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Christoph Winter is an Assistant Professor of Law at ITAM in Mexico, a Visiting Scholar in Psychology at Harvard, and the founder of the Legal Priorities Project In our interview, we discuss: A global survey of legal academics about protecting future generations; How constitutional law might best help in this effort; Endangerment law and the "risk of creating a risk"; And lots more! You...

Gillian Hadfield is Director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society . She is a Professor of Law and Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Toronto. In our interview, we discuss: Why humans invented law, and what Gillian describes as "the demand side" for legal infrastructure; Why social norms continue to be important today and how Ancient Athens mana...

Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the author of Open Borders , The Myth of the Rational Voter , The Case Against Education , and Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids . In our interview, we discuss: Causes of poverty Charter cities The case for open borders Democracy — is it overrated? Why do voters keep choosing bad policies? Do democracies last longer, grow faster...

Ben Todd is the CEO & founder of 80,000 Hours , and helped to start the effective altruism movement. 80,000 Hours is a non-profit that provides free research and support to help people find careers that effectively tackle the world’s most pressing problems. In our interview, we discuss: Why your choice of career could be the most important ethical decision you ever get to make; 80K’s ‘problem,...

Anders Sandberg is a researcher, futurist, transhumanist and author. He holds a PhD in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University, and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. His research covers the ethics of human enhancement, estimating the capabilities of future technologies, and very long-range futures. In this episode, w...

Professor Jeffrey Sachs is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and author of many bestselling books. In this episode, we talk about The need to reform the international financial system; The role of mitigating global catastrophic risk in sustainable development; The importance of expert advice...

Matt Ives is a Senior Research Associate in Complex Systems Economic Modelling at the University of Oxford. We discuss the reasons behind the astonishing decline in costs of renewable technologies, especially solar power, and the implications this has for fighting climate change. We also touch on modelling energy systems, financial discolour of climate/transition risks, and complexity economics. Y...

Armond Cohen is the executive director of the Clean Air Task Force . CATF has been rated as the most cost-effective climate change charity, including by organisations such as Founder's Pledge, SoGive, and Giving Green. You can read much more about the topics we cover in this episode in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/armond . There you'll find links to all the videos and books...

Isabelle Boemeke is a model, digital fashion designer, and the world's first (and only) nuclear power influencer. She makes educational videos as Isodope . You can read much more about the topics we cover in this episode in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/isabelle . There you'll find links to all the videos and books Isabelle mentions, plus further reading. If you have any fee...

Phil Trammell is a research associate at Oxford's Global Priorities Institute , where he is working at the intersection of economic theory and moral philosophy. In this episode, we discuss his latest working paper about the different ways through which AI might transform the global economy. You can read much more about the topics we cover in this episode in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea....

Anna Alexandrova is a Reader in Philosophy of Science at University of Cambridge. She studies the philosophy of social sciences, focusing on the use (and abuse) of formal models, and the measurement of well-being. Anna is the author of A Philosophy for the Science of Well-Being (2017). You can read much more about the topics we cover in this episode in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/e...

Eva Vivalt  is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Toronto. Her work is focused on reducing barriers to evidence-based decision-making, global priorities research, and cash transfers. You can read much more about the topics we cover in this episode in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/eva . It's not a transcript! If you have any feedback or suggestions for f...

We were flattered to be invited to discuss longtermism by Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani from the wonderful Increments podcast. It's not as serious or polished as our interview episodes, but we had heaps of fun trying to figure out where and why we disagree. Increments on Apple podcasts Increments on Spotify Increments on Google podcasts Ben on Twitter — @bennychugg Vaden's website — vmasrani.github....

Thomas Moynihan is a writer and researcher interested in the history of ideas surrounding existential risk and human flourishing. He completed a PhD on the history of human extinction, and currently works with Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute. His most recent book is called X-Risk: How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction . You can read much more about the topics we cover in this episode in...

Julia Shvets is an economist at the University of Cambridge and fellow at Christ's College. Her research focuses primarily on micro- and behavioural economics: exploring why people make the decisions they make. In this episode we discuss two of her recent papers. The first is about "overconfidence" — why people often think they are better than they have any reason to be. The second is on...

Nikhil Krishnan is a lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge, and Fellow in Philosophy at Robinson College. He also writes on on history, literature, and culture. His first book, provisionally titled A Terribly Serious Adventure , tells the story of philosophy in Oxford from 1900 to 1960. In this episode, we discussed two broad topics. In the first half, Nikhil relates some...

Marcus Daniell is an Olympian tennis player from New Zealand with 5 ATP titles, quarterfinal appearances at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open. He became involved with the Effective Altruism in 2015 and has since donated 5-10% of his annual income to effective organisations. In January of this year, Marcus took the Giving What We Can pledge, committing to donate at least 10% of his annual winn...

Sebastian Joy is the founding President of ProVeg International, a food awareness organisation working to transform the global food system. He is also a social entrepreneur: having developed several vegan products and helped launch the international 50by40 alliance. In this episode we discuss: [00:01:53] Welcome, Sebastian! [00:07:52] Direct animal advocacy [00:11:48] Career capital [00:14:46] Pro...

Bruce Friedrich is the co-founder and executive director of The Good Food Institute — a nonprofit that works with scientists, investors, and entrepreneurs to support the development and marketing of cell-cultured and plant-based alternatives to animal food products. In this episode we discuss: [00:02:21] Bruce's path to GFI [00:06:01] Inefficiencies of animal agriculture [00:10:06] Other external...

Leah Edgerton and Manja Gärtner are respectively the Executive Director and a Senior Researcher at Animal Charity Evaluators — a non-profit whose mission is to find and promote the most effective ways to help animals. In this episode we discuss: [00:05:27] Why care about Effective Animal Advocacy? [00:09:09] Cognitive dissonance and the meat paradox [00:13:46] What does ACE do? [00:21:10] Measurin...

Peter Singer is a moral philosopher and public intellectual, most widely known for his writings about animal ethics and global poverty. In this episode we discuss: [00:00:00] Introduction [00:01:43] Background — Peter Singer introduces himself. [00:02:16] Speciesism — Defining the term, and explaining the case against speciesism. [00:06:55] Wild Animal Suffering — hould we intervene to reduce suff...

Luke Freeman is the Executive Director of Giving What We Can . Before this, he was a entrepreneur and marketing specialist, including co-founding Positly . In this episode we discuss: [00:01:52] Background : History of EA [00:04:02] Luke's story : Discovering EA [00:09:30] Foreign Aid : Myths and valid critiques [00:14:58] Evidence : RCTs and the ITN framework [00:20:12] News : "Man bites dog...

Dr Sriya Iyer is a Reader in Economics at the University of Cambridge and fellow of St Catharine’s College. Her research applies the tools of economics to topics such as religion, development, and education. In this episode we discuss: [00:02:14] Introduction : Sriya Iyer [00:03:08] Background : What is the economics of religion? [00:07:25] Wealth : The Secularization Hypothesis (and why it's wron...

Dr S. J. Beard is a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. With a background in philosophy, he works on ethical problems relating to the long-term future of humanity, as well as evaluating extreme technological risks. In this episode we discuss: [2:00] Existential risks defined in brief; [4:45] SJ's...

Dr Jessie Munton is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Cambridge, whose philosophical research spans perception, psychiatry, and bias. In this episode we discuss: How to think about statistical generalisations that deal with demographic groups; How accurate beliefs about them can go wrong when we 'project' from bare statistics; How the salience and ordering of information relates to pre...