Shows
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#219 – Toby Ord on graphs AI companies would prefer you didn't (fully) understandThe era of making AI smarter just by making it bigger is ending. But that doesn’t mean progress is slowing down — far from it. AI models continue to get much more powerful, just using very different methods, and those underlying technical changes force a big rethink of what coming years will look like.Toby Ord — Oxford philosopher and bestselling author of The Precipice — has been tracking these shifts and mapping out the implications both for governments and our lives.Links to learn more, video, highlights, and full transcript: https://80k.info/to25As he exp...
2025-06-242h 48
Don't Panic YetPhilosophical Foundations: Bonus Audio Recording with Cameron GreenThis audio-only addendum is a segment from the conversation with Cameron that didn't make it into the last episode, but was too good to delete. It contains some of the core philosophy that underpins the ideas in the main video release.Here's a summary of the topics that are touched upon:* Reclaiming Philosophy: Making philosophy accessible and relevant for everyone, beyond formal structures.* Analytical vs. Continental Philosophy: Key distinctions, with analytical focusing on logic and continental on broader ideas, emotions, and society.* Moral Philosophy Deep Dive: Discussing influential ideas from thinkers like Kant, Rawls, and the impactful work of...
2025-05-2932 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
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 PodcastEmergency pod: Elon tries to crash OpenAI's party (with Rose Chan Loui)On Monday Musk made the OpenAI nonprofit foundation an offer they want to refuse, but might have trouble doing so: $97.4 billion for its stake in the for-profit company, plus the freedom to stick with its current charitable mission.For a normal company takeover bid, this would already be spicy. But OpenAI’s unique structure — a nonprofit foundation controlling a for-profit corporation — turns the gambit into an audacious attack on the plan OpenAI announced in December to free itself from nonprofit oversight.As today’s guest Rose Chan Loui — founding executive director of UCLA Law’s Lowell Milke...
2025-02-1257 minDon't Panic YetCameron Green on the Triple Win of VeganismHosted by Simon Monsour
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:08 Let's talk about animals
00:11:00 Veganism popularity
00:13:29 How healthy is a vegan diet?
00:16:22 Naturalist arguments
00:20:26 Choices have consequences
00:24:44 Change is hard
00:27:40 Food as pleasure
00:30:55 Conversing about veganism
00:37:28 Why care at all?
00:39:03 The complexity of natural systems
00:44:09 Hubris and accidental progress
00:51:13 Human technology vs ecosystems
01:07:22 How does change come about?
01:09:12 Humans are amazing
Cameron Green has convened Animal...
2025-02-011h 12
Don't Panic YetMiles Whitaker : Fusion Party, Effective Altruism, UBI, and more...Hosted by Simon Monsour.
Miles Whitaker is the national campaign coordinator for Fusion Party Australia. He is active in multiple effective altruism groups, involved in social movements promoting justice, openness and fairness, and the use of innovative technologies to enhance our sense of community.
This is the soundtrack to the video version of the episode.
00:00 - The Polycrisis
02:14 - Fusion Party
13:08 - Winning Elections Vs Building Movements
23:19 - Trump = Harris? Money in Politics
26:36 - Technology vs Money for Enabling Change
31:19 - Effective Altruism : The Unifying Ideas
43:37 - EA vs Climate Change
49:38 - "Politician"
51:00...
2024-12-081h 12
80k After HoursHighlights: #198 – Meghan Barrett on challenging our assumptions about insectsThis is a selection of highlights from episode #198 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:Meghan Barrett on challenging our assumptions about insectsAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights:Luisa’s intro (00:00:00)Size diversity (00:00:16)Offspring, parental investment, and lifespan (00:03:18)Headless cockroaches (00:06:13)Is self-protective behaviour a reflex? (00:08:50)If insects feel pain, is it mild or severe? (00:11:54)Evolutionary pers...
2024-09-0923 min
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#200 – Ezra Karger on what superforecasters and experts think about existential risks"It’s very hard to find examples where people say, 'I’m starting from this point. I’m starting from this belief.' So we wanted to make that very legible to people. We wanted to say, 'Experts think this; accurate forecasters think this.' They might both be wrong, but we can at least start from here and figure out where we’re coming into a discussion and say, 'I am much less concerned than the people in this report; or I am much more concerned, and I think people in this report were missing major things.' But if y...
2024-09-042h 49
80k After HoursHighlights: #196 – Jonathan Birch on the edge cases of sentience and why they matterThis is a selection of highlights from episode #196 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:Jonathan Birch on the edge cases of sentience and why they matterAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:Luisa’s intro (00:00:00)The history of neonatal surgery without anaesthetic (00:00:23)Overconfidence around disorders of consciousness (00:03:17)Separating abortion from the issue of foetal sentience (00:07:26)The...
