Books & Booze John Leven
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- Education
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A free-wheeling podcast that combines books, booze, and interesting guests to create thought-provoking conversations.
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Episode #17 - Famine, Affluence, and Morality
Guest: Evan Sandhoefner (blogger, Effective Altruist, and alum of Microsoft & Harvard)
Book: Famine, Affluence, and Morality by Peter Singer
Booze: Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
0:00:00 - Evan and Ballast Point Sculpin
https://sandhoefner.com/
https://twitter.com/EvanSandhoefner?lang=en
0:03:49 - Brian Tomasik, who inspired Evan’s website
https://briantomasik.com/
https://reducing-suffering.org/
0:05:21 - How does Evan handle discussing ethics without sounding like a dick?
0:08:00 - Famine, Affluence, and Morality and the Effective Altruism movement
https://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1972----.htm
https://www.ted.com/talks/peter_singer_the_why_and_how_of_effective_altruism?language=en
https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/blog/understanding-cause-neutrality/
0:17:42 - Direct work vs Working to Give
https://80000hours.org/articles/earning-to-give/
https://80000hours.org/career-guide/
https://80000hours.org/2015/07/80000-hours-thinks-that-only-a-small-proportion-of-people-should-earn-to-give-long-term/
0:26:28 - The Most Effective Cocaine Dealer
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3DGYg2RxXHgekLGeG/to-save-the-world-don-t-get-a-job-at-a-charity-go-work-on
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem
0:30:57 - Utilitarian calculus: Quantifying fuzzy concepts like suffering, happiness, well-being, etc.
0:33:09 - Consciousness, consciousness meters, and aliens
https://www.iep.utm.edu/hard-con/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciesism
https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html
0:42:19 - Moral tug-of-war: The demandingness objection to utilitarianism and Effective Altruism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demandingness_objection
0:49:53 - Bugs in our brains: Grappling with our flawed moral minds
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-risky-is-it-really/201108/statistical-numbing-why-millions-can-die-and-we-don-t-care
https://fs.blog/2017/05/confirmation-bias/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_favoritism
https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/27/15077864/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-computer-interface-ai-cyborgs
0:56:58 - Is ethics self-limiting? Can ethical people be successful?
1:02:11 - Self-deception, and The Elephant in the Brain by Robin Hanson and Kevin Simler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-serving_bias
https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Brain-Hidden-Motives-Everyday/dp/0190495995
1:03:56 - Wild animal suffering, selection theory, and cats wearing bells
https://reducing-suffering.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory
https://www.birdsbesafe.com/
1:17:57 - Domestic animal suffering, unhappy cows, and reducing vs eliminating meat from your diet
https://animalcharityevaluators.org/
https://www.givewell.org/
1:26:53 - Existential risk and the “expected value” of the far future
https://concepts.effectivealtruism.org/concepts/existential-risks/
https://concepts.effectivealtruism.org/concepts/the-long-term-future/
https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/ea-global-2018-far-future-of-life/
1:30:42 - Epic Givewell spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xBKlshqbu6H-uByB2INEaDNPpj_Ulz0WrrFwgrnkXfk/edit#gid=1537947274
1:31:59 - Open philanthropy, hit-based giving, and The Man Who Fed the World
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/hits-based-giving
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Fed-World-Laureate/dp/1930754906
1:41:04 - Slow vs fast Artificial intelligence, giving now vs giving later, the time value of money, and John’s personal reasons for (mostly) giving later
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/7uJcBNZhinomKtH9p/giving-now-vs-later-a-summary
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/timevalueofmoney.asp
https://fs.blog/2013/02/the-psychology-of-human-misjudgement/
1:53:01 - Effective Altruism’s “popularity problem”, growing the movement, and caring vs counting
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pcygusgiy6ZabnB93/how-valuable-is-movement-growth
2:06:10 - An opportunity to be a real superhero
Customer Reviews
Very informative podcast
John Leven’s taste in books is similar to my own so it’s nice getting book ideas and summaries from him. The podcast is entertaining too. Love the addition of Booze to anything!
Thoughtful and entertaining
Conversations which cover science, culture, travel and life. Entertaining and intellectually enjoyable conversations with host John and his guests. Perfect to listen to on a long drive or whilst cleaning the house. Kudos John.
Books, Alcohol, Current events
John and the guest take a book and use it to talk about current events and trends. I like that they come prepared with notes sometimes dropping stats about an issue. Keep it up