Is Effective Altruism Right? #5: Nathan Young

For our very special 40th episode of Rabbithole, we're taking a break from our current series to interview our very own Pete Davis, who co-wrote, co-directed, and narrated the documentary "Join or Die," ahead of the film's premiere at SXSW this weekend. The documentary is an in-depth look at the works of political scientist Robert Putnam, whose works including 2000's "Bowling Alone" connect the decline in participation in clubs, religious groups, and other social organizations to the present crises in American democracy. In this episode, Dan and Sparky have a chat with Pete about what went into making the documentary, working with Bob, and why it's great to become a 'joiner.'Learn more about 'Join Or Die' at https://putnamdoc.com. If you're in Austin, Texas this weekend, you can watch the film as part of the SXSW Film Festival. If you aren't, stay tuned for the film coming to a film festival or screening near you, or reach out to Pete about organizing a screening for your own club or community group!This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

On today's episode, Pete and Dan talk with Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a sociology Ph.D student at Columbia University studying the politics of American criminalization, about his November 2022 essay "Effective Altruism is a political nightmare," and his critiques of the methods and assumptions behind 'effective' charities, based on his understanding of social science research methods.Read Jonathan's essay on Effective Altruism on his Substack.Follow Jonathan on Twitter at @jbenmenachem and visit his website for more information about his research and writing.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

In today's episode, Pete and Dan speak with computer scientist Adly Templeton (@EigenGender on Twitter) about describing herself as 'Kinda EA,' and how her work with large language models and machine learning informs her opinions on today's discourse about 'longtermism' and AI risk as a focus area for many effective altruists.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

In today's episode, we invite effective altruist Nathan Young (@nathanpmyoung) on to the podcast to discuss his recently-concluded holiday fundraiser that he conducted with EA-skeptic Émile Torres (as interviewed in Episode #3 of this series), the importance of reëvaluating one's beliefs, prediction markets, future-archy, and "spreadsheet altruism."Visit Nathan's website at nathanpmyoung.comThis episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

While we line up some more interviews for our Effective Altruism series, Pete and Sparky return down the 'Is School Good' rabbithole to talk with Eleanor Duckworth, professor emeritus at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, developer of the Critical Exploration model of teaching, and author of books including 'The Having of Wonderful Ideas and Other Essays on Teaching and Learning."This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley.

Continuing our investigation of Effective Altruism's skeptics, Pete talks in this solo interview with Kieran Setiya, professor of philosophy at MIT and author of several books including 2022's Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way. In our conversation, Professor Setiya explains his personal philosophy and outlines his critique of EA's philosophical assumptions.For more information on Professor Setiya, visit his personal website at http://www.ksetiya.net, or find him on Twitter @KieranSetiyaOrder Kieran Setiya's latest book, "Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way," on Bookshop here.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

As we go deeper down the rabbithole of Effective Altruism, it's time to hear from some critical perspectives. Émile Torres, a PhD candidate in philosophy at Leibniz Universität Hannover in Germany and author of the forthcoming 'Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation' (Routledge), has been one of the most prominent critics of an increasingly-popular philosophy within the EA community called 'longtermism,' or the idea that current humans have a responsibility to far-off generations of people yet to be born millions of years into the future or further, and that consequentially, problems facing present humanity may not be as bad as they look if they don't threaten our overall survival as a species.In our talk with Émile, we discuss their recent salon.com article examining the recent collapse of EA-aligned billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried (AKA SBF) and his crypto exchange FTX in the context of the longtermist philosophy that SBF publicly aligned himself with. Along the way, we talk about the academic discipline of 'eschatology,' or the study of end times, about EA as a philosophy and as a movement, and about the appropriate level of fear that one should have toward so-called 'existential risks.'Émile can be found on Twitter @xriskology. You can visit their website at https://www.xriskology.com.Read Émile's recent Salon.com article about Sam Bankman-Fried, FBX, and longtermism here.Read Émile's Current Affairs piece on longtermism here.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

In our second episode of the new series, Pete and Dan have a conversation with their old friend Dylan Matthews, the senior correspondent and head writer for Vox's Future Perfect section, which covers stories about people and institutions trying to do the most good that they can. In the interview, Dylan talks about his personal journey towards thinking of himself as an effective altruist, outlines current debates and challenges within the global EA community, and responds to a few critiques of EA philosophy from unexpected angles.Read Dylan's latest big-picture article on Effective Altruism, published on Future Perfect, here.Read more articles from Future Perfect at https://www.vox.com/future-perfectThis episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

In our first interview in our new series on Effective Altruism, Pete and Dan sit down with philosopher and educator Joshua Kissel, an effective altruist and author of the article "Effective Altruism and Anti-Capitalism: An Attempt at Reconciliation." We discuss the nature of Effective Altruism as a movement and a philosophy, address Kissel's claim that leftist politics and effective altruism are complementary to each other, and consider whether anticapitalist social movements can learn from EA and vice versa.You can find more about Josh and his research at joshuakissel.com.This episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.

We're beginning a new series down the rabbithole! In "Is Effective Altruism Right," Pete, Sparky, and podcast editor Dan Thorn will dive deep into the fast-growing Effective Altruism research field and community. What are the philosophical origins of the movement, and how do those ideals affect individuals' choices to donate money and time towards particular charitable causes? Are preventing global pandemics, ending factory farming, preventing climate change, and preventing artificial intelligence takeover equally relevant causes to support? How does 'longtermism' as proposed by philosophers like William McAskill and Nick Bostrom relate to Effective Altruism as a whole? What does it mean that billionaires like Sam Bankman-Fried and Elon Musk have shown a receptiveness to EA-related causes and ideas, or have professed themselves to be effective altruists outright?As always, we'll be interviewing thinkers from all walks of life, with wildly different perspectives on EA, both supportive and skeptical. As we continue our interview series, we hope to develop our own opinions, find new questions to ask about EA, and uncover deeper rabbitholes to take ourselves, and you the listeners, down!Please reach out if you have suggestions for interviews we should conduct in this series!More on the Noosphere here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoosphereThis episode was edited by Dan Thorn (@danieljtvthorn) of Pink Noise Studios in Somerville, MA, and it features theme music by Danny Bradley. If you liked the podcast, please consider supporting our investigators on our Patreon.