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acting as an American myself, U.S.
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Soldiers, I've been side by
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side with them too when I've seen them protect their brothers and sisters.
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And resilience, I believe, exists in absolutely everyone.
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And it is the ability to really stand up and something
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that comes out often when things are at
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their worst and to find that inner strength to say no
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matter how bad things are right now we will find a way through and we
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will move forward one step at a time and we will
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both turn to people around us or we will help people around us to get through
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it and so resilience is both in individual but it's also teamwork and it's i
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believe something that lives in every single one of us um i found it out myself
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when I was injured in Ukraine to find a strength that maybe you don't even realize you have inside you.
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And so for me, resilience is something we've all got, something that we should
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look out for, something that we should almost work on and breed and make it stronger.
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And it is remarkable when you see it in action.
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Your new children's book, your message is so beautiful about bravery, truth, and resilience.
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Before we dive into that, for our viewers and listeners who aren't familiar
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with what happened, can you take us back just briefly to, it was Ukraine, 2022?
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That's right. I was covering the war for Fox News at the beginning of the war.
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We were inside Kyiv as the Russians were surrounding the city.
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And we went just outside to the city, around the city itself,
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to do a story on how Russian forces had been bombing these civilian towns.
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And the area was abandoned. And we actually did some great work.
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I remember we saw some images that no one else had seen. And we filmed them.
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And we were driving back in towards the capital city of Kyiv.
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And it was me, my cameraman, Pierre, our local producer, Sasha,
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and two Ukrainian soldiers who were driving and, um, in little red civilian car.
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And we came up to this abandoned checkpoint and out of nowhere,
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the, the first shell came flying at the car.
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Um, we saw the first one explode about 30 feet in front of us.
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And quickly we tried to reverse the car, reverse the car. And the next one landed a few seconds later.
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Now that one blacked me out. It was that one that got shrapnel into my eye and
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put me into a deep, dark, black place.
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Totally peaceful. I couldn't see, hear anything. And part of me feels that I
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was almost in another world there, that I'd almost died at that point.
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It was totally quiet and peaceful and black. And right there in that moment.
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I saw my daughter, my oldest daughter, Anna, as lifelike as anything, right in front of me.
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She was six years old at the time And she came right in front of me And she said to me Daddy Daddy.
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Daddy, you've got to get out of the car. Daddy, you've got to get out of the car.
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And it brought me back. And I opened my eyes. And as I opened my eyes,
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everything hit me. And I felt flames.
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And I felt there was just mad everything going on around me.
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I wasn't sure. When I grabbed for the door of the car, Pierre had just gotten
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out of the car ahead of me.
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And I took one step out of the car. I managed to drag myself out.
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And then the third shell hit the car itself.
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And that threw me away. And I passed out and I woke up a little bit later and
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I was on fire and, um, I was rolling around on the floor.
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I was trying to put out the flames and I finally managed to do that.
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And I was just lying there and realized how badly I was injured.
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Um, my right leg largely gone. Um, no pain at all, no pain at all,
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which is amazing what the body does.
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You know, the adrenaline kicks in and I was looking at myself and I was figuring
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it out. And I was there for about 40 minutes or so until I was finally found
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by Ukrainian special forces.
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Pierre, my cameraman, died alongside me. The other three died in the car.
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And it was that moment there where I had no cell phone reception,
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so I couldn't reach anyone. The signals were down.
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And I just thought, never thought I was going to die. I just thought,
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I'm going to find a way to go home.
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I'm going to find a way to go home. And I started dragging myself up and,
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um, I think I've been in and out of consciousness a little bit.
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And amazingly, the Ukrainian special forces car drove past.
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It didn't see us. It kept driving past the burning car and I was screaming at it.
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And, um, it had engine trouble 10 minutes down the road and it came back the same way.
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And again, I just think that someone was looking out for us.
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And I think that, um, my daughters were there with me, that there was an angel
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looking over me and I feel I just was,
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I was saved that day.
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And that began three days of trying to find my way out of Ukraine.
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And we couldn't travel out because of how difficult it was. An incredible NGO
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called Save Our Allies, led by a lady called Sarah Verrado.
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They sent in some former veterans, some veterans.
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And they drove into Ukraine to find another American just to save me.
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And they put their own lives at risk to come and find me and to drive me out
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and get me back to safety. and then the American military was waiting for me
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across the border in Poland.
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They had said to Fox, we can't go in.
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Government policy means there will be no U.S. forces in Ukraine,
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but if you can get him to Poland, then the U.S.
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Military will treat him. And that's what I was so lucky is that I had no pain meds.
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I was on the – it's a very long story, but I ended up being on the Polish prime
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minister's secret train to get out and the intel forces were working with us.
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And, um, but I just, again, had this other moment where I was lying on this
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train for 10 hours, no pain meds.
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They'd managed to stabilize me, but I was just trying to stay alive and,
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um, 10 hours of just the worst pain.
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And, um, and I just kept telling myself, if you can just keep going,
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never say a sound, don't complain, just let the people around you take care
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of you and just find a way out.
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And, uh, I guess that's sort of where you realize what resilience where that
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everyone has it, you know, I never thought I would be able to do it, but, uh, I did it.
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And, um, I feel like I'm a stronger person today because of it.
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Just incredible. We're both journalists, and I've been through some harrowing
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experiences as a journalist, but nothing like what you went through.
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What do you think that was? You mentioned an angel when you heard your daughter's
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voice, and I'm a mom of three, and that just sounds like right when you needed
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it the most to hear that voice.
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That's exactly what it is. And whether or not that is God, angels talking to
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you, or whether it is your body just saying, what is the thing that's going
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to give you the most strength and giving it to you and showing it to you?
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That's what I needed. That's it. It was my daughter.
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And there was nothing else on this world that was going to give me strength
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than my daughter. And that's what I saw.
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My father, strangely enough, had just died. and I flew to Ukraine from his funeral.
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So I left his funeral and I flew to Ukraine.
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And then this happens soon after. So I also think that my dad and my mom had
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passed away as well. They were with me. They were looking down at me as well.
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And, you know, family. You know, I don't think there's anything perhaps that's
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giving you more strength than family.
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And that's what I thought about for a long time. And.
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I was eventually taken to the Brook Army Medical Center. I was at BAMC.
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And I was treated there for six months while I learned to walk. I got my prosthetics.
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And the big debate was whether the family should come and join me and whether
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they should be by my bedside.
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And my wife spoke to, I was living in D.C. at the time.
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My wife, the kids, the family was still in London because I was moving to D.C.
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They were about to join me in D.C.
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Anyway, my wife spoke to two different groups of veterans and families of veterans
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who had been injured the way I'd been injured.
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And you know burns heavy burns limb loss traumatic brain injury you know the
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thumb taken off shrapnel in the eye a lot of treatment and so the military was
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the best place to be treated but you know,
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Half of the people who were injured, like I would said, you need your family
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alongside you. They've got to be by your bedside. They'll give you the strength to get through it.
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And the other half said, no, that's the worst thing you can do.
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Not the worst thing, but that doesn't help because it's not great for kids to
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go and sit on a base for six months, take them out of their school,
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put them into a new place so they can just see you lying there,
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unable to move. That's not great for them.
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And no answer is correct. It depends on the patient. It depends on the family.
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For me, we made the decision that they were going to stay at home,
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keep their lives as normal as could be, keep them going to school,
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keep their routine exactly the same.
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And that would give me the added drive to get better and go home.
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So the point is the family were there again in the sense that they drove me to get better quickly.
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Every single day when my physio came in and said, we're going to walk,
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I said, let's do it. We did five steps yesterday. Let's do six steps today.
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I'm going home. I'm going to go see my kids. And so not only in the attack itself,
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when I saw my children, but even to my whole treatment, it was my kids and getting
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home to my kids. And you know what? You need that drive in life.
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You need something where you set yourself goals.
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And I guess it is just for me. And for most people, I think it is family.
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And I would do anything to get back to them.
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I would go through any discomfort, any pain to get home to them again. And so that,
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The minute it happened, right through to when I finally got home six months
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later, seven months later in the end, it was my family that were there to give
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me strength. My wife, my daughters.
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And I'm very pleased to say we've had a fourth daughter since then.
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So we are a very, very wonderful, busy household. Congratulations.
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And I understand you had something in your pocket that you still carry around with you, a hedgehog.
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Yeah. A talisman of sorts.
