andrew lee is a member of parliament in australia. He has a new book out called, what's the worst that happen? Existential risk and extreme politics. It's a book about existential risks, which we've talked about before in the podcast with people like martin reese and nick postrum a,. But in the down to earth political context. What do we really do about these existential risks? The book is published by m i t; most politicians books are not published by mi t. And again, it's my rule. I made it up, so i'm allowed to vilate it."
We’re pretty well-calibrated when it comes to dealing with common, everyday-level setbacks. But our brains aren’t naturally equipped for dealing with unlikely but world-catastrophic disasters. Yet such threats are real, both natural and human-induced. We need to collectively get better at anticipating and preparing for them, at the level of political action. Andrew Leigh is an academic and author who now serves in the Parliament of Australia. We discuss how to move the conversation about existential risks from the ivory tower to implementation in real policies.
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Andrew Leigh received his Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is a member of the Australian House of Representatives representing Fenner. He was previously a professor of economics at Australian National University, and has served as Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury and Charities. His recent book is What’s the Worst That Could Happen? Existential Risk and Extreme Politics.
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