Shows
80,000 Hours Podcast#242 – Will MacAskill on how we survive the 'intelligence explosion,' AI character, and the case for 'viatopia'Hundreds of millions already turn to AI on the most personal of topics — therapy, political opinions, and how to treat others. And as AI takes over more of the economy, the character of these systems will shape culture on an even grander scale, ultimately becoming “the personality of most of the world’s workforce.”So… should they be designed to push us towards the better angels of our nature? Or simply do as we ask? Will MacAskill, philosopher and senior research fellow at Forethought, has been thinking through that and the other thorniest issues that come up in designi...
2026-04-223h 09
80,000 Hours Podcast#241 – Richard Moulange on how now AI codes viable genomes from scratch and outperforms virologists at lab work — what could go wrong?Last September, scientists used an AI model to design genomes for entirely new bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). They then built them in a lab. Many were viable. And despite being entirely novel some even outperformed existing viruses from that family.That alone is remarkable. But as today's guest — Dr Richard Moulange, one of the world's top experts on 'AI–Biosecurity' — explains, it's just one of many data points showing how AI is dissolving the barriers that have historically kept biological weapons out of reach.For years, experts have reassured us that 'tacit knowledge' — the hand...
2026-03-313h 07
80,000 Hours Podcast#235 – Ajeya Cotra on whether it’s crazy that every AI company’s safety plan is ‘use AI to make AI safe’Every major AI company has the same safety plan: when AI gets crazy powerful and really dangerous, they’ll use the AI itself to figure out how to make AI safe and beneficial. It sounds circular, almost satirical. But is it actually a bad plan?Today’s guest, Ajeya Cotra, recently placed 3rd out of 413 participants forecasting AI developments and is among the most thoughtful and respected commentators on where the technology is going.She thinks there’s a meaningful chance we’ll see as much change in the next 23 years as humanity faced in the last...
2026-02-172h 54
80,000 Hours Podcast#179 Classic episode – Randy Nesse on why evolution left us so vulnerable to depression and anxietyMental health problems like depression and anxiety affect enormous numbers of people and severely interfere with their lives. By contrast, we don’t see similar levels of physical ill health in young people. At any point in time, something like 20% of young people are working through anxiety or depression that’s seriously interfering with their lives — but nowhere near 20% of people in their 20s have severe heart disease or cancer or a similar failure in a key organ of the body other than the brain.From an evolutionary perspective, that’s to be expected, right? If your heart or...
2026-02-032h 51
80,000 Hours Podcast#145 Classic episode – Christopher Brown on why slavery abolition wasn't inevitableIn many ways, humanity seems to have become more humane and inclusive over time. While there’s still a lot of progress to be made, campaigns to give people of different genders, races, sexualities, ethnicities, beliefs, and abilities equal treatment and rights have had significant success.It’s tempting to believe this was inevitable — that the arc of history “bends toward justice,” and that as humans get richer, we’ll make even more moral progress.But today's guest Christopher Brown — a professor of history at Columbia University and specialist in the abolitionist movement and the British Empire...
2026-01-202h 56
80,000 Hours PodcastRob & Luisa chat kids, the 2016 fertility crash, and how the 50s invented parenting that makes us miserableGlobal fertility rates aren’t just falling: the rate of decline is accelerating. From 2006 to 2016, fertility dropped gradually, but since 2016 the rate of decline has increased 4.5-fold. In many wealthy countries, fertility is now below 1.5. While we don’t notice it yet, in time that will mean the population halves every 60 years.Rob Wiblin is already a parent and Luisa Rodriguez is about to be, which prompted the two hosts of the show to get together to chat about all things parenting — including why it is that far fewer people want to join them raising kids than did in...
2025-11-251h 59
80,000 Hours Podcast#223 – Neel Nanda on leading a Google DeepMind team at 26 – and advice if you want to work at an AI company (part 2)At 26, Neel Nanda leads an AI safety team at Google DeepMind, has published dozens of influential papers, and mentored 50 junior researchers — seven of whom now work at major AI companies. His secret? “It’s mostly luck,” he says, but “another part is what I think of as maximising my luck surface area.”Video, full transcript, and links to learn more: https://80k.info/nn2This means creating as many opportunities as possible for surprisingly good things to happen:Write publicly.Reach out to researchers whose work you admire.Say yes to unusual projects that seem a little...
2025-09-151h 46
80k After HoursHighlights: #216 – Ian Dunt on why governments in Britain and elsewhere can’t get anything done – and how to fix itWhen you have a system where ministers almost never understand their portfolios, civil servants change jobs every few months, and MPs don’t grasp parliamentary procedure even after decades in office — is the problem the people, or the structure they work in?Political journalist Ian Dunt studies the systemic reasons governments succeed and fail. And in his book How Westminster Works …and Why It Doesn’t, he argues that Britain’s government dysfunction and multi-decade failure to solve its key problems stems primarily from bad incentives and bad processes.These highlights are from episode #216 of The 80,000...
2025-05-2730 min
80,000 Hours PodcastEmergency pod: Did OpenAI give up, or is this just a new trap? (with Rose Chan Loui)When attorneys general intervene in corporate affairs, it usually means something has gone seriously wrong. In OpenAI’s case, it appears to have forced a dramatic reversal of the company’s plans to sideline its nonprofit foundation, announced in a blog post that made headlines worldwide.The company’s sudden announcement that its nonprofit will “retain control” credits “constructive dialogue” with the attorneys general of California and Delaware — corporate-speak for what was likely a far more consequential confrontation behind closed doors. A confrontation perhaps driven by public pressure from Nobel Prize winners, past OpenAI staff, and community organisations.
2025-05-081h 02
80k After HoursHighlights: #213 – Will MacAskill on AI causing a “century in a decade” — and how we’re completely unpreparedThe 20th century saw unprecedented change: nuclear weapons, satellites, the rise and fall of communism, third-wave feminism, the internet, postmodernism, game theory, genetic engineering, the Big Bang theory, quantum mechanics, birth control, and more. Now imagine all of it compressed into just 10 years.That’s the future Will MacAskill — philosopher and researcher at the Forethought Centre for AI Strategy — argues we need to prepare for in his new paper “Preparing for the intelligence explosion.” Not in the distant future, but probably in three to seven years.These highlights are from episode #213 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast: Will MacAs...
2025-03-2533 min
80,000 Hours PodcastEmergency pod: Judge plants a legal time bomb under OpenAI (with Rose Chan Loui)When OpenAI announced plans to convert from nonprofit to for-profit control last October, it likely didn’t anticipate the legal labyrinth it now faces. A recent court order in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the company suggests OpenAI’s restructuring faces serious legal threats, which will complicate its efforts to raise tens of billions in investment.As nonprofit legal expert Rose Chan Loui explains, the court order set up multiple pathways for OpenAI’s conversion to be challenged. Though Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied Musk’s request to block the conversion before a trial, she expedited proceedings to the fal...
