EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)

I became the CEO of EV US in January 2023. I worked alongside the EV US and UK teams, former EV UK CEO Howie Lempel, and current EV UK CEO Rob Gledhill to recover and reform Effective Ventures and improve the robustness of the EA ecosystem in the aftermath of FTX's collapse. Amidst these efforts, I and others learned or fortified lessons that I think aren’t unique to EV and could be valuable to the wider EA community. Being able to look at hard problems, discuss them with candor, and update based on what we learn are values that I admire, and I see them as a positive and necessary mechanism for doing good. I want to act on those values here. Goals of this post Provide an update to create communal knowledge: Clarify what reforms have taken place at EV in recent years and the reasoning behind [...] ---Outline:(00:50) Goals of this post(01:48) Some high-level notes on FTX-related reflection(06:04) Scope of this post(11:53) Summary of reforms and actions taken at EV(14:54) Background on EV(18:42) Reforms and other actions taken(18:46) Hiring CEOs (and other non-board personnel) for EV US and EV UK(24:00) Changes to EV US and EV UK board(30:04) FTX-related investigations(38:43) Instituting financial reforms(41:23) Improving donor due diligence(45:36) Adopting a restrictive communications policy(57:19) Streamlining whistleblowing policies(59:44) Updating anti-harassment and misconduct policies(01:03:04) Improving the COI policy(01:06:22) Clarifying the level of separation between the EV US and EV UK entities(01:10:44) Initiating EV shut down(01:15:11) Some of the lessons EA can learn from the EV experience(01:15:31) Brief summary of these lessons(01:16:10) The lessons(01:16:14) Organizational governance and compliance can have serious implications(01:17:08) It's important to carefully think through and explicitly communicate your organizational risk strategy, and pay attention to it as your organization develops. This is particularly true for a fiscal sponsor(01:19:10) EA organizations often underrate experience relative to “intelligence” and “value alignment”(01:22:09) Vetting external counsel is important(01:23:02) Crisis prep is underrated relative to crisis response(01:24:43) Invest in capacity building early(01:26:34) Communicate early (and have the resources to do so)(01:27:31) Acknowledgments(01:29:12) Appendix: other content about and reflections on FTX on the EA Forum(01:29:47) Information(01:31:24) Reflections(01:33:18) Investigation-related(01:33:55) StatementsThe original text contained 12 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 28th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AuSah98NtR5qv8zQA/reflections-and-lessons-from-effective-ventures-1 --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the lives of chickens raised for food in the UK.  Tomorrow, The Humane League UK (THL UK) will be heading to the High Court to challenge the legality of fast-growing breeds of chicken- Frankenchickens. At stake are the lives of one billion animals. Our small team will be demonstrating outside the courts tomorrow morning. Inside, our legal team, Advocates for Animals, will be arguing that farming Frankenchickens breaches the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007. We are up against huge opposition with The Government, the British Poultry Council, and the National Farmers’ Union representing the interests of the £3 billion poultry industry. This really is a David versus Goliath case. If you are interested in the legal intricacies of the hearing itself, you can watch a livestream of proceedings here on both Wednesday and Thursday. You can also [...] ---Outline:(00:05) We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the lives of chickens raised for food in the UK.(01:17) Frankenchickens(01:59) THL UKs three-year legal battle(03:09) The fight continues(04:14) Our chances of success(05:44) Support The Humane League UK(06:01) The Humane League UK(06:56) Our vision is that by 2050, weve stopped the worst and most widespread abuse of animals raised for food, and they’re treated with far greater compassion.--- First published: October 22nd, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qCMC4cnWCi7yjcnCZ/tomorrow-we-fight-for-the-future-of-one-billion-chickens --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

I'd like to thank Derek Shiller from Rethink priorities for extensive discussions and looking over this post. Introduction I've been following the "animal welfare" debate this week on the EA forum, and noticed that a key crux for a lot of people was that calculations showed that animal welfare campaigns (specifically the "caged chicken corporate campaign") was much more cost effective than a human global health development project like the against malaria foundation. But while most estimates agreed that AW was more effective than GHD, I noticed there was a wide discrepancy in how much more effective it was. Vasco Grilo claimed it was 1500 times better. This report by Laura Duffy of rethink priorities (when you convert from order of magnitude to real numbers in table 1) claimed it was about 60 times better. Whereas if you go the Cross cause comparison website, also by RP, and [...] The original text contained 7 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 14th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qARKFgYhCqmKB2YpF/explaining-the-discrepancies-in-cost-effectiveness-ratings-a --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

