EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

Imagine waking up tomorrow in a world very different from our own. There is no society, nor do you have any friends or acquaintances. You must fend for yourself, acquiring your own food. Disease runs rampant. The world is filled with monsters that are trying to kill and eat you, often slowly over the course of many minutes. You’re constantly hungry, thirsty, and in discomfort from temperature extremes. Then, after about a week of this brutal existence, you die painfully—from starvation, being eaten alive, disease, thirst, or being crushed to death.

Question: was your life worth living?

Obvious answer: no!

But this is the life that nearly every conscious animal on Earth will ever experience. For every human alive today, there are hundreds of millions of creatures consigned to this brief, brutal, and hellish existence. This is the life of nearly every animal, and it's why I’m generally in [...]

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First published:

August 1st, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/8GaxX4TofwxF2gh5M/most-animals-have-bad-lives

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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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 [...]

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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

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First published:

August 3rd, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dnbpKkjnw3v6JkaDa/alcohol-is-so-bad-for-society-that-you-should-probably-stop

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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AI is advancing incredibly fast. We might see AI systems that are better than most humans at many tasks within a few years. This would change things drastically for animals in factory farms, in the wild, and beyond… and therefore animal advocates’ strategies should change, too.

In this post, I argue:

1. Based on recent trends in AI capabilities and advances in training techniques, truly transformative AI could arrive soon, e.g. by 2030.
2. This matters for animal advocates (if you agree it could arrive soon), because transformative AI will change the game for animals—for better or worse.
3. Animal advocates might reasonably:
   1. Optimise harder for immediate results (not results in e.g. 5+ years’ time)
   2. Predict how AI will change things, and try to make that go well for animals
   3. Try to increase the concern that AIs or their controllers show for animals
   4. Focus on building capacity to prepare for TAI
   5. Shift to AI welfare, to [...]

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Outline:

(02:14) Transformative AI may arrive soon

(04:32) This matters for animals and their advocates

(05:45) How might animal advocates respond to TAI soon?

(05:52) Stick to business as usual

(06:55) Optimise harder for immediate results

(08:30) Predict how AI will change things, and try to make that go well for animals

(10:38) Focus on building capacity to prepare for TAI

(12:04) Try to increase the concern that AIs or their controllers show for animals

(13:28) Shift to AI welfare, to protect potential sentient AIs from suffering

(14:25) Shift towards all-inclusive AI safety

(15:40) You can do something about this

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First published:

August 2nd, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TY2f2Ts2EdsDAP35y/animal-advocates-should-respond-to-transformative-ai-maybe

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Below some meta-level / operational / fundraising thoughts around producing the SB-1047 Documentary I've just posted on Manifund (see previous Lesswrong / EAF posts on AI Governance lessons learned).

The SB-1047 Documentary took 27 weeks and $157k instead of my planned 6 weeks and $55k. Here's what I learned about documentary production

Total funding received: ~$143k ($119k from this grant, $4k from Ryan Kidd's regrant on another project, and $20k from the Future of Life Institute).

Total money spent: $157k

In terms of timeline, here is the rough breakdown month-per-month:
- Sep / October (production): Filming of the Documentary. Manifund project is created.
- November (rough cut): I work with one editor to go through our entire footage and get a first rough cut of the documentary that was presented at The Curve.
- December-January (final cut - one editor): I interview multiple potential editors that [...]

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Outline:

(03:19) But why did the project end up taking 27 weeks instead of 6 weeks?

(03:25) Short answer

(06:22) Impact

(07:14) What I would do differently next-time

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First published:

August 1st, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cFLuvK6g8AikifmwH/sb-1047-documentary-the-post-mortem-1

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Summary

• 💸 We’ve sent nearly $1b to people in poverty — next up: $5b by 2035 through smarter, faster, recipient-first programs in our mission to accelerate the end of extreme poverty.
• 🛠️ From cash for new moms to planning nudges and AI tools, we’re piloting designs that could have much more impact per dollar and be scaled by governments.
• 🎯 We continue to hold new innovations to a high bar: they must be respectful, scalable, and more impactful than our standard program.
• 🚀 We’re seeking another $25m to accelerate our innovative pilots and have even more room for funding for our ever-improving flagship Poverty Relief programs.

This year, GiveDirectly will hit a milestone: $1 billion committed to people in poverty, alongside 25+ independent studies rigorously testing how that cash was spent, what changed, and why.

Now we’re raising the bar. GiveDirectly has set an audacious new goal [...]

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Outline:

(03:06) ✅ What we're still doing: Scaling what works

(06:10) 🆕 What we're starting: Designing for higher impact per dollar

(09:40) Our next billion dollars will be even more impactful

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First published:

July 31st, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/tozHtFLGMDhizFs5d/from-proven-to-fit-for-purpose-what-givedirectly-s-doing

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Tom will answer the questions in the comments between 7 and 9 pm UK time on August 6th.

Tom Ough is a Senior Editor at UnHerd, co-host of the Anglofuturism podcast, and the author of a new book, ‘The Anti-Catastrophe League’. For the last few years, he has been writing in a range of publications about global catastrophic risks, and (sometimes relatedly) how Britain can prosper by adopting new technologies. Previously, he worked as a journalist at The Telegraph, where he wrote for nearly seven years.

