Launching 'Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems'

By 80000_Hours @ 2021-10-06T16:31 (+29)

We’ve just launched a new podcast feed called Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems, a companion feed to Effective Altruism: An Introduction.

This selection is ideal for people who are completely new to the effective altruist way of thinking, as well as those who are familiar with effective altruism but new to The 80,000 Hours Podcast.

Here are the interviews we’ve gone with:

• Toby Ord on existential risks
• Rachel Glennerster on global poverty
• Andy Weber on pandemics and nuclear wars
• Brian Christian on artificial intelligence
• Lewis Bollard on factory farming
• Jennifer Doleac on criminal justice reform
• Ezra Klein on journalism
• Mark Lynas on climate change
• Dave Denkenberger on feeding the world through catastrophes
• Persis Eskander on wild animal suffering

At the end of each episode we suggest various interviews people should listen to next if they want to learn more about each problem area.

If someone you know wants to get an understanding of what 80,000 Hours or effective altruism are all about, and audio content fits into their life better than long essays, hopefully this will be a useful resource for you to point them towards.

It might also be a great fit for local groups who we've learned are already using episodes of the show for discussion groups.

We had always planned to have (at least) two feeds: a pretty abstract one which showcases the way we think about effective altruism at 80,000 Hours, and a more concrete one which showcases the variety of things the EA community is up to.

We’ll promote the two feeds similarly, and cross-promote between the two collections. Folks can then choose whichever one they would rather share, or listen to themselves. (And fingers crossed many people will opt to listen to both!)

We’ve also made two changes to Effective Altruism: An Introduction since the launch, substituting in 'Alexander Berger on improving global health and wellbeing in clear and direct ways' and 'Ajeya Cotra on worldview diversification and how big the future could be', which we think improves the range of topics and perspectives the series covers.

We’re keen to hear your thoughts! You can comment here, or email us at podcast@80000hours.org.

— Keiran and Rob