Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Rita Levi Montalcini was a strong proponent of education and instruction as the means to gain freedom. She was also an example of it. This segment describes a visit to women in prison, and the obstacles Montalcini had to face, as a woman and as a Jew, during the Nazi-Fascist regime.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Rita Levi Montalcini talks about what, as a little girl, she wanted to be when she grew up. One of her main goals was to help women, especially ones from poor countries, become what they were meant to become.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Margherita left a legacy of progress, both scientific and social. Perhaps she is still looking down on us, since an asteroid was named after her: 8558 Hack.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Even though Aldo and Margherita were very different in many ways, they came together in their skepticism. Towards the end of her life, Margherita couldn't move around much, but her brain never stopped going.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
In this segment, Margherita talks about her choice not to have children and also discusses her position regarding God. She can't prove he exists nor can she prove he doesn't.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
We discover that Margherita Hack was a devoted fan of the long-running TV series, Un posto al sole [a place in the sun]. She explains why. Francesca goes back to Trieste and meets up with Eda who talks about having lived in the same house with Margherita Hack.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Margherita Hack spent some time in politics and was also an entrepreneur at times. But she had a lot of fun, too. On the panel with Camilleri, the author of the Montalbano stories, they all come out (in unison) with the famous introduction Montalbano sono (Montalbano, I am). Putting the verb at the end is typical of Sicily, where the story takes place. Otherwise, it would be Sono Montalbano (I'm Montalbano) or, on the phone, "This is Montalbano."
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Margherita Hack was a scientist and communicator, but she also expressed her opinions about attualità (current events). Part of this segment features a panel discussion she held with author Andrea Camilleri, best known for his novels about Inspector Montalbano that became a popular TV series.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Margherita Hack's talents lay not only in her greatness as a scientist, but also in her remarkable ability to communicate with the general public, and especially young people. She rendered complicated information comprehensible and interesting, using clear and simple examples.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Aldo and Margherita stuck together. He might get bored at her lectures, but he would always be there. They both shared a love for sports and motocycles.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
This segment recounts how Aldo De Rosa and Margherita met in a park in Florence as kids and later married. Aldo supported her in her scientific work throughout their marriage, which lasted over seventy years.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Although as an athlete, Margherita did make some compromises she felt she had to during the decades of Italian Fascism, she also took a stand against it, risking expulsion from school.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Perhaps not everyone knows that Margherita Hack as a girl was quite the athlete. Her sport was track and field. She also had a passion for cycling and rode her bike well into her seventies.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Margherita was much more interested in substance and knowledge than in material things, including physical appearance, and this became her brand, in a certain sense. That didn't keep people from loving and respecting her, although there were some occasional incidents, a few of which are recounted by people who knew her.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Margherita Hack made her mark on the University of Trieste, teaching Astronomy there for almost 30 years and linking it with the Observatory. She had to use some drastic means to be recognized, however, being a woman in a man's world. But the balance changed over time, with her help, to involve many more women than before, both as students and researchers.
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