The Simplest Way to Save Lives With Your Money
About this episode
The episode asks how a donor saves the most lives per dollar. Elie Hassenfeld, CEO of the charity evaluator GiveWell, recounts how he and Holden Karnofsky started in 2006–07 asking charities effectiveness questions — '$20 provides a child water for life,' yet no one could explain how — and discovered almost no one vetted impact. GiveWell now directs hundreds of millions (in 2025, funds to 70 organizations) anchored by 'blue-chip' charities like the Against Malaria Foundation, using metrics like cost per death averted. Hassenfeld is candid about measurement's limits, telling the failure story of anti-poverty program No Lean Season, and discusses why GiveDirectly fell below their bar amid USAID cuts. The conversation covers the Trump administration's ~$6 billion cut to global health aid and his reporting trip to Malawi, GiveWell's transparency about mistakes and uncertainty, and the moral psychology of tithing — treating distant lives as real.