Matt Damon on solving one of the planet’s biggest problems, in partnership with Gary White

About this episode

Matt Damon and Gary White discuss their efforts to provide clean water access globally and their innovative problem-solving approaches.

Matt Damon is best known as the Hollywood icon from movies like Good Will Hunting and The Martian, but he has another passion offscreen: ensuring access to clean, safe water around the world. When he met social entrepreneur Gary White in 2008, they realized they could combine their efforts to reach more people and created water.org , which Gary leads as CEO. In this episode, Adam sits down with Matt and Gary at the World Economic Forum in Davos to talk about their innovative approach to problem-solving, handling rejection in high-stakes work environments, and Matt’s knack for forging strong partnerships. Adam also invites the two to office hours to tackle one of their ongoing challenges. Connect with the team Follow Adam on Instagram , LinkedIn , and at adamgrant.net/ Subscribe to Adam’s Substack Watch ReThinking videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective Follow TED on X , Instagram , Facebook , LinkedIn , and TikTok ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard . Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith. For the full text transcript, visit…

People in this episode

Host: Adam Grant

Guests: Matt Damon, Gary White

Topics covered

• clean water access
• social entrepreneurship
• partnerships
• problem-solving
• high-stakes work environments

Keywords

• clean water
• Matt Damon
• Gary White
• water.org
• social entrepreneurship
• partnerships
• World Economic Forum

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: water.org, TED, Cosmic Standard

Books & works: Good Will Hunting, The Martian

Places: World Economic Forum, Davos

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