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It's a small little toy hedgehog. um you know uh
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it's about the size of my thumb and um sorry
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i can hold on to it and i took it to war zones with me because it
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was my children's hedgehog toy and i would always want to
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tell them about where i was going the stories i was on and i would you know
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i didn't want to tell them about the brutality of many of the wars i was in
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but i would always want to send stories home and the hedgehog would often send
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stories home to them and so i i carried this little hedgehog with me And that
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hedgehog was with me during the attack. It was inside my body armor.
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And, you know, during the evacuation, I had this hedgehog out and I found it
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and I held on to this little hedgehog and I held on to it. And it just,
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again, it reminded me of home.
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And first I went to Landstuhl in Germany, the U.S. military base, and I,
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I didn't want my daughters to see all my facial injuries at first because,
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again, early on, I was thinking I don't want to be too frightened.
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So the hedgehog started sending the messages home again, even for the first
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initial part of my recovery.
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I kind of see them on video, but I didn't want to look too much at the big injuries.
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So the hedgehog kept sending messages home before the attack, after the attack.
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And so the hedgehog became this real connection between us.
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And funnily enough when i finally got home um you
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know all those months later and this big reunion i
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hadn't seen my kids all the time i walked in the front door two of
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my daughters came running up to me in the house and they gave me a big hug
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and one of them who is sort of more she said she was four at the time biggest
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bigger thinker she stayed in the corner and i had been warned by doctors at
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the cfi at bamcy you know some children when they first see you with prosthetics
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It's a very difficult, you know, they might be frightened.
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It's the first time they've seen it. So I was expecting something.
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So when I saw her not running towards me, I thought, that's okay.
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And I've been afraid of it. I didn't want them to be frightened,
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but there she was in the corner. I said, it's okay. She'll come over.
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And I was with on the sofa, the couch with my two daughters.
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And I said, Iris, Iris, you know, come on over. And she looked up and she said.
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Have you got the hedgehog? Have you got the hedgehog?
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And it was just sort of her, not that the hedgehog was the most important,
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but it was sort of, that's something we'd been talking about.
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And she kind of, it was a connection she needed. And I had it in my pocket and
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then I pulled it out and I said, I got the hedgehog.
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She walked over slowly to me, looked at the hedgehog, looked up at me and gave
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me just a, jumped into my arms and gave me the biggest hug.
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And then that was it. But again, the hedgehog again, played this little role
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in that moment, moment where I was so sort of worried that they wouldn't,
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she wouldn't, uh, she was going to be frightened of me.
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And, uh, from then on, it's, it's been, it's been amazing. Their strength has been amazing too.
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Seeing kids go through these things as well as frankly remarkable.
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And, you know, I imagine there are some, uh, pediatricians talking,
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doctors talking, but the family was such an important part of it.
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And the doctors being able to talk to my family and explain to the family what
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I was going through was just as important as talking to me. And I always felt
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that was a really important thing that happened was that my family were always
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being taught to by doctors, always part of the journey.
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And my wife understood it. So I thought that was a really important part.
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That is such a great point that the family is the patient as well and how important
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it is that communication with the family.
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Pediatricians, they often are, as you know, with families, to your point,
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when they're going through possibly the worst day of their lives, trauma and loss.
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And do you have any advice for them?
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Our pediatrician listeners, often they're seeing 40 patients a day,
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and they're right there with them and with their patients during these really hard moments.
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And families share with them, and they're often seeing them go through trauma.
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Yeah, I think it's also understanding that they won't know nearly as much as the pediatricians do.
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It's about trying to understand and break down for them what's
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going to happen it's about being honest with them as well don't promise them
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the world being realistic this is this is what's coming
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up this is the battle i found that to be really useful
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for me saying look this isn't an easy journey these are the steps you're going
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to have to take but we will be by your side if what you need we will be there
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we will help to guide you as well so um and look it's it's interesting because
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each family will be very different there are some families who want to be really
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involved There are some families who will presumably be very emotional.
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There are some families who don't know.
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So, you know, doctors, pediatricians, they have to learn how to deal with different people.
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They have to learn how to deal with the family members who are reacting in so many different ways.
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And so I think that must be actually one of the more difficult parts of the role as well.
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Like if someone is injured, you know what to do medically, but you've got all
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these other elements around you and how to deal with the families,
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which I think is critical that you've got to also focus on.
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So, no, it's include them. It's give them updates all the time.
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And understand that you're there to talk to them and be alongside them.
