Gabby Giffords on “Before & After with Lester Holt” podcast: “Move ahead. Do not look back”
Audio Brief
Show transcript
According to Emma Brown, nine out of ten times when a person is shot in the head, the person dies. In this episode, host Lester Holt sits down with former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Emma Brown, Executive Director of the gun violence prevention organization Giffords. By the end, you will understand how Giffords survived a bullet to the brain, used music to relearn speech, and turned personal tragedy into national advocacy.
What happens when words get trapped inside your own brain.
Emerging from a coma after the January 8, 2011 shooting in Tucson, Giffords could initially only say the words what and chicken. While her comprehension remains intact, the injury to the left side of her brain caused aphasia, a disorder that traps words inside her brain and required thousands and thousands of homework sessions just to relearn basic verbalization like left and right, or reading analog clocks.
How singing a Broadway tune can unlock a silenced voice.
Because language is processed on the left side of the brain where Giffords was shot, her speech was severely impaired, yet musical ability lives elsewhere in the brain. As Brown explains, this left Giffords's pitch and song recall entirely intact, allowing her to sing Tomorrow from the musical Annie, which her mother, Gloria, sang at her hospital bedside. Speech therapist Abby Hirsch Cruise used those intact musical pathways to help Giffords partially relearn how to speak by attaching sentences, such as my journey of recovery is long and difficult, to musical notes.
The hidden grief and accidental nickname behind a very public recovery.
While a mariachi band played outside her hospital for two weeks and cable news initially reported her death in error, Giffords faced profound private losses. She missed a scheduled in vitro fertilization transfer, a fertility procedure, at Walter Reed just days after the shooting, losing three eggs, and even her public name changed from Gabrielle to Gabby after President Barack Obama used the nickname in a speech one mile from the hospital and nobody wanted to correct the President.
How state by state persistence passes hundreds of gun safety laws.
After recovering in Houston, Giffords resigned from Congress and founded her organization, Giffords. Operating in 25 to 35 states annually, the group focuses on incremental state progress and has helped pass over 700 state laws. That includes expanded background checks, domestic violence protections, and waiting periods in Maine after 18 people died in a Lewiston bowling alley shooting, even though Maine had not passed a gun law in decades.
Why some gun tragedies dominate the news while others vanish in hours.
Brown points out that while high profile events get massive attention, everyday gun violence is often overlooked. When eight children died in a domestic violence shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, it received about 12 hours of media coverage. Meanwhile, an attack and shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner that very same weekend received five to six days of wall to wall coverage.
Giffords refuses to be defined by physical limitations, pairing a daily routine of Spanish lessons, French horn, and gym workouts with showing up for communities like Shreveport and skydiving on the anniversary of her shooting. As Giffords puts it, move ahead, to not look back, and she hopes others are inspired to keep moving forward no matter what.
Episode Overview
- Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Emma Brown (Executive Director of Giffords' gun violence prevention organization, Giffords) join host Lester Holt to discuss Giffords' survival, ongoing recovery, and national advocacy following the January 8, 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona.
- The conversation traces Giffords' background—from growing up on 40 acres in Arizona and serving as the third-generation owner of her family's 50-year-old tire shop, El Campo Tire (which she sold to Goodyear in 1999)—to the grocery store parking lot shooting that killed 6 people, injured 13, and left Giffords partially paralyzed with severe aphasia.
- Listeners learn the neurological realities of living with a traumatic brain injury, including how Giffords emerged from a multi-week coma only able to say "what" and "chicken," and how she used intact musical pathways in her brain to relearn speech.
- The episode explores how Giffords transformed personal tragedy into systemic action after resigning from Congress, founding Giffords to address the 50,000 American lives lost annually to gun violence and helping pass over 700 state-level laws.
Key Concepts
- The Reality of Aphasia and Brain Trauma: According to Emma Brown, 9 out of 10 times when a person is shot in the head, the person dies. Giffords survived a bullet to the left side of her brain, requiring a tracheotomy and the removal of a portion of her skull to accommodate brain swelling (a bone fragment she still keeps in her freezer in Tucson). While her comprehension remains intact, the injury caused aphasia—a disorder that traps words inside her brain, requiring "thousands and thousands of homework" to relearn basic verbalization, such as "left and right" and reading analog clocks.