2024-08-3025 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#199 – Nathan Calvin on California’s AI bill SB 1047 and its potential to shape US AI policy"I do think that there is a really significant sentiment among parts of the opposition that it’s not really just that this bill itself is that bad or extreme — when you really drill into it, it feels like one of those things where you read it and it’s like, 'This is the thing that everyone is screaming about?' I think it’s a pretty modest bill in a lot of ways, but I think part of what they are thinking is that this is the first step to shutting down AI development. Or that if California does thi...
2024-08-291h 12
80k After HoursHighlights: #195 – Sella Nevo on who's trying to steal frontier AI models, and what they could do with themThis is a selection of highlights from episode #195 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:Sella Nevo on who's trying to steal frontier AI models, and what they could do with themAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:Luisa’s intro (00:00:00)Why protect model weights? (00:00:23)SolarWinds hack (00:03:51)Zero-days (00:08:16)Side-channel attacks (00:11:45)USB cables (00:15:11)Highlights put...
2024-08-1918 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#196 – Jonathan Birch on the edge cases of sentience and why they matter"In the 1980s, it was still apparently common to perform surgery on newborn babies without anaesthetic on both sides of the Atlantic. This led to appalling cases, and to public outcry, and to campaigns to change clinical practice. And as soon as [some courageous scientists] looked for evidence, it showed that this practice was completely indefensible and then the clinical practice was changed. People don’t need convincing anymore that we should take newborn human babies seriously as sentience candidates. But the tale is a useful cautionary tale, because it shows you how deep that overconfidence can run and ho...
2024-08-162h 01
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#195 – Sella Nevo on who's trying to steal frontier AI models, and what they could do with them"Computational systems have literally millions of physical and conceptual components, and around 98% of them are embedded into your infrastructure without you ever having heard of them. And an inordinate amount of them can lead to a catastrophic failure of your security assumptions. And because of this, the Iranian secret nuclear programme failed to prevent a breach, most US agencies failed to prevent multiple breaches, most US national security agencies failed to prevent breaches. So ensuring your system is truly secure against highly resourced and dedicated attackers is really, really hard." —Sella NevoIn today’s episode, host Luis...
2024-08-012h 08
80k After HoursHighlights: #193 – Sihao Huang on the risk that US–China AI competition leads to warThis is a selection of highlights from episode #193 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:Sihao Huang on the risk that US–China AI competition leads to warAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:Luisa’s intro (00:00:00)How advanced is Chinese AI? (00:00:25)Is China catching up to the US and UK? (00:05:14)Could China be a sour...
2024-07-3124 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #192 – Annie Jacobsen on what would happen if North Korea launched a nuclear weapon at the USThis is a selection of highlights from episode #192 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:Annie Jacobsen on what would happen if North Korea launched a nuclear weapon at the USAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:Luisa’s intro (00:00:00)The minutes after an incoming nuclear attack is detected (00:00:22)Deciding whether to retaliate (00:04:24)Russian misp...
2024-07-2523 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #191 (Part 2) – Carl Shulman on government and society after AGIThis is a selection of highlights from episode #191 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:Carl Shulman on government and society after AGIAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:How AI advisors could have saved us from COVID-19 (00:00:05)Why Carl doesn't support enforced pauses on AI research (00:06:34)Value lock-in (00:12:58)How democracies avoid coups (00:17:11)Building tr...
2024-07-1933 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#193 – Sihao Huang on navigating the geopolitics of US–China AI competition"You don’t necessarily need world-leading compute to create highly risky AI systems. The biggest biological design tools right now, like AlphaFold’s, are orders of magnitude smaller in terms of compute requirements than the frontier large language models. And China has the compute to train these systems. And if you’re, for instance, building a cyber agent or something that conducts cyberattacks, perhaps you also don’t need the general reasoning or mathematical ability of a large language model. You train on a much smaller subset of data. You fine-tune it on a smaller subset of data. And those sy...
2024-07-182h 23
80,000 Hours Podcast#192 – Annie Jacobsen on what would happen if North Korea launched a nuclear weapon at the US"Ring one: total annihilation; no cellular life remains. Ring two, another three-mile diameter out: everything is ablaze. Ring three, another three or five miles out on every side: third-degree burns among almost everyone. You are talking about people who may have gone down into the secret tunnels beneath Washington, DC, escaped from the Capitol and such: people are now broiling to death; people are dying from carbon monoxide poisoning; people who followed instructions and went into their basement are dying of suffocation. Everywhere there is death, everywhere there is fire."That iconic mushroom stem and cap that...
