WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.200 Hey everyone, welcome to the show. Imagine being 00:00:02.200 --> 00:00:05.639 targeted by, well, a really powerful organization. 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:09.160 One that will stop at absolutely nothing to silence 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:11.259 you. I mean, even framing you for bomb threats, 00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:12.839 it sounds like something out of a movie, doesn't 00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:14.820 it? It really does. Almost unbelievable. But 00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:17.000 it's a true story. A kind of chilling thriller, 00:00:17.179 --> 00:00:21.199 really. Packed with espionage, deception. And 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:24.260 just this incredible fight for survival. If this 00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:27.179 kind of deep dive into real life intrigue grabs 00:00:27.179 --> 00:00:29.500 you, please do hit that like and subscribe button. 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:31.679 It really helps us bring more stories like this 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:34.020 to you. Yeah, it makes a big difference. So today 00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:36.159 we're diving deep into The Unbreakable Miss Lovely 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:39.619 by Tony Ortega. You'll find a link for it down 00:00:39.619 --> 00:00:41.920 in the description. Great book. Really compelling. 00:00:42.140 --> 00:00:44.479 It absolutely is. And it's not just a gripping 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:47.200 story, right? It digs into some big themes. The 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:50.659 abuse of power, how vital free speech is, and 00:00:50.659 --> 00:00:53.520 just, wow, the resilience someone can have when 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:56.659 facing just incredible adversity. Human spirit 00:00:56.659 --> 00:00:59.100 stuff. Exactly. This book was actually shared 00:00:59.100 --> 00:01:00.700 with us by one of you listening, so thank you 00:01:00.700 --> 00:01:03.140 for that. And we're going to unpack the incredible, 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:06.819 frankly terrifying, ordeal. of Paulette Cooper. 00:01:07.019 --> 00:01:10.200 She was a journalist who became this major target 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:13.000 of the Church of Scientology. And Ortega, the 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:16.180 author, he really did his homework. He used tons 00:01:16.180 --> 00:01:18.280 of sources, interviews with people involved, 00:01:18.540 --> 00:01:21.260 FBI documents that got declassified, court records. 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:24.659 It paints a pretty shocking picture. Yeah, meticulously 00:01:24.659 --> 00:01:27.439 researched. So our mission today, basically, 00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:29.980 understand the key events of what Paulette went 00:01:29.980 --> 00:01:32.819 through and figure out what we can take away 00:01:32.819 --> 00:01:36.379 from her fight against this this really formidable 00:01:36.379 --> 00:01:39.000 group. Right. Where do we start? OK, let's dig 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.099 in. Who was Paulette Cooper before, you know, 00:01:41.099 --> 00:01:42.799 before she ended up in the crosshairs? OK, so 00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:45.900 back in the late 1960s, early 70s, Paulette Cooper 00:01:45.900 --> 00:01:49.000 was this really driven, ambitious journalist 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.040 making her way in New York City. Her early career 00:01:52.040 --> 00:01:54.099 was actually pretty diverse. She spent time at 00:01:54.099 --> 00:01:57.260 BBDO, the ad agency, worked on the Campbell Soup 00:01:57.260 --> 00:01:59.519 account. Remember that campaign? One plus one 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:02.280 equals new. Encouraging people to mix soups. 00:02:02.519 --> 00:02:04.989 Vaguely, yeah. That was her. That was her idea. 00:02:05.129 --> 00:02:07.329 Got written up in Madison Avenue Magazine, actually. 