EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)

Intro and summary “How many chickens spared from cages is worth not being with my parents as they get older?!” - Me, exasperated (September 18, 2021) This post is about something I haven’t seen discussed on the EA forum but I often talk about with my friends in their mid 30s. It's about something I wish I'd understood better ten years ago: if you are ~25 and debating whether to move to an EA Hub, you are probably underestimating how much the calculus will change when you’re ~35, largely related to having kids and aging parents. Since this is underappreciated, moving to an EA Hub, and building a life there, can lead to tougher decisions later that can sneak up on you. If you’re living in an EA hub, or thinking about moving, this post explores reasons you might want to head home as you get older, different ways [...] ---Outline:(00:11) Intro and summary(01:49) Why move to an EA Hub in the first place?(02:57) How things change as you get older(05:33) Why YOU might be more likely to feel the pull to head home(06:49) How did I decide? How should you decide?(08:38) Consolation prize - moving to a Hub isn't all or nothing(09:38) Conclusion --- First published: September 23rd, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZEWE6K74dmzv7kXHP/moving-to-a-hub-getting-older-and-heading-home --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

It's been several years since I was an EA student group organiser, so please forgive any part of this post which feels out of touch (& correct me in comments!) Wow, student group organising is hard. A few structural things that make it hard to be an organiser: You maybe haven’t had a job before, or have only had kind of informal jobs. So, you might not have learned a lot of stuff about how to accomplish things at work. You’re probably trying to do a degree at the same time, which is hard enough on its own! You don’t have the structure and benefits provided by a regular 9-5 job at an organisation, like: A manager An office Operational support People you can ask for help & advice A network You have, at most, a year or so to skill up before you might be responsible [...] --- First published: September 12th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/zMBFSesYeyfDp6Fj4/student-group-organising-is-hard-and-important --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Hi, have you been rejected from all the 80K listed EA jobs you’ve applied for? It sucks, right? Welcome to the club. What might be comforting is that you (and I) are not alone. EA Job listings are extremely competitive, and in the classic EA career path, you just get rejected over and over. Many others have written about their rejection experience, here, here, and here. Even if it is quite normal for very smart, hardworking, proactive, and highly motivated EAs to get rejected from high-impact positions, it still sucks. It sucks because we sincerely want to make the world a radically better place. We’ve read everything, planned accordingly, gone through fellowships, rejected other options, and worked very hard just to get the following message: "Thank you for your interest in [Insert EA Org Name]... we have decided to move forward with other candidates for this role... we're unfortunately [...] ---Outline:(06:13) A note on AI timelines(08:51) Time to go forward --- First published: September 5th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pzbtpZvL2bYfssdkr/rejected-from-all-the-ea-jobs-you-applied-for-what-to-do-now --- 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.

Early work on ”GiveWell for AI Safety” Intro EA was founded on the principle of cost-effectiveness. We should fund projects that do more with less, and more generally, spend resources as efficiently as possible. And yet, while much interest, funding, and resources in EA have shifted towards AI safety, it's rare to see any cost-effectiveness calculations. The focus on AI safety is based on vague philosophical arguments that the future could be very large and valuable, and thus whatever is done towards this end is worth orders of magnitude more than most short-term effects. Even if AI safety is the most important problem, you should still strive to optimize how resources are spent to achieve maximum impact, since there are limited resources. Global health organizations and animal welfare organizations work hard to measure cost-effectiveness, evaluate charities, make sure effects are counterfactual, run RCTs, estimate moral weights, scope out interventions [...] ---Outline:(00:11) Early work on GiveWell for AI Safety(00:16) Intro(02:43) Step 1: Gathering data(03:00) Viewer minutes(03:35) Costs and revenue(04:49) Results(05:08) Step 2: Quality-adjusting(05:40) Quality of Audience (Qa)(06:58) Fidelity of Message (Qf)(08:05) Alignment of Message (Qm)(08:53) Results(09:37) Observations(12:37) How to help(13:36) Appendix: Examples of Data Collection(13:42) Rob Miles(14:18) AI Species (Drew Spartz)(14:56) Rational Animations(15:32) AI in Context(15:52) Cognitive Revolution --- First published: September 12th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SBsGCwkoAemPawfJz/how-cost-effective-are-ai-safety-youtubers --- 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.

There's a huge amount of energy spent on how to get the most QALYs/$. And a good amount of energy spent on how to increase total $. And you might think that across those efforts, we are succeeding in maximizing total QALYs. I think a third avenue is under investigated: marginally improving the effectiveness of ineffective capital. That's to say, improving outcomes, only somewhat, for the pool of money that is not at all EA-aligned. This cash is not being spent optimally, and likely never will be. But the sheer volume could make up for the lack of efficacy. Say you have the option to work for the foundation of one of two donors: Donor A only has an annual giving budget of $100,000, but will do with that money whatever you suggest. If you say “bed nets” he says “how many”. Donor B has a much larger [...] ---Outline:(01:34) Most money is not EA money(04:32) How much money is there?(05:49) Effective Everything? --- First published: September 8th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/o5LBbv9bfNjKxFeHm/marginally-more-effective-altruism --- 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.