2024-07-121h 54
80k After HoursHighlights: #191 (Part 1) – Carl Shulman on the economy and national security after AGIThis is a selection of highlights from episode #191 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:Carl Shulman on the economy and national security after AGIAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:Intro (00:00:00)Robot nannies (00:00:23)Key transformations after an AI capabilities explosion (00:05:15)Objection: Shouldn't we be seeing economic growth rates increasing today? (00:10:28)Objection: Declining returns to...
2024-07-1135 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #190 – Eric Schwitzgebel on whether the US is consciousThis is a selection of highlights from episode #190 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:Eric Schwitzgebel on whether the US is consciousAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:Luisa’s intro (00:00:00)Can consciousness be nested? (00:00:18)Are our intuitions useless for thinking about these things? (00:05:45)Do small differences rule out consciousness? (00:09:43)Overlapping consciousnesses (00:13:26)Are we d...
2024-06-2122 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #189 – Rachel Glennerster on how “market shaping” could help solve climate change, pandemics, and other global problemsThis is a selection of highlights from episode #189 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:Rachel Glennerster on how “market shaping” could help solve climate change, pandemics, and other global problemsAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:Luisa's intro (00:00:00)What is market shaping? (00:00:25)Why some countries didn't have COVID vaccines sooner (00:05:04)Designing incentives for pull m...
2024-06-1226 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#190 – Eric Schwitzgebel on whether the US is conscious"One of the most amazing things about planet Earth is that there are complex bags of mostly water — you and me – and we can look up at the stars, and look into our brains, and try to grapple with the most complex, difficult questions that there are. And even if we can’t make great progress on them and don’t come to completely satisfying solutions, just the fact of trying to grapple with these things is kind of the universe looking at itself and trying to understand itself. So we’re kind of this bright spot of reflectiveness in the cos...
2024-06-072h 00
80k After HoursHighlights: #188 – Matt Clancy on whether science is goodThis is a selection of highlights from episode #188 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:Matt Clancy on whether science is goodAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:Luisa’s intro (00:00:00)How could scientific progress be net negative? (00:00:15)Non-philosophical reasons to discount the far-future (00:03:42)How technology generates huge benefits in our day-to-day lives (00:07:54)Can scie...
2024-06-0626 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #187 – Zach Weinersmith on how researching his book turned him from a space optimist into a “space bastard”This is a selection of highlights from episode #187 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:Zach Weinersmith on how researching his book turned him from a space optimist into a “space bastard”And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Chapters:A potted history of space exploration (00:00:23)Why space settlement (probably) won't make us rich (00:06:07)What happens to hum...
2024-05-2826 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#188 – Matt Clancy on whether science is good"Suppose we make these grants, we do some of those experiments I talk about. We discover, for example — I’m just making this up — but we give people superforecasting tests when they’re doing peer review, and we find that you can identify people who are super good at picking science. And then we have this much better targeted science, and we’re making progress at a 10% faster rate than we normally would have. Over time, that aggregates up, and maybe after 10 years, we’re a year ahead of where we would have been if we hadn’t done this kind of s...
2024-05-232h 40
80k After HoursHighlights: #186 – Dean Spears on why babies are born small in Uttar Pradesh, and how to save their livesThis is a selection of highlights from episode #186 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:Dean Spears on why babies are born small in Uttar Pradesh, and how to save their livesAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-05-1614 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#187 – Zach Weinersmith on how researching his book turned him from a space optimist into a "space bastard""Earth economists, when they measure how bad the potential for exploitation is, they look at things like, how is labour mobility? How much possibility do labourers have otherwise to go somewhere else? Well, if you are on the one company town on Mars, your labour mobility is zero, which has never existed on Earth. Even in your stereotypical West Virginian company town run by immigrant labour, there’s still, by definition, a train out. On Mars, you might not even be in the launch window. And even if there are five other company towns or five other settlements, they’re n...
2024-05-143h 06
80k After HoursHighlights: #185 – Lewis Bollard on the 7 most promising ways to end factory farming, and whether AI is going to be good or bad for animalsThis is a selection of highlights from episode #185 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:Lewis Bollard on the 7 most promising ways to end factory farming, and whether AI is going to be good or bad for animalsAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-05-0222 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#186 – Dean Spears on why babies are born small in Uttar Pradesh, and how to save their lives"I work in a place called Uttar Pradesh, which is a state in India with 240 million people. One in every 33 people in the whole world lives in Uttar Pradesh. It would be the fifth largest country if it were its own country. And if it were its own country, you’d probably know about its human development challenges, because it would have the highest neonatal mortality rate of any country except for South Sudan and Pakistan. Forty percent of children there are stunted. Only two-thirds of women are literate. So Uttar Pradesh is a place where there are lots of...
