Intro

I think the 80,000 Hours Podcast is a great show. Despite the world of podcasts overflowing with content to choose from, it's reliably been a high-quality production that's been a regular part of my listening habits ever since I discovered it. It was also probably one of the first routes I become more aware of the EA community, which I suspect I might not be alone by.[1]

So, as the podcast numbers ticked up, the vague idea to write up a post shouting out some of my favourite episodes took root. I didn't get far with it from there, and now the unreasonable effectiveness of the 80k podcast production team has forced my hand! So in the post I'm going to link to my 10 favourite episodes, along with some final thoughts at the end.

I hope to share with you some of my favourite episodes, but I [...]

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Outline:

(00:07) Intro

(01:12) My Top 10

(01:16) 10-4

(01:19) 10: #144 – Athena Aktipis on why cancer is actually one of the fundamental phenomena in our universe

(01:54) 9: #175 – Lucia Coulter on preventing lead poisoning for $1.66 per child

(02:26) 8: #139 – Alan Hájek on puzzles and paradoxes in probability and expected value

(03:00) 7: #153 – Elie Hassenfeld on two big picture critiques of GiveWells approach, and six lessons from their recent work

(03:39) 6: #129 – Dr James Tibenderana on the state of the art in malaria control and elimination

(04:15) 5: #185 – Lewis Bollard on the 7 most promising ways to end factory farming, and whether AI is going to be good or bad for animals

(05:00) 4: #67 – David Chalmers on the nature and ethics of consciousness

(05:40) Top 3

(05:43) 3: #43 – Daniel Ellsberg on the creation of nuclear doomsday machines, the institutional insanity that maintains them, and how they could be dismantled

(06:22) 2: #145 – Christopher Brown on why slavery abolition wasnt inevitable

(07:07) 1: #100 – Having a successful career with depression, anxiety and imposter syndrome

(07:51) Final Thoughts

(07:54) Honourable Mentions

(08:10) #52 – Glen Weyl on radical institutional reforms that make capitalism and democracy work better, and how to get them

(08:52) #116 – Luisa Rodriguez on why global catastrophes seem unlikely to kill us all

(09:29) #190 – Eric Schwitzgebel on whether the US is conscious

(09:59) But JWS, where are the AI episodes?

(12:03) Epilogue

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
September 9th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/C8HWX3XsoB3krSkbm/my-top-10-picks-from-200-episodes-of-the-80k-podcast

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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