00:02:07.609 --> 00:02:10.270 Huh. Interesting start. But it sounds like advertising 00:02:10.270 --> 00:02:13.509 wasn't quite adventurous enough for her. I read 00:02:13.509 --> 00:02:16.110 something about some unusual travel. Oh, yeah. 00:02:16.569 --> 00:02:18.550 Definitely adventurous. She actually became the 00:02:18.550 --> 00:02:21.129 world's first female stowaway on a cruise ship. 00:02:21.289 --> 00:02:24.129 No way. Seriously? Seriously. And then, of course, 00:02:24.150 --> 00:02:25.569 being a journalist, she wrote about the whole 00:02:25.569 --> 00:02:27.629 experience. Kind of shows her personality, right? 00:02:27.710 --> 00:02:30.509 Willing to push boundaries, get the story firsthand. 00:02:30.669 --> 00:02:33.590 Definitely shows some guts. So how did this adventurous 00:02:33.590 --> 00:02:37.409 journalist first cross paths with L. Ron Hubbard 00:02:37.409 --> 00:02:40.909 and Scientology? Her first sort of inkling came 00:02:40.909 --> 00:02:44.310 from Martin Gardner's book, Fads and Fallacies 00:02:44.310 --> 00:02:47.389 in the Name of Science. Okay. Gardner was pretty 00:02:47.389 --> 00:02:49.610 critical of Dianetics, which was Hubbard's earlier 00:02:49.610 --> 00:02:52.370 thing, before Scientology. Gardner basically 00:02:52.370 --> 00:02:54.770 called Hubbard a crank, lumped him in with other 00:02:54.770 --> 00:02:56.849 people he saw as pushing pseudoscience. Right. 00:02:56.909 --> 00:02:59.539 I know Gardner's work. Critical stuff. Exactly. 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:02.620 And Paulette read this way back in 1957. She 00:03:02.620 --> 00:03:06.219 was only 15. 15. Wow. Yeah. And, you know, she 00:03:06.219 --> 00:03:09.060 loved reading, was curious. So that planted a 00:03:09.060 --> 00:03:11.199 seed, maybe a bit of skepticism about Hubbard 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:14.719 early on. And that seed grew, obviously. Led 00:03:14.719 --> 00:03:16.240 her to investigate and eventually write her own 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:19.460 book. Precisely. Fast forward to the late 60s, 00:03:19.460 --> 00:03:22.560 early 70s, and she writes The Scandal of Scientology. 00:03:22.740 --> 00:03:25.500 And it was a critical book. No punches pulled. 00:03:25.719 --> 00:03:29.080 And that book. That's what really set off the 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:32.120 Church of Scientology's intense, just unbelievable 00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:34.879 campaign against her. Right. OK. This is where 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:37.379 it gets really dark. This wasn't just like bad 00:03:37.379 --> 00:03:39.659 press releases. They had an actual operation 00:03:39.659 --> 00:03:42.659 with a name, didn't they? They did. A really 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:45.259 chilling name. The church orchestrated this whole 00:03:45.259 --> 00:03:48.580 campaign specifically to discredit Paulette Cooper, 00:03:48.759 --> 00:03:50.900 to silence her. And they called it Operation 00:03:50.900 --> 00:03:54.439 Freakout. Operation Freakout. Just saying it 00:03:54.439 --> 00:03:56.539 sounds sinister. It was. And this wasn't just, 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:59.840 you know, PR spin. It was planned, multi -pronged, 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.180 designed to just break her. And it really shows 00:04:02.180 --> 00:04:04.860 something, doesn't it? How powerful groups sometimes 00:04:04.860 --> 00:04:08.560 react to criticism, not by debating, but by trying 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:11.979 to destroy the critic. Exactly. Harassment, legal 00:04:11.979 --> 00:04:15.520 tricks. Yeah. It's a playbook, sadly. Highlights 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:18.959 how vulnerable individuals can be. So multi -pronged. 00:04:19.819 --> 00:04:21.620 What did that actually look like? What kind of 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:23.879 tactics did they use in Operation Freakout? Oh, 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:26.480 it was insidious, truly. One of the most shocking 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:30.600 things, framing her for bomb threats. Framing 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:33.600 her? That somehow got hold of her personal stationery. 00:04:33.819 --> 00:04:36.300 The book suggests maybe through her cousin Joy 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:39.519 Heller, possibly. Okay. Then they typed bomb 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:42.180 threats to Scientology offices on her stationery 00:04:42.180 --> 00:04:44.480 and mailed them. The goal was obviously to make 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:46.339 it look like she did it. That's, I mean, that's 00:04:46.339 --> 00:04:49.810 next level. And this fake evidence, it... actually 00:04:49.810 --> 00:04:52.529 worked she got arrested it worked based on those 00:04:52.529 --> 00:04:55.170 planted threats paulette was arrested indicted 00:04:55.170 --> 00:04:57.589 for making the threats and then when she denied 00:04:57.589 --> 00:05:01.209 it which was the truth they hit her with perjury 00:05:01.209 --> 00:05:04.850 charges oh my the toll on her emotionally psychologically 00:05:04.850 --> 00:05:07.050 it was immense the book mentioned she actually 00:05:07.050 --> 00:05:10.750 contemplated suicide during this time wow just 00:05:10.750 --> 00:05:12.290 hearing that it really drives home the human 00:05:12.290 --> 00:05:14.569 cost doesn't it how do you even keep going through 00:05:14.569 --> 00:05:16.230 something like that it's hard to imagine and 00:05:16.230 --> 00:05:19.399 besides these terrifying legal attacks. They 00:05:19.399 --> 00:05:21.300 were hitting her from other angles too, right? 00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:23.980 Trying to just dismantle her life. Oh, absolutely. 00:05:24.120 --> 00:05:27.439 It was relentless harassment, surveillance, threatening 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:30.579 phone calls. She suspected her phone was tapped. 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:32.860 Which it probably was. Which it later turned 00:05:32.860 --> 00:05:35.579 out it was. They distributed these smear leaflets 00:05:35.579 --> 00:05:37.600 just full of lies all around her apartment building 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:41.170 in her neighborhood. And there was this underground 00:05:41.170 --> 00:05:44.990 scandal sheet that circulated even wilder totally 00:05:44.990 --> 00:05:48.189 false accusations about her living under that 00:05:48.189 --> 00:05:51.029 constant pressure that fear and it wasn't just 00:05:51.029 --> 00:05:52.730 external stuff they tried to get inside her life 00:05:52.730 --> 00:05:55.560 too yeah infiltrate her circle that's right These 00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:58.720 two women, Margie Shepard and Paula Tyler, almost 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:01.540 certainly Scientologists, they deliberately became 00:06:01.540 --> 00:06:04.740 her friends. Oh, creepy. Yeah. The idea was probably 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:07.300 to gather information, maybe plant more evidence. 00:06:07.379 --> 00:06:10.259 And then later, a guy named Don Alverzo, using 00:06:10.259 --> 00:06:13.540 the alias Jerry Levin, he actually moved in with 00:06:13.540 --> 00:06:15.779 her as a roommate. He lived with her. Lived with 00:06:15.779 --> 00:06:18.220 her. The belief is his whole purpose was to spy 00:06:18.220 --> 00:06:20.600 on her, gather anything they could use against 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:23.259 her. So she's in her own home. And the people 00:06:23.259 --> 00:06:25.420 around her might be actively trying to destroy 00:06:25.420 --> 00:06:28.980 her. It's like a spy novel, but horrifyingly 00:06:28.980 --> 00:06:31.879 real. Absolutely. And that scheme with the Arab 00:06:31.879 --> 00:06:35.220 consulates? That sounds particularly twisted. 00:06:35.459 --> 00:06:38.959 Oh, it was. Just Machiavellian. The plan, cooked 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:41.540 up by the Guardian's office, was to mail a threatening 00:06:41.540 --> 00:06:43.660 letter to an Arab consulate, but make it look 00:06:43.660 --> 00:06:46.680 like it came from Paulette's address. Okay. And 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:48.980 they faked a phone call, too. Trying to link 00:06:48.980 --> 00:06:51.819 her to Israeli intelligence and this bombing 00:06:51.819 --> 00:06:54.420 threat against the consulate just paint her as 00:06:54.420 --> 00:06:57.040 completely unstable and dangerous. The Guardian's 00:06:57.040 --> 00:06:58.920 office. You've mentioned them a couple of times. 