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Speaker 1: On today's episode, you'll hear a conversation with Scott Harrison,

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Speaker 1: who is the CEO and founder of Charity Water. This

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Speaker 1: weekend with the World Water Day, which focuses on the

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Speaker 1: importance of fresh water. As we see people rushing to

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Speaker 1: stores to stock up on essentials during our public health crisis,

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Speaker 1: we realize how lucky most of us are to have

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Speaker 1: access to safe water, but that is not the case

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Speaker 1: for over six hundred and sixty three million people in

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Speaker 1: the world who live without clean water every day. I

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Speaker 1: was so inspired talking with Scott hearing about Charity Water,

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Speaker 1: how it came to be and what they're doing, and

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Speaker 1: how access to clean and safe water can change the

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Speaker 1: trajectory of people's lives. Hi. Hi, good to be here.

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Speaker 1: I'm so happy here. We were just going ham on

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Speaker 1: some things before we started recording, and I realized we

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Speaker 1: should just get started. I kind of wish we had

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Speaker 1: some of that on tap. I know, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: get the tail and we'll get there again. We'll get

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Speaker 1: there again. The last time we were together, we were

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Speaker 1: in a theater here. Yes, yeah, And I got to

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Speaker 1: interview you about your book, which Fantastic has done so amazing.

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Speaker 1: You made the New York Times West. So this the

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Speaker 1: week after our event. That was cool. I got that

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Speaker 1: call at L a X on a Wednesday, and the

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Speaker 1: whole publishing team and editor they were screaming, Oh, that's

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Speaker 1: so cool. Is that a surreal thing? You know, maybe

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Speaker 1: we get there, But it was a little more anti

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Speaker 1: climactic than I had hoped. It's just the thing that happens.

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Speaker 1: It's just a it's a thing, it's a list, it's

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Speaker 1: a I don't know, it's a thing that happened. It

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Speaker 1: was cool. It was cool, I think, and that you know,

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Speaker 1: I was in transit and I did a sixteen city

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Speaker 1: book tour or something, and you're just you're in a daze.

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Speaker 1: You're working so hard, you're you're flying around and talking

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Speaker 1: and you're saying same thing, and you're you're on the

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Speaker 1: like the road show, and it was just of course,

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Speaker 1: it was in the airport, you know. I remember I

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Speaker 1: was actually having I was at L A X having

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Speaker 1: an I p A at like five pm on I

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Speaker 1: don't know, on a flight somewhere and then you know,

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Speaker 1: I got the call and it was like an unknown

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Speaker 1: number and I picked it up and it was cool.

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Speaker 1: It was right after probably a day after I saw you. Wow,

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Speaker 1: that's so wild. Thanks for helping with that. Yeah, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, it was my pleasure. But it is funny,

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Speaker 1: isn't it That the thing that from the outside looks

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Speaker 1: to be this big, shiny, you know, like the jewel

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Speaker 1: you get in the video game, it happens to you

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Speaker 1: and you're like, I'm at the airport. This is weird.

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Speaker 1: What's going on? You know? It never quite I think

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Speaker 1: I was happier for my team in a way. You know,

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of times, to me, this is

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Speaker 1: your experience. You know, you get some sort of award

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Speaker 1: or accolade, and you're like, I don't deserve that. All

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Speaker 1: these other amazing people that worked on it, you know,

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Speaker 1: you're you want to you want to give away the credits.

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Speaker 1: That's interesting. It was good. I called them immediately, you know,

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Speaker 1: I called my dad, I called like the people that

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Speaker 1: I thought would get maybe even more benefit from it.

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Speaker 1: So well, and all those people who have supported you

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Speaker 1: in the journey, because it's not an easy thing to

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Speaker 1: do what you've done. So my producer, when we were

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Speaker 1: talking about doing this interview, said, how did you guys meet?

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Speaker 1: And I realized I don't remember. We've just known each

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Speaker 1: other for so long that I don't remember. I don't remember.

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Speaker 1: I don't either. This happens a lot. Yeah, and you

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Speaker 1: just and it happens. You know, it's I feel like

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Speaker 1: it's a good thing with the people that you really like. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I do too. Yeah, people who are weird. I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 1: I remember that night and I got stuck in the

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Speaker 1: corner talking to you. But no, I literally was preparing

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Speaker 1: for this thinking I have no idea when or where

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Speaker 1: Scott and I met. That's so weird. We've been We've

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Speaker 1: been camping in Ethiopia together and I don't know where

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Speaker 1: we met. That's right. But sometimes it's a small group

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Speaker 1: of bolded typically come out of the gate caring about

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Speaker 1: the world. So it's a It's funny when when you

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Speaker 1: started making your impact. When I started charity water, there

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Speaker 1: wasn't even this term social entrepreneur. I mean, it was

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Speaker 1: just like, I don't I don't know when that term started.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it feels like it's kind of five years old,

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Speaker 1: and now it's you know, well adopted, Oh, social entrepreneurship

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Speaker 1: and Stanford's got classes and yeah, back in the day,

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Speaker 1: they just called us philanthropists or crazy people right or

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Speaker 1: oh they start they're they're cute little charity. Oh they're

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Speaker 1: the charity thing, the charity thing. You know. It's funny.

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Speaker 1: I am. I get stopped every once in a while

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Speaker 1: and airports now and in the most awkward way. And

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Speaker 1: I really get stopped in African airports because I feel like,

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Speaker 1: you know, there's I'm like the white dude, you know

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Speaker 1: with the away suitcase coming down Nairobi Airport or Addis

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Speaker 1: Airport and all the other aid workers like that's and

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Speaker 1: they just look at me. They say water or water guy.

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Speaker 1: They don't know my name, they don't know the organization's name. Off,

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Speaker 1: it's just what water like. They it's weird, pointed me

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Speaker 1: and just say water and then they move on. That's

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Speaker 1: pretty cool. People point at me and call me other

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Speaker 1: people's names. So I think we're having someone point at

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Speaker 1: you and and tell you the thing that you're helping

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Speaker 1: to change in the world is pretty right. Sure, the

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Speaker 1: idea of you know, of of of being known for

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Speaker 1: some sort of cause or work. I feel like there's

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Speaker 1: been a it's better since we started. There's so much

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Speaker 1: more energy, so many more young people are getting into this.

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Speaker 1: People write me letters about their cause or the thing

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Speaker 1: that they see in the world that isn't right on

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Speaker 1: their watch, and I don't remember that as much. And

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Speaker 1: you know, twelve or thirteen years ago, right, And do

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Speaker 1: you think that social media has something to do with

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Speaker 1: that because the exposure really we've been able to take

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Speaker 1: people on these trips. We've been able to show people

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Speaker 1: how well is built. You know, there there is a

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Speaker 1: touch point. It's not an idea or a thing you

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Speaker 1: read an article about. It's really a thing you get

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Speaker 1: to witness. And I think in addition to witnessing the

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Speaker 1: change and the work, people also are witnessing the places

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Speaker 1: that you're going. They're feeling more attached and they're feeling

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Speaker 1: like they could go there too. Yeah, and there there

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Speaker 1: absolutely is a connectedness. And Charity Water would not be

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Speaker 1: what it is without social media. I mean, we were

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Speaker 1: the first charity to kind of hit it on Twitter.

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Speaker 1: And I remember remember this thing we did called the

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Speaker 1: Twist of All, which sounds so silly now, but Twitter

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Speaker 1: users in the first in the first year of Twitter

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Speaker 1: self organized across fifty or sixty cities and raised hundreds

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Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars. But then they could actually see

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Speaker 1: where that money went. And I remember we said, all right,

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Speaker 1: we've got all these Twitter users, we have all these organizers.

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Speaker 1: Let's take all the money and let's do a live

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Speaker 1: drill via satellite, so everybody could log on and see

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Speaker 1: you the first well of many being built. And it

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Speaker 1: was pretty cool being in a remote village in Ethiopia

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Speaker 1: with a little be Gen satellite unit, no bandwidth and

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Speaker 1: broadcasting what everybody had done the collective. Almost instant gratification,

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Speaker 1: maybe on the on the negative side, but really on

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Speaker 1: the positive side, this is what your money did. Your

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Speaker 1: money is at work. It didn't disappear and did the ether.

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Speaker 1: It's not in some huge bureaucratic void. Your money is

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Speaker 1: helping these people in this village. So social media technology

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Speaker 1: has allowed us to maybe build community in a more

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Speaker 1: visual way. Then, I mean, what what would you what

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Speaker 1: what would have in the past alternative direct mail? Right,

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Speaker 1: people would send money and you'd go and you do something,

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Speaker 1: and then you would send them a letter three months later.

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Speaker 1: You know they wouldn't There wouldn't be an immediacy to it.

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Speaker 1: So we have tried to use it every way that

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Speaker 1: we we can. I mean, just at the very beginning

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Speaker 1: when we started this dates us, but Charity Water and

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Speaker 1: Google Earth and Google Maps started around the same time,

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Speaker 1: So I mean, there was no Google Maps fifteen years ago,

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Speaker 1: and that crazy. And we realized that Google was building

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Speaker 1: a free place where we could geolocate every water point.

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Speaker 1: So if we had a thousand wells, we could put

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Speaker 1: a thousand satellite images up and pictures of the wells

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Speaker 1: and then just build this hyper transparent, connected organization where

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Speaker 1: hopefully people could always see where their money was going

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Speaker 1: and feel like it had reached the people that they

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Speaker 1: were trying to help in the first place. So we're

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Speaker 1: on philanthropy and being a social entrepreneur and tech and innovation.

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Speaker 1: But I want to roll it back for a minute

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Speaker 1: because I'm always so curious when I sit across from

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Speaker 1: people here who are so impressive, who are friends, who

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Speaker 1: are people I admire? I wonder if you can tell

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Speaker 1: me about who you were when you were little, because

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Speaker 1: I know I know you as my friend who lives

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Speaker 1: in service and is insanely sharp, and you're able to

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Speaker 1: observe a lot of things at the same time, and

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Speaker 1: were you this observational as a little kid. It's interesting

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Speaker 1: I think. As a little kid, I was also in service,

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Speaker 1: although maybe thrust into it a little more so. When

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Speaker 1: I was for there was a bad accident in our

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Speaker 1: family and there was a carbon oxide gas leak that

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Speaker 1: almost killed my whole family. It took my mom's health

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Speaker 1: out irreparably. So she went from being this vibrant mother journalist,

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Speaker 1: uh you know, a wife that would fly around the

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Speaker 1: world adventuring with my father, to just a person whose

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Speaker 1: body and immune system is shut down, who was allergic

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Speaker 1: to the world, who is living in a small room

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Speaker 1: with oxygen tanks and just weird health stuff. So not

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Speaker 1: wanting to I guess at four, it's like, Okay, now

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Speaker 1: your mom is sick. Now it's you have a new

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Speaker 1: role in life. Go take care of your mom. So

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Speaker 1: in some ways I became a caregiver really early on,

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Speaker 1: and I was the good kid. I had deep empathy

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Speaker 1: and compassion. I wanted to be a doctor so that

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Speaker 1: I could grow up and help heal mom and then

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Speaker 1: help other people, other sick people like her. And religion

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Speaker 1: was a huge part of my life. My parents were

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Speaker 1: I guess you'd call it nondenominational Christians, so they their

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Speaker 1: faith was a big part of getting them through this

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Speaker 1: terrible tragedy. And I watched my parents taught me so

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Speaker 1: much about spirituality and morality and staying together as a

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Speaker 1: family and optimism. So I was I was a little

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Speaker 1: entrepreneur as a kid. I remember saving money to buy

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Speaker 1: a leaf blower and then selling my leaf blowing services

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Speaker 1: up and down the neighborhood. You know, I was growing

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Speaker 1: up in Jersey, so really unremarkable, you know, kind of

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Speaker 1: sort of rural area, very middle class family. You know,

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Speaker 1: my parents probably lived on fifty grand a year. You know,

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Speaker 1: would I would never buy nice things. My dad to

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Speaker 1: this day, it just visited me in New York last

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Speaker 1: week and he's had the same winter jacket which he

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Speaker 1: should not be wearing in summer. But it's it's it's

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Speaker 1: got duct tape all over it. So this jacket is

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Speaker 1: fifteen or twenty years old and it's just patched up.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this stuff thing is coming out. So that

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Speaker 1: was kind of that was the ethos of the family

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Speaker 1: was we never throw anything away. They were very generous,

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Speaker 1: so they would always give to help people in the community.

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Speaker 1: And then at eighteen, I just lost the plot for

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Speaker 1: a little while. So when you say that. You know,

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Speaker 1: you talk about your whole life changing it for you know,

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Speaker 1: you were still a baby, and it's amazing the way

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Speaker 1: you talk about your parents resilience and the way that

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Speaker 1: they taught you about staying together as a family and

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Speaker 1: and faith and commitment and all of those things. But

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Speaker 1: I wonder if a little bit of losing the plot

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Speaker 1: is just the pendulum swinging in the other direction of

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Speaker 1: like this, in this early sort of forced responsibility and

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Speaker 1: growing up fast to like I want to I want

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Speaker 1: to be a kid in a way responsible, I want

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Speaker 1: to have a good time. It felt like it was

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Speaker 1: my turn, you know, Now it's my turn. Eighteen years old. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that was their turn. Played by the rules, didn't smoke,

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Speaker 1: didn't drink, didn't have sex, like played by the church rules,

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Speaker 1: played by the family rules, helped to take care of mom.

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Speaker 1: Now it's my turn, and New York City was only

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Speaker 1: an hour away, and almost everything for the next ten

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Speaker 1: years in my life, every behavior was an act of

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Speaker 1: rebellion in some way and maybe fun exploration in the other,

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Speaker 1: like let's have sex with a lot of people, let's smoke,

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Speaker 1: let's drake, let's party. Let me try and make money

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Speaker 1: Let me try and buy the watch that's and see

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Speaker 1: how that feels and looks something. Let me drive the BMW.

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Speaker 1: Let me, you know, chase Fashion Week around the world.

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Speaker 1: Let me work at forty clubs. Let me get drunk,

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Speaker 1: Let me try coke, Let me try X, let me

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Speaker 1: try M D M A like, let me gamble, like

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Speaker 1: all of those things. It was. It was almost like

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Speaker 1: the you know, the proverbial frog in the pot that

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Speaker 1: it started with one thing, and then the second, and

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Speaker 1: the third, and then ten years later, you know, I

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Speaker 1: had picked up almost all these vices, and unfortunately they

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Speaker 1: had stuck. There's lots of people that try things like oh, wow,

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Speaker 1: that's terrible. You know, wow I have a hangover. I

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Speaker 1: hated that, or well, wow, that drug made me feel terrible. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: way too many of these things stuck to me. So

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Speaker 1: ten years later they had this compound effect of I

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Speaker 1: just remember so much self hatred, so much self loathing,

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Speaker 1: you know, probably some shame because I had just come

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Speaker 1: far from the safe morality and the spirituality of you know,

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Speaker 1: my upbringing. I had. Innocence was lost, and and your experimentation,

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Speaker 1: to your point, wasn't just experimentation. It really lasted and

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Speaker 1: took a toll on you. Yeah. I mean, I just

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Speaker 1: I'm forty four now. I just had a lung scan

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Speaker 1: and my doctor was like, dude, you did twenty pack years.

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Speaker 1: I didn't even know that that was the thing, but

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Speaker 1: apparently when you smoke two packs of Marlborough Red's a

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Speaker 1: day for ten years, that's twenty pack years. And thank god,

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Speaker 1: my lungs were fine because I quit early enough, I

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Speaker 1: guess to have them regenerate. But you know, yeah, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna just smoke for a couple

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Speaker 1: of months and try that out. It's like everything I

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Speaker 1: did I seem to do to excess. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if that's a personality thing or or maybe it was

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Speaker 1: just you know, wanting to to take play everything out

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Speaker 1: to the nth degree. So yeah, I mean, for those

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Speaker 1: people that don't know the story, I became a nightclub

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Speaker 1: promoter and worked at forty different nightclubs, selling thousand dollar

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Speaker 1: bottles of champagne and four at dollar bottles of vodka

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Speaker 1: that cost us thirty bucks. And the whole idea of

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Speaker 1: going to dinner at twelve or going to dinner at

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Speaker 1: ten in the nightclub at twelve and after hours at

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Speaker 1: four felt so rebellious, so alluring. It felt intoxicating for

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Speaker 1: a while, and then one day you wake up and

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Speaker 1: you realize that it is the mystique has long worn off,

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Speaker 1: and well, isn't it interesting when you realize it isn't intoxicating.

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Speaker 1: You were just intoxicated, right. It's like, nothing is grosser

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Speaker 1: than a club when the lights come on. That's so true,

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Speaker 1: you know, sticky, and it's just you see the stuffing

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Speaker 1: popping out of the bandits and you realize everything that

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Speaker 1: looks sexy in the dark or in the movie is

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Speaker 1: just not I will never forget when I first started.

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Speaker 1: It was one when I moved to North Carolina for

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Speaker 1: my first show, and I don't remember if it was

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Speaker 1: the first or the second season. It was early. We

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Speaker 1: had to shoot bachelorette party at a strip club. But

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Speaker 1: we were in a strip club during the day. During

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Speaker 1: the day. I was horrified because like I've been in nightclubs.

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Speaker 1: We've been on the same nightclubs. They keep the lights

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Speaker 1: real dim, yeah, and it looks sexy. And then we

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Speaker 1: were in this place and it was the grossest, scariest,

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Speaker 1: saddest and I was like oh, this is a real moment.

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Speaker 1: And we had to work in there for like fifteen

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Speaker 1: hours and it was anyway, that's not the point of

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Speaker 1: the story, but I just you're telling me this, and

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Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, it's like in the day

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Speaker 1: four in the morning, four oh one, the lights would

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Speaker 1: come on, and yeah, it's it was rough. There was

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Speaker 1: a moment I wrote about this in the book that

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Speaker 1: you know, you have these moments of epiphany or clarity.

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Speaker 1: And I remember being on Houston Street in New York

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Speaker 1: and it was around noon, and you know, I'd gone

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Speaker 1: through this sequence of dinner at ten at the trendy

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Speaker 1: restaurant with you know, eight models from the modeling agency

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Speaker 1: and a couple of guys paying for the whole thing

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Speaker 1: club at twelve after hours at four that had somehow

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Speaker 1: run up to probably eleven, walked into my buddies, and

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Speaker 1: now it was twelve and it was time to sleep

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Speaker 1: and then get up at seven pm and do it

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Speaker 1: all over again. I remember, first of all, it's bright

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Speaker 1: at noon, so it was hard to sleep. This place

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Speaker 1: didn't have solar blinds or anything, so I remember taking

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Speaker 1: down comforters and trying to take them to the window

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Speaker 1: to sleep, and in this process, looking out on Houston

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Speaker 1: Street at noon at very respectable people in suits going

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Speaker 1: about their very healthy days at their lunch break, and

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Speaker 1: just thinking like, what a degenerate I've become. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is not healthy. It's not like I'm a surgeon

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Speaker 1: on a night shift, you know, that was doing some

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Speaker 1: sort of noble work in the middle of the night.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was out do him cocaine till noon.

