EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

Conscious Meaning

We share every moment with trillions of other conscious beings. Some are much like us, and others experience the world very differently. Creatures without a language to structure their thoughts, some who see broader spectrums of light or others who might experience the world in comparative slow motion. Each conscious moment immediately slips into the past largely unobserved and forgotten. They fall through time like snow to become frozen in the past. Always to have happened just as they did.

Each conscious moment is transient and one small part of a vast whole, so one could see any individual as meaningless and insignificant. But every conscious moment is imbued with meaning. Happiness that need not justify itself and pains that consume any desire but to escape them.

As individuals, we are not responsible for the state of the world. You did not choose to create disease, poverty and mental illness. You can’t control nature, and you can’t control the society around you.

Many schools of philosophy disagree exactly on what our moral obligations are to others. Given this disagreement, we could default to radical scepticism that all attempts to decide what the right way to [...]

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Outline:

(00:11) Conscious Meaning

(02:06) Ovarian lottery

(03:49) The Good we can do

(05:18) Creating Balance

(06:13) Voluntary Simplicity

(08:12) Setting Salary based on the Worlds average income

(10:12) Appendix: Let he who is without sin cast the first stone

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First published:

December 11th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wd7XsSwqWCzd2uzhq/the-further-pledge-voluntary-simplicity

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

We are thrilled to introduce four new charities from our latest Charity Entrepreneurship incubation round! Collectively, they have secured $696,000 in seed funding to kickstart their ventures.

Read on to learn more about these newly incubated organisations and how you can support their impact journeys!

Short Summaries

First Embrace

Over 2 million babies die every year. That's 4 babies every minute. 80% of these are low-birth-weight (LBW) newborns. We can change this. Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) increases an LBW newborn's chance of survival by at least 33%.

First Embrace will establish KMC wards within existing hospitals, training and equipping nurses to support mothers in practices proven in over 20 RCTs to save newborn lives: skin-to-skin contact, exclusive breastfeeding, and danger-sign identification.

Better Season Project

Half a billion smallholder farmers grow a third of the world's food, yet most live in extreme poverty. Proven tools like water tanks and storage bags can increase farm incomes for years, but lenders often misjudge smallholders’ risk, leaving a $170 billion finance gap.

Better Season Project is closing that gap by making productive investments affordable for smallholder farmers. We achieve this through asset-collateralised loans (ACLs), where the asset itself serves as collateral, lowering barriers [...]

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Outline:

(00:43) Short Summaries

(00:46) First Embrace

(01:28) Better Season Project

(02:26) Opal Health

(03:20) Better Futures Guide

(03:56) First Embrace

(04:07) Why

(04:57) Plans

(05:19) Where

(05:50) Goals

(06:35) How you can support us

(07:02) Better Season Project

(07:16) Why

(09:12) Plans

(10:06) Where

(10:45) Goals

(11:10) How you can support us

(11:49) Opal Health

(11:59) Why

(13:14) Plans

(14:39) Goals

(15:29) How you can support us

(16:04) Better Futures Guide

(16:16) Why

(17:17) Plans

(18:11) Goals

(18:41) How you can support us

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First published:

December 11th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9HnvKWH3PYjf89xGg/announcing-four-new-charities

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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This is a link post.

Malaysia's Islamic authority declares cultivated meat can be halal - a first for a Muslim-majority country

The Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia – JAKIM), through the National Muzakarah Committee, has issued a landmark religious ruling (fatwa) stating that cultivated meat can be halal if certain basic conditions are met. This declaration comes just months after Malaysia completed an expansive National Cultivated Meat Feasibility Study, as part of a government effort supported by the prime minister to explore “the potential of future foods.”

Source: GFI APAC, Based on Religious Ruling (Link Provided in Their Post)

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First published:

December 11th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CQz5X9Fajo42JCzq7/malaysia-s-islamic-authority-declares-cultivated-meat-can-be

Linkpost URL:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gfi-apac_breaking-malaysias-islamic-authority-declares-activity-7404336568339116033-SWdN/

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This is a link post.

[Subtitle.] Econ 101 Needs More Progress Studies

This is a crosspost for Most Externalities are Solved with Technology, Not Coordination by Maxwell Tabarrok, which was originally published on Maximum Progress on 14 March 2025.

The basic externalities story goes like this: Some things, like air quality or scientific discoveries, have effects which spread to millions of people without cost or reward to the creator. Actions with unpunished costs are over-produced and actions with uncompensated benefits are left undone.

The story continues that if only we could coordinate, we could fix the misallocation caused by externalities. We might get the government to tax and subsidize externalities or else we might try to lower transaction costs so that people can bargain to solve externalities on their own.

The basic story over-focuses on social coordination as the solution to externalities. Our institutions cannot be relied on to optimally correct externalities or even to avoid making them worse. Usually, the costs of an externality subside only after we’ve invented a technology which makes it cheap or privately beneficial to do the socially optimal thing. Most importantly, technology shifts out the production possibilities frontier making it possible to get outcomes [...]

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Outline:

(01:53) The Smoky City

(05:25) Airborne Disease

(06:49) Firefighting

(08:02) Over-farming and Guano Depletion

(09:21) Malthusian Externalities and The Industrial/Green Revolutions

(11:00) Counterexamples

(12:18) More Examples

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First published:

December 10th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cYdnZjLDnzsMG5y7A/most-externalities-are-solved-with-technology-not

Linkpost URL:
https://www.maximum-progress.com/p/most-externalities-are-solved-with

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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A commercial court has pronounced the judicial liquidation of French insect agriculture pioneer Ÿnsect following a hearing held earlier this week. The company, once seen as the poster-child for protein production via insect farming, now “calls for the acquisition of assets to continue its mission,” according to an official statement.

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First published:

December 10th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/F4Gb6mzKNrRTAz4HZ/the-world-s-largest-insect-farming-company-has-officially

Linkpost URL:
https://agfundernews.com/judicial-liquidation-for-ynsect-as-insect-farming-sector-struggles-to-become-competitive

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Thanks to everyone who voted and/or donated to the Donation Election!

Winners

The winners this year are:

• The EA Animal Welfare Fund ($6693.75)
• The Shrimp Welfare Project ($4259.66)
• The Against Malaria Foundation ($4259.66)

We used a ranked-choice voting to determine the winner. 314 of you voted, and 44 of you donated (thank you!).

Below you can see how many people ranked the three winners 1–10 (based on initial votes).

PS - just in the nick of time, Forum users donated enough to qualify for a debate week of your choice in Q1 next year. I'll ask for your ideas in January.

More info on the Winners

The EA Animal Welfare Fund

Marginal funding post | Donate

In AWF's marginal funding post, the Karolina writes that:

"Our strategy aims to deploy at least $20M to proven and emerging interventions, but we face an $11.6M funding gap for 2026 that will determine whether these opportunities can be leveraged or remain unexplored."

What is that strategy? You can read the whole thing here, but one gloss from the piece is that:

"Our strategy prioritizes large, neglected species of animals, as well as farmed animals in the Global [...]

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Outline:

(00:14) Winners

(01:19) More info on the Winners

(01:23) The EA Animal Welfare Fund

(02:40) The Shrimp Welfare Project

(03:50) The Against Malaria Foundation

(04:35) Want more stats? Make your own!

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First published:

December 10th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Qymv8tzZBsqHM66og/donation-election-2025-winners

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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And Effective Altruism has put my faith community to shame

The Beginning

When I became a Christian age 15 my life began to transform, but sadly my first external play was proclaiming no sex before marriage and saying F#$% a bit less (I’ve since resumed).

Two years later at premed, Tuesday was my only night with no tutorial so I joined a church group, which was weirdly labelled “Social Justice”. I had zero clue what this was aboutt, maybe preventing bullying at school?. Our leader Jo opened with a question I’ll never forget.

“I’m fundraising for World Vision and I told my chain-smoking friend I’ll buy him a pack of cigs if he joins the fundraising effort. Do you guys think that's OK?”

As we discussed the conundrum for the next hour my heart jumped a little. Perhaps my time, skills and money could be useful for something more than just a comfortable life in the ‘burbs…

Why do I Give?

“When you give….” Jesus

Christian motivations for giving vary wildly. Some mostly give to keep their church club solvent, others to save face, but most have deeper motivations. Here are mine.

[...]

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Outline:

(01:06) Why do I Give?

(01:24) Gratitude and Joy

(02:24) Utilitarian

(03:14) More to come?

(03:49) Christians aren't great at Giving

(04:04) Father of Earning to Give?

(05:07) We're not much better

(06:08) Effective Altruist Giving Impresses me

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First published:

December 10th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QrQ9jwFSNoEdd373f/i-donate-because-i-am-christian

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Background: I've been donating since 2018, but I only signed the giving pledge last week. Thanks to @Amalie Farestvedt 🔸 from GWWC, Anthony Wong and others for helping me with the decision.

My reasons for donating

1. Like most EAs, I want to do good, and recognize that my money can go a hell of a way to helping other people, animals, or preventing bad things from happening. I'm so grateful that there are incredibly impactful opportunities out there.
2. But, less commonly in EA, I also think... that I shouldn't have as much money as I do. I think the world is built on inequalities - and sure, the division of labour is powerful, bringing me the laptop that I'm writing on, but I think a lot of what I have is also only possible due to the exploitation of other people and animals. For the record, I don't come from old money. I just grew up in a privileged enough environment to go to a good school, have a supporting family and one that could push me in the right directions. But these things were already only possible because of advantages that depended on historical injustices. In this [...]

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Outline:

(00:24) My reasons for donating

(01:28) Where I donate

(02:05) My income-dynamic pledge

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First published:

December 9th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/74gbLxsFAiG33T8EL/why-i-donate-and-why-i-m-committing-to-a-dynamic-pledge

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

People working in the AI industry are making stupid amounts of money, and word on the street is that Anthropic is going to have some sort of liquidity event soon (for example possibly IPOing sometime next year). A lot of people working in AI are familiar with EA, and are intending to direct donations our way (if they haven't started already). People are starting to discuss what this might mean for their own personal donations and for the ecosystem, and this is encouraging to see.

It also has me thinking about 2022. Immediately before the FTX collapse, we were just starting to reckon, as a community, with the pretty significant vibe shift in EA that came from having a lot more money to throw around.

CitizenTen, in "The Vultures Are Circling" (April 2022), puts it this way:

The message is out. There's easy money to be had. And the vultures are coming. On many internet circles, there's been a worrying tone. “You should apply for [insert EA grant], all I had to do was pretend to care about x, and I got $$!” Or, “I’m not even an EA, but I can pretend, as getting a 10k grant is [...]

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First published:

December 10th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vpPee6NgMbPcdsam3/the-funding-conversation-we-left-unfinished

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

My decision to take the Giving What We Can (now the 10%) Pledge in September 2020 was based on the responsibility I felt with my great power, improving my own quality of life and the logic of it all. However, these thoughts were all quite unconscious back then and my decision to take the pledge was immediate as soon as I learned about it.

To celebrate "Why I donate week" I decided to think through my reasoning, which was implicit back then, in more detail:

With great power comes great responsibility 

My commitment to donate 10% of my income for life is fundamentally rooted in a strong belief: with great power comes great responsibility. The power I hold is the freedom to choose what I do with a decent portion of my income, a power that countless individuals across the globe simply do not possess as they struggle daily to meet their basic needs. My personal responsibility is to use this power to support those who have not been afforded the same chance in life.

This stems directly from a place of undeniable privilege. Growing up in the United Kingdom, I was raised in a stable family environment where [...]

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Outline:

(00:39) With great power comes great responsibility

(01:58) Giving away my money increased my quality of life

(03:32) The logic of it all

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First published:

December 8th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3zsWoNm6DGGr9kSuD/why-i-donate-and-pledge-responsibility-life-quality-and

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.