Amanda Nguyen was aiming for the stars when she was accepted as a student at Harvard. She dreamed of becoming an astronaut.

But in her senior year of college, she was raped. That propelled her into a public role as activist to change an infuriating gap in the law when it comes to rape survivors.

“When I found out that my rape kit could be destroyed, untested, in six months — even if the statue of limitations was 15 years — I felt like that was against everything I was taught about the criminal justice system,” she told Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas.

“It was [at] that moment that I decided I would actually be fighting the criminal justice system to reform it, because that was my definition of justice — to make sure that no one else would go through what I had to go through.”

Nguyen’s new memoir, “Saving Five,” is an inspiring, infuriating and ultimately hopeful testament to how one courageous woman fought the system and won.

Guest:

• Amanda Nguyen is an astronaut for Blue Origin and an activist. Her new memoir is “Saving Five: A Memoir of Hope.”

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