The Daily Show: Ears Edition - TDS Time Machine | Young Activists

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

If you're feeling like you could use a dose of youthful optimism right now, we've got you. Check out these visits from inspiring young activists. Jon Stewart sits down with Malala Yousafzai, and Trevor Noah enjoys visits from Greta Thunberg, Parkland survivors X González & Matt Deitsch, and climate activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and save big during their holiday sale. Avocado, dream of better. You're listening to Comedy Central. Welcome back to the program Malala Yousafsa. I feel better already. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. It's been a rough day.

What's your take on humanity these days? Pro or again? Where do you have us? Well, it is really a tragic news, what happened. And I have seen these kind of situations in my life when there is no justice, when there's no human feeling, when there's no humanity.

And for a second, you think that no one has feelings at all, but we are, our prayers are with the families and we pray for peace, we pray for the prosperity of everyone. It's interesting, you said something in the film, which is one voice, and there are many voices. And I think the easy thing to forget is how easy it is for darkness to wreak havoc and to forget we're really much more surrounded by light

and by education. Now, are you still in school? Yes, I had just my exams, GCC exams. I don't know what you call it. The GSE, is it, are you in college? Are you in high school? I have still two years to college. Still two years until college.

Yes. on your resume because a lot of colleges now are really, you may get very good test scores. I'm not in any way saying that you're not going to get good test scores, but you also need some extracurriculars. Within that, I mean, the Peace Prize is going to get you so good, but there is.

No, I had thought about it. I'm going to have, like, work experience for a week and get good grades. I had one month exam, and I have worked so hard. Wait, how long? One month. The exam was a month long. One month, totally.

12th of May till 12th of June. For school? Yes. Can I tell you what our schools do here in America? Would they take, I think it's like a half a day of tests, and then they show Akela in the B the rest of the week? Which is just a movie. I wish I was here.

No. It's interesting, when I watch the film, you can't, But in some ways, the world has been somewhat unfair to you in that it has placed a burden upon you that I think is that you are somehow an ethereal creature that must save us. And I think what's nice about the film is to see you as, you see yourself as, look, I'm an ordinary girl, maybe representing thousands and thousands of ordinary girls whose courage is the same in Pakistan and all over. over the world as they just try for an education. Is that how you feel about it? I think I have this opportunity to raise my voice, and I believe that it's not just,

I'm not representing only myself, but I am speaking up for all girls who are deprived of education. There are about 66 million girls, and I think I'm speaking up for them. And sometimes people do think that it has been forced upon me, or I haven't chosen this life, but the reality is that I have chosen this life.

And if I wouldn't have liked it, I could have said no after that take and would have said, I don't want to come out and speak again. But I do feel a responsibility, and I do feel that it's my duty to say what's right. And it's not that sometimes we wait for others

and think that Martin Luther should raise among us, a Nelson Mandela should raise among us and speak up for us. But we never realize that they are normal humans like us. And if we step forward, we can also bring change just like them. Right. No, it's

It's inspiring, although I have to think you have two brothers. Yes. Are you the oldest? Yes, I am the oldest. And I have to think for them to come home and say, I got in the school play. And then you could just be like, is it about, I don't know, being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize this play?

And you can taunt them, and it's clear in the film, you enjoy taunting them. I think they should be nice to me. Yes. I think that's true. The little one has a very, very, very funny. So you two seem to have a very playful relationship. Yes, and in the trailer, like, I praised him, but I'm kind of regretting why I praised him.

Because he's getting a bit kind of not the good. Not the good brother. Really? So he's a little naughty. The older brother seemed to be the... He was known as the lazy one. Yes. In the clip.

But the little one you felt was very good, a little bit naughty. He's going full-blown naughty. Yes. And you know what? What I really... What I love about what you do is you love your country and you love your religion and you're not looking to...

You're looking to just speak for people who want an education. Definitely. I have true love for... for my country. And when I got the Nobel Peace Prize, Kelas Satyati, the ko, when he was going back to his country, India, while we were going back to the UK.

So my mother felt really sad, and she even cried that we don't have the opportunity to go back to our country. So I'm hopeful that we will get this chance to see our country, to see our land, to see our people. And I think it's such a precious thing in your life that you are on your land

and you are with your people, with your relatives, with your friends. And I think whoever has this opportunity should be thankful and we hope to see our land. The footage from Swad Valley is beautiful. It looks like a sort of a magical place. Do you still think it's as beautiful as New Jersey? Let me... You know, I have to say, I didn't realize you were paying attention during the last

interviews. So now I have to think back to all the terrible things I said. The Education Fund, and you talked about the millions of people, there's a lot in the film of you visiting these schools. Education is something that is a generational benefit, and we'll take time. Do you get impatient sometimes with the progress of it, or do you see enough that it lifts you enough to keep going?