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Speaker 1: Like what a disgusting you know, wretch. So you have

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Speaker 1: these moments where you know, you know that at least

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Speaker 1: I had these moments that I wanted to change, but

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Speaker 1: then I felt stuck in this cycle of well, this

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Speaker 1: is my job, is how I paid my rent? Was

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Speaker 1: I was really good at it. I was pretty good

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Speaker 1: at getting thousands of people drunk every week. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: were good at being the ringmaster. But you write in

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Speaker 1: the book about feeling numb, and when you talk about how,

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Speaker 1: because right now you're also talking about the way that

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Speaker 1: you feel stuck. And I think so many people I

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Speaker 1: feel stuck in careers that don't make them happy or

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Speaker 1: relationships that don't make them happy, and and the numbing

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Speaker 1: is really the side effect and the way that you

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Speaker 1: stay and I'm curious, how do you how do you

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Speaker 1: at this point realize that that's what's happening to you? Yeah? Well,

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Speaker 1: actually when physically number which probably doesn't surprise anybody from

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Speaker 1: what I just described. But I woke up so about

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Speaker 1: twenty eight years old. So I've been doing this for

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Speaker 1: ten years and half of my body going up because now,

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Speaker 1: and you know, of course, I think I'm dying immediately

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Speaker 1: of some horrible disease. So I go to the I

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Speaker 1: get the m R. I that's fine, you know, the

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Speaker 1: e k G. That's fine, blood tests, nobody, nothing is

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Speaker 1: wrong with me, I mean medically yet through the three

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Speaker 1: or four specialists. Yeah, it's like the greatest. Your body's like,

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Speaker 1: you're not listening to me. I've been giving you the signs. Okay,

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Speaker 1: now I'm going to do it literally because that's what

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Speaker 1: the body does. It knocks louder and louder and louder

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Speaker 1: and louder for your attention. Yeah, and so what did

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Speaker 1: they say? So? So, I think there was something about

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Speaker 1: being faced with mortality that was a real trigger for

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Speaker 1: me because I was living in this lifestyle like you were,

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Speaker 1: just I was gonna live forever I mean, I would

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Speaker 1: be going to passion parties forever, and you know, there

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Speaker 1: would be nicer cars and better vacations and model girlfriends

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Speaker 1: that were more successful and on more covers, and like

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Speaker 1: all the things that I was chasing, my apartment would

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Speaker 1: get bigger, and and then you know, one day, well,

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Speaker 1: what if you were diagnosed, what if you had a

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Speaker 1: month to live, or what if I had a brain

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Speaker 1: tumor or something really serious? What's my legacy, what's my impact?

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Speaker 1: It's my relationship like with my parents, what's my relationship

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Speaker 1: like with God? I mean, it was it was a

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Speaker 1: real wake up call. It was the moment when the

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Speaker 1: lights come on in the club and you're forced to

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Speaker 1: look at that. So I wish I could say it

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Speaker 1: was a quick process, but that that led a new

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Speaker 1: pattern of thinking of I really need to get out,

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Speaker 1: And I went straight from that moment. A couple of

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Speaker 1: weeks later, I went to New Year's It was a

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Speaker 1: New Year's Eve vacation. We went to South America, rented

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Speaker 1: a giant compound with horses and servants waiting on us

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Speaker 1: and magnums of dom Perignon and a mega yacht attached

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Speaker 1: to the place, and like all the things that club

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Speaker 1: promoters do for New Year's Eve. And that was another

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Speaker 1: moment for me when I was I realized over ten

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Speaker 1: fourteen days that not only was I not happy, so

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Speaker 1: many of the other people in this opulent, decadent vacation

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Speaker 1: we're also not happy. It was like the veil was

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Speaker 1: slowly starting to be lifted, and you know it was

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Speaker 1: it was like the almost like a game of musical chairs,

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Speaker 1: where the music would have stopped plenty of times for

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Speaker 1: ten years, the lights would have come on for plenty

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Speaker 1: of nights, and then there's that one time where you

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Speaker 1: don't have a chair, Like I was the guy standing.

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00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:33,879
Speaker 1: I was the guy looking around, unsettled, unseated. So it

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Speaker 1: was the health issues. It was this vacation where I realized, Wow,

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Speaker 1: there's really never gonna be enough. There'll never be enough girls,

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Speaker 1: so never be enough cars, There nebably be enough. Someone

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Speaker 1: is always going to have more. I am trapped in

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Speaker 1: an endless pursuit of hedonism, of selfishness, of you know,

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Speaker 1: of self, and this will lead me to ruin, and

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Speaker 1: in fact, it has led other people to ruin. And

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Speaker 1: I remember there were a couple of people, very very

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Speaker 1: wealthy and their sixties, dating eighteen year old models younger

399
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Speaker 1: than their daughters. You know, just there was so much

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Speaker 1: wreckage with this pursuit of more of hedonism. So I

401
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:14,720
Speaker 1: resolved that I was going to get out. And then

402
00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:17,520
Speaker 1: it took me a few more months. So it's probably

403
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Speaker 1: nine months. And what's going on with the numb side

404
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,200
Speaker 1: of the body, like just slowly started going away maybe

405
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Speaker 1: as you started not really is I mean I started

406
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Speaker 1: trying to ease off the stuff, but I was still

407
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Speaker 1: smoking and I was still drinking, and it was so

408
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:34,199
Speaker 1: hard to get rid of that stuff. I mean, it

409
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Speaker 1: was it was really on me. Well, they make it

410
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Speaker 1: to do that to you, you know, I think I

411
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Speaker 1: think sometimes we need to cut our little human selves

412
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Speaker 1: a break. Because it's marketed to you. It's sold to you,

413
00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:51,440
Speaker 1: it's packaged to you, it's engineered by food scientists to

414
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Speaker 1: taste away and to be it's they want us to

415
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:59,240
Speaker 1: want it all the time. Yeah, you know, I think

416
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Speaker 1: the waking up to that and figuring out how to

417
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 1: change the pattern is a amazing thing. Yeah, And for me,

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Speaker 1: I eventually just went cold turkey. But you know, in

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Speaker 1: the in the summer of that year, so let's say October,

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Speaker 1: I go and, um, you know, January is this New

421
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Speaker 1: Year's e vacation, the summer of that year. And I

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Speaker 1: come back and I'm trying to find my way out,

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Speaker 1: but I just felt so stuck. I'm a nightclub promoter.

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Speaker 1: I'm not a doctor, I'm not a lawyer. You know,

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Speaker 1: we talked with this earlier. I had a journalism degree,

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Speaker 1: but I've never written, so no one's gonna hire me

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00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 1: to do anything. But yet, like we made pretty good

428
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 1: money getting drunk for a living, getting our friends drunk,

429
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:39,760
Speaker 1: so it's not it wasn't an easy jump to a

430
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:43,680
Speaker 1: marketing agency or anything like that. And you know, there

431
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:45,480
Speaker 1: was in the summer, there was this incident that I

432
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,520
Speaker 1: write about it the book where I fired a bouncer

433
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,040
Speaker 1: and this guy came after me. And I had this

434
00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:52,880
Speaker 1: moment where I just left New York for a couple

435
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:58,360
Speaker 1: of weeks and took stock of my life, the career

436
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:02,800
Speaker 1: that I was in, the unhealthy lifestyle. I was with

437
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:05,240
Speaker 1: a girlfriend I didn't love, and like it wasn't fair

438
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:07,560
Speaker 1: to either of us to be in this relationship. Like

439
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:12,880
Speaker 1: everything was just wrong. And I asked myself this question,

440
00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:16,440
Speaker 1: what would the opposite of my life look like and

441
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 1: as radical as I had gone as the prodigal And

442
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:24,919
Speaker 1: it's funny because, in with a lot of retrospection, I

443
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 1: really feel like the prodigal son. I gave my family

444
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,639
Speaker 1: the finger. I said, I want my inheritance now, and

445
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,200
Speaker 1: I'm going to go so far from home. I'm gonna

446
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 1: go across the world, and I'm gonna squander it all.

447
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:40,239
Speaker 1: And then I really wound up in that you know,

448
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:44,680
Speaker 1: proverbial pig pen moment, saying, well, that didn't work, and

449
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:46,640
Speaker 1: I feel terrible, and I want to go. I miss home.

450
00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:48,680
Speaker 1: I want to come home. I want to come back

451
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:50,960
Speaker 1: to faith. I want to come back to morality. I

452
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:53,919
Speaker 1: want to come back to a place where I was

453
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 1: in service to my mom and to others, where I cared,

454
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:59,240
Speaker 1: where I wanted to be the doctor that would help

455
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:03,359
Speaker 1: her and help others. So I asked myself this question,

456
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: what would the opposite of my life look like? And

457
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:09,399
Speaker 1: I just remember thinking, what if I did one year

458
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:14,280
Speaker 1: of humanitarian service, almost as a penance, as a way

459
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:17,640
Speaker 1: of saying sorry for the ten years that I'd selfishly wasted,

460
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: And you know, see where that would take me? Could

461
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 1: I be of any use? Did I have anything to offer,

462
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,600
Speaker 1: and maybe it was different enough that I thought, well,

463
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:29,480
Speaker 1: if I don't want to get paid, maybe that opens

464
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:32,399
Speaker 1: up my options. So it turned out that this was

465
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:34,760
Speaker 1: really difficult. I wind up applying to the Red Cross

466
00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 1: and the Salvation Army and World Vision and all these

467
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 1: big organizations. Of course nobody would take me because I'm

468
00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:44,560
Speaker 1: some club rat and they're serious humanitarians. And then fortunately

469
00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:47,879
Speaker 1: for me, one organization said, We've got this position for

470
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 1: a photojournalist. You gotta pay us five a month if

471
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:53,159
Speaker 1: you want it, and you have to go live in

472
00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:56,200
Speaker 1: the poorest country in the world that just escaped a

473
00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 1: decade and a half war called Liberia. Do you want it?

474
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,880
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, yes, I wanted. This is the exact opposite. Hey,

475
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 1: you go to the poorest country in the world for

476
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:09,520
Speaker 1: a year. I'm in. And then everything changed. It was

477
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:13,840
Speaker 1: a really dramatic moment. I quit everything In one night,

478
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:17,480
Speaker 1: I smoked three pack of cigarettes and then through mountain

479
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:21,400
Speaker 1: never had another drag. I never gambled again. I never

480
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:24,560
Speaker 1: touched cokerening that stuff again. I never I mean, I've

481
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:26,880
Speaker 1: been looked at a pornographic image in fifteen years, which

482
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 1: was its own problem for me back then, Like I

483
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:32,480
Speaker 1: just walked away from all the vice, and there was

484
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:35,000
Speaker 1: something about I was actually the mission took place on

485
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:39,439
Speaker 1: a hospital ship, so there was something so symbolic about

486
00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 1: walking up a gangway, getting onto a five foot vessel

487
00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:46,439
Speaker 1: and sailing away to a new continent and to a

488
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:49,720
Speaker 1: new life and leaving all of that junk on land.

489
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:54,720
Speaker 1: So that was I had the clean break, and it

490
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:58,199
Speaker 1: did start a very different adventure, a different path from

491
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:01,000
Speaker 1: my life, and it turned out I was slightly useful.

492
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:14,679
Speaker 1: How is it how did you feel qualified, like to

493
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:16,880
Speaker 1: go in and say, yeah, I can be a photojournalist.

494
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,160
Speaker 1: Were you just thinking I'll do whatever it takes and

495
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:24,399
Speaker 1: I'll study the kinds of imagery they need, or how

496
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 1: in the technical because we're in the big sort of

497
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:30,679
Speaker 1: ideological and inspirational space, but like you had to go

498
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 1: be a photo drive that. I love that question. Well,

499
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:36,240
Speaker 1: going back to childhood, and I think so I was

500
00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 1: an only child. I'm married to an only child. Also,

501
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,119
Speaker 1: I think there is a sense of confidence I was

502
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: needed growing up, so there was maybe even an overconfidence

503
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 1: some sometimes I had these little tiny entrepreneurial businesses selling

504
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:52,159
Speaker 1: Christmas cards or leaf blowing or bowing lawns or whatever

505
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:54,840
Speaker 1: that bled through to the clubs. I mean, I was

506
00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 1: a guy on the top of the DJ booth with

507
00:27:56,720 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 1: the bottle of Christal sprang it over the crowd, you know, saying,

508
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: look like, this is what we've built. You know, it's

509
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:08,760
Speaker 1: it's our party. So the technical was actually the hardest

510
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,919
Speaker 1: thing because I shot film and this was around the

511
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 1: move to digital, which turned out actually to be the

512
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:17,640
Speaker 1: greatest blessing. So I was given to Nikon D one

513
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 1: X cameras and I just I mean, the beauty of

514
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 1: digital is you could just make a lot of mistakes,

515
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 1: so you could take a hundred bad pictures to get

516
00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:31,280
Speaker 1: one good one. So I'm just on the fly in

517
00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:35,119
Speaker 1: Liberia learning how to work a digital s l R um,

518
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 1: learning how to light all this stuff. I was a

519
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: much better writer than a photographer, you know. I've been

520
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:42,959
Speaker 1: writing for this the local newspaper when I was fourteen

521
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 1: or fifteen, so the words came easier to me in

522
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: a way than the images. But over the decade of clubs,

523
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 1: I'd always had a you know, a dsl R and

524
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 1: always had taken pretty good pictures. So I think what

525
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: I learned immediately was there were a lot of these

526
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 1: skills were portable. The same skills I could get a

527
00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 1: thousand people excited about queuing outside of velvet rope to

528
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 1: hear a DJ or to come in for a theme

529
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 1: party could be used to highlight humanitarian work and the

530
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 1: cool thing. So it was that that I had gone to.

531
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 1: In a moment, I go from ten years of clubs

532
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: and a fifteen thousand person email list. I remember thirteen

533
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,120
Speaker 1: years ago, email open rates were like everybody opens your

534
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 1: emails because it's like likeos hot bots, you know, Excite Yahoo.

535
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:36,160
Speaker 1: This was the early Internet with fifteen years ago when

536
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 1: I got on the ship and I immediately just start

537
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:43,560
Speaker 1: telling stories and sharing the images of what I was seeing.

538
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,280
Speaker 1: You know, almost where we started in this connected age

539
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,720
Speaker 1: of social media. So people talk about this the day

540
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 1: they went from getting invited to I don't know, a

541
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:56,680
Speaker 1: party at the Gucci store in Soho, New York, or

542
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 1: you know, the protest store opening three weeks later. I'm

543
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 1: an Africa sending the same list pictures of leprosy or

544
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 1: facial tumors, or of children with cleft lips and cleft palates,

545
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:12,200
Speaker 1: but to the same people that we're buying the bottles.

546
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: We're buying the twenty dollar cocktails. And so I was

547
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:18,400
Speaker 1: so lucky to have a base of like a little

548
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 1: bit of community that knew me for something so completely different.

549
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,360
Speaker 1: But I think just the curiosity of it. It's like, Wait,

550
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 1: we were just doing lines with Scott three weeks ago,

551
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:30,640
Speaker 1: you know, at some club. He's some Liberia. Where is Liberia?

552
00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 1: What is he's a photo? Oh? Come on? I mean

553
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,000
Speaker 1: I remember people writing and saying, are you doing this

554
00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 1: to get girls? Bro? Like, are you trying to be

555
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 1: a humanitarian too? So, you know, they didn't know any

556
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 1: about the inner life for so the response that I got,

557
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 1: the response that I got immediately, I was just sharing

558
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:50,640
Speaker 1: what I was seeing and how I was feeling. And

559
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: I remember just crying through so many days seeing I

560
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:58,080
Speaker 1: mean seeing suffering to a degree that I had never

561
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 1: Liberia at that moment, it had just finished the fourteen

562
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:05,240
Speaker 1: years Civil War. There was a breakdown in all everything,

563
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:07,920
Speaker 1: all infrastructure. There was no electricity in the country, there

564
00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 1: was no running water anywhere in the country, there was

565
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:13,840
Speaker 1: no sewage running in the country, and the medical system

566
00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 1: had broken down to such a degree that there was

567
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 1: one doctor for every fifty people there were There were

568
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:24,160
Speaker 1: two surgeons apparently in the country, but nowhere to operate.

569
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:27,920
Speaker 1: So you know, imagine the very bottom of the UN

570
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:30,600
Speaker 1: development chart. This country had fallen off. There was no

571
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:34,520
Speaker 1: data because of the war, and you know, we go

572
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: there with a group of doctors saying, hey, we're here,

573
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,200
Speaker 1: we can help to pick up the pieces. So the

574
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 1: stuff that I was seeing was in such extremists and

575
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: I'm just sharing this with the club people, and I

576
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:49,160
Speaker 1: was really surprised that they seemed to care. And people

577
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:50,959
Speaker 1: would say, how do I give money? How do I

578
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:55,320
Speaker 1: sponsor a surgery? How do I join the ship? Can

579
00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:58,040
Speaker 1: I wash the sheets on the ship? Can I work

580
00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 1: in the kitchen? I mean, I was surprised is the

581
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:04,720
Speaker 1: interest in people. There was this, uh, this sense of longing.

582
00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 1: Maybe people who also felt numb in their jobs in

583
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 1: fashion or at Goldman Sacks or you know wherever they

584
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,960
Speaker 1: were MTV at the time, you know, saying I want

585
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:16,960
Speaker 1: to be a part of this. I think so many

586
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:24,680
Speaker 1: people long to give and long to serve community and

587
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 1: don't have a way to do that. There's not a

588
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: lot in the in the big working capitalist world of

589
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:37,280
Speaker 1: direction for how you can do that, and I think,

590
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 1: you know, now it seems like there is again. You know,

591
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: you open Instagram and you can figure it out. But

592
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:48,760
Speaker 1: when we all started in these spaces, nobody knew. It

593
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 1: was really like, you know, I think about building pencils

594
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 1: of promised schools and like me and Adam and a

595
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: crew of people being in loos like on scooters trying

596
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 1: to figure out I mean, we were kids, you know,

597
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:05,720
Speaker 1: and and it's it's a very wild thing to think

598
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:11,959
Speaker 1: you were. You were on the precipice of access to

599
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 1: service changing. And so I'm having this moment where I'm thinking, like,

600
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,959
Speaker 1: holy sh it, you were really giving people their first

601
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,240
Speaker 1: window into more than a mail or they might have

602
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 1: gotten or like a sponsor of family commercial that ran

603
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:32,960
Speaker 1: at odd hours on odd channels. You know, it must

604
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,360
Speaker 1: have been really profound for people to see that, and

605
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 1: in some ways it was. It was there. It was

606
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:42,880
Speaker 1: a window into double transformation because they were seeing me change,

607
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: the kid who was the obnoxious club rat actually care uh.