2024-05-011h 18
80k After HoursHighlights: #184 – Zvi Mowshowitz on sleeping on sleeper agents, and the biggest AI updates since ChatGPTThis is a selection of highlights from episode #184 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:Zvi Mowshowitz on sleeping on sleeper agents, and the biggest AI updates since ChatGPTAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-04-2529 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#185 – Lewis Bollard on the 7 most promising ways to end factory farming, and whether AI is going to be good or bad for animals"The constraint right now on factory farming is how far can you push the biology of these animals? But AI could remove that constraint. It could say, 'Actually, we can push them further in these ways and these ways, and they still stay alive. And we’ve modelled out every possibility and we’ve found that it works.' I think another possibility, which I don’t understand as well, is that AI could lock in current moral values. And I think in particular there’s a risk that if AI is learning from what we do as humans today, t...
2024-04-182h 33
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 HoursHighlights: #183 – Spencer Greenberg on causation without correlation, money and happiness, lightgassing, hype vs value, and moreThis is a selection of highlights from episode #183 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:Spencer Greenberg on causation without correlation, money and happiness, lightgassing, hype vs value, and moreAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-03-2921 min
80,000 Hours PodcastAI governance and policy (Article)Today’s release is a reading of our career review of AI governance and policy, written and narrated by Cody Fenwick.Advanced AI systems could have massive impacts on humanity and potentially pose global catastrophic risks, and there are opportunities in the broad field of AI governance to positively shape how society responds to and prepares for the challenges posed by the technology.Given the high stakes, pursuing this career path could be many people’s highest-impact option. But they should be very careful not to accidentally exacerbate the threats rather than mitigate them.If...
2024-03-2851 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #182 – Bob Fischer on comparing the welfare of humans, chickens, pigs, octopuses, bees, and moreThis is a selection of highlights from episode #182 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:Bob Fischer on comparing the welfare of humans, chickens, pigs, octopuses, bees, and moreAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-03-2632 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #181 – Laura Deming on the science that could keep us healthy in our 80s and beyondThis is a selection of highlights from episode #181 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:Laura Deming on the science that could keep us healthy in our 80s and beyondAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-03-2015 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#183 – Spencer Greenberg on causation without correlation, money and happiness, lightgassing, hype vs value, and more"When a friend comes to me with a decision, and they want my thoughts on it, very rarely am I trying to give them a really specific answer, like, 'I solved your problem.' What I’m trying to do often is give them other ways of thinking about what they’re doing, or giving different framings. A classic example of this would be someone who’s been working on a project for a long time and they feel really trapped by it. And someone says, 'Let’s suppose you currently weren’t working on the project, but you could join...
2024-03-142h 36
80k After HoursHighlights: #180 – Hugo Mercier on why gullibility and misinformation are overratedThis is a selection of highlights from episode #180 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:Hugo Mercier on why gullibility and misinformation are overratedAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-03-1125 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#182 – Bob Fischer on comparing the welfare of humans, chickens, pigs, octopuses, bees, and more"[One] thing is just to spend time thinking about the kinds of things animals can do and what their lives are like. Just how hard a chicken will work to get to a nest box before she lays an egg, the amount of labour she’s willing to go through to do that, to think about how important that is to her. And to realise that we can quantify that, and see how much they care, or to see that they get stressed out when fellow chickens are threatened and that they seem to have some sympathy for conspecifics....
2024-03-082h 21
80,000 Hours Podcast#181 – Laura Deming on the science that could keep us healthy in our 80s and beyond"The question I care about is: What do I want to do? Like, when I'm 80, how strong do I want to be? OK, and then if I want to be that strong, how well do my muscles have to work? OK, and then if that's true, what would they have to look like at the cellular level for that to be true? Then what do we have to do to make that happen? In my head, it's much more about agency and what choice do I have over my health. And even if I live the same number of...
