We're beginning a new series down the rabbithole! In "Is Effective Altruism Right," Pete, Sparky, and podcast editor Dan Thorn will dive deep into the fast-growing Effective Altruism research field and community. What are the philosophical origins of the movement, and how do those ideals affect individuals' choices to donate money and time towards particular charitable causes? Are preventing global pandemics, ending factory farming, preventing climate change, and preventing artificial intelligence takeover equally relevant causes to support? How does 'longtermism' as proposed by philosophers like William McAskill and Nick Bostrom relate to Effective Altruism as a whole? What does it mean that billionaires like Sam Bankman-Fried and Elon Musk have shown a receptiveness to EA-related causes and ideas, or have professed themselves to be effective altruists outright?
As always, we'll be interviewing thinkers from all walks of life, with wildly different perspectives on EA, both supportive and skeptical. As we continue our interview series, we hope to develop our own opinions, find new questions to ask about EA, and uncover deeper rabbitholes to take ourselves, and you the listeners, down!
Please reach out if you have suggestions for interviews we should conduct in this series!
More on the Noosphere here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere
This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.
