His $200M Donation Created the World's Most Prestigious Award

Name: His $200M Donation Created the World's Most Prestigious Award
Uploaded: 2025-01-24T16:01:00+00:00
Duration: 59 s
Channel: Sam Parr
Description: In this YouTube segment, Sam Parr tells the story of 19th‑century Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel. Nobel discovered that stabilizing nitroglycerin produced…

24 Jan 2025 · 1 min

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In this YouTube segment, Sam Parr tells the story of 19th‑century Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel. Nobel discovered that stabilizing nitroglycerin produced the explosive dynamite, which made him extremely wealthy (equivalent to $200‑$300 million today). After his brother’s death, a newspaper mistakenly published an obituary for Nobel titled “The merchant of death is no longer,” condemning him for profiting from death. Distressed by this mischaracterization, Nobel rewrote his will two years before his own death, allocating 95 % of his fortune to establish a foundation that would award annual prizes to those who most benefited humanity, including the Nobel Peace Prize. Parr highlights iconic laureates such as Marie Curie, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ernest Hemingway, framing the Nobel Peace Prize as a pinnacle of human achievement.

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In the 1800s in Sweden, there is this guy named Alfred. We basically found out that nitroglycerin, if you mess with it in a certain way, you can make it explosive. And thus was the creation of dynamite. He got super rich. He was worth something like the equivalent of $200 or $300 million in today's money. And when his brother died, someone ran an obituary for Alfred on accident. They used the wrong brother. And the obituary started with, "The merchant of death is no longer." And they go on to explain how Alfred created dynamite and how it revolutionized the way people were murdered. Afterwards, he goes, "That's ridiculous. I can't be known as as the person who is the merchant of death. I have to change this. And so 2 years before he died, he decided to rewrite his will, and he left 95% of his assets towards a foundation where he created the rules. And the rules were, I'm going to give $1 million to the person who impacted humanity the most. And thus became the Nobel Peace Prize. Winners have been like Marie Curie, Martin Luther King, Ernest Hemingway, like a lot of these like pretty like groundbreaking people. Get a Nobel Peace Prize, the greatest thing ever.