2024-03-011h 37
80k After HoursHighlights: #179 – Randy Nesse on why evolution left us so vulnerable to depression and anxietyThis is a selection of highlights from episode #179 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:Randy Nesse on why evolution left us so vulnerable to depression and anxietyAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-02-2623 min
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
80k After HoursHighlights: #178 – Emily Oster on what the evidence actually says about pregnancy and parentingThis is a selection of highlights from episode #178 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:Emily Oster on what the evidence actually says about pregnancy and parentingAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-02-1523 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #177 – Nathan Labenz on recent AI breakthroughs and navigating the growing rift between AI safety and accelerationist campsThis is a selection of highlights from episode #177 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:Nathan Labenz on recent AI breakthroughs and navigating the growing rift between AI safety and accelerationist campsAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-02-0727 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#178 – Emily Oster on what the evidence actually says about pregnancy and parenting"I think at various times — before you have the kid, after you have the kid — it's useful to sit down and think about: What do I want the shape of this to look like? What time do I want to be spending? Which hours? How do I want the weekends to look? The things that are going to shape the way your day-to-day goes, and the time you spend with your kids, and what you're doing in that time with your kids, and all of those things: you have an opportunity to deliberately plan them. And you can then feel...
2024-02-012h 22
80k After HoursHighlights: #146 – Robert Long on why large language models like GPT (probably) aren’t consciousThis is a selection of highlights from episode #146 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:Robert Long on why large language models like GPT (probably) aren’t consciousAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-01-2520 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#177 – Nathan Labenz on recent AI breakthroughs and navigating the growing rift between AI safety and accelerationist campsBack in December we spoke with Nathan Labenz — AI entrepreneur and host of The Cognitive Revolution Podcast — about the speed of progress towards AGI and OpenAI's leadership drama, drawing on Nathan's alarming experience red-teaming an early version of GPT-4 and resulting conversations with OpenAI staff and board members.Links to learn more, video, highlights, and full transcript.Today we go deeper, diving into:What AI now actually can and can’t do, across language and visual models, medicine, scientific research, self-driving cars, robotics, weapons — and what the next big breakthrough might be.Why most people...
2024-01-242h 47
80k After HoursHighlights: #176 – Nathan Labenz on the final push for AGI, understanding OpenAI’s leadership drama, and red-teaming frontier modelsThis is a selection of highlights from episode #176 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:Nathan Labenz on the final push for AGI, understanding OpenAI’s leadership drama, and red-teaming frontier modelsAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-01-1533 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #175 – Lucia Coulter on preventing lead poisoning for $1.66 per childThis is a selection of highlights from episode #175 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:Lucia Coulter on preventing lead poisoning for $1.66 per childAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-01-0920 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #174 – Nita Farahany on the neurotechnology already being used to convict criminals and manipulate workersThis is a selection of highlights from episode #174 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:Nita Farahany on the neurotechnology already being used to convict criminals and manipulate workersAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2024-01-0325 min
80,000 Hours Podcast2023 Mega-highlights ExtravaganzaHappy new year! We've got a different kind of holiday release for you today. Rather than a 'classic episode,' we've put together one of our favourite highlights from each episode of the show that came out in 2023. That's 32 of our favourite ideas packed into one episode that's so bursting with substance it might be more than the human mind can safely handle.There's something for everyone here:Ezra Klein on punctuated equilibriumTom Davidson on why AI takeoff might be shockingly fastJohannes Ackva on political action versus lifestyle changesHannah Ritchie on how buying environmentally f...
2023-12-311h 53
80k After HoursHighlights: #173 – Jeff Sebo on digital minds, and how to avoid sleepwalking into a major moral catastropheThis is a selection of highlights from episode #173 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:Jeff Sebo on digital minds, and how to avoid sleepwalking into a major moral catastropheAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-12-1431 min
80k After HoursCareer review: AI safety technical researchIn this episode of 80k After Hours, Benjamin Hilton reads his AI safety technical research career review.Here’s the original piece if you’d like to learn more.You might also want to check out:The AI safety starter packOur problem profile on AI riskThe 80,000 Hours Podcast on Artificial Intelligence (a collection of 10 key AI episodes from our podcast)Edited by Simon Monsour.
2023-12-1251 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#174 – Nita Farahany on the neurotechnology already being used to convict criminals and manipulate workers"It will change everything: it will change our workplaces, it will change our interactions with the government, it will change our interactions with each other. It will make all of us unwitting neuromarketing subjects at all times, because at every moment in time, when you’re interacting on any platform that also has issued you a multifunctional device where they’re looking at your brainwave activity, they are marketing to you, they’re cognitively shaping you."So I wrote the book as both a wake-up call, but also as an agenda-setting: to say, what do we need to do...
