EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)

This is a link post. This is a personal essay about my failed attempt to convince effective altruists to become socialists. I started as a convinced socialist who thought EA ignored the 'root causes' of poverty by focusing on charity instead of structural change. After studying sociology and economics to build a rigorous case for socialism, the project completely backfired as I realized my political beliefs were largely psychological coping mechanisms. Here are the key points: Understanding the "root cause" of a problem doesn't necessarily lead to better solutions - Even if capitalism causes poverty, understanding "dynamics of capitalism" won't necessarily help you solve it Abstract sociological theories are mostly obscurantist bullshit - Academic sociology suffers from either unrealistic mathematical models or vague, unfalsifiable claims that don't help you understand or change the world The world is better understood as misaligned incentives rather than coordinated oppression - Most social [...] --- First published: August 10th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AcPw55oF3reBiW4FX/of-marx-and-moloch-how-my-attempt-to-convince-effective Linkpost URL:https://honestsignals.substack.com/p/of-marx-and-moloch-or-my-misguided --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Today, Forethought and I are releasing an essay series called Better Futures, here.[1] It's been something like eight years in the making, so I’m pretty happy it's finally out! It asks: when looking to the future, should we focus on surviving, or on flourishing? In practice at least, future-oriented altruists tend to focus on ensuring we survive (or are not permanently disempowered by some valueless AIs). But maybe we should focus on future flourishing, instead. Why? Well, even if we survive, we probably just get a future that's a small fraction as good as it could have been. We could, instead, try to help guide society to be on track to a truly wonderful future. That is, I think there's more at stake when it comes to flourishing than when it comes to survival. So maybe that should be our main focus. The whole essay series [...] --- First published: August 4th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mzT2ZQGNce8AywAx3/should-we-aim-for-flourishing-over-mere-survival-the-better --- 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 cross post written by Andy Masley, not me. I found it really interesting and wanted to see what EAs thought of his arguments. This post was inspired by similar posts by Tyler Cowen and Fergus McCullough. My argument is that while most drinkers are unlikely to be harmed by alcohol, alcohol is drastically harming so many people that we should denormalize alcohol and avoid funding the alcohol industry, and the best way to do that is to stop drinking. This post is not meant to be an objective cost-benefit analysis of alcohol. I may be missing hard-to-measure benefits of alcohol for individuals and societies. My goal here is to highlight specific blindspots a lot of people have to the negative impacts of alcohol, which personally convinced me to stop drinking, but I do not want to imply that this is a fully objective analysis. It [...] ---Outline:(02:31) Alcohol is a much bigger problem than you may think(06:59) Why you should stop drinking even if alcohol will not harm you personally(14:41) Conclusion--- First published: August 3rd, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dnbpKkjnw3v6JkaDa/alcohol-is-so-bad-for-society-that-you-should-probably-stop --- 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 morning I was looking into Switzerland's new animal welfare labelling law. I was going through the list of abuses that are now required to be documented on labels, and one of them made me do a double-take: "Frogs: Leg removal without anaesthesia." This confused me. Why are we talking about anaesthesia? Shouldn't the frogs be dead before having their legs removed? It turns out the answer is no; standard industry practice is to cut their legs off while they are fully conscious. They remain alive and responsive for up to 15 minutes afterward. As far as I can tell, there are zero welfare regulations in any major producing country. The scientific evidence for frog sentience is robust - they have nociceptors, opioid receptors, demonstrate pain avoidance learning, and show cognitive abilities including spatial mapping and rule-based learning. It's hard to find data on the scale of [...] --- First published: August 5th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wCcWyqyvYgF3ozNnS/frog-welfare --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Confidence Level: I’ve been an organizer at UChicago for over a year now with my co-organizer, Avik. I also started the UChicago Rationality Group, co-organized a 50-person Midwest EA Retreat, and have spoken to many EA organizers from other universities. A lot of this post is based on vibes and conversations with other organizers, so while it's grounded in experience, some parts are more speculative than others. I’ll try to flag the more speculative points when I can (the * indicates points that I’m less certain about). I think it's really important to make sure that EA principles persist in the future. To give one framing for why I believe this: if you think EA is likely to significantly reduce the chances of existential risks, you should think that losing EA is itself a factor significantly contributing to existential risks. Therefore, I also think one of the [...] ---Outline:(01:12) Impact Through Force Multiplication(04:19) Individual Benefits(04:23) Personal Impact(06:27) Professional(07:34) Social(08:10) Counters--- First published: July 29th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3aPCKsHdJqwKo2Dmt/why-you-should-become-a-university-group-organizer --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

