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Deets: Turning on a tap and watching the water flow. Moving a lever to flush a toilet . . .

These realities are so basic to Americans that few of us consider them to be privileges. 

But more than 1.7 billion people across the planet cannot take such simple amenities for granted. They live too far from any source of clean water — and even if they don’t, almost two billion have no access to toilets.

In their new book, The Worth of Water: Our Story of Chasing Solutions to the World’s Greatest Challenge, Matt Damon and Gary White tell the story of their unlikely alliance to ensure that water and sanitation access is available to everyone. 

They join us to talk about the years they’ve spent exploring and testing, sometimes getting answers to the problem wrong before they got them right. 

Matt Damon and Gary White are the founders of Water.com & WaterEquity, a merger of Damon’s H20 African Foundation and White’s WaterPartners International. 

Actor, producer and screenwriter, Matt Damon is considered among Hollywood’s most recognizable stars, having come to prominence in Good Will Hunting and playing the title role in Saving Private Ryan, the antihero in The Talented Mr. Ripley and Jason Bourne in the Bourne franchise, among many others. 

A civil and environmental engineer, Gary White has been an advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative, the recipient of a World Social Impact Award from the World Policy Institute, a Schwab Foundation and Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneur, and a recipient of the Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

Hint for the Average Socialite: Register now.

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