EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)

Reflecting on a seven-year journey, the speaker shares nostalgic moments from building a vibrant community. They discuss personal growth, challenges faced, and the significant role the Forum has played in their life. Gratitude flows as they express their love for the community while preparing for a transition. Plans for the future and aspirations beyond daily operations are also highlighted, creating a heartfelt farewell that resonates with listeners.

The discussion highlights the importance of prioritizing relationships over relentless work. It challenges listeners to pursue meaningful contributions that tackle pressing global issues. The idea that one regrets not spending more time with loved ones instead of working is a central theme. Balancing professional responsibilities with personal connections is essential for a fulfilling life, urging a reflection on what truly matters.

A Nigerian student shares his challenging experience with the $5 minimum donation limit on the Giving What We Can platform. He emphasizes the significant financial burden this poses for someone with limited income. The discussion highlights the need for more accessible charitable options in lower-income countries and opens a dialogue on how to make altruism more inclusive for all. It's a poignant reminder of the barriers that exist in giving, even among those eager to help.

A significant expansion in the early-warning system for engineered pathogens is underway, fueled by a $3M grant from Open Philanthropy. The focus is on metagenomic sequencing and wastewater sampling to enhance detection capabilities. Experts express concern over stealth pathogens resembling fast-spreading viruses like HIV, which could ignite a devastating pandemic. The podcast discusses how timely detection could mitigate severe impacts, showcasing innovative collaboration with academic institutions to monitor potential threats effectively.

James Öz, an expert on historical social movements, discusses how diverse advocacy groups cite previous successes to justify their strategies for social change. He reveals the paradox of believing that all methods are effective while often adhering to biases. The conversation emphasizes the importance of humility and skepticism in advocacy, urging listeners to adopt an exploratory mindset. Öz also addresses the role of motivated reasoning, advocating for critical self-evaluation to better engage with opposing perspectives.

Our Mission: To build a multidisciplinary field around using technology—especially AI—to improve the lives of nonhumans now and in the future. Overview Background This hybrid conference had nearly 550 participants and took place March 1-2, 2025 at UC Berkeley. It was organized by AI for Animals for $74k by volunteer core organizers Constance Li, Sankalpa Ghose, and Santeri Tani. This conference has evolved since 2023: The 1st conference mainly consisted of philosophers and was a single track lecture/panel. The 2nd conference put all lectures on one day and followed it with 2 days of interactive unconference sessions happening in parallel and a week of in-person co-working. This 3rd conference had a week of related satellite events, free shared accommodations for 50+ attendees, 2 days of parallel lectures/panels/unconferences, 80 unique sessions, of which 32 are available on Youtube, Swapcard to enable 1:1 connections, and a Slack community to continue conversations year [...] ---Outline:(00:32) Overview(00:35) Background(02:27) Outcomes(03:51) The Event(s)(04:19) Speaking Sessions(04:23) en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural__ Conference presentation scenes with speakers and audience in auditorium setting. The image shows a collage of different presentation scenes at what appears to be an academic or professional conference. The main image shows an auditorium with attendees watching a video presentation on a large screen. Other smaller images show speakers on stage in different settings - some seated in orange chairs for a panel discussion, others at podiums. Theres a logo visible for what appears to be a research institute in one of the frames. The setting appears academic/professional in nature, with proper presentation equipment, stage lighting, and organized seating arrangements typical of a conference or symposium event.(05:10) Featured Talks(10:13) Lightning Talks(11:55) Interactive Sessions(12:19) Unconferences(13:22) Meetups(13:36) Mapping Workshops(13:44) Office Hours(13:59) Topic Distribution(14:18) Satellite Events(14:41) en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural__ Events schedule showing AI and animal-focused activities from Feb 26-Mar 2.(14:52) en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural__ People gathered at social events, networking and dining in various settings.(15:02) Behind the Scenes(15:10) Personnel(16:04) Handbooks(16:24) Finances(19:21) Outreach(21:17) Event Reflection(24:12) Get Involved--- First published: April 5th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KWpyRXzHn6JMyZiBn/ai-for-animals-2025-bay-area-retrospective --- 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.

