Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems – 80,000 Hours Podcast
1) Effective altruism in a nutshell
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems is a collection of ten top episodes of the 80,000 Hours Podcast, designed to bring you up to speed on ten pressing issues the effective altruism community is wo...Show More
2) One: Toby Ord on existential risks
Toby Ord is a famously good explainer of complex issues — a bit of a modern Carl Sagan character — so we thought this would be a perfect introduction to the problem of existential risks.
3) Two: Rachel Glennerster on global poverty
The very best education interventions are phenomenally cost-effective, but they’re not the kinds of things you’d expect, says Dr Rachel Glennerster — who we chose to introduce the problem of global po...Show More
4) Three: Andy Weber on pandemics and nuclear wars
For five years, Andy Weber, was the US’ Assistant Secretary of Defense responsible for biological and other weapons of mass destruction. Andy’s current mission is to spread the word that while bioweap...Show More
5) Four: Brian Christian on artificial intelligence
The 80,000 Hours team found Brian Christian's new book The Alignment Problem to be an insightful and comprehensive review of the state of the research into making advanced artificial intelligence usef...Show More
6) Five: Lewis Bollard on factory farming
Every year tens of billions of animals are raised in terrible conditions in factory farms before being killed for human consumption. Despite the enormous scale of suffering this causes, the issue is l...Show More
7) Six: Jennifer Doleac on criminal justice reform
Jennifer Doleac — Associate Professor of Economics at Texas A&M University, and Director of the Justice Tech Lab — is an expert on empirical research into policing, law and incarceration, and we chose...Show More
8) Seven: Ezra Klein on journalism
Ezra Klein is one of the most prominent journalists in the world. Ezra thinks that pressing issues are neglected largely because there’s little pre-existing infrastructure to push them, and we chose h...Show More
9) Eight: Mark Lynas on climate change
Many people aren’t comfortable with the danger posed by nuclear power. But given the climatic stakes, it’s worth asking: Just how much more dangerous is it compared to fossil fuels? According to to...Show More
10) Nine: Dave Denkenberger on feeding the world through catastrophes
Dr Denkenberger is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and he’s out to spread the word that while a nuclear winter might be horrible, experts have been mistaken to assume tha...Show More