EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

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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. 1h ago

    “80,000 Hours’ Shift To AI Is A Deep Loss For EA” by James Brobin

    This is a crosspost from my blog. For as long as “effective altruism” has been a term, 80,000 Hours has been one its most important organizations - introducing new people to EA's core ideas and helping them to find impactful careers. Since March 2025, this has no longer been the case. This is because 80,000 Hours now primarily focuses on funneling people into careers in AI with the assumption that humanity is on the verge of “AGI,” which they believe could determine humanity's future, possibly by bringing about either utopia or apocalypse. I think this is a deep loss for EA, and I wanted to share some reasons why: 1. There's no longer a good resource to introduce people to EA. 80,000 Hours’ career guide and its problem profiles used to be the very best resource for introducing people to the core ideas behind EA and motivating them to pursue impactful careers. Now that it has an AGI worldview baked into its content, it no longer really fulfills that purpose since it's about AI rather than EA. This is quite sad to me given that, for a long time, 80,000 Hours was my favorite website, and I used to [...] --- Outline: (00:50) 1. There's no longer a good resource to introduce people to EA. (01:42) 2. EA should be about diversity of thought (02:25) 3. Less people are discovering EA now. (02:48) 4. 80,000 Hours' content is increasingly bizarre, which is bad for EA. --- First published: October 27th, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/FPxGYXmAkwxxNro7s/80-000-hours-shift-to-ai-is-a-deep-loss-for-ea --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

  2. 12h ago

    “Small Groups of Correlated Researchers” by Roman Ross

    Summary: The actions taken this decade may be exceptionally important for the future of civilization, but we should be unusually hesitant to proclaim that any course of action is “best.” Still, we should try our best. This post was written as part of an introduction to a new reading group I’m starting called “Doing Good in the Age of AGI.” If you want to follow along, the full curriculum can be found here. Uncertain in the best of times Do you think freezing rent prices would be good for the economic middle class? How confident are you? You might have an answer that you like, but you’re probably not that confident in it. Perhaps you haven’t formally studied economics, but maybe you’ve had some passing interest in the topic. Ever since Mamdani's mayoral campaign became a talking point across the country, or since his rent freeze passed in June of 2026, discussion of this economic policy has shifted back into the public spotlight. Maybe you’ve tried to read the arguments on both sides, and you’ve noticed that there's a lot to read. As it turns out, people are opinionated enough that 82% of renters and homebuyers believe there [...] --- Outline: (00:35) Uncertain in the best of times (07:36) Moving Forward The original text contained 8 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 26th, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/PWKxwX5xsrXbt7dig/small-groups-of-correlated-researchers --- 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.

  3. 1d ago

    “Discrimination in AI safety: A call for incident reports” by Fran

    TL;DR  We (Frances, Sarah, and Geetha) work in AI safety and the broader EA ecosystem. We are increasingly concerned about sexual harassment, workplace harassment, and discrimination in these spaces. Through our advocacy, we have heard numerous firsthand accounts of ineffective or nonexistent reporting systems and anti-harassment policies, dismissive organisational attitudes, and harassment incidents being mishandled (including Frances’). We are now collecting incident reports through confidential calls, so we can make the case to funders and organisations for minimum standards on how harassment is prevented and handled. If you have an experience to share, we’d love to hear from you (please fill out this form). How you can help Please share this widely: within your organisation, in relevant Slack and fellowship groups, on social media, directly with people you know, and anywhere else you’re comfortable. Our ultimate goal We will produce a list of recommendations for how organisations in the space can improve, including policies, guidance on handling conflicts of interest in complaints, resources to support victims through reporting, and standards for reporting and codes of conduct at events and co-working spaces. To make these recommendations effective, we need to understand the issues victims are facing and be able to [...] --- Outline: (00:12) TL;DR (00:58) How you can help (01:12) Our ultimate goal (02:24) Our ask (02:59) How it works, plus confidentiality & anonymity (04:17) Who should you talk to? (04:35) Who we are and how to contact us The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 25th, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dPcku7cMx9q84HBoQ/discrimination-in-ai-safety-a-call-for-incident-reports --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

  4. 1d ago

    “Launching the Global Priorities Research Group at LSE - currently hiring for two 4-year postdocs” by Andreas_Mogensen

    I'm very happy to announce the launch of the Global Priorities Research Group, a new research group at LSE dedicated to the study of ethical prioritisation. We are hosted by LSE's Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS) and aim to pursue philosophical research designed to help individuals and institutions decide how they should allocate scarce resources to realise the best outcomes for humanity and the wider world, continuing the work of Oxford's Global Priorities Institute. GPRG aims to put particular emphasis on philosophical research that helps us navigate the largest-scale challenges associated with the impacts of transformative AI. We'll also consider how to compare and weight the interests of different kinds of minds - be they human, animal, or artificial - as well as foundational questions related to value and rational choice with the potential to reorient our priorities across a wide range of issues. You can find out more about our research programme here. I'm leading the group, and I’m joined at LSE by Teruji Thomas. We're currently hiring for two 4-year postdoctoral researchers, so if you'd be interested in joining the group, please consider making an application before the deadline on November 15th. --- First published: October 22nd, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/hxaKPoHoDhMXrkpce/launching-the-global-priorities-research-group-at-lse --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

  5. 4d ago

    “Should EA fund Earth systems stabilization? New RP report + request for critique” by Liam St Louis

