Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems is a collection of ten top episodes of the 80,000 Hours Podcast, designed to bring you up to speed on ten pressing issues the effective altruism community is working to solve.Here the host of the show — R

One: Toby Ord on existential risks

Oct 3rd, 2021 3h 13m

In 2020, Oxford academic and 80,000 Hours trustee Dr Toby Ord released his book The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity. It's about how our long-term future could be better than almost anyone believes, but also how humanity's

Two: Rachel Glennerster on global poverty

Oct 3rd, 2021 1h 33m

If I told you it’s possible to deliver an extra year of ideal primary-level education for 30 cents, would you believe me? Hopefully not – the claim is absurd on its face.But it may be true nonetheless. The very best education interventions are

Three: Andy Weber on pandemics and nuclear wars

Oct 3rd, 2021 1h 54m

COVID-19 has provided a vivid reminder of the damage biological threats can do. But the threat doesn’t come from natural sources alone. Weaponized contagious diseases — which were abandoned by the United States, but developed in large numbers b

Four: Brian Christian on artificial intelligence

Oct 3rd, 2021 2h 54m

Brian Christian is a bestselling author with a particular knack for accurately communicating difficult or technical ideas from both mathematics and computer science.The 80,000 Hours team found his new book The Alignment Problem to be an insight

Five: Lewis Bollard on factory farming

Oct 3rd, 2021 2h 31m

Every year tens of billions of animals are raised in terrible conditions in factory farms before being killed for human consumption. Despite the enormous scale of suffering this causes, the issue is largely neglected: every year, only about $29

Six: Jennifer Doleac on criminal justice reform

Oct 3rd, 2021 2h 17m

The killing of George Floyd has prompted a great deal of debate over whether the US should shrink its police departments. The research literature suggests that the presence of police officers does reduce crime, though they’re not cheap, and as

Seven: Ezra Klein on journalism

Oct 3rd, 2021 1h 45m

How many words in U.S. newspapers have been spilled on tax policy in the past five years? And how many words on CRISPR? Or meat alternatives? Or how AI may soon automate the majority of jobs?When people look back on this era, is the interesting

Eight: Mark Lynas on climate change

Oct 3rd, 2021 2h 6m

A golf-ball sized lump of uranium can deliver more than enough power to cover all your lifetime energy use. To get the same energy from coal, you’d need 3,200 tonnes of the stuff — a mass equivalent to 800 adult elephants, which would go on to

Nine: Dave Denkenberger on feeding the world through catastrophes

Oct 3rd, 2021 2h 56m

If a nuclear winter or asteroid impact blocked the sun for years, our inability to grow food would result in billions dying of starvation, right? According to Dr Dave Denkenberger, co-author of Feeding Everyone No Matter What: no. If he’s to be

Ten: Persis Eskander on wild animal suffering

Oct 3rd, 2021 2h 35m

Most animals are hunted by predators, and constantly have to remain vigilant lest they be killed, and perhaps experience the terror of being eaten alive. Resource competition often leads to chronic hunger or starvation. Their diseases and injur

What's next

Oct 3rd, 2021 2m 39s

Now you've finished Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems, here's what we suggest you do next.And if you’ve listened to this series and found the ideas resonated with you, our one-on-one team might be able to help you apply them to your caree

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