2023-12-072h 00
80k After HoursHighlights: #147 – Spencer Greenberg on stopping valueless papers from getting into top journalsThis is a selection of highlights from episode #147 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:Spencer Greenberg on stopping valueless papers from getting into top journalsAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-12-0719 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #172 – Bryan Caplan on why you should stop reading the newsThis is a selection of highlights from episode #172 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:Bryan Caplan on why you should stop reading the newsAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-12-0126 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #148 – Johannes Ackva on unfashionable climate interventions that work, and fashionable ones that don’tThis is a selection of highlights from episode #148 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:Johannes Ackva on unfashionable climate interventions that work, and fashionable ones that don’tAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-11-2717 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #171 – Alison Young on how top labs have jeopardised public health with repeated biosafety failuresThis is a selection of highlights from episode #171 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:Alison Young on how top labs have jeopardised public health with repeated biosafety failuresAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-11-2122 min
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
80k After HoursHighlights: #170 – Santosh Harish on how air pollution is responsible for ~12% of global deaths — and how to get that number downThis is a selection of highlights from episode #170 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:Santosh Harish on how air pollution is responsible for ~12% of global deaths — and how to get that number downAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-11-1428 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #169 – Paul Niehaus on whether cash transfers cause economic growth, and keeping theft to acceptable levelsThis is a selection of highlights from episode #169 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:Paul Niehaus on whether cash transfers cause economic growth, and keeping theft to acceptable levelsAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-11-1017 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#171 – Alison Young on how top labs have jeopardised public health with repeated biosafety failures"Rare events can still cause catastrophic accidents. The concern that has been raised by experts going back over time, is that really, the more of these experiments, the more labs, the more opportunities there are for a rare event to occur — that the right pathogen is involved and infects somebody in one of these labs, or is released in some way from these labs. And what I chronicle in Pandora's Gamble is that there have been these previous outbreaks that have been associated with various kinds of lab accidents. So this is not a theoretical thing that can happen: it...
2023-11-091h 46
80k After HoursHighlights: #168 – Ian Morris on whether deep history says we’re heading for an intelligence explosionThis is a selection of highlights from episode #168 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:Ian Morris on whether deep history says we’re heading for an intelligence explosionAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-11-0928 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #167 – Seren Kell on the research gaps holding back alternative proteins from mass adoptionThis is a selection of highlights from episode #167 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:Seren Kell on the research gaps holding back alternative proteins from mass adoptionAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-11-0621 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #166 – Tantum Collins on what he’s learned as an AI policy insider at the White House, DeepMind and elsewhereThis is a selection of highlights from episode #166 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:Tantum Collins on what he’s learned as an AI policy insider at the White House, DeepMind and elsewhereAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-11-0424 min
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
80k After HoursHighlights: #165 – Anders Sandberg on war in space, whether civilisations age, and the best things possible in our universeThis is a selection of highlights from episode #165 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:Anders Sandberg on war in space, whether civilisations age, and the best things possible in our universeAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-11-0128 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #164 – Kevin Esvelt on cults that want to kill everyone, stealth vs wildfire pandemics, and how he felt inventing gene drivesThis is a selection of highlights from episode #164 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:Kevin Esvelt on cults that want to kill everyone, stealth vs wildfire pandemics, and how he felt inventing gene drivesAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-10-3027 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #163 – Toby Ord on the perils of maximising the good that you doThis is a selection of highlights from episode #163 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:Toby Ord on the perils of maximising the good that you doAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-10-2627 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #162 – Mustafa Suleyman on getting Washington and Silicon Valley to tame AIThis is a selection of highlights from episode #162 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:Mustafa Suleyman on getting Washington and Silicon Valley to tame AIAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
2023-10-2413 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #161 – Michael Webb on whether AI will soon cause job loss, lower incomes, and higher inequality — or the oppositeThis is a selection of highlights from episode #161 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:Michael Webb on whether AI will soon cause job loss, lower incomes, and higher inequality — or the oppositeAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
2023-10-1931 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #160 – Hannah Ritchie on why it makes sense to be optimistic about the environmentThis is a selection of highlights from episode #160 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:Hannah Ritchie on why it makes sense to be optimistic about the environmentAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
2023-10-1719 min
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
80k After HoursHighlights: #159 – Jan Leike on OpenAI’s massive push to make superintelligence safe in 4 years or lessThis is a selection of highlights from episode #159 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:Jan Leike on OpenAI’s massive push to make superintelligence safe in 4 years or lessAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
2023-10-0929 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #158 – Holden Karnofsky on how AIs might take over even if they’re no smarter than humans, and his four-part playbook for AI riskThis is a selection of highlights from episode #158 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:Holden Karnofsky on how AIs might take over even if they’re no smarter than humans, and his four-part playbook for AI riskAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
2023-10-0623 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#165 – Anders Sandberg on war in space, whether civilisations age, and the best things possible in our universe"Now, the really interesting question is: How much is there an attacker-versus-defender advantage in this kind of advanced future? Right now, if somebody's sitting on Mars and you're going to war against them, it's very hard to hit them. You don't have a weapon that can hit them very well. But in theory, if you fire a missile, after a few months, it's going to arrive and maybe hit them, but they have a few months to move away. Distance actually makes you safer: if you spread out in space, it's actually very hard to hit you.