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:00.860 Tell us more about who they were, like the church's 00:07:00.860 --> 00:07:03.040 own intelligence agency. That's a pretty good 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:05.480 way to put it. The Guardian's office, or Jingo, 00:07:05.699 --> 00:07:08.220 was basically Scientology's intelligence and 00:07:08.220 --> 00:07:12.120 PR arm. Think like internal police, spies and 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:14.439 public relations all rolled into one. And these 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:16.160 attacks on Paulette, they weren't random. They 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:18.860 were planned, executed by the Jingo under orders 00:07:18.860 --> 00:07:21.879 from L. Ron Hubbard and his wife, Mary Sue Hubbard. 00:07:21.980 --> 00:07:24.680 So top level stuff. Definitely. And it's important 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:27.259 to know Operation Freakout wasn't an isolated 00:07:27.259 --> 00:07:30.660 thing. It was part of this much bigger, much 00:07:30.660 --> 00:07:33.259 more sinister program called the Snow White Program. 00:07:33.379 --> 00:07:37.250 Snow White Program. Which involved like. Widespread 00:07:37.250 --> 00:07:39.329 infiltration of government agencies, stealing 00:07:39.329 --> 00:07:41.870 documents, all sorts of illegal activities targeting 00:07:41.870 --> 00:07:45.269 anyone Scientology saw as an enemy. Paulette 00:07:45.269 --> 00:07:47.930 was just one target, albeit a major one. So this 00:07:47.930 --> 00:07:50.009 wasn't just about one journalist. It was systemic. 00:07:50.329 --> 00:07:55.529 Right. Wow. But despite facing all this, this 00:07:55.529 --> 00:07:58.350 coordinated onslaught, Paulette fought back, 00:07:58.350 --> 00:08:00.370 right? She didn't just fold. She fought back 00:08:00.370 --> 00:08:03.189 with incredible determination. It's truly amazing. 00:08:03.490 --> 00:08:06.379 Facing prison, constant harassment. She refused 00:08:06.379 --> 00:08:08.240 to be silenced. What do you think kept her going? 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:11.139 It says so much about, you know, human resilience. 00:08:11.459 --> 00:08:13.600 It really does. She hired lawyers, good ones 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:16.199 like Paul Reingold, Charles Stillman, later Virgil 00:08:16.199 --> 00:08:18.220 Roberts, who really went to bat for her. And 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:20.060 she had support from friends like Barbara Lewis 00:08:20.060 --> 00:08:21.639 and other journalists who saw what was happening 00:08:21.639 --> 00:08:24.360 was just fundamentally wrong. Right. Now, this 00:08:24.360 --> 00:08:27.180 whole saga involved a lot of people, some helping 00:08:27.180 --> 00:08:30.319 Paulette, some definitely not. Can we touch on 00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:32.940 a few of the key players? Sure. There's L. Ron 00:08:32.940 --> 00:08:36.120 Hubbard Jr., known as Nibs, later Ron DeWolf. 00:08:36.360 --> 00:08:39.519 His relationship with his father was very strained. 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:41.379 He actually worked with Paulette on a book for 00:08:41.379 --> 00:08:44.100 a while. And interestingly, there was some suspicion 00:08:44.100 --> 00:08:47.100 the wording in those forged bomb threats sounded 00:08:47.100 --> 00:08:49.919 a bit like his writing style. Hmm. Okay. Who 00:08:49.919 --> 00:08:53.559 else? James Meisler. He was a Scientology PR 00:08:53.559 --> 00:08:56.370 guy. pretty aggressive in trying to intimidate 00:08:56.370 --> 00:08:59.529 other critical authors. And he was vocal in accusing 00:08:59.529 --> 00:09:02.190 Paulette of the bomb threats. Right. Robert Kaufman, 00:09:02.309 --> 00:09:05.429 another author targeted by Scientology. He was 00:09:05.429 --> 00:09:07.389 a friend of Paulette, so he really understood 00:09:07.389 --> 00:09:09.090 the kind of pressure she was under. Must have 00:09:09.090 --> 00:09:10.509 been good to have someone who got it. Definitely. 