608
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 1: And then they were seeing these stories of transformation led

609
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 1: by the doctors and surgeons. I mean, I was telling

610
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 1: stories of women in their twenties who were blind with

611
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 1: cataracts and then through twenty minute surgery can see and

612
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 1: I mean, so these these are these stories had happy endings,

613
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:08,239
Speaker 1: I mean, and they were there was a before and

614
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:09,759
Speaker 1: there was an after. So I think there was a

615
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 1: before and after at this point and for me personally,

616
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:17,279
Speaker 1: But then I got to share thousands of before and

617
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:22,719
Speaker 1: afters of of people whose life was impacted because of

618
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:24,600
Speaker 1: the doctors and the surgeons and the nurses and the

619
00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:27,120
Speaker 1: three people in that ship who had volunteered their time.

620
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:29,360
Speaker 1: And when you're talking about getting there, you know, and

621
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,680
Speaker 1: you say that there were just days where you you'd

622
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 1: lose it, did it take a minute to have access

623
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:39,719
Speaker 1: to that emotional Well again, since you've been in a

624
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 1: place where you were operating outside of it? Or was

625
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 1: what Yeah, what was was what you were witnessing just

626
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 1: so big that you that there was no way for

627
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:52,960
Speaker 1: the wall to stay out. Uh, it was the ladder.

628
00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:55,239
Speaker 1: It was a letter. And in some ways I was

629
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:59,359
Speaker 1: really you know, broken as a as a person. I mean,

630
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:02,400
Speaker 1: I was very bold. I remember praying a lot. I

631
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 1: remember just you know, trying to make sure I stayed

632
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:11,880
Speaker 1: on this new path to really opening myself up to it.

633
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 1: I wanted to feel maybe that's the way I say it.

634
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 1: I realized that I maybe hadn't let myself feel for

635
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:21,280
Speaker 1: so many years to the point of numbness, quitting the vice,

636
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 1: you know, making this commitment to serve others, at least

637
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:26,360
Speaker 1: for a year. I really wanted to embrace it. I

638
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:28,479
Speaker 1: wanted to go on. And you know this is a theme.

639
00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 1: I'm a pretty extreme person. It's much easier for me

640
00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 1: to I mean, I can go from forty cigarettes to

641
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:35,840
Speaker 1: day to zero a lot easier than you know, forty

642
00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:41,240
Speaker 1: to thirty five to thirty five to twenty. So I

643
00:35:41,239 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 1: I loved it. I embraced it. I remember, huh. I

644
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:50,640
Speaker 1: remember feeling sorry for myself the first kind of week

645
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:53,359
Speaker 1: er two because I was living. So I went from

646
00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:56,120
Speaker 1: a pretty nice apartment in New York City Aloft and

647
00:35:56,600 --> 00:35:58,279
Speaker 1: you know, it's a piano in the apartment and a

648
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:01,360
Speaker 1: great sound system, and it was just it was a

649
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:04,640
Speaker 1: cool place to a hundred and twenty five square foot

650
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:09,839
Speaker 1: cabin with two roommates. Okay, I mean New York, San

651
00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:12,280
Speaker 1: Frare in l A. We all know small living hundred

652
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:15,920
Speaker 1: and twenty five square feet it's twelve square meters U

653
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:18,520
Speaker 1: and I had two roommates that I've never met who

654
00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:21,600
Speaker 1: worked in the engine room. And you know, this country

655
00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:24,160
Speaker 1: with the ship was fifty years old. There were cockroaches,

656
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 1: and this was not a carnival cruise line. Okay, the

657
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 1: food was pretty disgusting, and I remember just thinking, oh, wow,

658
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 1: I'm really slumming it, and then getting off the ship

659
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:37,879
Speaker 1: and seeing how people were living in this war torn

660
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:41,520
Speaker 1: country and just almost feeling ashamed and saying, wow, I've

661
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 1: got it so good. It's so good, And I mean,

662
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:48,960
Speaker 1: it was an inspiring place to be. I met, I

663
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:50,960
Speaker 1: found a mentor early on. I think that was a

664
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:54,640
Speaker 1: big part of of the story. You know, there was

665
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:58,279
Speaker 1: this this guy I met, Dr Gary Parker, and like me,

666
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 1: he had thrown his hat in the ring for a

667
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:05,200
Speaker 1: short period of time. He was a surgeon in California

668
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: on his way to be you know, probably one of

669
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:10,000
Speaker 1: the top plastic surgeons, and he heard about this ship

670
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,279
Speaker 1: where he could operate and help out for a couple

671
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:14,640
Speaker 1: of months. So he signed up for three months, and

672
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:16,560
Speaker 1: when I walked up the gangway of the ship and

673
00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 1: met him, he'd been there over twenty years, left his

674
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:23,200
Speaker 1: practice altogether. He fell so in love with the work,

675
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 1: with a life of service. Um. Now he's been there

676
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:30,839
Speaker 1: over thirty five years, and I wanted that. I mean

677
00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:33,400
Speaker 1: that was if if maybe I wanted to be the

678
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:35,319
Speaker 1: King of New York or you know the people who

679
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:37,960
Speaker 1: owned Towel, you know back then, or the version of that.

680
00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 1: I wanted to be the doctor who spent thirty five

681
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 1: years using his skills to heal thousands and thousands of people.

682
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 1: So I latched onto him. I tried to spend as

683
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:50,839
Speaker 1: much time with him as possible, and I kind of had,

684
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:53,239
Speaker 1: you know, my mentor my guide in this in this

685
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:57,160
Speaker 1: new life. And as a photojournalist, were you able to

686
00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:00,239
Speaker 1: go in and watch and photograph surgeries? Oh? Yeah, eight

687
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 1: hour surgeries. So if I was like I took fifty

688
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 1: photos that first year, We're probably blurring. So I was

689
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,279
Speaker 1: trying to figure out the camera. But it was it

690
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:12,720
Speaker 1: was incredible watching. I mean I'd be in the operating

691
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:14,920
Speaker 1: theater for eight or nine hours, just standing next to

692
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:18,080
Speaker 1: the doctors, talking with Dr Parker. He'd be talking to

693
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:19,919
Speaker 1: me through the surgery. I mean I learned so much

694
00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:22,480
Speaker 1: and for some reason I just wasn't grossed out. And

695
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:26,440
Speaker 1: the I mean seeing a face opened like like like

696
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 1: in two um and then put back together. I just

697
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 1: found fascinating the skill, the anatomy. I mean, what are

698
00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:35,279
Speaker 1: some of the things that you saw that really stand out?

699
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,239
Speaker 1: Because we're talking about it, there are surgeries flashing in

700
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:42,799
Speaker 1: your brain. What are they? There was one guy I

701
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,480
Speaker 1: remember his name was Alexander, and he had some sort

702
00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 1: of fleshing disease and his whole face had rotted away

703
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: where you could see holes through the cheeks to the

704
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 1: back of the mouth and throat, the nose had rotted away,

705
00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:58,920
Speaker 1: and he smelled it was it was the smell of

706
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 1: rotting flash I had ever and I had to photograph

707
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:03,359
Speaker 1: him as close as you and I are sitting even

708
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:06,759
Speaker 1: closer with a wide angle lens to document. I was

709
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:09,879
Speaker 1: my one of my jobs or rolls on the ship

710
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:14,000
Speaker 1: was to document every patient pre op, pre operation, and

711
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:17,440
Speaker 1: then post op to show this transformation and the organization

712
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:21,399
Speaker 1: would use that for fundraising purposes and to two really

713
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 1: just to document for medical purposes, the pre and postop.

714
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:27,880
Speaker 1: So I remember alex taking his his pre op and

715
00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:32,000
Speaker 1: just the stench was like I had never smelled rotting

716
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:39,280
Speaker 1: flesh from me before. And what he needed was they remember,

717
00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:42,799
Speaker 1: it was a series of surgeries to basically scrape it

718
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:45,640
Speaker 1: all off and just start taking parts of his arm,

719
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:48,640
Speaker 1: the back of his head, um part of his side,

720
00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:50,960
Speaker 1: and putting his side on his face, in the back

721
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:53,600
Speaker 1: of his head on his face, his arm on his face,

722
00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:56,680
Speaker 1: all this grafting from this amazing burn surgeon, a guy

723
00:39:56,760 --> 00:40:02,080
Speaker 1: named Dr Tertius Venture, and the whole process just was fantastic.

724
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:05,080
Speaker 1: But of course he'd been an outcast because his face

725
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 1: was rotting and he smelled, and I remember, uh, this

726
00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:11,560
Speaker 1: is one of the I read about Alfred in the book,

727
00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:15,160
Speaker 1: this fourteen year old boy who had a tumor the

728
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:18,840
Speaker 1: size of a volleyball, and I mean, it was just

729
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:22,759
Speaker 1: shocking stuff. And you know, you feel I almost felt

730
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:26,240
Speaker 1: like I was violating him by taking his photo, and

731
00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:29,240
Speaker 1: he was, you know, his eyes were so angry, was scared.

732
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:31,360
Speaker 1: You know, it had taken out half of his teeth.

733
00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:33,880
Speaker 1: He was suffocating to death in his own face. And

734
00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:36,840
Speaker 1: I'm watching a fourteen year old boys suffocate to death

735
00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:39,239
Speaker 1: in front of me, you know, maybe with weeks or

736
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 1: maybe a couple of months to live, as this tumor

737
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 1: had grown slowly. And then you know, documented this eight

738
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:49,239
Speaker 1: hour surgery. Waking up with him in the recovery room,

739
00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,880
Speaker 1: you know, with my camera kind of documenting those first moments,

740
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:55,920
Speaker 1: and the patients would wake up and they would start

741
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:58,560
Speaker 1: feeling for the tumor, and the tumor was gone, so

742
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:01,879
Speaker 1: they'd be touching the air, you know, feeling around their

743
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:06,680
Speaker 1: tumor in this kind of morphine state post op, and

744
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:08,840
Speaker 1: it was just extrained. Their eyes were wide and it

745
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:13,080
Speaker 1: was the most extraordinary thing. And specifically with Alfred, you know,

746
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:16,279
Speaker 1: I think he was my first friend, My first African friend,

747
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:18,480
Speaker 1: was his fourteenyear little boy, and I got to take

748
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:21,399
Speaker 1: him home a few weeks later to his village and

749
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:25,600
Speaker 1: watched this huge celebration, the ceremony where hundreds of people

750
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:28,920
Speaker 1: in the village surrounded him as he jumped out of

751
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:30,719
Speaker 1: the land rover and they were touching him and they

752
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:33,480
Speaker 1: were touching his face, and you know, this is the

753
00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:36,880
Speaker 1: village outcasts that had been written off for dead. I

754
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 1: later learned that they had sent him to witch doctors

755
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:41,400
Speaker 1: and they had cut him with sticks and knives and

756
00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:44,879
Speaker 1: spread chicken paste and you know, all sorts of things

757
00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:50,560
Speaker 1: because they didn't have access to surgeons. And just watching him, he'll, uh,

758
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:53,040
Speaker 1: you know, now it's fifteen years later. I just got

759
00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:54,680
Speaker 1: a picture of him from a couple of weeks ago,

760
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:57,000
Speaker 1: and he's got a plumbing business, and he's he looks great.

761
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:00,480
Speaker 1: He's a handsome looking dude. And they were so many

762
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:03,040
Speaker 1: of those stories. So I was sharing those stories with

763
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:07,320
Speaker 1: this really naive I'm asking the doctors the most basic questions,

764
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:10,200
Speaker 1: and then I'm writing these stories and I'm sending you

765
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:13,280
Speaker 1: on my club list sixteen photos of the whole process.

766
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:16,080
Speaker 1: Him from the front, him from the side, you know,

767
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:18,239
Speaker 1: him in the village, him in the operating theater, the

768
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:20,840
Speaker 1: first cut of the knife, you know, if you wanted it,

769
00:42:20,960 --> 00:42:23,359
Speaker 1: his face wide open, and then the doctors putting him

770
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:25,640
Speaker 1: back together, and then him back in the village, and

771
00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:28,920
Speaker 1: then him three months later, you know, almost completely healed.

772
00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 1: And it was just it felt like an honor to

773
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:34,480
Speaker 1: be able to do it. Yeah, so I loved it.

774
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:36,560
Speaker 1: I was all in. When you get to be a

775
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:42,759
Speaker 1: witness in a real way, Yeah, it's incredibly transformational. I

776
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:47,800
Speaker 1: have had, in different circumstances moments where I go, oh,

777
00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:51,680
Speaker 1: this is what humanity is, this is what we're here for,

778
00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:56,880
Speaker 1: is to do this together. And you did it in

779
00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:01,840
Speaker 1: such an incredible, extreme, amazing way, and the immersion was helpful.

780
00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:04,360
Speaker 1: You know. A bunch of people asked me, you know, well,

781
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:07,640
Speaker 1: I wanna what do you think really got you out?

782
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:11,879
Speaker 1: I think I changed my I'd not only changed my circumstances,

783
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:15,799
Speaker 1: I changed the community so quickly so for me to

784
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:19,480
Speaker 1: be able to extricate myself from all of that vice one,

785
00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:21,680
Speaker 1: I changed my context. So I was not hanging out

786
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,319
Speaker 1: with club people who were doing coke every night and

787
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:26,279
Speaker 1: sleeping around. I was hanging out with a bunch of

788
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,080
Speaker 1: Christian doctors and nurses, you know, who had left their

789
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:33,680
Speaker 1: families or had uh they were. They were sacrificing money

790
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:37,000
Speaker 1: to use their skills for good. So the whole context change.

791
00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:38,400
Speaker 1: I mean, it wasn't cool to smoke, It wouldn't have

792
00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:40,080
Speaker 1: been cool to drink it was. It was cool to

793
00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:44,120
Speaker 1: serve others. So that really helped me, I think. And

794
00:43:44,160 --> 00:43:46,839
Speaker 1: of course, you know, what's the healthier community being around

795
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:50,920
Speaker 1: a couple hundred people who are trying to selflessly lay

796
00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:53,239
Speaker 1: down their lives for others and use their position of

797
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:57,160
Speaker 1: privilege to to benefit others. So I did a year there,

798
00:43:57,160 --> 00:43:59,240
Speaker 1: and then in the second year, I just came across

799
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:02,839
Speaker 1: the water crisis. I really stumbled across it because even

800
00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:05,200
Speaker 1: though we were this when when you say you did

801
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 1: a year there and then the second year, yeah, I

802
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:08,960
Speaker 1: went back, so I didn't know what was next. So

803
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:12,359
Speaker 1: I just said, hey, can I come back for another year? Left?

804
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:13,920
Speaker 1: And then you went back. I went back for a

805
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:15,799
Speaker 1: few months. So the ship would do an eight or

806
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:19,279
Speaker 1: nine month tour, and then they would sail from West

807
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:22,480
Speaker 1: Africa down to South Africa. They would bring the ship up,

808
00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:26,080
Speaker 1: they would rehaul it, they would kind of maintain it,

809
00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:28,359
Speaker 1: and then they would sail it back in. So I said, well,

810
00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:31,640
Speaker 1: sailing the cape town, you know, sounds nice. But I

811
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:33,440
Speaker 1: could be more useful than that. Why don't I take

812
00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:36,440
Speaker 1: the fifty photos that I've taken, sort through them and

813
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:39,359
Speaker 1: try and put on an exhibition in Chelsea, New York,

814
00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:41,600
Speaker 1: in a gallery and see if I can use that

815
00:44:41,640 --> 00:44:44,239
Speaker 1: exhibition to raise money. I'm obviously not going to sell

816
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:47,560
Speaker 1: photos of giant facial tumors, or of leprosy or a

817
00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:50,520
Speaker 1: flesh eating disease, but maybe I could take the stories,

818
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:53,160
Speaker 1: the incredible stories of these people, and invite all my

819
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:56,439
Speaker 1: club friends to hear about it in person, to see

820
00:44:56,480 --> 00:44:59,200
Speaker 1: them in the in the flesh, and then raise as

821
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 1: much money as I could, and then go back on

822
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:02,239
Speaker 1: the ship a couple of months later. So I wound

823
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 1: up doing that, raised about a hundred thousand dollars through

824
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:08,240
Speaker 1: the exhibition, gave a cent of that money to Mercy Ships.

825
00:45:08,719 --> 00:45:10,879
Speaker 1: And then I went back to Liberia for a second time.

826
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:13,799
Speaker 1: And then I was just fortunate to spend more and

827
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:16,560
Speaker 1: more time in the rural areas, in the remote communities

828
00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: and see the water that people were drinking. And how

829
00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:23,240
Speaker 1: were you getting off the ship? Again, just question for listeners.

830
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:27,080
Speaker 1: You brought a motorcycle. I bought one in Africa, but

831
00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:30,000
Speaker 1: you brought it on the ship. Yes, we would dock,

832
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:32,279
Speaker 1: so it would be down at the dock like chained up, yeah,

833
00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:34,520
Speaker 1: the bottom of the gangway. And I bought a six

834
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:38,560
Speaker 1: hundred I think it was a Honda motorcycle. So I

835
00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:41,120
Speaker 1: had it in ban and then Liberia. So I had

836
00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:45,000
Speaker 1: this freedom, uh to just travel around, you know, when

837
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 1: I wasn't working, and I would go and find stories

838
00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 1: in the rural areas and I would travel around the country.

839
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:53,640
Speaker 1: I spent time in a leprosy clinic just for fun,

840
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:56,400
Speaker 1: because I met these amazing nuns that had been working,

841
00:45:56,960 --> 00:45:59,200
Speaker 1: you know, with four or five hundred people who had

842
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:02,680
Speaker 1: leprosy in the border of Guinea and Ivory Coast. So

843
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:05,360
Speaker 1: I would drive up five hours and I would just

844
00:46:05,760 --> 00:46:09,840
Speaker 1: spend time there. So I learned about water and take photos,

845
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:15,040
Speaker 1: and so I guess that the link for me was

846
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:19,759
Speaker 1: when you see people drink dirty water. So I was

847
00:46:19,840 --> 00:46:22,600
Speaker 1: showing the pictures to dr Gary and some of the

848
00:46:22,600 --> 00:46:26,920
Speaker 1: surgeon like in the most naive way, like, hey, guys,

849
00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:30,120
Speaker 1: I just got back from gone to up country. Do

850
00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:32,320
Speaker 1: you see the water that people are drinking. They're drinking

851
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:34,880
Speaker 1: from swamps. Look at this, And then of course the

852
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 1: doctors and surgeons are saying, yeah, we know, this is

853
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:38,880
Speaker 1: why half of the people are sick in the world.

854
00:46:39,239 --> 00:46:41,319
Speaker 1: You know, water born disease. There's twenty six water born

855
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:44,160
Speaker 1: diseases that they could rattle off and um. So I

856
00:46:44,200 --> 00:46:48,720
Speaker 1: started learning about the link between unsafe water, contaminated dirty

857
00:46:48,719 --> 00:46:52,799
Speaker 1: water and the at the time one billion people on

858
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:55,920
Speaker 1: the planet without it, and some of the diseases we

859
00:46:55,920 --> 00:47:00,120
Speaker 1: were seeing, flash eating disease, trachoma is water. There's so

860
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:03,720
Speaker 1: many of these diseases. So Mercy Ships had a little

861
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:08,160
Speaker 1: bit of money allocated for a well driller, and he

862
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:10,680
Speaker 1: would go out and do like five or six wells

863
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:12,960
Speaker 1: a year. So as my job and photojournalists, I made

864
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:14,960
Speaker 1: friends with him and I would go out in the villages.

