What We Owe The Future Updated Media List

This is my updated list as of 23 September 2022 of media around the launch of Will MacAskill’s ‘What We Owe The Future.’ I have counted 21 podcast appearances, 32 articles and 8 other items. They are listed below with links and my brief personal comments.

There is much valuable material here. I have marked my favourites with one, two or three stars. My top recommendations are the Rob Wiblin and Ali Abdaal podcasts, the New Yorker article and the Richard Chappell review.

Podcast Appearances

The 80,000 Hours Podcast with Rob Wiblin. A warm and comprehensive three-hour discussion. ***

Making Sense Podcast with Sam Harris. Harris is strongly supportive, MacAskill particularly inspiring on the sweep of history. **

Mindscape Podcast with Sean Carroll. Carroll asks questions about utilitarianism, metaethics and population ethics and MacAskill answers well. *

The Ezra Klein Show Podcast. A fine conversation on long-termism. Klein structures the discusion around ‘Three simple sentences: Future people count. There could be a lot of them. And we can make their lives better.’ Good discussions about history—the contingent nature of the abolition of slavery and that certain times have plasticity. **

Tim Ferriss Podcast. A lively discussion with much humour and several gems from MacAskill. Includes recommendation of Joseph Henrich’s ‘The Secret of Our Success.’ **

Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal Podcast. A relaxed, friendly and wide-ranging three-hour conversation. Covers a lot of ground including EA psychology and MacAskill’s work methods. This is a high-quality YouTube production as well as a podcast. ***

Conversations with Tyler Podcast . Tyler Cowan’s questioning focuses on the limits of utilitarianism. *

The Lunar Society Podcast with Dwarkesh Patel. Focuses on the contingency of moral progress.

Global Dispatch Podcast with Mark Goldberg. Discussion on longtermism and the United Nations. Goldberg enthusiastic about the UN adopting some longtermist thinking. *

Modern Wisdom Podcast with Chris Williamson. An accessible discussion of longtermism.

Conversations with Coleman with Coleman Hughes Includes population ethics, economic growth and moral change.

Daily Stoic Podcast with Ryan Holiday. Mainly on altruism and moral change.

Kera Think with Krys Boyd. 30 minutes conversation.

Freakanomics Podcast with Steve Levitt. Discussion mainly on the economic themes in WWOTF, which MacAskill handles very well. *

1a Podcast on NPR. David Gurn discussion on EA as a life changing philosophy. Includes comments from Sofya Lebedeva and Spencer Goldberg.

Ten Percent Happier Podcast with Dan Harris. A warm discussion on donations, EA and longtermism.

Big Issue Better Pod with Laura Kelly. 30 minutes conversation

Armchair Expert on Spotify with Dax Shephard. Lively two hour conversation.

Vox The Weeds Podcast with Bryan Walsh and Signal Samuel. Fine discussion on limits of longtermism. Covered in Vox article below.

Econtalk with Russ Roberts. Very interesting, well-informed discussion, also video. *

KCRW Life Examined with Jonathan Bastian. Short interview.

There are transcripts for the podcasts by Wiblin, Carroll, Klein, Cowan, Patel, Goldberg, Levitt, Shephard and Roberts.

Articles and Book Reviews

The New Yorker: The Reluctant Prophet of Effective Altruism by Gideon Lewis-Kraus. A fine 10,000-word article profiling MacAskill and setting out the history of the EA movement. The author spent several days with his subject and covers MacAskill as an individual and the ideas and dynamics of the movement. MacAskill comments on the article in this Twitter Thread. ***

Time: Want to Do More Good? This Movement might have the Answer by Naina Bajekal . Another beautifully written and inspiring profile of MacAskill and the EA movement.*

Vox: How Effective Altruism Went from a Niche Movement to a Billion-Dollar Force by Dylan Matthews. A well-informed and thoughtful article on EA’s evolution by an EA insider. *

Wired: The Future Could be Blissful—If Human’s Don’t Go Extinct First. Shorter interview with Will Macaskill by Matt Reynolds.

New York Times: The Case for Longtermism by Will MacAskill A Guest Essay adapted from the book.

BBC Futures: What is Longtermism and Why Does it Matter? by Will MacAskill. Another essay based on the book.

Foreign Affairs: The Beginning of History by Will MacAskill A further essay based on the book.

The Atlantic: How Future Generations Will Remember Us by Will MacAskill. And another essay, again telling the book’s thesis in a different way.

Five Books: The Best Books on Longtermism recommended by Will MacAskill. He chooses ‘Moral Capital’, ‘The Scout Mindset’, ‘The Precipice’, ‘Superforecasting’ and ‘The Life You Can Save.’

