EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

TLDR: Consider indicating your approximate location on the EA forum community members map, so local organizers can find you, and maybe take initiative yourself to organize lunch meetups, walks, coworking, anything else you want, all within 10min of where you live or work.

Many EA community members (myself included) would like to meet others with shared interests more often without the hassle of long commutes. In EA Hubs like London or Berlin, 30-45min+ commutes to meet other members from your “local” city group are not unusual, which makes shorter meetups like lunches or afternoon walks not feasible. To address this, I’m proposing Neighborhood EA meetups (or “actually local groups”, if you will).

First, we need a way to find out who lives in your neighborhood. I suggest we use the existing EA forum community members map. Here in Berlin, a few people already specified their locations (approximately [...]

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First published:

March 21st, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/x7QsHB5mjfKQeeApQ/actually-local-groups-an-easy-way-to-meet-fellow-eas-from

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Author's note: Hi everyone! This is a cross-post from my blog. It's a short, accessible piece intended for those who find the idea of measuring suffering "icky," uncomfortable, or cold. I've noticed this as a fairly common reaction to effective altruism, and I wanted to write from a place of sincerely empathising with it. My goal here was to explore how quantification can complement our natural empathy rather than replace it.

Is it more difficult to live with AIDS for a year or to have blindness for a year? There is a kind of person who wrinkles their nose at this question. I know because, I wrinkled my nose at it back in 2019, as I paged through my girlfriend's copy of Will MacAskill's Doing Good Better.

"I mean, ok, I get that you can try to measure which is worse, but, um. Feels really, icky? What would [...]

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Outline:

(01:38) Why we resist quantifying suffering

(02:58) A necessary tool in an overwhelming world

(04:26) Quantification as a complement to empathy

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First published:

March 21st, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Reb7bMJfaxwMs4sLD/in-defense-of-quantifying-suffering

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Some rich people have worldviews that are uncommon within Effective Altruism. These people might be on board with doing good, but less aligned with the pragmatic, calculated approach common in Effective Altruist circles.

Last year, I joined a group of “strange stakeholders” investing in a co-created tantric retreat centre. The other investors' worldviews ranged from business-minded altruism to spiritually idealistic tantra.

By thoughtfully presenting Effective Altruist ideas in ways that bridged our diverse worldviews, I gained the support of the other stakeholders to allocate part of our future surplus to effective global health charities.

The project is just getting started. Initially, most surplus revenue will cover loan repayments, but after a couple of years, more is projected to go toward effective charity. At that point, the estimated annual amount donated is expected to range from $225,000-900,000—roughly 50-200 lives per year.

In this post, I'll share how I bridged the [...]

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Outline:

(01:31) Theory - Speak In Their Values

(02:32) Example - EA And Holistic Tantra

(03:48) Yin/Yang, and the Maslow Hierarchy

(04:53) Introducing EA as Yang Energy

(05:51) Handling Objections

(08:23) Bridging Worlds

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First published:

March 20th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/n359wXkD5t64etsry/bridging-worldviews-tantric-retreat-centre-goes-earning-to

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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How the dismal science can help us end the dismal treatment of farm animals

By Martin Gould

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.

This year we’ll be sharing a few notes from my colleagues on their areas of expertise. The first is from Martin. I’ll be back next month. - Lewis

In 2024, Denmark announced plans to introduce the world's first carbon tax on cow, sheep, and pig farming. Climate advocates celebrated, but animal advocates should be much more cautious. When Denmark's Aarhus municipality tested a similar tax in 2022, beef purchases dropped by 40% while demand for chicken and pork increased.

Beef is the most emissions-intensive meat, so carbon taxes hit it hardest — and Denmark's policies don’t even [...]

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First published:

March 20th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ehehif6dmiQco7bJA/five-insights-from-farm-animal-economics

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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We’re excited to announce the Vancouver Forum for Effective Altruism!

Whether you’re new to Effective Altruism, or have already made high-impact work a part of your life, you’re invited to join the Forum.

Join us this April 4-5 in Vancouver, Canada to make new connections, learn about the latest in EA, and enjoy a meal together.

Registration is now open!

Know of someone who may be interested in the event? Share the details today!

Feel free to join for either or both events:

• Friday Dinner and Social: April 4, 6-9pm
• Saturday Forum: April 5, 10am - 5pm
  • Career workshops
  • Talks from local EAs
  • Networking opportunities
  • Vegan Lunch provided

Join the conversation by registering here

Tickets are Pay What You Can - here's a great link to help guide your decision.

A big thanks to Rethink Charity for sponsoring this [...]

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Outline:

(00:35) Registration is now open!

(00:45) Feel free to join for either or both events:

(01:09) Join the conversation by registering here

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First published:

March 19th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/J3NXA2tfFMzsS2MoS/announcing-the-vancouver-forum-for-effective-altruism-april

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TL;DR

In a sentence:
We are shifting our strategic focus to put our proactive effort towards helping people work on safely navigating the transition to a world with AGI, while keeping our existing content up.

