00:00You most likely know me as a movie actor, and so I just want to acknowledge publicly that I know
00:06I'm the dumbest person in the room
00:08and the least qualified person to be talking right now.
00:12But I'm here simply because a month ago I donated my left kidney to a person I don't know.
00:18I heard about this altruistic kidney donation.
00:22I heard about the concept of it, the possibility for it, on a podcast,
00:26and I knew within 10 seconds this is what I should be doing,
00:28and I mailed away to get a DNA kit.
00:32The need is shocking and tragic, as everybody here probably imagines or knows.
00:36There's about 90,000 people awaiting kidney in the United States.
00:41I never heard from anybody or read an interview with anybody who said,
00:44you know, I wrestled with the decision for a long time and then finally decided to do it.
00:48I never saw that.
00:49It was always, I heard about it and I signed up.
00:51One guy even said, when I heard about kidney donations,
00:54my first thought was why is there not a line outside the hospital of people waiting to do it,
00:59which was the thought I had.
01:00I walked in, I was like, I couldn't believe I got an appointment
01:01because it seemed like a thing we should, I mean, sorry,
01:04but it seemed like a thing that we should all just be doing,
01:06which makes me wonder if the problem is not convincing people to do this,
01:10but simply finding the people who already would.
01:13You know, because when those people hear about it,
01:15it seems to me they don't hesitate.
01:16They just sign up.
01:17And so anyway, that's the reason I wanted to speak tonight
01:18and to briefly co-opt this, you know, gathering of brilliant minds,
01:21otherwise brilliant minds,
01:22because I imagine there is no more qualified group of people
01:25who could figure out how to reach these particular people,
01:27how to shrink that, you know, that horrible number,
01:3290,000 people, to close to zero.
01:36Thank you so much.
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