EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)

“We’re growing: CEA is increasing its font size” by OllieRodriguez

“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 [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EBjcpyfPwhByKeWjM/we-re-growing-cea-is-increasing-its-font-size?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Source+URL+in+episode+description&utm_campaign=ai_narration] --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO [https://type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Narrated+by+TYPE+III+AUDIO&utm_term=ea_forum&utm_campaign=ai_narration].

“Announcing Highly Engaged EAs!” by Sam Anschell

I’m excited to launch Highly Engaged EAs: a matchmaking and nuptialization service to optimize tax relief, green card accumulation and more! Workstreams I Do(nate) By marrying EAs in different tax brackets, Highly Engaged EAs reduces average tax burden through joint filing to enable greater giving. A Californian AI safety researcher with a million dollar salary could give an extra $53k/year by tying the knot with an unpaid grad student! Til 80,000 Hours do us part The place premium is so high in the US that >1,000 people have bought a million dollar gold card! While some roles don’t sponsor visas, spouses always can[1]. We match those looking to move countries with nationals of their desired destination. Bang for your Buck For full efficiency, Buck Shlegeris and Ajeya Cotra wear multiple hats as the witnesses, officiants and entertainment for weddings we organize. Rationally named children  For those who are interested in having kids, we provide naming guidance based on what really matters: * Brevity. Claude BOTECs that each additional syllable to a person's name adds 68 hours to global pronunciation costs. Given that this will disproportionately be time spent by EAs, one-syllable names are a slam dunk. * Complementarity: The [...] --- Outline: (00:20) Workstreams (00:23) I Do(nate) (00:56) Til 80,000 Hours do us part (01:17) Bang for your Buck (01:29) Rationally named children --- First published: April 1st, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TLFiwwZGaqgbQhhr7/announcing-highly-engaged-eas [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TLFiwwZGaqgbQhhr7/announcing-highly-engaged-eas?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Source+URL+in+episode+description&utm_campaign=ai_narration] --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO [https://type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Narrated+by+TYPE+III+AUDIO&utm_term=ea_forum&utm_campaign=ai_narration]. --- Images from the article: Tax comparison table showing Single versus Married Filing Jointly with savings column. [https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/TLFiwwZGaqgbQhhr7/i1nb3expdnrnhcuwtfzf]https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/TLFiwwZGaqgbQhhr7/i1nb3expdnrnhcuwtfzf ---------------------------------------- Interactive calculator showing assumptions and results for name pronunciation time saved over lifetime. [https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/TLFiwwZGaqgbQhhr7/lcl1ojirm3xm54dccjep]https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/TLFiwwZGaqgbQhhr7/lcl1ojirm3xm54dccjep ---------------------------------------- LinkedIn post asking which Sam to blame this November, with a reply saying [https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/TLFiwwZGaqgbQhhr7/enx61mjdamkilbcezxc8]https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/TLFiwwZGaqgbQhhr7/enx61mjdamkilbcezxc8 Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts [https://pocketcasts.com/], or another podcast app.

