FTX, SBF, and EA: When a Do-Gooder Does Bad

One of effective altruism’s biggest givers, crypto-bro Sam Bankman-Fried (often referred to as SBF), may have built his billion-dollar empire on lies and under the cover of goodwill bought by his extreme giving. 

Ross Douthat of the New York Times referred to Bankman-Fried’s actions as “playing Robin Hood using proceeds from an over-leveraged Ponzi Scheme.” And he did so from his penthouse of pills and polyamory in the Bahamas. At least he had fun, but now the entire Effective Altruism (EA) movement is under fire. 

Just look at these headlines written after SBF’s fall:

Effective Altruism Committed the Sin It Was Supposed to Correct

Effective altruism solved all the…

Good People: Kids & the Trauma Pandemic

For kids “The System” doesn’t work in the best of times. And during a time of global pandemic, there are even fewer supports. Psychologist Janay Sander joins Kelsey and Jay to discuss how best to support kids facing traumatic circumstances. 

Show Notes:

If you or a child you know in the United States is in a volatile situation or are subjected to domestic violence, please reach out to the following resources:  

National…

Is COVID-19 Our Alien Invasion

I love alien invasion movies. I love the cuts to scenes from around the world where we come together as a species regardless of race, religion, ideology, and nationality, to confront a common enemy. The poor Eiffel Tower, pyramids, Golden Gate Bridge, Sydney Opera House are the first to go. If you find yourself in an Alien Apocalypse movie, steer clear of major landmarks. But when they are shown exploding, they aren’t Egypt’s pyramids, or France’s Eiffel Tower, they are ours. Faced with human extinction, suddenly all that divides us fades away and what connects us is all that matters.

I’ve always felt like peace on earth was just one good alien invasion away. 

Is COVID-19 our common…

Good People know the art of the comeback is to give back

Heidi Ganahl has faced extraordinary adversity in her life. But her entrepreneurial spirit and leadership skills helped her focus on others allowing her to build a $100 million brand, found SheFactor to empower young women, help kids (Fight Back Foundation), run for office, and a whole lot more.

 …

Good People help kids dream

Laura and Bill Grindle, co-founders of See Kids Dream, empower kids to give back to their own communities, and in the process, teach us all how to be better givers….

Good People Podcast Episode #1: Justin Narducci

After a year of my friend Jay Moorman bugging me about doing this…I started a podcast. The Good People podcast explores what it means to be good by talking to everyday heroes, philanthropists, altruists, and do-gooders.  

I’ve spent the last 18 years traveling to 50+ countries to research my books and meeting amazing people who do so much good in the world. Meeting them changed me. And it’s my hope that I can introduce listeners to these people and others who’ve had such an influence on me. They’ve helped me see how I can best make an impact in the world in very tangible ways. It’s my hope that together we learn how to be better local and…

The Invisible Poor

Poverty, like death, is something that is all around us, but we like to pretend it doesn’t exist and could never happen to us.

Most cultures have prejudices toward the poor. I’ve noticed this when I travel. I’ve had translators in China and Cambodia who wondered why I would want to talk to people who worked in a factory or lived in a slum. I’ve had plenty of translators and friends who’ve said things like “They talk uneducated,” and they do things because “they don’t know better.” For many of my translators, the poor in their country are as invisible to them as the poor in my own had been to me until I started to volunteer. Researchers found that tourists on slum tours in India looked at slum residents…

What’s a volunteer worth?

According to the Independent Sector, a membership organization of nonprofits, the value of volunteer time is “the average wage of non-management, non-agricultural workers.” So actually the stat is pretty meaningless and simply an average wage of an American worker.

Not every volunteer or volunteer task is equal.

Proud to support Dave Ring for Indiana State Senate

Sitting in the Downtown Farm Stand, the only 100% organic grocer in my area, I watched the presidential returns come in on election night in 2016. I swore between sips of organic beer, as the election started to fall Donald Trump’s way.

How is this our country?

How is it that I can’t understand the voting decisions of nearly half of Americans?

Someone should really do something about this.

Dave Ring, the owner of the Farm Stand, hosted our small election gathering. Gary Younge, a reporter from The Guardian, was also there. Gary was reporting on Muncie, an area that went for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the primary. He told us this is how Brexit felt. One day you wake up…

An opportunity to give: The Slum Library

Douglas is a taxi driver who lives in the Mathare Valley slum where most kids grow up without books in their homes. So he decided to turn his home into a library. At first, he wasn’t sure how he would fill it with books, but they just started showing up courtesy of his neighbors. Now the library has 3,000 books. He covers 50% of the monthly costs himself and the other 50% comes from community members. Members don’t pay anything but each of them brings in newspapers to sell to the recycling center. No matter where you live in the world or what you do, you can make a big impact.

When I first posted about the library on Instagram and Facebook many folks said they…