YouSaid · the spoken record

Lisa Madigan

lines on the record: 78
first: 2019-02-18
most recent: 2019-02-18
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“No, you know, we certainly went through times where you'd go through, they had roadblocks at the time and they would stop you or in the circumstances where there weren't a lot of us who lived. It was an old German mission that had been given over to an order of Dominican nuns. They were all Zulu and they were running the mission and it had an elementary school for girls and boys. There was a high school. There was a hospital. There was an orphanage there. And there were very few people who could drive. And so when one of the students would need to go home for a funeral, there were several times that I would end up driving somebody back home. And in those circumstances, it was interesting because you'd end up in a township and the townships at the time were being patrolled by the South African Defense Forces. And they would come up and say,”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And, you know, the toll that that takes on not just that student, but on their family is significant. But David, what was so extraordinary to me is that my students and their families recognized how important getting an education was, even though at the time you didn't necessarily see that apartheid would end soon. After those funerals those girls would come back to school because they knew that if they had any chance of supporting themselves getting a decent job, really being part of the change and the liberation that they were going to need an education. And so their families had sent them away from the township so that they could be safe and they could get an education and they were dedicated to doing that.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the dissolution of apartheid. Right. Mandela was still in prison at the time. And there was a low level civil war, so to speak, going on. Now, the reality was it was the white government that was making all of that happen. But it was a really difficult time. So most of my students, they were all women. They were all Zulu. And they came from the townships outside of Durban, Peter Maritzburg. Some were from as far away as Soweto, which was certainly a long way from where we were. But the violence was such that we would learn every several weeks, certainly once a month, that somebody's father or brother or uncle had been killed.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There was one other woman from Georgetown and we were it for many, many, many, many miles. I mean, we would go to, we would go to a town roughly 30 miles away and they would know who we were because we were the only Americans around. So people would stop us all the time and say, oh, are you the American teachers?”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Weeks after I graduated, I got on a plane and went to Johannesburg, South Africa, and ultimately went down to a place called Montebello, which is a school that was about an hour and a half northwest of Durban in KwaZulu. And I found myself with a government degree in an English minor suddenly teaching two giant sections of algebra. I was teaching 73 ninth graders English. I was teaching earth science. I was teaching European history. I was a volleyball coach. The hardest job I ever had, so it's not just preparing for the next day's class, but also grading all those papers. Teachers have a really tough job and people need to appreciate that.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He did an enormous amount of work, particularly in Nigeria, I recall. And you're 100% right about his advocacy that young people travel outside of the country so they have a different perspective and they learn about other people and other cultures. And it did have an impact on me. I already had an interest in Africa and I had taken an enormous number of classes about post-colonial sub-Saharan Africa. And so when I graduated in 1988, this was at the time where the anti-apartheid movement was very strong and you had universities and colleges around the country who were under pressure to divest their assets in South African companies. Eventually Georgetown agreed they would do that, but in addition they wanted to add something into the country. And so what they decided to do in partnership with the South African Catholic Bishops Conference is to send over recent graduates to volunteer teach in needy Catholic high schools. And so several”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, when I was working in his office in Washington, my recollection is that Paul actually chaired the African subcommittee on the Foreign Affairs Committee.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Correct absolutely on civil rights, but people respected him and he always took the time, I think because of his journalism background, he was always writing, he was putting out those weekly columns, and he was explaining himself and staying connected with the public and with the voters. And so he did very, very well. And even when he left office, he continued like you to develop the next generation of public servants.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a great story. And it's not a surprise. Paul Simon was an extraordinary public servant, clearly a public servant at heart. And he was... I mean, everywhere we went, he would talk to absolutely everybody, and he had an ability to connect with and to engage with a broad range of people. And what I will always remember about him is that even if people disagreed with him, they respected him and he had such a following because there were some issues that he was, you know, out in front of or he would be, you know, I would say in southern Illinois being against the death penalty may not have been considered the politically. Or frankly, for”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. I very much wanted to be somewhere around government because I had a great interest in government, even though I didn't at the time have an ambition to be an elected official. So being at Georgetown, even during the Reagan years was a great opportunity. And in fact, that's ultimately how I know you. I took a chance to work on Paul Simon's staff when he first got elected to the US Senate.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, you know, look, and again, we can talk more about this. Obviously, it's a double-edged sword, right? It brings me enormous benefits and it's brought me a series of burdens, but I wouldn't trade my father for the world. Again, I feel blessed that he came into my life and has been a phenomenal father to me.