They discuss the connection between money and happiness, the significance of hype in impactful projects, spotting untrustworthy individuals, and the value of collective wisdom in research. Also covered are insights on decision-making errors, reproductive science integrity, and finding meaning in parenting.

In this episode, they explore the welfare of various species like chickens, pigs, octopuses, bees, and humans. They discuss the capacity for pleasure and pain, the challenges of assessing welfare ranges, and the importance of considering diverse perspectives. The conversation also touches on ethical dilemmas in decision-making, time perception variability across species, and redefining welfare hierarchies.

Laura Deming discusses the science of extending human lifespan, challenging the notion of age-related decline. She explores the social implications of increasing longevity and the potential for transformative societal change. The conversation touches on regulatory breakthroughs for anti-ageing drugs, genetic manipulation for lifespan extension, and the beauty of biology as a compelling field of study.

Cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier challenges the view of gullibility and misinformation, highlighting the perceptiveness of ordinary people. They explore how reasoning mechanisms facilitate beneficial communication and debunk myths about misinformation. Discussing AI's potential impact, they navigate belief formation, trust, and the dynamics of misinformation. The conversation delves into vaccine hesitancy, financial scams, astrology beliefs, and the challenges of discerning truth in an AI-influenced information environment.

Randy Nesse, expert in mental health and evolutionary psychiatry, discusses why evolution left us vulnerable to depression and anxiety. Topics include the purpose of anxiety, complexity of mood regulation, genetic morphs in fish species, complexity of depression, trade-offs in evolutionary shaping, unconscious motivations, advancements in evolutionary medicine, risk-taking and anxiety, impact of ambitious goals on mental health, and aging from an evolutionary perspective.

Emily Oster, expert on pregnancy and parenting, shares evidence-based insights on topics including pregnancy myths, antidepressants during pregnancy, breastfeeding, and childcare. The importance of making key childbirth decisions and having a trusted provider is discussed, along with practical tips for managing overwhelming parenting tasks. The impact of parenthood on careers, fertility decline at age 35, and the effects of children on relationships and happiness are also explored.

AI entrepreneur Nathan Labenz discusses the capabilities and limitations of AI, concerns about AI deception, breakthroughs in protein folding, safety comparison of self-driving cars, the potential of GPT for vision, the online conversation around AI safety, negative impact of Twitter on public discourse, contrasting views on AI, backfire of anti-regulation sentiment in tech industry, importance of constructive policy discussions on AI, concerns about face recognition technology, capabilities and concerns of autonomous AI drones, staying up to date with AI research.

Topics discussed include worldview diversification, anthropic reasoning, longtermism in philanthropy, empirical returns and worldview diversification in funding solutions, exploring worldviews and allocating resources, fairness agreements and prior assumptions, evaluating mindsets and worldviews for doing good, challenges of human settlement in space, exploring the simulation argument and its implications, urgency of understanding transformative AI, estimating computational power needed to replicate the human brain, comparing human technology and nature, uncertainty and planning for transformative AI, comparing giving opportunities, opportunities and growth at Open Phil, strategies for getting involved and standing out, and discussions about TV shows and movies.

In this rebroadcast episode, Carl Shulman, research associate at Oxford University, discusses the practical implications of working on existential risks. He explains the high probability of catastrophic disasters and the potential to reduce them at an acceptable cost. The conversation covers topics such as AI safety, biological weapons programs, and the importance of clean energy research. The chapter also explores the challenges of estimating risks and identifying choke points in conflict escalation. The episode concludes with a discussion on the significance of the present time and the misinterpretation of existential risk work. And don't miss the discussion on unwinding with hot springs and the TV show Rick and Morty!

Mushtaq Khan, expert in using institutional economics to predict effective government reforms, discusses the challenges of networked corruption, the limitations of privatization and liberalization, the role of industrial policy in economic development, and strategies for building capabilities in developing countries.