Podcast Episodes

#149 – Tim LeBon on how altruistic perfectionism is self-defeating

Being a good and successful person is core to your identity. You place great importance on meeting the high moral, professional, or academic standard…

2 years, 11 months ago

#148 – Johannes Ackva on unfashionable climate interventions that work, and fashionable ones that don't

If you want to work to tackle climate change, you should try to reduce expected carbon emissions by as much as possible, right? Strangely, no.

 Today'…

3 years ago

#147 – Spencer Greenberg on stopping valueless papers from getting into top journals

Can you trust the things you read in published scientific research? Not really. About 40% of experiments in top social science journals don't get the…

3 years ago

#146 – Robert Long on why large language models like GPT (probably) aren't conscious

By now, you’ve probably seen the extremely unsettling conversations Bing’s chatbot has been having. In one exchange, the chatbot told a user:

"I have …

3 years ago

#145 – Christopher Brown on why slavery abolition wasn't inevitable

In 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 …

3 years, 1 month ago

#144 – Athena Aktipis on why cancer is actually one of our universe's most fundamental phenomena

What’s the opposite of cancer?

If you answered “cure,” “antidote,” or “antivenom” — you’ve obviously been reading the antonym section at www.merriam-w…

3 years, 2 months ago

#79 Classic episode - A.J. Jacobs on radical honesty, following the whole Bible, and reframing global problems as puzzles

Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in June 2020.

Today’s guest, New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs, always hated Judge Jud…

3 years, 2 months ago

#81 Classic episode - Ben Garfinkel on scrutinising classic AI risk arguments

Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in July 2020.

80,000 Hours, along with many other members of the effective altruism movement, has …

3 years, 2 months ago

#83 Classic episode - Jennifer Doleac on preventing crime without police and prisons

Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in July 2020.

Today’s guest, Jennifer Doleac — Associate Professor of Economics at Texas A&M Unive…

3 years, 3 months ago

#143 – Jeffrey Lewis on the most common misconceptions about nuclear weapons

America aims to avoid nuclear war by relying on the principle of 'mutually assured destruction,' right? Wrong. Or at least... not officially.

As today…

3 years, 3 months ago