865
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:16,920
Speaker 1: So I watched him solve the problem. I watched him

866
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:21,280
Speaker 1: take these communities where hundreds of people were drinking disgusting, green, brown,

867
00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:25,200
Speaker 1: viscous water that I wouldn't let my dog drink. And

868
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:27,680
Speaker 1: then I watched him find the clean groundwater underneath their

869
00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:31,000
Speaker 1: villages and transform. So imagine that everything is about before

870
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 1: and after, before and after. So I've got the before

871
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,640
Speaker 1: and after going on with the surgeries. Blind people are seeing,

872
00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:39,000
Speaker 1: tumors are being removed, faces are being put back together.

873
00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:41,160
Speaker 1: And then there's this guy off to the side that

874
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:43,719
Speaker 1: is before and after in three people at a time

875
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:47,600
Speaker 1: through clean water by tapping it, and and at a

876
00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:51,440
Speaker 1: fraction of the cost of these expensive surgeries. So I

877
00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:56,399
Speaker 1: just really stumbled into water by way of health, by

878
00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:59,600
Speaker 1: way of well, maybe this is the the rude cause

879
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:02,880
Speaker 1: of so much of this sickness. And I mean five

880
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 1: thousand people Sophia would turn up to see our doctors

881
00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:09,919
Speaker 1: at our patient triages, and we could only help people.

882
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,680
Speaker 1: So we were sending thousands of people who needed our

883
00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:14,439
Speaker 1: help just because we didn't have enough doctors, we didn't

884
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:17,320
Speaker 1: have enough surgery slots. We had a couple operating theaters,

885
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:21,360
Speaker 1: only forty beds on the hospital ship woard. So I thought,

886
00:48:21,719 --> 00:48:23,960
Speaker 1: you know, if I really wanted to make an impact

887
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:27,640
Speaker 1: in health, what if I took water on and try

888
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 1: to make sure that five thousand people didn't come to

889
00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:32,319
Speaker 1: our patient screening if the country had clean water. So

890
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:36,000
Speaker 1: that was really the exploration. The second year was finding

891
00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:40,880
Speaker 1: my issue. Uh Dr Gary had his issue twenty years

892
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:43,680
Speaker 1: of using his hands as a surgeon, and that was

893
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:46,719
Speaker 1: his lane, and he really encouraged me. He said, you know,

894
00:48:46,719 --> 00:48:48,640
Speaker 1: why don't you make water your issue and see what

895
00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:50,880
Speaker 1: kind of impact you can make? And so where did

896
00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:54,080
Speaker 1: you start? Well? I came back as a very broke,

897
00:48:54,360 --> 00:48:58,800
Speaker 1: idealistic thirty something, you know, minus devices. So my friends

898
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:01,359
Speaker 1: I thought I was boring and I had this I

899
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:03,960
Speaker 1: was armed with this laptop and I would go out

900
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:06,280
Speaker 1: to the clubs because those are the people that I knew,

901
00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:08,600
Speaker 1: and I would open up the laptop in a DJ

902
00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:11,160
Speaker 1: booth at midnight and I would start showing pictures of

903
00:49:11,200 --> 00:49:14,680
Speaker 1: leprosy or people drinking dirty water. I remember getting kicked

904
00:49:14,680 --> 00:49:17,319
Speaker 1: out of DJ Booze, like the club owners saying, bro,

905
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:20,160
Speaker 1: you can't kill people's buzz like this, like you get

906
00:49:20,239 --> 00:49:23,040
Speaker 1: you gotta knock it off with the laptop and the photos.

907
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:27,120
Speaker 1: But I was just running around, you know, as a photojournalist,

908
00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:30,480
Speaker 1: almost with my portfolio and saying, I'm going to start

909
00:49:30,560 --> 00:49:32,759
Speaker 1: this charity. We're gonna bring clean drinking water to every

910
00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:35,160
Speaker 1: single person in the world. It's crazy that a billion

911
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:38,400
Speaker 1: people don't have water. I mean the clubs, I was

912
00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:41,640
Speaker 1: selling voss for ten dollars a bottle. People wouldn't even

913
00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:44,080
Speaker 1: open the water. They would just order five bottles of sparkling,

914
00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:47,399
Speaker 1: five bottles of still let a hundred dollars of water

915
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:51,080
Speaker 1: sit there as they drank champagne or vodka. So you know,

916
00:49:51,120 --> 00:49:53,640
Speaker 1: I was on fire. There was a used to use

917
00:49:53,719 --> 00:49:57,279
Speaker 1: such a great word, eyewitness, like there was a there

918
00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:01,120
Speaker 1: was a responsibility and an authority because I didn't just

919
00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:03,520
Speaker 1: drive by it. I hadn't gone on a missions trip

920
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:06,880
Speaker 1: for a week and painted an orphanage, you know, green

921
00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:09,799
Speaker 1: or you know, I don't know the poor for you know,

922
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:12,080
Speaker 1: a few days and taking a couple of selfies like

923
00:50:12,239 --> 00:50:16,120
Speaker 1: I had lived in Liberia. I mean, I had photographed

924
00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:19,839
Speaker 1: thousands of patients before and after I had I had

925
00:50:19,880 --> 00:50:22,080
Speaker 1: really been in these villages. I'd put in the time,

926
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:27,320
Speaker 1: and there was a responsibility to do something about about

927
00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:29,799
Speaker 1: what I had seen. And people were asking me for help, saying,

928
00:50:29,800 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 1: please go tell our story. Will you help bring clean

929
00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 1: water to our village? And I would make promises and

930
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:37,279
Speaker 1: I would try and deliver on them. So I had

931
00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:40,400
Speaker 1: nowhere to live. I mean, in just in the brass

932
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:44,120
Speaker 1: tacks of starting, I crashed with my old nightclub promoter partner.

933
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:46,720
Speaker 1: I'm living on a closet floor on Spring and Mercer

934
00:50:46,760 --> 00:50:50,120
Speaker 1: above Von Dutch at the time in Soho, New York.

935
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:52,520
Speaker 1: And he wasn't charging me rent because I was living

936
00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:55,040
Speaker 1: on a floor, and he he said, you know, you

937
00:50:55,040 --> 00:50:57,160
Speaker 1: can use my couch in the living room to to

938
00:50:57,239 --> 00:50:59,919
Speaker 1: start your acute little charity that's gonna, you know, help

939
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:02,600
Speaker 1: some people get water in Africa. Well that's so nice.

940
00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:04,120
Speaker 1: You know, if you want to come back to the clubs,

941
00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:07,680
Speaker 1: we're here, bro. You know I need the help. And

942
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:11,000
Speaker 1: I think all of this worked to my advantage that

943
00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:12,680
Speaker 1: I didn't know what I was doing. I had this

944
00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:17,840
Speaker 1: unbelievable naivete Uh, my heart was on fire because I

945
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:19,880
Speaker 1: had seen so much and I had to do something

946
00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:22,800
Speaker 1: about it. And I knew a few people in clubs,

947
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:25,720
Speaker 1: so at least I had a few places to start.

948
00:51:26,600 --> 00:51:30,920
Speaker 1: And I learned very quickly that most people don't trust charities.

949
00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:34,840
Speaker 1: And I come across the USA Today poll that found

950
00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:39,920
Speaker 1: of Americans don't believe that charities are trustworthy. A more

951
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:42,839
Speaker 1: recent poll by n y You found that seventy people

952
00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:46,160
Speaker 1: in America think charities waste their money when they give money.

953
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:49,799
Speaker 1: So I was kind of doing this user testing informally

954
00:51:49,880 --> 00:51:52,719
Speaker 1: in clubs and you know, at restaurants and talking to

955
00:51:52,719 --> 00:51:55,319
Speaker 1: people who worked at MTV or Chase Manhattan Bank or

956
00:51:56,239 --> 00:51:58,239
Speaker 1: you know, Gucci or whatever. I'm just finding that, well,

957
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:02,359
Speaker 1: a lot of everyday people are not giving and they

958
00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:05,600
Speaker 1: are cynical and they are skeptical. So if the mission

959
00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:09,359
Speaker 1: was water, could I also create a different business model?

960
00:52:09,360 --> 00:52:12,239
Speaker 1: Could I could I innovate? Could I could I make

961
00:52:12,320 --> 00:52:15,360
Speaker 1: charity water speak to some of these objections in these cynics.

962
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:18,640
Speaker 1: And there's the young entrepreneur with the leaf blower, Yeah,

963
00:52:18,719 --> 00:52:21,239
Speaker 1: so exactly, or the the guy trying to fill you know,

964
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:24,600
Speaker 1: nightclubs and uh, you know, theme them with a pool

965
00:52:24,640 --> 00:52:26,880
Speaker 1: party and higher lifeguards to sit in the stands and

966
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:30,000
Speaker 1: buy five beach balls for the nightclub. You know, this

967
00:52:30,160 --> 00:52:33,239
Speaker 1: was Hey, could I do something different? Could I win

968
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:37,000
Speaker 1: the forty or the seventy of people who, like you said,

969
00:52:37,040 --> 00:52:39,400
Speaker 1: who see the suffering around them, who look at the

970
00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:41,040
Speaker 1: problems in the world, and say, I do want to help,

971
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:42,880
Speaker 1: but I don't know where to start, right, don't trust

972
00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:45,640
Speaker 1: the system. So I came up with a couple of

973
00:52:45,680 --> 00:52:47,800
Speaker 1: crazy ideas. And what if we gave away a hundred

974
00:52:47,800 --> 00:52:51,200
Speaker 1: percent of all the donations that we received from charity water,

975
00:52:51,719 --> 00:52:54,480
Speaker 1: and we only use them to build water projects and

976
00:52:54,520 --> 00:52:57,239
Speaker 1: help people get clean water. And somehow I would open

977
00:52:57,280 --> 00:52:59,200
Speaker 1: up a separate bank account and I would raise the

978
00:52:59,239 --> 00:53:02,319
Speaker 1: overhead money. Apparently I would go convince a few really

979
00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:05,520
Speaker 1: wealthy people to help pay for an office and staff,

980
00:53:05,560 --> 00:53:08,080
Speaker 1: and so that all this money from the public could

981
00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:11,479
Speaker 1: go to the projects. And could we use technology, both

982
00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:13,799
Speaker 1: social media and things like Google Maps and Google Earth

983
00:53:13,840 --> 00:53:17,239
Speaker 1: to connect the public with where their thirty dollars went

984
00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:20,359
Speaker 1: and show them the projects being built and people drinking

985
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:22,560
Speaker 1: clean water. Could we use cameras and social media and

986
00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:25,759
Speaker 1: satellite connections, And and then just I don't know, a

987
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:28,920
Speaker 1: flurry of activity, not all of it very strategic. There

988
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:32,440
Speaker 1: was no three or five year business plan. It was

989
00:53:32,520 --> 00:53:35,759
Speaker 1: just a lot of stuff from events to p s

990
00:53:35,760 --> 00:53:39,879
Speaker 1: A S. Too. I mean, I would make eight presentations

991
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:42,680
Speaker 1: a day and maybe one or two people would say yes,

992
00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:45,120
Speaker 1: I'll help, and six would say no or or maybe later,

993
00:53:45,840 --> 00:53:48,000
Speaker 1: and you would take the one or two and you

994
00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:50,560
Speaker 1: would go to the next day. And I don't know,

995
00:53:50,600 --> 00:53:54,480
Speaker 1: it's just there was a I'm sure many people listening

996
00:53:54,520 --> 00:53:56,319
Speaker 1: have been through this. You know, if you do, you

997
00:53:56,360 --> 00:53:58,279
Speaker 1: put in the eighty and a hundred hour weeks and

998
00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:03,760
Speaker 1: you survive the thing to starts to grow and gain momentum,

999
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:07,719
Speaker 1: and so you're essentially in startup mode. But your startup,

1000
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:12,520
Speaker 1: you're trying to do good with your trying to take

1001
00:54:12,880 --> 00:54:15,560
Speaker 1: the billion people who don't have access to clean water

1002
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:18,200
Speaker 1: and lessen that number. And I believe that now we're

1003
00:54:18,200 --> 00:54:23,640
Speaker 1: at that's a lot of progress. I mean, you and

1004
00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:26,879
Speaker 1: population has grown over those years. You've eradicated a third

1005
00:54:26,920 --> 00:54:30,279
Speaker 1: of the problem the whole sector large. We've helped raise

1006
00:54:30,320 --> 00:54:33,759
Speaker 1: awareness and we've we've helped ten million people, raised about

1007
00:54:33,800 --> 00:54:36,000
Speaker 1: four or million dollars to do that. But it's INCREDI

1008
00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:38,480
Speaker 1: a lot of energy and momentum. And I think I

1009
00:54:38,480 --> 00:54:40,319
Speaker 1: think we've certainly helped with awareness. I mean I know

1010
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:44,240
Speaker 1: we have. Yeah, you define helps at least elevate the conversation. Yes,

1011
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:47,239
Speaker 1: And I'm curious at this moment. I mean, you know,

1012
00:54:47,320 --> 00:54:51,520
Speaker 1: we're like day to day, which is crazy, isn't it.

1013
00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:53,680
Speaker 1: It's crazy. One of the things that I think is

1014
00:54:53,719 --> 00:54:55,920
Speaker 1: so odd is in this world where we're looking at

1015
00:54:56,200 --> 00:54:59,959
Speaker 1: you know, the economy, and we're looking at these big

1016
00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:02,359
Speaker 1: companies I p Owing and all of these things, I'm like,

1017
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:04,399
Speaker 1: why is no one putting the money where it needs

1018
00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:07,560
Speaker 1: to go. You know, I don't have a problem trusting charities.

1019
00:55:07,600 --> 00:55:11,319
Speaker 1: I have a problem trusting bureaucracy because I look at

1020
00:55:11,360 --> 00:55:13,680
Speaker 1: the fact that we have six hundred billion dollars to

1021
00:55:13,719 --> 00:55:16,120
Speaker 1: surplus the military and by the way, like, that's not

1022
00:55:16,200 --> 00:55:18,640
Speaker 1: paying any of our men or women in uniform. Like

1023
00:55:19,160 --> 00:55:22,560
Speaker 1: that's paying defense contracts to companies who are doing weird

1024
00:55:22,600 --> 00:55:25,400
Speaker 1: things in the world. And I'm like, wait, so we

1025
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:26,960
Speaker 1: have that money, but we don't have the money for

1026
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:30,360
Speaker 1: schools and we have school lunched debt and like Flint

1027
00:55:30,400 --> 00:55:34,160
Speaker 1: can't get new pipes. What are we investing in and

1028
00:55:34,239 --> 00:55:40,840
Speaker 1: so it is an interesting you know, Americans, despite the

1029
00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:44,520
Speaker 1: charity fatigue, Americans are known as being very generous. How

1030
00:55:44,600 --> 00:55:46,480
Speaker 1: much of our giving, well you probably know this, but

1031
00:55:46,520 --> 00:55:49,319
Speaker 1: how much of our giving goes overseas? In the good

1032
00:55:49,360 --> 00:55:52,600
Speaker 1: neighbor category? Right? So all the humanitarian aid like that,

1033
00:55:52,640 --> 00:55:54,640
Speaker 1: you think of all the needs in the world, of

1034
00:55:55,160 --> 00:55:57,000
Speaker 1: all the money America gives, how much you think goes

1035
00:55:57,000 --> 00:56:00,799
Speaker 1: on all the money we donate to charity not foreign aid? Positively, right,

1036
00:56:00,840 --> 00:56:07,080
Speaker 1: how much of all of our giving so four cents

1037
00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:10,760
Speaker 1: on every dollar ago, so of all money stays here.

1038
00:56:11,600 --> 00:56:14,320
Speaker 1: So you know, that's as we kind of That's another

1039
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:17,840
Speaker 1: thing I'm I'm always just and people think it's you know,

1040
00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:20,560
Speaker 1: I've asked people, oh, half of our money must go overseas.

1041
00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:22,440
Speaker 1: It's like, oh no, it goes to our universities and

1042
00:56:22,440 --> 00:56:27,280
Speaker 1: our colleges and and you know, often to donor advise

1043
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:30,279
Speaker 1: funds that where the money just sits there. That's been

1044
00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:32,600
Speaker 1: one of the great frustrations is just learning of the

1045
00:56:32,719 --> 00:56:35,960
Speaker 1: billions and billions and billions that's been parked for tax

1046
00:56:36,000 --> 00:56:39,600
Speaker 1: efficient purposes to save someone you know, on a on

1047
00:56:39,640 --> 00:56:43,319
Speaker 1: a huge tax bill, and it's just sitting latent, and

1048
00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:46,520
Speaker 1: we could be helping so many causes, not just hours.

1049
00:56:46,560 --> 00:56:48,920
Speaker 1: You know, it could be helping with the homelessness, or

1050
00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:53,080
Speaker 1: helping with with education or healthcare, all these things, healthcare, women,

1051
00:56:53,160 --> 00:56:56,040
Speaker 1: homeless veterans. So that's what we've been fighting to do,

1052
00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:58,279
Speaker 1: is to give us to say, is to win back

1053
00:56:58,320 --> 00:57:03,319
Speaker 1: trust using hype or transparency and and try to win

1054
00:57:03,760 --> 00:57:09,240
Speaker 1: more generosity, more compassionate, more empathy. Yeah for what twelve

1055
00:57:09,239 --> 00:57:12,640
Speaker 1: and a half years now? And how do you talk

1056
00:57:12,680 --> 00:57:15,440
Speaker 1: about because you talk so much about the transparency and

1057
00:57:15,480 --> 00:57:18,640
Speaker 1: the tech and the mission, but there is also such

1058
00:57:18,680 --> 00:57:22,040
Speaker 1: an environmental crisis at play here. And you know, you

1059
00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:24,040
Speaker 1: talk about Liberia being at the end of the civil

1060
00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:26,720
Speaker 1: war having no running water, no electricity in the country.

1061
00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:31,600
Speaker 1: People forget that that could happen anywhere. Yeah, they they

1062
00:57:31,720 --> 00:57:35,160
Speaker 1: forget South Africa, Chennai. Now you know water is uh.

1063
00:57:35,480 --> 00:57:38,480
Speaker 1: It was ran on the cover of The Economist recently.

1064
00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:41,280
Speaker 1: I mean, now it's an issue that people are waking

1065
00:57:41,360 --> 00:57:43,560
Speaker 1: up and saying, oh, wait, maybe I shouldn't take this

1066
00:57:43,640 --> 00:57:47,680
Speaker 1: thing for granted for the rest of my life. And

1067
00:57:48,640 --> 00:57:51,040
Speaker 1: you know, you have a Flint Michigan happened. You have

1068
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:53,280
Speaker 1: you know, a Cape Town on the verge of running

1069
00:57:53,280 --> 00:57:57,240
Speaker 1: out out of water some droughts in California. UM, I

1070
00:57:57,280 --> 00:58:01,600
Speaker 1: think the conversation has definitely been elated. You know, we're

1071
00:58:01,600 --> 00:58:04,280
Speaker 1: we're kind of still screaming, like what it looks like

1072
00:58:04,360 --> 00:58:07,120
Speaker 1: in our context now for the six three million people

1073
00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:10,480
Speaker 1: is women and girls walking six hours a day to

1074
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:13,240
Speaker 1: get raped on their way to a swamp, to get

1075
00:58:13,280 --> 00:58:16,240
Speaker 1: attacked by a hyena or a crocodile at the river.

1076
00:58:17,000 --> 00:58:18,919
Speaker 1: You know, it's the girls dropping out of school because

1077
00:58:18,920 --> 00:58:21,840
Speaker 1: their school doesn't have any clean water or toilets. So

1078
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:25,560
Speaker 1: we're still shouting emergency, you know, in the developing world

1079
00:58:25,600 --> 00:58:28,080
Speaker 1: that you know that we're working in twenty seven countries now.

1080
00:58:28,720 --> 00:58:31,880
Speaker 1: But I do think with the focus on the environment,

1081
00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:34,800
Speaker 1: I do think that the conversation is elevated. More people

1082
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:37,520
Speaker 1: are talking about water now, certainly than they were twelve

1083
00:58:37,600 --> 00:58:40,720
Speaker 1: years ago. But I think it's so interesting that to

1084
00:58:40,720 --> 00:58:42,680
Speaker 1: your point, in so many of the countries that you

1085
00:58:42,720 --> 00:58:45,320
Speaker 1: work in, so many of the countries where people are

1086
00:58:45,320 --> 00:58:49,800
Speaker 1: struggling around the world, is that the the these problems

1087
00:58:50,080 --> 00:58:56,520
Speaker 1: of environmental crises affect women so intensely. They go hand

1088
00:58:56,560 --> 00:58:59,720
Speaker 1: in hand the subjugation of and the violence against women.

1089
00:59:00,320 --> 00:59:02,240
Speaker 1: You saw this when you came to Ethiopia with us.

1090
00:59:02,360 --> 00:59:05,320
Speaker 1: I mean, it is it is shocking, you know, in

1091
00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:07,240
Speaker 1: so many of these communities that it is is just

1092
00:59:07,440 --> 00:59:10,920
Speaker 1: all the women getting the firewood, cooking, doing the cleaning,

1093
00:59:11,000 --> 00:59:13,160
Speaker 1: taking care of the kids, walking for water. You know,

1094
00:59:13,160 --> 00:59:16,120
Speaker 1: it's the women that are so marginalized by this. And

1095
00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:18,680
Speaker 1: I don't have the most updated staff, but a couple

1096
00:59:18,720 --> 00:59:21,880
Speaker 1: of years ago, the stat was that forty billion hours

1097
00:59:21,920 --> 00:59:24,800
Speaker 1: are wasted by women every year just getting water, just

1098
00:59:24,880 --> 00:59:27,360
Speaker 1: an Africa, since I was there in Africa. Um and

1099
00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:29,520
Speaker 1: if you add up that time, it's more than the

1100
00:59:29,720 --> 00:59:33,320
Speaker 1: entire global workforce of France. So you have you have,

1101
00:59:33,520 --> 00:59:36,920
Speaker 1: you know, a huge unrealized economy of time that could

1102
00:59:36,920 --> 00:59:41,720
Speaker 1: be productive but is wasted leaving their families, leaving their

1103
00:59:41,720 --> 00:59:44,400
Speaker 1: homes to then go get water. That's unhealthy, that's not

1104
00:59:44,880 --> 00:59:46,680
Speaker 1: it's not even useful. And to be put at risk

1105
00:59:46,760 --> 00:59:47,880
Speaker 1: on the way to do it, let me put at

1106
00:59:47,960 --> 00:59:49,760
Speaker 1: risk on the way of doing it. And it's so

1107
00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:52,320
Speaker 1: interesting to me because I think about the women who

1108
00:59:52,400 --> 00:59:54,320
Speaker 1: might be listening to this, and I think about the

1109
00:59:54,360 --> 00:59:56,840
Speaker 1: conversations that we're having in our communities and in our

1110
00:59:56,840 --> 01:00:00,560
Speaker 1: backyards and around our dinner tables, about emotional labor, and

1111
01:00:00,600 --> 01:00:02,840
Speaker 1: about how so much of that falls on the shoulders

1112
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:05,520
Speaker 1: of women, and about how so much unpaid labor falls

1113
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:08,439
Speaker 1: on the shoulders of women, and if that enrages us

1114
01:00:08,440 --> 01:00:12,400
Speaker 1: in our communities, what these women are going through in

1115
01:00:12,440 --> 01:00:16,000
Speaker 1: these Sub Saharan African countries and these places that you're

1116
01:00:16,080 --> 01:00:20,160
Speaker 1: talking about everywhere, I'm sorry, twenty seven countries you're talking about,

1117
01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:22,840
Speaker 1: and all of these places in Sub Saharan Africa. We

1118
01:00:22,880 --> 01:00:26,280
Speaker 1: should also be advocating for those women. It is so

1119
01:00:26,360 --> 01:00:29,320
Speaker 1: important for us to say, if I want my life

1120
01:00:29,320 --> 01:00:31,280
Speaker 1: to be better, how do I better the lives of others?

1121
01:00:31,280 --> 01:00:33,040
Speaker 1: If I'm going to open this door for myself, how

1122
01:00:33,040 --> 01:00:36,960
Speaker 1: do I open the door for others and the emotional hardship?

1123
01:00:37,000 --> 01:00:39,320
Speaker 1: You know, I'm so glad you asked that brought that up.

1124
01:00:39,360 --> 01:00:41,640
Speaker 1: There's a story I write about in the book about

1125
01:00:41,640 --> 01:00:44,440
Speaker 1: this thirteen year old girl we talked with us at

1126
01:00:44,520 --> 01:00:47,120
Speaker 1: l A live. I think you know, so I've just

1127
01:00:47,240 --> 01:00:50,240
Speaker 1: I've I've heard so many of these crazy stories of women,

1128
01:00:50,640 --> 01:00:52,720
Speaker 1: you know, crocodile attacks and hyena attacks, and I gave

1129
01:00:52,760 --> 01:00:54,400
Speaker 1: birth by the river, and I was raped in the

1130
01:00:54,440 --> 01:00:57,000
Speaker 1: bush on the way to know I've heard these firsthand.

1131
01:00:57,000 --> 01:00:59,520
Speaker 1: I was with a woman in nies are standing next

1132
01:00:59,560 --> 01:01:02,360
Speaker 1: to this on viscus disgusting water, and she tells me

1133
01:01:02,400 --> 01:01:05,400
Speaker 1: through a translator that she watched eight of her children

1134
01:01:05,400 --> 01:01:09,680
Speaker 1: die and she lists there ages of death and then

1135
01:01:09,720 --> 01:01:11,480
Speaker 1: all their names, you know, and they was kind of

1136
01:01:11,520 --> 01:01:15,280
Speaker 1: from zero to thirteen, and two of them survived. And

1137
01:01:15,440 --> 01:01:17,720
Speaker 1: I was in Ethiopia once where we were together and

1138
01:01:17,920 --> 01:01:20,080
Speaker 1: heard the story of this. You know, I thought it

1139
01:01:20,120 --> 01:01:21,800
Speaker 1: was a legend of the time. This thirteen year old

1140
01:01:21,840 --> 01:01:24,680
Speaker 1: girl who was walking for water and one day she's

1141
01:01:24,720 --> 01:01:28,080
Speaker 1: slipped and fell and she spilled her water, and instead

1142
01:01:28,080 --> 01:01:29,880
Speaker 1: of going back for water, she hung herself from a

1143
01:01:29,960 --> 01:01:32,640
Speaker 1: rope from a tree because she was just fed up.

1144
01:01:32,720 --> 01:01:35,840
Speaker 1: It was done. And you know, I remember, you know,

1145
01:01:35,880 --> 01:01:39,960
Speaker 1: you hear these things, and that story just disrupted me

1146
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:42,760
Speaker 1: in suchually. I was like, like, thirteen year old girls

1147
01:01:42,800 --> 01:01:45,320
Speaker 1: are not hanging themselves because they spilled their water. So

1148
01:01:45,400 --> 01:01:48,000
Speaker 1: I went to live in this village. I drove like

1149
01:01:48,280 --> 01:01:52,520
Speaker 1: twenty hours to to get there, and drove and walked

1150
01:01:52,560 --> 01:01:54,640
Speaker 1: twenty hours to get there. And it's this little village

1151
01:01:54,680 --> 01:01:57,920
Speaker 1: called Maida. It was completely off the grid, and I

1152
01:01:58,000 --> 01:02:00,400
Speaker 1: learned that this was true. There was this this girl

1153
01:02:00,480 --> 01:02:03,600
Speaker 1: named led A Ciroshyolu. She was thirteen years old. She

1154
01:02:03,640 --> 01:02:06,960
Speaker 1: walked eight hours a day down a mountain to a

1155
01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:09,920
Speaker 1: little ravine. She got scummy water that seeped out of

1156
01:02:09,960 --> 01:02:13,440
Speaker 1: the rock. And one day after the eight hour walk

1157
01:02:13,720 --> 01:02:16,120
Speaker 1: with her claypot, she didn't even have the yellow jerry can.

1158
01:02:16,280 --> 01:02:19,320
Speaker 1: She had a heavy clay pot. And before she makes

1159
01:02:19,360 --> 01:02:21,400
Speaker 1: it back to her house, she slips in falls. She

1160
01:02:21,440 --> 01:02:24,840
Speaker 1: watches her pot smash, she watches all the water spill,

1161
01:02:25,800 --> 01:02:29,080
Speaker 1: and she's like, that's it. She hangs herself from the

1162
01:02:29,080 --> 01:02:33,160
Speaker 1: tree right next to the path, and I I remember

1163
01:02:33,680 --> 01:02:35,800
Speaker 1: I spend time with her mom, and I spend time

1164
01:02:35,800 --> 01:02:39,240
Speaker 1: with the priest that buried her. And my last day there,

1165
01:02:39,720 --> 01:02:42,600
Speaker 1: I saw the tree and I remember taking a picture

1166
01:02:42,600 --> 01:02:45,400
Speaker 1: of the tree where they found her body many years ago,

1167
01:02:46,080 --> 01:02:48,040
Speaker 1: swinging with a noose around her neck. I mean, imagine

1168
01:02:48,040 --> 01:02:52,000
Speaker 1: a thirteen year old child who spilled her water after

1169
01:02:52,080 --> 01:02:55,439
Speaker 1: walking eight hours. And I asked her best friend, I said,

1170
01:02:55,440 --> 01:02:58,040
Speaker 1: you know, why do you think she like, why not

1171
01:02:58,160 --> 01:03:00,919
Speaker 1: just go home? Why not say you know, whoops, mom,

1172
01:03:01,040 --> 01:03:04,120
Speaker 1: like spilled the water? Or why not go back for

1173
01:03:04,240 --> 01:03:08,080
Speaker 1: more water, and her friend said shame. She said, she

1174
01:03:08,080 --> 01:03:10,360
Speaker 1: would have been so filled with shame that she had

1175
01:03:10,440 --> 01:03:13,400
Speaker 1: let her family down because now they would go without water,

1176
01:03:13,560 --> 01:03:16,840
Speaker 1: and she'd broken a valuable asset. It's like crashing your

1177
01:03:16,880 --> 01:03:21,840
Speaker 1: parents car, but without insurance, there's no insurance claim. Somebody

1178
01:03:21,880 --> 01:03:24,200
Speaker 1: would have to go buy a new clay pots, you know,

1179
01:03:24,200 --> 01:03:27,720
Speaker 1: and this is a family living on the margin. And

1180
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:30,120
Speaker 1: rather than face her family, her friends said, yeah, she

1181
01:03:30,160 --> 01:03:33,560
Speaker 1: would have taken her own life to punish herself. So

1182
01:03:33,720 --> 01:03:36,840
Speaker 1: I mean there, you know, there are these stories that

1183
01:03:37,320 --> 01:03:41,000
Speaker 1: I think, bring home, you know, six and sixty three million.

1184
01:03:41,040 --> 01:03:43,520
Speaker 1: Well she was one of them. She's not anymore because

1185
01:03:43,560 --> 01:03:47,840
Speaker 1: she's not alive. But there's an urgency. People forget that.

1186
01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:51,400
Speaker 1: It's a life and death situation that we're talking about

1187
01:03:51,440 --> 01:03:55,520
Speaker 1: and dealing with here. Absolutely, and it's it's the you know,

1188
01:03:55,560 --> 01:03:58,000
Speaker 1: it's so many of these kids that I mean, imagine,

1189
01:03:58,160 --> 01:04:00,920
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's mom's listening. I've got two young kids myself.

1190
01:04:01,600 --> 01:04:04,920
Speaker 1: The kids are dying of diarrhea. So you're watching your child.

1191
01:04:05,120 --> 01:04:07,680
Speaker 1: You're dying of dehydration, which is really what happens. So

1192
01:04:07,680 --> 01:04:10,200
Speaker 1: you give your child bad water, your child gets sick

1193
01:04:10,240 --> 01:04:13,280
Speaker 1: with dystentery diarrhea, and then you don't have any The

1194
01:04:13,320 --> 01:04:16,560
Speaker 1: only thing that cures our kids of dysentery is clean

1195
01:04:16,600 --> 01:04:20,760
Speaker 1: water hydration. So if you give your kid more bad water,

1196
01:04:21,480 --> 01:04:25,440
Speaker 1: your child. So you're, you know, your mom holding a

1197
01:04:26,040 --> 01:04:27,720
Speaker 1: you know, one year old or two year old. Once

1198
01:04:27,760 --> 01:04:29,920
Speaker 1: the kids hit five, they become more and more resilient,

1199
01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:33,360
Speaker 1: they're much less susceptible to death by bad water. But

1200
01:04:33,880 --> 01:04:36,240
Speaker 1: you know, imagine, I mean, my kids get diarrhea all

1201
01:04:36,280 --> 01:04:38,000
Speaker 1: the time. I go to the Dwayne Read, I buy

1202
01:04:38,040 --> 01:04:41,840
Speaker 1: the blue stuff, you know, and I hydrate them like crazy,

1203
01:04:41,880 --> 01:04:44,600
Speaker 1: and I give medicine, and you know, I would never

1204
01:04:44,640 --> 01:04:49,800
Speaker 1: imagine a child dying of of something so preventable. But

1205
01:04:50,120 --> 01:04:52,560
Speaker 1: if I had to go to the Central Park ponds

1206
01:04:52,920 --> 01:04:55,920
Speaker 1: and give my kids clean water every day, it's about

1207
01:04:55,920 --> 01:04:57,919
Speaker 1: the walk. I live in Tribeca in New York City,

1208
01:04:57,960 --> 01:05:00,160
Speaker 1: so that would be similar to a walk that lot

1209
01:05:00,160 --> 01:05:02,320
Speaker 1: of people are doing up to fifty seven Street and

1210
01:05:02,400 --> 01:05:06,160
Speaker 1: back for dirty water. So it's it's shocking. The good

1211
01:05:06,160 --> 01:05:08,920
Speaker 1: news is it's a solvable problem. We know how to

1212
01:05:08,960 --> 01:05:12,600
Speaker 1: help every human being alive get clean water. We now

1213
01:05:12,640 --> 01:05:16,000
Speaker 1: have eleven different technologies, so we drill wells, we build

1214
01:05:16,040 --> 01:05:19,320
Speaker 1: rainwater harvesting systems, bios in filters. I was in Rwanda

1215
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:22,600
Speaker 1: two weeks ago. We're doing you know, huge million dollar

1216
01:05:22,680 --> 01:05:26,160
Speaker 1: gravity feds systems of springs and pipes and solar and

1217
01:05:26,920 --> 01:05:29,080
Speaker 1: we we haven't created the will to do it yet.

1218
01:05:29,360 --> 01:05:31,480
Speaker 1: And it's great. We have our own goal now at

1219
01:05:31,520 --> 01:05:34,120
Speaker 1: the at the u N. You know, the SDG number

1220
01:05:34,160 --> 01:05:38,120
Speaker 1: six is access to clean water for all by we'll

1221
01:05:38,160 --> 01:05:42,280
Speaker 1: fall badly short of that if the trajectory continues. So

1222
01:05:42,400 --> 01:05:45,360
Speaker 1: we still need We need more money, we need more awareness,

1223
01:05:45,440 --> 01:05:48,800
Speaker 1: We need more people to care about this. We need

1224
01:05:48,840 --> 01:05:52,560
Speaker 1: more people, I think, to connect to this for the

1225
01:05:52,600 --> 01:05:55,120
Speaker 1: complex issue. It is one that affects women and girls,

1226
01:05:55,120 --> 01:05:57,600
Speaker 1: one that affects health, one that affects education, one that

1227
01:05:57,640 --> 01:06:02,160
Speaker 1: affects livelihoods and income generation. You know, you're walking eight

1228
01:06:02,160 --> 01:06:04,320
Speaker 1: hours a day, seven days a week, because it's not

1229
01:06:04,400 --> 01:06:06,920
Speaker 1: five days a week. You take the weekends off. You've

1230
01:06:06,920 --> 01:06:09,880
Speaker 1: got no water on the weekend. So it's a great

1231
01:06:09,920 --> 01:06:11,960
Speaker 1: issue to work on. We've made a lot of progress.

1232
01:06:12,000 --> 01:06:14,040
Speaker 1: We're now one at every ten people on the planet

1233
01:06:14,080 --> 01:06:16,120
Speaker 1: without water. When we started it was one out of

1234
01:06:16,160 --> 01:06:19,160
Speaker 1: every six. So we're moving in the right direction. But

1235
01:06:20,200 --> 01:06:22,000
Speaker 1: we need to go faster, you know, we need to

1236
01:06:22,080 --> 01:06:24,000
Speaker 1: make sure that we need to reach more thirteen year

1237
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:27,080
Speaker 1: old girls like let it curious because that's what keeps

1238
01:06:27,120 --> 01:06:40,320
Speaker 1: me on seventy flights a year these day. Do you

1239
01:06:40,360 --> 01:06:43,840
Speaker 1: think there's a tie in just sort of I'm curious

1240
01:06:44,440 --> 01:06:47,080
Speaker 1: in the way that you talk about the systems when

1241
01:06:47,080 --> 01:06:49,320
Speaker 1: I think about what I know of your life and

1242
01:06:49,360 --> 01:06:52,240
Speaker 1: what listeners are learning of your life with with your

1243
01:06:52,320 --> 01:06:58,040
Speaker 1: mom's experience with an environmental illness, and as you said,

1244
01:06:58,280 --> 01:07:01,640
Speaker 1: you being a father, you being a husband. You look

1245
01:07:01,680 --> 01:07:06,800
Speaker 1: at all of these intergenerational relationships in your life, and

1246
01:07:07,000 --> 01:07:12,520
Speaker 1: health is so meaningful to you? Is that? Do you

1247
01:07:12,560 --> 01:07:16,240
Speaker 1: think that's why this feels like it's in your d

1248
01:07:16,400 --> 01:07:21,040
Speaker 1: n A. It feels like such a calling to you. Yeah.

1249
01:07:21,080 --> 01:07:23,280
Speaker 1: I love the way you frame that health. I think

1250
01:07:23,280 --> 01:07:26,640
Speaker 1: it's health on so many levels. I think it's health

1251
01:07:26,720 --> 01:07:31,360
Speaker 1: when we can invite people to move the intention of

1252
01:07:31,360 --> 01:07:36,400
Speaker 1: their life from often a soul focus on themselves and

1253
01:07:36,640 --> 01:07:39,600
Speaker 1: the possessions that they can amass, or the status that

1254
01:07:39,640 --> 01:07:42,200
Speaker 1: they can elevate themselves to in life for the next job,

1255
01:07:42,320 --> 01:07:45,280
Speaker 1: or the promotion to care about others. I think that's

1256
01:07:45,760 --> 01:07:48,000
Speaker 1: you know, I certainly found the real freedom that came

1257
01:07:48,040 --> 01:07:51,600
Speaker 1: in service when I focused on instead of serving myself

1258
01:07:51,760 --> 01:07:53,720
Speaker 1: for ten years, I'm trying to use my gifts to

1259
01:07:53,760 --> 01:07:57,760
Speaker 1: serve others, to be useful in the world. And then

1260
01:07:57,800 --> 01:08:01,000
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, the environment. I mean, there's there's no

1261
01:08:01,240 --> 01:08:04,080
Speaker 1: greater thing that brings health than clean water. If you

1262
01:08:04,600 --> 01:08:09,040
Speaker 1: take that away, everything starts to deteriorate. And it's interesting.

1263
01:08:09,080 --> 01:08:12,840
Speaker 1: My mom always had pure spring water. We would buy

1264
01:08:12,880 --> 01:08:15,920
Speaker 1: it from special places because she needed it. She needed

1265
01:08:16,240 --> 01:08:20,320
Speaker 1: the purest water um to keep her you know, that

1266
01:08:20,400 --> 01:08:22,960
Speaker 1: was one of the things that our immune system needed.

1267
01:08:23,040 --> 01:08:26,120
Speaker 1: And yeah, I think and that's the that's what I

1268
01:08:26,160 --> 01:08:29,160
Speaker 1: love about the charity water community. You know, now well

1269
01:08:29,200 --> 01:08:31,479
Speaker 1: over a million people around the world have given four

1270
01:08:31,600 --> 01:08:35,040
Speaker 1: or million dollars, and you know, we're nine point nine

1271
01:08:35,080 --> 01:08:36,920
Speaker 1: million people with clean water, so we're about to break

1272
01:08:36,920 --> 01:08:39,120
Speaker 1: through ten million people. Just that that our community has

1273
01:08:39,160 --> 01:08:41,439
Speaker 1: been able to help. And there's so many stories of

1274
01:08:41,520 --> 01:08:46,680
Speaker 1: people donating their birthdays or doing a birth campaign, you know,

1275
01:08:46,720 --> 01:08:48,639
Speaker 1: for a child that they're about to bring into the world,

1276
01:08:49,000 --> 01:08:50,840
Speaker 1: who is always going to have clean water, just because

1277
01:08:50,920 --> 01:08:54,040
Speaker 1: the privilege that that middle class child maybe was born

1278
01:08:54,120 --> 01:08:58,400
Speaker 1: into um. So seeing often this issue bring out the

1279
01:08:58,400 --> 01:09:01,439
Speaker 1: best in people has been real or move them to

1280
01:09:01,520 --> 01:09:03,280
Speaker 1: care about others has been really fun. And then we

1281
01:09:03,320 --> 01:09:06,040
Speaker 1: try and tell those stories, we try to promote that.

1282
01:09:06,160 --> 01:09:09,760
Speaker 1: So I'm still promoting, you know what, fifteen years after

1283
01:09:09,840 --> 01:09:13,519
Speaker 1: leaving the clubs, I'm promoting hopefully a greater level of

1284
01:09:13,560 --> 01:09:17,439
Speaker 1: generosity and empathy and compassion, the idea that we can

1285
01:09:17,600 --> 01:09:19,680
Speaker 1: do more to use our time and our talent and

1286
01:09:19,680 --> 01:09:22,720
Speaker 1: our money to serve the needs around us, in our

1287
01:09:22,760 --> 01:09:27,200
Speaker 1: local communities and the global needs, and hopefully find more

1288
01:09:27,240 --> 01:09:32,960
Speaker 1: purpose and health, family health, emotional health in that in

1289
01:09:33,000 --> 01:09:35,879
Speaker 1: that position shift, how do you maintain that for yourself

1290
01:09:35,920 --> 01:09:39,759
Speaker 1: and for your family? Because you're you're looking at the world,

1291
01:09:39,800 --> 01:09:42,439
Speaker 1: You're looking at these big systems, You're looking at global health.

1292
01:09:42,560 --> 01:09:44,679
Speaker 1: You devote a lot of time, You travel a lot,

1293
01:09:44,800 --> 01:09:50,000
Speaker 1: You're in foreign countries a lot. How How is it

1294
01:09:50,040 --> 01:09:53,320
Speaker 1: to be a husband and a father? How do you

1295
01:09:53,600 --> 01:09:59,080
Speaker 1: how do you juggle all this stuff? Yeah? Um, well,

1296
01:09:59,200 --> 01:10:02,800
Speaker 1: I you know, I stayed. I mean, gosh, I get

1297
01:10:02,840 --> 01:10:05,479
Speaker 1: six sometimes out there eating the food and just to

1298
01:10:05,479 --> 01:10:08,280
Speaker 1: travel and um, you know, I've been to sixty nine

1299
01:10:08,320 --> 01:10:10,599
Speaker 1: countries now, I mean I've been to Ethiopia thirty times,

1300
01:10:10,640 --> 01:10:12,880
Speaker 1: so I try and stay healthy on the road. I've

1301
01:10:12,920 --> 01:10:14,920
Speaker 1: got my own, you know, tricks for that. Of course,

1302
01:10:14,960 --> 01:10:17,160
Speaker 1: I've never had to drink dirty water, so I'm always

1303
01:10:17,160 --> 01:10:20,000
Speaker 1: bringing a filter or bottled water with me. I you know,

1304
01:10:20,040 --> 01:10:21,800
Speaker 1: I think a lot about the kids now, and you know,

1305
01:10:21,800 --> 01:10:24,599
Speaker 1: I'm forty four, so I've been at this for a while.

1306
01:10:25,080 --> 01:10:28,640
Speaker 1: I really have a clear vision that I'd like to

1307
01:10:28,680 --> 01:10:31,000
Speaker 1: help a hundred million people before I die. So I'd

1308
01:10:31,000 --> 01:10:35,400
Speaker 1: like to impact a hundred million people directly through the organization,

1309
01:10:35,400 --> 01:10:38,519
Speaker 1: through the community, through hopefully stewarting in the community, and

1310
01:10:38,640 --> 01:10:40,720
Speaker 1: you know, leading the organization continuing to grow out. So

1311
01:10:40,720 --> 01:10:43,639
Speaker 1: I'm kind of a teen percent of that. And my son,

1312
01:10:43,680 --> 01:10:46,640
Speaker 1: who's about to turn five next week, just asked me

1313
01:10:46,680 --> 01:10:49,400
Speaker 1: the other day. And I live a few blocks from

1314
01:10:49,400 --> 01:10:51,479
Speaker 1: our office, and he's in the office all the time,

1315
01:10:51,520 --> 01:10:53,280
Speaker 1: and he says, Daddy, how old do I have to

1316
01:10:53,280 --> 01:10:55,160
Speaker 1: be before I can work with you at charity Water

1317
01:10:55,320 --> 01:10:58,040
Speaker 1: and help people get clean water? You know, your heart

1318
01:10:58,080 --> 01:11:01,559
Speaker 1: melts And I'm like, now, okay, here's uh, you know,

1319
01:11:02,640 --> 01:11:05,240
Speaker 1: I don't know, go run this uh to the front

1320
01:11:05,320 --> 01:11:09,400
Speaker 1: desk or whatever. Um there so I think a lot

1321
01:11:09,400 --> 01:11:14,400
Speaker 1: about legacy and the family values and you know, maybe

1322
01:11:14,479 --> 01:11:17,519
Speaker 1: health on a on a more maybe on a more

1323
01:11:17,520 --> 01:11:20,840
Speaker 1: spiritual level. You know, I want them to grow up. Uh,

1324
01:11:20,880 --> 01:11:23,599
Speaker 1: And so how do I keep you know, I really

1325
01:11:23,800 --> 01:11:27,240
Speaker 1: try to not be corrupted by money, and I try

1326
01:11:27,280 --> 01:11:29,960
Speaker 1: to keep giving more money away. So you know, my

1327
01:11:30,000 --> 01:11:33,320
Speaker 1: wife and I have donated personally, like over two hundred

1328
01:11:33,640 --> 01:11:36,160
Speaker 1: dollars to our own organization, you know, post tax I

1329
01:11:36,560 --> 01:11:40,360
Speaker 1: try to give to causes a year. You know, we

1330
01:11:40,400 --> 01:11:42,160
Speaker 1: try and give at least twenty percent of our income

1331
01:11:42,200 --> 01:11:45,679
Speaker 1: every year away. I feel like I can't ask anyone

1332
01:11:45,680 --> 01:11:47,960
Speaker 1: else to do what I'm not willing to do. So

1333
01:11:48,000 --> 01:11:50,080
Speaker 1: there's just this. You know, my life is in a

1334
01:11:50,160 --> 01:11:52,800
Speaker 1: really interesting tension because I'll go from that village where

1335
01:11:52,800 --> 01:11:55,040
Speaker 1: I lived in a tent with a thirteen year old

1336
01:11:55,040 --> 01:11:57,360
Speaker 1: girl to kill herself, and then I'll fly and stay

1337
01:11:57,360 --> 01:12:00,360
Speaker 1: in a forty million dollar mansion for you a very

1338
01:12:00,360 --> 01:12:04,760
Speaker 1: generous donor, and you know, it's a radical and I'm

1339
01:12:04,800 --> 01:12:07,439
Speaker 1: flying coach between. I should say, for the record, we've

1340
01:12:07,880 --> 01:12:10,160
Speaker 1: we've never bought a business class ticket for myself or

1341
01:12:10,200 --> 01:12:13,640
Speaker 1: for anyone else. So we take stewardship very very seriously

1342
01:12:13,640 --> 01:12:15,960
Speaker 1: at the organization. We pay back credit card fees so

1343
01:12:15,960 --> 01:12:18,559
Speaker 1: that we can really say that a percent of all

1344
01:12:18,560 --> 01:12:21,560
Speaker 1: the money goes um. But I'm I'm very careful to

1345
01:12:21,600 --> 01:12:25,080
Speaker 1: try not to be corrupted by money or this desire

1346
01:12:25,160 --> 01:12:27,240
Speaker 1: to you know, have the house in Hampton's with a

1347
01:12:27,320 --> 01:12:29,720
Speaker 1: nice car. I mean, I drive a Kia Sorrento and

1348
01:12:29,760 --> 01:12:31,880
Speaker 1: I love it. I think it's like the greatest car

1349
01:12:31,920 --> 01:12:34,840
Speaker 1: that I've ever had. And I don't need a land Rover,

1350
01:12:35,120 --> 01:12:37,640
Speaker 1: you know for fifty more or a Porsche Cayane or

1351
01:12:37,680 --> 01:12:40,000
Speaker 1: you know, whatever the high end version. Like. You know,

1352
01:12:40,360 --> 01:12:43,000
Speaker 1: my car has two car seats and there's lots of

1353
01:12:43,000 --> 01:12:45,639
Speaker 1: smushed raisins in the back seat, and you know, like

1354
01:12:45,840 --> 01:12:49,080
Speaker 1: my wife entered it the other day and I didn't mind. Uh,

1355
01:12:49,120 --> 01:12:51,200
Speaker 1: you know, so there's I think. I'm just trying to

1356
01:12:51,280 --> 01:12:54,599
Speaker 1: make sure that I and my family stay grounded in reality,

1357
01:12:54,720 --> 01:12:58,000
Speaker 1: even though I've got these two extremes going on, which

1358
01:12:58,080 --> 01:13:00,920
Speaker 1: is radically poor people living on the margins in the edge,

1359
01:13:00,960 --> 01:13:03,320
Speaker 1: and then billionaires. I may have spent a lot of

1360
01:13:03,320 --> 01:13:06,880
Speaker 1: time with billionaires, and you know, I've driven in Lamborghinis

1361
01:13:06,920 --> 01:13:09,519
Speaker 1: and Ferraris. You know, as someone takes me to the airport.

1362
01:13:10,160 --> 01:13:12,640
Speaker 1: I've been on private planes um as people offer me

1363
01:13:12,680 --> 01:13:15,519
Speaker 1: a lift and save charity water two dollars, you know,

1364
01:13:15,560 --> 01:13:20,800
Speaker 1: and the Delta coast. So I think it's just trying

1365
01:13:20,800 --> 01:13:23,759
Speaker 1: to stay grounded in reality and not not get cynical,

1366
01:13:24,080 --> 01:13:28,560
Speaker 1: not judge people, and just keep telling stories and hopefully

1367
01:13:28,640 --> 01:13:33,479
Speaker 1: winsomely invite more and more people to consider using what

1368
01:13:33,520 --> 01:13:37,920
Speaker 1: they have to help others. I have another question, and

1369
01:13:37,960 --> 01:13:41,280
Speaker 1: you you said a couple of things about it. You know,

1370
01:13:41,880 --> 01:13:44,880
Speaker 1: your experience in Liberia being very different than a person

1371
01:13:44,920 --> 01:13:48,000
Speaker 1: who goes on like the weak trip to paint something

1372
01:13:48,040 --> 01:13:51,439
Speaker 1: and the commercial fies with kids somewhere else. And we're

1373
01:13:51,439 --> 01:13:53,800
Speaker 1: having a lot of these conversations and they're probably very

1374
01:13:53,840 --> 01:13:57,360
Speaker 1: long overdue, but we're talking about privilege, and we're talking

1375
01:13:57,360 --> 01:14:00,880
Speaker 1: about this very risky potential for white people who go

1376
01:14:01,040 --> 01:14:07,080
Speaker 1: on philanthropic tourism experiences, be they you know, religious missionary

1377
01:14:07,120 --> 01:14:12,559
Speaker 1: trips or volunteering trips, that can really be rooted in

1378
01:14:13,200 --> 01:14:17,960
Speaker 1: this whether it's conscious or a subconscious world of white saviorism,

1379
01:14:18,040 --> 01:14:25,000
Speaker 1: and and in tourism of human beings, experiential tourism, if

1380
01:14:25,000 --> 01:14:29,320
Speaker 1: you will, under the guise of philanthropy. And I'm curious

1381
01:14:29,640 --> 01:14:32,719
Speaker 1: because I think I look at a lot of that

1382
01:14:33,080 --> 01:14:35,479
Speaker 1: more in the way you do. We share a journalism degree,

1383
01:14:35,520 --> 01:14:38,120
Speaker 1: and you know, my father is a photographer, and I

1384
01:14:38,120 --> 01:14:41,360
Speaker 1: think photojournalism. I know photojournalism to be one of the

1385
01:14:41,360 --> 01:14:45,599
Speaker 1: things that can change crisis zones and change public opinion,

1386
01:14:45,640 --> 01:14:48,240
Speaker 1: and I believe it to be very sacred. But on

1387
01:14:48,240 --> 01:14:51,800
Speaker 1: this other end of the spectrum, you know, selfies with

1388
01:14:51,800 --> 01:14:55,640
Speaker 1: other people's children and whatnot, how do you, as a

1389
01:14:55,680 --> 01:14:58,560
Speaker 1: person who did the work, who became enmeshed in the community,

1390
01:14:58,640 --> 01:15:02,720
Speaker 1: who who to serve in such a special place, how

1391
01:15:02,760 --> 01:15:06,519
Speaker 1: do you think we need to be cognizant of how

1392
01:15:06,560 --> 01:15:08,720
Speaker 1: we show up or why we might be motivated to

1393
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:13,160
Speaker 1: do volunteer work, and and how we need to weigh

1394
01:15:13,240 --> 01:15:15,240
Speaker 1: what we do at home versus what we think we

1395
01:15:15,240 --> 01:15:18,680
Speaker 1: should be doing abroad, or maybe ask ourselves why it

1396
01:15:18,760 --> 01:15:21,240
Speaker 1: is we want to go abroad. How do we make

1397
01:15:21,280 --> 01:15:24,280
Speaker 1: sure that that's meaningful and that it isn't just a

1398
01:15:24,360 --> 01:15:29,040
Speaker 1: charity tourist trip. Well, that's a great question. Let me

1399
01:15:29,080 --> 01:15:31,920
Speaker 1: sit back just a second. I think one of the

1400
01:15:31,960 --> 01:15:35,280
Speaker 1: reasons it's been easy for that not to be we've

1401
01:15:35,280 --> 01:15:37,280
Speaker 1: never really been A part of that conversation at Charity

1402
01:15:37,280 --> 01:15:39,640
Speaker 1: Water is because from day one we believe that the

1403
01:15:39,680 --> 01:15:41,920
Speaker 1: local partners would need to be the ones that actually

1404
01:15:41,920 --> 01:15:44,160
Speaker 1: did the work. I think this was probably the same

1405
01:15:44,240 --> 01:15:46,560
Speaker 1: with Pencils and now it was all locals, right, you

1406
01:15:46,680 --> 01:15:50,599
Speaker 1: have you and Adam saying, hey, we can use our voice,

1407
01:15:51,080 --> 01:15:54,360
Speaker 1: we can use our network, your fans, you could use

1408
01:15:54,400 --> 01:15:56,960
Speaker 1: you know, the people to care about us, to showcase

1409
01:15:57,000 --> 01:15:59,880
Speaker 1: the need and then the great needs being met by

1410
01:16:00,000 --> 01:16:03,080
Speaker 1: these very competent, skilled locals who are missing one very

1411
01:16:03,120 --> 01:16:07,439
Speaker 1: important thing. Money. So we now, you know, Charity Water

1412
01:16:07,479 --> 01:16:09,080
Speaker 1: has about a hundred people in New York City, but

1413
01:16:09,120 --> 01:16:11,640
Speaker 1: we have seventeen hundred people around the world, locals that

1414
01:16:11,680 --> 01:16:16,200
Speaker 1: we support and pay their salaries. So I think that

1415
01:16:16,400 --> 01:16:18,479
Speaker 1: almost gave me the freedom early on and said, Okay,

1416
01:16:18,479 --> 01:16:20,799
Speaker 1: my role. I know my role here. I'm clear about it.

