♪ ♪
ANNOUNCER: Coming to you from New York City,
the only city in America, it's The Daily Show.
Tonight-- Putin's sham election,
where K-pop came from
and William MacAskill.
This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah!
(applause and cheering)
What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to The Daily Show. I'm Trevor Noah.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Thank you for coming out in person.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you so much for being here, everybody.
We've got a great show for you tonight.
Take a seat, everybody.
COVID is being replaced by something even worse,
NASA has launched its war with space,
and Ronny Chieng goes deep into the world of K-pop.
So let's do this, people.
Let's jump straight into today's headlines.
-♪ ♪ -(applause and cheering)
All right, everybody.
Before we get into the big stories, let's catch up
on a few other things going on in the world,
starting with the big moment watched live around the globe.
Last night, NASA tested a new planetary defense system
by smashing a spacecraft into an asteroid.
Boom! Yeah.
How you like that, asteroid?
That was for the dinosaurs.
(laughter)
(applause and cheering)
And in case you're wondering, in case you're wondering.
No, the asteroid was not heading for Earth, all right?
We're just testing the system.
It wasn't heading towards us.
But now the other asteroids-- they know not to test us.
"You don't mess with Earth, man. We're loco, man."
In health news, researchers have discovered
that you can dissolve pills faster
if you lie on your right side.
Which raises a big question for me.
-How do I become a researcher? -(laughter)
No, 'cause it just sounds like fun, right?
-(applause) -Sounds like a lot of fun.
You just sit around all day thinking random thoughts.
Like, "Huh. I wonder what would happen
"if I took Advil doggy style.
Huh. Huh."
(applause)
Oh, and in financial news,
Donald Trump is back on the Forbes 400 list
of America's richest people at number 343,
which I love so much. Yeah.
I mean, how ironic is it
that Donald Trump is the only guy doing well
-in Joe Biden's economy, huh? -(laughter)
Yeah, he's going to end up running for president
and then voting for Biden.
"I made so much money under Joe Brandon.
"And this Trump guy was crazy.
"I hear he wanted bleach in his lung.
He's crazy. I'm voting for Joe."
But let's move on to some of the bigger stories of the day,
starting with our ongoing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
♪ ♪
It has been seven months
since Vladimir Putin went all Kool-Aid man on Ukraine.
But from day one, the war has been a disaster for him.
First, Putin tried to take over all of Ukraine,
but the Ukrainian army stopped him.
Then he tried to take over the eastern half,
but the Ukrainian army stopped him.
Then he tried to slide into an Instagram model's DMs,
and Instagram, like, it was just Instagram
so the Ukrainian army didn't do anything
because it was Instagram.
Yeah, he was-he was stopped by the fact
that he looks like a heavily- botoxed Gollum in a suit.
No offense to Gollum-- I just need an example.
The point is, Vladimir Putin is not #winning.
So, after seven months of war,
the Russian army only controls a slice of Ukraine.
And now the Ukrainians
are threatening to take that back, too.
But before that happens, Vladimir Putin is saying,
"Hey, hey, hey, what about democracy?"
WOMAN: In Ukraine, Russian controlled areas
in the east of the country
are wrapping up a series of referendums
asking voters if they want to be a part of Russia.
The votes are illegal under international law
and some Ukrainians have been forced to vote at gunpoint.
WOMAN 2: Election officials, accompanied by armed soldiers,
go traipsing up flights of stairs, knocking on doors,
searching for voters.
In the past few minutes, the Russian state media
has announced the primary results,
claiming that people have voted overwhelmingly in favor
of becoming part of the Russian federation.
The results supposedly showing 97% or 98% of the vote
being in favor of joining the federation.
Yeah, you hear that?
Russian soldiers are going door-to-door
forcing people to vote to join Russia.
And so because of that,
97% of the vote has been pro-Putin.
Yeah. But, I mean, let's be honest.
I mean, these-these voters have a "choice"
in the same way we have a "choice"
to not accept cookies on that website, you know?
