Podcasts by The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer (Audiobook)

How Much Are We Willing to Spend to Save a Life? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

As former Director of Economic Analysis for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, I became used to seeing costs per life saved in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. That’s a star...

The Gift of Sight from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

For as little as $25, we can restore sight to those living in need. Consider the case of three-year-old Cesaria, who lives in Burundi. Blind from birth, her parents abandoned her; her grandmother, ...

9 Positive Effects of Donating Money to Charity from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

According to a report recently released by Atlas of Giving, after a stellar year of charitable donations in 2014, the outlook for this year is less than robust. In fact, U.S.-based giving could dec...

You're on the Global Rich List from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Enter your income at globalrichlist.com and you will see the surprising truth – you’re probably among the 1 perc...

Is There Such a Thing as "Bad" Charity? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Effective altruists are guided by the heart and the head. We love numbers and transparency. We like knowing exactly where our money is going, how many people it's helping, and how our chosen char...

Why a campaign to make medical studies public will help the global poor from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Why is the AllTrials campaign relevant to the world's poorest people?<...

The Case for Bragging from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Talking openly about how much you donate sounds tacky, like you're putting yourself in the spotlight rather than the cause. But in fact, the reverse is true. If all you care about is saving lives, ...

How to achieve your personal best from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Peter Singer and the effective altruism movement challenge all of us to give more to the least fortunate—and to give more effectively. Vi...

Why Clean Water Is a 'Best Buy' for Saving Lives from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The problem of unsafe water is staggering. More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-...

How far will your donation go? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

We’re excited to launch our interactive Charity Impact Calculator, a new tool that lets you see what you get for your charitable gi...

Global Poverty, Targeted Giving and Saving Earth's Biodiversity from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Ending the needless suffering from global poverty as soon as possible is clearly a priority. But what about the plight of the five million or so other species that we share the planet with? The wor...

How Gratitude Made Me a Better Giver from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Thinking about giving in terms of how our altruism makes us happier and more grateful may seem self-centered, as it focuses on how we feel rather than on how we can share our resources with others....

Peter Singer on Effective Altruism from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Peter talks at George Washington University about the effective altruist mindset, whether some charitable causes are more important than others, and how to measure the effectiveness of charitable o...

A Case for Data from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

I’m breaking all the marketing rules I learned, and sharing links to data rather than to stories. It’s what you, our partners and donors, have asked for. Nicholas Kristof calls us “economist geeks”...

A Global Partnership's Fight Against Iodine Deficiency from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Iodine deficiency is a global public health problem and the world’s most common cause of preventable brain damage in newborns and infants. Goiter (an enlarged thyroid gland in the neck) is just the...

Altruism Icebreakers from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Breaking the ice can be tough, even if you are quite comfortable with your altruism and think there are very strong reasons for doing it. It’s a stance that challenges some commonly held assumption...

Success Story: GiveDirectly from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

GiveDirectly's distinctiveness has been an emphasis on rigorous data rather than on stories about individual recipients to demonstrate success. We focus on providing donors with evidence about aver...

Does Aid Work? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Does aid work? Some authors argue yes, and we should give more. Others argue that it has been ineffective, or even hindered development of poor countries.

Choosing to Give from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

If we accept the premise that human lives are equal regardless of their circumstances, then we also accept that each of us has the power to alter those circumstances for the better.

Why Inconvenient Altruism Might Be the Best Altruism from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Let’s make the effort to donate the inconvenient way. That could mean writing a check instead of typing in your credit card number, or spending an hour learning about what a potential charity recip...

The Busy Person's Guide to Charitable Giving from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

You've been wanting to donate money to help the poor for a while now, but there's just so much to think about: You want your money to go to the right place, you want it to do the most good it can d...

Peter Singer - Questions and Answers - The George Washington University from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Question and Answers session after Peter's talk at George Washington University.

How the High of Shopping Can Hurt our Giving from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Addictions therapy and research might have something to teach us about barriers. Perhaps the key to giving more is understanding the nature of and learning to modulate our urge to spend.

3 Painless Ways to Increase Your Giving from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

For years, I’ve been putting almond butter on my toast every morning. Tasty, filling, and nutritious, it felt like a good way to start my day. But the price of almonds where I live has nearly doubl...

4 Ways to Donate Better from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

From picking a worthy charity to making your contribution go further, there's a lot to learn about how to be the most effective altruist you can be. Here are 4 essential tips for making your donat...

We’re Adding One Acre Fund to Our List of Best Charities. Here’s Why. from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Subsistence agriculture accounts for the largest economic activity in the developing world, and a majority of the global poor rely on small-scale farming to support themselves and their families. O...

