Ashley Judd Instagram – This fellow here is a special one: a 40-year veteran of 160 countries around our globe, witnessing and then sharing with us stories of massacres, famines, brothels packed with stolen girls and women, and equally, simple and scalable grassroots efforts that can lift entire communities out of poverty, and the at times shocking heroes who make such transformation possible in the most impossible circumstances. @nickkristof has a new book: “Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life.” It is part adventure story. (Being chased by warlords! Tense border crossings! That damaged plane crashing Congo!) A love story (he shares one of his two Pulitzer Prizes with his equally gifted wife, Sheryl WuDunn), and much more. It is—however implausible it may seem on the surface—about hope. “I am a scarred optimist,” Nick writes. First writing about millions of children in India dying from diarrheal disease, this essay caught the eye of two readers in Seattle; in response, they founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Nick has transformed the opinion-editorial essay from a historical recording of government, policy, and politicians into urgent, vibrant, and data-informed stories of the folks at the farthest reaches on earth whose lives are shaped by those powerful people. I am so grateful to call Sheryl and Nick friends, to Nick for writing the forward to my first book, for being included in their extraordinary documentary, “A Path Appears,” about human trafficking in Nashville, TN, and to be fellow wilderness hikers! To you, Nick!