2025-03-0736 min
80,000 Hours PodcastAGI disagreements and misconceptions: Rob, Luisa, & past guests hash it outWill LLMs soon be made into autonomous agents? Will they lead to job losses? Is AI misinformation overblown? Will it prove easy or hard to create AGI? And how likely is it that it will feel like something to be a superhuman AGI?With AGI back in the headlines, we bring you 15 opinionated highlights from the show addressing those and other questions, intermixed with opinions from hosts Luisa Rodriguez and Rob Wiblin recorded back in 2023.Check out the full transcript on the 80,000 Hours website.You can decide whether the views we expressed (and...
2025-02-103h 12
80,000 Hours Podcast#124 Classic episode – Karen Levy on fads and misaligned incentives in global development, and scaling deworming to reach hundreds of millionsIf someone said a global health and development programme was sustainable, participatory, and holistic, you'd have to guess that they were saying something positive. But according to today's guest Karen Levy — deworming pioneer and veteran of Innovations for Poverty Action, Evidence Action, and Y Combinator — each of those three concepts has become so fashionable that they're at risk of being seriously overrated and applied where they don't belong.Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in March 2022.Links to learn more, highlights, and full transcript.Such concepts might even cause harm — trying to make a proj...
2025-02-073h 10
80,000 Hours Podcast#138 Classic episode – Sharon Hewitt Rawlette on why pleasure and pain are the only things that intrinsically matterWhat in the world is intrinsically good — good in itself even if it has no other effects? Over the millennia, people have offered many answers: joy, justice, equality, accomplishment, loving god, wisdom, and plenty more.The question is a classic that makes for great dorm-room philosophy discussion. But it’s hardly just of academic interest. The issue of what (if anything) is intrinsically valuable bears on every action we take, whether we’re looking to improve our own lives, or to help others. The wrong answer might lead us to the wrong project and render our efforts to imp...
2025-01-222h 25
80,000 Hours Podcast#140 Classic episode – Bear Braumoeller on the case that war isn’t in declineIs war in long-term decline? Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature brought this previously obscure academic question to the centre of public debate, and pointed to rates of death in war to argue energetically that war is on the way out.But that idea divides war scholars and statisticians, and so Better Angels has prompted a spirited debate, with datasets and statistical analyses exchanged back and forth year after year. The lack of consensus has left a somewhat bewildered public (including host Rob Wiblin) unsure quite what to believe.Today's guest, professor in...
2025-01-082h 48
80,000 Hours Podcast2024 Highlightapalooza! (The best of The 80,000 Hours Podcast this year)"A shameless recycling of existing content to drive additional audience engagement on the cheap… or the single best, most valuable, and most insight-dense episode we put out in the entire year, depending on how you want to look at it." — Rob WiblinIt’s that magical time of year once again — highlightapalooza! Stick around for one top bit from each episode, including:How to use the microphone on someone’s mobile phone to figure out what password they’re typing into their laptopWhy mercilessly driving the New World screwworm to extinction could be the most compassionate thing humani...
2024-12-272h 50
80,000 Hours PodcastParenting insights from Rob and 8 past guestsWith kids very much on the team's mind we thought it would be fun to review some comments about parenting featured on the show over the years, then have hosts Luisa Rodriguez and Rob Wiblin react to them. Links to learn more and full transcript.After hearing 8 former guests’ insights, Luisa and Rob chat about:Which of these resonate the most with Rob, now that he’s been a dad for six months (plus an update at nine months).What have been the biggest surprises for Rob in becoming a parent.How Rob's dealt with...
2024-11-081h 35
80k After HoursHighlights: #204 – Nate Silver on making sense of SBF, and his biggest critiques of effective altruismElection forecaster Nate Silver gives his takes on: how effective altruism could be better, the stark tradeoffs we faced with COVID, whether the 13 Keys to the White House is "junk science," how to tell whose election predictions are better, and if venture capitalists really take risks.This is a selection of highlights from episode #204 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast: Nate Silver on making sense of SBF, and his biggest critiques of effective altruism. These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — so if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the fu...
2024-10-3019 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#204 – Nate Silver on making sense of SBF, and his biggest critiques of effective altruismRob Wiblin speaks with FiveThirtyEight election forecaster and author Nate Silver about his new book: On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything.Links to learn more, highlights, video, and full transcript.On the Edge explores a cultural grouping Nate dubs “the River” — made up of people who are analytical, competitive, quantitatively minded, risk-taking, and willing to be contrarian. It’s a tendency he considers himself a part of, and the River has been doing well for itself in recent decades — gaining cultural influence through success in finance, technology, gambling, philanthropy, and politics, among other pursuits.
2024-10-161h 57
80k After HoursHighlights: #197 – Nick Joseph on whether Anthropic’s AI safety policy is up to the taskThis is a selection of highlights from episode #197 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast. These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:Nick Joseph on whether Anthropic’s AI safety policy is up to the taskAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights:Rob's intro (00:00:00)What Anthropic's responsible scaling policy commits the company to doing (00:00:17)Why Nick is a big fan of the RSP appr...
2024-09-0522 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#197 – Nick Joseph on whether Anthropic's AI safety policy is up to the taskThe three biggest AI companies — Anthropic, OpenAI, and DeepMind — have now all released policies designed to make their AI models less likely to go rogue or cause catastrophic damage as they approach, and eventually exceed, human capabilities. Are they good enough?That’s what host Rob Wiblin tries to hash out in this interview (recorded May 30) with Nick Joseph — one of the original cofounders of Anthropic, its current head of training, and a big fan of Anthropic’s “responsible scaling policy” (or “RSP”). Anthropic is the most safety focused of the AI companies, known for a culture that treats the ri...
2024-08-222h 29
80k After HoursHighlights: #194 – Vitalik Buterin on defensive acceleration and how to regulate AI when you fear governmentThis is a selection of highlights from episode #194 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:Vitalik Buterin on defensive acceleration and how to regulate AI when you fear governmentAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:Rob’s intro (00:00:00)Vitalik's "d/acc" alternative (00:00:14)Biodefence (00:05:31)How much do people actually disagree? (00:09:49)Distrust of authority is a big...
2024-08-1235 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#194 – Vitalik Buterin on defensive acceleration and how to regulate AI when you fear government"If you’re a power that is an island and that goes by sea, then you’re more likely to do things like valuing freedom, being democratic, being pro-foreigner, being open-minded, being interested in trade. If you are on the Mongolian steppes, then your entire mindset is kill or be killed, conquer or be conquered … the breeding ground for basically everything that all of us consider to be dystopian governance. If you want more utopian governance and less dystopian governance, then find ways to basically change the landscape, to try to make the world look more like mountains and rivers...
2024-07-263h 04
Clearer Thinking with Spencer GreenbergSpencer on The 80,000 Hours Podcast discussing money & happiness and hype vs. value (with Rob Wiblin) Read the full transcript here. NOTE: Spencer appeared as a guest on The 80,000 Hours Podcast back in March, and this episode is our release of that recording. Thanks to the folks at The 80,000 Hours Podcast for sharing both their audio and transcript with us! Does money make people happy? What's the difference between life satisfaction and wellbeing? In other contexts, critics are quick to point out that correlation does not equal causation; so why do they so often seem to ignore such equations when they appear in research about the relationships between money and happiness...