    TL;DR: EA has traditionally deprioritized climate change as a cause area. But a new report from Rethink Priorities, an EA research institute, suggests that specific Earth systems risks driven by climate change could have mortality impacts comparable to major global health burdens, on top of the known damages of climate change. The report finds that research and governance work on ‘Earth Systems Stabilization’ to establish whether safe options to address these risks exist clears EA cost-effectiveness bars and justifies significant funding. Disclosure: I run the Climate Change program at The Navigation Fund, a philanthropic foundation that also works on Farm Animal Welfare and Transforming Criminal Justice. Building on these research findings, we will be jointly launching an Earth Systems Stabilization Fund with Outlier Projects, who commissioned the research. The report interviews me and leaders of organizations we already support and recommends funding work in areas where they operate. When we launched The Navigation Fund's Climate Change program last year, we looked for an area within climate change where our dollars could be especially effective. One area we’ve chosen to focus on is “Earth Systems Stabilization” - a new umbrella term to describe the work of understanding, predicting, and [...] --- Outline: (04:58) Earth Systems Risks and the Case for Funding Stabilization Research (05:04) Why new evidence suggests the effective altruism community should reconsider its approach to climate research --- First published: October 22nd, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RGxASteXu5iyeNQZZ/should-ea-fund-earth-systems-stabilization-new-rp-report --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

  6. 4d ago

    “CEA is now independent of Effective Ventures” by Ayla Smith

    Hi everyone! I’m CEA's new Chief of Staff. I also serve as our Board Liaison, and I’m posting to introduce you to CEA's new independent board. I’m happy to be a point of contact for any questions you have about them, or the recruiting process we ran to find and select them! TL;DR: As of October 1, 2026, CEA is an independent organization, with our first independent board. Why we spun out When we announced our spinout in 2024, we said that bringing our operations in-house and setting up our own legal entities would help us pursue our mission better. EV is winding down, and we wanted governance and operations built for what CEA is today. That's now in place: our own operations team, our own entities, and a board accountable to CEA specifically. Meet our new board Stien van der Ploeg (Board Chair) is the executive director of Animal Charity Evaluators. Before joining ACE, Stien worked 20 years supporting various causes in multiple countries. They now use their leadership, strategy, and philanthropy skills to help more people help more animals. Jacob Eliosoff is a computer programmer from Montreal who lives in NYC. He started out in tech [...] --- Outline: (00:40) Why we spun out (01:08) Meet our new board (03:32) What changes (04:31) Thank you --- First published: October 23rd, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CQfu8Raj6FdL8KzPe/cea-is-now-independent-of-effective-ventures --- 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.

  7. 4d ago

    “Drugs to shift food preferences” by Ronen Bar

    TL;DR The animal movement works hard on two fronts: changing minds (e.g., outreach, investigations, campaigns) and changing supply (e.g., alternative proteins, vegan labeling). There is a third front that seems much less explored: changing the craving itself. The desire for meat is not only a belief. It is partly or mainly, I assume mainly, biological, and biology and humans already change what we feel like eating: weight loss shots that reduce food cravings, appetite drugs that can shift food preferences, pregnancy aversions for specific foods, or a taste aversion due to some bad eating experience. I argue that voluntary, consent-based aids for people who already want to eat fewer animals are a neglected intervention space, and I suggest cheap first steps. I have not found a dedicated program developing such aids specifically to reduce animal product consumption, though relevant appetite and food-preference research already exists. I call this space voluntary desire modification. It could contain interventions to temporarily or permanently change craving for animal products or create an aversion to animal products, or create craving for vegan products at the expense of animal products, or any other intervention that very generally and grossly changes our body's response to animal [...] --- Outline: (00:10) TL;DR (02:02) Epistemic Status (02:30) Beyond Rationality & Emotions, into Desires (05:17) en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural__ Mind map diagram titled "The Causes of the Slaughter Industry" with eight branches. (05:29) Biology Already Changes What We Want to Eat (10:18) Consent is the Whole Foundation (10:56) Nobody Working on This? (11:49) First Steps for Assessing this Intervention Space (13:03) Reasons This Could Backfire or not work (15:45) Open Questions (16:29) Epilogue --- First published: October 22nd, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fi5iWXJeNQ4K7mnZM/drugs-to-shift-food-preferences --- 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.

  8. 5d ago

    “EA has not given up on diet change or animal liberation” by Seth Ariel Green 🔸

    Context: WelfareTech There has been some concern lately about effective altruism's supposed turn away from the big-picture parts of animal welfare: diet change, systemic shift, animal liberation, etc. As far as I can tell, this is due to 1) a widely reshared Substack article which got some praise from EA-aligned folks, including folks at @Coefficient Giving; 2) the fact that Innovate Animal Ag is setting up an "accelerator farm," which, per Robert Yaman, will be "a commercial broiler facility that sells chickens into the market, but it will also be a place where startups can test technologies and where we can combine interventions;" and 3) Spring Innovation Fund, which launched this summer as "a not-for-profit venture philanthropy studio and fund built specifically for Welfare Tech: technology that improves animal welfare in ways that make commercial sense for producers to adopt." I don't buy it I just got back from two EA events (the Communicators Retreat and EAG NYC) where I talked to a few dozen people at length. Almost everyone wanted to talk about diet change and animal liberation. I think this supposed turn away from these topics has been greatly exaggerated. The EA rank and file want to [...] --- Outline: (00:11) Context: WelfareTech (01:07) I don't buy it (01:48) Maybe the elites are doing an about-face and the rest of us will follow their marching orders once the money comes in? (02:40) Why did this consensus emerge? (03:00) Solution: more of you should write more about what you think (03:59) Some tactical remarks The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 19th, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/bJ7BKGfAgMttdSKaE/ea-has-not-given-up-on-diet-change-or-animal-liberation --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    EA Forum Team
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    250
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

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