Hear This Idea

A full writeup of this episode, including references and a transcript, is available on our website: https://hearthisidea.com/episodes/erwan Dewi Erwan is a co-founder of BlueDot Impact, the Biosecurity Advisor to the Cambridge Existential Risk Initiative, and the previous Executive Director ofEffective Altruism Cambridge. We discuss: Setting up BlueDot Impact and scaling pilot programmes Talent gaps in the EA community and more strategic goal setting Career advice and leadership skills If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

A full writeup of this episode, including references and a transcript, is available on our website: hearthisidea.com/episodes/pannu-monrad Jassi Pannu is a Resident Physician at Stanford, a Visiting Scholar at John Hopkins, and a Fellow at the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative. Joshua Monrad is a Biosecurity Program Officer at Effective Giving and a Researcher at Oxford's Future Humanity Institute. We discuss: The post-COVID biosecurity landscape, including the American Pandemic Preparedness Plan The Biological Weapons Convention and current issues in dual-use research The role of antivirals, increasing vaccine capacity, and market failures Similarities and differences between GCBR mitigation and general pandemic preparedness How some interventions are underpinned by global cooperation If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

A full writeup of this episode, including references and a transcript, is available on our website: hearthisidea.com/episodes/mathieu Edouard Mathieu is the Head of Data at Our World in Data (OWID), a scientific online publication that focuses on large global problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality. We discuss: What Ed learned from working with governments and the WHO A simple change the WHO could make to radically improve how countries share data for the next pandemic The idea of 'experimental longtermism' How Ed is thinking about collecting data on transformative artificial intelligence and other potential existential risks Figuring out the impact of making everyone slightly better-informed Lessons for starting a career in impact-oriented data science And finally... Ed's favourite OWID chart If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

A full writeup of this episode, including references and a transcript, is available on our website: hearthisidea.com/episodes/alexanian-ahuja Tessa Alexanian is the Safety & Security Program Officer at the iGEM Foundation, which organises a worldwide competition in synthetic biology and helps foster a collaborative community. She is a fellow at the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative, was previously a fellow at the Foresight Institute, and co-founded the East Bay Biosecurity Group. Janvi Ahuja is a PhD student in computational biology at the University of Oxford, where she is affiliated with the Future of Humanity Institute and works with MIT’s Nucleic Acid Observatory on metagenomic sequencing. Janvi is also a fellow at the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative, and was previously an intern at the UN’s Biological Weapons Convention ISU We discuss: How synthetic biology began and why it is an exploding field The iGEM competition and how to get involved in the community Challenges and trade-offs in creating a culture of responsibility in synthetic biology Emerging risks in synthetic biology and what this means for global catastrophic risks Technical projects in biosecurity and career advice for how to get involved If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Michael Aird is a senior research manager at Rethink Priorities, where he co-leads the Artificial Intelligence Governance and Strategy team alongside Amanda El-Dakhakhni. Before that, he conducted nuclear risk research for Rethink Priorities and longtermist macrostrategy research for Convergence Analysis, the Center on Long-Term Risk, and the Future of Humanity Institute, which is where we know each other from. Before that, he was a teacher and a stand up comedian. We discuss: Whether you should stay in academia if you want to do impactful research How to start looking for roles at impact-driven research organisations What simple changes can improve how you write about your research The uses of 'reductionism' and quantitative thinking The concept of ‘reasoning transparency’ Michael’s experience investigating nuclear security Key links: Michael's posts on the EA Forum Interested in EA/longtermist research careers? Here are my top recommended resources Don’t think, just apply! (usually) List of EA funding opportunities Rethink Priorities Reasoning Transparency A central directory for open research questions You can find more links, and read the full transcript, in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/aird. If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

A full writeup of this episode is available on our website: hearthisidea.com/episodes/esvelt-sandbrink. Kevin Esvelt is an assistant professor at the MIT Media Lab, where he is director of the Sculpting Evolution group, which invents new ways to study and influence the evolution of ecosystems. He helped found the SecureDNA Project and the Nucleic Acid Observatory, both of which we discuss in the episode. Esvelt is also known for proposing the idea of using CRISPR to implement gene drives. Jonas Sandbrink is a researcher and DPhil student at the Future of Humanity Institute. He is a fellow at both the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and with the Ending Bioweapons Program at the Council on Strategic Risks. Jonas’ research interests include the dual-use potential of life sciences research and biotechnology, as well as fast response countermeasures like vaccine platforms. We discuss: The concepts of differential technological development, dual-use research, transfer risks in research, 'information loops', and responsible access to biological data Strengthening norms against risky biological research, such as novel virus identification and gain of function research Connection-based warning systems and metagenomic sequencing technology Advanced PPE, Far-UVC sterilisation technology, and other countermeasures against pandemics potentially worse than Covid Analogies between progress in biotechnology and the early history of nuclear weapons How to use your career to work on these problems — even if you don’t have a background in biology. You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/farmer. If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

In this episode, Fin and Luca celebrate 50 episodes of Hear This Idea: all the highs, lows, and near-disasters along the way. We chat about: The HTI origin story Favourite behind the scenes moments Should we argue with guests more? Mistakes we've made (and are still making?) What we've learned about asking better questions Starting projects from scratch Ideas for the next 50 episodes Future topics, dream guests Why does this podcast exist? Podcasting tips A potential new program Our media recommendations

Professor Doyne Farmer is the Baillie Gifford Professor in Mathematics at Oxford, the Director of the Complexity Economics programme at INET, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. In our conversation we discuss: How Doyne and his friends used physics and hidden computers to beat the roulette wheel in Las Vegas casinos Advancing economic models to better predict business cycles and knock-on effects from extreme events like Covid-19 Techniques for predicting technological progress and long-run growth, with specific applications to energy technologies and climate change You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/farmer If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Ajay Karpur is a senior research software engineer at RAND, working with the Meselson Center. He's hoping to start tweeting again soon, at @ajaykarpur. Joining as a guest co-host on this episode was Janvi Ahuja, who is a PhD student in computational biology at Oxford University, and part of the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security ‘Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity’ program. She's tweeting at @jn_ahuja. In our conversation, we discuss: What is metagenomic sequencing, and why could it matter so much for it to become affordable and ubiquitous? How and why can nonprofits help positive technologies become more accessible? How emerging biotech can help the world respond better to the next emerging (potential) pandemic Refuges against biological threats Analogies between fire protection and pathogen protection through monitoring and cleaner air Career advice for entering biosecurity, especially with an engineering background. You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/karpur If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Dr Spencer R. Weart served as the Director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics from 1974 to 2009. He is the author of several books, including The Discovery of Global Warming and The Rise of Nuclear Fear. In our conversation, we discuss: How climate science emerged, what it took for scientists to form a consensus in the mid-1960s, and how that consensus has evolved since The IPCC’s emerging understanding of so-called “tipping points” in the climate system, and our current best guesses as to what kind of threat they pose Exploring the changing cultural relationship humans have had with nuclear energy — and why it remains stigmatised amongst many environmental groups You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/weart If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!