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But if you're seeing 40 patients a day, I understand just how much you don't
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have much time to give to all the family members.
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So I'm sure that's something that you guys talk about and what the best way to do it is.
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It is. Yes, it is something we talk about. And it's stories like yours are very inspiring.
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And so I understand. So at BAMC, you were at the Center for the Intrepid.
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I hear that that is an amazing place.
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Remarkable. It was one of the best things about being treated by the military.
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And I'm very, very lucky that the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin,
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gave special permission for me to be treated by the military.
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Because again, we had so many different injuries that after Iraq and Afghanistan,
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CFI, both in Walter Reed, then at BAMSI, were specialist centers to look just
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at these coordinated levels of trauma.
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But the most amazing thing was that as soon as I got to launch straw.
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And then again, when I got to BAMSI, there was another patient at the end of
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the bed, a former, someone who had been injured at the end of the bed,
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who came right into my room, looked at me, had similar injuries to me.
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And he said, I know this is going to be difficult for you, but look,
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we've gotten through it.
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You can do it. And seeing someone who has gone through the same thing as you is really helpful.
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Someone to ask questions to, someone to watch.
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And so I think it was great that i was part of cfi and then every day once you're
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already on your prosthetics you're surrounded by people who are doing the same
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exercises who are doing the same gym.
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Workout as you are and feel great to be part of a team and there was a point where we had discussed,
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right after i was taken out of ukraine was i going to go and be treated in with
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the u.s military or was I maybe going to go back to London because the kids were still there.
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And actually, if you weren't going through the military, it would have required
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five or six different hospitals to treat different, one for the eye,
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one for the limbs, one for the burns.
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It would have been an absolute nightmare and it would have taken so much longer.
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So CFI was not only the one place, as well as BAMC, where they could treat everything hand in hand.
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And I was amazed, by the way, at how the doctors talked to each other,
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how the eye doctor talked to the hand doctor, talked to the burn doctor,
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how they synchronized all the different levels they needed to do.
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That wouldn't have happened outside the military. And...
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I was surrounded by a community of people who had gone through it as well.
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So I honestly think that the speed in which I recovered and got back was partly
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thanks to the CFI and BAMPSI.
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That's so wonderful to hear. And I fell in love with Texas, too, by the way.
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All right. I know you're down there, too. But I've been back a few times.
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I continue to go back and I see my doctors. I was mountain biking outside San Antonio recently.
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So I mean Texas is what
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a what a wonderful place of wonderful people families
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communities like hard-working faith-based like I loved it I really love Texas
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and I'm going to keep going back that's so wonderful yeah it sounds like you
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were biking in the hill country that's a that's amazing and then you're back
20:24
on the bike and it's just it's so incredible,
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And my cousin, a former NFL quarterback He was treated at the Center for the
20:35
Intrepid And got a special brace That helped him to go back to play for a short
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season You have an idea What is that?
20:45
It's the brace that Oh, I
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don't know what it's called But he was a spokesperson He might still be for
20:52
them It's Alex Smith He has a show on ESPN on Sunday mornings and he's not playing
20:58
anymore but he went back for one scary season but he did make a comeback,
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yeah so.
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Ben, what made you want to translate your experience into a children's book?
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And what do you hope kids take away from it?
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Well, I wrote a couple of books first after I was injured.
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I wrote one called Saved, which I really enjoyed.
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It almost felt like my own therapy. You know, I've never really had therapy.
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I've been very good at just getting through it. But I felt sitting down and
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writing about what happened to me, talking about it, talking about the recovery,
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to people around my side.
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That was the best part for me. And that's another thing. Tell people,
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if you're going through something that might be traumatic, just tell people, talk about it.
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You know, the more you do that, less you keep inside, the better it's going
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to be for you. So the first book was about that.
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And we did very well. We got number one in the New York Times for a few weeks.
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And I've loved that book because so many people read it who are going through
21:59
difficult times of their own.
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They said it picked them up and it gave them an extra level of support.
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Then I wrote a book called Resolute, which is about resilience again.
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And again, the same thing, love doing that. But then I wanted to write a kid's book.
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And boy, had I ever thought about writing a kid's book, I first of all will
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say that it's very difficult to write a kid's book because you've only got 20
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odd pages and it's a picture book.
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And I had values and morals that I wanted to convey.
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I wanted to be adventurous, but I wanted to really teach the kids something.
