80k After Hours: Recent Episodes
The 80000 Hours team
Resources on how to do good with your career — and anything else we here at 80,000 Hours feel like releasing.
This is a selection of highlights from episode #154 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.
These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:
Rohin Shah on DeepMind and trying to fairly hear out both AI doomers and doubters
And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.
Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Luisa Rodriguez and Alex Lawsen discuss common mistakes people make when trying to do good with their careers, and advice on how to avoid them.
Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.
They cover:
- Taking 80,000 Hours’ rankings too seriously
- Not trying hard enough to fail
- Feeling like you need to optimise for having the most impact now
- Feeling like you need to work directly on AI immediately
- Not taking a role because you think you’ll be replaceable
- Constantly considering other career options
- Overthinking or over-optimising career choices
- Being unwilling to think things through for yourself
- Ignoring conventional career wisdom
- Doing community work even if you’re not suited to it
Who this episode is for:
- People who want to pursue a high-impact career
- People wondering how much AI progress should change their plans
- People who take 80,000 Hours’ career advice seriously
Who this episode isn’t for:
- People who have so little respect for 80,000 Hours work that they’d rather take career advice from:
- Fortune cookies
- Toasters
- Ghosts of dead celebrities
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.
Producer and editor: Keiran Harris
Audio Engineering Lead: Ben Cordell
Technical editing: Milo McGuire and Dominic Armstrong
Additional content editing: Luisa Rodriguez and Katy Moore
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
This is a selection of highlights from episode #153 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.
These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:
Elie Hassenfeld on two big picture critiques of GiveWell’s approach, and six lessons from their recent work
And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.
Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80,000 Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or read the transcript.
Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
This is a selection of highlights from episode #152 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.
These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:
Joe Carlsmith on navigating serious philosophical confusion
Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80,000 Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or read the transcript.
Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
This is a selection of highlights from episode #151 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.
These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:
Ajeya Cotra on accidentally teaching AI models to deceive us
Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80,000 Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or read the transcript.
Highlights put together by Simon Monsour and Milo McGuire
This is a selection of highlights from episode #150 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.
These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:
Tom Davidson on how quickly AI could transform the world
Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80,000 Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or read the transcript.
Highlights put together by Milo McGuire and Simon Monsour
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Luisa Rodriguez and Hannah Boettcher discuss 4 different kinds of therapy, and how to use them in practice — focusing specifically on people trying to have a big impact.
Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.
They cover:
- The effectiveness of therapy, and tips for finding a therapist
- Moral demandingness
- Internal family systems-style therapy
- Motivation and burnout
- Exposure therapy
- Grappling with world problems and x-risk
- Perfectionism and imposter syndrome
- And the risk of over-intellectualising
Who this episode is for:
- High-impact focused people who struggle with moral demandingness, perfectionism, or imposter syndrome
- People who feel anxious thinking about the end of the world
- 80,000 Hours Podcast hosts with the initials LR
Who this episode isn’t for:
- People who aren’t focused on having a big impact
- People who don’t struggle with any mental health issues
- Founders of Scientology with the initials LRH
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.
Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio Engineering Lead: Ben Cordell
Technical editing: Dominic Armstrong
Content editing: Katy Moore, Luisa Rodriguez, and Keiran Harris
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
This is a selection of highlights from episode #149 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.
These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:
Tim LeBon on how altruistic perfectionism is self-defeating
Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80,000 Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or read the transcript.
Highlights put together by Simon Monsour
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Perrin Walker reads Arden Koehler and Benjamin Hilton's problem profile on preventing catastrophic pandemics.
Here’s the original piece if you’d like to learn more.
You might also want to check out our full profile on Reducing global catastrophic biological risks, by Gregory Lewis.
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.
Editing and narration: Perrin Walker
Audio proofing: Katy Moore
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Rob Wiblin interviews Kuhan Jeyapragasan about effective altruism university groups.
From 2015 to 2020, Kuhan did an undergrad and then a master's in maths and computer science at Stanford — and did a lot to organise and improve the EA group on campus.
Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.
Rob and Kuhan cover:
- The challenges of making a group appealing and accepting of everyone
- The concrete things Kuhan did to grow the successful Stanford EA group
- Whether local groups are turning off some people who should be interested in effective altruism, and what they could do differently
- Lessons Kuhan learned from Stanford EA
- The Stanford Existential Risks Initiative (SERI)
Who this episode is for:
- People already involved in EA university groups
- People interested in getting involved in EA university groups
Who this episode isn’t for:
- People who’ve never heard of ‘effective altruism groups’
- People who’ve never heard of ‘effective altruism’
- People who’ve never heard of ‘university’
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80k After Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or read the transcript below.
Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Ryan Kessler
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Habiba Islam reads Benjamin Todd's career review on founding new projects tackling top problems.
Here’s the original piece if you’d like to learn more.
You might also want to check out these relevant pieces:
- The growth of effective altruism: what does it mean for our priorities and level of ambition? — Benjamin Todd
- Notes on good judgement and how to develop it — Benjamin Todd
- What we learned from a year incubating longtermist entrepreneurship — Rebecca Kagan, Jade Leung, Ben Clifford
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.
Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Beppe Rådvik and Ben Cordell
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Rob Wiblin interviews Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla about the Shrimp Welfare Project, which he cofounded in 2021. It's the first project in the world focused on shrimp welfare specifically and now has six full-time staff.
Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.
