EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)

“We” in this post refers to CEA leadership, who didn’t write this post. In 2025, we grew engagement with CEA's programs by 20–25% across every tier of engagement. But we recognize that growing the community is about more than engagement or metrics—at its core, growth is about the bigness of things. How can we claim that we’ve grown the community if the words on the page are the same size? To match our ambition off the page, it's time to show ambition on the page. We’re increasing our font size from 15px to 25px across all platforms. You’ll see more from us—clearer text, bigger words, extremely long forum posts. What this means All of our programs will be bigger, in the sense that the documents we write about them will be absolutely huge. The forum will have a larger font than any other sensible website—a bigger font means more impactful ideas. Our events will have larger screens for our ginormous font. This will mean a significant increase in AV costs. We’re encouraging local groups to do the same—we’re recommending a 30% font size increase this year, and we’ll be supporting them to reach 20px font size by the [...] --- First published: April 1st, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EBjcpyfPwhByKeWjM/we-re-growing-cea-is-increasing-its-font-size --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

A playful launch of a matchmaking and naturalization service that pairs people to optimize taxes, green card chances and relocation. Discussion of marrying across tax brackets to boost charitable giving. Practical tips on visa strategy and cost-saving community-run weddings. A quirky case for one-syllable, complementary baby names to cut global pronunciation time.

Tobias Häberli, a researcher-writer on epistemic infrastructure in EA, describes a startling recurrent pattern: every April 1 the forum shows a massive spike in verifiably false claims. He walks through the effect size, its yearly recurrence, the surprising high-effort quality of many false posts, why one day matters more than it seems, and possible interventions to reduce harm.

A satirical take on fixing a broken application pipeline by sending instant, unconditional rejections. They outline a service that guarantees multiple rejections per application and even forwards apps to partners for more declines. Plans include a browser add‑on that notifies applicants before they finish writing. The conversation skewers inefficiencies, wasted effort, and community friction.

William MacAskill, philosopher and effective altruism leader and author of Doing Good Better, shares a decade of movement milestones. He covers global health fundraising and lives saved. He discusses corporate cage-free wins for millions of hens. He reflects on pandemics, AI foresight, growth in giving, and why EA efforts still matter amid remaining global risks.

Donating my shares to Lightcone Infrastructure, the Good Food Institute, and the Long-Term Future Fund, because EA refuses to make Mirror's Edge 3Leaning into EA disillusionment: Why I no longer believe in EA I bought this EA stock almost thirteen years ago:Leopold Aschenbrenner once said that “people with situational awareness have a lower cost basis in Nvidia than you do”.  I’m not sure if this is exactly what he meant… but close enough, right? Back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, EA was a great company pumping out great, interesting games: Mirror's Edge had a striking art style and showcased a whole new style of first-person parkour gameplay. Crysis infamously pushed graphical technology to such extremes that it was like getting a preview of videogame technology 5-10 years in the future. Spore was… weird and bad, but its ambition and uniqueness was inspiring. The Dead Space games (including the almost weirdly good point-and-shoot Wii spinoff) were pretty creative, and the realism of Battlefield 3 felt like a valuable counterpoint to an increasingly-cartoony Call of Duty series.  Both series felt like they were crafted with a lot of care, despite their big-budget action vibes. This was a hidden gem [...] ---Outline:(00:20) Leaning into EA disillusionment: Why I no longer believe in EA(02:24) EA is was three radical ideas I want to protect(03:57) The soul of EA is in trouble(06:10) EA is about maximization, and maximization is perilous(09:22) Dont be bycatch(10:47) EA and the current funding situation(12:20) Abandoning EA, in favor of doing the most good --- First published: March 31st, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZegHZBvEeQanrGhpY/giving-up-on-ea-after-13-years --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

They announce a mainstream book release of an updated career guide with new AI chapters and redesigned content. They explain why a printed edition can reach new readers and outline launch tactics like media tours and translations. They ask listeners to help by preordering and sharing, and cover formats, release dates, and plans to keep the online guide free.

A thought experiment about giving cows leads into why randomized trials are vital for reliable impact measurement. The podcast introduces cash benchmarking: giving control groups cash to see if programs actually outperform simple transfers. Several cases where cash beats interventions are discussed, plus situations where charities can still add value. A practical heuristic for choosing between cash and programs is proposed.

Toby Ord, philosopher and author focused on global catastrophic risks and longtermism, explains why we should treat AI timelines with broad uncertainty. He contrasts short and long timeline views. He argues for using broad probability distributions, hedging toward early-transformative scenarios, and balancing short-term urgencies with long-term institution-building.

A grantmaker reflects on the unexpected burdens of allocating scarce funds and the hard trade-offs that entails. He examines weak feedback loops in nonprofits and why ineffective projects can persist. He recounts how access to funding changes social dynamics and the emotional cost of saying no to worthy causes. He also describes sources of cynicism and urges greater accountability and honest shutdowns.