Forty Thousand Children, One Best Friend Met in Line, and a Camera That Crosses Every Language

Connected Conversations · Jun 24, 2026 · 1h 4m

Rick Smolan was twenty-eight years old, photographing for Time magazine, when a dying grandmother in a Korean village asked him to take her eleven-year-old granddaughter to America. He said yes — and that yes set the shape of everything that came next.

In Part 1 of this conversation, Rick Smolan shares the remarkable story behind Natasha's adoption, the chance encounter that made it possible, and the lessons about human connection, storytelling, and serendipity that have shaped his life's work.

In this episode, Elena Petrova talks with Rick about the famous photograph that became the talk…