Podcast Episodes

What if we had fixed social media?

We really enjoyed hearing all of your questions for our annual Ask Us Anything episode. There was one question that kept coming up: what might a different world look like? The broken incentives behin…

Published on 7 hours ago

Ask Us Anything 2025

Episode 119

It's been another big year in AI. The AI race has accelerated to breakneck speed, with frontier labs pouring hundreds of billions into increasingly powerful models—each one smarter, faster, and more …

Published on 2 weeks ago

The Crisis That United Humanity—and Why It Matters for AI

Episode 118

In 1985, scientists in Antarctica discovered a hole in the ozone layer that posed a catastrophic threat to life on earth if we didn’t do something about it. Then, something amazing happened: humanity…

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

How OpenAI's ChatGPT Guided a Teen to His Death

Episode 117

Content Warning: This episode contains references to suicide and self-harm. 

Like millions of kids, 16-year-old Adam Raine started using ChatGPT for help with his homework. Over the next few months, t…

Published on 2 months, 1 week ago

“Rogue AI” Used to be a Science Fiction Trope. Not Anymore.

Episode 116

Everyone knows the science fiction tropes of AI systems that go rogue, disobey orders, or even try to escape their digital environment. These are supposed to be warning signs and morality tales, not …

Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago

AI is the Next Free Speech Battleground

Episode 115

Imagine a future where the most persuasive voices in our society aren't human. Where AI generated speech fills our newsfeeds, talks to our children, and influences our elections. Where digital system…

Published on 3 months ago

Daniel Kokotajlo Forecasts the End of Human Dominance

Episode 114

In 2023, researcher Daniel Kokotajlo left OpenAI—and risked millions in stock options—to warn the world about the dangerous direction of AI development. Now he’s out with AI 2027, a forecast of where…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Is AI Productivity Worth Our Humanity? with Prof. Michael Sandel

Episode 113

Tech leaders promise that AI automation will usher in an age of unprecedented abundance: cheap goods, universal high income, and freedom from the drudgery of work. But even if AI delivers material pr…

Published on 4 months, 1 week ago

The Narrow Path: Sam Hammond on AI, Institutions, and the Fragile Future

Episode 112

The race to develop ever-more-powerful AI is creating an unstable dynamic. It could lead us toward either dystopian centralized control or uncontrollable chaos. But there's a third option: a narrow p…

Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago

People are Lonelier than Ever. Enter AI.

Episode 111

Over the last few decades, our relationships have become increasingly mediated by technology. Texting has become our dominant form of communication. Social media has replaced gathering places. Dating…

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago