Day 6

Why do-gooders sometimes make us uncomfortable

Author Larissa MacFarquhar defends the do-gooder in her new book "Strangers Drowning: Grappling with Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help."
Rescue workers transport evacuees in a rubber boat through floodwaters at Oyama in Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo on Sept. 10, 2015. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)

What's the difference between 'doing good' and being a do-gooder? And why is it that do-gooders tend to make people so uncomfortable? 

Author Larissa MacFarquhar investigates this skepticism in her new book "Strangers Drowning: Grappling with Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help." Brent talks to her about the motives of do-gooders and one family's controversial decision to adopt twenty children.