2024-07-112h 34
80,000 Hours Podcast#191 (Part 2) – Carl Shulman on government and society after AGIThis is the second part of our marathon interview with Carl Shulman. The first episode is on the economy and national security after AGI. You can listen to them in either order!If we develop artificial general intelligence that's reasonably aligned with human goals, it could put a fast and near-free superhuman advisor in everyone's pocket. How would that affect culture, government, and our ability to act sensibly and coordinate together?It's common to worry that AI advances will lead to a proliferation of misinformation and further disconnect us from reality. But in today's conversation...
2024-07-052h 20
80,000 Hours Podcast#184 – Zvi Mowshowitz on sleeping on sleeper agents, and the biggest AI updates since ChatGPTMany of you will have heard of Zvi Mowshowitz as a superhuman information-absorbing-and-processing machine — which he definitely is. As the author of the Substack Don’t Worry About the Vase, Zvi has spent as much time as literally anyone in the world over the last two years tracking in detail how the explosion of AI has been playing out — and he has strong opinions about almost every aspect of it. Links to learn more, summary, and full transcript.In today’s episode, host Rob Wiblin asks Zvi for his takes on:US-China negotiationsWhether AI progress...
2024-04-113h 31
80k After HoursRobert Wright & Rob Wiblin on the truth about effective altruismThis is a cross-post of an interview Rob Wiblin did on Robert Wright's Nonzero podcast in January 2024. You can get access to full episodes of that show by subscribing to the Nonzero Newsletter. They talk about Sam Bankman-Fried, virtue ethics, the growing influence of longtermism, what role EA played in the OpenAI board drama, the culture of local effective altruism groups, where Rob thinks people get EA most seriously wrong, what Rob fears most about rogue AI, the double-edged sword of AI-empowered governments, and flattening the curve of AI's social disruption.And if you enjoy...
2024-04-042h 08
80,000 Hours Podcast#180 – Hugo Mercier on why gullibility and misinformation are overratedThe World Economic Forum’s global risks survey of 1,400 experts, policymakers, and industry leaders ranked misinformation and disinformation as the number one global risk over the next two years — ranking it ahead of war, environmental problems, and other threats from AI.And the discussion around misinformation and disinformation has shifted to focus on how generative AI or a future super-persuasive AI might change the game and make it extremely hard to figure out what was going on in the world — or alternatively, extremely easy to mislead people into believing convenient lies.But this week’s guest, c...
2024-02-212h 36
Increments#63 - Recycling is the DumpsClose your eyes, and think of a bright and pristine, clean and immaculately run recycling center, green'r than a giant's thumb. Now think of a dirty, ugly, rotting landfill, stinking in the mid-day sun. Of these two scenarios, which, do you reckon, is worse for the environment?
In this episode, Ben and Vaden attempt to reduce and refute a few reused canards about recycling and refuse, by rereading Rob Wiblin's excellent piece which addresses the aformentioned question: What you think about landfill and recycling is probably totally wrong. Steel yourselves for this one folks, because you may...
2024-02-141h 06
"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player AnalysisNathan on The 80,000 Hours Podcast: AI Scouting, OpenAI's Safety Record, and Redteaming Frontier ModelsIn today's conversation, Nathan joins Rob Wiblin, host of The 80,000 Hours Podcast to discuss why we need more AI scouts, OpenAI's safety record, and redteaming frontier models. If you need an ecommerce platform, check out our sponsor Shopify: https://shopify.com/cognitive for a $1/month trial period.We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com.SPONSORS:
2023-12-273h 53
80k After HoursBenjamin Todd on the history of 80,000 Hours"The very first office we had was just a balcony in an Oxford College dining hall. It was totally open to the dining hall, so every lunch and dinner time it would be super noisy because it'd be like 200 people all eating below us. And then I think we just had a bit where we just didn't have an office, so we worked out of the canteen in the library for at least three months or something. And then it was only after that we moved into this tiny, tiny room at the back of an estate agent off...
2023-12-011h 50
80,000 Hours Podcast#172 – Bryan Caplan on why you should stop reading the newsIs following important political and international news a civic duty — or is it our civic duty to avoid it?It's common to think that 'staying informed' and checking the headlines every day is just what responsible adults do. But in today's episode, host Rob Wiblin is joined by economist Bryan Caplan to discuss the book Stop Reading the News: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life — which argues that reading the news both makes us miserable and distorts our understanding of the world. Far from informing us and enabling us to improve the worl...
2023-11-172h 23
80,000 Hours Podcast#170 – Santosh Harish on how air pollution is responsible for ~12% of global deaths — and how to get that number down"One [outrageous example of air pollution] is municipal waste burning that happens in many cities in the Global South. Basically, this is waste that gets collected from people's homes, and instead of being transported to a waste management facility or a landfill or something, gets burned at some point, because that's the fastest way to dispose of it — which really points to poor delivery of public services. But this is ubiquitous in virtually every small- or even medium-sized city. It happens in larger cities too, in this part of the world. "That's something that truly annoys me, be...
2023-11-012h 57
80,000 Hours Podcast#168 – Ian Morris on whether deep history says we're heading for an intelligence explosion"If we carry on looking at these industrialised economies, not thinking about what it is they're actually doing and what the potential of this is, you can make an argument that, yes, rates of growth are slowing, the rate of innovation is slowing. But it isn't. What we're doing is creating wildly new technologies: basically producing what is nothing less than an evolutionary change in what it means to be a human being. But this has not yet spilled over into the kind of growth that we have accustomed ourselves to in the fossil-fuel industrial era. That...
2023-10-242h 43
80,000 Hours Podcast#166 – Tantum Collins on what he’s learned as an AI policy insider at the White House, DeepMind and elsewhere"If you and I and 100 other people were on the first ship that was going to go settle Mars, and were going to build a human civilisation, and we have to decide what that government looks like, and we have all of the technology available today, how do we think about choosing a subset of that design space? That space is huge and it includes absolutely awful things, and mixed-bag things, and maybe some things that almost everyone would agree are really wonderful, or at least an improvement on the way that things work today. But that...
2023-10-123h 08
80,000 Hours Podcast#155 – Lennart Heim on the compute governance era and what has to come afterAs AI advances ever more quickly, concerns about potential misuse of highly capable models are growing. From hostile foreign governments and terrorists to reckless entrepreneurs, the threat of AI falling into the wrong hands is top of mind for the national security community.With growing concerns about the use of AI in military applications, the US has banned the export of certain types of chips to China.But unlike the uranium required to make nuclear weapons, or the material inputs to a bioweapons programme, computer chips and machine learning models are absolutely everywhere. So is...
2023-06-233h 12
80,000 Hours Podcast#153 – Elie Hassenfeld on 2 big picture critiques of GiveWell's approach, and 6 lessons from their recent workGiveWell is one of the world's best-known charity evaluators, with the goal of "searching for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar." It mostly recommends projects that help the world's poorest people avoid easily prevented diseases, like intestinal worms or vitamin A deficiency.But should GiveWell, as some critics argue, take a totally different approach to its search, focusing instead on directly increasing subjective wellbeing, or alternatively, raising economic growth?Today's guest — cofounder and CEO of GiveWell, Elie Hassenfeld — is proud of how much GiveWell has grown in the last five year...
2023-06-022h 56
80k After HoursLuisa and Robert Long on how to make independent research more funIn this episode of 80k After Hours, Luisa Rodriguez and Robert Long have an honest conversation about the challenges of independent research.Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.They cover:Assigning probabilities when you’re really uncertainStruggles around self-belief and imposter syndromeThe importance of sharing work even when it feels terribleBalancing impact and fun in a jobAnd some mistakes researchers often makeWho this episode is for:People pursuing independent researchPeople who struggle with self-beliefPeople who feel a pull towards pursuing a career they don’t actually wantW...
2023-03-1443 min
The Giving What We Can Podcast#15 - How to best use your career | Rob Wiblin of the 80,000 Hours PodcastWe were lucky to be joined by Rob Wiblin, Director of Research at 80,000 Hours as well as the host of the 80,000 Hours Podcast with Rob Wiblin back in the middle of last year. In this interview, we hear about what 80,000 Hours does and how to find an impactful career. Rob also discusses how laziness was a key factor in creating the 80,000 Hours Podcast and why people might benefit from thinking less about the social impact of their work.
To listen to the 80,000 Hours Podcast with Rob Wiblin visit: https://80000hours.org/podcast/
Check out 80,000 Hours...
2023-02-2039 min
80k After HoursMarcus Davis on Rethink PrioritiesIn this episode of 80k After Hours, Rob Wiblin interviews Marcus Davis about Rethink Priorities.Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.They cover:Interventions to help wild animalAquatic noiseRethink Priorities strategyMistakes that RP has made since it was foundedCareers in global priorities researchAnd the most surprising thing Marcus has learned at RPWho this episode is for:People who want to learn about Rethink PrioritiesPeople interested in a career in global priorities researchPeople open to novel ways to help wild animalsWho this episode isn’t fo...
2022-12-131h 00
80,000 Hours PodcastRob's thoughts on the FTX bankruptcyIn this episode, usual host of the show Rob Wiblin gives his thoughts on the recent collapse of FTX.
Click here for an official 80,000 Hours statement.
And here are links to some potentially relevant 80,000 Hours pieces:
• Episode #24 of this show – Stefan Schubert on why it’s a bad idea to break the rules, even if it’s for a good cause.
• Is it ever OK to take a harmful job in order to do more good? An in-depth analysis
• What are the 10 most harmful jobs?
• Wa...
2022-11-2305 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#140 – Bear Braumoeller on the case that war isn't in declineIs war in long-term decline? Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature brought this previously obscure academic question to the centre of public debate, and pointed to rates of death in war to argue energetically that war is on the way out. But that idea divides war scholars and statisticians, and so Better Angels has prompted a spirited debate, with datasets and statistical analyses exchanged back and forth year after year. The lack of consensus has left a somewhat bewildered public (including host Rob Wiblin) unsure quite what to believe. Today's guest, professor in...
2022-11-082h 47
80,000 Hours Podcast#138 – Sharon Hewitt Rawlette on why pleasure and pain are the only things that intrinsically matterWhat in the world is intrinsically good — good in itself even if it has no other effects? Over the millennia, people have offered many answers: joy, justice, equality, accomplishment, loving god, wisdom, and plenty more. The question is a classic that makes for great dorm-room philosophy discussion. But it's hardly just of academic interest. The issue of what (if anything) is intrinsically valuable bears on every action we take, whether we’re looking to improve our own lives, or to help others. The wrong answer might lead us to the wrong project and render our efforts to impr...
2022-09-302h 24
80k After HoursKuhan Jeyapragasan on effective altruism university groupsIn this episode of 80k After Hours, Rob Wiblin interviews Kuhan Jeyapragasan about effective altruism university groups.From 2015 to 2020, Kuhan did an undergrad and then a master's in maths and computer science at Stanford — and did a lot to organise and improve the EA group on campus.Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.Rob and Kuhan cover:The challenges of making a group appealing and accepting of everyoneThe concrete things Kuhan did to grow the successful Stanford EA groupWhether local groups are turning off some people who should be interested in...
2022-09-211h 00
80k After HoursAndrés Jiménez Zorrilla on the Shrimp Welfare ProjectIn this episode of 80k After Hours, Rob Wiblin interviews Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla about the Shrimp Welfare Project, which he cofounded in 2021. It's the first project in the world focused on shrimp welfare specifically and now has six full-time staff.Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.They cover:The evidence for shrimp sentienceHow farmers and the public feel about shrimpThe scale of the problemWhat shrimp farming looks likeThe killing process, and other welfare issuesShrimp Welfare Project’s strategyHistory of shrimp welfare workWhat it’s like working in India and VietnamHow to hel...
2022-09-051h 14
80k After HoursSpace governance (Article)In this episode of 80k After Hours, Fin Moorhouse reads his problem profile on space governance.Here’s the original piece if you’d like to learn more.If you want to hear more from Fin, you should check out his podcast Hear This Idea, which showcases new thinking in philosophy, the social sciences, and effective altruism. And you can see a bunch of other things he's up to on his website.You might also want to check out these relevant pieces:Space governance is important, tractable and neglected — Tobias BaumannAn Informal Review...
2022-06-3046 min
80k After HoursClay Graubard and Robert de Neufville on forecasting the war in UkraineIn this episode of 80k After Hours, Rob Wiblin interviews Clay Graubard and Robert de Neufville about forecasting the war between Russia and Ukraine.Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.They cover:Their early predictions for the warThe performance of the Russian militaryThe risk of use of nuclear weaponsThe most interesting remaining topics on Russia and UkraineGeneral lessons we can take from the warThe evolution of the forecasting spaceWhat Robert and Clay were reading back in FebruaryForecasters vs. subject matter expertsWays to get involved with the forecasting communityImpressive past predictionsAnd more
2022-05-261h 59
80,000 Hours Podcast#127 – Sam Bankman-Fried on taking a high-risk approach to crypto and doing goodOn this episode of the show, host Rob Wiblin interviews Sam Bankman-Fried.
This interview was recorded in February 2022, and released in April 2022.
But on November 11 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried's company, FTX, filed for bankruptcy, and all staff at the Future Fund resigned — and the surrounding events led Rob to record a new intro on December 1st 2022 for this episode.
• Read 80,000 Hours' statement on these events here.
• You can also listen to host Rob’s reaction to the collapse of FTX on this podcast feed, above episode 140, or here.
• Rob has shared...
