This is a selection of highlights from episode #189 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.

These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:

Rachel Glennerster on how “market shaping” could help solve climate change, pandemics, and other global problems

And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing [email protected].

Chapters:

• Luisa's intro (00:00:00)
• What is market shaping? (00:00:25)
• Why some countries didn't have COVID vaccines sooner (00:05:04)
• Designing incentives for pull mechanisms (00:09:12)
• Using pull mechanisms to get a universal COVID vaccine (00:13:31)
• Pull mechanisms to incentivise repurposing of generic drugs (00:18:20)
• Specific interventions versus systemic reform in education (00:23:25)

Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong

This is a selection of highlights from episode #188 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.

These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:

Matt Clancy on whether science is good

And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing [email protected].

Chapters:

• Luisa’s intro (00:00:00)
• How could scientific progress be net negative? (00:00:15)
• Non-philosophical reasons to discount the far-future (00:03:42)
• How technology generates huge benefits in our day-to-day lives (00:07:54)
• Can science reduce extinction risk? (00:14:17)
• Are we already too late to delay the time of perils? (00:18:48)
• The omnipresent frictions that might prevent explosive economic growth (00:21:59)

Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong

You can check out the video version of this episode on YouTube at https://youtu.be/R9VGbY7CgOI

Matt, Bella, and Cody sit down with Julian Hazell to discuss the UK recession, religion, higher education, and whether being an amateur swordfighter should give you the right to vote.

This is a selection of highlights from episode #187 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.

These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:

Zach Weinersmith on how researching his book turned him from a space optimist into a “space bastard”

And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing [email protected].

Chapters:

• A potted history of space exploration (00:00:23)
• Why space settlement (probably) won't make us rich (00:06:07)
• What happens to human bodies in space (00:11:43)
• The ethics of space babies (00:16:05)
• Making babies in space (00:18:40)
• A roadmap for settling space (00:22:42)

Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong

This is a selection of highlights from episode #186 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.

These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:

Dean Spears on why babies are born small in Uttar Pradesh, and how to save their lives

And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing [email protected].

Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong

This is a selection of highlights from episode #185 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.

These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:

Lewis Bollard on the 7 most promising ways to end factory farming, and whether AI is going to be good or bad for animals

And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing [email protected].

Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong

This is a selection of highlights from episode #184 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.

These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:

Zvi Mowshowitz on sleeping on sleeper agents, and the biggest AI updates since ChatGPT

And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing [email protected].

Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong

Matt Reardon, Arden Koehler, and Huon Porteous sit down with Dwarkesh Patel to find out how you become a world-famous (among tech intellectuals) podcast host at 23. We also discuss how 80k would have advised 21-year-old Dwarkesh and 80k strategy more broadly.

You can check out the video version of this episode on YouTube at https://youtu.be/H5px6CQTe8o

Topics covered:

• How did Dwarkesh start landing world-class guests?
• Why is Bryan Caplan such an easy get?
• How does Dwarkesh think about ideological labels?
• Dwarkesh explains his pivot towards AI
• Do intellectuals matter for progress?
• Was Microsoft or the Gates Foundation more impactful?
• Do biographies ever matter more than their subjects?
• How would 80k have advised young Dwarkesh?
• What does motivate people in government and what should motivate people in government?
• Should do-gooders seek power?
• Should 80k advice always aim at the tails?
• Are people just layering their simple political memes onto the AI debate?
• How do you boost people’s agency?
• How do we feel about self-perceived entrepreneurs?
• What’s the tradeoff between having the right initiative and having the right ideas?
• How does 80k’s advice deal with AI timelines?  
• Are 80k users self-selected for not being the highest potential people?
• Should you assume that everyone can make it to the extreme tail?
• In how many areas should 80k have detailed advice?
• What happened to the EA brand?

This is a cross-post of an interview Rob Wiblin did on Robert Wright's Nonzero podcast in January 2024. You can get access to full episodes of that show by subscribing to the Nonzero Newsletter.

They talk about Sam Bankman-Fried, virtue ethics, the growing influence of longtermism, what role EA played in the OpenAI board drama, the culture of local effective altruism groups, where Rob thinks people get EA most seriously wrong, what Rob fears most about rogue AI, the double-edged sword of AI-empowered governments, and flattening the curve of AI's social disruption.

And if you enjoy this, you could also check out episode 101 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast: Robert Wright on using cognitive empathy to save the world. 

This is a selection of highlights from episode #183 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.

These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:

Spencer Greenberg on causation without correlation, money and happiness, lightgassing, hype vs value, and more

And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing [email protected].

Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong