Podcast Episodes

#50 - David Denkenberger on how to feed all 8b people through an asteroid/nuclear winter

If an asteroid impact or nuclear winter blocked the sun for years, our inability to grow food would result in billions dying of starvation, right? Ac…

7 years, 3 months ago

#49 - Rachel Glennerster on a year's worth of education for 30c & other development 'best buys'

If I told you it's possible to deliver an extra year of ideal primary-level education for under $1, would you believe me? Hopefully not - the claim i…

7 years, 3 months ago

#6 Classic episode - Dr Toby Ord on why the long-term future matters more than anything else

Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in September 2017.

Of all the people whose well-being we should care about, only a small fraction …

7 years, 3 months ago

#15 Classic episode - Prof Tetlock on chimps beating Berkeley undergrads & when to defer to the wise

Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in November 2017.

Prof Philip Tetlock is a social science legend. Over forty years he has research…

7 years, 3 months ago

#48 - Brian Christian on better living through the wisdom of computer science

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Ever felt that you were so busy you spent all your time paralysed trying to…

7 years, 4 months ago

#47 - Catherine Olsson & Daniel Ziegler on the fast path into high-impact ML engineering roles

After dropping out of a machine learning PhD at Stanford, Daniel Ziegler needed to decide what to do next. He’d always enjoyed building stuff and wan…

7 years, 5 months ago

#46 - Hilary Greaves on moral cluelessness & tackling crucial questions in academia

The barista gives you your coffee and change, and you walk away from the busy line. But you suddenly realise she gave you $1 less than she should hav…

7 years, 5 months ago

#45 - Tyler Cowen's case for maximising econ growth, stabilising civilization & thinking long-term

I've probably spent more time reading Tyler Cowen - Professor of Economics at George Mason University - than any other author. Indeed it's his incred…

7 years, 5 months ago

#44 - Paul Christiano on how we'll hand the future off to AI, & solving the alignment problem

Paul Christiano is one of the smartest people I know. After our first session produced such great material, we decided to do a second recording, resu…

7 years, 6 months ago

#43 - Daniel Ellsberg on the institutional insanity that maintains nuclear doomsday machines

In Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film Dr. Strangelove, the American president is informed that the Soviet Union has created a secret deterrence system whi…

7 years, 6 months ago