Finding and Surviving Your Calling | Christopher Swain | TEDxCheltenham

Open water swimmer and human rights advocate Christopher Swain shares his thoughts on finding the work you are meant to do in the world, moving through fear and hardship, and negotiating the new understandings and personal changes brought about by this type of journey. Christopher Swain was the first person in history to swim the entire lengths of the Columbia, Charles, Hudson, Mohawk, and Mystic Rivers, as well as Lake Champlain, the Gowanus Canal, Newtown Creek, and large sections of the Atlantic coast of the United States. As part of his mission to bring awareness to waterway pollution, Swain has stroked through water laced with arsenic, cyanide, dioxin, coal tar residue, radioactive waste, PCBs, neuro-toxic pesticides, trash, and raw sewage. Swain documents his swims through photographs, video, social media posts, stakeholder interviews, and the collection of scientific data. Since 1996, Swain has shared his message of clean water and universal human rights with cities, towns, nonprofit organizations, foundations, companies, indigenous peoples, government agencies, and over 80,000 K-12 students across North America. Stories about Swain's swims have received more than four billion media impressions worldwide. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx