Hear This Idea

Eva Vivalt is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Toronto. Her work is focused on reducing barriers to evidence-based decision-making, global priorities research, and cash transfers. You can read much more about the topics we cover in this episode in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/eva. It's not a transcript! If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website or by using the star rating form on each episode page. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

We were flattered to be invited to discuss longtermism by Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani from the wonderful Increments podcast. It's not as serious or polished as our interview episodes, but we had heaps of fun trying to figure out where and why we disagree. Increments on Apple podcasts Increments on Spotify Increments on Google podcasts Ben on Twitter — @bennychugg Vaden's website — vmasrani.github.io

Thomas Moynihan is a writer and researcher interested in the history of ideas surrounding existential risk and human flourishing. He completed a PhD on the history of human extinction, and currently works with Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute. His most recent book is called X-Risk: How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction. You can read much more about the topics we cover in this episode in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/thomas. It's not a transcript! If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free get in touch through our website or by using the star rating form on each episode page. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Julia Shvets is an economist at the University of Cambridge and fellow at Christ's College. Her research focuses primarily on micro- and behavioural economics: exploring why people make the decisions they make. In this episode we discuss two of her recent papers. The first is about "overconfidence" — why people often think they are better than they have any reason to be. The second is on "rank incentives" — that is, how much people are inherently motivated by social prestige. We also explore many of the challenges that this research faces, especially what biases lab experiments might have. You can read much more on these topics in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/julia If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free get in touch through our website or by using the star rating form on each episode page. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Nikhil Krishnan is a lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge, and Fellow in Philosophy at Robinson College. He also writes on on history, literature, and culture. His first book, provisionally titled A Terribly Serious Adventure, tells the story of philosophy in Oxford from 1900 to 1960. In this episode, we discussed two broad topics. In the first half, Nikhil relates some of this history of 20th century Oxford philosophy — and, by extension, the history of 'analytic' or 'linguistic' philosophy. In the latter half, we consider some questions about the present and future for academic philosophy, the role of universities, and the place of the peer-reviewed journal. You can read much more on these topics in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/nikhil. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free get in touch through our website or by using the star rating form on each episode page. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Marcus Daniell is an Olympian tennis player from New Zealand with 5 ATP titles, quarterfinal appearances at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open. He became involved with the Effective Altruism in 2015 and has since donated 5-10% of his annual income to effective organisations. In January of this year, Marcus took the Giving What We Can pledge, committing to donate at least 10% of his annual winnings to effective organisations for the rest of his life. Alongside his tennis career, Marcus is presently completing a Masters in Philosophy. In November 2020, Daniell founded High Impact Athletes, a non-profit organisation connecting athletes and the general public with the most effective, evidence-based non-profits in the world. You can read much more on these topics in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/marcus. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free get in touch through our website or by using the star rating form on each episode page. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Sebastian Joy is the founding President of ProVeg International, a food awareness organisation working to transform the global food system. He is also a social entrepreneur: having developed several vegan products and helped launch the international 50by40 alliance. In this episode we discuss: [00:01:53] Welcome, Sebastian! [00:07:52] Direct animal advocacy [00:11:48] Career capital [00:14:46] ProVeg International [00:23:42] Corporate engagement and the meat industry [00:26:49] The business of meat [00:36:00] Entrepreneurship [00:45:25] Scaling up organisations [00:48:05] New areas for helping animals [00:51:26] Working within organisations [00:54:12] Closing questions You can read much more on these topics in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/sebastian. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free get in touch through our website or by using the star rating form on each episode page. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Bruce Friedrich is the co-founder and executive director of The Good Food Institute — a nonprofit that works with scientists, investors, and entrepreneurs to support the development and marketing of cell-cultured and plant-based alternatives to animal food products. In this episode we discuss: [00:02:21] Bruce's path to GFI [00:06:01] Inefficiencies of animal agriculture [00:10:06] Other external harms of animal agriculture [00:18:27] GFI's theory of change [00:27:54] Why focus on affluent markets? [00:32:53] Is regular meat-eating an historical abberation? [00:35:22] Protein alternative research [00:38:49] Plant-based vs cultivated meat [00:42:40] Marketing protein alternatives [00:47:27] Nomenclature [00:49:44] Policy [00:53:46] Why do we need government spending on R&D? [00:57:40] GFI's counterfactual impact [01:01:08] Religious influences [01:04:43] The supreme court [01:09:16] Three book recommendations [01:13:14] Outro You can read much more on these topics in our accompanying write-up: earthisidea.com/episodes/bruce. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free get in touch through our website or by using the star rating form on each episode page. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this (e.g. Apple Podcasts_ — it's probably the easiest (free) means of growing the show. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Leah Edgerton and Manja Gärtner are respectively the Executive Director and a Senior Researcher at Animal Charity Evaluators — a non-profit whose mission is to find and promote the most effective ways to help animals. In this episode we discuss: [00:05:27] Why care about Effective Animal Advocacy? [00:09:09] Cognitive dissonance and the meat paradox [00:13:46] What does ACE do? [00:21:10] Measuring effectiveness and doing research [00:30:54] Value of information and capacity building [00:38:37] Working with NGOs [00:48:02] How Animal Advocacy has changed [00:51:14] Hopes for the future [01:00:23] Closing questions You can read much more on these topics in our accompanying write-up: https://hearthisidea.com/episodes/ace. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, please get in touch through our website. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Peter Singer is a moral philosopher and public intellectual, most widely known for his writings about animal ethics and global poverty. In this episode we discuss: [00:00:00] Introduction [00:01:43] Background — Peter Singer introduces himself. [00:02:16] Speciesism — Defining the term, and explaining the case against speciesism. [00:06:55] Wild Animal Suffering — hould we intervene to reduce suffering in nature? [00:09:00] Weighing and Ending Animal Lives — Are all animal lives equal? What, if anything, is wrong with (painlessly) killing animals? [00:13:20] Ignoring Animals: Why did thinkers of the past apparently neglect the moral worth of animals? Why is animal ethics relatively new? [00:16:50] History of Western Attitudes to Animals—Can we trace the origins of contemporary attitudes to animals back to ancient Greece and Judeo-Christian values? [00:21:07] Counterfactual Impact of Animal Advocacy [00:24:10] The Power of Moral Argument [00:25:00] The Schwitzgebel Study [00:29:30] What should we do now? — Are veganism and vegetarianism all-or-nothing decisions? Or is it worth choosing a more incremental pathway? [00:32:25] The case for Human Challenge Trials [00:35:46] Trade-off between Lives and Well-being in Lockdowns — Can the cure for the pandemic be worse than the disease? How would we know? [00:42:07] Moral Realism — Parfit's 'Future Tuesday Indifference' [00:46:10] Other Moral Systems — What about egalitarianism or prioritarianism? [00:49:10] Controversial ideas [00:52:28] Journal of Controversial Ideas [00:54:35] What have you changed your mind about? [00:55:57] Book Recommendations [00:57:18] Where to Find PS Online You can read much more on these topics in our accompanying write-up: https://hearthisidea.com/episodes/peter. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, please get in touch through our website. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip at www.tips.pinecast.com/jar/hear-this-idea. Thanks for listening!