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.
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.
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.
A list of EA-related podcasts
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.