Matt Damon on what 14 year olds shouldn't be doing

#mattdamon #benaffleck #water #worldeconomicforum Matt Damon is best known as the Hollywood icon from movies like Good Will Hunting and The Martian, but he has another passion offscreen: ensuring access to clean, safe water around the world. When he met social entrepreneur Gary White in 2008, they realized they could combine their efforts to reach more people and created @water.org which Gary leads as CEO. In this episode, Adam sits down with Matt and Gary at the @wef in Davos to talk about their innovative approach to problem-solving, handling rejection in high-stakes work environments, and Matt’s knack for forging strong partnerships. Adam also invites the two to office hours to tackle one of their ongoing challenges. Join us in person at a TED conference: https://tedtalks.social/events Become a TED Member to support our mission: https://ted.com/membership Subscribe to a TED newsletter: https://ted.com/newsletters Follow our podcasts! Podcasts: https://www.ted.com/podcasts Fixable: https://www.ted.com/podcasts/fixable How to Be a Better Human: https://www.ted.com/podcasts/how-to-be-a-better-human ReThinking with Adam Grant: https://www.ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant TED Talks Daily: https://www.ted.com/podcasts/ted-talks-daily TED Business: https://www.ted.com/podcasts/ted_business TED Health: https://www.ted.com/podcasts/ted-health TED Tech: https://www.ted.com/podcasts/ted-tech The TED Audio Collective is a collection of podcasts for the curious. The TED Audio Collective videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organiz...). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com.

Matt DamonguestAdam Granthost

Mar 5, 20262mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

3 min read · 583 words

0:00 – 0:09
A 14-year-old’s dream as a mirror of Matt Damon’s own adolescence
1. MDMatt Damon
  It reminded me so much of me and Ben at that age. Like, "We're not staying here. We're going to New York. We're gonna be actors," you know. It's like what every 14-year-old should be doing, right? Dreaming about this, this life.
0:09 – 0:26
Why water scarcity is harder to grasp than hunger
1. AGAdam Grant
  It's so compelling and, at the same time, not at all obvious, I think, to the average person, right? I, I think people understand hunger more viscerally than they do thirst.
2. MDMatt Damon
  Because people have been hungry.
3. AGAdam Grant
  Exactly.
4. MDMatt Damon
  Mm-hmm.
5. AGAdam Grant
  And also, you just look around and you assume water is everywhere, whereas food sh- shortages are, are kind of easy to imagine, right?
0:26 – 0:43
Making the water crisis relatable to donors in the developed world
1. MDMatt Damon
  So you're describing, I think, the biggest problem we have, which is just making this issue relatable. Because if you grew up in the developed world, you were never more than five steps away from a clean drink of water. I mean, it's in our kitchen sink, it's in our bathroom sink. The water in our toilets is cleaner than two billion people have access to around the world-
0:43 – 1:13
The scale and human cost: billions affected, deaths from preventable illness
1. AGAdam Grant
  Yeah
2. MDMatt Damon
  ... which is incredible. But it's very hard to relate to. That's kind of the first hurdle we have to clear when we're talking to, to donors, is just explaining the scale of the problem, that it's 2.1 billion people, that a million people die every year completely pointlessly over things that... You know, from, like diarrhea can be a death sentence. I could tell you the story of the very first water collection I went on, because it was a big aha moment for me. And I was in Zambia, this is 20 years ago, and I went to, on a water collection with this girl. She came home from school. I was waiting for her. We were in very
1:13 – 1:28
A first-hand turning point: joining a water collection in rural Zambia
1. MDMatt Damon
  r- a rural, very rural part of Zambia, and we go for this walk. And we each have a, a, you know, a jerry can. And I'm talking to her through a translator. It's just the three of us, and I'm, you know, peppering her with questions. What's it like living here, all that stuff. And then finally I go, "Is this where, is this where you wanna live
1:28 – 1:43
Her plan: leaving for Lusaka to become a nurse
1. MDMatt Damon
  when you grow up?" And she looks at me and she's like, "No." She's like, "I'm getting out of here." She goes, "I'm going to Lusaka. I'm gonna be a nurse." It reminded me so much of me and Ben at that age. Like, "We're not staying here. We're going to New York. We're gonna be actors," you know. It's like what every 14-year-old should be doing, right? Dreaming
1:43 – 2:13
The hidden dependency: how a nearby borewell makes education possible
1. MDMatt Damon
  about this, this life. And, and it hit me later as I was driving away that had someone not had the foresight to sink a borewell near this kid's house, she wouldn't be in school. She would be spending all of her time trying to find water for her family and not dreaming of this wonderful life where she's a frontline healthcare worker and she's in the capital city and she's contributing to the economic engine of her country. And, you know, it's not just the death and the, the pointlessness of that, but it's, it's the stifled potential of human
2:13 – 2:27
Beyond mortality: the incalculable loss of human potential
1. MDMatt Damon
  possibility, you know? And, and that's just, it's incalculable. It's just massive. And so that was kind of my, my epiphany then. And, and, and nobody was talking about it for the reasons we just kind of laid out. It's so unrelatable. That's what kind of got me hooked.