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So to try and compile that into a few words per page is really difficult.
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I'm a reporter, so if you give me a big news story, I can write it down and
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tell you about it. But the kid's book was hard.
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But, you know, there are a few morals I want to convey. It's about this little
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hedgehog. I won't ruin the story. Little hedgehog, he goes into the forest. He has to save the day.
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And he finds the strength to stand up against the big bad bear.
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And it's about the courage that I think that we began this conversation talking about resilience.
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And I think that I always want to tell kids that they've got that strength inside them.
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And I can't stand by the way when something wrong is going on nowadays.
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So many people just take out their phones and film it. And I tell my kids, no.
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If there's something you can do. Even if it's more saying something,
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you've got to do your best.
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You've got to try and stop it. You've got to say this isn't right.
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And that's a big message of the book. And so it's about courage.
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It's a bit about news because Little Hedgehog, his dad is a journalist,
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and he goes off and he uses his words to save the whole forest after that.
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And he ends up being in the paper himself.
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And I'm a strong believer in journalism.
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And I hope that kids read the book.
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And also they have some ideas about how the kid can then sit down and write
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some articles of his own to save the forest and the posters he would put out
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So at least I hope that's how parents might use it as an idea.
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So it's this adventure, it's about working together, it's about courage,
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it's about standing up when things aren't going right,
23:58
And I thoroughly enjoyed it, and just yesterday it got onto the New York Times
24:01
bestseller list So I'm absolutely overjoyed to be honest, and never thought
24:06
it would happen, so very very pleased,
24:09
Congratulations, Ben. That's amazing. And my book, when it arrives,
24:14
I'm going to read it and give it to my five-year-old niece and my one-year-old niece.
24:19
Oh, perfect. I'm so excited to pass that on.
24:22
I went through, I had a serious orthopedic injury about a year ago and I had to have surgery.
24:30
And I just, I remember, I mean, and then suddenly my kids are taking care of me.
24:37
I'm doing much better now But it's I was surprised Some people Who I thought
24:42
would be there for me Were not And then other people Some friends The way they
24:46
stepped up To help me I was just I couldn't believe,
24:52
How much They were doing for me,
24:57
You know, I found it really interesting when I got home and I was on prosthetics
25:03
and I looked, you know, different in various ways.
25:08
The way that people responded the first time you saw them as well,
25:11
this is a perfect example.
25:14
Some people wouldn't want to look down at the prosthetic legs or they wouldn't
25:19
even mention what had happened to you or they'd talk about the weather or something
25:22
like that. and other people would know what to say if they talk about it loads or they'd be awkward.
25:27
There's just such a variety of different ways in which people respond.
25:30
And so, yeah, there are some people who I wish had reached out during the time.
25:34
And maybe in the moment, I didn't let anything like that bother me because the
25:39
people I cared about did reach out. But later I realized that.
25:45
Many people just don't know how the best way to reach out.
25:49
And maybe some of them are afraid to reach out in the wrong way.
25:51
And so I don't actually hold that against some of them.
25:53
I do think that I now share the lesson that if you know someone who's going
25:57
through something difficult, no matter what it is, you don't have to show up
26:00
at the door. It's great if you do.
26:03
Friends of my wife used to show up with plates of food the whole time,
26:06
cook for the kids, bring them around.
26:08
Like, that's great. But even just a text message, like do something.
26:11
Send a text message saying, hey, thinking of you, is there anything I can do?
26:17
So I think the main thing is many people don't quite know what to do in some cases.
26:20
They don't know how to reach out. Just a simple little text message Or just
26:24
go drop something off at their door And you don't even have to say anything
26:26
But you know I do believe in doing something I really do But I think the reason,
26:31
Some people didn't reach out Was mainly they didn't know how Is what I think,
26:37
Rather than they didn't care I don't think there's some people who just.
26:43
Who just felt that it wasn't important. I actually just noticed that some people
26:47
find it harder to do that.
26:49
Some people find it harder to reach out or don't know how to reach out.
26:52
So I think that's it. And so I just encourage people, you should try and reach
26:55
out in a small way, even if not in the big way.
27:00
And that's a great message. And I love how you mentioned, instead of taking
27:05
out the phone and videoing it, because I have seen videos before where I've
27:09
thought, like, maybe that person could be helping save this person right now.
27:13
Yeah, I know. Such an important point.
