#121 – Matthew Yglesias on avoiding the pundit's fallacy and how much military intervention can be used for good
If you read polls saying that the public supports a carbon tax, should you believe them? According to today's guest — journalist and blogger Matthew Yglesias — it's complicated, but probably not. Link...
16 Feb 20223h 4min
#120 – Audrey Tang on what we can learn from Taiwan’s experiments with how to do democracy
In 2014 Taiwan was rocked by mass protests against a proposed trade agreement with China that was about to be agreed without the usual Parliamentary hearings. Students invaded and took over the Parlia...
2 Feb 20222h 5min
#43 Classic episode - Daniel Ellsberg on the institutional insanity that maintains nuclear doomsday machines
Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in September 2018.In Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film Dr. Strangelove, the American president is informed that the Soviet Union has created a secret dete...
18 Jan 20222h 35min
#35 Classic episode - Tara Mac Aulay on the audacity to fix the world without asking permission
Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in June 2018. How broken is the world? How inefficient is a typical organisation? Looking at Tara Mac Aulay’s life, the answer seems to be ‘very’. A...
10 Jan 20221h 23min
#67 Classic episode – David Chalmers on the nature and ethics of consciousness
Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in December 2019. What is it like to be you right now? You're seeing this text on the screen, smelling the coffee next to you, and feeling the warmth...
3 Jan 20224h 42min
#59 Classic episode - Cass Sunstein on how change happens, and why it's so often abrupt & unpredictable
Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in June 2019. It can often feel hopeless to be an activist seeking social change on an obscure issue where most people seem opposed or at best indiff...
27 Des 20211h 43min
#119 – Andrew Yang on our very long-term future, and other topics most politicians won’t touch
Andrew Yang — past presidential candidate, founder of the Forward Party, and leader of the 'Yang Gang' — is kind of a big deal, but is particularly popular among listeners to The 80,000 Hours Podcast....
20 Des 20211h 25min
#118 – Jaime Yassif on safeguarding bioscience to prevent catastrophic lab accidents and bioweapons development
If a rich country were really committed to pursuing an active biological weapons program, there’s not much we could do to stop them. With enough money and persistence, they’d be able to buy equipment,...
13 Des 20212h 15min