2022-04-143h 20
80k After HoursMichelle and Habiba on what they’d tell their younger selves, and the impact of the 1-1 teamIn this episode of 80k After Hours — Rob continues to interview his 80,000 Hours colleagues Michelle Hutchinson and Habiba Islam about the 1-1 team.Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript. This is the second of a two-part interview. You can find the first part on the original 80,000 Hours Podcast feed.In this part, they cover:Whether just encouraging someone young to aspire to more than they currently are is one of the most impactful ways to spend half an hourHow much impact the one-on-one team has, the biggest challenges they face as...
2022-03-091h 04
80k After HoursBe more ambitious: a rational case for dreaming big (if you want to do good) (Article)In this episode of 80k After Hours, Habiba Islam reads Benjamin Todd’s article “Be More Ambitious: a rational case for dreaming big (if you want to do good)”. Here’s the original article if you’d like to learn more.You might also want to check out these pieces:
A (free) weekly career planning course for positive impact
How much risk to take?
Expected value: how can we know what makes a difference when uncertain?
And 3 key career stages
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most press...
2022-02-2817 min
80k After HoursAlex Lawsen on his advice for studentsIn this episode of 80k After Hours, Keiran Harris interviews 80,000 Hours advisor (and former high school teacher) Alex Lawsen about his advice for students.Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.They cover:When half-assing something is a good ideaWhen you should actually learn things vs. just trying to seem smartWhy you should shift your focus over the academic yearNovel tips for preparing for examsWhat to do if you struggle with motivationWhat to do when you have bad teachersHow students should think about exploring and experimentingBad approaches to learningHow to think about personal...
2022-02-282h 24
80k After HoursRob and Keiran on the philosophy of The 80,000 Hours PodcastIn this episode of 80k After Hours, Rob Wiblin and Keiran Harris are interviewed by Kearney Capuano and Aaron Bergman of the new podcast ‘All Good’ about what goes on behind-the-scenes at the 80,000 Hours Podcast.Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.We cover:The history and philosophy of The 80,000 Hours PodcastThe nuts and bolts of how we make the showRob’s bad habits as an interviewerTopics we try to avoidCritiques of the showThe pros and cons of podcasting vs. other mediumsOur position in the effective altruism communityWhether there’s an optimism bias in the EA co...
2022-02-281h 53
80k After HoursIntroducing 80k After Hours80k After Hours is a podcast by the team that brings you The 80,000 Hours Podcast.Here Rob Wiblin and Keiran Harris briefly explain what to expect from the new show.
2022-02-2513 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#121 – Matthew Yglesias on avoiding the pundit's fallacy and how much military intervention can be used for goodIf you read polls saying that the public supports a carbon tax, should you believe them? According to today's guest — journalist and blogger Matthew Yglesias — it's complicated, but probably not. Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. Interpreting opinion polls about specific policies can be a challenge, and it's easy to trick yourself into believing what you want to believe. Matthew invented a term for a particular type of self-delusion called the 'pundit's fallacy': "the belief that what a politician needs to do to improve his or her political standing is do what the pundi...
2022-02-163h 04
80,000 Hours Podcast#115 – David Wallace on the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics and its implicationsQuantum mechanics — our best theory of atoms, molecules, and the subatomic particles that make them up — underpins most of modern physics. But there are varying interpretations of what it means, all of them controversial in their own way. Famously, quantum theory predicts that with the right setup, a cat can be made to be alive and dead at the same time. On the face of it, that sounds either meaningless or ridiculous. According to today’s guest, David Wallace — professor at the University of Pittsburgh and one of the world's leading philosophers of physics — there are three br...
2021-11-123h 09
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)Effective altruism in a nutshellEffective Altruism: Ten Global Problems is a collection of ten top episodes of the 80,000 Hours Podcast, designed to bring you up to speed on ten pressing issues the effective altruism community is working to solve.Here the host of the show — Rob Wiblin — briefly explains what effective altruism is all about, and what to expect from the rest of this series.
2021-10-0409 min
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)One: Toby Ord on existential risksIn 2020, Oxford academic and 80,000 Hours trustee Dr Toby Ord released his book The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity. It's about how our long-term future could be better than almost anyone believes, but also how humanity's recklessness is putting that future at grave risk — in Toby's reckoning, a 1 in 6 chance of being extinguished this century.Toby is a famously good explainer of complex issues — a bit of a modern Carl Sagan character — so we thought this would be a perfect introduction to the problem of existential risks.Full transcript, related links, and summary of this i...
2021-10-033h 13
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)Two: Rachel Glennerster on global povertyIf I told you it’s possible to deliver an extra year of ideal primary-level education for 30 cents, would you believe me? Hopefully not – the claim is absurd on its face.But it may be true nonetheless. The very best education interventions are phenomenally cost-effective, but they’re not the kinds of things you’d expect, says Dr Rachel Glennerster — who we chose to introduce the problem of global poverty. Full transcript, related links, and summary of this interviewThis episode first broadcast on the regular 80,000 Hours Podcast feed on December 20, 2018. Some related episodes include:#13 – Cla...
2021-10-031h 33
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)Three: Andy Weber on pandemics and nuclear warsCOVID-19 has provided a vivid reminder of the damage biological threats can do. But the threat doesn’t come from natural sources alone. Weaponized contagious diseases — which were abandoned by the United States, but developed in large numbers by the Soviet Union, right up until its collapse — have the potential to spread globally and kill just as many as an all-out nuclear war.For five years, Andy Weber, was the US’ Assistant Secretary of Defense responsible for biological and other weapons of mass destruction. Andy’s current mission is to spread the word that while bioweapons are terrifying...
2021-10-031h 54
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)Four: Brian Christian on artificial intelligenceBrian Christian is a bestselling author with a particular knack for accurately communicating difficult or technical ideas from both mathematics and computer science.The 80,000 Hours team found his new book The Alignment Problem to be an insightful and comprehensive review of the state of the research into making advanced artificial intelligence useful and reliably safe, and we thought he'd be a great person to introduce the problem.Full transcript, related links, and summary of this interviewThis episode first broadcast on the regular 80,000 Hours Podcast feed on March 5, 2021. Some related episodes include:#44 – Dr Paul Ch...
2021-10-032h 54
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)Five: Lewis Bollard on factory farmingEvery year tens of billions of animals are raised in terrible conditions in factory farms before being killed for human consumption. Despite the enormous scale of suffering this causes, the issue is largely neglected: every year, only about $290 million is spent tackling the problem globally (for comparison, annual climate change philanthropy is estimated to be $8–12 billion).Since 2015, Lewis Bollard has led Open Philanthropy’s programme on farmed animal welfare, where he has conducted extensive research into the best ways to end animal suffering in factory farms as soon as possible. He might be the single best...