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely not. I wanted nothing to do with it in the sense of I don't think I ever saw myself running for elected office. And growing up, that was a question I got all the time. Oh, are you going to run for office? And I say, no, absolutely not. And so, no, that was never my ambition until one day. I really looked back and said, how can I help more people? How can I have a greater impact? And then I said, I know something I can do.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would have been fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. So I was a teenager at the time. And this would have been what, late 70s, early 80s? Yeah.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“While it got passed last year here in the state of Illinois But what it was so fascinating to me even at that age was what is this debate about? How is it that we can't all agree that women deserve equal rights? How old are you?”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Equal Rights Amendment. I think everybody knows that, David. But for those of you who may not, I don't know. We are here to help.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So you had an influx of kids and family. But it was this tremendous opportunity to actually see government in action that so few people get. You know, you might go down on your sixth grade trip to the capital, or you might have an opportunity when you're in eighth grade to go to Washington, D.C. and again to see just for a few minutes what goes on. Or, you know, these days you could watch it on C-SPAN or something. But at the time, it was a lot different in the sense of you didn't have all, you know, these different opportunities to see what was taking place. And obviously to be on the floor and to listen to the debates that would take place had an enormous impact on me. I mean, I still remember sitting on the bench, on the floor of the House of Representatives, when they would debate passage of the ERA. And thinking to myself.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's an honorary page anybody could do it who came down. There were lots of people who would bring their kids and their families down, particularly for the end of session when they were in day after day, week after week.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Every summer, and this is when the legislature used to be in session through the end of June. And as you know, all of the big pieces of legislation and the budget. They're all debated and they're all voted on during those last weeks, those last days of session. And so I used to go down and I got to be an honorary page and be on the floor of the House of Representatives. How'd you get that?”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, now you've got a whole new world, right? So school would end at the beginning of June, and all my friends would go off to summer camp. And I would go to the camp. Pretty much from the time that I was 11 until I was 18 or so”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, to your point, I remember riding my bike and being stopped by some girls roughly my age, 10, 11, and being asked what my nationality was. Well, I didn't even know what that word meant at the time. And I remember looking back on the southwest side. This is on the southwest side. This is a true, embarrassing story. And I remember looking at them and saying, well, I'm Catholic. They're like, no, no, no, no, no. That's your religion. I'm like, well, I know that's my religion, but I don't know what nationality means. And it ended up, you know, one of them said, well, look, I'm Italian. I'm Irish. What are you? And I was like, oh, okay. So I'm Spanish and French. And they're like, what? I don't know anybody like that. So, you know, it's a different world.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, I think we're in the 43rd Ward. I remember going to the very first Pride Parade when it took place. And then when I moved to the southwest side, I remember conservative.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Distinctive neighborhoods. Very distinctive neighborhoods. And the southwest side of Chicago is nothing like the north side of Chicago in some ways.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was up to that point, and then he wasn't for a long time and he's now deceased. But Think to the point you're about to get to, very startling when my mom got remarried in part because we moved from the north side of Chicago to the southwest side of Chicago because that's where his district is. And you know Chicago very well. It's a whole city made up of a lot of different neighborhoods.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Interesting because she was somebody who was friends with obviously both all the men who were the lawyers and all the women who were on staff, but it really opened my eyes to the fact that, oh, look, this is something women can do”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I had an opportunity because of that, because the people who worked there were very nice. I would sometimes go there after school. And so I grew up in some part in a law firm. And so getting to see what lawyers do, and I still remember when they hired the first woman. Yeah, I was going to ask at the law firm and thinking, wow. And it was really interesting because, you know, of course, all the secretaries and all the receptionists, the paralegals, they were all women, all the lawyers were men. And so when they hired the first woman, it was really...”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I was an only child for the first 12 years of my life, and I certainly saw what it was like for a single mom to raise her daughter at a time where not a lot of my friends, if really any of my friends' families, were divorced, not a lot of the moms who were working full-time to support the family. And so I was kind of one of those latchkey kids before there really was such a thing that I at least knew about. But in a lot of ways, you know, there's always good with the bad, right? And for me, I had an opportunity to see my mom out there working and to recognize.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It wasn't a good situation, so it was a bit of a rough time. You know, I think I did much better the second time around when it comes to dads. Yeah.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“David, thank you for having me. And what you have built here at the University of Chicago, this Institute of Politics, it's just extraordinary. I have loved my time here.”
2019-02-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 309 — Lisa Madigan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source