- Neuroplasticity Through Musical Pathways: Because language is processed on the left side of the brain where Giffords was shot, her speech was severely impaired; however, musical ability is located elsewhere in the brain. Leaving her pitch and song recall entirely intact—such as singing "Tomorrow" from Annie, which her mother, Gloria, sang at her hospital bedside—allowed speech therapist Abby Hirsch Cruise to help Giffords partially relearn how to speak by attaching sentences (like "My journey of recovery is long and difficult") to musical notes.
- Unseen Personal Losses and Public Identity Shifts: Behind the public coverage—which included erroneous initial cable news reports of her death and a mariachi band playing outside her hospital for two weeks—Giffords faced profound private losses. Her family initially hid newspapers from her until she realized the extent of her injuries, leading to a tearful moment where she walked into the hospital bathroom (as Brown recalls and Giffords confirms) and asked her husband, NASA astronaut and U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, "What is happening to me?" Furthermore, Giffords missed a scheduled IVF transfer at Walter Reed just days after the shooting ("3 eggs and gone"). Even her public name changed: she previously went by Gabrielle or "Gabriella," until President Barack Obama called her "Gabby" during a speech in Tucson 1 mile from University Medical Center (around the time she first opened her eyes), and the name stuck because nobody wanted to correct the President.
- State-Level Legislative Momentum in Gun Safety: Following her recovery in Houston—where Mark Kelly commanded his final space shuttle flight before retiring from NASA to be with her—Giffords resigned from Congress and founded Giffords. Operating in 25 to 35 states annually, in Congress, and in the courts, the organization focuses on incremental, state-by-state progress. This strategy has helped pass over 700 state laws, including a machine gun conversion device ban in Alabama and expanded background checks, domestic violence protections, and waiting periods in Maine after 18 people died in the Lewiston bowling alley shooting (despite Maine not having passed a gun law in decades).
- Disparities in Gun Violence Media Coverage: Brown highlights that while high-profile events receive massive attention, everyday gun violence is often overlooked. For example, a domestic violence shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, where 8 children died, received about 12 hours of media coverage, whereas an attack/shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner that same weekend received 5 to 6 days of wall-to-wall coverage.
Quotes
- At 1:59 - "Aphasia really sucks. The words are there in my brain. I just can't get them out. I love to talk, I'm Gabby, and I'm so quiet now." - Gabby Giffords explaining the internal frustration of living with aphasia, where full comprehension remains but word retrieval is blocked.
- At 10:33 - "Yeah, it's um so she was shot in the left side of her brain where language is, but music is somewhere else, and so her musical abilities have remained entirely intact. Her pitch is much better than mine, much better than than many of ours, and she can recall and and sing fluidly." - Emma Brown explaining the neurological separation between speech and music that allowed Giffords to use melody to retrain her brain to speak.
- At 17:42 - "Move ahead, to not look back. I hope others are inspired to keep moving forward no matter what." - Gabby Giffords summarizing her personal philosophy for navigating catastrophic injury, grueling rehabilitation, and life after trauma.
Takeaways
- Leverage alternative cognitive pathways during rehabilitation: When recovering from neurological trauma, use intact abilities—such as music, rhythm, and pitch—to bridge gaps in damaged areas like speech, and pair them with a rigorous daily routine (like Giffords' schedule of Spanish lessons, playing the French horn, yoga twice a week, pool therapy, and hitting the gym at 2:40).
- Channel personal survival into targeted, incremental advocacy: Rather than waiting for sweeping federal changes, build momentum by focusing on state-level legislation and showing up for underreported communities—just as Giffords travels roughly "60% the road" and attended the funeral for the 8 children killed in Shreveport to bring national attention to domestic gun violence.
- Commit to relentless forward motion through physical and personal milestones: Refuse to be defined by physical limitations by setting concrete, challenging goals—such as Giffords riding 32 miles on a recumbent bike every year in the El Tour de Tucson, performing a duet with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, or skydiving on the anniversary of her shooting with Navy SEAL Jimmy Hatch (whom she had visited after he was injured in Afghanistan, and who later sat by her hospital bedside and presented her with his Purple Heart).