Tapping Skeptic Hearts Through Giving Games from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Giving Games are workshop-style events aimed to advance philanthropic education. Participants learn about a couple of pre-selected charities, think about and discuss their personal values and reaso...

How Effective Giving Can Protect Us From Charity Scandals from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Anger and dismay greeted the March 10 announcement that the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit that helps wounded veterans, fired its top staff, who spent millions of donor dollars on first-class...

Escaping Normal - Part I from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

There is a disconnect for many of us between the supreme moral value we place on human life and the way we are able to tune out awareness of the millions of people globally who are caught in a down...

Understanding "Normal" Giving Behavior - Part II from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

One reason for the poverty/giving disconnect is that our brains are not equipped to focus on multiple variables simultaneously, so we prioritize those needing immediate attention. This can explain ...

How to Change Your Behavior and Achieve Your Personal Best - Part III from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

For those of us whose awareness and behavior are not so inherently or concertedly altruistic, I believe we can follow a program wherein we intentionally build up our consciousness and actions to al...

The Stories Behind the Data from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Behind each of these neatly summarized findings (from the U.S. Agency for International Development's Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program) lie stories of personal hardship, risks, and logi...

Why Poverty Hurts Our Children Most from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Globally about 16,000 children under the age of five die each day—most from preventable conditions associated with poverty. That’s a staggering number. At that rate, this means that more than 11 ch...

Why Your Inner Control Freak Needs Taming When It Comes to Charitable Giving from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Some time ago, I had a conversation with a friend about charitable giving. She said that one of the reasons she was giving locally rather than globally was that she felt more in control about where...

How to Give Like Bill Gates, Even if You Have Little to Give from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

By following the Gates Foundation's principle that "all lives have equal value," you can dramatically increase the impact of your giving.

Introduction by Hachette Audio from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Hachette Audio, partner of The Life You Can Save, the organization, introduces the 10th-anniversary edition of The Life You Can Save by Professor Peter Singer, one of the world’s most i...

What Does Gender Equality Have to Do With Global Poverty? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In the struggle against global poverty, is gender equality an impactful goal we should focus on and strive towards?

What You Need to Know About Global Hunger from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The average American household gives $2,974 to charity each year. How far could that amount go to alleviating hunger and malnutrition in the developing world?

The Canonization of Inefficiency: Why We Need to Do Better Than Mother Teresa and the Vatican from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The well-founded and well-documented criticism that has been lobbed at Mother Teresa since the mid-1990s has largely failed to shake her public perception as a saint. Her upcoming canonization begs...

Listen to the Radio: How DMI Saves Lives With Media Campaigns from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Development Media International uses mass media campaigns to raise awareness of public health risks and change behaviors in developing countries, using rigorous analyses to test the campaigns' effe...

The Ethical Cost of High Priced Art from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

If artists, art critics, and art buyers really had any interest in reducing the widening gap between the rich and the poor, they would be focusing their efforts on developing countries, where spend...

Walking Across Southern Africa to Fight Global Poverty from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

I believe one of the important things development programs should focus on is not only providing the resources required to lift people out of poverty, but to also provide training on what to do onc...

The One Percent Solution from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Anyone who thinks about their ethical obligations will rightly decide that - since, no matter what we do, not everyone will give even 1% - they should do more.

Improving Food Quality for Hundreds of Millions of People from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Project Healthy Children (PHC) have recently announced a partnership to improve the quality and delivery of one of the world's most cost-effect...

How Can We Empower Women to End Poverty? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Causes of poverty can differ from country to country, but empowering women and girls is one cause that transcends borders, impacting all nations. In rich and poor countries alike, a key to poverty ...

Philanthropist Footballers: The Bigger Picture from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Manchester United footballer Juan Mata made headlines by pledging to donate 1% of his income to charity, to much praise. But is giving 1% really that good, or is it something that most of us should...

Is Giving Cash Better? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In this episode, Rupert and Loren discuss about the pros and cons of giving cash directly to people living in extreme poverty, as an alternative to traditional charitable models.

Empowering Women from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In 2017 we curated 8 charities that have a proven track record of empowering women in some of the poorest areas of the world. In today's podcast, we would like to provide an overview of these 8 cha...

Reasons Why People Don't Give to Charity from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Rupert and Loren share from their personal journeys and talk about different barriers that stop people from giving to charities. It's not that people aren't generous, its about addressing those res...