2023-10-062h 48
80,000 Hours Podcast#164 – Kevin Esvelt on cults that want to kill everyone, stealth vs wildfire pandemics, and how he felt inventing gene drives"Imagine a fast-spreading respiratory HIV. It sweeps around the world. Almost nobody has symptoms. Nobody notices until years later, when the first people who are infected begin to succumb. They might die, something else debilitating might happen to them, but by that point, just about everyone on the planet would have been infected already. And then it would be a race. Can we come up with some way of defusing the thing? Can we come up with the equivalent of HIV antiretrovirals before it's too late?" — Kevin EsveltIn today’s episode, host Luisa Rodriguez inte...
2023-10-023h 03
80k After HoursHighlights: #157 – Ezra Klein on existential risk from AI and what DC could do about itThis is a selection of highlights from episode #157 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:Ezra Klein on existential risk from AI and what DC could do about itAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
2023-09-2619 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #156 – Markus Anderljung on how to regulate cutting-edge AI modelsThis is a selection of highlights from episode #156 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:Markus Anderljung on how to regulate cutting-edge AI modelsAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
2023-09-2222 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #155 – Lennart Heim on the compute governance era and what has to come afterThis is a selection of highlights from episode #155 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:Lennart Heim on the compute governance era and what has to come afterAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
2023-09-1521 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #154 – Rohin Shah on DeepMind and trying to fairly hear out both AI doomers and doubtersThis is a selection of highlights from episode #154 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:Rohin Shah on DeepMind and trying to fairly hear out both AI doomers and doubtersAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
2023-09-1222 min
The 80,000 Hours Podcast on Artificial Intelligence (September 2023)Eight: Tom Davidson on how quickly AI could transform the worldOriginally released in May 2023. It’s easy to dismiss alarming AI-related predictions when you don’t know where the numbers came from. For example: what if we told you that within 15 years, it’s likely that we’ll see a 1,000x improvement in AI capabilities in a single year? And what if we then told you that those improvements would lead to explosive economic growth unlike anything humanity has seen before? You might think, “Congratulations, you said a big number — but this kind of stuff seems crazy, so I’m going to keep scrolling thro...
2023-09-023h 01
80k After HoursHighlights: #153 – Elie Hassenfeld on two big picture critiques of GiveWell’s approach, and six lessons from their recent workThis is a selection of highlights from episode #153 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:Elie Hassenfeld on two big picture critiques of GiveWell’s approach, and six lessons from their recent workAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to sol...
2023-08-2819 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #152 – Joe Carlsmith on navigating serious philosophical confusionThis is a selection of highlights from episode #152 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:Joe Carlsmith on navigating serious philosophical confusionAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80,000 Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or read the tran...
2023-08-0812 min
80,000 Hours PodcastWe now offer shorter 'interview highlights' episodesOver on our other feed, 80k After Hours, you can now find 20-30 minute highlights episodes of our 80,000 Hours Podcast interviews. These aren’t necessarily the most important parts of the interview, and if a topic matters to you we do recommend listening to the full episode — but we think these will be a nice upgrade on skipping episodes entirely.Get these highlight episodes by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.Highlights put together by Simon...
2023-08-0506 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #151 – Ajeya Cotra on accidentally teaching AI models to deceive usThis is a selection of highlights from episode #151 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:Ajeya Cotra on accidentally teaching AI models to deceive usAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80,000 Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or...
2023-08-0225 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#158 – Holden Karnofsky on how AIs might take over even if they're no smarter than humans, and his 4-part playbook for AI riskBack in 2007, Holden Karnofsky cofounded GiveWell, where he sought out the charities that most cost-effectively helped save lives. He then cofounded Open Philanthropy, where he oversaw a team making billions of dollars’ worth of grants across a range of areas: pandemic control, criminal justice reform, farmed animal welfare, and making AI safe, among others. This year, having learned about AI for years and observed recent events, he's narrowing his focus once again, this time on making the transition to advanced AI go well.In today's conversation, Holden returns to the show to share his overall understanding of th...
2023-08-013h 13
80k After HoursHighlights: #150 – Tom Davidson on how quickly AI could transform the worldThis is a selection of highlights from episode #150 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:Tom Davidson on how quickly AI could transform the worldAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80,000 Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or...
