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‘Operation Big Bird’: How CEO saved lives of ‘Sesame Street’ team in Afghanistan after Taliban seized control of wartorn nation

By: Oli Coleman

13 June 2026 at 09:44

Exec Sherrie Westin was credited with singlehandedly saving her team's lives in the feat.

Sherrie Westin speaks at the Literacy Partners 40th Annual Gala at Pier Sixty in NYC on June 8, 2026.

An Afghan puppeteer holds a muppet named "Zari" for a television program on April 10, 2016.

A US Marine pulls an infant over a barbed wire fence during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 19, 2021.

As well as many of the characters beloved by American kids, the show followed Zari, a 6-year-old girl Muppet, and her 4-year-old brother Zeerak.