27:16
Um, I also was just going to mention I, when I was in college,
27:21
my twin sister was in a horrible car accident and her, her date,
27:26
um, this wonderful guy, he died.
27:30
And the, the car accident happened about a mile from where they got to where,
27:35
um, she had to crawl through the grass and her injuries to get to a house to call 911.
27:40
And when she had talked about and that harrowing experience,
27:44
there was an elderly woman who helped her crawling through the field,
27:49
helped her out of the car every step of the way, you know, telling her just
27:54
a little more, you're almost there.
27:56
And then we went to my dad went back to the house many months later to thank
28:02
the family who called 911 and and then ask, you know, my daughter had an there
28:08
was an elderly woman with her.
28:10
Do you know who that is? So we could thank her. And they just looked at him
28:13
shocked and they said, your daughter was alone.
28:17
There wasn't anyone else with her. And we still don't know.
28:20
You know, what was that? Was it an angel? To your point, you know, it's like.
28:26
Yeah, spot on. That's fascinating. I wonder if you just find the strength you need to when you need it.
28:33
I wonder who the old lady, if she wasn't there in person. And I wonder who she represented.
28:42
And my grandmother always worried about, my dad said, about car accidents.
28:46
And every time she would hear a siren, she would worry until he got home.
28:50
And we wonder, did she represent my grandma helping? Yeah.
28:56
Is there any message that you want to say about getting it right or wrong when
29:02
someone's going through something hard and we're trying to reach out to help?
29:07
I know, Ben, you mentioned just doing something, even if you don't know what
29:11
to say or what to do, reaching out is huge.
29:15
Like, don't worry about doing the wrong thing. There are two ways.
29:19
And first of all, it depends on the person.
29:21
Totally depends on the person because some people respond differently to different motivations.
29:27
But I don't think it's enough as to say, oh, take your time,
29:34
whatever works for you. It's okay.
29:36
Sometimes you need to light a fire under them as well.
29:39
And, you know, so it's saying we'll do it together or come on.
29:46
You've got to get out of this now. Come on, you need to pick yourself up a bit.
29:49
Don't mind a little bit of heart, you know, slightly firmer motivations as well.
29:55
And I guess it's just trying to read the scenario. But I certainly think that
29:59
sometimes, my wife does it to me sometimes. She's like, come on, that's enough.
30:02
Come on, what are you thinking about that? Get up, go do it.
30:05
And I'm like, yeah, of course, what am I doing? Come on, pull yourself together. Off you go.
30:10
And so it's about understanding the person themselves. It's about encouraging
30:13
them. It's about setting them goals. It's about saying you'll be alongside them.
30:16
And, you know, when they do fall, that's the best time to be with them is to
30:20
be by their side, to pick them up and say, don't worry.
30:23
You know, we've all fallen. We can pick ourselves up. Let's keep trying. Let's keep trying.
30:28
Find things that they enjoy. I always think that worked. You know,
30:30
for me, a great piece of music.
30:33
Looking out the window and seeing, you know, when I was in my hospital bed for
30:37
the first few months, just looking out the window and seeing a bird fly, a beautiful bird.
30:41
I'd be like, that's lovely. you know like I'm gonna get I'm gonna be out there
30:44
one day soon as well um and uh.
30:49
It's just about being alongside someone, listening to them, but not being too soft, maybe.
30:58
And helping with that motivation. You've got to work hard.
31:02
Life is about working hard. Nothing comes if you don't work hard.
31:06
The same is true at your job. The same is true if you're parenting.
31:11
The same is true with recovery.
31:13
You've got to work hard. Don't just think, oh, I'll get through this somehow.
31:16
No, you say, I'm going to make sure I get through this. I will find a way of getting through this.
31:22
And if that didn't work, that's okay. That's fine. Let's try something else.
31:26
That didn't work. No problem. Let's try something else.
31:29
You know, that's what life is about. It's about hard work. It doesn't matter
31:33
how talented you are in the world. If you don't work hard, you're not getting anywhere.
31:37
So I talk to my kids about that all the time. It's about committing yourself to something.
31:41
That's, I suppose, what I was trying to say earlier about not being too soft,
31:43
you know? So it's like, come on, you've got to work. Do you want to get there?
31:47
Do you want to be running one day? Do you want to be getting home? Yeah.
31:50
Then do it. Get up and do it, you know?