They cover:
- The evidence for shrimp sentience
- How farmers and the public feel about shrimp
- The scale of the problem
- What shrimp farming looks like
- The killing process, and other welfare issues
- Shrimp Welfare Project’s strategy
- History of shrimp welfare work
- What it’s like working in India and Vietnam
- How to help
Who this episode is for:
- People who care about animal welfare
- People interested in new and unusual problems
- People open to shrimp sentience
Who this episode isn’t for:
- People who think shrimp couldn’t possibly be sentient
- People who got called ‘shrimp’ a lot in high school and get anxious when they hear the word over and over again
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80k After Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or read the transcript below.
Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Ben Cordell and Ryan Kessler
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Fin Moorhouse reads his problem profile on space governance.
Here’s the original piece if you’d like to learn more.
If you want to hear more from Fin, you should check out his podcast Hear This Idea, which showcases new thinking in philosophy, the social sciences, and effective altruism. And you can see a bunch of other things he's up to on his website.
You might also want to check out these relevant pieces:
- Space governance is important, tractable and neglected — Tobias Baumann
- An Informal Review of Space Exploration
- How cost-effective are efforts to detect near-Earth-objects? — Toby Newberry
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.
Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Beppe Rådvik and Ben Cordell
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Rob Wiblin interviews Clay Graubard and Robert de Neufville about forecasting the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.
They cover:
- Their early predictions for the war
- The performance of the Russian military
- The risk of use of nuclear weapons
- The most interesting remaining topics on Russia and Ukraine
- General lessons we can take from the war
- The evolution of the forecasting space
- What Robert and Clay were reading back in February
- Forecasters vs. subject matter experts
- Ways to get involved with the forecasting community
- Impressive past predictions
- And more
Who this episode is for:
- People interested in forecasting
- People interested in the war in Ukraine
- People who prefer to know how likely they are to die in a nuclear war
Who this episode isn’t for:
- People who’d hate it if a friend said they were 65% likely to come out for drinks
- People who’d prefer if their death from nuclear war was a total surprise
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80k After Hours’ into your podcasting app. Or read the transcript below.
Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Ben Cordell
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
In this episode of 80k After Hours — Rob continues to interview his 80,000 Hours colleagues Michelle Hutchinson and Habiba Islam about the 1-1 team.
Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.
This is the second of a two-part interview. You can find the first part on the original 80,000 Hours Podcast feed.
In this part, they cover:
- Whether just encouraging someone young to aspire to more than they currently are is one of the most impactful ways to spend half an hour
- How much impact the one-on-one team has, the biggest challenges they face as a group, and different paths they could have gone down
- Whether giving general advice is a doomed enterprise
- And more
Who this episode is for:
- Young people interested in 80,000 Hours
- People curious about the inner-workings of the 1-1 team
- People who left the first part wanting more
Who this episode isn’t for:
- People who left the first part wanting less
- People who like up-to-date movie recommendations
Want to get free one-on-one advice from our team? We're here to help.
We’ve helped thousands of people formulate their plans and put them in touch with mentors.
We've expanded our ability to deliver one-on-one meetings so are keen to help more people than ever before. If you're a regular listener to the show we're especially likely to want to speak with you.
Learn about and apply for advising.
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.
Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Ben Cordell
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Habiba Islam reads Benjamin Todd’s article “Be More Ambitious: a rational case for dreaming big (if you want to do good)”.
Here’s the original article if you’d like to learn more.
You might also want to check out these pieces:
- A (free) weekly career planning course for positive impact
- How much risk to take?
- Expected value: how can we know what makes a difference when uncertain?
- And 3 key career stages
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.
Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Ben Cordell
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Keiran Harris interviews 80,000 Hours advisor (and former high school teacher) Alex Lawsen about his advice for students.
Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.
They cover:
- When half-assing something is a good idea
- When you should actually learn things vs. just trying to seem smart
- Why you should shift your focus over the academic year
- Novel tips for preparing for exams
- What to do if you struggle with motivation
- What to do when you have bad teachers
- How students should think about exploring and experimenting
- Bad approaches to learning
- How to think about personal goals
- When to start thinking about your career seriously
- And more.
Who this episode is for:
- Students, parents, and teachers
- People who know a student, parent, or teacher
- People with an interest in improving education
Who this episode isn’t for:
- People with no interest in improving education
- People who get mad when an 80,000 Hours podcast doesn’t feature Rob Wiblin
Our 1-1 team can talk to you about career options, make introductions in your chosen fields, and help you work out next steps on a free careers call. Apply now.
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.
Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Ryan Kessler
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
In this episode of 80k After Hours, Rob Wiblin and Keiran Harris are interviewed by Kearney Capuano and Aaron Bergman of the new podcast ‘All Good’ about what goes on behind-the-scenes at the 80,000 Hours Podcast.
Links to learn more, highlights and full transcript.
We cover:
- The history and philosophy of The 80,000 Hours Podcast
- The nuts and bolts of how we make the show
- Rob’s bad habits as an interviewer
- Topics we try to avoid
- Critiques of the show
- The pros and cons of podcasting vs. other mediums
- Our position in the effective altruism community
- Whether there’s an optimism bias in the EA community
- Unifying themes of Rob and Keiran’s careers
- Advice for other podcasters
- And more
Who this episode is for:
- Fans of The 80,000 Hours Podcast
- New podcasters
- Two 80,000 Hours employees who love the sound of their own voice
Who this episode isn’t for:
- People who’ve never heard of The 80,000 Hours Podcast
- People who only want to learn about more important topics
- People who hate podcasts
Get this episode by subscribing to our more experimental podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80k After Hours into your podcasting app.
Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Ben Cordell
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
80k After Hours is a podcast by the team that brings you The 80,000 Hours Podcast.
Here Rob Wiblin and Keiran Harris briefly explain what to expect from the new show.