00:09:11.049 --> 00:09:13.590 Michael Sanders, he worked at the Justice Department, 00:09:13.870 --> 00:09:16.710 apparently gave Paulette some useful info kind 00:09:16.710 --> 00:09:19.850 of discreetly. John Seffern, a lawyer for some 00:09:19.850 --> 00:09:22.629 other people suing Scientology, had a huge stash 00:09:22.629 --> 00:09:25.389 of Scientology documents. But later he got tangled 00:09:25.389 --> 00:09:27.490 up with this operative who was actually working 00:09:27.490 --> 00:09:30.470 against Paulette. Yeah, a guy named Richard Bast. 00:09:30.970 --> 00:09:33.149 He pretended he was helping Paulette fight the 00:09:33.149 --> 00:09:36.149 church, but secretly he was working for them, 00:09:36.210 --> 00:09:37.929 recording their conversations. Unbelievable. 00:09:38.190 --> 00:09:40.769 Deception everywhere. Pretty much. Then there's 00:09:40.769 --> 00:09:43.129 Michael Flynn, another key lawyer who eventually 00:09:43.129 --> 00:09:45.470 represented Paulette and others suing Scientology. 00:09:45.830 --> 00:09:48.850 Maury Breacher, an editor at the National Enquirer, 00:09:48.970 --> 00:09:51.210 actually gave Paulette writing assignments when 00:09:51.210 --> 00:09:53.289 things were really tough for her professionally. 00:09:53.549 --> 00:09:55.889 A lifeline. That's got to hear some support there. 00:09:56.029 --> 00:09:58.850 Yeah. Elaine Vietz, a reporter who wrote about 00:09:58.850 --> 00:10:02.129 life on Hubbard's ship, the Apollo. Dr. Arnaldo 00:10:02.129 --> 00:10:04.610 Bengelsdorf. He was the psychiatrist the court 00:10:04.610 --> 00:10:06.990 ordered Paulette to see. She ended up trusting 00:10:06.990 --> 00:10:08.929 him and he seems to have helped her cope with 00:10:08.929 --> 00:10:12.309 the immense cycle. Right. And the book also mentions 00:10:12.309 --> 00:10:14.870 David Miscavige, who was then a sort of rising 00:10:14.870 --> 00:10:17.570 figure in Scientology, obviously becomes much 00:10:17.570 --> 00:10:19.789 more prominent later. Quite the cast of characters. 00:10:20.169 --> 00:10:24.210 So with all this going on, all the lies and infiltration, 00:10:24.309 --> 00:10:27.450 how did the truth about the frame up finally 00:10:27.450 --> 00:10:30.210 surface? How did she get vindicated? The big 00:10:30.210 --> 00:10:33.850 break came in 1977. The FBI raided Church of 00:10:33.850 --> 00:10:36.950 Scientology offices in L .A. and D .C. A raid. 00:10:37.070 --> 00:10:39.529 Why? It was part of investigating the Snow White 00:10:39.529 --> 00:10:42.210 program, the infiltration stuff. And during these 00:10:42.210 --> 00:10:45.909 raids, they seized just tons and tons of internal 00:10:45.909 --> 00:10:49.429 documents and buried in those documents. Detailed 00:10:49.429 --> 00:10:52.750 plans and records for Operation Freakout. Proof. 00:10:53.149 --> 00:10:55.210 Irrefutable evidence of the conspiracy against 00:10:55.210 --> 00:10:57.769 Paulette laying out exactly what they did. It 00:10:57.769 --> 00:10:59.649 finally showed she was telling the truth all 00:10:59.649 --> 00:11:02.250 along. Wow. So the documents just laid it all 00:11:02.250 --> 00:11:04.950 bare. What happened then? Consequences? Oh, yeah. 00:11:05.309 --> 00:11:08.470 Big consequences. The discovery led to more legal 00:11:08.470 --> 00:11:12.210 action. Mary Sue Hubbard and several other high 00:11:12.210 --> 00:11:14.490 -ranking borough officials were indicted. Convicted, 00:11:14.570 --> 00:11:16.669 actually, for their roles in Snow White and related 00:11:16.669 --> 00:11:18.950 crimes, including the stuff against Paulette. 00:11:19.149 --> 00:11:21.570 So finally some accountability. Finally. The 00:11:21.570 --> 00:11:23.750 truth about how Paulette was framed became public. 00:11:23.990 --> 00:11:26.970 Her story even got featured on 60 Minutes. There's 00:11:26.970 --> 00:11:28.590 this moment where the church spokesman at the 00:11:28.590 --> 00:11:31.470 time, David Gaiman, is shown the actual documents 00:11:31.470 --> 00:11:34.730 on camera. He just looks stunned. Couldn't deny 00:11:34.730 --> 00:11:37.990 it. Vindication. But after years of this fight, 00:11:38.090 --> 00:11:40.649 did she finally reach some kind of closure with 00:11:40.649 --> 00:11:43.669 the church legally? A settlement? Yes, she did. 00:11:43.769 --> 00:11:47.850 Actually, back in 1976, before the FBI raid fully 00:11:47.850 --> 00:11:50.450 exposed everything, but after years of fighting 00:11:50.450 --> 00:11:53.090 her case, Paulette settled her lawsuits against 00:11:53.090 --> 00:11:55.990 Scientology. Okay. What were the terms? Well, 00:11:56.029 --> 00:11:58.169 part of the deal was she had to agree not to 00:11:58.169 --> 00:12:00.809 republish the scandal of Scientology, and she 00:12:00.809 --> 00:12:02.750 couldn't comment on it publicly anymore. So she 00:12:02.750 --> 00:12:05.370 was silenced in a way, even in victory. Kind 00:12:05.370 --> 00:12:07.870 of. In return, the church paid her outstanding 00:12:07.870 --> 00:12:10.809 legal fees, which were substantial. So it ended 00:12:10.809 --> 00:12:13.779 the intense legal battle. Yeah, it came at the 00:12:13.779 --> 00:12:16.179 cost of her ability to speak freely about her 00:12:16.179 --> 00:12:18.820 own book and experiences, at least contractually. 00:12:19.139 --> 00:12:21.820 A bittersweet ending to that chapter. What happened 00:12:21.820 --> 00:12:23.919 to Paulette after that? Did she manage to move 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:26.679 on, keep writing? She did. Despite everything, 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:28.980 all the trauma, she continued her writing career. 00:12:29.139 --> 00:12:31.639 She later married a man named Paul. The book 00:12:31.639 --> 00:12:33.860 touches on her reflections looking back on it 00:12:33.860 --> 00:12:36.340 all. It's clear it was a defining, harrowing 00:12:36.340 --> 00:12:39.220 experience. Understandably. And sadly, yeah, 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:41.679 several of the other figures in the story, Nibs, 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:43.720 John Suffer, and Robert Kaufman, they've passed 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:46.240 away since then. Pauli Cooper's story is just, 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:51.200 it's incredible. And deeply disturbing. What 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:53.399 do you see as the main takeaways, the bigger 00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:56.639 lessons here? I think it's a really stark, powerful 00:12:56.639 --> 00:12:59.980 example of how far powerful organizations might 00:12:59.980 --> 00:13:03.960 go to crush dissent. It just hammers home how 00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:07.059 vital a free press is and the right for individuals 00:13:07.059 --> 00:13:10.539 to speak out, to criticize. Without fearing that 00:13:10.539 --> 00:13:13.419 kind of terrifying retaliation. Yeah. It shows 00:13:13.419 --> 00:13:16.019 how vulnerable critics can be when facing powerful 00:13:16.019 --> 00:13:18.600 institutions. And it reminds us we always need 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:20.720 to be vigilant about protecting those basic rights. 00:13:20.860 --> 00:13:22.779 You know, freedom of speech, freedom of the press. 00:13:22.840 --> 00:13:25.309 They're not guaranteed. Absolutely. Well, this 00:13:25.309 --> 00:13:27.389 has been a truly gripping and I think really 00:13:27.389 --> 00:13:29.690 important deep dive into the unbreakable Miss 00:13:29.690 --> 00:13:31.850 Lovely. Thank you for taking this journey with 00:13:31.850 --> 00:13:34.029 us. What part of Paula Cooper's story hit you 00:13:34.029 --> 00:13:36.110 the hardest or what was the most shocking revelation 00:13:36.110 --> 00:13:37.929 for you? Let us know down in the comments. We'd 00:13:37.929 --> 00:13:39.250 love to hear your thoughts. Yeah, definitely 00:13:39.250 --> 00:13:41.649 share your takeaways. Please do. Let's keep this 00:13:41.649 --> 00:13:43.980 conversation going. And if you found this story 00:13:43.980 --> 00:13:46.080 as compelling as we did, please share this deep 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:48.860 dive with others who might appreciate it. And 00:13:48.860 --> 00:13:50.700 now, maybe a final thought to leave you with. 00:13:50.899 --> 00:13:53.279 Think about the power that information holds 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:56.159 and the extreme lengths some people, some organizations 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:59.539 will go to control it. What responsibility do 00:13:59.539 --> 00:14:01.600 we all have, really, to seek out the truth and 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:03.860 maybe, more importantly, to support those who 00:14:03.860 --> 00:14:06.200 dare to speak it, even when they're facing immense 00:14:06.200 --> 00:14:07.639 pressure? Something to chew on.