(Big reveal) Introducing myself as a new host of the 80,000 Hours Podcast!

By Zershaaneh Qureshi @ 2026-06-08T12:18 (+77)

Hi everyone!

Over the last six months or so, those of you who listen to the 80,000 Hours Podcast might occasionally have heard an unfamiliar voice asking questions to our guests. The person behind that unfamiliar voice is me, Zershaaneh!

As a new host of the show, I’m eager to get thoughts about guests to interview, new formats to experiment with, and ways to improve. Feel free to message me on this forum! (But please be nice.)

I’ve only done a couple of episodes so far, but there’s plenty more to come.

A bit about me:

• I studied Maths and Philosophy at the University of Oxford.
• I then spent a busy three years working in the global water industry, doing a mixture of consulting, research, and events stuff. I was mostly focused on the surprisingly dramatic world of desalination, and I learned a lot about brine.
• I transitioned into working on AI risks in late 2023, initially spending a year researching timelines to transformative AI (publishing stuff like this), and then joining 80,000 Hours as a researcher and writer. If you’re subscribed to the 80k newsletter, you might have seen me in your inbox, trying to convince you to read my articles.
• I love gabbing, so it was only natural for me to suddenly find myself on the podcast.
• The first time I ever listened to the 80,000 Hours Podcast, I thought “wow, Luisa Rodriguez has an incredibly cool job. I wish I could do that.” And now I’m doing it! That’s kind of neat, right?

While you’re here… want to join our advisory group? 

You might have noticed lots of changes happening with The 80,000 Hours Podcast lately. We’ve fully embraced video, we’re trying out different formats, and we’re adding new hosts (like me!).

With all these changes, we’d really benefit from feedback on what’s working, what’s not, and what we should lean into.

So, if you’re reading this post and you’re not already a member of our podcast advisory group, please consider joining! → Join the 80,000 Hours Podcast advisory group

How it works:

• Once you join, you’ll be sent a quick survey after every episode release.
• You don’t need to respond to them all — just give feedback to the episodes you would have listened to or watched anyway.
• We carefully think about all of your responses and use them to help us decide who to interview, what topics to cover, and how to structure the episodes.

Thanks to those who've helped with this feedback over the years!