Giving and Thanksgiving

WSJ Opinion: Free Expression

Gerard Baker, Editor at Large, The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 591 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The time of year when we express our gratitude for our many blessings offer an opportunity to reflect on the importance of giving. On this episode of Free Expression, Gerry Baker speaks with financier John Studzinski, who shares lessons learned from his own philanthropy in a new book, “A Talent for Giving, Creating a More Generous Society That Benefits Everyone.” They discuss the projects he started to show the difference between philanthropy and charity, why giving can be a currency for change, and what can be done to broaden what he calls the “community of mankind.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Harry.
0:00.7	Hello mate.
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0:29.0	Gamblerware.org.
0:31.7	From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal.
0:34.7	This is Free Expression with Jerry Baker. Hello and welcome to Free Expression from the Wall Street Journal. This is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.
0:38.6	Hello and welcome to Free Expression from the Wall Street Journal Opinion page. I'm Jerry Baker
0:42.6	editor at large of the journal. Thanks again for joining us. This week, we're going to take
0:46.3	a little bit of a break. I think a much needed break from the usual inevitable hurly-burly of politics.
0:52.8	And it being Thanksgiving week, going to talk about a very
0:56.3	topical subject, which is the subject of giving. One of the things I think I've just always admired
1:02.3	about America, long before I came here, long before I became an American myself, is this is a very
1:07.8	generous country. People have enormously generous hearts, welcome people, give
1:14.0	significant amounts of their own resources, but not just money, but time and energy and effort
1:19.0	to those less fortunate, been obviously that's particularly true of the great philanthropists of
1:24.9	the United States, who have been obviously the greatest philanthropists anywhere in probably the history of the planet. But just regular Americans, I think,
1:31.9	have a real capacity for giving that is quite unusual, actually, if not unique, then is quite
1:38.3	rare in the world. And it's a particularly uplifting thing to see. And as you think about
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