Dec 8
Luzia Tschirky was born and raised in the Swiss Mountains in a small town close to the border of Austria and Lichtenstein. As a child, she knew she wanted to become a journalist, so much so that she started her own newspaper at the age of eight and began working for the local newspaper at 14. Now 28, not only is Luzia a professional journalist, she’s the first-ever female correspondent in Moscow, where she covers all post-Soviet countries, including Russia and Ukraine.
For the past nine months Luzia has been covering the war in Ukraine, which she says has given her a newfound appreciation for her ADHD. She credits her ADHD brain for her intense curiosity, her intuition, and her hyperfocus and quick thinking in moments of crisis, all of which have helped her to thrive in high-intensity situations and produce impactful journalism even in a warzone.
What sets Luzia apart (on top of everything else) is her incredible empathy for the humans behind the stories, which shines through in everything she does and is one of the many reasons why I’m so excited to share her story with you this episode.
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"I would say it's the resilience of people in this moment that is stronger than the brutal force of any weapon."
- Luzia Tschirky
"You get to know people really fast, you know, you get to know people really fast in a way that you really understand, who can you count on in an extreme situation, and who is really not going to show up right in, you know, at a certain point when you really need their help."
- Luzia Tschirky
"I would say when your life is so much under attack, and every aspect of it is under attack you're trying to keep up because you have like the choice between giving up and this is not a choice. So you move on you try to handle as good as you can."
- Luzia Tschirky
- Luzia struggled with staying calm in class and reading quickly, finding it torturous to sit and wait for other children to finish sentences.
- Luzia shares her experiences with ADHD in Switzerland, highlighting the challenges of being on time and the lack of recognition of hyperactivity in daily life.
- Luzia learns to accept and embrace her ADHD diagnosis, finding it can be a strength in extreme situations.
[25:22 - 31:31] The impact of war on Ukrainian
- Luzia describes the contrasting scenes of destruction and normalcy in Ukraine, with some areas looking like "war zones" while others appear untouched.
- Luzia shares her observations on how people in Ukraine are coping with the ongoing crisis, highlighting their resilience and resourcefulness in the face of adversity.
- Luzia shares her experience of attending a funeral in Ukraine and encountering a young woman who survived a traumatic event and is afraid to enter buildings due to the trauma.
- Luzia highlights the awareness of the Ukrainian government, as well as the intelligence services of the United States and Great Britain, regarding the impending invasion, with some discussion around the exact date.
- Luzia shares her experience working as a journalist in Ukraine during the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, including her observations on the security measures in place for journalists.
- Luzia met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a press conference and asked him a question, which was a significant moment for her as a journalist.