You can see more of his articles on his website, and a few of his most EA-flavoured pieces below:

• Earth scientists are playing with fire: Can the climate be re-engineered?
• Could AI make the next pandemic deadlier?
• Watt lies beneath: geothermal energy

Recently, Tom published The Anti-Catastrophe League, a book profiling the individuals and organisations working to reduce global catastrophic risks. For [...]

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Outline:

(01:23) The Anti-Catastrophe League

(06:30) What might you ask Tom?

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First published:

July 31st, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/s2T6dSXuFAwsLtShC/ama-tom-ough-senior-editor-at-unherd-author-of-the-anti

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Abstract

This post explores how emerging economic systems could lock in harmful defaults for animals and outlines a research agenda to identify opportunities and begin the groundwork for embedding animal welfare into future frameworks before it's too late.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Ian Andrews, Kevin Xia and Andrew McCallum for thoughtful feedback on an earlier draft of this post. All mistakes are my own.

TL;DR

• Our economic system commodifies ~ 1.6 trillion animals annually.
• This system is being destabilised by many factors including AI, climate breakdown, inequality and institutional decay.
• These disruptions create rare openings to reshape foundational values.
• Industrial capitalism embedded speciesism at scale, new systems could do the same.
• This post outlines a neglected research agenda exploring how to integrate animal welfare into emerging economic frameworks before lock-in occurs.
• It suggests initial directions (such as integrating animal welfare into post-growth metrics and AI governance) and invites feedback [...]

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Outline:

(00:12) Abstract

(00:40) TL;DR

(01:31) Introduction: why I'm writing this now

(02:12) Why economic paradigms matter for animals

(03:04) We need to hedge across plausible futures

(03:44) The logic of lock in: lessons from AI policy

(05:33) A new research space: animal welfare meets economic transition

(06:30) Avoiding false choices: long-term strategy, not a substitute

(07:40) Why now: a critical window for foundational change

(09:38) How current systems entrench suffering

(12:08) From reaction to prevention: what transition periods make possible

(13:53) A  research agenda: preventing future harm

(14:13) Research aims

(15:37) Strategic actions

(17:22) Mapping future systems: three paradigms, three risks

(19:32) Case study: degrowth and animal invisibility

(20:15) Conclusion: Steering the future before its set

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First published:

July 28th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yKx4JskGWc9noAtqW/preventing-animal-suffering-lock-in-why-economic-transitions

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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This is a post about my impact-focused career journey, with a few tentative lessons drawn out:

1. Unofficial work gets you hired
2. Even if an organisation has a need, they don’t always advertise it
3. You can create your own roles

More on those below. But first, some context.

I’m Jamie Harris, the Courses Project Lead at The Centre for Effective Altruism, where I lead a team running online programs that inspire and empower talented people to explore the best ways they can help others. That's my full-time role.

I also have two extremely part-time/spare-time commitments. I’m a Fund Manager at the Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund, which aims to increase the impact of projects using the principles of effective altruism by improving their access to talent, capital, and knowledge. And I’m President of Leaf, a nonprofit that supports exceptional teenagers in exploring how they can best save lives, help others [...]

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First published:

July 26th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/c6mPrJpbnPm4LhwRi/a-deep-dive-case-study-of-an-impact-focused-career

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

With all the current interest in finding and landing impactful roles, we’re excited to share a significantly revised version of our career guide!

Spanning 8 chapters, it covers topics like matching your motivations to good opportunities, developing your career hypotheses, applying in a way that maximizes your odds of success, and diagnosing and overcoming obstacles in the job hunt. It's meant to help people at all stages, whether you’re unsure what your path to impact should be or you have a pretty good idea but need help pursuing it (including if you keep getting rejected and aren’t sure what to do).

If you’re interested, you can sign up to get a summarized version of the guide delivered in chunks via email, and/or apply for 1:1 advising to talk with an advisor about your situation.

We’d also love to hear what you think about this guide (or any of our [...]

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First published:

July 29th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/jqomhaK8Anv7TBPcv/new-guide-for-people-interested-in-impactful-careers

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Highlights

I enjoyed Career Conversations Week, and I’m thankful to all who took part. There were so many great posts that many of them are under-read/ under-rated. So I’d highly recommend reading a random post from the tag, and adding (or subtracting) karma.

I particularly enjoyed:

• My colleague Rika's 6 years of building an EA-aligned career from an LMIC. As Geoffrey points out in a comment, the concrete details here make the post practically useful as well as motivational.
• Annika Burman's Why You Should Build Your Own EA Internship Abroad. The post is well-written and interesting, and I hope it inspires some readers to create their own internships (abroad or not).
• The comments on the debate I posted, Debate: Are enough EAs earning to give? - especially Calebp's comment, where he bravely articulates the first ‘disagree’ take on a particularly lop-sided poll.  
• The entire Ask Career Advisors Anything [...]

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Outline:

(00:12) Highlights

(01:37) Retrospective

(02:39) How did the week affect Forum growth?

(04:26) Other metrics

(05:16) Work and costs

(05:54) Did you find this event valuable?

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First published:

July 29th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YJZSfxBpyvPtKA3G5/career-conversations-highlights-and-retrospective

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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