(laughter)
Yeah, it's like, "What? So, what, if I pick no,
"can I not see how child stars have age?
What kind of a choice is that?!"
97 percent.
You know what my question is:
Who the hell is the three percent?
No, I'm really impressed by this.
Who had the balls to still vote against Putin
while his soldiers watched them mark their ballots?
Who was there and just like, "Yes, I have voted...
"for your mama. Ah.
"Ah, look at.
"Oh, I voted twice.
Oh, oh."
(applause)
So, yeah, because it's a sham,
it looks like "98%" of "the voters"
in this "election" "voted" to become a part of Russia.
And honestly, like, why do they even go through all of this?
Huh? Like going door-to-door, making everyone sign shit
just so you can do what you're already doing anyway.
I mean, it's one thing to conquer a town
and blow up their buildings but then to make them do paperwork?
There is evil and then there's evil!
And this is that classic middle school bully move,
forcing you to say something and then acting like it's legit.
"Say you want to eat dog poop, say you want to eat dog poop."
"Oh, I like to eat dog poop."
(laughing): "He said it, he likes eating dog poop."
"No, I didn't, Steve.
"I just said it because you made me say it.
I'm glad your parents broke up."
But let's move on...
to some news that's closer to home.
Even though the coronavirus pandemic seems
to finally be on its way out, I think we can all admit
the world is not exactly the same as it used to be.
We're less eager to shake strangers' hands, you know,
people generally don't sit next to each other
in public places anymore,
and now every time you rob a bank, it takes so much longer
for people to know you're the robber
because everyone else is wearing a mask.
Yeah, so then you have to pull out a gun,
but because it's America, everyone else pulls out a gun,
and then it's like at that point you just end up
opening up a checking account and leaving.
You know, I was just trying to rob the bank.
Pandemic spoiled everything.
But good news, good news, people.
There is one part of American life
that is coming roaring back.
Traffic is coming back to pre-pandemic levels.
I've seen it with my own eyes.
This, all thanks to a push for workers to return to the office.
Major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago,
seeing more commuter traffic congestion, and it is growing.
Traffic is above pre-pandemic levels in Miami and Dallas,
in Houston and in Phoenix.
There is an interesting disparity, though,
taking place in the numbers.
Monday and Friday, that is when traffic is typically lower,
even lower than it was before the pandemic.
Wednesday and Thursday are the really big days for traffic now
in major cities across the country.
It really starts to begin to rise today, Tuesday.
Yeah, you see, because everyone now works remote part-time
and then everyone gets to choose which days they work remote
and which days they come in,
all of the traffic that used to be during the week
is now only on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,
which sucks.
All of it crammed together.
I will say, as bad as it is for us humans,
it is good for the cars, you know.
Yeah, because now that traffic is slow,
it gives them a chance to catch up again.
Hey there, Craig, hey!
-Hey, Craig, long time no see, buddy, hey! -(horns honking)
Yeah, nice paint job! Ha!
Nothing wrong with turning back the clock a little bit, huh?
Me? Yeah, things have been good. (chuckles)
Some teenagers had sex in me-- that was cool.
(chuckles)
Oh, boy, did you hear about Jerry, by the way?
His owner dumped him for an electric.
Yeah, he's taking it real hard, he's hooked on diesel now.
It's a real shame, man.
Oh, by the way, looks like my lane is moving.
See you in two seconds, buddy!
(laughs)
(applause)
You know...
You know, when-when you think about it,
the new traffic problem makes sense, right,
'cause everyone would rather spend an extra day at home
on a Monday and a Friday, and that means that those days
are gonna be the days when everyone is chilling, right?
'Cause those are the days when you're making the hangover
or recovering from the hangover, you know what I mean?
Yeah, but now, but now, think about this,
if everyone is choosing the same days to be on the road,
then those days are gonna suck even more,
which means Tuesday is gonna be the new Friday
and then Thursday is gonna be the new Monday?
