TED Radio Hour

A 30-year old woman finds out she has a viral infection attacking her heart that will kill her unless she has a transplant. Four years later she gets a new heart and goes on to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro. Inspiring story right? Will it move you to become an organ donor? Not necessarily. And that's a problem for the 120 thousand people waiting for organs in the United States. Behavior change is hard. That's something that organ donor advocates know firsthand. Polls indicate most Americans support organ donations, but less than half are actually registered as donors. So how do you get people to make the leap from thought to action? In today's show, the story of one woman who believes she is close to an answer by partnering with one of the more hated American institutions.