And other ways to make event content more valuable. I organise and attend a lot of conferences, so the below is correct and need not be caveated based on my experience, but I could be missing some angles here. When you imagine a session at an event going wrong, you’re probably thinking of the hapless, unlucky speaker. Maybe their slides broke, they forgot their lines, or they tripped on a cable and took the whole stage backdrop down. This happens sometimes, but event organizers usually remember to invest the effort required to prevent this from happening (e.g., checking that the slides work, not leaving cables lying on the stage). But there's another big way that sessions go wrong that is sorely neglected: wasting everyone's time, often without people noticing. Let's give talks a break. They often suck, but event organizers are mostly doing the right things to make them [...] ---Outline:(01:11) Panels(03:40) The group brainstorm(04:27) Your session attendees do not have the answers.(05:26) Ideas are easy. Bandwidth is low.(06:28) The ideas are not worth the time cost.(07:50) Choosing more valuable content: fidelity per person-minute--- First published: July 28th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/LaMDxRqEo8sZnoBXf/please-no-more-group-brainstorming --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This is Part 1 of a multi-part series, shared as part of Career Conversations Week. The views expressed here are my own and don't reflect those of my employer. TL;DR: Building an EA-aligned career starting from an LMIC comes with specific challenges that shaped how I think about career planning, especially around constraints: Everyone has their own "passport"—some structural limitation that affects their career more than their abilities. Reframing these from unfair barriers to data about my specific career path has helped me a lot. When pursuing an ideal career path, it's easy to fixate on what should be possible rather than what actually is. But those idealized paths often require circumstances you don't have—whether personal (e.g., visa status, financial safety net) or external (e.g., your dream org hiring, or a stable funding landscape). It might be helpful to view the paths that work within your actual constraints [...] ---Outline:(00:21) TL;DR:(01:27) Introduction(02:25) My EA journey so far(03:18) Sometimes my passport mattered more than my competencies, and thats okay(04:43) Everyone has their own passport(06:19) Realistic opportunities often outweigh idealistic ones(08:04) Importance of a fail-safe(08:37) Playing the long game(09:44) Adversity quotient seems underrated(10:13) Building resilience through adversity(11:22) Pivot into recruiting(12:11) Building AQ over time(14:02) Why AQ matters in EA-aligned work(15:01) Closing thoughts--- First published: July 28th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3Hh839MaiWCPzyB3M/building-an-ea-aligned-career-from-an-lmic --- 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 am writing this to reflect on my experience interning with the Fish Welfare Initiative, and to provide my thoughts on why more students looking to build EA experience should do something similar. Back in October, I cold-emailed the Fish Welfare Initiative (FWI) with my resume and a short cover letter expressing interest in an unpaid in-person internship in the summer of 2025. I figured I had a better chance of getting an internship by building my own door than competing with hundreds of others to squeeze through an existing door, and the opportunity to travel to India carried strong appeal. Haven, the Executive Director of FWI, set up a call with me that mostly consisted of him listing all the challenges of living in rural India — 110° F temperatures, electricity outages, lack of entertainment… When I didn’t seem deterred, he offered me an internship. I [...] --- First published: July 22nd, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SmiXeQcnMD7qmAfgS/why-you-should-build-your-own-ea-internship-abroad --- 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. Tl;dr: In this post, I introduce a concept I call surface area for serendipity — the informal, behind-the-scenes work that makes it easier for others to notice, trust, and collaborate with you. In a job market where some EA and animal advocacy roles attract over 1,300 applicants, relying on traditional applications alone is unlikely to land you a role. This post offers a tactical roadmap to the hidden layer of hiring: small, often unpaid but high-leverage actions that build visibility and trust before a job ever opens. The general principle is simple: show up consistently where your future collaborators or employers hang out — and let your strengths be visible. Done well, this increases your chances of being invited, remembered, or hired — long before you ever apply. Acknowledgements: Thanks to Kevin Xia for your valuable feedback and suggestions, and Toby Tremlett for offering general [...] ---Outline:(00:15) Tl;dr:(01:19) Why I Wrote This(02:30) When Applying Feels Like a Lottery(04:14) What Surface Area for Serendipity Means(07:21) What It Looks Like (with Examples)(09:02) Case Study: Kevin's Path to Becoming Hive's Managing Director(10:27) Common Pitfalls to Avoid(12:00) Share Your JourneyThe original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: July 1st, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5iqTPsrGtz8EYi9r9/how-unofficial-work-gets-you-hired-building-your-surface Linkpost URL:https://notingthemargin.substack.com/p/how-unofficial-work-gets-you-hired --- 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.

Since January I’ve applied to ~25 EA-aligned roles. Every listing attracted hundreds of candidates (one passed 1,200). It seems we already have a very deep bench of motivated, values-aligned people, yet orgs still run long, resource-heavy hiring rounds. That raises three things: Cost-effectiveness: Are months-long searches and bespoke work-tests still worth the staff time and applicant burnout when shortlist-first approaches might fill 80% of roles faster with decent candidates? Sure, there can be differences in talent, but the question ought to be... how tangible is this difference and does it justify the cost of hiring? Coordination: Why aren’t orgs leaning harder on shared talent pools (e.g. HIP's database) to bypass public rounds? HIP is currently running an open search. Messaging: From the outside, repeated calls to 'consider an impactful EA career' could start to look pyramid-schemey if the movement can’t absorb the talent [...] --- First published: July 14th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ufjgCrtxhrEwxkdCH/is-ea-still-talent-constrained --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.