And then-- Wait, what? Oh, I guess Wednesday's
still gonna to be in the middle, it'll be that weird day
in the middle, like the D that nobody even uses. Like...
No, who says "Wed-nesday," anyway, huh?
It's probably the same people who say "Feb-ruary."
Should be arrested. The point is-- the point is--
this problem is happening
because the week was designed incorrectly.
Yeah, think about it.
Who said the week has to be seven days, huh?
That's not a rule.
That's what people don't realize.
If we all do the same week, it's not gonna get better.
My solution is instead of seven days we should have
a five-day week, yeah? Think about it, think about it.
Because you've seen every study that comes out that says
the fewer days we work, doesn't mean that
production goes down, right? No productivity decreases.
All we do is spend extra time in the office,
spending like we're working when, really, we're just
googling "how long until Friday gets here,"
so we don't actually need more days in the office.
Think about it. Three days of work. That's what I propose.
We do three days of work, two days of weekend.
-(cheering, applause) -Yeah, yeah.
Three days of work. Two days of weekend.
Sounds like a perfect week, yeah? Less traffic.
You're just like, "Aw, it's Monday.
"Oh, it's Wednesday already! Friday, what a week!
By the way, I'm gonna need Monday off, I've got a thing."
It's the perfect week. All right, that's it
for today's headlines. Let's move on to something
that everyone loves now. It is time to check in on today's
lotto numbers with our very own Dulcé Sloan, everybody.
(cheering, applause)
Hello. Hello.
So nice to see you again, Dulcé.
How, uh, how are you doing today?
Well, you know, I woke up on the right side of the dirt,
-so it is what it is, baby. -All right. Well, Dulcé,
hit with us the numbers.
You know, I heard Trump's back on the Forbes 400 list.
Oh, yeah, yeah, he is, he is.
Like I give a damn. Listen...
they just keep putting out this list.
Like, why are we supposed to care?
It's just a bunch of Trump-- it's, like,
a bunch of rich (bleep) we don't know.
Like, why am I supposed to care
that you rich?
I still eat at Checkers. Like, what are we talking about?
Right? Like, why do we need to know this information?
Like, they're basically giving us a list
of 400 people we should rob.
It's like a crime starter pack.
Like, don't rob your neighbor, rob number 26.
Like, it makes sense.
Okay, well, speaking of cash.
Thank you for sharing all of that, Dulcé.
Can-can we get the lotto numbers, please?
-Listen, I'm trying to tell you something. -Okay. Okay.
-You saw the asteroid story? -I-I did, yeah.
Ooh, I (bleep) with NASA, okay?
Oh, man, I (bleep) with NASA. I love the space museum.
I mean, I wouldn't go to space.
'Cause I don't believe in going anywhere
where you have to bring your own air.
It's a fact. I'll never scuba dive.
Like, if I was supposed to be down there,
I'd have gills. This is dumb.
Like, I'm not that little Halle girl.
I ain't fit to be down there. What I'm saying is,
did you see the live stream?
Yeah. The video that they had, yeah?
They put the camera on the front of the thing.
If you put it on the fr--
Like, it was running into the asteroid,
so I didn't, like--
It was like watching a video
of someone falling down wearing a GoPro.
Like, are you okay?
Am I okay? Are we dead?
Like, I don't know what's happening here.
It was science.
Listen, we ganged up on a innocent asteroid.
Just minding his business,
being in space,
believing what he believes,
being a horoscope. You know.
-What? -I mean, that's space.
That's where the horoscopes come from, right?
It was bullying!
-Bullying? What are you talking about? -Yeah!
We done thrown a little machine
into that little asteroid living his life.
It's bullying.
We were messing with that little asteroid.
What if we pissed off his mama?
You seen the cartoons. You know when you mess
with the little baby, something--
the mama always show up pissed.
Little asteroid's mama just gonna be floating out there
like, "Mm, who crashed into you?"
