The Importance of Effective Altruism

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effective altruism was an attempt to take those arguments and develop an action plan around them. The two big influences were an essay from Peter Singer named Famine Affluence and Morality and a book from Peter Unger named Living High and Letting Die. So it's data driven and in some ways that makes it seem almost inevitable in 2022 when we have more information on effectiveness than ever before.

A new wave of philanthropists wants to make charity more effective. They’re focused not just on the present day but also thousands of years into the future. Vox’s Dylan Matthews explains how “effective altruism” became a multibillion-dollar philanthropic force.

This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Efim Shapiro, and hosted by Noel King.

Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained

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