EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)

We’re far from certain that insects are sentient. But with over a trillion insects farmed annually, the welfare impacts are staggering if they can suffer. Unfortunately, fundamental questions about their well-being remain unexplored. This is where Arthropoda Foundation steps in, actively finding and funding the best opportunities to produce knowledge that can improve the lives of farmed insects. Current Research Priorities Humane Slaughter Protocols Insects are regularly microwaved, baked, and boiled alive. If producers can stun these animals before slaughter, they can reduce significant distress. We’ve found a lab willing to develop and test electrical stunning procedures for black soldier fly larvae, with an eye to creating an inexpensive, readily implementable system that can be adopted by industry partners. ~$67,000. Stocking Densities and Substrate Research For many farmed insects, the quality of their lives comes down to stocking densities and the substrate in which they’re reared—which is what [...] ---Outline:(00:38) Current Research Priorities(00:42) Humane Slaughter Protocols(01:11) Stocking Densities and Substrate Research(01:48) Automated Welfare Assessment(02:33) Funding Needs(03:52) Want to learn more about insects?--- First published: November 13th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9fuJgLik6FNtgrDAD/support-critical-research-on-insect-welfare --- 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.

This is a link post. Dear Giving What We Can community, We are writing to share exciting news: on Tuesday the 11th of November, the boards unanimously voted to appoint Sjir Hoeijmakers as the new global CEO of Giving What We Can. Sjir was appointed after a rigorous recruitment process. The search committee received applicants from a wide pool, ultimately interviewing five final-stage candidates. Sjir excelled in each stage of the process, showing remarkable character, competence, and humility throughout. He has a strong understanding of the effective giving community and has already excelled in temporary roles as Acting and Interim CEO this year. The committee also received feedback from a large number of stakeholders, including the boards, the GWWC team, funders, and partners. Throughout this process, it became clear that Sjir will be a highly capable leader for the organization and help guide GWWC and the team to reach their [...] --- First published: November 15th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KXycun5WuzKDv6vGL/announcing-sjir-hoeijmakers-as-the-new-ceo-of-giving-what-we Linkpost URL:https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/en-US/blog/announcing-sjir-hoeijmakers-as-the-new-ceo-of-giving-what-we-can --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This post is written in my personal capacity, but is based on insights that I’ve gained through my work as Effective Giving Global Coordinator and Incubator at Giving What We Can since I took on the role in June 2023. Tl;dr In my view the average reader of the EA Forum should be giving more to meta-charities like effective giving (EG) organisations. EG organisations play a crucial role in directing funds to highly impactful charities, but many are facing significant funding constraints and/or a lack of diversified funding. Supporting these meta-charities can have a multiplier effect on your donations, potentially leading to extraordinary growth in effective giving. Consider allocating a portion of your donation budget to EG organisations this giving season. Introduction When I first heard about EA from a TED talk by Peter Singer in 2017, I was inspired by the idea that we could carefully use evidence [...] ---Outline:(00:21) Tl;dr(00:57) Introduction(02:56) Why EG orgs are funding constrained(05:28) Why should you donate to EG organisations?(05:38) The multiplier effect(07:01) Positive indirect impact(07:43) Potential for significant growth(08:35) Addressing future funding constraints(09:08) The impact of additional funding(10:28) Why you might not want to donate to EG organisations(11:29) Where to give?(11:48) Giving What We Can(14:49) Effektiv Spenden(16:42) Founders Pledge(18:28) Ge Effektivt(20:09) Giving Multiplier(21:49) The Life You Can Save(22:46) Other established EG organisations(25:22) New EG organisations(28:55) Call to Action--- First published: November 8th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fMcpbGRWBtq3QBEyA/why-you-should-allocate-more-of-your-donation-budget-to-1 --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Disclaimer: This is a weak take — mostly based on anecdotes and vibes — but I thought it's worth sharing nonetheless, even if only as a means of soliciting better takes. Disclaimer #2: I am very appreciative of everyone who is working tirelessly to pursue farmed animal protection via policy, and I want nothing more than to see it succeed! I just suspect it's going to be a longer and more difficult journey than I anticipated a few years ago, and that this is worth having an open and public conversation about. I fear the policy landscape for farmed animal protection work is looking more and more bleak. The election results from last night have reinforced this fear, with animal-friendly measures failing across the ballot, a Republican trifecta set to rule for at least two years, RFK Jr. in line to act as appointed czar of HHS/FDA/USDA, etc. [...] ---Outline:(01:06) Abolitionist ballot measures lost big in 2024.(03:20) Incrementalist ballot measures — previously some of the movement's biggest wins — may simply be undone.(04:54) We have opponents on the left and the right.(06:34) Cultivated meat is under fire. The Trump admin wont make this any better.(07:34) So what next?The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: November 6th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rQgeBvPyBgqrej6zc/bad-omens-for-us-farmed-animal-policy-work --- 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.