2021-10-032h 31
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)Six: Jennifer Doleac on criminal justice reformThe killing of George Floyd has prompted a great deal of debate over whether the US should shrink its police departments. The research literature suggests that the presence of police officers does reduce crime, though they’re not cheap, and as is increasingly recognised, impose substantial harms on the populations they are meant to be protecting, especially communities of colour.So maybe we ought to shift our focus to unconventional but effective approaches to crime prevention — approaches that would shrink the need for police or prisons and the human toll they bring with them.J...
2021-10-032h 17
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)Seven: Ezra Klein on journalismHow many words in U.S. newspapers have been spilled on tax policy in the past five years? And how many words on CRISPR? Or meat alternatives? Or how AI may soon automate the majority of jobs?When people look back on this era, is the interesting thing going to have been fights over whether or not the top marginal tax rate was 39.5% or 35.4%, or is it going to be that human beings started to take control of human evolution; that we stood on the brink of eliminating immeasurable levels of suffering on factory farms; and...
2021-10-031h 45
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)Eight: Mark Lynas on climate changeA golf-ball sized lump of uranium can deliver more than enough power to cover all your lifetime energy use. To get the same energy from coal, you’d need 3,200 tonnes of the stuff — a mass equivalent to 800 adult elephants, which would go on to produce more than 11,000 tonnes of CO2. That’s about 11,000 tonnes more than the uranium.Many people aren’t comfortable with the danger posed by nuclear power. But given the climatic stakes, it’s worth asking: Just how much more dangerous is it compared to fossil fuels?According to today’s guest, Mark Lynas —...
2021-10-032h 06
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)Nine: Dave Denkenberger on feeding the world through catastrophesIf a nuclear winter or asteroid impact blocked the sun for years, our inability to grow food would result in billions dying of starvation, right? According to Dr Dave Denkenberger, co-author of Feeding Everyone No Matter What: no. If he’s to be believed, nobody need starve at all.Even without the sun, Dave sees the Earth as a bountiful food source. Mushrooms farmed on decaying wood. Bacteria fed with natural gas. Fish and mussels supported by sudden upwelling of ocean nutrients – and many more.Dr Denkenberger is an Assistant Professor at the Univ...
2021-10-032h 56
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)Ten: Persis Eskander on wild animal sufferingMost animals are hunted by predators, and constantly have to remain vigilant lest they be killed, and perhaps experience the terror of being eaten alive. Resource competition often leads to chronic hunger or starvation. Their diseases and injuries are never treated. In winter wild animals freeze to death and in droughts they die of heat or thirst.There are fewer than 20 people in the world dedicating their lives to researching these problems.But according to Persis Eskander, if we sum up the negative experiences of all wild animals, their sheer number – trillions to qu...
2021-10-032h 35Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours (October 2021)What's nextNow you've finished Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems, here's what we suggest you do next.And if you’ve listened to this series and found the ideas resonated with you, our one-on-one team might be able to help you apply them to your career. We can talk to you about career options, make introductions in your chosen fields, and help you work out next steps on a free careers call. Apply now.
2021-10-0302 min
Hear This IdeaBen Todd on Choosing a Career and Defining LongtermismBen Todd is the CEO & founder of 80,000 Hours, and helped to start the effective altruism movement.
80,000 Hours is a non-profit that provides free research and support to help people find careers that effectively tackle the world’s most pressing problems.
In our interview, we discuss:
Why your choice of career could be the most important ethical decision you ever get to make;
80K’s ‘problem, solution, personal fit’ framework for choosing a career;
Whether longtermism should be considered a research project or a social movement;
The idea of using leverage to multiply the difference you're a...
2021-08-2300 minHear This Idea35. Ben Todd on Choosing a Career and Defining LongtermismBen Todd is the CEO & founder of 80,000 Hours, and helped to start the effective altruism movement.
80,000 Hours is a non-profit that provides free research and support to help people find careers that effectively tackle the world’s most pressing problems.
In our interview, we discuss:
Why your choice of career could be the most important ethical decision you ever get to make;
80K’s ‘problem, solution, personal fit’ framework for choosing a career;
Whether longtermism should be considered a research project or a social movement;
The idea of using leverage to multiply the differen...
2021-08-2359 min
AffixEpisode 28: We shouldn't have talked about tri-cam-eralism without Cam - SPECIAL GUEST Please contact us or support us on Patreon!A discussion of aging and wisdom, more forms of government that we should try, and Chris exhorts you, yes you specifically, to become a billionaire. You can also find us on discord or redditBig list of coffee bets - now also on Melange app. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------I'm just going to put a link to Marginal Revolution here. I feel like all we do is reference blogs we found there first.Rob Wiblin is the director of research at 80,000 hours. H...
2021-08-081h 10
Increments#28 (C&R Series, Ch. 9) - Why is Logic Applicable to Reality?Why do logic and mathematics work so well in the world? Why do they seem to describe reality? Why do they they enable us to design circuit boards, build airplanes, and listen remotely to handsome and charming podcast hosts who rarely go off topic?
To answer these questions, we dive into Chapter 9 of Conjectures and Refutations: Why are the Calculi of Logic and Arithmetic Applicable to Reality?.
But before we get to that, we touch on some of the good stuff: evolutionary psychology, cunnilingus, and why Robin is better than Batman.
References:
...
2021-07-191h 01
80,000 Hours Podcast#101 – Robert Wright on using cognitive empathy to save the worldIn 2003, Saddam Hussein refused to let Iraqi weapons scientists leave the country to be interrogated. Given the overwhelming domestic support for an invasion at the time, most key figures in the U.S. took that as confirmation that he had something to hide — probably an active WMD program.
But what about alternative explanations? Maybe those scientists knew about past crimes. Or maybe they’d defect. Or maybe giving in to that kind of demand would have humiliated Hussein in the eyes of enemies like Iran and Saudi Arabia.
According to today’s guest Robert Wright, host o...
2021-05-281h 36
Effective Altruism: An Introduction – 80,000 Hours (April 2021)Effective altruism in a nutshell'Effective Altruism: An Introduction' is a collection of ten top episodes of The 80,000 Hours Podcast specifically selected to help listeners quickly get up to speed on the school of thought known as effective altruism.Here the host of the show — Rob Wiblin — briefly explains what effective altruism is all about, and what to expect from the rest of this series.
2021-04-1309 min
80,000 Hours PodcastRob Wiblin on how he ended up the way he isThis is a crosspost of an episode of the Eureka Podcast.
The interviewer is Misha Saul, a childhood friend of Rob's, who he has known for over 20 years. While it's not an episode of our own show, we decided to share it with subscribers because it's fun, and because it touches on personal topics that we don't usually cover on the show.
Rob and Misha cover:
• How Rob's parents shaped who he is (if indeed they did)
• Their shared teenage obsession with philosophy, which eventually led to Rob working at 80,000 Hours
• How th...
2021-02-031h 57
EurekaPortrait of an Effective Altruist as a Young Man (my conversation with Rob Wiblin)Rob Wiblin is a founder and leader of the modern Effective Altruism movement…. and one of my oldest friends!
