It's the Brian Laird show on WNYC. Welcome back everybody. I'm Bridget Bergen, filling in for Brian today.

Pick any of the following news topics, climate change, racial injustice, the rise of AI, the conflict between Israel and

Gaza. It feels like the world is facing a multitude of huge challenges all at the same time, and it can be easy to feel deeply pessimistic

about solving them.

The Rockefeller Foundation President, Dr. Rajiv Shah, thinks it's actually realistic to be optimistic about solving some of the

world's biggest problems. Through his work on vaccinating nearly a billion

children around the world, leading the effort against the Ebola outbreak in

West Africa, and responding to humanitarian crises in Haiti, Afghanistan, and other

places, he knows a thing or two about responding to humanitarian crises and going for bold

improvements. Dr. Shaw is author of a new book, Big Betts, how large- change really happens, and he joins us now.

Dr. Shaw was the former head of the American Humanitarian Agency, U.S. Aid, from 2009 through 2015,

and will also ask him about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Israel and

Gaza.

Dr. Shaw, welcome to WNYC.

Thank you for having me.

And listeners, it's probably fair to say we have a few of you out there who identify as idealists.

Wondering if any of you used your idealism to help your communities or get involved with organizations.

What do you want to share about choosing optimism in the face of uncertainty?

Or if you're looking to get started maybe you have a

question for our guest Dr. Rajev Shaw president of the Rockefeller Foundation call

us now at 212 433 WNYC, that's 212 433 969492.

You can also text at that number and of course you can tweet at Brian Laird.

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