I do get depressed when I see that there are 57 million children children who are deprived of education only at the primary level. And then there are girls, brilliant girls who can, who have big dreams, but they don't have the opportunity to get education. So it is disappointing, but when you see brilliant girls who have this courage to stand up for their rights, like Mosun, who is a Syrian refugee and now lives in Jordan, and she's a wonderful girl.

And I have met her, and now she is helping girls and boys girls and boys, in her community, in the camp, she's living to go to school, and she's encouraging them. I have met many girls in Nigeria when I went there to stand to raise my voice for the kidnappers in Nigeria. So I met brilliant girls there as well and from Pakistan. So it's really nice to see them speaking. And I always encourage wherever I go. I encourage children and people that they should not wait for someone else to speak up for them. their voices are really powerful and they should speak up for their rights. It's so interesting when you were in, and I can't remember exactly where it was, it might have been in Nigeria,

where you were talking to a bunch of schoolgirls and schoolboys, and you were saying, who wants to be a lawyer, who wants to be a doctor, and someone raised their hands, and a variety of them. And then I think you said, or maybe your father said, and who among you has parents who are educated, who have been to school? No. Not one. Not one hand. This is really the first generation in many of these areas

that have ever been exposed to this. Yes. So it was really disappointing when I went to Kenya that these girls, they have this dream to go to school. They wish for nothing else. And this ambition to have their community, to help people. But when you look at the problems in the society that are stopping them, it's really disappointing.

In some places, they don't have enough money. enough money. In some places, education is not free. In some places, there are cultural issues. So that's why we are now kind of telling the world leaders, asking them that 12 years of education should be made free, and this is our demand for the sustainable development goals. And I hope that when the world leaders, they come together, when they make these goals, they need to think about the education of children. And it's not just their education, it's their future. And no.

Yes, definitely. Without them, it doesn't work. And it's so interesting. Boy, you don't hold back. You know, you met with President Barack Obama and told him, man, drone strikes. No, Bueno. You probably didn't use Spanish. But you said, no, don't do that.

And then when you went to Nigeria and you said to good luck, Jonathan, you have to do more, and you have to listen to your people and get these girls. And you can almost see, you know, there's the footage in Good Luck Jonathan, who is no longer the leader there. Looking like, is that, hey, what? You know, he really was kind of taken about. and it was beautiful in its very concise honesty. Yes, I think you have to sometimes ignore all the formal stuff and tell the truth.

Well, you really are a teenager. That is what they do, I think. Yes, so be straightforward and tell the truth that this is going wrong. And I think it's important for the world leaders to think that what their decision, what's the impact of their decisions on common people and who gets affected. And through all these wars, conflicts, innocent people, they get killed, get injured, they become homeless, they become migrants.

And it's tragic because they have to suffer for their whole life. And so now I think the world leaders need to be quite serious now. And even going and just bearing witness to their despair, I think, is important because they do, you know, in Syria they had a life. And this conflict, there's millions that have had to flip. They were shopkeepers and accountants and dentists, and now they live in a desert and they have to know they're not forgotten.

Definitely. Like in some countries, they are not even given identity. They are not even accepted as refugees. So it's really tragic, and I think rather than we thinking that they should be helped, I think we ourselves should come forward and we should help them. And we should also ask the world leaders, all the countries, that they should take it serious.

Normally, this is the part where I would turn to the camera and I would promote whatever installment of Jurassic World you were promoting. But I'm just going to say the name of your organization is... The Malala Fund.

The Malala Fund. And people can get involved. Yes, definitely. And I would ask all my friends, all my sisters and brothers that you have already supported us a lot and support us more so we can help more children

and girls like Muslim, girls like Amina in Nigeria, so they can go forward, they can get their education, and they can raise their voice. I have to tell you that you were a wonderful tonic for, I felt somewhat despairing today, but I think your single-mindedness has helped lift a bit of that fog for me, and I really thank you for that, even though that is not your responsibility to do that. But thank you. He named me Malala. It's going to be in theaters on October 2nd, and if you want to donate Malala fund and learn more about the film.

www.mala.org Malala usofsi. My guest tonight is an amazing 16-year-old climate activist whose solitary school strike for climate outside the Swedish parliament inspired a global youth movement. Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people to give them hope.

But I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. Yeah, she recently sailed from Britain to New York City in a zero emissions racing boat to participate in the upcoming global climate strike

and UN Climate Action Summit. So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to The Daily Show. Greta, tune very. Welcome to The Daily Show. Thank you so much. And welcome to New York City. You came here on a zero emissions boat. And part of me thinks that's because you love the climate.

The other part of me wonders if that's just your Viking heritage. Maybe it is. It might be. Tell me why you did that. Why didn't you fly to New York City to come and, you know, speak at the UN and, you know, inspire people to move forward in the climate change movement? I did it because I have, since a few years, stopped flying

because of the enormous impact aviation has on the climate individually. And just to make a stand. And I am one of the very few people in the world who can actually do such a trip. So I thought, why not? Wow. I mean, I know I wouldn't do that as a kid, and I wouldn't do it now.

But what is inspiring is your determination, and what's inspiring is that it doesn't just affect other young people. It's started to affect older generations in Sweden, in Germany. People are starting to call it the Greta effect, where people are taking more trains. Since you started this movement, they've said they feel ashamed to fly. unnecessarily in Europe. Your mom is an opera singer, and she stopped flying, which means she couldn't perform the way she used to. Do you sometimes feel bad that she can't perform,

or are you more excited that she's not part of, I guess, polluting the planets? I don't care, honestly, about how she performs. She, she, she's doing musicals now. So, I mean, she had to change career, but it wasn't. that big. And the planet is the most important thing for you. Yeah. I mean, for all of us, I think it should be. Why do you think... Why do you think young people are so focused on climate change now?

There's a definite disconnect between older generations and younger generations when talking about the climate. Why do you think that is? I mean, I think it is because we, in a way, feel like it is more a direct threat. Others feel like I won't be alive then anyway, so screw it. But we actually know that these consequences will face us during our lifetime, and it is already happening now, and it will get worse. And so I think that is why so many young people especially care about this

and of course the awareness is not as it needs to be it's not as much as it needs to be people are still very unaware it's my experience and so we need to continue but

you can see that among young people the concern is bigger what do you think people need to learn about climate change many people have heard of the climate warming up some people have a small understanding of what it means, but what do you think is lacking in the understanding of this issue? I think pretty much everything, because, I mean, we know that something is wrong, that the planet

is warming because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and that might lead to that the ice caps will melt, and the global temperature will rise, and there will be more extreme weather events and so on, but they don't understand how severe this crisis actually is, and it is because they have not been informed. I mean, we are right now in the beginning of the sixth mass extinction, and people don't know these things. What do you think people could do, and what do you think governments should be doing? I think people should do everything,

I think right now, if I would choose one thing everyone would do, it will be to inform yourself and to try to understand the situation and try to push for political movement that doesn't exist because the politics needed to fix this doesn't exist today. So I think what we should do as individuals is to use the power of democracy to make our voices heard and to make sure that the people in power actually cannot continue to ignore this. That's powerful.

Wow. Do you feel a difference in the conversation traveling from Sweden to America? Is there a different feeling around climate change? I would say yes. because here it's it feels like it is being discussed as something

you, whether you believe in or not believe in. And where I come from it's more like it's a fact and so then I have to ask you this.

So then I have to ask you this. You sail from Europe to New York City. New York City is quite an assault on the senses when you come from anywhere else. What is the biggest thing that has stuck out to you in New York City?

I mean, just everything. All the impressions, everything is so much, so big, so loud. People talk so loud here. And because when you are on that boat, when I was on that boat, there is nothing, there is just the ocean, and of course the sound of the wave's crushing, but that's it. No, no smells, apart from sweat, but... Right. So I remember the first thing I noticed when I, when we came into the harbor. I woke up and suddenly it smelled something and of course it was pollution but it's still something and that's and that was

it was undescribable to to go from this extreme environment you're disconnected from everything and everyone you only have yourself in the ocean and the boat of course to New York That is an accurate and brilliant description of New York. It is undescribable, and it smells. I think that is fantastic. I'm excited for your journey. I can't wait to see what else you're going to do. Thank you for making time for us.

My guests tonight are helping lead a movement to end gun violence following a mass shooting at their high school in Parkland, Florida. Please welcome. March for Our Lives activist, Emma Gonzalez, and Matt Dyke. Welcome to the show. Hello. So good to have you here. Is that the first thing you're going to do?

Go straight to my water? You're just going to check if it's water? No, it's the mug. What if it was just like a fake mug, and now you would have exposed the fact that I don't have any real things in my cups? Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here.

You know what's been fascinating for me in watching your journey is that many people get angry when something bad happens in their world, not just in America anywhere. Many people are outraged. Many people say something. Some people do something, but you continue to work at it to make change.

