MTV co-founder and former Viacom CEO Tom Freston on getting fired twice, rebuilding media in Afghanistan, and nearly two decades chairing the ONE Campaign.
Before MTV, Tom was running a clothing import business between New Delhi and Kabul. It made millions, then disappeared almost overnight when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and new US quotas cut off imports from India. He was 33, back in New York, and in debt.
What came next: helping build MTV into a network in 75 countries, running Viacom, making an offer to buy Facebook in 2005 (Zuckerberg said no), being blocked from buying YouTube, and getting fired over MySpace.
Then the third chapter. An orphanage, hospital, clinic, and school in Burma. Twelve years helping build Afghanistan's leading independent TV network. And after the Taliban returned, turning that network into a classroom for girls shut out of school, with nearly 2,000 episodes of biology, math, and more.
We talk with Tom about why injustice moves people more than pity, why his biggest philanthropic risk has been his time, and why he thinks you should give to the things you're most curious about.
LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE
Tom's memoir, Unplugged: Adventures from MTV to Timbuktu
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/book/9781668089798
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/unplugged/id6741072419
ONE Campaign: https://www.one.org
MOBY Group (Afghan media company behind TOLO TV): https://mobygroup.com
New America: https://www.newamerica.org
CHAPTERS
0:00 Introducing Tom Freston
1:43 Quitting advertising for Kabul and New Delhi
3:00 Building a clothing business between India and Afghanistan
5:12 Losing everything at 33
6:34 "Travel's the greatest classroom in the world"
9:06 "I Want My MTV": how MTV broke through
12:47 Taking MTV global
14:20 Running MTV Networks and Viacom
19:02 Trying to buy Facebook and YouTube
22:00 MySpace, Sumner Redstone, and getting fired
24:13 The chainsaw and the walk out of 1515 Broadway
27:19 Reinvention: Burma, Oprah, and Bono
29:14 Joining the ONE Campaign
32:06 Building Afghanistan's leading TV network
36:48 Teaching girls on TV under the Taliban
41:40 Finding purpose in a third chapter
44:13 What moves people from awareness to action
51:57 Board leadership at ONE
56:59 Imposter syndrome
58:01 "My main risk has been in my time"
1:01:47 Foreign aid and soft power
1:05:41 Three Questions and a Tip
Hosted by Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley.
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