She Survived Being Shot, Bombed And Working At Google - EP 58 Anna Prouse

**Anna Prouse** (0:00)
I could also understand why the guy wanted me dead. Now, on the way there, he killed everyone in the car.

**Ashlee Vance** (0:09)
So you, yeah, you duck, and then you get out of the car.

**Anna Prouse** (0:12)
I duck, and I figure out that they're all dead, because then I have to climb over my dead friend's body. And there's chaos around the car, and I don't, I'm like, oh my God, everyone's screaming, and I'm like, oh God, I don't wanna be lynched. I mean, to die because they beat the hell out of me, please not. So I run into a house, and in Baghdad at that time, all the doors are open to let the air flow. And I watch probably too many movies, and I ran into a corner, because at least in a corner, your shoulders are-

**Ashlee Vance** (0:49)
Something behind you.

**Anna Prouse** (0:50)
Behind you, and I'll scrutinize what's in front of me. And I'll wait for the Marines to come and save me. So my old man's like, where are the Marines? Where are the Marines? And that's when you realize, no, this is not a movie. I mean, time that anyone knows that this is happening on the streets and I'll be dead. So I need to figure this out on my own. And instead of the Marines, I have a bunch of women in black charters come in and do the classic shouting.

**Ashlee Vance** (1:17)
You're in somebody's house.

**Anna Prouse** (1:19)
I'm in somebody's house, in a corner with a bunch of dead people out. And so the lady comes in with all her friends, I guess, and they start, it's panic. So they scream, they do the panic scream. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, oh God, now the snipers, because I still think about the snipers, the snipers will know that I'm here. And then I'm saying, okay, I am not getting shot at while staring at the person who's shooting at me.
If I'm getting killed today, I'm running for survival.

**Ashlee Vance** (2:06)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Core Memory Podcast. This is Ashlee Vance, as always. Today, we have a different sort of podcast. We're going, there is going to be some tech and Silicon Valley-ness to this at some point, but we're going to tell you one of the most extraordinary stories that I have run into in a long time. Someone who's lived just an amazing life on a Prowse is this person. How are you?

**Anna Prouse** (2:37)
I'm good. Thank you.

**Ashlee Vance** (2:39)
Thank you for being here. I'm going to ramble for a second just to set all this up because it is a little bit different, but we share a hairstylist, I think is what they are called these days. And her name is Jessica Meani. She's lovely. I've been going to her for 15 years.
If you live in Palo Alto and you need a hairstylist, look her up. And so I'm in the chair. I don't know. It was like two months ago, I think. And she's like, you know, one of my other customers, she's lived this amazing life. She's just written this book in Italian. She already had a book come out in Italy about a memoir, a biography about her life. And then she's translated it into English. And I was like, well, what's it about? And she's like, well, she was this, she's this Italian and she was in Iraq and Iran, and was working at the Red Cross, and then got involved with the US military and General Petraeus and had all these near death experiences. It was unfolding the story. I was like, I have to talk to this woman. And so we've never met before.

**Anna Prouse** (3:48)
No, we've not. Yeah.

**Ashlee Vance** (3:49)
And I think I emailed you just a few days ago. I was like, please, will you come in to the studio and tell your story?

**Anna Prouse** (3:54)
Here I am.

**Ashlee Vance** (3:54)
Yeah, here you are. So the book, okay, there's a million places we could go. Because in your book, you lay out your life story. And I want to get into it, but I thought we would maybe not go chronologically, just because I want to give people a feel for this incredible career you've had, which is harrowing and inspiring and just extraordinary. So, your Italian, you've written a book called Honorary Man, which we're gonna, it's an amazing title. We're gonna explain what that means. But I'm gonna transport us to 2001, is where I thought I would start, which is the September 11th attacks have literally just happened, as you were already planning to go to Iran, I think as a journalist, and you were gonna cover something else. But in this moment, when probably everybody else would have been like, I'm canceling my flight to Tehran, this is probably not the best time to go, you decide to go anyway. And this sets you up for, what is it? It's about like a 12 year run in the Middle East or even?