In more detail:

We think it's plausible that frontier AI companies will develop AGI by 2030. Given the significant risks involved, and the fairly limited amount of work that's been done to reduce these risks, 80,000 Hours is adopting a new strategic approach to focus our efforts in this area.

During 2025, we are prioritising:

1. Deepening our understanding as an organisation of how to improve the chances that the development of AI goes well
2. Communicating why and how people can contribute to reducing the risks
3. Connecting our users with impactful roles in this field
4. And fostering an internal culture which helps us to achieve these goals

We remain focused on impactful [...]

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Outline:

(01:44) Why we're updating our strategic direction

(04:02) How we hope to achieve it

(05:44) Community implications

(08:38) Potential questions you might have

(08:42) What does this mean for non-AI cause areas?

(10:44) How big a shift is this from 80k's status quo?

(11:58) Are EA values still important?

(13:36) What would cause us to change our approach?

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First published:

March 20th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4ZE3pfwDKqRRNRggL/80-000-hours-is-shifting-our-strategic-approach-to-focus

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

I made the following infographic adapting the Introduction to Effective Altruism post. The goal I set for myself was to make the post more accessible and easier to digest to broaden its potential audience, and to make the ideas more memorable through graphics and data visualizations.

You can also view it in high-resolution here or get a pdf here.

More info on the thought and creative process below!

Why did I make this?

I'm a graphic designer with a background in scientific and technical illustration, specializing in making complex concepts more accessible. I am now trying to pivot my career towards communicating higher-impact ideas, and I wanted to create something that could show how I can apply my skills to EA-related topics. The Intro to EA post seemed like an excellent place to start, because it condenses a lot of general information about EA and also includes a [...]

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Outline:

(00:40) Why did I make this?

(01:12) Process and strategy

(01:16) The idea

(01:47) My approach

(03:48) Time spent

(03:58) Design choices

(04:02) Overall style

(04:25) Data visualizations

(06:37) Feedback welcome!

(06:59) Going forward

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:

March 19th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pxEHC6uBzsXRdWqax/i-made-an-infographic-for-the-introduction-to-effective

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Tl;dr

• Despite huge investment and continuing growth, alt proteins remain an uncertain cause area.
• A huge number of surveys and some data from the real world have failed to produce a consensus around the effectiveness of alternative proteins in replacing animal products; however, the preponderance of evidence supports the idea that alternative proteins have displaced animal products to some degree.
• There is debate around the importance of price parity between alt proteins and their animal-based counterparts; even more unknown is the potential result of alternative proteins becoming cheaper than animal-based foods.
• In general, plant-based foods appear to have more widespread appeal in the Global South.
• Directly supporting animal welfare interventions currently appears to be a better-evidenced way to reduce animal suffering than supporting alternative proteins.
• AI remains likely to disrupt the area significantly, potentially in the near future.

What is this post?

While there's been a huge amount written [...]

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Outline:

(00:05) Tl;dr

(01:13) What is this post?

(02:13) Two Caveats

(03:19) Definitions

(04:24) State of the Industry

(06:29) Appetite for Displacement

(11:27) Markets and Economic Trends

(13:26) What's an EA to do?

(16:15) What does all of this tell us?

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First published:

March 19th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/F2FbzKh2PLtkkJesE/are-alternative-proteins-an-effective-intervention-for

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Summary: We propose measuring AI performance in terms of the length of tasks AI agents can complete. We show that this metric has been consistently exponentially increasing over the past 6 years, with a doubling time of around 7 months. Extrapolating this trend predicts that, in under a decade, we will see AI agents that can independently complete a large fraction of software tasks that currently take humans days or weeks.

The length of tasks (measured by how long they take human professionals) that generalist frontier model agents can complete autonomously with 50% reliability has been doubling approximately every 7 months for the last 6 years. The shaded region represents 95% CI calculated by hierarchical bootstrap over task families, tasks, and task attempts.

Full paper | Github repo

Blogpost; tweet thread.

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First published:

March 19th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YJ7Pk2bwTd3ieimG8/metr-measuring-ai-ability-to-complete-long-tasks

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Cross-posted from my blog.

Contrary to my carefully crafted brand as a weak nerd, I go to a local CrossFit gym a few times a week. Every year, the gym raises funds for a scholarship for teens from lower-income families to attend their summer camp program. I don’t know how many Crossfit-interested low-income teens there are in my small town, but I’ll guess there are perhaps 2 of them who would benefit from the scholarship. After all, CrossFit is pretty niche, and the town is small.

Helping youngsters get swole in the Pacific Northwest is not exactly as cost-effective as preventing malaria in Malawi. But I notice I feel drawn to supporting the scholarship anyway. Every time it pops in my head I think, “My money could fully solve this problem”. The camp only costs a few hundred dollars per kid and if there are just 2 kids who [...]

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Outline:

(01:19) You are only ever making small dents in important problems

(03:06) The man who failed to fully solve a genocide

(06:29) Saving starfish

(07:40) Big problems are actually solved piece by piece

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

March 19th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZKfFoo8ttD9NEpKHv/you-probably-won-t-solve-malaria-or-x-risk-and-that-s-ok

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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