2023-07-2530 min
80k After HoursHighlights: #149 – Tim LeBon on how altruistic perfectionism is self-defeatingThis is a selection of highlights from episode #149 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:Tim LeBon on how altruistic perfectionism is self-defeatingAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80,000 Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or read the...
2023-07-1321 min
80,000 Hours Podcast#156 – Markus Anderljung on how to regulate cutting-edge AI models"At the front of the pack we have these frontier AI developers, and we want them to identify particularly dangerous models ahead of time. Once those mines have been discovered, and the frontier developers keep walking down the minefield, there's going to be all these other people who follow along. And then a really important thing is to make sure that they don't step on the same mines. So you need to put a flag down -- not on the mine, but maybe next to it. And so what that looks like in practice is maybe once...
2023-07-102h 06
80,000 Hours Podcast#149 – Tim LeBon on how altruistic perfectionism is self-defeatingBeing a good and successful person is core to your identity. You place great importance on meeting the high moral, professional, or academic standards you set yourself. But inevitably, something goes wrong and you fail to meet that high bar. Now you feel terrible about yourself, and worry others are judging you for your failure. Feeling low and reflecting constantly on whether you're doing as much as you think you should makes it hard to focus and get things done. So now you're performing below a normal level, making you feel even more ashamed of yourself. Rinse a...
2023-04-123h 11
Don't Panic YetTracy Baker-Lawrence on the Psychology of Romantic RelationshipsHosted by Simon Monsour.
This is the audio from the original video here : https://youtu.be/-xbUdlwhcZI
Tracy Baker-Lawrence is a personality and relationship psychologist with over twenty years experience helping couples heal and deepen their connection. She discusses ways of preventing hurt, understanding needs, and nurturing growth within romantic relationships and in the world.
00:00 The Value of Psychology
03:00 Romantic Relationships
08:09 Using the Enneagram
22:29 The Role of Love
24:59 Early Intervention
27:50 Conflict and Growth in Long Term Relationships
34:41 Are Relationships Worth It?
37:00...
2022-12-0853 min
Don't Panic YetSEVEN DAYS Without Food, Technology, and People : Zachary Alexander on Fasting* Hosted by Simon Monsour - Don't Panic Yet : A Conversation with Zachary Alexander *
Zac is the coordinator of Movements For Global Sustainability, and frequently gives public lectures on a range of topics including economics, ancient history and critical thinking.
In this conversation we talk about Zac's experience of heading out alone into the Australian bush for a seven day fast with a difference - no food, no communication technology, and very limited clothes and equipment. It was a tough challenge that revealed much about how the mind and body reacts in such circumstances. Zac also gives his thoughts...
2021-08-1622 minDon't Panic YetDemocracy Today : A Conversation with Anita Diamond* Hosted by Simon Monsour - Don't Panic Yet, Episode 2 : A Conversation with Anita Diamond *
Anita has the rare experience of running for public office, specifically for the seat of Maiwar in the Queensland state election, and potentially having an effect on the final outcome of an election. At the heart of her campaign was the concept of direct democracy, in which citizens are given the opportunity to vote directly on laws and government programs. This is the launching point for our conversation which naturally moves into discussions of technology, capitalism and the role of corporations, big data, sustainability and
2021-06-2634 min
Don't Panic YetEscaping the Bubble : A Conversation with Brian Procopis* Hosted by Simon Monsour - Don't Panic Yet, Episode 1 : A Conversation with Brian Procopis *
From his days as a young Catholic priest working in Japan, to his current involvement with The Sweet Freedom Singers, Brian's community work has supported Asylum Seekers and Refugees, Indigenous people, those with physical and mental health issues, the homeless and many others in struggling sectors of society. As a published and award winning songwriter, musician and producer he uses music to great effect in this work, often collaborating with people in these communities to create original and powerful songs and works of art.
2021-03-3140 minDon't Panic YetEpisode Zero: Life, Genetics and Everything - A conversation With Sven ArnoldHosted by Simon Monsour
Unedited audio from the video podcast. Topics covered include genetic engineering, psychology and politics, A.I., free will, psychedelics, the nature of scientific thinking, economics and the free market, and the search for new ideas.
Sven has one of those amazing minds that simply absorbs knowledge, and can make cognitive advances in six impossibly hard topics before breakfast. A cytogeneticist, and a dedicated advocate for environmentally sustainable practices, he describes himself as a proactive, pro-science skeptic. I describe him as an autodidactic philomath.
Thanks to Luke from Bulimbastudios.com for graphic...
2021-02-0831 min