The World Can Be Better

How do you open a health centre for $4000? — with Nick Laing

We’re on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/2BSt0DeHJ8UyI8elVc7wp2?si=32b8859282a84931], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-world-can-be-better/id1834698560], YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@theworldcanbebetter], and more, just search! In this episode, we interview Nick [https://substack.com/profile/168045970-nick] Laing. Nick is the co-founder and CEO of OneDay Health [https://onedayhealth.org/], a charity that starts up self-sustaining health centres in northern Uganda. You might also know him from the Effective Altruism Forum [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/users/nicklaing], where he’s written some great posts on a ton of topics — including water chlorination’s surprising impact on reducing child mortality [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/hFPbe2ZwmB9athsXT/clean-water-the-incredible-30-mortality-reducer-we-can-t], the possible effectiveness of menstrual cups [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/jh5A2NXr5Lf9oXLSX/menstrual-cups-a-cost-effective-gem] as a health and wellbeing intervention, and what NGOs in Africa can do better [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/LvE3s6kCJk4Jck2ww/5-ways-to-better-charity-work-in-2026]. We discuss all of this, and more, in the episode. If you enjoy it, please like, or leave a review! It helps the podcast show up for other listeners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theworldcanbebetter.substack.com [https://theworldcanbebetter.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Will there be an intelligence explosion? — Fin Moorhouse

In this episode, me (Toby) and Frances speak to researcher, Fin Moorhouse. Fin is a Research Fellow at Forethought [https://www.forethought.org/], an organisation that researches how we might thrive under extremely fast AI progress. As part of his work, he also hosts the Forethought podcast ForeCast [https://www.forethought.org/subscribe#podcast], where you can hear more about the ideas we’ll discuss today. Previously, he co-hosted the Hear This Idea [https://hearthisidea.com/] podcast, worked at Longview Philanthropy, the Future of Humanity Institute, and much more. You can find out Fin’s whole professional history, along with just about everything he’s read and listened to via his handsomely designed website [https://finmoorhouse.com/]. We talk to Fin mostly about three things: * The Better Futures series [https://www.forethought.org/research/introducing-better-futures] — where he argues, with Will MacAskill, that it may be as good, or better, to work on increasing the value of the future, rather than increasing the odds humanity survives. * The intelligence explosion [https://www.forethought.org/research/preparing-for-the-intelligence-explosion], the idea that rapidly improving AI could accelerate technological and social progress. * And finally, Fin’s recent essay, no ghost in the machine [https://finmoorhouse.com/writing/consciousness-and-ai/], arguing for a non-realist view of consciousness, which I (Toby) would highly recommend reading. Subscribe to get the transcript, with links (and a graph!) in the next post. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theworldcanbebetter.substack.com [https://theworldcanbebetter.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Is AI drinking your water? – with Andy Masley

In this episode, I talk to Andy Masley, writer of The Weird Turn Pro on Substack. Andy has become known online as the "AI water guy" for his pushback on the popular narrative that AI is draining our water. He recently found a major mistake in the bestselling book Empire of AI, where a claim that a Chilean data center used a thousand times as much water as the surrounding community turned out to be a unit conversion error.In [http://error.In] this episode we talk about how he found the mistake, the strange experience of being called both a Luddite and a Big AI shill, why he thinks the AI environment narrative has gone off track, and his actual views on AI, including why he takes the case for concern seriously. We also get into effective altruism, his path from teaching high school physics to full-time writing, and the power of online writing! Andy's Substack: andymasley.substack.com [http://andymasley.substack.com] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theworldcanbebetter.substack.com [https://theworldcanbebetter.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Should you be worried about AI? — Steven Adler

In this first episode, I make an AI expert (Steven Adler) explain to me why some people are so worried about artificial intelligence and what we can do about it. Steven Adler is a former safety researcher at OpenAI, the frontier lab behind ChatGPT. Steven worked there for four years on safety and policy, including leading the Dangerous Capability Evaluations team. He now writes for his Substack, Clear‑Eyed AI [https://stevenadler.substack.com/], about the development of very capable systems and how to make AI go better. In this episode, Steven walks through the risks surrounding advanced artificial intelligence: (1) concerning behaviours we already see in current models; (2) plausible future risks; and (3) concrete ways people, technical or not, can work on the problem. I really enjoyed this conversation and I’m excited for everyone to listen! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theworldcanbebetter.substack.com [https://theworldcanbebetter.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]