SUMMARY: ALLFED is launching an emergency appeal on the EA Forum due to a serious funding shortfall. Without new support, ALLFED will be forced to cut half our budget in the coming months, drastically reducing our capacity to help build global food system resilience for catastrophic scenarios like nuclear winter, a severe pandemic, or infrastructure breakdown. ALLFED is seeking $800,000 over the course of 2025 to sustain its team, continue policy-relevant research, and move forward with pilot projects that could save lives in a catastrophe. As funding priorities shift toward AI safety, we believe resilient food solutions remain a highly cost-effective way to protect the future. If you’re able to support or share this appeal, please visit allfed.info/donate. FULL ARTICLE: I (David Denkenberger) am writing alongside two of my team-mates, as ALLFED's co-founder, to ask for your support. This is the first time in Alliance [...] ---Outline:(02:40) The case for ALLFED's work, and why we think maintaining full current capacity is valuable(04:14) How this connects to AI and other risks(05:39) What we're asking for--- First published: April 16th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/K7hPmcaf2xEZ6F4kR/allfed-emergency-appeal-help-us-raise-usd800-000-to-avoid-1 --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Summary In this article, I estimate the cost-effectiveness of five Anima International programs in Poland: improving cage-free and broiler welfare, blocking new factory farms, banning fur farming, and encouraging retailers to sell more plant-based protein. I estimate that together, these programs help roughly 136 animals—or 32 years of farmed animal life—per dollar spent. Animal years affected per dollar spent was within an order of magnitude for all five evaluated interventions. I also tried to estimate how much suffering each program alleviates. Using SADs (Suffering-Adjusted Days)—a metric developed by Ambitious Impact (AIM) that accounts for species differences and pain intensity—Anima's programs appear highly cost-effective, even compared to charities recommended by Animal Charity Evaluators. However, I also ran a small informal survey to understand how people intuitively weigh different categories of pain defined by the Welfare Footprint Institute. The results suggested that SADs may heavily underweight brief but intense suffering. Based [...] ---Outline:(02:16) Background(02:46) Results(05:57) Explanations of the programs(08:59) Why these estimates are very uncertain(13:48) Animal welfare metric(16:42) Comparison to SADs(19:42) Comparison to other charities(19:47) Comparisons of SADs estimates(20:54) Comparisons of cage-free estimates(24:26) For how many years do reforms have an impact?(25:21) Cage-free(29:45) Broilers(31:18) Stop the farms(32:57) Fur farmsThe original text contained 8 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: April 10th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/sLYSa7MyuDKxreN5h/cost-effectiveness-of-anima-international-poland-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 are excited to share a summary of our 2025 strategy, which builds on our work in 2024 and provides a vision through 2027 and beyond! Background Giving What We Can (GWWC) is working towards a world without preventable suffering or existential risk, where everyone is able to flourish. We do this by making giving effectively and significantly a cultural norm. Focus on pledges Based on our last impact evaluation[1], we have made our pledges – and in particular the 🔸10% Pledge – the core focus of GWWC's work.[2] We know the 🔸10% Pledge is a powerful institution, as we’ve seen almost 10,000 people take it and give nearly $50M USD to high-impact charities annually. We believe it could become a norm among at least the richest 1% — and likely a much wider segment of the population — which would cumulatively direct an enormous quantity of financial resources [...] ---Outline:(00:20) Background(00:37) Focus on pledges(01:29) Introducing our BHAG(02:10) Working towards our BHAG(03:01) Laying the foundations for scalable growth(03:55) Looking towards the future(04:18) BHAG FAQ:The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: April 10th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/aPFGarxoS8pvboKFD/announcing-our-2025-strategy --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Introduction Four years ago, I commissioned as an Officer in the UK's Royal Navy. I had been engaging with EA for four years before that and chose this career as a coherent part of my impact-focused career plan, and I stand by that decision. Early next year, I will leave the Navy. This article is a round-up of why I made my choices, how I think military careers can sensibly align with an EA career, and the theories of impact I considered along the way that don't hold water. Military service won't be the right call for most in this community, but it could be for some. Hopefully, this is informative for those people. Furthermore, I spent a whole year being trained in leadership. Someone I met at an EAGx conference said the offhand nugget of Military Leadership 101 wisdom I gave them was the "best advice I received [...] --- First published: April 10th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/f6XmkJ9PWFfn9GvqD/ea-reflections-on-my-military-career --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.