EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

EA Forum Team

Audio narrations from the Effective Altruism Forum, including curated posts, posts with 30 karma, and other great writing. If you'd like fewer episodes, subscribe to the "EA Forum (Curated & Popular)" podcast instead.

  1. -1 H

    “Omelas Is Perfectly Misread” by Tobias Häberli

    The Standard Reading If you've heard of Le Guin's ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’, you probably know the basic idea. It's a go-to story for discussions of utilitarianism and its downsides. A paper calls it “the infamous objection brought up by Ursula Le Guin”. It shows up in university ‘Criticism of Utilitarianism' syllabi and is used for classroom material alongside the Trolley Problem. The story is often also more broadly read as a parable about global inequality, the comfortable rich countries built on the suffering of the poor, and our decision to not walk away from our own complicity. If you haven't read ‘Omelas’, I suggest you stop here and read it now[1]. It's a short 5-page read, and I find it beautifully written and worth reading. The rest of this post will contain spoilers. The popular reading goes something like: Omelas is a perfect city whose [...] --- Outline: (00:10) The Standard Reading (01:14) The Correct (?) Reading (02:28) The First Question (03:51) The Second Question (04:34) The Misreading Is Perfect (06:27) Le Guin Disagrees --- First published: October 2nd, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ryf83CktjJFFKpLJh/omelas-is-perfectly-misread --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    9 min

  2. -1 J

    [Linkpost] “Introducing the Mox Guest Program” by Austin, Rachel Shu

    This is a link post. TL;DR: Mox, a community space and incubator in San Francisco, is offering 2x/month complimentary access to members of AI safety orgs, and other causes we admire. Current partners of the Mox Guest Program include: ARC MIRI Elicit GovAI FAR AI Seldon Labs Tarbell Fellowship Redwood Research Lightcone Infrastructure and a few other private partners. What we’re offering We’re looking to partner with aligned orgs, to make it easy for their staff to drop by when they’re in SF. This works especially well for: People who work elsewhere but occasionally visit SF and want a place to work Those who have offices but want access to a community space on evenings and weekends Anyone looking to exchange ideas with other folks working on AI safety While in the space, guest program members are full Mox members. They’re welcome to join members-only events and to [...] --- Outline: (00:45) What we're offering (01:33) Why we're doing this (01:54) What people say about Mox (03:42) How to join --- First published: October 1st, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gmfFDhqw24otdm7NJ/introducing-the-mox-guest-program Linkpost URL:https://moxsf.com/guests --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

    5 min

  3. -1 J

    [Linkpost] “The Four Pillars: A Hypothesis for Countering Catastrophic Biological Risk” by ASB

    This is a link post. Biological risks are more severe than has been widely appreciated. Recent discussions of mirror bacteria highlight an extreme scenario: a single organism that could infect and kill humans, plants, and animals, exhibits environmental persistence in soil or dust, and might be capable of spreading worldwide within several months. In the worst-case scenario, this could pose an existential risk to humanity, especially if the responses/countermeasures were inadequate. Less severe pandemic pathogens could still cause hundreds of millions (or billions) of casualties if they were engineered to cause harm. Preventing such catastrophes should be a top priority for humanity. However, if prevention fails, it would also be prudent to have a backup plan. One way of doing this would be to enumerate the types of pathogens that might be threatening (e.g. viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc), enumerate the subtypes (e.g. adenoviruses, coronaviruses, paramyxoviruses, etc), analyze the [...] --- Outline: (04:20) PPE (09:56) Biohardening (14:36) Detection (17:00) Expression of interest and acknowledgements The original text contained 34 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 2nd, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/33t5jPzxEcFXLCPjq/the-four-pillars-a-hypothesis-for-countering-catastrophic Linkpost URL:https://defensesindepth.bio/the-four-pillars-a-hypothesis-for-countering-catastrophic-biological-risk/ --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    18 min

  4. -2 J

    “The day Elon Musk’s AI became a Nazi (and what it means for AI safety) | New video from AI in Context” by ChanaMessinger, Aric Floyd

    If you just want a link to the video, watch it here! Watch nowWhat's AI in Context? (Skip if you already know) AI in Context is 80,000 Hours’ new(ish) Youtube channel, hosted by Aric Floyd. We’re trying to do high production storytelling that also informs people about transformative AI and its risks (but there's a lot of paths our future strategy could take). We talk about our launch more here. The MechaHitler video Probably the EA Forum disproportionately knows what MechaHitler is, but not everyone is terminally online, so, a summary: Earlier this year, Elon Musk's AI model, Grok, which can interact with users and post directly to Twitter, suddenly turned from being a fairly neutral commentator on events to a sexually harassing, Nazi-minded troll calling itself ‘MechaHitler’. Our new video is about that incident and how it happened, which means talking about what specifically happened (an accidental system [...] --- Outline: (00:20) What's AI in Context? (Skip if you already know) (00:45) The MechaHitler video (01:29) Why this? (03:29) Logistics (only read if you're interested) (04:24) Strategy and future of the video program (05:29) Subscribing and sharing (05:53) Request for feedback --- First published: October 2nd, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/trh4Km9KRedYSn3K3/the-day-elon-musk-s-ai-became-a-nazi-and-what-it-means-for --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    7 min

  5. -2 J

    “Andrew Snyder-Beattie on the low-tech plan to patch humanity’s greatest weakness” by 80000_Hours

