Is Your Life Morally Ambitious Enough?

Conversations with Coleman

The Free Press

Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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. Go to https://surfshark.com/colemandeal or use code COLEMANDEAL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you love epic stories of myth and legend, listen up.
0:03.2	Before Camelot and before the crown,
0:05.8	the Penn Dragon cycle Rise of the Merlin tells the origin story of the legend that shaped Britain
0:11.6	in a seven-episode cinematic epic years in the making.
0:15.6	This is not a retelling of the King Arthur story.
0:18.1	It's the rise of the world that made Arthur possible. The Penn
0:22.1	Dragon cycle Rise of the Merlin is available now on Daily Wire Plus. Shot across multiple
0:28.1	international locations, this series brings myth to life with serious production value, full-scale
0:33.5	battles, and a sweeping original orchestral score. At its core, this is a return to classic
0:39.1	epic storytelling, where faith, prophecy, and sacrifice truly matter. Stream the Pendragon
0:45.1	cycle Rise of the Merlin only on Daily Wire Plus. Welcome to another episode of Conversations
0:51.3	with Coleman. My guest today is Rutger Bregman. Rutger is a Dutch
0:55.8	historian and best-selling author of Utopia for Realists, Human Kind, and today's topic,
1:01.9	Moral Ambition, How to Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference. This episode is a call to
1:08.1	reflect on whether the line of work you have chosen in life is ambitious
1:12.2	enough, not in terms of how much money you make, but in terms of how much good you're doing.
1:18.2	Rutger believes that the smartest and most talented people should be choosing much bigger problems
1:23.2	to solve. In the course of this conversation, we also talk about how cults have changed history,
1:29.2	how the British Empire stamped out slavery around the world, and much more. So without further ado,
1:35.2	Rucker Bregman.
1:47.1	Okay, Rucker Bregman. Thanks so much for coming on my show.
1:48.4	Thanks for having me.
	...

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