EA Nigeria Summit was the first EA-related conference in Nigeria, and it took place from September 6th to 7th, 2024. The event saw a higher level of interest than we (the organisers) expected. We received applications from individuals across Nigeria and the international community, especially Africans. We accepted 170 applicants for the summit, and a total of 136 participants attended the event. The summit provided an opportunity for the attendees to connect, network, and share ideas and practices, paving the way for potential collaboration and impactful actions at the cost of USD 179.6 per attendee. Some Key Specifics  Location - Chida Event Centre, Utako, Abuja, Nigeria. Applications received - 472, (18 applications were duplicates) Admitted applicants - 170 Confirmed attendees - 137 Number of speakers - 14 Total Expenses - USD 24,611 Cost per attendee - 179.6 USD The first EA-aligned conference in Nigeria!  We [...] ---Outline:(01:03) Some Key Specifics(01:39) The first EA-aligned conference in Nigeria!(02:37) Summit Goal and Strategy(04:19) Attendees and Experience(07:18) Budgeting and Finances(10:14) Content(11:40) Production and Logistics(12:02) Dealing with Vendors:(12:28) Securing the Summit Venue:(13:26) Video Production and Photography(14:00) Printing(14:31) Logistics (Summit Day 1 and 2)(15:19) Communication and Event Tech(16:26) Some Additional Brief(17:12) Core Team and VolunteersThe original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 11th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xyGYuoP8EfXmirdZg/retrospective-on-ea-nigeria-summit-our-successes-and --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Foreword Sadly, it looks like the debate week will end without many of the stronger[1] arguments for Global Health being raised, at least at the post level. I don't have time to write them all up, and in many cases they would be better written by someone with more expertise, but one issue is firmly in my comfort zone: the maths! The point I raise here is closely related to the Two Envelopes Problem, which has been discussed before. I think some of this discussion can come across as 'too technical', which is unfortunate since I think a qualitative understanding of the issue is critical to making good decisions when under substantial uncertainty. In this post I want to try and demystify it. This post was written quickly, and has a correspondingly high chance of error, for which I apologise. I am confident in the core point, and [...] ---Outline:(00:05) Foreword(00:59) Two envelopes: the EA version(02:59) What just happened?(04:17) Some implications(05:27) Global Health vs. Animal Welfare(07:28) ConclusionThe original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 13th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/atdmkTAnoPMfmHJsX/multiplier-arguments-are-often-flawed --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

I really loved this quick take from Lizka, especially this part: At the same time, trying to actually do anything is really hard.[4] Appreciation for doers is often undersupplied. Being in leadership positions or engaging in public discussions is a valuable service, but opens you up to a lot of (often stressful) criticism, which acts as a disincentive for being public. Psychological safety is important in teams (and communities), so it's unfortunate that critical environments lead more people to feel like they would be judged harshly for potential mistakes. Not all criticism is useful enough to be worth engaging with (or sharing). Responding to criticism can be time-consuming or otherwise costly and isn’t always worth it.[5] Sometimes people who are sharing “criticism” hate the project for reasons that aren’t what's explicitly stated, or just want to vent or build themselves up.[6] A lot of communities I've been part of-- [...] The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 11th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/tuSQBGgnoxvsXwXJ3/criticism-is-sanctified-in-ea-but-like-any-intervention --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

For many years, I devoted myself to improving human health and wellbeing. But then I shifted to working to prevent suffering for animals. In this post, I will briefly share some considerations that pushed me to make this change. Violence The phrase ‘animal welfare’ can sound pretty calm and gentle. But when we talk about ‘animal welfare’, we are usually talking about preventing direct, brutal, physical *violence* against sentient beings. Animals in the food system are brutalised, beaten, confined, stabbed, castrated, cut, boiled alive, dragged, gassed, asphyxiated, separated from their mothers/children, violated, skinned. Imagine being castrated, with no anaesthetic. Having your throat slit while you are still conscious. Violated, and forcibly inseminated. Being crammed into a tiny, tiny space for days on end, where you can’t stretch your limbs, or turn around. Skinned alive. There is something so…brutal, maximalist, harsh, extreme about the intense physical violence that we [...] --- First published: October 10th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RZEvk6cBtBg2mpgwS/trigger-warning-violence-animal-vs-human-welfare-sharing --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