Rethink Priorities has been conducting a range of surveys and experiments aimed at understanding how people respond to different framings of Effective Altruism (EA), Longtermism, and related specific cause areas. There has been much debate about whether people involved in EA and Longtermism should frame their efforts and outreach in terms of Effective altruism, Longtermism, Existential risk, Existential security, Global priorities research, or by only mentioning specific risks, such as AI safety and Pandemic prevention (examples can be found at the following links: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8). These discussions have taken place almost entirely in the absence of empirical data, even though they concern largely empirical questions.[1] In this post we report the results of three pilot studies examining responses to different EA-related terms and descriptions. Some initial findings are: Longtermism appears to be consistently less popular than other EA-related terms and concepts we examined, whether presented just as a [...] ---Outline:(01:52) Study 1. Cause area framing(05:13) Demographics(07:15) Study 2. EA-related concepts with and without descriptions(10:58) Demographics(11:31) Study 3. Preferences for concrete causes or more general ideas/movements(15:04) Demographics(15:29) Manifold Market Predictions(16:43) General discussionThe original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: November 7th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qagZoGrxbD7YQRYNr/testing-framings-of-ea-and-longtermism --- 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.

Overview  With Marginal Funding Week, we want to share key updates on the EA Animal Welfare Fund (AWF). We'll cover what we've accomplished so far in 2024, our impact this year, recent changes, and where we're headed next - including current constraints to our impact. We think this info will be helpful for anyone considering year-end donations. Since its founding in 2017, AWF has distributed $23.3M across 347 grants. This year, we’ve distributed $3.7M across 51 grants. We made grants across multiple intervention categories and aimed to impact a variety of species. Our most frequently funded strategic area was welfare campaigns, policy advocacy and research. The most frequently targeted species were egg-laying hens followed by multiple farmed animals, wild animals, and shrimps. While the impact of many of our 2024 grants is still unclear, our previous grants have made significant progress, reflecting our ability to identify opportunities with [...] ---Outline:(00:08) Overview(02:12) 1. Background(03:43) 2. A year in review(03:47) Key Numbers and Reach(04:14) Grant Distribution(05:27) By intervention type(06:25) By species(09:04) Highlighted Grants(13:36) 3. Organizational updates(18:47) 4. Future plans(21:58) 5. Room for more funding--- First published: November 11th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pZhqWRiq9ubaMSnqx/ea-animal-welfare-fund-2024-review-changes-and-plans --- 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 work for CEA, but this post isn’t intended as a fundraising post for CEA. The main beneficiaries I want to direct readers to are e.g. EA groups and EA communicators who might not have capacity for fundraising. I expect similar arguments apply to e.g. AIS, rationality and animal welfare community-building efforts but I know those spaces less well. There's a version of this post where I pull actual donation numbers and iron out the details of what I’m proposing but this is not that version. It's difficult for funders to figure out which community-building efforts are successful. The reason your inbox is littered with surveys for every event, retreat and course you take part in is because we want to know if they’re working, and, ultimately, whether we should continue using EA resources to run them. Roughly, things work like this: Community builders (CBs) help new community [...] ---Outline:(03:56) Some caveats(04:39) What next?The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: November 8th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DyTph8eJXDvnqDhXc/consider-donating-to-whoever-helped-you --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Key Takeaways Optimizing your giving's effect on "EA's portfolio” implies you should fund the causes your value system thinks are most underfunded by EA's largest allocators (e.g. Open Phil and SFF). These causes aren't necessarily your value system's most preferred causes. ("Preferred" = the ones you'd allocate the plurality of EA's resources to.) For the typical EA, this would likely imply donating more to animal welfare, which is currently heavily underfunded under the typical EA's value system. Opportunities Open Phil is exiting from, including invertebrates, digital minds, and wild animals, may be especially impactful. Alice's Investing Dilemma: A Thought Experiment Alice is a conservative investor who prefers the risk-adjusted return of a portfolio of 70% stocks and 30% bonds. Along with 9 others, Alice has been allocated $1M to split between stocks and bonds however she sees fit. The combined $10M portfolio will be held for 10 years, and its [...] ---Outline:(00:07) Key Takeaways(00:53) Alices Investing Dilemma: A Thought Experiment(01:55) In Charity, We Should Optimize The Portfolio of Everyones Actions(03:09) Theoretical Implications(03:31) The Portfolio of Everyones Actions vs EAs Portfolio(04:10) Practical Recommendations(05:26) EAs Current Resource Allocations--- First published: November 9th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2G8XfzKyd78JqZpjQ/fund-causes-open-phil-underfunds-instead-of-your-most --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