Note: This post was crossposted from the Open Philanthropy Farm Animal Welfare Research Newsletter by the Forum team, with the author's permission. The author may not see or respond to comments on this post. How I decided what to say — and what not to I’m excited to share my TED talk. Here I want to share the story of how the talk came to be, and the three biggest decisions I struggled with in drafting it. The backstory Last fall, I posted on X about Trump's new Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, vowing to undo state bans on the sale of pork from crated pigs. I included an image of a pig in a crate. Liv Boeree, a poker champion and past TED speaker, saw that post and was haunted by it. She told me that she couldn’t get the image of the crated pig out of her [...] --- First published: September 5th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/XjQr52eDkBPLrLHB3/my-ted-talk --- 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.

TL;DR: If a (meta) org had a meaningful impact on you (in line with what they hope to achieve), you should probably tell them. It is essential for their impact reporting, which is essential for them to continue operating. You are likely underestimating just how valuable your story is to them. It could be thousands of dollars worth. Thanks to Toby Tremlett, Lauren Mee and Sofia Balderson for reviewing a draft version of this post. All mistakes are my own. 1. Many organisations shaped my career — yet I usually only shared my story when prompted. In reflecting on my career journey, I was reminded of all the organizations who led me to where I am. I believe I reported their counterfactual contribution back to them, but this was not usually by my own doing. In two cases, I was personally reached out to - in one case, I [...] --- First published: August 8th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3v6kghxMttEhbK3dT/consider-thanking-whoever-helped-you --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Context: I’m a senior fellow at Conservation X Labs (CXL), and I’m seeking support as I attempt to establish a program on humane rodent fertility control in partnership with the Wild Animal Initiative (WAI) and the Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility Control (BIWFC). CXL is a biodiversity conservation organization working in sustainable technologies, not an animal welfare organization. However, CXL leadership is interested in simultaneously promoting biodiversity conservation and animal welfare, and they are excited about the possibility of advancing applied research that make it possible to ethically limit rodent populations to protect biodiversity. I think this represents the wild animal welfare community's first realistic opportunity to bring conservation organizations into wild animal welfare work while securing substantial non-EA funding for welfare-improving interventions. Background Rodenticides cause immense suffering to (likely) hundreds of millions of rats and mice annually through anticoagulation-induced death over several days, while causing significant non-target [...] ---Outline:(01:08) Background(02:20) Why this approach?(03:49) Why CXL?(06:03) Why now, and why me?(06:59) Budget(07:52) Next steps --- First published: August 27th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EcBjr4Q2AtoTLcKXp/high-impact-and-urgent-funding-opportunity-rodent-fertility --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

I told someone recently I would respect them if they only worked 40 hours a week, instead of their current 50-60. What I really meant was stronger than that. I respect people who do the most impactful work they can — whether they work 70 hours a week because they can, 30 hours so they can be home with their kid, or 15 hours because of illness or burnout. I admire those who go above and beyond. But I don’t expect that of everyone. Working long hours isn’t required to earn my respect, nor do I think it should be the standard that we hold as a community. I want it to be okay to say "that doesn't work for me". It feels like donations: I admire people who give away 50%, but I don’t expect it. I still deeply respect someone who gives 10% to the [...] --- First published: August 26th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qFsqawmgRjxXkA7eF/you-re-enough --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

How to prevent infighting, mitigate status races, and keep your people focused. Cross-posted from my Substack. Organizational culture changes rapidly at scale. When you add new people to an org, they’ll bring in their own priors about how to operate, how to communicate, and what sort of behavior is looked-up to. Despite rapid changes, in this post I explain how you can implement anti-fragile cultural principles—principles that help your team fix their own problems, often arising from growth and scale, and help the org continue to do what made it successful in the first place. This is based partially on my experience at Wave, which grew to 2000+ people, but also tons of other reading (top recommendations: Peopleware by DeMarco and Lister, Swarmwise by Rick Falkvinge, High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil, The Secret of Our Success by Henrich, Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, as well as Brian [...] ---Outline:(01:13) Common Problems(05:00) Write down your culture(06:25) That said, you don't have to write everything down(08:37) Anti-fragile values I recommend(09:02) Mission First(10:51) Focus(11:32) Fire Fast(12:58) Feedback for everything(13:50) Mutual Trust(15:48) Work sustainably and avoid burnout(17:42) Write only what's new & helpful --- First published: August 21st, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mLonxtAiuvvkjXiwq/the-anti-fragile-culture --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.