Latest Interviews
Showing 1–6 of 6 transcripts.
Clear all filters- 80,000 Hours1h 36m
Parenting insights from Rob and 8 past guests
Luisa Rodriguez, Rob Wiblin, Ezra Klein, Holden Karnofsky, Emily Oster, Russ Roberts, Spencer Greenberg, Elie Hassenfeld, Bryan Caplan, Nita Farahany
Holden Karnofsky discusses his surprising positive experience with early parenthood, noting stable sleep and increased well-being despite prevailing societal narratives of decline. The conversation integrates expert advice from figures like Emily Oster and Ezra Klein regarding the trade-offs between career demands and childcare, emphasizing that foundational stability outweighs specific parenting choices. Key themes include the methodological flaws in measuring parental regret, the biological realities of gamete quality, and practical strategies for balancing work, identity shifts, and child safety.
- 80,000 Hours27 min
Highlights: You should stop reading the news | Bryan Caplan (2023)
Rob Kaplan details how eliminating daily news consumption restored his productivity and mood stability by replacing the frenetic emotional cycles of modern reporting with historical analysis and social interaction. He argues that the media's insatiable hunger for coverage fuels global terrorism and transforms legitimate conflicts into performative spectacles, while simultaneously observing that AI capabilities have rapidly evolved from theoretical vaporware to demonstrable high-performance intelligence. Furthermore, Kaplan critiques the irrationality of individual voting behavior, attributing it to social desirability biases rather than economic logic, and outlines his upcoming work on the psychological foundations of these democratic misconceptions.
- 80,000 Hours2h 15m
Is lazy parenting OK? | Bryan Caplan (2022)
Philosopher and author Brian Kaplan discusses his upcoming graphic novel on housing deregulation and presents a comprehensive argument that voter behavior is driven by group identity rather than material self-interest. He challenges conventional economic wisdom by asserting that parental influence on adult outcomes is largely negligible due to genetics, while immigration provides significant net benefits through cultural assimilation and labor market efficiency. Furthermore, Kaplan critiques modern effective altruism for falling prey to social desirability bias and defends a "weak deontological" framework that prioritizes individual autonomy against state paternalism.
- 80,000 Hours2h 23m
Why you should stop reading the news | Bryan Caplan
Host Rob and guest Brian Kaplan argue that reducing news consumption significantly improves individual well-being by dismantling the media ecosystem's reliance on negativity bias and ideological homogeneity to distort reality. The discussion extends to Artificial General Intelligence, where Kaplan counters rapid-alarmist predictions by highlighting physical and human constraints, while also analyzing voter irrationality to explain why electorates consistently support inefficient policies driven by emotional appeal rather than evidence. Ultimately, the conversation proposes that systemic improvements require aligning policy incentives with public psychology, illustrated by Kaplan's advocacy for private space resource rights and homeschooling as effective alternatives to state-centric models.
- 80,000 Hours1h 25m
#33 - Dr Anders Sandberg on what if we ended ageing, solar flares & the annual risk of nuclear war
Dr Anders Sandberg, Bryan Caplan, Keiran Harris, Rob Whitlin
Anders Sandberg argues that shifting healthcare investment from symptom treatment to root-cause aging research offers a more cost-effective "longevity dividend" while addressing the political risks of non-aging leadership through institutional term limits. He further warns that uncoordinated adoption of high-stakes technologies creates a "unilateralist curse" and that anthropic bias obscures the true, "disturbingly large" annual probability of global catastrophes like nuclear war. These insights collectively advocate for data-driven risk assessment, interdisciplinary scientific collaboration, and conservative institutional design to navigate the profound uncertainties of extending human life.
- 80,000 Hours2h 26m
#32 - Bryan Caplan on whether his Case Against Education holds up, totalitarianism, & open borders
Bryan Caplan, Keiran Harris, Rob Wiblin
Econometrician Tyler Cowen's analysis of *The Case Against Education* argues that formal schooling primarily functions as a signaling mechanism for conformity rather than a generator of human capital, leading to a societal misallocation of resources toward credential inflation. This framework extends to global policy, where Cowen contends that open borders and deregulated housing offer superior welfare gains compared to current systems, while highlighting the existential risks of permanent totalitarianism if technological advancements eliminate competitive checks on power. Drawing from these premises, he advises individuals to prioritize vocational over academic pathways unless a degree is strictly necessary for entry, and suggests that effective altruism should focus on immigration reform and the release of non-violent offenders to maximize moral impact.