What do you think keeps driving you? I definitely know that in the very beginning of all this, we met with a bunch of kids from Chicago, the Peace Warriors mainly, who we are still friends with today, and they told us about the six principles of nonviolence of Martin Luther King's. And principle number five is, no, principle number four is, except suffering without retaliation for the sake of the cause

to achieve the goal, which means basically, it doesn't matter what you face is an individual, the goal is much more important than anybody, which is kind of the main principle that, you know, we went to see the sit encounters in North Carolina, and that was the methods that were used then. It doesn't matter if somebody hits me, doesn't matter if somebody pour something over my head

trying to get me off of this seat. I need to sit here because this is for everybody. And the main thing you're trying to do is get young people to register to vote. And actually show up for the vote. And actually show up. Like, that's an important part. Why is that the key to what you're doing?

Because, I mean, people say, like, register to vote, But you're going like, no, we want you to show up. Why is there a difference? Because people say, my vote doesn't count. So if somebody's in your face saying, register to vote, you can say, oh, sure. But nobody's going to go up to you the day of the polls and say, get out there and vote, you know?

Like, we're going to try to do offers of ride sharing and stuff like that. Or, you know, we encourage people to say, like, you know, try to carpool everybody that you know and try to get everybody at the polls at the same time to offer the transportation to those who don't have it. But if a million people say, my vote doesn't count, that's a million votes that could have either swung a district

made an impact. You know, in the Ohio Special Election, it was under 2,000 votes that was the difference between the two people. Right. Like, your vote really, really does count. What if it had been one vote? That person's one vote would have made the difference.

Right, we saw a story where in one election it had to be decided by basically a coin flip. And it's starting to show you that elections are getting closer and closer. People's votes are counting more than they ever thought before. Young people in particular haven't been good at turning up when it comes to the midterms. In this election, it feels different. We're seeing research that says more and more people

are registering, more and more people who are young are inclined to vote. Do you feel like gun violence and mass shootings are a big driving factor in this? Well, young people are more educated now than they've ever been before. And young people turn out at a rate about one in five. If young people turn out in a rate of two out of five,

they can swing any election that they turn out in. And so that's what it's really about, is about showing that young people, if you can just convince one person, in your proximity, that to vote, that wasn't planning on voting, you can swing this election and actually obtain morally just leaders, because right now,

Congress does not reflect the wants and needs of the American people. Let's talk about the shirts that you're wearing. Clearly, you didn't talk about it before you left the house. You're wearing the same thing. You're not just talking, you're doing, you're not just doing, you're helping others do. Getting people out to vote always seems tedious,

your shirts have a purpose. Tell me about them. The QR code, if you scan it with your camera, very simple, don't even need an app. It will get you registered to vote in under two minutes. So if we, can we zoom in on that right now? So if you're watching this at home, yeah, if you're watching this at home right now and you zoom in, like, you can take a picture of this right now

on your phone and you can join this movement. You can register to vote, you can get out there, you can have your voice heard. You don't even have to agree with us in policy. You can just get registered to vote and get out there and vote. I like that. So, how do you go back to your normal lives?

Like, you guys know you have the right to be kids as well, right? Like, what do you go back to after this? There is no normality in this country right now. And so having to understand that we need to continue building these coalitions with people and continue educating people what's going on day to day, because not a day has passed on this tour where we haven't heard a new name, a new story. We haven't seen a day go by where a new, a new story of someone else shot and killed, shot and killed. Another young person shot and killed

in this country happens. This doesn't happen anywhere else except America. And it is up to us as Americans to actually stand up and fight for each other. And so there is no normality until we can continue to come together and actually change this. So I know you want us to be kids, but we have more important

things to do. Thank you so much for being on the show. Den insurance, we put the care in taking care of business. Your business, to be exact. Our agents take the time to understand your company so you get the right coverage at the right price. Whether you rent out your building, represent a condo corporation, or own a cleaning company, we make insurance easy to understand so you can focus on the big stuff, like your small business. Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at Dejardin.com slash business coverage. Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd.

Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindest community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at Canada's Wonderland.com. My guest tonight is a climate activist, hip-hop artist, and author whose new book is called, We Rise, The Earth Guardian's Guide to Building a Movement that Restores the Planet. Please welcome, Chutez Cart Martinez.

Welcome to the show, sir. Pleasure to be here, man. You are a young man doing amazing things, and you have been working hard at this for a very long time. If you asked most people when they got into working to help with climate change, they would be like, they haven't started. You started when you were,

were six? Yeah, I could probably barely see over this table. Like, how does that start? I know you talk about it in the book, but your mom was really someone who was passionate about, you know, fighting for their environment, but what are you doing at six? Is that you go like, yeah, this is what I'm gonna do.