"Don't tell me it was NASA.
Every damn time it's that NASA boy!"
Okay.
Dulcé, I don't think the asteroid has a mom.
And I feel like we've run out of time completely.
Can you, uh... can you just give us the lotto numbers
right now, please, Dulcé? We need the numbers.
(clicks tongue) Ugh, fine. 1, 13, 21, 8, 34. Bye!
No, Dulcé, no!
-What? -No, no, no! No, no, no!
-No, no, no, you-- N-No! -I gave you the num-- What?!
You used all of my time for your stories
-and none of them for the lot... -I was talking about the news.
Yeah. Wh-What I'm saying, you-you can't do them
all at once, right? You got to-- you got to, like--
you got to take your time.
Build the suspense.
-Oh. Suspense. -Yeah.
I got your suspense.
(laughter)
(cheering and applause)
Bye!
Dulcé Sloan, everybody. All right, when we come back,
Ronny Chieng's gonna teach you about K-cop-- K-pop,
so don't go away. No, you can't-- you can't just disappear
in the middle of the middle-- Dulcé Sloan, everybody!
-I gave him the numbers! -(cheering and applause)
Four, three, two...
one.
Oh, my gosh.
-(gasps) -(whooping)
Oh, wow.
We have impact!
-And we have impact. -And we have it!
-(laughs) -A giant leap for humanity.
(cheering, applause)
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
One of the biggest trends in music
over the last few years has been K-pop.
But while it might be new to you,
K-Pop has a long and fascinating history.
So let's find out about it in another edition
of Ronny Chieng Teaches You About Asians.
♪ ♪
(school bell ringing)
All right, all right, settle down, everyone
because today we're learning about something
that's blowing up all over the world.
No, not climate change.
Okay, I don't teach boring stuff in this classroom.
I'm talking about K-Pop.
It is why your cousin suddenly speaks Korean
more fluently than English.
And believe it or not, K-pop used to be something
that only Koreans knew about.
The rest of the world wasn't always into it.
Like how there was a time
when white people didn't know about yoga.
The first group to really break through internationally
was The Kim Sisters.
Sook-ja, Ai-ja and Min-ja started singing as children
during the Korean War for American GIs.
They sang, they danced, and they played 20 instruments.
I can't even name 20 instruments.
Saxophone, uh...
In 1959, they got a contract to perform in Vegas.
Ed Sullivan was taping a show there,
and they managed to book a performance on the show.
They were such a hit, they got asked back 20 more times.
Do you know how great you have to be
to get asked back to anything 20 times?
I don't even get invited to join LinkedIn that much.
Unfortunately, the growth of K-pop hit a bump
in the road soon after when South Korea fell under
the dictatorship of President Park Chung Hee,
who started banning music.
They even created a black list of songs
that radio stations couldn't play.
Everyone's end-of-year Spotify summary just said,
"Your most played song was 'The National anthem.'"
But Korean artists kept making music
that challenged the status quo, like folk singer Hahn Dae-soo,
whose albums were banned for anti-government messaging,
or rock guitarist Shin Jung-hyeon, who,
the story goes, defied the dictator's request
to write a song in his honor.
And let's face it: wanting a song to be written about you
is classic dictator behavior,
right after military parades and having
a weird haircut everyone tells you looks great.
By the '80s the dictatorship had loosened.
And by "loosened," I mean the dictator was assassinated.
But whatever. It made listening to radio fun again.
Outside music was allowed back in the country.
And two of the most influential genres became hip-hop and R & B.
Black artists from Michael Jackson to Run-DMC
reshaped the musical landscape of South Korea.
It inspired performers like Deux, DJ DOC
and Seo Taiji and Boys,
who were the earliest examples of K-pop as we know it today.
They even made it into the movie soundtrack
for 3 Ninjas Kick Back.
You didn't think we'd be watching a movie
in class today, did you?
Yeah, well, I didn't think I'd still have a hangover,
but sometimes life surprises you.