    By Robert WiblinWatch on YoutubeListen on SpotifyRead the transcript Episode summary If we can get their cost down to $10, this becomes one of the most cost-effective ways of preventing respiratory transmission. The shelf life is 20 years. That means basically 50 cents per person per year of protection. … If you’re a government it makes a lot of sense to just stockpile enough to cover your entire population. Right now we spend about $10 billion a year on missile defence. Stockpiling one of these for every single person in the US would be 1% the cost of that. — Andrew Snyder-Beattie Conventional wisdom is that safeguarding humanity from the worst biological risks — microbes optimised to kill as many as possible — is difficult bordering on impossible, making bioweapons humanity's single greatest vulnerability. Andrew Snyder-Beattie thinks conventional wisdom could be wrong. Andrew's job at Open Philanthropy is to spend [...] --- Outline: (00:28) Episode summary (03:59) The interview in a nutshell (04:25) 1. Two primary classes of biological threats could pose an existential risk (05:27) 2. The four pillars plan offers a robust, defence-in-depth strategy (08:22) 3. Other catastrophic biorisks, like agricultural collapse, are less concerning (09:21) 4. We urgently need entrepreneurial people to execute this plan (10:17) Highlights (10:20) The worst-case scenario: mirror bacteria (15:44) Why antibiotics arent enough to fight mirror bacteria (18:58) The most cost-effective way governments could prevent respiratory transmission among their populations (22:17) Why Andrew works on biorisks rather than AI (26:54) Everyone was wrong: biorisks are defence dominant in the limit (32:23) The four pillars plan -- and how listeners can help --- First published: October 2nd, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JopMdWgtthCbEFxk2/andrew-snyder-beattie-on-the-low-tech-plan-to-patch-humanity --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    37 min

  6. -2 J

    “Diversify Your Moral Risk Portfolio” by Bentham’s Bulldog

    Crosspost of my blog. Lots of people have two conflicting desires: Do the most good. Make sure you do some good. These are in conflict. Sometimes the thing that does the most good in expectation has a low chance of doing any good. If you give a lot of money to shrimp, for example, there's about a 50% chance you’re wasting your money if it turns out that shrimp aren’t conscious. Similarly, if you take Pascal's wager, and give money to groups that effectively promote the religion you think is most likely to be true, there's a non-trivial chance that you’re not doing any good at all! And the same thing is true of other speculative proposals for improving the world—trying to become a billionaire, giving to Longtermist organizations that safeguard the future, and so on. As it happens, I don’t think this attempt to make sure [...] --- First published: September 28th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/eB9weiLvPo7sKcLZH/diversify-your-moral-risk-portfolio --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    7 min

  7. -3 J

    “Open Letter to stop the EU’s ban on fake meat labels” by Impatient_Longtermist 🔶

    Context: The EU is currently considering introducing a ban on companies in Europe from using terms like ‘meat’, ‘steak’, ‘burger’, ‘sausage’, et cetera in plant based food labels. The proposal would also restrict the use of meat related terms for future cultivated meat products yet to enter the market. Similar measures had previously been debated in 2020, but these were ultimately voted against due to widespread negative attention in the international press. There is a possibility that the ban going ahead could materially alter the consumption patterns of European citizens away from plant based foods and towards intensively reared meat, based on the perception that the latter is more ‘natural’. Given the population of the EU (450 million) even a small percentage changes in consumption habits could lock-in suffering for billions of animals. Opportunity for impact: Please consider signing the following open-letter opposing the proposed ban: For organisations [...] --- First published: October 1st, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pLQdvGjbaPvXbX5ob/open-letter-to-stop-the-eu-s-ban-on-fake-meat-labels --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    2 min

  8. -4 J

    “Maximising EAG value as a student” by Sam Robinson 🔸

    0. Key Info TL;DR: Most students get 20% of the potential value of EAG due to poor/ insufficient preparation. Students should ideally spend 15-20 hours (4-6 absolute minimum) identifying career uncertainties, creating concrete options, setting SMART goals, then booking and prepping 15+ meetings around those goals. Epistemic status: This guidance is based on what has worked well for me in my ~5 EAG attendances as a student. I have 80% that ~80% students will benefit from following all the steps, but if you've spent 20+ minutes on a step and it's not proving valuable, you should move on! Rough draft caveat: I spent a total of 1.5hrs writing this: I wish I could polish and expand on my thinking more, but I wanted to post sufficiently before EAG so that people have the time to actually use it! 1. Motivation behind this doc If done right, time [...] --- Outline: (00:11) 0. Key Info (01:10) 1. Motivation behind this doc (02:04) 2. The Steps (02:25) 2.1. Identify uncertainties and make a best-guess (2-4hrs) (03:52) 2.2. Know what potential options you have for how to spend your time (1-2hrs) (04:38) 2.3. Create a skeleton of career options (1-2hrs) (05:07) 2.4. Create goals (1-2hrs) (06:06) 2.5. Send meeting requests (2-4hrs) (06:40) 2.6. Prep those meetings! (2-4hrs) (07:25) 3. Quick Tips for making the most of EAG (08:13) 4. Wrap-up the meetings, make plans, set deadlines (1-3hrs) --- First published: September 30th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JogTnCmzEbJkYWjre/maximising-eag-value-as-a-student --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    9 min
Tout afficher (250)

À propos

Audio narrations from the Effective Altruism Forum, including curated posts, posts with 30 karma, and other great writing. If you'd like fewer episodes, subscribe to the "EA Forum (Curated & Popular)" podcast instead.

Informations

  • Créateur
    EA Forum Team
  • Années d’activité
    2023 - 2025
  • Épisodes
    250
  • Classement
    Tout public
  • Copyright
    © 2025 All rights reserved
  • Site Web de l’émission
    EA Forum Podcast (All audio)