Ep 195 | Rutger Bregman
Moral Ambition: Redefining Success for the Global Good
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The Great Simplification
Description
The overarching definition of success today often looks like the accumulation of stuff – money, cars, property, clothing – anything that signals wealth. This means that success is also synonymous with overshoot, extraction, and consumption – none of which lead to healthy outcomes for the planet or the global good. But what might be possible if we were to redefine success to prioritize collective well-being instead of personal gain?
In today’s episode, Nate sits down with Dutch historian and author Rutger Bregman to discuss the concept of moral ambition, which he defines as the desire to be one of the best, measured by different standards of success: not by big payouts or fancy honorifics, but by the ability to tackle the world’s biggest problems. Bregman highlights the importance of entrepreneurs in driving social change and the necessity of cultural shifts to foster a more altruistic society, as well as the challenges faced in pursuing these ideals.
What possibilities might arise if we combined the idealism of an activist with the ambition of an entrepreneur? How can we apply the principles of entrepreneurship to better address global challenges? And how could a radical redefinition of success motivate the world’s top talent to make major contributions to our most pressing issues, leaving a legacy that actually makes a difference?
About Rutger Bregman
Rutger Bregman is a Dutch historian and author. Initially considering a career as an academic historian, Rutger instead ventured into journalism. He began his career at the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant before moving to the independent journalism platform De Correspondent, for which he wrote for ten years. His books Humankind: A Hopeful History (2020) and Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There (2017) were both Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers and have been translated into 46 languages.
In 2024, Rutger co-founded The School for Moral Ambition, a non-profit organization inspired by his latest book, Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference. The initiative helps people to take the step toward an impactful career.
In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President
That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher
We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF
This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor
Show Notes & Links to Learn More
00:00 – Rutger Bregman, His recent book: Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference
04:49 – British abolitionist movement
06:14 – CIRP Freshman Survey
06:27 – Kevin Eagan, et al. – “The American Freshman: Fifty-Year Trends, 1966-2015”
07:45 – In-group and out-group dynamics
08:14 – Christopher Klein – “How Gilded Age Corruption Led to the Progressive Era”
10:10 – Rutger Bregman – Utopia For Realists
10:32 – Peter Vanham – “Stakeholder Capitalism: A brief history of GDP – and what could come next”
11:00 – Giving What We Can
11:15 – Rutger Bregman – Humankind: A Hopeful History
14:30 – Christopher Leslie Brown – Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism
18:35 – Thomas Clarkson, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
23:18 – The School for Moral Ambition
24:32 – Statistics Netherlands – “How many people feel shame about flying?”
25:45 – The School for Moral Ambition’s 7 founding principles
30:03 – Shrimp Welfare Project
30:30 – Shrimp are more cognitively complex than previously thought
31:45 – Middle Passage and crew deaths figure
39:24 – Ecological footprint
41:11 – B Corp Certification
45:22 – National Women’s History Museum – “The Girl Who Acted Before Rosa Parks”
45:53 – Lech Wałęsa, Nelson Mandela
48:15 – The Economic Superorganism
52:11 – Colleen Shalby – “Metro’s ridership in June dropped to lowest of the year after immigration raids”
56:40 – Moral Ambitions Circles
58:10 – Moral Ambitions Fellowships
1:00:08 – Effective altruism
1:02:50 – Simon Walo – “‘Bullshit’ After All? Why People Consider Their Jobs Socially Useless”
1:12:14 – Juliana Menasce Horowitz and Kim Parker – “How Americans See Men and Masculinity”