TLDR: The shortest version of this argument is very simple: your expectations for an organization should be higher where their budget and staff size are higher. In other words, we should have different expectations for a 20-person organization with a $1.5 million budget than a 2-person $150,000 budget organization. While this seems pretty clear in the abstract, I find that people tend not to update nearly enough on this when they should. For example, I often see people comparing the total research output of two organizations, yet when I ask about it, they will not know the yearly budget or staff size of either. This is a big problem. As a movement, we want to support efficient and effective organizations, not just organizations that are the biggest, most salient or currently the highest funded. Budgets and staff When considering how impressive an organization's output is, one [...] ---Outline:(00:59) Budgets and staff(02:47) Comparative size(04:46) Why this matters--- First published: November 6th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5wXGLbqQ3cchjogB5/expectations-scale-with-scale-we-should-be-more-scope --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Warning: This post discusses statistics about extreme pain that may be distressing. While cluster headaches are a neglected, high-impact issue, understanding their true burden requires appreciating the intensity of suffering involved. The pain often reaches levels far beyond typical human experience, making subjective accounts a valuable datapoint until we have robust methods for quantifying pain intensity. For further context, links to firsthand accounts are provided in the footnote[1]. You no longer have a headache, or pain located at a particular site: you are literally plunged into the pain, like in a swimming pool. There is only one thing that remains of you: your agitated lucidity and the pain that invades everything, takes everything. There is nothing but pain. At that point, you would give everything, including your head, your own life, to make it stop. - Yves, cluster headache patient from France (from Rossi et al., 2018) Key [...] ---Outline:(01:11) Key takeaways(03:57) 1. Introduction(04:00) 1.1. Clinical Features and Pain Comparisons(07:22) 1.2. Treatment and Prevention(10:02) 1.3. The Heavy-Tailed Valence Hypothesis and Existing Metrics(14:49) 1.4. Goal(16:14) 2. Methods(17:43) 2.1 Prevalence(19:17) 2.2 Frequency(22:21) 2.3 Duration(23:53) 2.4 Intensity(25:58) 2.5 Burden Metrics(29:01) 3. Results(29:10) 3.1. Global Burden of Cluster Headache Pain(32:05) 3.2. Reweighting of Extreme Pain(39:41) 3.3. Ceiling Effects(43:34) 4. Recommendations and Conclusions(48:31) AcknowledgementsThe original text contained 26 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: November 1st, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/geh2g2nKb7Kkp26ze/quantifying-the-global-burden-of-extreme-pain-from-cluster --- 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.