1417
01:16:20,800 --> 01:16:24,200
Speaker 1: It's to promote. It's to promote the needs and the solutions,

1418
01:16:24,200 --> 01:16:25,960
Speaker 1: and it's invite people to be a part of that

1419
01:16:26,080 --> 01:16:30,320
Speaker 1: through giving, hopefully even through radical generosity for some, but

1420
01:16:30,640 --> 01:16:34,400
Speaker 1: to create local jobs and grow these organizations. So I

1421
01:16:34,439 --> 01:16:37,120
Speaker 1: was even clear about you know the credit, I mean,

1422
01:16:37,680 --> 01:16:40,400
Speaker 1: you know we where you came in Ethiopia. You met Techlan,

1423
01:16:41,120 --> 01:16:43,720
Speaker 1: He's been at it for forty years. He leads a

1424
01:16:43,760 --> 01:16:47,720
Speaker 1: team now of six hundred Ethiopians. There's no expats there,

1425
01:16:47,760 --> 01:16:50,280
Speaker 1: there's nobody that looks, you know that as our skin color.

1426
01:16:50,400 --> 01:16:53,559
Speaker 1: It's all an amazing team. There's eight drilling rigs now

1427
01:16:53,600 --> 01:16:55,960
Speaker 1: because we've been buying drilling rings for them, and he's

1428
01:16:55,960 --> 01:16:59,840
Speaker 1: been hiring the local hydro geologists. Three and fifty some

1429
01:17:00,000 --> 01:17:02,400
Speaker 1: people just working on charity water projects in this one

1430
01:17:02,439 --> 01:17:06,599
Speaker 1: region of Ethiopia. So that's so exciting to create local jobs.

1431
01:17:07,040 --> 01:17:08,960
Speaker 1: And when we go to Ethiopia, people don't know who

1432
01:17:09,040 --> 01:17:11,960
Speaker 1: we are. They know who our local partners. So it's

1433
01:17:12,040 --> 01:17:16,040
Speaker 1: the locals who are known and celebrated for the work.

1434
01:17:16,640 --> 01:17:19,320
Speaker 1: So I still kind of look at that role, maybe

1435
01:17:19,320 --> 01:17:21,479
Speaker 1: more as the journalists or the promote How can I

1436
01:17:21,560 --> 01:17:26,599
Speaker 1: learn about the needs the local appropriate solutions to that,

1437
01:17:26,680 --> 01:17:28,400
Speaker 1: and then how do I just go get the resources

1438
01:17:28,400 --> 01:17:31,040
Speaker 1: to allow that to happen and not plant the charity

1439
01:17:31,040 --> 01:17:34,160
Speaker 1: water flag in twenty seven countries, but to allow our

1440
01:17:34,200 --> 01:17:37,680
Speaker 1: local partners to plant the flag of development, saying hey,

1441
01:17:37,680 --> 01:17:41,200
Speaker 1: it's Ethiopians helping Ethiopians, it's Rwandans that are building all

1442
01:17:41,200 --> 01:17:44,800
Speaker 1: the water projects in Rwanda, and you allow Charity Water

1443
01:17:44,840 --> 01:17:48,839
Speaker 1: to be in service of their mission, for their mission

1444
01:17:49,360 --> 01:17:52,000
Speaker 1: and to highlight them. They are the heroes. I really

1445
01:17:52,040 --> 01:17:56,040
Speaker 1: look at. One of my favorite books is um called Building.

1446
01:17:56,240 --> 01:17:58,599
Speaker 1: One of the favorite business books called Building a Story brand.

1447
01:17:58,960 --> 01:18:03,000
Speaker 1: Great guy named Domo or at a Nashville and he

1448
01:18:03,040 --> 01:18:04,720
Speaker 1: speaks to this a little bit, but I leave I

1449
01:18:04,760 --> 01:18:07,920
Speaker 1: believe our role is the guide. So the heroes are

1450
01:18:08,240 --> 01:18:10,679
Speaker 1: the nine year old kids who are doing lemonade stands

1451
01:18:11,200 --> 01:18:13,360
Speaker 1: ten weekends in a row, raising money for Charity Water.

1452
01:18:13,439 --> 01:18:16,760
Speaker 1: The heroes are volunteers, the heroes are local partners, and

1453
01:18:16,800 --> 01:18:20,360
Speaker 1: the heroes are the beneficiaries who are courageously struggling to

1454
01:18:20,400 --> 01:18:22,479
Speaker 1: make ends meet for their family, who are walking. The

1455
01:18:22,479 --> 01:18:24,880
Speaker 1: heroes of the women walking eight hours a day to

1456
01:18:24,960 --> 01:18:27,960
Speaker 1: provide that dirty water for their families. We're the guide.

1457
01:18:28,160 --> 01:18:30,720
Speaker 1: So we're just trying to take people and just be

1458
01:18:31,439 --> 01:18:33,599
Speaker 1: you know, a great steward of that money turned into

1459
01:18:33,640 --> 01:18:37,200
Speaker 1: as much impact as possible. So I think, maybe more

1460
01:18:37,200 --> 01:18:40,040
Speaker 1: directly answer your question, it all has to do with

1461
01:18:40,320 --> 01:18:44,639
Speaker 1: intentions and authenticity. A lot of people are going out there,

1462
01:18:45,280 --> 01:18:48,160
Speaker 1: let's say, maybe not a lot. I don't want to

1463
01:18:48,200 --> 01:18:50,680
Speaker 1: be cynical. Some people might be going out there to

1464
01:18:50,920 --> 01:18:54,240
Speaker 1: take selfies and we there's an expression I've heard petting

1465
01:18:54,280 --> 01:18:55,960
Speaker 1: the poor. You know, you go out for a few

1466
01:18:56,040 --> 01:18:58,559
Speaker 1: days and then you posted on your Facebook and you

1467
01:18:58,600 --> 01:19:01,920
Speaker 1: know it's it's look at me. I think people know

1468
01:19:01,960 --> 01:19:05,640
Speaker 1: whether that's authentic or not. And like anything, you know,

1469
01:19:05,680 --> 01:19:08,000
Speaker 1: we see a bunch of fakes and phonies in all

1470
01:19:08,040 --> 01:19:12,080
Speaker 1: aspects of life, in business and you know, in friendships,

1471
01:19:12,280 --> 01:19:15,200
Speaker 1: right in relationships, and then we see really deeply authentic people.

1472
01:19:15,280 --> 01:19:20,040
Speaker 1: So you know, I think maybe just simply posing the question,

1473
01:19:20,560 --> 01:19:22,840
Speaker 1: is this authentic? Why do you want to help? You know?

1474
01:19:23,000 --> 01:19:25,720
Speaker 1: In some ways, like me getting into it was a

1475
01:19:25,720 --> 01:19:28,080
Speaker 1: little bit of penance, like I screwed up so badly

1476
01:19:28,120 --> 01:19:31,639
Speaker 1: for ten years, you know, I was. I rewatched the mission.

1477
01:19:31,840 --> 01:19:33,719
Speaker 1: You know, there's like a sense of Robert de Niro

1478
01:19:33,880 --> 01:19:36,960
Speaker 1: like taking that whole bag, like up the mountain, you know,

1479
01:19:37,040 --> 01:19:40,000
Speaker 1: his penance for for what he had done. And then

1480
01:19:40,320 --> 01:19:44,200
Speaker 1: actually it's an interesting um film. Even he then falls

1481
01:19:44,200 --> 01:19:46,840
Speaker 1: in love with the mission and in that case, the

1482
01:19:46,840 --> 01:19:50,000
Speaker 1: people that he persecuted, and he like goes and lives

1483
01:19:50,040 --> 01:19:53,640
Speaker 1: deeply like it. It It overcomes him, I think, and

1484
01:19:53,680 --> 01:19:56,040
Speaker 1: I've seen that, you know, I think we've we've all

1485
01:19:56,040 --> 01:19:59,559
Speaker 1: seen people who you're you're faced with a problem and

1486
01:19:59,600 --> 01:20:02,639
Speaker 1: you say, not on my watch. You know your thing.

1487
01:20:02,840 --> 01:20:05,400
Speaker 1: You've you've been very very helpful to us over the years,

1488
01:20:05,439 --> 01:20:08,160
Speaker 1: and thank you that for raising awareness for water and forgiving.

1489
01:20:08,600 --> 01:20:11,479
Speaker 1: But water may not necessarily be your thing, right And

1490
01:20:11,520 --> 01:20:13,960
Speaker 1: I've got friends that are working in the criminal justice

1491
01:20:13,960 --> 01:20:18,520
Speaker 1: system and that is their thing, like justice and unfair incarceration.

1492
01:20:18,880 --> 01:20:21,880
Speaker 1: Other people are working on Parkinson's disease because they lost

1493
01:20:21,880 --> 01:20:23,200
Speaker 1: to love one and they know that so many people

1494
01:20:23,200 --> 01:20:26,599
Speaker 1: are suffering. So I think it's just, you know, you

1495
01:20:26,680 --> 01:20:29,160
Speaker 1: want the people you want. You wanted to be authentic.

1496
01:20:29,680 --> 01:20:31,920
Speaker 1: Now you don't want anyone out there taking selfies. You

1497
01:20:31,920 --> 01:20:34,120
Speaker 1: don't want anyone in a hospital, you know, or a

1498
01:20:34,200 --> 01:20:37,599
Speaker 1: lab pretending to find a cure. That's not that there's

1499
01:20:37,640 --> 01:20:40,080
Speaker 1: not integrity in it. And everyone needs to run towards

1500
01:20:40,120 --> 01:20:45,000
Speaker 1: the thing that gives them the most sort of fuel

1501
01:20:45,040 --> 01:20:47,439
Speaker 1: to light that fire of of you know, passion to

1502
01:20:47,479 --> 01:20:50,120
Speaker 1: want to help. And I think one of the things

1503
01:20:50,160 --> 01:20:53,120
Speaker 1: that's been so incredible for me is to be able

1504
01:20:53,160 --> 01:20:57,240
Speaker 1: to work with so many organizations, including yours, to tie

1505
01:20:57,280 --> 01:21:01,559
Speaker 1: them together to say order matters for women and for

1506
01:21:01,680 --> 01:21:03,960
Speaker 1: education and for the environment, and look at the way

1507
01:21:03,960 --> 01:21:08,240
Speaker 1: that these systems are interconnected. We have to fix these problems.

1508
01:21:08,280 --> 01:21:11,200
Speaker 1: We have to look at these things. And I know

1509
01:21:11,280 --> 01:21:13,680
Speaker 1: that as a person with a platform like mine, I'm

1510
01:21:13,720 --> 01:21:16,200
Speaker 1: in a unique position because I have so many folks

1511
01:21:16,200 --> 01:21:18,760
Speaker 1: that I get to talk to every day. Not everybody's

1512
01:21:18,800 --> 01:21:21,679
Speaker 1: going to care about water or education, or women's issues

1513
01:21:21,760 --> 01:21:24,040
Speaker 1: or the environment. But the more I can talk about

1514
01:21:24,080 --> 01:21:28,200
Speaker 1: the interconnectedness of those systems, the more I can hopefully

1515
01:21:28,439 --> 01:21:31,360
Speaker 1: just be like a flashlight for people on something that

1516
01:21:31,560 --> 01:21:35,400
Speaker 1: is their thing. And it does feel like I'm not

1517
01:21:35,479 --> 01:21:38,680
Speaker 1: on my watch. It feels like if I have this opportunity,

1518
01:21:38,680 --> 01:21:40,920
Speaker 1: who would I be to waste it? Am I going

1519
01:21:40,960 --> 01:21:42,640
Speaker 1: to do with my platform if I'm not trying to

1520
01:21:42,640 --> 01:21:44,519
Speaker 1: make the world a better place? Talk about lip gloss?

1521
01:21:44,560 --> 01:21:46,800
Speaker 1: Like what are we? What are we doing well? And

1522
01:21:46,800 --> 01:21:49,639
Speaker 1: hopefully there are people listening that just can be encouraged

1523
01:21:49,680 --> 01:21:52,360
Speaker 1: by that. You know, So what's in your hands? You

1524
01:21:52,400 --> 01:21:54,240
Speaker 1: have a platform? How do you use it? There's plenty

1525
01:21:54,280 --> 01:21:56,840
Speaker 1: people that are not using their platform for anything. Yeah,

1526
01:21:57,040 --> 01:21:59,240
Speaker 1: I mean we know a lot of them, so we

1527
01:21:59,560 --> 01:22:02,479
Speaker 1: want them kind of catch the vision that wow, I

1528
01:22:02,520 --> 01:22:05,439
Speaker 1: could I could I could bring my community, I could

1529
01:22:05,439 --> 01:22:07,960
Speaker 1: shine a light on this. And that leads me to

1530
01:22:08,040 --> 01:22:10,920
Speaker 1: my next question, which really, and I'm sure everyone who's

1531
01:22:10,920 --> 01:22:14,160
Speaker 1: listening is thinking, well, what can I do? What can

1532
01:22:14,360 --> 01:22:17,680
Speaker 1: people at home who are listening do to help? How

1533
01:22:17,680 --> 01:22:20,480
Speaker 1: do people get involved with cherry water, How do they

1534
01:22:20,520 --> 01:22:24,880
Speaker 1: how do they begin to to use their platforms. There's

1535
01:22:24,880 --> 01:22:27,800
Speaker 1: a community that we launched in our tenth anniversary called

1536
01:22:27,840 --> 01:22:31,000
Speaker 1: the Spring um and there's a really good video. So

1537
01:22:31,040 --> 01:22:33,719
Speaker 1: if anybody wants to just kind of see the images

1538
01:22:33,880 --> 01:22:36,559
Speaker 1: of you know, dr Gary and the ship and all this,

1539
01:22:36,640 --> 01:22:38,760
Speaker 1: and what does it look like to actually drink bad water,

1540
01:22:39,240 --> 01:22:42,680
Speaker 1: we created a really beautiful short film. I think you

1541
01:22:42,760 --> 01:22:45,280
Speaker 1: just go to the Spring dot com or yeah, I

1542
01:22:45,280 --> 01:22:46,800
Speaker 1: think so. We just set up a new website, the

1543
01:22:46,800 --> 01:22:49,320
Speaker 1: Spring dot com and think of that as Netflix for

1544
01:22:49,360 --> 01:22:52,559
Speaker 1: clean water or Spotify for clean water. We just wanted

1545
01:22:52,600 --> 01:22:54,360
Speaker 1: to encourage a bunch of people around the world to

1546
01:22:54,360 --> 01:22:56,280
Speaker 1: give what they could every month. We have a lot

1547
01:22:56,280 --> 01:22:58,200
Speaker 1: of people giving thirty dollars a month, which is what

1548
01:22:58,280 --> 01:23:02,000
Speaker 1: it caused us to how one woman or a girl

1549
01:23:02,040 --> 01:23:04,920
Speaker 1: moved from dirty water to clean water. We have small

1550
01:23:04,960 --> 01:23:07,160
Speaker 1: businesses giving a hundred or two hundred dollars a month.

1551
01:23:07,320 --> 01:23:11,160
Speaker 1: We have people in college, uh you know, broke students

1552
01:23:11,200 --> 01:23:12,800
Speaker 1: who write us and say I can give ten dollars

1553
01:23:12,800 --> 01:23:14,960
Speaker 1: a month. You know it's a couple of coffees a month,

1554
01:23:15,040 --> 01:23:17,080
Speaker 1: or you know, I won't have beers on a Friday,

1555
01:23:17,160 --> 01:23:20,200
Speaker 1: you know, down at or give up a couple of cocktails.

1556
01:23:20,720 --> 01:23:24,120
Speaker 1: And I think we've been surprised at how our promise

1557
01:23:24,160 --> 01:23:25,920
Speaker 1: to that community is that acent of what they give

1558
01:23:25,960 --> 01:23:28,439
Speaker 1: every month goes straight to help people get clean water.

1559
01:23:28,479 --> 01:23:30,519
Speaker 1: And then we go back to them every month with

1560
01:23:30,560 --> 01:23:33,800
Speaker 1: stories of impact and we show them the change that

1561
01:23:33,920 --> 01:23:37,920
Speaker 1: they're making through their uh sacrificial giving. In some cases,

1562
01:23:38,360 --> 01:23:40,479
Speaker 1: woman just wrote me in her nineties it's giving from

1563
01:23:40,479 --> 01:23:42,519
Speaker 1: her pension. She's like ten dollars a month. There's a

1564
01:23:42,520 --> 01:23:44,000
Speaker 1: lot of money for me, but I believe in this.

1565
01:23:44,040 --> 01:23:47,559
Speaker 1: People should have clean water. So uh, that's just one

1566
01:23:47,600 --> 01:23:49,400
Speaker 1: great and and people can just share the video to

1567
01:23:49,720 --> 01:23:52,000
Speaker 1: It's gotten twenty million views or so. It's just the more.

1568
01:23:52,640 --> 01:23:54,400
Speaker 1: I was flying on a plane last night to l

1569
01:23:54,479 --> 01:23:57,320
Speaker 1: A and the guy next to me is like, wait

1570
01:23:57,360 --> 01:23:59,600
Speaker 1: to have senior video. I shared on my Facebook and

1571
01:23:59,640 --> 01:24:02,400
Speaker 1: then on my friends shared it, and I know exactly

1572
01:24:02,400 --> 01:24:04,240
Speaker 1: about what you're doing. He started telling me about water

1573
01:24:04,320 --> 01:24:06,160
Speaker 1: and tell me about the ship and dr Gary and

1574
01:24:06,640 --> 01:24:08,559
Speaker 1: you know, it's really cool. So yeah, I guess if

1575
01:24:08,600 --> 01:24:10,840
Speaker 1: people did one thing online, it was go to the

1576
01:24:10,880 --> 01:24:13,439
Speaker 1: spring dot com, check out the video, share it and

1577
01:24:13,560 --> 01:24:16,600
Speaker 1: consider joining us in that community. And then, um, you know,

1578
01:24:16,720 --> 01:24:19,559
Speaker 1: for the readers, I wrote a book you we did

1579
01:24:19,600 --> 01:24:22,439
Speaker 1: that event together. It's called Thirst. Um. It's a little

1580
01:24:22,439 --> 01:24:24,840
Speaker 1: more about I guess, all of it, the building and

1581
01:24:24,880 --> 01:24:29,599
Speaker 1: the organization, the struggles, the near bankruptcy. There's lawsuits in it,

1582
01:24:29,680 --> 01:24:34,080
Speaker 1: there's bouncers with guns. There's definitely some some drama in it.