-♪ ♪ -(clears throat)
This was a big moment for Korean pop music,
even if the song was being played
over a scene set in Japan.
But give them a break, okay? They're the 3 Ninjas,
not the 3 Cultural Sensitivity Experts.
The next big step towards today's K-pop was in the 1990s,
when major music studios started putting performers together
in boy and girl bands.
That's right, Korea was doing that long before
Simon Cowell's nips ever started poking through his T-shirts.
That's a no from me, dawg.
It's no surprise this new wave of K-pop
blew up around the world. It featured complex melodies
unlike any other pop music
and always had next-level dance choreography.
To this day, those remain the signature elements of K-pop.
That, and being Asian. Very important requirement.
Tt this new generation of K-pop stars became so successful
the government started to take notice and soon
launched a program to promote Korean music around the globe.
They saw K-pop as a way to boost Korea's cultural strength
and economy without having to do a Squid Game.
But one of the biggest K-pop sensations
was a surprise no government could predict.
I'm sorry. I know it took you ten years
to get this out of your head, but we got to talk about it.
"Gangnam Style" was the first video
to break a billion views on YouTube.
It was so popular, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
praised the song, saying the arts was the path
to cultural understanding.
He said that about "Gangnam Style."
That's like if they played "Baby Shark" during a war
and all the soldiers started laying down their weapons
and hugging each other.
Since then, the rest of the world
is more into K-pop than ever before,
from girl groups like Girls' Generation and Blackpink
to artists like CL.
But let's get to the group you've been waiting for,
the reason you all enrolled in this class in the first place,
BT-mother(bleep)ing-S.
Three letters so important
the rest of the alphabet doesn't even exist anymore.
They've dominated the charts.
They've generated billions in revenue.
They made it okay to eat butter again.
They even increased tourism to South Korea.
I mean, I'm glad my fans aren't that devoted,
because then they'd have to travel to Australia,
which, trust me, you don't want to do that.
BTS is without a doubt the biggest group in the world.
You can tell by their fans.
The BTS Army is the second largest military after the U.S.
And they've droned zero weddings.
BTS might be on hiatus,
but there's so much new K-pop we can enjoy while they're gone.
And now you know how it got to where it is today.
Oppa, Gangnam style!
-("Gangnam Style" playing) -(clicks tongue) Aw, (bleep).
Now it's in my head again.
Get it out.
Get it... out.
♪ ♪
Thank you so much for that, Ronnie.
All right, stay tuned, because when we come back,
we're gonna be chatting with one of the most popular philosophers
of our time, William MacAskill,
so don't go away.
(cheering and applause)
(cheering)
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My guest tonight is a philosophy professor at Oxford
and he's an entrepreneur who helped start
the Effective Altruism Movement.
He's here to talk about that and his new book
about improving the future of humanity called
What We owe The Future.
Please welcome William MacAskill.
-♪ ♪ -(applause and cheering)
William MacAskill, welcome to The Daily Show.
Thanks so much for having me. I'm a huge fan.
It's interesting speaking to a philosopher,
because when they say "philosopher,"
I remember thinking, "Oh, it's probably gonna be, like,
"a 90-year-old man with, like, a stick, and he's,
What is the meaning of life, and...?'"
I can't even grow a beard.
I'm, like... I suck as a philosopher.
Um, you-- you're not just young.
You're very successful.
You know, you're a professor who deals with, I guess...
Is... Are you dealing with some
of the biggest moral issues in society?
Help me understand what your field of expertise actually is.
So I'm a little different from a normal moral philosopher
'cause I'm a little less head-in-the-sky, clouds.
I want to... Fundamentally,
-I want to make the world a better place. -Okay.
And so, I'm asking the question,
"How can we do as much as possible
to the make the world better?"
That's what Effective Altruism is about.
And so, the moral questions that I'm addressing are those
that we need to figure out
if we want to answer that question, where.
There are just so many problems in the world.
-Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm. -Extreme poverty, factory farming,
chance of the next pandemic.
How do we prioritize among them
if we want to do as much good as we can?
Is it even possible to do that?
You know, one of the first questions
somebody may ask in response to you is,
-"Are humans inherently good?" -Mm-hmm.
What would you say to them if they asked that question?
I think in response to that, just, humans are very malleable.
So people can be inspired to do amazing things,
-terrific things. -Mm-hmm.
Again, I have seen this.
Now thousands of people committing
to give at least ten percent of their income,
often much more, to those causes that will do the most good.
So, by promoting the idea of Effective Altruism,
I've seen many people get inspired to do good.
But you can also inspire people to do bad.
-The history of the 20th century showed. -Right, right.
The banality of evil, just how people could--
even good people-- could get swayed
-by bad ideologies and produce horrific outcomes. -Right.
So, let's talk a little bit about convincing people
to give money to causes
that will benefit the planet or humans around them.
In this book, you talk about the future
in a really interesting way-- what we owe the future.
Your argument-- and correct me if I'm wrong--
is basically that we have a moral obligation
to sort of "our future self."
-Like, the future humans... -Right.
the humans that will inhabit the planet because
what we come into was created or shaped by someone,
and somebody's going to come into that.
And so, we have a moral obligation.
Some people might say to you, "Oh, yeah, well, I'm here now,
"and, you know, nobody did anything for me,
"so why should I care about what happens to somebody
who's around when I'm not?"
Yeah. Or you might ask, "What should we do for future people?
What have they ever done for us?" -Right. Right.
And they haven't ever 'cause they're going to.
"What are they going to ever have done for us?"
Exactly, for sure.
Um, but I think the idea
that we should care about future people
is just utterly common sense.
So, imagine you're walking, um, you're hiking on a trial
and you drop some glass and it shatters,
and you wonder, "Should I pick up the glass?
-Should I clean up after myself?" -Mm-hmm.
Maybe someone will walk along the trail and cut themselves,
and you think, "Well, you know, obviously I should
-because I don't want to harm someone." -Right.
But now just imagine, do they cut themselves tomorrow
or in a year's time or in a hundred years' time?
Would that change the morality of the situation?
I don't think so.
Harm is harm, no matter when it occurs.
And just as we should care about people
whether they're in this country
or on the other side of the planet,
no matter where they are in space,
we should care about people
no matter where they are in time as well.
So how do-how do we begin to get people to agree with that?
-Because, um, you're based in the U.K., right? -Yeah.
And-and so if I-if I've read, you know, my research correctly,
you donate, is it-is it... how many, 50% of your income?
Uh, yes, um, a little more than that actually now, so yeah.
So you-you donate more than 50% of your income
to causes that you believe in.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
-Right. That's... -(cheering)
That's amazing.
And...
And some people would say insane, right?
And when I-when I heard that you did this,
I remember thinking, oh, but is it easier to do it
because you come from a place where your health care
will be taken care of?
Is it easier to do this because you feel like
there's a social net or is it hard
no matter where you're from?
Like, many Americans would say,
"Well, I can't give away my money
"because I don't know how much a hospital bill will be.
"I can't give away my money because I don't know
what I'm going to need to pay for or not."
How do you convince people that giving away
what they would say is "hard-earned"
is actually better for them when it's for others?
Yeah, I think there's a couple of things here.
So, one is just, I acknowledge
I'm in this position of unbelievable privilege.
-Mm-hmm. -I'm born into a rich country, I was well-educated,
um, and that means, you know,
I think I have, like, a responsibility to use,
-you know, that privilege to do good in the world. -Okay.
But the striking thing is that, even after my giving--
so I try and give, you know, everything above,
about $35,000...
-Uh-huh. -...that still puts me
in the richest three percent of the world's population.
If you're earning $60,000 per year,
you're in the richest one percent.
You are the one percent, globally speaking.
And so, okay, I'm giving 50%, but I can hardly complain.
