What do concert tickets and philanthropy have in common? Generally, not much, but a couple of friends of The Life You Can Save are working very hard to change that.

Tech entrepreneurs Joshua Ross and Adam McCurdie could have made a fortune building their ticketing platform start up, but a trip to war-torn Sri Lanka fueled their desires to do work that was truly meaningful.

It took a few years to get all the pieces aligned, but in 2016, Humanitix launched with a mission to be "The home of tickets for good, not greed." And in less than a decade, they've transformed more than $10 million (Australian) dollars to healthcare, housing, education, and more — including a donation of $4M AUD to The Life You Can Save!

In this episode, Charlie talks with co-founders Josh and Adam about the history of Humanitix, the good it's done so far, and their mission to do even more in the years to come.

Find more about Humanitix and founders Josh and Adam at their website, humanitix.com/us.

Musings About Ourselves and Other Strangers is the podcast for the non-profit organization The Life You Can Save and is hosted by co-founder Charlie Bresler. Please check out other episodes as well as our website for ideas on how you too can extend your impact for good in the world: www.thelifeyoucansave.org.

When the book The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty was first published in 2009, it completely changed (and re-ignited) the conversation around poverty, ethics, and philanthropy. Clearly it affected Musings host Charlie Bresler, who, after reading the book, ultimately approached its author about starting a non-profit based around philanthropy.

According to its author, Peter Singer, those with money are behaving unethically — even immorally — if they don’t take steps to end the poverty and suffering of others.

Singer’s parents were Austrian Jews who immigrated to Australian to escape the Nazis. Tragically, three of his four grandparents died at the hands of the Nazi regime, and in this episode, Peter and Charlie discuss how this history may or may not have impacted his world view.

It’s a fascinating conversation around why we give or don’t. As you might imagine, the reasons are complex, rooted in human psychology, tinged with fear and cognitive dissonance, and seasoned with a lack of cultural pressure, thanks to an idea called the “diffusion of responsibility.”

We hope you’ll enjoy this episode and share it widely. And remember, you can request a free copy of The Life You Can Save from our website: www.thelifeyoucansave.org/the-book.

More about Peter Singer:

Raised in Australia, Peter Singer was awarded a scholarship to attend Oxford, where he received a Bachelor of Philosophy and later a Master’s. He was a Radcliffe lecturer at Oxford, a visiting professor at NYU, and spent most of his career as a professor in Melbourne. In 1999 he moved to Princeton to teach, and in 2011 to London to lecture at the New College of the Humanities.

Musings About Ourselves and Other Strangers is the podcast for the non-profit organization The Life You Can Save, and is hosted by co-founder Charlie Bresler. Please check out other episodes as well as our website for ideas on how you too can extend your impact for good in the world.

Most of us in the west have our first pair of shoes long before we can actually walk. Not true for Caroline Teti, who had her first pair of shoes at 12, when it was time to go to high school.

From a very early age, Caroline understood the importance of education for finding a way out of the limitations that come from poverty — fewer choices, poorer health, less ability to contribute to her community. Her family and the people in her village all encouraged Caroline to pursue a formal education. And she did.

Caroline took advantage of every opportunity that came her way, working hard to get a Bachelor’s degree and teaching credentials, then a Master’s degree, all while caring for her family. And she uses that education to help raise others out of the kind of poverty she experienced.

Now the Director of Recipients Advocacy at GiveDirectly Global, Caroline previously spent years in the public sector working on reproductive health, education, water, sanitation, and other problems that impact people living in extreme poverty.

We hope you’ll enjoy Charlie’s conversation with this absolutely inspiring woman. To find out more about Caroline Teti and GiveDirectly, visit the GiveDirectly website at www.givedirectly.org.

Musings About Ourselves and Other Strangers is the podcast for the non-profit organization The Life You Can Save, and is hosted by co-founder Charlie Bresler. Please check out other episodes as well as our website for ideas on how you too can extend your impact for good in the world.