NPR: How Can We Help Humans Thrive Trillions of Years From Now? Article and interview.

Boston Review: The New Moral Arithmetic. Book review by Kieran Setiya, thoughtful, partly supportive and partly critical. MacAskill’s Twitter response.

The Guardian: William MacAskill. Interview by Andrew Anthony.

The Guardian: Book Review A fine and insightful review of WWOTF by Oliver Burkeman. ‘The overall promise of this thrilling book is of a life both less burdened by ethical guilt – by beating yourself up over every choice of groceries or transportation – and much more effective at actually helping humanity. A life you truly enjoy, and in which you take that enjoyment seriously enough to want the same – or better – for billions more humans to come.’ *

Astral Codex Ten: Book Review by Scott Alexander A critical but interesting review. ‘If the point of publishing a book is to have a public relations campaign, Will MacAskill is the greatest English writer since Shakespeare.’

Vox: Caring About The Future Doesn’t Mean Ignoring The Present by Kelsey Piper Article arguing that although WWOTF ‘has put weird stuff front and centre’ GiveWell data shows that ‘effective altruism is growing on all fronts.’

The Economist: What to Read To Understand Effective Altruism Article with recommended EA resources including two 80,000 hours podcasts, Singer’s Drowning Child, MacAskill’s WWOTF, Karnofsky’s Most Important Century blog and Chivers’s Rationalists Guide to the Galaxy.

Wired: If Humans Went Extinct Would A Similar Species Evolve? Short extract from WWOTF.

Richard Y Chappell Book Review An excellent review from an EA-aligned moral philosopher. ‘WWOTF is to longtermism what Animal Liberation was to anti-speciesism. Targeted at a general audience, it advocates for an important kind of moral circle expansion.’ ***

The Telegraph: The Fact We’ve Had One Pandemic Doesn’t Make Another One Less Likely by Eleanor Mills. Profile of MacAskill, EA and WWOTF.

Washington Post: Want Politics to Be Better? Focus on Future Generations by Will MacAskill and Tyler John Short article on considering future generations in politics.

TLS: An Effective Altruist? A Philosophers’ Guide to the long Term Threats to Humanity by Regina Rini Book Review.

Vox: Effective Altruism’s Most Controversial Ideas by Sigal Samuel Fine critical article. Longtermist crazy train with three stations: weak longtermism, strong longtermism and galaxy-brain longtermism. Arguments not to go beyond weak longtermism. Discussed on Vox Podcast above. *

Washington Post: Why ’Longtermism” isn’t Ethically Sound by Christine Emba. Short Article.

EA Forum: My Take on What We Owe The Future by Eli Lifland. Argues that MacAskill underestimates AI risk and overestimates economic stagnation risk. *

Forbes: Optimistic Longtermism Is Terrible For Animals by Brian Kateman. ‘If the human race creates more suffering than it alleviates, it would be a mistake to let it grow infinitely.’

The Conversation: What Do We Owe Future Generations? by Michael Noetel. Book review.

FT: Philosopher William MacAskill by Gillian Tett. Warm article written around lunching with MacAskill.

New York Intelligencer: Why Effective Altruists Fear the AI Apocalypse by Eric Levitz Writes up an interview with MacAskill. Good questions and answers, especially about EA and politics. *

Salon: Selling Longtermism—How PR and Marketing Drive a Controversial New Movement by Emile Torres. Interesting critical article arguing that a moderate form of longtermism is being presented for PR reasons. *

Fast Company: The Truth about Elon Musk, Sam Bankman-Fried and Effective Altruism by Talib Visram. A partly negative article of EA, that draws on a call with MacAskill.

Big Think: What NASA’s Spaceguard can Teach us about our Uncertain Future by Will MacAskill. An article based on the book section praising Spaceguard as an example of reducing existential risks.

Wall Street Journal. What We Owe The Future Review—A Technocrats Dream by Barton Swaim. Book review.

Other Items

Redditt: Will MacAskill Ask Me Anything Thirty answers to online questions, some answers substantial and interesting. *

Kurzgesagt: Is Civilisation on the Brink of Collapse? Animation.

Rational Animations: Can We Make The Future A Million Years From Now Go Better? Animation.

Primer: How Many People Might Every Exist Calculated. Animation.

Ali Abdaal: The Most Impactful Book I Have Ever Read. Fine YouTube video review and recommendation for WWOTF. *

Vice News: Can This Book Stop Human Extinction? Brief YouTube Feature and interview with MacAskill

Basic Books Page for WWOTF. Includes short video.

Brandon’s Bookshelf Review of WWOTF. Good YouTube review.

Links

There are further resources at the What We Owe The Future Website.

My blog includes my book review of WWOTF and my list of media links.