-I'm still in the richest three percent. -Hmm.
But the crucial thing, really, is, I thought
this was gonna be a sacrifice,
I thought it was gonna be hard but worth it
because it was gonna benefit so many people,
but it's actually not.
I've actually found it an incredibly rewarding thing to do
and I think my life is actually happier as a result,
so it means, you know, I don't have a big house,
-I don't have a fancy car. -Right.
But I do have wonderful relationships,
I've got wonderful friends.
I'm also part of this broader community,
effective altruism community,
that is inspiring, hardworking people who are really focused
on trying to make the world better,
and-- I hope at least--
we're really making a positive difference,
and that's just-- that's worth more than all the luxury goods
-that money could buy. -Wow.
-(applause) -It's a...
It's-it's-it's a, it's a mind-shift.
I think it's a mind-shift that's extremely difficult to achieve,
which is, you know, I guess why you do the work that you do.
It's also interesting to see how many billionaires have signed on
to your ideas, you know, everybody from, you know,
Bill Gates to Elon Musk,
who don't even agree with each other, by the way,
and have both said, "Oh, yeah,
"I-I really like what William is saying,
"I really agree with this, I think we should be giving away
vast amounts of our wealth," et cetera.
But-but when I see this, I-I often think to myself,
it's easy for us to say people should
give away ten percent, 20% or whatever of their wealth.
Say everyone should do this of their income.
But when you get to a certain point,
ten percent or 20% of your income
doesn't affect your life, and if you're a billionaire
and you give away ten percent, 20%, yes, it's a huge number,
but it doesn't change this person's life.
Whereas somebody who's working paycheck-to-paycheck
notices when ten percent or 20% of their money is gone.
So, shouldn't this be an obligation that is placed
predominantly at the feet
of those who are the most privileged?
So, I think it's absolutely an obligation
on the most privileged. So, yeah, if you're a billionaire--
So, Bill Gates, you know, ushered in a new era
-of billionaire philanthropy, saying 50%. -Right.
Think the standard should be higher-- 99% or more.
-And... -(laughing)
(cheering, applause)
And...
Uh, so, yeah, I mean, people are laughing,
but a-a decent chunk of my life is talking to billionaires
and trying to get them-- convince them to
-give almost all their money away. -What do you say?
I want to know what you say, William.
Help me understand this.
-Help me understand. -So, I mean, uh, so, yeah.
'Cause billionaires are notorious for not
-giving their money away. -I think that's gonna change.
-Um, at least-- -So what do you say?
-What do you say to them? -Well, at least for some--
So, say two things. One,
like you say, just, money just, above a certain threshold,
-money just doesn't affect your well-being, come on. -Right.
And then, secondly, money can be used
to make a transformative difference.
It costs $3,000 to save a life
by protecting children in sub-Saharan Africa, uh,
from malaria by distributing insecticides and bed nets.
This is a very reliable, well-evidenced fact.
-So, say that again. Three-- -$3,000--
-$3,000. And that's with insecticides, -Yeah.
-the-the bed nettings. -Bed nets.
-To protect them from malaria. -To protect-- Exactly.
Which is still one of the biggest, if not
-the biggest killer-- Right. -So, thousands of children
every day die, um, unnecessarily.
-There are other risks, too. -Right.
You know, pandemics are something we worry about,
-nuclear war. -Mm-hmm.
And, so, uh, yeah, the case is just like,
"Look, it's gonna make almost no difference in your life.
"It's gonna be enormously impactful for the world.
-Right. -And, actually, we've seen success."
So, there are a number of people, um,
in the kind of broader effective altruism movement--
Dustin Moskovitz, now San Bankman-Fried,
who are planning to give 99% or more.
And I think that can be the new standard.
Wow. When you-when you talk in the book, you know,
there-there are parts that I-that I read
where you interrogate the reader to ask questions about
how they view the world and...
and, I think, most importantly,
how much they want to make a difference.
