Rutger Bregman is a Dutch historian and best-selling author of Utopia for Realists and Humankind: A Hopeful History. In 2019, he went viral for his takedown of billionaires at the World Economic Forum and for a heated exchange with Tucker Carlson. Today, he joins the show to discuss his latest book, Moral Ambition, which he defines as the desire to use your available talents and resources to make the world a better place rather than focus solely on individual wealth. He argues the real question is whether the work you’ve chosen is ambitious enough in moral terms—whether your day-to-day life tackles the big problems facing humankind. He explains why “follow your passion” is often bad advice; why moral breakthroughs tend to come from small, disciplined groups rather than mass appeal; and why moral progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. 0:00- Intro 0:55-Rutger Bregman’s Intellectual Origins 4:12-Universal Basic Income, Reassessed 10:58-Infrastructure and the Limits of Cash 15:30-Defining Moral Ambition 16:07-Is ‘Follow Your Dreams’ Good Advice? 17:33-Who Has Done the Most Good? 23:31-American Abolitionism: Failure or Strategy? 32:56-Modern Slavery and the Use of Force 39:13-Bill Gates and the Arc of Ambition 43:35-Does Elon Musk Have Moral Ambition? 45:57-Why the Right Builds Institutions 48:43-Is Moral Ambition Harder Today? 50:59-When Moral Ambition Goes Wrong 59:30-Human Nature: Optimism or Illusion? 1:04:46-Your Highest Moral Ambition