How I Learned to Love Shrimp

Lewis Bollard on the strategies that win, the traps to avoid, and why.


Listen Later

Lewis Bollard should be a familiar name for those trying to improve the lives of farmed animals. For almost 10 years, he’s been running the farm animal welfare program at Open Philanthropy, the largest funder in the fight against factory farming. It's hard to think of someone who's had a large positive influence on the modern farm animal welfare movement. 

In this conversation, we discuss the many different approaches we can take to help animals. We talk about why some strategies are less promising than they initially seem, common misconceptions he sees amongst advocates, why creating good strategy is hard, where the movement is under-investing and what he’s learned from other social movements. 

See the full transcript on our Buzzsprout.

Chapters:

  • What Lewis has changed his mind on (00:02:33)
  • The challenges of institutional meat reduction (00:06:05) 
  • Lewis' pessimism on animal welfare litigation (00:11:58)
  • The case for animal welfare technologies (00:14:42)
  • Why blocking new farms may not help (or even make things worse) (00:18:24)
  • What Lewis thinks advocates commonly get wrong (00:23:11)
  • Incrementalism vs moonshots & the speed of social change (00:26:50)
  • What is the movement under-investing in? (00:36:44)
  • Challenges in scaling large organisations (00:41:46)
  • Prop 12 and the future of US legislation (00:45:43)
  • How can we improve our political advocacy? (00:50:01)
  • What can we do in the Global South? (00:55:32)
  • How will transformative AI affect animal advocacy? (01:07:43)
  • What is tough about Lewis' role? (01:15:41)

Resources:

  • For more about Open Phil as a funder, check out our episode with Amanda Hungerford
  • Lewis’ substack 
  • Lewis AMA on the EA Forum
  • Lewis' Twitter

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it with anyone who you think might enjoy it. You can send us feedback and guest recommendations via Twitter or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy!

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

How I Learned to Love ShrimpBy James Özden

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

17 ratings


More shows like How I Learned to Love Shrimp

View all
EconTalk by Russ Roberts

EconTalk

4,252 Listeners

More or Less: Behind the Stats by BBC Radio 4

More or Less: Behind the Stats

895 Listeners

Our Hen House: Vegan & Animal Rights Movement | Stories from the Frontlines of Animal Liberation by Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan

Our Hen House: Vegan & Animal Rights Movement | Stories from the Frontlines of Animal Liberation

536 Listeners

Very Bad Wizards by Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Very Bad Wizards

2,666 Listeners

Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

Making Sense with Sam Harris

26,334 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,425 Listeners

The Gray Area with Sean Illing by Vox

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

10,681 Listeners

Future of Life Institute Podcast by Future of Life Institute

Future of Life Institute Podcast

108 Listeners

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat by New York Times Opinion

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

7,058 Listeners

The Journal. by The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

The Journal.

5,980 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

457 Listeners

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg by Spencer Greenberg

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

129 Listeners

Plain English with Derek Thompson by The Ringer

Plain English with Derek Thompson

2,253 Listeners

Lives Well Lived by Peter Singer & Kasia de Lazari Radek

Lives Well Lived

44 Listeners

Changed My Mind by Changed My Mind Podcast

Changed My Mind

6 Listeners