“An unexplained annual spike in false claims on the EA Forum” by Tobias Häberli

Epistemic status: Very high confidence in the statistical findings. Genuinely confused about the cause. For reasons that will become obvious, I wanted to publish this post on March 31, but unfortunately I could only get it done today. I've been building a classifier to flag potentially misleading content on the EA Forum as part of a side project on epistemics infrastructure. While validating the model, I noticed something I initially assumed was a bug. This is an interim report on that. Summary: Every year, on April 1, the rate of posts containing verifiably untrue claims spikes by roughly 2,200% relative to the annual daily average (p < 0.0001, 8 years of Forum data). 1. The effect is enormous On a typical day, approximately 2 to 4% of Forum posts contain claims that are verifiably false. On April 1, this rises to 57–73%, depending on the year. For context, this is an implausibly large effect by normal social-science standards. I have genuinely never seen anything like it. 2. It repeats every year This is not a one-off event. The pattern recurs in every year of the dataset. 3. "It's only one day" is misleading A natural reaction is that [...] --- Outline: (01:00) 1. The effect is enormous (01:38) 2. It repeats every year (01:57) 3. Its only one day is misleading (02:57) 4. The false posts are high effort (03:21) Possible explanations (03:30) Why this matters (04:48) Proposed interventions --- First published: April 1st, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EAokRDmQTjCAWgGdq/an-unexplained-annual-spike-in-false-claims-on-the-ea-forum [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EAokRDmQTjCAWgGdq/an-unexplained-annual-spike-in-false-claims-on-the-ea-forum?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Source+URL+in+episode+description&utm_campaign=ai_narration] --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO [https://type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Narrated+by+TYPE+III+AUDIO&utm_term=ea_forum&utm_campaign=ai_narration]. --- Images from the article: Line graph titled [https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/EAokRDmQTjCAWgGdq/en3rvkx5t2yp9uz63fej]https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/EAokRDmQTjCAWgGdq/en3rvkx5t2yp9uz63fej ---------------------------------------- Line graph showing [https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/EAokRDmQTjCAWgGdq/ftop0cixiq6jdyfreoqj]https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/EAokRDmQTjCAWgGdq/ftop0cixiq6jdyfreoqj Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts [https://pocketcasts.com/], or another podcast app.

“RejectDirectly” by RejectDirectly

We're thrilled to announce the founding of RejectDirectly, a new EA-adjacent organization dedicated to closing the global rejection gap. For too long, the EA rejection pipeline has been plagued by ineffectiveness. Billions of collective DALYs spend on unsuccessful work trials and interviews. The water waste involved in the mass duplication of Google Docs. The community health is in peril. In comes RejectDirectly. By cutting out the middleman we can deliver high-quality, unconditional rejections straight to applicants — no strings attached, no waiting period. No eight-hour work trials where you pour your Claude extra balance into a strategy memo for an organization that just couldn’t bring themselves to reject your heartfelt cover letter. How it works: You apply. We reject you. That's it. No interviews, no work trials, no need for culture fit chats. Like many orgs in the space, we're happy to forward your application to our partner organizations. Unlike other orgs, they will immediately reject you. We call this our Rejection Cascade™ — one application, up to fifteen guaranteed rejections. Our 2026 roadmap: We're piloting a browser addon that sends you a push notification rejection before you even finish your cover letter. Early users report feeling "liberated" and [...] --- First published: April 1st, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5qZdpKEFcGBrHJxDB/rejectdirectly [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5qZdpKEFcGBrHJxDB/rejectdirectly?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Source+URL+in+episode+description&utm_campaign=ai_narration] --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO [https://type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Narrated+by+TYPE+III+AUDIO&utm_term=ea_forum&utm_campaign=ai_narration].

“300,000 lives, 100 million hens, and a world still to save” by William_MacAskill

I went on the Sam Harris podcast again recently. If you want the full non-paywalled episode, I’m able to share it here: https://samharris.org/episode/SE6877E700B 30 mins of it is also on youtube, spotify, etc. The occasion for the podcast was the 10-year anniversary edition of Doing Good Better. So, preparing for the podcast, I collected some relevant facts about what EA has achieved over the last decade, and where the movement stands today. I found the numbers both surprising and inspiring, so I thought I should share them here. EAs don't often toot their own horn, and with all that's going on in the world, or on the internet at least, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. So I think a bit of horn-tooting is at least occasionally warranted, otherwise we’ll only ever focus on the bad and not on the good. And, despite a few subdued years, the EA[1] movement is thriving. I’ll break things down by cause area, before looking at EA's recent return to serious growth. First, global heath. Since 2015, over $2 billion has been raised for the most effective global health charities, with contributions from over 100,000 donors. The [...] --- First published: March 31st, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rSPEisvYw9K49ja2T/300-000-lives-100-million-hens-and-a-world-still-to-save [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rSPEisvYw9K49ja2T/300-000-lives-100-million-hens-and-a-world-still-to-save?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Source+URL+in+episode+description&utm_campaign=ai_narration] --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO [https://type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Narrated+by+TYPE+III+AUDIO&utm_term=ea_forum&utm_campaign=ai_narration].