When Rajiv Shah was in his late 20s and didn’t know what to do with his life, he got a job at a fledgling nonprofit, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Before he knew it, he was a driving force behind a global vaccination program that immunized 900 million children and saved 16 million lives.
At 36, he became the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), managing a $20 billion budget, overseeing a staff of 10,000, and leading the U.S. response to global humanitarian crises.
Today, as president of the Rockefeller Foundation, he’s finding innovative solutions to mitigate climate change and end energy poverty.
What connects these experiences? At every step, Raj maintained a big bet mentality. What is a big bet? “A concerted effort to fundamentally solve a single, pressing problem in your community or our world. Big bets require setting profound, seemingly unachievable goals and believing they are achievable.” In this episode, he shares his methodology for creating large-scale change and making the world a better place.
Host: Rufus Griscom
Guest: Rajiv Shah
Book: Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens
SUCCESSION: The True Story Behind the Hit Show
ABOLISH POVERTY: Matthew Desmond on How We Can Do It
READING: Are We Forgetting How To Do It?
David Chalmers Thinks We May Be Living in a Simulation (and He’s OK With It)
Is AI Moving Too Fast? A Conversation With Kevin Roose
LIFE IS SHORT: The Upside of Death
MUSIC: What the Songs You Love Say About You
AI: The Origin Story
Not Finished Is Not Failure (from The Next Big Idea Daily)
CELLS: Siddhartha Mukherjee on the Breakthroughs That Are Revolutionizing Medicine
Introducing: The Next Big Idea Daily
PLEASURE: An Epicurean Guide to the Good Life
POWER FAILURE: What Happened to GE? (with Malcolm Gladwell & William Cohan)
DIET: The New Science of Healthy Eating
How to Develop Your Passions and Avoid Burnout (with Atul Gawande and Adam Grant)
FEELINGS: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work
SAPIENS: Yuval Noah Harari on Our Past, Present, and Future
ANALOG: Let’s Build a More Human World
SLEEP: How Understanding Your Body’s Clock Can Revolutionize Your Health
ANIMALS: They’re Smarter Than You Think
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