In-depth conversations about the world’s most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them.

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Selected episodes

Cass Sunstein on how social change happens, and why it’s so often abrupt & unpredictable
Ajeya Cotra on accidentally teaching AI models to deceive us
Toby Ord on the precipice and humanity’s potential futures
Hilary Greaves on moral cluelessness, population ethics, & harnessing the brainpower of academia to tackle the most important research questions
Having a successful career with depression, anxiety and imposter syndrome
Nova DasSarma on why information security may be critical to the safe development of AI systems
Mushtaq Khan on how mainstream economics gets corruption and good governance all wrong
David Chalmers on the nature and ethics of consciousness

Recent episodes

September 8, 2023

#163 – Toby Ord on the perils of maximising the good that you do

Listen now

September 1, 2023

#162 – Mustafa Suleyman on getting Washington and Silicon Valley to tame AI

Listen now

August 23, 2023

#161 – Michael Webb on whether AI will soon cause job loss, lower incomes, and higher inequality — or the opposite

Listen now

View all episodes

Explore the archive

Every episode has a full transcript and links to further reading.

Quotes from the show

I’m very, very concerned that North Korea today has an advanced biological weapons program.
You don’t need a lot of biological weapons to potentially kill billions of people…
Fortunately, while we’re not there yet, the science and the tools that are now available enable the possibility of making [such] bioweapons obsolete.
Andy Weber, former US Assistant Secretary of Defense

…they randomly determined when officers would take the training… so it’s a really nice natural experiment.
And they found that this one-day training program pretty dramatically reduced both complaints and use of force.
Jennifer Doleac, Associate Professor of Economics at Texas A&M University

…more teachers, more books, more inputs, like smaller class sizes – at least in the developing world – seem to have no impact, and that’s where most government money gets spent…
Rachel Glennerster, Chief Economist at the UK Department for International Development

I’m inclined to think that I can imagine a being with the ability to consciously think and perceive, but no ability to feel pleasure or pain.
And still, it just actually seems monstrous to me to think about killing such a being.
Dave Chalmers, Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science at New York University

About the show

The 80,000 Hours Podcast features unusually in-depth conversations about the world’s most pressing problems and how you can use your career to solve them.

We invite guests pursuing a wide range of career paths – from academics and activists to entrepreneurs and policymakers — to analyse the case for and against working on different issues and figure out which approaches are best for solving them.

The show is produced and edited by Keiran Harris. Get in touch with feedback or guest suggestions by emailing [email protected].

How to listen

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You’ll find transcripts and links to further reading on the episode pages.

“The podcast has substantially changed how I think about the entire world, how I donate money, and has made me open to exploring job opportunities that would do more good for the world.”

— Steven Bills

What is 80,000 Hours?

80,000 Hours is a non-profit dedicated to helping people have a larger positive influence on the world with their careers. If you’re new here, read our career guide to get our current take on how to think about careers that have a positive impact and where the best opportunities may lie.

Read our career guide

About Rob Wiblin

Robert Wiblin is one of the interviewers I most respect, and indeed, envy. He is Director of Research at a nonprofit called 80,000 Hours, and their mission is to figure out and then communicate to people how they can do the most good with their careers.

Robert is a long-standing leader in the effective altruism movement. He runs an excellent podcast called the 80,000 Hours Podcast. And he is from Adelaide.

— Tyler Cowen

Rob studied genetics and economics at the Australian National University, graduating top of his class and later being named Young Alumnus of the Year. He worked as a research economist in various Australian Government agencies, before joining the Centre for Effective Altruism in Oxford, first as Research Director and then Executive Director. In 2015 he joined 80,000 Hours as Head of Research. You can find out more on his personal website.

View Rob’s writing at 80,000 Hours

Curated series

Effective Altruism: An Introduction

A collection of ten top episodes of The 80,000 Hours Podcast, specifically selected to help you get up to speed on the school of thought known as effective altruism.

Learn more →

1: Holden Karnofsky on the world’s most intellectual foundation and how philanthropy can have maximum impact by taking big risks
2: Toby Ord on why the long-term future of humanity matters more than anything else and what we should do about it
3: Alexander Berger on improving global health and wellbeing in clear and direct ways
4: Spencer Greenberg on the scientific approach to updating your beliefs when you get new evidence.
5: William MacAskill on why our descendants might view us as moral monsters

6: Ajeya Cotra on worldview diversification and how big the future could be
7: Philip Tetlock on lessons learned from 40 years studying how to predict the future
8: Hilary Greaves on moral cluelessness, population ethics and tackling global issues in academia
9: Ben Todd on the key ideas of 80,000 Hours
10: Arden Koehler and Ben Todd on the core idea of effective altruism and how to argue for it

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