80k After Hours

This is a selection of highlights from episode #147 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 stopping valueless papers from getting into top journals

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

"The very first office we had was just a balcony in an Oxford College dining hall. It was totally open to the dining hall, so every lunch and dinner time it would be super noisy because it'd be like 200 people all eating below us. And then I think we just had a bit where we just didn't have an office, so we worked out of the canteen in the library for at least three months or something. And then it was only after that we moved into this tiny, tiny room at the back of an estate agent off in St Clement’s in Oxford. One of our early donors came and we gave him a tour, and when he came into the office, his first reaction was, 'Is this legal?'" — Benjamin Todd

In this episode of 80k After Hours — recorded in June 2022 — Rob Wiblin and Benjamin Todd discuss the history of 80,000 Hours.

Links to learn more.

Chapters:
• Cold open (00:00:00)
• Rob's intro (00:00:44)
• Ben's origin story (00:04:07)
• The birth of 80k (00:12:23)
• The early vision for 80k (00:30:12)
• The general vibe in the EA community back then (00:37:35)
• How 80k evolved (00:48:46)
• Trips to Thailand and China (01:13:00)
• Setting up several programmes (01:17:48)
• Moving to California (01:24:54)
• 80k strengths (01:33:49)
• Why Ben left the CEO position (01:39:03)
• The future of 80,000 Hours (01:42:06)
• Rob's outro (01:45:09)

Who this episode is for: 

• People who work on or plan to work on promoting important ideas in a way that's similar to 80,000 Hours
• People who work at organisations similar to 80,000 Hours
• People who work at 80,000 Hours

Who this episode isn’t for: 

• People who, if asked if they’d like to join a dinner at 80,000 Hours where the team reminisce on the good old days, would say, “Sorry, can’t make it — I’m washing my hair that night”

Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Ryan Kessler and Ben Cordell

"Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue, original 1924 version" by Jason Weinberger is licensed under creative commons

This is a selection of highlights from episode #172 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:

Bryan Caplan on why you should stop reading the news

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 #148 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:

Johannes Ackva on unfashionable climate interventions that work, and fashionable ones that don’t

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 #171 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:

Alison Young on how top labs have jeopardised public health with repeated biosafety failures

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 #170 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:

Santosh Harish on how air pollution is responsible for ~12% of global deaths — and how to get that number down

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 #169 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:

Paul Niehaus on whether cash transfers cause economic growth, and keeping theft to acceptable levels

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 #168 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:

Ian Morris on whether deep history says we’re heading for an intelligence explosion

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 #167 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:

Seren Kell on the research gaps holding back alternative proteins from mass adoption

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 #166 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:

Tantum Collins on what he’s learned as an AI policy insider at the White House, DeepMind and elsewhere

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