31:54
So, yeah, you need a bit of drive in life.
31:59
So, you know, I'm so bored of
32:01
all this. It's a bad time people want to sit around and talk for too long.
32:04
Talking is great. Don't get me wrong. The most important thing you should do
32:07
is the first thing you should tell someone to talk about it.
32:09
But I've been in places where they just want to talk for weeks and they don't do anything.
32:13
At some point, talk's got to finish and the action's got to start. Right.
32:18
So are you at Fox News right now at work?
32:22
And you mentioned you're covering the war. Is that...
32:29
Excruciating is it so hard to do or now you
32:32
have this perspective what's excruciating is that i'm
32:34
not in iran right now um like that's
32:38
where i want to be i want to be reporting i want to be in the field my wife
32:42
has a little bit of a say now and whether i've you know if i can run around
32:45
the front lines anymore um but i've been back to ukraine so i went back a couple
32:50
years ago i interviewed president zolensky and i took the same train ride in
32:54
that i had a terrible train ride out I took the same train back in.
32:58
I lay down in the same carriage in the same way, and I wanted to relive it all,
33:02
relive the worst moments because, um, you know, I don't believe in running away
33:06
or hiding or pretending things didn't happen.
33:08
I believe in remembering them and thinking about them and learning from them.
33:11
So I went through the whole experience and I laid down and I remembered it.
33:15
And, um, when I got off the train at the other end inside Kyiv,
33:18
I just felt like I had achieved so much.
33:21
And, you know, I think that the Russians attacked journalists that day.
33:25
We were, you know, in a civilian car with our press jackets on and they wanted
33:32
to silence journalists and I refused to let that happen.
33:37
And so going back to Ukraine, I felt they tried to silence us,
33:40
but they haven't succeeded.
33:42
I am back in Ukraine and I am still reporting and we've got to keep reporting.
33:46
No matter what they do, we will keep reporting. You can't silence us.
33:49
And so, you know, it was really important for me to go back.
33:53
And also in the memory of Pierre and Sasha who died You know,
33:56
Pierre was like a brother to me And we traveled the world for many years And,
34:00
you know, I know that he'd have wanted me going back and reporting as well.
34:05
I was in Israel about a year ago After October 7th, I went and I reported.
34:13
And my wife said to me, she said, okay, you can go,
34:18
But don't go down to Gaza, okay? Don't go to Gaza.
34:22
I said, okay, okay, I won't go to Gaza.
34:25
But of course, you know, we get to Tel Aviv and this interview comes up and it's down in a kibbutz.
34:32
And I think, well, maybe I'll just go down just a bit for the day.
34:35
So I get down, I head down towards Gaza.
34:39
And as soon as I get there, my phone starts messaging.
34:43
My wife had turned on the tracker on my phone to see where I was.
34:47
So she caught me red-handed.
34:48
I told you you could go, but you were not supposed to go to the front lines.
34:53
Oh, my goodness. I said, they're like a mile in that direction.
34:57
She's like, that's the front lines.
35:00
Oh, my goodness. The point is, it's a job I love. I'm passionate about it.
35:05
I want to keep reporting.
35:06
You know, I've always covered conflict, and I find conflict fascinating,
35:12
not because of the death and the destruction and the chaos.
35:18
But often because of the bravery and the strength that you see and families coming together.
35:24
There's so many angles to conflict. It's not just the war and the battles and the guns.
35:28
There's so much more. It's about human nature. It's about geopolitics.
35:33
It's about finance. It's about tribes in parts of the world.
35:36
And I find it so fascinating. And so, no, I keep reporting as much as I can,
35:41
and that's just what I think what I will always –.
35:45
Want to keep doing that's amazing when
35:49
i was recovering from my accident i um and
35:52
in a wheelchair for a while like just being on a different level i remember
35:57
a time like there was a person i was headed to physical therapy and there was
36:01
um in the bathroom this woman and i was in there and i said hello to her and
36:07
she was on her phone and just did not look up did not say anything to me.
36:12
And I just thought like, I want, you know, just that, that difficulty where
36:16
you're not on eye level with people anymore and just to feel ignored in that way.