So, for instance, you'll argue here, you say,
"If you want to make an impact on climate change, you know,
"there are things you can do. For instance,
"you can become a vegetarian. You can say,
"'Okay, I'm going to try and limit my carbon output,'
"if you really care, you can say, 'I'm going to travel less,
"'I'm gonna fly less or I'm gonna ride a bicycle more'
or-or whatever-whatever it may be."
You're talking to people and you're talking to individuals.
Do you feel that the message is as well-received
by corporations that have, like, an outsized output?
Because every one person can try to do one thing,
but, like, most of the smoke that's coming out
and, you know, most of the out-- you know, the carbon output is--
it's coming from concentrated places.
Yes, I'm not saying individuals don't make a big contribution,
-but do you find any of those big sources... -Yeah.
...are-are receptive to this?
Or is-- or is the money too big and the-the face too obscure?
Yeah, I mean, honestly, I've been kind of disappointed
at attempts to move companies
-in a more philanthropic direction. -Mm-hmm.
Because cor-corporate philanthropy
99% of the time is a PR mechanism.
-Okay. -And so some of the,
um, misconceptions that people have
about how best to fight climate change
you can actually see being promoted
by fossil fuel companies.
So Shell is very keen on the idea that, um,
what we should be doing
-is reducing our carbon footprint personally. -Yes.
Whereas what we should be trying to do is
put the fossil fuel companies out of business.
-(cheering and applause) -(chuckles)
-Well, I see why you haven't broken through. -(laughing)
And we as individuals can help do that.
-Mm-hmm. -So, look,
-if you try and reduce your own carbon footprint... -Okay.
In the U.S., uh, American, um,
will emit about 15 tons of carbon dioxide.
Um, go be a hero,
do everything you can, maybe you can get that to zero.
You can do as much good as if, you know, you'd never been born.
-Okay. -That's the kind of standard.
Um...
But we can do so much more than that.
Donate 10% of your income--
-let's say that's $3,000... -Uh-huh.
...for the very most targeted organizations
funding clean technology,
the sort of thing that means we no longer need to rely
-on fossil fuels. -Okay.
Then you would red-- then you would reduce
the amount of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere
by something that's more like 3,000 tons per year.
-Oh, wow. -So you'd be doing 200 times as much good
with very targeted donations
to the most effective nonprofits,
even compared to your-- this, you know, heroic effort
-to get your carbon footprint down to zero. -Right, right.
So just $3,000-- It's like you have a choice--
$3,000 or just never be born.
-Yeah. -(laughter)
$3,000 sounds cheap.
I think that sounds like a cheap plan.
-I think it's pretty good. -Thank you so much
-for joining me on the show. -Thank you so much.
I wish I could encompass everything in the book,
-but that's why you wrote the book. -Thank you.
I hope to see you again.
Uh, William MacAskill, everybody.
What We Owe the Future is available now.
We're gonna take a quick break, but we'll be right back
-after this. Thank you very much. -Thank you so much.
-Yeah, it's really... -(cheering and applause)
(cheering and applause)
Well, that's our show for tonight.
But before we go, before we go,
please consider supporting World Central Kitchen.
They're on the front lines and they're traveling the world
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So if you want to support their work,
then please donate at the link below.
Until next time, stay safe out there.
And remember--
we've just started a war with asteroids, so...
live every day like it's your last.
Now here it is, Your Moment of Zen.
(cheering and applause)
♪ ♪
Texas and New Mexico and Arizona and California
may be the literal border states,
but Joe Biden has brought the crisis of the border
to all 50 states.
Virginia's a border state.
Now D.C. is a border state.
New York and Chicago or-or Nebraska.
Florida is a border state.
Colorado is very much a border state.
Kansas is now a border state.
Pennsylvania has suddenly become a border state.
The middle of the country, it's a border state.
That includes Idaho.
-Montana's not a border state. -No.
West Virginia's not a border state.
New Hampshire's not a border state.
They're all border states now.
Every state is a border state.