Legos are not for me, man. Really? I play with Legos so much. Really, I got, I took myself really seriously when I was little. You know, I saw a documentary about the destruction of the planet, I was like, this is my destiny. And I was really, like, terrified by the thought that my future was gonna be tainted

because people all over the world weren't taking adequate action to protect us from climate disaster. And that inspired me to do something about it. I told, mom, I need to talk to people, help me. You know, so she became a publicist and my manager and my agent, age six. You know, so that was pretty dope.

And I got involved in since then it's just been, you know, more opportunities to use my voice to make a difference in the world. It's been quite the journey. You've really been working hard at this. You're not just speaking about it. about it, but you're an activist. You went on to take over from your sister

fighting against threats to global warming and climate change in Colorado at the age of nine. Please explain to me how you take over any operation that doesn't involve cookies at the age of nine. So we got involved with this organization called Earth Guardians that my mom started it as an accredited high school in Maui. My sister was running it.

She passed it on to me when I was like, nine. Me and my friends went into our local county commissioners, and we banned the use of pesticides. We continue to work in our community to ban fracking for five years. Let's back up, let's back, because you just said you were nine, and then you went into offices

and you got them to ban using pesticides. Yeah, yeah. Like, how do you even begin this as a nine-year-old? It was a whole squad of us, man. We mobbed them, you know? No, for real. Just the squad of nine-year-olds? Yeah, there was about maybe 10 of us

that spoke at a press conference, and then we went in and we gave our testaments our speeches as to why we didn't think that was a good, healthy option for our community. And you're writing speeches about this at the age of nine, a squad of nine years. Where do you find the other nine-year-olds? You know, I think that young people all over this country

more than we give them credit for are actually really interested in being engaged but they don't really have a platform. I was really lucky to have a supportive family and a community, so we just reached out to these youth that did care and all of a sudden we were all over. You talk about that in the book as well,

which I really appreciate, because in many ways this is like an activist guy. You know, you talk about mobilizing, you talk about getting out there, you talk about spreading the message, you talk about doing, which is really important. You're optimistic, but you're a doer as well. There was a quote in the book that really stuck with me,

and that was speaking about how we may be in a really horrible time right now, but this generation has the opportunity to rewrite history. What do you mean by that? I think that now more than ever we have an opportunity to re-approach an issue like climate change, where it's traditionally been seen as like

politicians and activists care about this issue, issue. But truly, it's so much bigger than that, if you see the thousands of lives that are being lost across South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, due to floods, you know, Hurricane Irma that is now brewing, Hurricane Harvey that hit Texas. Right. You know, it's about people's lives. It's about people's families, their homes, their community. That is the issue that we are facing. And as a member of the younger generation, I believe that we have this opportunity now to face this crisis and to change the way we are acting

and we are doing something about it. I'm in a lawsuit against the federal government, suing the Trump administration for violating our constitutional rights to life. liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness for failing to act on climate change. We are changing the way that we are taking action. We are getting artistic. We are moving into the streets in a way we have never seen. So now this generation is reshaping the way

that we address an issue as big as climate change. It is, we're not gonna allow this error to be defined by Donald Trump. Wow. Yeah. So, so, so we're on the same page, you just said you're gonna sue Donald Trump. You're suing him right now.

Which, I mean, that's pretty, like, asshole-ish of you, I'm just going to put out there. No, because suing is his thing, and you, like, that's like going up against DeNaris with her dragons. That's, like, going up, like, that's pretty mean. What do you hope to achieve with this? Do you actually hope that he'll see his day in court? So, myself and 20 other young people

are actually already plaintiffs in the lawsuit that has been in place since 2015 against the Obama administration. We were then transferred over to Trump when he was elected, which we were kind of stoked about. Like, it was way more satisfying to say we're suing Trump than it was to say we're suing Obama. But you're suing no matter what. Yeah, regardless. We believe that our federal government is violating our constitutional rights.

They are infringing upon our rights by colluding with the fossil fuel industry to create this crisis supporting the very industries that are creating climate change. So in February 5th, we actually have our date and trial. So there was motions to dismiss that were filed from the most powerful government or one of the most powerful governments on the planet and the fossil fuel industry. They were trying to get our lawsuit thrown out of court. After two different judges reviewed this motion to dismiss, they said we do have the right to take this to trial. So February 5th is our trial date. we are hoping that what will happen is that the courts will force the federal government to enforce massive climate recovery plans that have been put together by the top climate scientists in the world

to reduce our greenhouse gas footprint as a nation back down to a safe level for our generation. You just made me feel like the biggest underachiever ever, man. Thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you. It's amazing, man. Show Podcast Universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus.