Effective Altruism: An Introduction – 80,000 Hours (April 2021)
80,000 Hours
A collection of ten top episodes of the 80,000 Hours Podcast, specifically selected to help listeners get up to speed on effective altruism as quickly as possible.
Episodes
Mentioned books
14 snips
Apr 12, 2021 • 10min
Effective altruism in a nutshell
A quick introduction to effective altruism explores how to think carefully about doing good and why career choices can have an outsized impact. It also touches on global poverty, health, and the challenge of guiding artificial intelligence safely.
65 snips
Apr 12, 2021 • 2h 36min
One: Holden Karnofsky on times philanthropy transformed the world & Open Phil's plan to do the same
How did philanthropy help spark the Green Revolution and the birth-control pill? Holden Karnofsky explores the risky bets behind world-changing breakthroughs, how Open Philanthropy chooses causes and grants, and why its work ranges from farm animal welfare to transformative AI. The conversation also wanders into the challenge of imagining a future people can agree on.
20 snips
Apr 12, 2021 • 2h 11min
Two: Dr Toby Ord on why the long-term future matters more than anything else & what to do about it
Could humanity be standing at a turning point, with an immense future at stake? Toby Ord explores existential threats from nuclear conflict and emerging technologies, why preserving civilization matters, and how individuals and societies might help steer humanity away from catastrophe.
19 snips
Apr 12, 2021 • 2h 54min
Three: Alexander Berger on improving global health and wellbeing in clear and direct ways
Alexander Berger discusses Open Philanthropy’s approach to improving global health, from funding proven charities to tackling malaria, air pollution, and neglected diseases. He weighs concrete near-term benefits against longtermist arguments, explores uncertainty in cause selection, and makes the case for compensating kidney donors.
41 snips
Apr 12, 2021 • 2h 17min
Four: Spencer Greenberg on the scientific approach to solving difficult everyday questions
From Mars missions and nuclear diplomacy to flaky dinner plans, explore how to make better predictions about everyday uncertainties. The conversation ranges through confidence, misleading studies, placebo effects, project delays, and the tricky art of weighing evidence when the right answer is far from obvious.
36 snips
Apr 12, 2021 • 1h 53min
Five: Prof Will MacAskill on moral uncertainty, utilitarianism & how to avoid being a moral monster
From Kant’s troubling beliefs to today’s moral blind spots, Will MacAskill explores how we can reason under moral uncertainty without becoming moral monsters. The conversation ranges across utilitarianism, rights, the distant future, philosophical paradoxes, and whether common-sense morality deserves our trust.
41 snips
Apr 12, 2021 • 2h 56min
Six: Ajeya Cotra on worldview diversification and how big the future could be
Could humanity’s future hold trillions of lives, or are we closer to extinction than we think? Ajeya Cotra explores the unsettling doomsday argument, the possibility of vast futures beyond Earth, and how philanthropists can balance competing worldviews without betting everything on one speculative idea. She also discusses forecasting transformative AI and the uncertainties behind those predictions.
24 snips
Apr 12, 2021 • 2h 17min
Seven: Prof Tetlock on why accurate forecasting matters for everything, and how you can do it better
Why do experts often mistake confidence for accuracy, and can anyone learn to forecast better? Philip Tetlock explores prediction tournaments, political judgment, career choices, graduate school, and the challenge of estimating life’s biggest risks. The conversation also touches on superforecasters, machine learning, and whether better predictions could help avert global crises.
21 snips
Apr 12, 2021 • 2h 49min
Eight: Prof Hilary Greaves on moral cluelessness, population ethics, & harnessing the brainpower of academia to tackle the most important research questions
A missing dollar at the coffee counter becomes a gateway to questions about how our choices shape future generations. Hilary Greaves explores population ethics, moral uncertainty, long-term priorities, and the puzzles of decision theory, while discussing how academia can bring more researchers to the world’s most important questions.
30 snips
Apr 12, 2021 • 2h 57min
Nine: Benjamin Todd on the key ideas of 80,000 Hours
How should you choose a career if you want to help solve the world’s biggest problems? Benjamin Todd discusses 80,000 Hours’ moral outlook, long-term risks such as nuclear war, and how to weigh career capital, personal fit, exploration, and uncertainty. The conversation also touches on common misconceptions about their recommendations and why impactful paths can look very different from one person to another.
