Which living person do you most admire, and why?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

The Guardian's Q&A repeatedly uses this prompt, sometimes dropping 'living' while retaining the same comparative judgment.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Jean Smart said elsewhere, not written here
Jane Goodall. I got the chance to meet her a few years ago, and it was the thrill of a lifetime. When I was little, I wanted to be her. I thought she had the coolest life in the world.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, May 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

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Bill Bryson American-British author
Angela Merkel; she seems wise, compassionate, curiously huggable.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 February 2016 source ↗

Christy Turlington Burns American model
A midwife named Jennie Joseph. She is a tireless activist for women, family health and equal access to quality maternity care.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 May 2017 source ↗

Billie Piper English actress and former singer
My mother. She raised four children pretty much on her own. My father was around, but always out at work.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 November 2011 source ↗

Corinne Bailey Rae
My mum, for the way that she brought up her three children and managed to make her money work. She worked as a cleaner for all these families we went to church with. She would cycle there with my little sister on the back of her bike – we didn’t have a car. She had an amazing mind for planning and organising so that we got to do ballet, we went to Brownies.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 September 2023 source ↗

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