This conversation is different because there’s not much about Effective Altruism – there’s Rob’s excellent podcast and prolific writing for that. This conversation is a chat between old mates, and it tries to track our intellectual development since we were teens. Is that self-indulgent? Maybe! But it’s the conversation I was excited to have with Rob.
We cover a lot:
What Rob learnt from his parents
How we shaped each other’s...
2021-02-031h 57
80,000 Hours PodcastRob Wiblin on self-improvement and research ethicsThis is a crosspost of an episode of the Clearer Thinking Podcast: 022: Self-Improvement and Research Ethics with Rob Wiblin.
Rob chats with Spencer Greenberg, who has been an audience favourite in episodes 11 and 39 of the 80,000 Hours Podcast, and has now created this show of his own.
Among other things they cover:
• Is trying to become a better person a good strategy for self-improvement
• Why Rob thinks many people could achieve much more by finding themselves a line manager
• Why interviews on this show are so damn l...
2021-01-132h 30Clearer Thinking with Spencer GreenbergSelf-Improvement and Research Ethics (with Rob Wiblin) Read the full transcript here. What are the best strategies for improving ourselves? How are line managers useful? Why does Rob prefer long-form content for the 80,000 Hours podcast? What are the sorts of things humans value and why? In what ways do research ethics considerations fail to achieve their stated objectives? Why are prediction markets useful? Rob Wiblin is the Head of Research at 80,000 Hours where he investigates how people can do more good in the course of their career and produces a long-form interview show called the 80,000 Hours Podcast. He studied genetics and economics...
2021-01-082h 32
EconTalkRob Wiblin and Russ Roberts on Charity, Science, and UtilitarianismRob Wiblin, host of the 80,000 Hours podcast, interviews EconTalk host Russ Roberts about charity, the reliability of data to inform decision-making, and utilitarianism.
2020-11-021h 47
80,000 Hours - Narrations[Article] “If you care about social impact, why is voting important?” by Robert WiblinCould one vote — your vote — swing an entire election? Most of us abandoned this seeming fantasy not too long after we learned how elections work.But the chances are higher than you might think. If you’re in a competitive district in a competitive election, the odds that your vote will flip a national election often fall between 1 in 1 million and 1 in 10 million.That’s a very small probability, but it’s big compared to your chances of winning the lottery, and it’s big relative to the enormous impact governments can have on the world.
2020-10-2832 min
Spedup Conversation With TylerRob Wiblin interviews Tyler on *Stubborn Attachments*In this special episode, Rob Wiblin of 80,000 Hours has the super-sized conversation he wants to have with Tyler about Stubborn Attachments. In addition to a deep examination of the ideas in the book, the conversation ranges far and wide across Tyler's thinking, including why we won't leave the galaxy, the unresolvable clash between the claims of culture and nature, and what Tyrone would have to say about the book, and more. Transcript and links Order Stubborn Attachments from Stripe Press here. Follow Rob on Twitter Follow Tyler on Twitter
2020-10-222h 16
The Good Life: Andrew Leigh in ConversationRob Wiblin on effective altruism and making the most of your 80,000 hours (Rebroadcast)Rob Wiblin on effective altruism and making the most of your 80,000 hours.
2020-10-021h 08
Increments#10 (C&R Series, Ch. 4) - TraditionTraditions, what are you good for? Absolutely nothing? In this episode of Increments, Ben and Vaden begin their series on Conjectures and Refutations by looking at the role tradition plays in society, and examine one tradition in particular - the critical tradition. No monkeys were harmed in the making of this episode. References:- C&R, Chapter 4: Towards a Rational Theory of TraditionPodcast shoutout:- Jennifer Doleac and Rob Wiblin on policing, law and incarceration- James Foreman Jr. on the US criminal...
2020-08-131h 15
The ValmyRob Wiblin interviews Tyler on *Stubborn Attachments* Podcast: Conversations with Tyler Episode: Rob Wiblin interviews Tyler on *Stubborn Attachments*Release date: 2018-10-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this special episode, Rob Wiblin of 80,000 Hours has the super-sized conversation he wants to have with Tyler about Stubborn Attachments. In addition to a deep examination of the ideas in the book, the conversation ranges far and wide across Tyler's thinking, including why we won't leave the galaxy, the unresolvable clash between the claims of culture and nature, and what Tyrone would have to...
2020-06-082h 30
Talk of Today80,000 hours with Rob WiblinThis podcast has the potential to significantly change the way you spend your time and money. And i’m not being hyperbolic.
In this episode I’m speaking with Rob Wiblin from 80,000 hours, an organisation that looks into how people can spend their most precious resource, their time, but more specifically, the time they spend working, to maximise for humanity’s well being. The number 80,000 hours is roughly how long someone spends working in their lifetime, hence the name.
It’s an organisation with its foundation in effective altruism, which is a philosophy and social movement that aims to apply evidence...
2020-02-2243 min
Talk of Today80,000 hours with Rob WiblinThis podcast has the potential to significantly change the way you spend your time and money. And i’m not being hyperbolic.In this episode I’m speaking with Rob Wiblin from 80,000 hours, an organisation that looks into how people can spend their most precious resource, their time, but more specifically, the time they spend working, to maximise for humanity’s well being. The number 80,000 hours is roughly how long someone spends working in their lifetime, hence the name.It’s an organisation with its foundation in effective altruism, which is a philosophy and social movement...
2020-02-2243 min
80,000 Hours PodcastRob & Howie on what we do and don't know about 2019-nCoVTwo 80,000 Hours researchers, Robert Wiblin and Howie Lempel, record an experimental bonus episode about the new 2019-nCoV virus.See this list of resources, including many discussed in the episode, to learn more.In the 1h15m conversation we cover:• What is it? • How many people have it? • How contagious is it? • What fraction of people who contract it die?• How likely is it to spread out of control?• What's the range of plausible fatalities worldwide?• How does it compare to other epidemics?• What don't we know and why? • What a...
2020-02-031h 18
Love Your WorkDon't Sleep in Your Kitchen. Don't Meditate With Your Phone.You are what you surround yourself with. When your environment changes, your mind changes with it. We recently talked about how your environment can put you in a creative mental state, when we talked to Donald M. Rattner, on episode 201. But what about the objects you surround yourself with? They're a part of your environment, too. The devices we use are a part of our environment, and the devices we use affect our mental state, too. We're already pretty intentional about how we change our environment for the exact activities we're doing. You cook in...
2019-11-1410 min
80,000 Hours PodcastRob Wiblin on plastic straws, nicotine, doping, & whether changing the long-term is really possibleToday's episode is a compilation of interviews I recently recorded for two other shows, Love Your Work and The Neoliberal Podcast.
If you've listened to absolutely everything on this podcast feed, you'll have heard four interviews with me already, but fortunately I don't think these two include much repetition, and I've gotten a decent amount of positive feedback on both.
First up, I speak with David Kadavy on his show, Love Your Work.
This is a particularly personal and relaxed interview. We talk about all sorts of things, including nicotine gum, plastic straw bans...