1583
01:24:34,560 --> 01:24:36,000
Speaker 1: And all the money goes to charity Water. So I

1584
01:24:36,280 --> 01:24:38,920
Speaker 1: gave away the whole advance and all the proceeds. I

1585
01:24:38,960 --> 01:24:42,120
Speaker 1: read it on audible, So I'm pretty proud of it,

1586
01:24:42,120 --> 01:24:46,240
Speaker 1: and I think it's it's a great way to if

1587
01:24:46,240 --> 01:24:48,000
Speaker 1: you want to go deeper in this issue. You know,

1588
01:24:48,080 --> 01:24:50,080
Speaker 1: we tell about tell stories about a lot of the

1589
01:24:50,080 --> 01:24:52,280
Speaker 1: women and girls who also have clean water. We only

1590
01:24:52,280 --> 01:24:54,840
Speaker 1: focus on the negative. It's amazing when people have clean water.

1591
01:24:55,360 --> 01:24:57,439
Speaker 1: Women tell us that they feel beautiful for the first

1592
01:24:57,479 --> 01:24:59,439
Speaker 1: time because they have enough water. To wash their face

1593
01:24:59,479 --> 01:25:02,080
Speaker 1: and their body, They keep their kids clean, they watched

1594
01:25:02,120 --> 01:25:05,559
Speaker 1: their kids school uniforms. There's so many amazing stories that

1595
01:25:05,640 --> 01:25:07,880
Speaker 1: I was able to write about. It just the transformation

1596
01:25:07,960 --> 01:25:12,120
Speaker 1: that clean water brings for community. So to the Spring

1597
01:25:12,160 --> 01:25:14,639
Speaker 1: dot com or or check out the book. Both support

1598
01:25:14,720 --> 01:25:18,080
Speaker 1: Charity Water. Yeah, the book is such a beautiful story.

1599
01:25:18,400 --> 01:25:21,120
Speaker 1: And and also for people out there trying to figure

1600
01:25:21,160 --> 01:25:24,479
Speaker 1: out how to be entrepreneurs or social entrepreneurs. There's so

1601
01:25:24,560 --> 01:25:29,519
Speaker 1: much business just experience and information in the book too.

1602
01:25:29,520 --> 01:25:31,559
Speaker 1: So I and a lot of bonehead of things we did,

1603
01:25:32,400 --> 01:25:34,639
Speaker 1: you know, I really wanted to talk about the stupid

1604
01:25:34,680 --> 01:25:36,680
Speaker 1: things that we did and and the times that we

1605
01:25:36,720 --> 01:25:39,759
Speaker 1: almost blew the organization up. And you know, it's it's funny.

1606
01:25:39,760 --> 01:25:41,720
Speaker 1: I have this picture I know Adam run well and

1607
01:25:41,880 --> 01:25:44,599
Speaker 1: over the years, and I mean, you know, you guys

1608
01:25:44,680 --> 01:25:47,320
Speaker 1: writing mope heads trying to figure it out. But if

1609
01:25:47,400 --> 01:25:49,479
Speaker 1: you stick with it, you know, and now you've got

1610
01:25:49,479 --> 01:25:52,800
Speaker 1: a professional organization in pencils to build hundreds, if not

1611
01:25:52,920 --> 01:25:56,880
Speaker 1: thousands of schools and has local staff. So I think,

1612
01:25:56,960 --> 01:25:59,559
Speaker 1: you know, I was hoping that sometimes Charity Water feels

1613
01:25:59,600 --> 01:26:01,799
Speaker 1: so put together, you know by people on the outside

1614
01:26:01,840 --> 01:26:03,519
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, it's a totally hot mess. You know,

1615
01:26:06,240 --> 01:26:09,000
Speaker 1: here's what you didn't see. Um, And maybe the way

1616
01:26:09,000 --> 01:26:11,599
Speaker 1: of just encouraging others that maybe it feels a lot

1617
01:26:11,640 --> 01:26:15,840
Speaker 1: more messy as they're building towards their cause or their organization.

1618
01:26:16,479 --> 01:26:19,320
Speaker 1: And some of the things that we did to that worked,

1619
01:26:19,640 --> 01:26:22,640
Speaker 1: that helped us raised half a billion, almost half a

1620
01:26:22,680 --> 01:26:25,160
Speaker 1: billion dollars. So you said the perfect thing to lead

1621
01:26:25,200 --> 01:26:29,240
Speaker 1: me to my last question. Because from the outside, everything

1622
01:26:29,360 --> 01:26:34,200
Speaker 1: tends to look great. And I would say everyone who

1623
01:26:34,320 --> 01:26:36,400
Speaker 1: sat across from me in this room as a person

1624
01:26:36,479 --> 01:26:39,040
Speaker 1: who anyone out there in the world could look at

1625
01:26:39,040 --> 01:26:42,160
Speaker 1: and think they've got it all figured out. But I

1626
01:26:42,200 --> 01:26:45,040
Speaker 1: think we all know that we're always trying to figure

1627
01:26:45,040 --> 01:26:48,880
Speaker 1: it out. And that's why the podcast is called work

1628
01:26:48,880 --> 01:26:53,800
Speaker 1: in progress. And I'm curious to know in the midst

1629
01:26:53,880 --> 01:26:57,559
Speaker 1: of what's working, what feels like a work in progress

1630
01:26:57,560 --> 01:27:00,280
Speaker 1: in your life right now. Oh my gosh, so much

1631
01:27:00,880 --> 01:27:04,880
Speaker 1: could do another half hour on that. I'm I'm really

1632
01:27:04,880 --> 01:27:08,599
Speaker 1: struggling to find the balance between leading the organization at

1633
01:27:08,600 --> 01:27:12,200
Speaker 1: this size and scale and two young kids at home. Um,

1634
01:27:12,240 --> 01:27:15,240
Speaker 1: this was last night, was my forty sixth flight of

1635
01:27:15,280 --> 01:27:18,320
Speaker 1: the year. It's July. And now, you know, my family

1636
01:27:18,320 --> 01:27:20,240
Speaker 1: gets to come with me on the road sometimes, and

1637
01:27:20,439 --> 01:27:22,679
Speaker 1: my son has been on probably thirty planes, and he's

1638
01:27:22,680 --> 01:27:24,640
Speaker 1: come with me a lot, even at a you know,

1639
01:27:24,760 --> 01:27:28,000
Speaker 1: almost five. But it's so hard, you know. I left

1640
01:27:28,200 --> 01:27:31,240
Speaker 1: the house yesterday around six pm in New York and

1641
01:27:31,280 --> 01:27:34,439
Speaker 1: he was screaming, you know, Daddy, don't go. And I'm

1642
01:27:34,439 --> 01:27:36,000
Speaker 1: here for three days, you know, And if you're in

1643
01:27:36,000 --> 01:27:38,120
Speaker 1: San Francisco tomorrow, I'll be back on Thursday, and I'll

1644
01:27:38,120 --> 01:27:40,040
Speaker 1: take Friday off and we'll have a long weekend together.

1645
01:27:40,760 --> 01:27:44,120
Speaker 1: But that has been really tough. I remember reading a

1646
01:27:44,240 --> 01:27:47,760
Speaker 1: book of a very famous and I won't mention his name,

1647
01:27:47,800 --> 01:27:51,600
Speaker 1: but a very famous um humanitarian many years ago. He

1648
01:27:51,680 --> 01:27:54,760
Speaker 1: started a charity that became a billion dollars over you know,

1649
01:27:54,760 --> 01:27:57,479
Speaker 1: a hundred years or so, and you know, he was

1650
01:27:57,479 --> 01:27:59,519
Speaker 1: flying around the world. He was a great humanitarian. And

1651
01:27:59,520 --> 01:28:02,479
Speaker 1: his daughter a minute suicide and said something to the

1652
01:28:02,479 --> 01:28:04,559
Speaker 1: effect of her note that my dad might have been

1653
01:28:04,600 --> 01:28:07,720
Speaker 1: a dad to millions of other kids, it wasn't to me.

1654
01:28:08,360 --> 01:28:10,880
Speaker 1: And I remember I read this fifteen years ago and thinking,

1655
01:28:10,960 --> 01:28:13,800
Speaker 1: I will never make that choice, you know, I will

1656
01:28:13,840 --> 01:28:17,960
Speaker 1: always be I will never make that choice and the

1657
01:28:18,000 --> 01:28:20,479
Speaker 1: demands of the organization. You know, we've been growing forty

1658
01:28:20,560 --> 01:28:23,559
Speaker 1: percent a year, Like, it's just it requires a lot

1659
01:28:23,680 --> 01:28:27,799
Speaker 1: of me fundraising for the overhead, a lot of travel,

1660
01:28:27,800 --> 01:28:30,839
Speaker 1: a lot of speaking, and that's just that's the balance.

1661
01:28:31,120 --> 01:28:34,000
Speaker 1: So that is finding that right balance is a is

1662
01:28:34,000 --> 01:28:37,040
Speaker 1: a real work in progress for me. And the other

1663
01:28:37,080 --> 01:28:41,360
Speaker 1: thing I think is just I'm constantly frustrated by how

1664
01:28:41,439 --> 01:28:45,160
Speaker 1: little I've done. And this this surprises some people because again,

1665
01:28:45,200 --> 01:28:47,679
Speaker 1: if you're in the social entrepreneurship space and we've grown

1666
01:28:47,800 --> 01:28:49,880
Speaker 1: very quickly, We've raised a lot of money, We've got

1667
01:28:49,920 --> 01:28:53,200
Speaker 1: millions of followers on social media, it looks like we've

1668
01:28:53,200 --> 01:28:55,960
Speaker 1: done it right. We have done a fraction of what

1669
01:28:56,000 --> 01:28:57,559
Speaker 1: I thought we would have done my now, what I

1670
01:28:57,560 --> 01:29:00,000
Speaker 1: thought we should have done by now. So I am

1671
01:29:00,040 --> 01:29:02,760
Speaker 1: I do not feel successful. I do not feel like

1672
01:29:03,479 --> 01:29:07,360
Speaker 1: I have been We're you know, I would I thought

1673
01:29:07,400 --> 01:29:09,720
Speaker 1: we would done at least ten times by now. So

1674
01:29:09,760 --> 01:29:11,559
Speaker 1: in some ways, I'm I'm kind of hard on myself.

1675
01:29:11,600 --> 01:29:16,120
Speaker 1: It feels like my inability to raise the money at scale,

1676
01:29:16,200 --> 01:29:19,240
Speaker 1: my inability as a leader, you know, to build the machine.

1677
01:29:19,280 --> 01:29:21,320
Speaker 1: Now we're going to raise eighty million dollars this year.

1678
01:29:21,560 --> 01:29:25,120
Speaker 1: So we're not a small organization, but I think it

1679
01:29:25,120 --> 01:29:27,760
Speaker 1: should be four hundred or eight hundred. I mean it's

1680
01:29:27,800 --> 01:29:31,240
Speaker 1: clean water, right, it's a hundred percent of the money going.

1681
01:29:31,600 --> 01:29:35,320
Speaker 1: So I still feel like I haven't unlocked the potential.

1682
01:29:36,479 --> 01:29:41,080
Speaker 1: Uh and you know I can. That could be a

1683
01:29:41,080 --> 01:29:43,040
Speaker 1: bad place to be, Like, I don't celebrate the winds.

1684
01:29:43,160 --> 01:29:47,040
Speaker 1: You know. My my dad turned up Monday at the

1685
01:29:47,080 --> 01:29:49,040
Speaker 1: office and we do in all hands. We begin the

1686
01:29:49,720 --> 01:29:51,519
Speaker 1: work week together as a team, and we end the

1687
01:29:51,560 --> 01:29:54,920
Speaker 1: work together. And you know, I'm walking in on a

1688
01:29:54,920 --> 01:29:57,960
Speaker 1: Monday morning thinking of the nine things that are wrong,

1689
01:29:58,080 --> 01:30:01,160
Speaker 1: or you know, the higher that's been too hard to make,

1690
01:30:01,280 --> 01:30:04,479
Speaker 1: or just whatever the problems whatever. You know, it feels

1691
01:30:04,520 --> 01:30:07,920
Speaker 1: wrong in the organization to me. And I didn't talk

1692
01:30:07,960 --> 01:30:10,080
Speaker 1: at all in mondays. I don't only just let the team,

1693
01:30:10,080 --> 01:30:12,519
Speaker 1: you know, lead it. And my dad texts me afterwards

1694
01:30:12,520 --> 01:30:15,240
Speaker 1: on his way out, He's like, I hope you understand,

1695
01:30:15,360 --> 01:30:18,320
Speaker 1: like how remarkable the culture and the team, and like,

1696
01:30:18,760 --> 01:30:20,519
Speaker 1: I hope is not lost on you, And it is

1697
01:30:20,560 --> 01:30:23,400
Speaker 1: totally lost on me. I mean the reality is I

1698
01:30:23,439 --> 01:30:28,000
Speaker 1: need these outsiders to say it because nothing is good enough.

1699
01:30:28,240 --> 01:30:32,720
Speaker 1: You know, there's this sensatiable desire for more. Maybe that

1700
01:30:32,880 --> 01:30:34,679
Speaker 1: if we track all the way back to the club

1701
01:30:34,720 --> 01:30:37,000
Speaker 1: years now, it has a much more positive direction. It's

1702
01:30:37,000 --> 01:30:40,760
Speaker 1: more money for others, it's uh, it's more locals on

1703
01:30:40,800 --> 01:30:43,280
Speaker 1: the ground serving their communities. It's more women and girls

1704
01:30:43,280 --> 01:30:46,400
Speaker 1: with clean water. But it's still can be unhealthy to

1705
01:30:46,479 --> 01:30:49,360
Speaker 1: not celebrate the winds and say, wow, we've We're about

1706
01:30:49,400 --> 01:30:51,840
Speaker 1: to cross ten million people with clean water, and I'm

1707
01:30:51,840 --> 01:30:55,040
Speaker 1: thinking it's not enough. And you know that could be

1708
01:30:55,120 --> 01:30:58,120
Speaker 1: exhausting to work for as well if you're you know,

1709
01:30:58,479 --> 01:31:00,960
Speaker 1: working on our team. So I'm trying to do better

1710
01:31:00,960 --> 01:31:02,920
Speaker 1: at that. So that's like a personal working I love

1711
01:31:03,000 --> 01:31:07,240
Speaker 1: that because the name of the podcast comes from. I

1712
01:31:07,280 --> 01:31:11,479
Speaker 1: was asked to speak on something, and you know, when

1713
01:31:11,520 --> 01:31:13,719
Speaker 1: you realize you give advice that you need to hear.

1714
01:31:15,280 --> 01:31:18,600
Speaker 1: I said this sentence. I said, you are allowed to

1715
01:31:18,600 --> 01:31:22,160
Speaker 1: be both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously.

1716
01:31:22,800 --> 01:31:27,799
Speaker 1: And I was talking to this audience about celebrating exactly

1717
01:31:27,840 --> 01:31:30,680
Speaker 1: where you are and still keeping your goals and your

1718
01:31:30,760 --> 01:31:33,680
Speaker 1: dreams insight. But like, don't get so obsessed with the

1719
01:31:33,680 --> 01:31:35,400
Speaker 1: goals and the dreams that you forget to celebrate where

1720
01:31:35,439 --> 01:31:37,639
Speaker 1: you are. And it's just crazy that that's the thing

1721
01:31:37,680 --> 01:31:40,400
Speaker 1: that you said, because I'm like, that's literally with it.

1722
01:31:40,400 --> 01:31:43,200
Speaker 1: It's become the mantra of my life. And people think like, oh,

1723
01:31:43,200 --> 01:31:44,840
Speaker 1: that was such good advice. I'm like, no, no, I

1724
01:31:44,880 --> 01:31:47,360
Speaker 1: needed to hear and we know it intellectually, but it's

1725
01:31:47,360 --> 01:31:50,800
Speaker 1: still really hard to to act on it, you know,

1726
01:31:50,840 --> 01:31:54,040
Speaker 1: to believe that with integrity. You know, I want to

1727
01:31:54,040 --> 01:31:56,439
Speaker 1: do more. I get it. The good thing is that

1728
01:31:56,479 --> 01:31:59,120
Speaker 1: you know, I haven't quiten it's thirteen years in and

1729
01:31:59,160 --> 01:32:01,200
Speaker 1: maybe I look bad, you know, three years, five years,

1730
01:32:01,240 --> 01:32:04,400
Speaker 1: seven years from now, and say wow, that actually was

1731
01:32:04,680 --> 01:32:06,680
Speaker 1: very little, like the best. I really believe that the

1732
01:32:06,680 --> 01:32:10,599
Speaker 1: best is yet to come. So I'm super optimistic. But

1733
01:32:11,360 --> 01:32:13,880
Speaker 1: it frustrates me sometimes that I can't just sit and

1734
01:32:13,920 --> 01:32:18,640
Speaker 1: pause and say wow, like like we've achieved something amazing,

1735
01:32:18,720 --> 01:32:21,320
Speaker 1: let's celebrate, let's enjoy this. And I was like, there's

1736
01:32:21,360 --> 01:32:23,720
Speaker 1: more we need to do. More people are dying out there.

1737
01:32:24,320 --> 01:32:26,920
Speaker 1: But maybe a day. What if you gave yourself like

1738
01:32:26,920 --> 01:32:31,040
Speaker 1: a celebratory something once a month where and you did

1739
01:32:31,040 --> 01:32:34,879
Speaker 1: it for the team in the office, it's like you're processful, yeah,

1740
01:32:35,240 --> 01:32:37,679
Speaker 1: you know where you say like we're gonna we're gonna

1741
01:32:37,720 --> 01:32:42,360
Speaker 1: have a little gang meet up, and we're gonna look

1742
01:32:42,360 --> 01:32:45,720
Speaker 1: at what we're really doing. Right, I've gotten so much

1743
01:32:45,720 --> 01:32:48,760
Speaker 1: better at celebrating the wins, and I've really thankfully I've

1744
01:32:48,760 --> 01:32:51,160
Speaker 1: given the reins to people who naturally want to do

1745
01:32:51,200 --> 01:32:53,840
Speaker 1: this um and then I just kind of shut up

1746
01:32:53,920 --> 01:32:56,479
Speaker 1: during those moments often, but you gotta let it in.

1747
01:32:56,560 --> 01:32:59,519
Speaker 1: That's my that's what I'm working on. Well, thanks for coming,

1748
01:32:59,560 --> 01:33:02,040
Speaker 1: but thanks for having me. Thanks for his support in

1749
01:33:02,080 --> 01:33:11,479
Speaker 1: your friendship to yours always. This show is executive produced

1750
01:33:11,520 --> 01:33:15,839
Speaker 1: by Me, Sophia Bush, and sim Sarna. Our supervising producer

1751
01:33:15,920 --> 01:33:19,760
Speaker 1: is Alison Bresnick. Our associate producer is Kate Linley. This

1752
01:33:19,800 --> 01:33:23,320
Speaker 1: episode was edited by Matt Sasaki and our music was

1753
01:33:23,360 --> 01:33:26,160
Speaker 1: written by Jack Garrett and produced by Mark Foster. This

1754
01:33:26,240 --> 01:33:28,519
Speaker 1: show is brought to you by Brilliant Anatomy Cast