Podcasts are a great way to learn about EA. Here’s a list of the EA-related podcasts I’ve come across over the last few years of my podcast obsession.
I’ve split them up into two categories:
- Strongly EA-related podcasts: Podcasts run by EA organisations or otherwise explicitly EA-related.
- Podcasts featuring EA-related episodes: Podcasts which are usually not EA-related but have some episodes which are about an EA idea or interviewing an EA-aligned guest.
Please add to the comments any podcasts that I have missed. I am always excited to find out about more interesting podcasts!
Strongly EA-related podcasts
- Doing Good Better Podcast- Five short episodes about EA concepts. Produced by the Centre for Effective Altruism. No new content since 2017.
- The Life You Can Save Podcast- Episodes from Peter Singer’s organisation that focus on alleviating global poverty. The latest episodes are interviews with EA organisation staff.
- The Turing Test - The newly restarted EA podcast from the Harvard University EA group. Interviews with EA thinkers including Brian Tomasik on ethics, animal welfare, and a focus on suffering, and Scott Weathers on Charity Science Health.
- 80,000 Hours Podcast - Robert Wiblin leads long-form interviews (up to 4 hours) with individuals in high impact careers. This podcast really gets into the weeds of the most important cause areas.
- Global Optimum - An informal podcast by professional psychology researcher, Daniel Gambacorta. Discussing psychology results that can help you become a more effective altruist. There is usually no extra padding in this podcast, it's straight to the point.
- Future Perfect Podcast - The podcast part of Vox Media’s Future Perfect project. Dylan Matthews leads scripted discussions about interesting and hopefully effective ways to improve the world.
- Morality is hard - Michael Dello Iacovo interviews guests about topics related to effective animal advocacy.
- Future of Life Podcast - Interviews with researchers and thought leaders who the Future of Life Institute believe are helping to “safeguard life and build optimistic visions of the future”. They include a series on AI alignment and a recent series on climate change.
- Wildness - A new podcast of Wild Animal Initiative. Narrative episodes based around a theme relevant to wild animal welfare research, typically including multiple interviews with animal welfare researchers.
- EARadio - hundreds of audio recordings from EA Global talks. Some episodes are hard to follow due to the missing visual information that is used in presentations.
- Sentience Institute Podcast - New podcast on effective animal advocacy.
Podcasts featuring EA-related episodes
- Our Hen House - Jacy Reese on the end of animal farming; Joey Savoie on using charity entrepreneurship to help animals.
- The Joe Rogan Experience - Nick Bostrom on the simulation argument; Will Macaskill on EA.
- The Most Interesting People I Know - Chloe Cockburn on US justice system reform; Lewis Bollard on ending factory farming; Spencer Greenberg on lots of things related to EA; Andres Gomez Emilsson of Qualia Research Institute on solving consciousness.
- Autocracy and Transhumanist Podcast - Phil Torres, Seth Baum, and Anders Sandberg on the long-term future; Jeff Sebo on the moral value of other minds.
- The Future Thinkers - Phil Torres on the long-term future and existential risks; Daniel Schmachtenberger on generator functions for existential risks, global phase shift, and mitigating existential risks.
- Making Sense with Sam Harris - Lots of episodes about consciousness, meaning, and ethics. In particular: Will Macaskill on EA; Nick Bostrom on existential risks; Eliezer Yudkowsky on AI.
- Philosophise This - A brilliant episode on Peter Singer and effective altruism.
- Econ Talk - Bjorn Lomborg of Copenhagen Consensus on cost-effectiveness estimates and climate change. There are many other episodes that are related to global development, economic prosperity, political change, etc. Also, see Robert Wiblin’s 75 favourite Econ Talk episodes.
- The Dissenter - Jacy Reese on the end of animal farming; Peter singer on ethics, veganism, and EA.
- The Good Life - Robert Wiblin on altruistic careers.
- Rationally Speaking - Dylan Matthews on kidney donation and global poverty; Helen Toner on misconceptions about AI; Kelsey Piper on Future Perfect; Robert Wiblin on an updated view of the best ways to help humanity; Spencer Greenberg on improving the research process; Anders Sandberg and Owen Cotton-Barratt on the future (separate episodes); Amanda Askell on low risks with high stakes; Will Macaskill on moral uncertainty; Phil Tetlock on superforecasting; Peter Singer on utilitarianism; Holden Karnofsky on Givewell.
- Mission Daily - Robert Wiblin on existential risks; Will Macaskill on EA; Elie Hassenfeld on Givewell.
- Giving Thought - A few episodes on EA’s take on philanthropy, including some criticisms.
- Very Bad Wizards - Will Macaskill on EA and moral uncertainty.
- Tanner Lectures - University of Oxford lectures about philanthropy recorded for podcast. Here’s one about EA: “From Moral Neutrality to Effective Altruism: The Changing Scope and Significance of Moral Philosophy”.
*Edited to include hyperlinks.
Two more podcasts:
Increments by Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani.
Clearer Thinking by Spencer Greenberg of Spark Wave.