Many of the catastrophic are likely to result from the failure to control much smaller events, which then grow so large that they do become catastrophic. On this episode, Professor Marc Lipsitch describes examples from infectious diseases and suggests implications for the allocation of our attention, effort and funds.

Preventing catastrophic risks by mitigating sub-catastrophic ones

We all want to make a difference — but knowing exactly what we should do with our limited time, money and energy is an extremely hard question. Doing Good Better is a podcast about using reason and evidence to figure out how we can do the most good, using the ideas of effective altruism. We talk to researchers, development economists, philosophers, journalists, charity workers, entrepreneurs, and social scientists to try to figure out what works — and just as importantly, what doesn't. More than that, we explore the ideas of effective altruism, getting to the root of why we want to help, how we can approach the question, and what we can actually do.

Doing Good Better is a project of the Centre for Effective Altruism, a registered charity in the UK (England and Wales), and a 501(c)(3) organisation in the US.

Society & Culture

We all want to make a difference — but knowing exactly what we should do with our limited time, money and energy is an extremely hard question. Doing Good Better is a podcast about using reason and evidence to figure out how we can do the most good, using the ideas of effective altruism. We talk to researchers, development economists, philosophers, journalists, charity workers, entrepreneurs, and social scientists to try to figure out what works — and just as importantly, what doesn't. More than that, we explore the ideas of effective altruism, getting to the root of why we want to help, how we can approach the question, and what we can actually do. Doing Good Better is a project of the Centre for Effective Altruism, a registered charity in the UK (England and Wales), and a 501(c)(3) organisation in the US.

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Preventing catastrophic risks by mitigating sub-catastrophic ones

Preventing catastrophic risks by mitigating sub-catastrophic ones