Interview with Sjir Hoeijmakers from Founders Pledge from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Founders Pledge is an organization that gets founders and companies to pledge a certain percentage of their personal proceeds to charity when they sell their business. So far they have raised 91 mi...

Interview with Kate Grant from Fistula Foundation from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Fistula Foundation works exclusively on treating obstetric fistula, a devastating childbirth injury resulting from prolonged labor in which the baby is often lost, and the woman is rendered inconti...

Introduction to The Life You Can Save Audiobook from 2020-10-20T17:53:46

Charlie Bresler, Ph.D., the Executive Director of The Life You Can Save organization, invites you to listen carefully to Peter Singer’s, celebrity-read audiobook by the same name.  ...

Foreword by Michael Schur: I'd never looked at it that way before from 2020-10-07T15:00

Michael Schur, the acclaimed executive producer and creator of the NBC series “The Good Place,” describes how the first edition of The Life You Can Save, sparked a change in his world view, leav...

Preface by Peter Singer from 2020-10-06T15:00

Professor Peter Singer, author of The Life You Can Save, introduces the 10th-anniversary edition. Reflecting on what has and hasn’t changed, he describes his intention to distil what he...

Chapter 01: Saving a Child. Read by Kristen Bell. from 2020-10-05T15:00

In this chapter–narrated by Kristin Bell, award-winning actress and star of the NBC series “The Good Place”–Professor Peter Singer asks; “If you saw a child drowning in a pond, would you jump in...

Chapter 02: Is it Wrong Not to Help? Read by Paul Simon. from 2020-10-04T15:00

In chapter 2–narrated by award-winning singer-songwriter Paul Simon– Professor Peter Singer asks how far our moral obligation to help those living in poverty extends. Reflecting upon traditional...

Chapter 03: Common Objections to Giving. Read by Marc Evan Jackson. from 2020-10-03T15:00

Marc Evan Jackson–best known for his acting in the NBC series “The Good Place,” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”–narrates this Chapter which considers the validity of common objections to charitable giv...

Chapter 04: Why Don't We Give More? Read by Natalia Vodianova. from 2020-10-02T15:00

In this chapter–narrated by supermodel, philanthropist, and angel impact investor, Natalie Vodianova–Professor Singer considers the psychological factors underlying why people don’t give more, a...

Chapter 05: Creating a Culture of Giving. Read by Stephen Fry. from 2020-10-01T15:00

Narrated by the acclaimed English author, actor, and comedian, Stephen Fry, Chapter 5 delves into proven approaches to creating a culture of giving. Describing the emergence of effective giving ...

Chapter 06: How much does it cost to save a life? Read by Nicholas D'Agosto. from 2020-09-30T15:00

Narrated by actor and artist Nicholas D'Agosto, Chapter 6 debunks commonly held myths about how we should evaluate a charity’s performance and decide where to give. Drawing upon the emergence of...

Chapter 07: Improving Aid. Read by Peter Singer. from 2020-09-29T15:00

This chapter delves into the criticisms of international aid, considers ways to objectively assess which types of aid program work, and examines how we can improve aid efficiency. Professor Sing...

Chapter 08: Your child and the children of others. Read by Winnie Auma. from 2020-09-28T15:00

Chapter 8 is narrated by Winnie Auma, the Uganda Country Director for Village Enterprise. Village Enterprise is a charity recommended by the charity evaluator The Life You Can Save for its work ...

Chapter 09: Asking Too Much? Read by Shabana Azmi. from 2020-09-27T15:00

Narrated by internationally renowned Indian film and theatre actress Shabana Azmi, in Chapter 9, Professor Singer poses the question: to be ethical, do we really have to give up all our unnecess...

Chapter 10: A Realistic Standard. Read by Peter Singer. from 2020-09-26T15:00

This chapter considers what is realistic with charitable giving. Professor Singer proposes a standard of donating roughly 5% of one’s annual income to effective charities for those who are finan...

What One Person Can Do. Read by Peter Singer. from 2020-09-25T15:00

This section is a call to action which urges people to visit the website of the charity The Life You Can Save for guidance on how to take simple actions, like sharing the book or pledging a perc...

Afterword: From Contemplation to Action. By Charlie Bresler. from 2020-09-24T15:00

Charlie Bresler, the Executive Director of the charity The Life You Can Save, tells his own story of how his life was radically changed by Professor Singer’s The Life You Can Save and how, since...

Acknowledgments. By Peter Singer. from 2020-09-20T15:00

Professor Singer thanks the people who worked tirelessly to make the tenth-anniversary re-launch of The Life You Can Save possible. 

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