In summary, there are two important reasons why I believe it's more important to direct additional resources towards animal welfare over global health: Global health and human welfare are generally improving whilst animal suffering is getting worse at a worrying (and potentially accelerating) rate. For factory farming, the default is it gets worse and worse over the next 50 years. In my view, it's still unclear if we’ll end factory farming and we’re competing with a very powerful incumbent industry to make it happen. I don’t believe the same trajectory is true for global health. Animal welfare is orders of magnitude more neglected on most important metrics: Philanthropic funding, government funding or great people working on the issue. These reasons aren’t necessarily all that is required to think it would be better to spend an additional $100M on animal welfare relative to global health (see the 80,000 Hours [...] --- First published: October 11th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QbRFwPks5nFLK8i2W/the-default-trajectory-for-animal-welfare-means-vastly-more --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Intro Suppose you have $100M to give away. You are drawn to the many important opportunities to reduce animal suffering or address pressing issues in global health and development. Your choice about how to allocate the funds could depend on considerations like these: Moral values: How much moral weight do you assign to various non-human species? Are you focused exclusively on hedonic considerations, like reducing suffering? Or do you have other relevant values, such as autonomy? Cost-effectiveness estimates: Species-discounting aside, how many DALYs/$ do the best projects in the area achieve? How fast do returns diminish in these areas? Decision-theoretic values: How do you feel about risk-taking? Are you willing to tolerate a substantial probability that projects will fail? What about non-trivial chances of projects backfiring? Second-order effects: Will giving to one cause set benefit any of your other values? Are there speculative benefits that might flow from [...] ---Outline:(00:09) Intro(02:47) Cross-Cause Cost-Effectiveness Model(02:51) How it works(04:25) What it says(06:53) Portfolio Builder Tool(06:57) How it works(08:12) What it says(10:32) Moral Parliament Tool(10:36) How it works(11:48) What it says(12:02) Parliament composition matters(14:10) Allocation strategy matters(17:27) ConclusionsThe original text contained 5 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 7th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vEwGx9RXnHaMyKhZM/what-do-rp-s-tools-tell-us-about-giving-usd100m-to-aw-or-ghd --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

TLDR: I’ve recently started as a “Research Fellow” at Forethought (focusing on how we should prepare for a potential period of explosive growth and related questions). I left my role on the CEA Online Team, but I still love the Forum (and the Forum/CEA/mod teams) and plan on continuing to be quite active here. I’m also staying on the moderation team as an advisor. ➡️ If you were planning on reaching out to me about something Forum- or Online-related, you should probably reach out to Toby Tremlett or email forum@effectivealtruism.org. What's in this post? I had some trouble writing this announcement; I felt like I should post something, but didn’t know what to include or how to organize the post. In the end, I decided to write down and share assorted reflections on my time at CEA, and not really worry about putting everything into a cohesive frame or [...] ---Outline:(00:44) What's in this post?(02:17) Briefly: more context on the change(03:45) A note on EA and CEA(04:32) Assorted notes from my time at CEA(04:37) Some things about working at CEA that I probably wouldn’t have predicted(04:44) 1. Working with a manager and working in a team have been some of the best ways for me to grow.(05:33) 2. I like CEA's team values and principles a lot more than I expected to. (And I want to import many of them wherever I go.)(08:39) 3. A huge number of people I worked and interacted with are incredibly generous and compassionate, and this makes a big difference.(10:40) Some things about my work at CEA that were difficult for me(10:46) 1. My work was pretty public. This has some benefits, and also some real downsides.(12:31) 2. Many people seem confused about what CEA does, and seemed to assume incorrect things about me because I was a CEA staff member.(14:58) 3. My job involved working on or maintaining many different projects, which made it difficult for me to focus on any single thing or make progress on proactive projects.(16:03) 4. Despite taking little of my time, moderation was quite draining for me.(18:26) Looking back on my work(23:08) Thank you!The original text contained 11 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 3rd, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SPZv8ygwSPtkzo7ta/announcing-my-departure-from-cea-and-sharing-assorted-notes --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.