In-depth conversations about the world’s most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them.
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Explore the archive
Every episode has a full transcript and links to further reading.
Quotes from the show
I’m very, very concerned that North Korea today has an advanced biological weapons program.
You don’t need a lot of biological weapons to potentially kill billions of people…
Fortunately, while we’re not there yet, the science and the tools that are now available enable the possibility of making [such] bioweapons obsolete.
…they randomly determined when officers would take the training… so it’s a really nice natural experiment.
And they found that this one-day training program pretty dramatically reduced both complaints and use of force.
…more teachers, more books, more inputs, like smaller class sizes – at least in the developing world – seem to have no impact, and that’s where most government money gets spent…
I’m inclined to think that I can imagine a being with the ability to consciously think and perceive, but no ability to feel pleasure or pain.
And still, it just actually seems monstrous to me to think about killing such a being.
About the show
The 80,000 Hours Podcast features unusually in-depth conversations about the world’s most pressing problems and how you can use your career to solve them.
We invite guests pursuing a wide range of career paths – from academics and activists to entrepreneurs and policymakers — to analyse the case for and against working on different issues and figure out which approaches are best for solving them.
Get in touch with feedback or guest suggestions by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.
How to listen
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Find the RSS feed here, and transcripts and links to further reading on the episode pages.
“The podcast has substantially changed how I think about the entire world, how I donate money, and has made me open to exploring job opportunities that would do more good for the world.”
— Steven Bills
What is 80,000 Hours?
80,000 Hours is a nonprofit dedicated to helping people have a larger positive influence on the world with their careers. If you’re new here, read our career guide to get our current take on how to think about careers that have a positive impact and where the best opportunities may lie.
About Rob Wiblin
Rob studied genetics and economics at the Australian National University, graduating top of his class and later being named Young Alumnus of the Year. He worked as a research economist in various Australian Government agencies, before joining the Centre for Effective Altruism in Oxford, first as Research Director and then Executive Director. In 2015 he joined 80,000 Hours as Head of Research. You can find out more on his personal website.
Robert Wiblin is one of the interviewers I most respect, and indeed, envy. He is Director of Research at a nonprofit called 80,000 Hours, and their mission is to figure out and then communicate to people how they can do the most good with their careers.
Robert is a long-standing leader in the effective altruism movement. He runs an excellent podcast called the 80,000 Hours Podcast.
Tyler Cowen
About Luisa Rodriguez
Luisa studied Sociology at Carleton College, and International Development at Brandeis University.
Before joining us as our second podcast host, Luisa was Will MacAskill’s Chief of Staff at the Forethought Foundation, where she helped do the research for MacAskill’s 2022 book, What We Owe the Future. She also spent time at Rethink Priorities and the Future of Humanity Institute (conducting cause prioritisation research); and ImpactMatters, Innovations for Poverty Action, and GiveWell doing cost-effectiveness analysis for nonprofit and government programmes.
Curated series
Effective Altruism: An Introduction
A collection of ten top episodes of The 80,000 Hours Podcast, specifically selected to help you get up to speed on the school of thought known as effective altruism.
2: Toby Ord on why the long-term future of humanity matters more than anything else and what we should do about it
3: Alexander Berger on improving global health and wellbeing in clear and direct ways
4: Spencer Greenberg on the scientific approach to updating your beliefs when you get new evidence.
5: William MacAskill on why our descendants might view us as moral monsters
7: Philip Tetlock on lessons learned from 40 years studying how to predict the future
8: Hilary Greaves on moral cluelessness, population ethics and tackling global issues in academia
9: Ben Todd on the key ideas of 80,000 Hours
10: Arden Koehler and Ben Todd on the core idea of effective altruism and how to argue for it
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Ten Global Problems
Ten top episodes specifically selected to help you quickly learn about some of the problems the effective altruism community is working to solve.
2: Rachel Glennerster on generating a year of education for $1
3: Andy Weber on two new technologies that could end pandemics
4: Brian Christian on the AI alignment problem
5: Lewis Bollard on ending factory farming in our lifetimes
7: Ezra Klein on getting more journalism on the topics that matter most
8: Mark Lynas on climate change and nuclear energy
9: David Denkenberger on feeding the whole world through the worst possible catastrophes
10: Persis Eskander on the suffering of animals in the wilderness
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On Artificial Intelligence
Eleven key episodes selected to help listeners learn about the potential upsides and downsides of powerful and transformative AI models.
2: Ajeya Cotra on accidentally teaching AI models to deceive us
3: Paul Christiano on finding real solutions to the AI alignment problem
4: Rohin Shah on DeepMind and trying to fairly hear out both AI doomers and doubters
5: Chris Olah on what the hell is going on inside neural networks
6: Richard Ngo on large language models, OpenAI, and striving to make the future go well
7: Ben Garfinkel on scrutinising classic AI risk arguments
9: Helen Toner on emerging technology, national security, and China
10: Nova DasSarma on why information security may be critical to the safe development of AI systems
11: Catherine Olsson and Daniel Ziegler on the fast path in to high-impact ML engineering roles
Bonus: Preventing an AI-related catastrophe (Article)
Bonus China-related AI safety and governance paths (Article)
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