36:22
So it makes me, I want to say hello to every person I pass by who's in a wheelchair,
36:28
which might be annoying to them, but, um, but it was just a moment that stood out like,
36:34
uh, it seems like a small thing, but you know i think
36:36
more people should say hi to each other you know they do they do
36:40
so more so in texas than they do in london right yeah we're
36:43
very friendly here in london honestly people just walk
36:46
by like no one ever looks at each other it's like totally anonymous like i get
36:51
in an elevator and i'm on a toilet hey how you doing people look like you're
36:54
crazy i'm not yes saying good morning you know yes i know same more often yeah
37:01
i remember when i lived in dc um interning for cnn And in the grocery store,
37:06
I struck up conversation with someone and and the person just was not nice,
37:12
said something short back to me.
37:14
And then like in Texas, a few months later back, I'm at the grocery store and
37:17
and this woman walks up to me. What are you making tonight?
37:20
That looks like you have some good ingredients, you know, and it's just much
37:24
more. I love that. I think it's great. Right.
37:28
Before we wrap up, just one last question, Ben, and this has been so wonderful
37:33
and such an honor to talk to you.
37:35
And you've been through so much and your children's book sounds amazing.
37:39
You're giving back to children and families.
37:42
What gives you hope right now?
37:52
Gosh, my first answer is going to be everything.
37:57
You know, I always ask, I've got a podcast, it's called Searching for Heroes,
38:06
and I ask almost the same question to people.
38:09
Because I say to them, are we living in a world that is becoming more divided?
38:14
Are we entering a place where people are just on their phones and our kids aren't
38:18
interacting so much? Or, you know, what does that look like for the future?
38:21
Are we in a worrying position where politics is so torn apart?
38:25
And I say, if you move all that to one side and you just go out and you look at the people who are...
38:34
Helping in a community, taking their time to talk to one another.
38:39
Many of the things we've been talking about today, who are working really hard,
38:42
who think about others, they are everywhere.
38:45
They're everywhere. Every community has them. Every single one.
38:49
I was in, you know, like I was saying, it's one of the benefits of covering bad stories.
38:59
Is that you see how people come together when things are going bad.
39:04
And um i was in kent where was
39:07
i was in kentucky recently um the
39:10
kentucky you know i can't remember now i was in um doing a
39:13
story about this town that had been hit hard
39:16
by opioid crisis and then it had been the floods had knocked it
39:18
all down and town that had nothing you
39:22
know and i just i left there feeling so
39:25
lifted up because they just went house to
39:27
house cleaning up help and rebuilding you
39:31
know adopting kids whose parents you know had sadly died
39:34
from opioid and I looked at this community and I thought wow a
39:37
community that doesn't have very much at all but they have each
39:40
other and that's what matters and so just rely on the people around you turn
39:45
to the people around you and together you can go through absolutely anything
39:49
and I've seen it time and time and time again when things get bad we come together
39:53
so I think we do take things for granted I do think that sometimes people are
39:58
unaware of how lucky we really are.
40:01
Maybe you have to go through something difficult to realize that.
40:03
Like I certainly appreciate life far more now than I did before I was injured.
40:07
And so I hope no one ever has to go through something difficult.
40:10
But when you do and you look around you, that's why my initial answer is going to be everything.
40:15
I look around and everything I see, I'm like, wow, aren't we blessed?
40:19
Isn't this great? Like we've got, you know, family and food and.
40:28
I think if you've got those things and you don't take it for granted and you
40:31
help one another around you, that's hopeful.
40:33
That gives you hope. And we've all got that in us. But like I said earlier,
40:37
you've got to be proactive about it. It doesn't just happen by itself.
40:40
You know, so if you've got kids, you know, take them out to help people at a
40:47
soup kitchen. You know, just do that.
40:49
Even if you do it once a year at Christmas, take them out and show them to help.
40:53
Go and pick things up if you want to clean up a dirty highway or something. Whatever.
40:58
Let's do something. Go do something to be part of the community and help others
41:02
and say, this is going to make the world and the community a better place. And it does.
41:06
It really does. So, you know, we
41:09
live in a wonderful world, but let's be proactive at keeping it that way.
41:14
Benjamin Hall, author, dad, correspondent based in London for Fox News.
41:21
This has been so amazing thank
41:24
you so much for all of your inspiring words thank you for everyone listening
41:29
as well I owe my life to doctors and I'm in such awe of what they do and how
41:37
they handle patients and talk to us and took me through it so thank you to all
41:41
of you guys as well thank you Ben.