2019-09-263h 14Love Your Work80,000 Hours to Change the World – Rob WiblinRob Wiblin (@robertwiblin) is the Director of Research at an organization called 80,000 Hours, and host of the 80,000 Hours Podcast. 80,000 hours being the amount of hours you will spend working in a typical career. 80,000 Hours is dedicated to finding out just how effective various careers are, and who is suited for those careers. We all want the work we do to matter. But how do we really know whether the work we do does matter? The foundation of 80,000 Hours is a philosophy called Effective Altruism. The EA community asks tough questions about what are the most...
2019-08-012h 18
80,000 Hours PodcastRob Wiblin on human nature, new technology, and living a happy, healthy & ethical lifeThis is a cross-post of some interviews Rob did recently on two other podcasts — Mission Daily (from 2m) and The Good Life (from 1h13m).
Some of the content will be familiar to regular listeners — but if you’re at all interested in Rob’s personal thoughts, there should be quite a lot of new material to make listening worthwhile.
The first interview is with Chad Grills. They focused largely on new technologies and existential risks, but also discuss topics like:
• Why Rob is wary of fiction
• Egalitarianism in the evolution of hunter gatherers
• How to s...
2019-05-142h 18
Mission DailyFacing Existential Risks with Rob WiblinWhat major disasters can cause the extinction of the human race? It’s not a question the average person considers on a regular basis, but it’s one that Rob Wiblin attempts to answer every day. Rob is the Director of Research at 80,000 Hours, an organization which aims to find the highest-impact ways for talented graduates to do good through their career. In today’s interview, he joins Chad to talk about the future of technology, politics, and humanity. He also shares how 80,000 Hours is helping get more people to think about finding a career that has a real...
2019-04-251h 15The Good Life: Andrew Leigh in Conversation85. Rob Wiblin on effective altruism and making the most of your 80,000 hoursRob Wiblin on effective altruism and making the most of your 80,000 hours.
To find Rob's 80,000 Hours podcasts, and learn more about his work with 80,000 Hours, click here.
2019-03-141h 08
80,000 Hours PodcastJulia Galef and Rob Wiblin on an updated view of the best ways to help humanityThis is a cross-post of an interview Rob did with Julia Galef on her podcast Rationally Speaking. Rob and Julia discuss how the career advice 80,000 Hours gives has changed over the years, and the biggest misconceptions about our views.
The topics will be familiar to the most fervent fans of this show — but we think that if you’ve listened to less than about half of the episodes we've released so far, you’ll find something new to enjoy here. Julia may be familiar to you as the guest on episode 7 of the show, way back in...
2019-02-1756 min
Teeme head paremini!Holger Kiigega efektiivse altruismi filosoofiast ja vastuväidetestRisto Uuk rääkis selles taskuhäälingu osas Holger Kiigega, kes on Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkooli filosoofia lektor ja Tallinna Ülikooli filosoofia doktorant. Nad vestlesid efektiivse altruismi filosoofiast ja liikumisest, efektiivsest altruismist kui tagajärje-eetikast, põhjustest efektiivse altruismiga tegelemiseks, võimalikest vastuväidetest efektiivsele altruismile ja ka sellest, kuidas karjääri läbi võimalikult palju head teha.
Allikad, mis vestlust toetasid või jutuks tulid:
- Efektiivse altruismi raamat “Doing Good Better”: https://www.kriso.ee/doing-good-better-how-effective-altruism-db-9781592409662.html
- Efektiivse altruismi raamatu “Doing Good Better” arvustus: https://novaator.err.ee/693795/raamatuarvustus-kuidas-teha-head-paremini
- William MacAskill efektiivse altruismi olulisusest: https://commons.pacificu.edu/cgi/viewco...
2019-02-141h 11
Rationally Speaking PodcastRationally Speaking #226 - Rob Wiblin on "An updated view of the best ways to help humanity"If you want to do as much good as possible with your career, what problems should you work on, and what jobs should you consider? This episode features Rob Wiblin, director of research for effective altruist organization 80,000 Hours, and the host of the 80,000 Hours podcast. Julia and Rob discuss how the career advice 80,000 Hours gives has changed over the years, and the biggest misconceptions about their views. Their conversation covers topics like: - Should everyone try to get a job in finance and donate their income? - The case for working to reduce global catastrophic risks - Why reducing risk...
2019-02-0553 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#6 Classic episode - Dr Toby Ord on why the long-term future matters more than anything elseRebroadcast: this episode was originally released in September 2017.
Of all the people whose well-being we should care about, only a small fraction are alive today. The rest are members of future generations who are yet to exist. Whether they’ll be born into a world that is flourishing or disintegrating – and indeed, whether they will ever be born at all – is in large part up to us. As such, the welfare of future generations should be our number one moral concern.
This conclusion holds true regardless of whether your moral framework is based on common...
2018-12-1400 min
Conversations with TylerRob Wiblin interviews Tyler on *Stubborn Attachments*In this special episode, Rob Wiblin of 80,000 Hours has the super-sized conversation he wants to have with Tyler about Stubborn Attachments. In addition to a deep examination of the ideas in the book, the conversation ranges far and wide across Tyler's thinking, including why we won't leave the galaxy, the unresolvable clash between the claims of culture and nature, and what Tyrone would have to say about the book, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded September 21st, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follo...
2018-10-162h 30
80,000 Hours PodcastRob Wiblin on the art/science of a high impact careerToday's episode is a cross-post of an interview I did with The Jolly Swagmen Podcast which came out this week. I recommend regular listeners skip to 24 minutes in to avoid hearing things they already know. Later in the episode I talk about my contrarian views, utilitarianism, how 80,000 Hours has changed and will change in the future, where I think EA is performing worst, how to use social media most effectively, and whether or not effective altruism is any sacrifice.
Subscribe and get the episode by searching for '80,000 Hours' in your podcasting app.
Blog post of the...
2018-06-081h 31
Future of Life Institute Podcast80,000 Hours with Rob Wiblin and Brenton MayerIf you want to improve the world as much as possible, what should you do with your career? Should you become a doctor, an engineer or a politician? Should you try to end global poverty, climate change, or international conflict? These are the questions that the research group, 80,000 Hours tries to answer. They try to figure out how individuals can set themselves up to help as many people as possible in as big a way as possible.
To learn more about their research, Ariel invited Rob Wiblin and Brenton Mayer of 80,000 Hours to the FLI podcast. In this podcast we...
2017-09-2958 min
Future of Life Institute Podcast80,000 Hours with Rob Wiblin and Brenton MayerIf you want to improve the world as much as possible, what should you do with your career? Should you become a doctor, an engineer or a politician? Should you try to end global poverty, climate change, or international conflict? These are the questions that the research group, 80,000 Hours tries to answer. They try to figure out how individuals can set themselves up to help as many people as possible in as big a way as possible.
To learn more about their research, Ariel invited Rob Wiblin and Brenton Mayer of 80,000 Hours to the FLI podcast. In this podcast we...
2017-09-2958 min