Lisa Ling speaks at Penn State Altoona

Monday, November 21, 2011 - 1774 hits

Lisa Ling, host of Our America with Lisa Ling on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) spoke to a crowd of almost 500 students and community members on November 16, 2011, as part of the Penn State Altoona Speaker Series.

Ling began her talk by addressing the three questions most commonly asked of her: "Yes, Oprah's really cool;" "My sister's doing great;" and "No, I've never been in any of the Charlie's Angels movies."

A captivating storyteller, the acclaimed journalist enthralled the audience with tales of her travels around the globe and close to home, covering hard-hitting social and cultural issues in our world. She noted that, despite the prevalence of so many 24/7 so-called news shows, there is a tremendous lack of substantive news. She attributes the success of Our America to this void and America's desire for substantive news on issues of importance to our society.

Ling admits that the stories she covers — from sex trafficking in America and heroin use to PTSD of veterans and the growing prison population — have caused her to question her faith from time to time. She credits her husband Paul Song for helping her put things in perspective by giving her a poem, titled "Why." The poem tells of a man who saw devastatingly awful things in the world and asks God to help. Later in the night, he asks God why he did not do anything to help, to which God replies, "I did do something; I created you."