An idea I have repeatedly returned to is creating a podcast where I, or someone else, interviews people who are trying to work on high impact projects. It would cover questions like how they decided what to work on, and what practical challenges they face day-to-day.
Mixing a complicated radio show is very time consuming, so I think I would model it on my favourite podcast, EconTalk, which is a straightforward two-person interview. The main overhead is learning about the person's work ahead of time so that the conversation flows smoothly and the answers are actually interesting.
Reasons in favour
- It will allow us to meet and learn from people trying to have a large impact across a range of different causes and projects. I am concerned that effective altruism is too insular and does not take enough interest in mainstream professionals and experts, and this could help address that. I also think we invest too little in learning how to actually implement things well, relative to doing theoretical prioritisation research.
- There are not many highly informative podcasts out there. If this turns out to be interesting to listen to, it could attract a decent listenership, particularly of the kinds of people we are most keen to get involved.
- I am excited at the prospect, so it's likely it would actually happen, and I would probably enjoy working on it.
Reasons against
- It will take a significant investment of time and attention to do well.
- As I don't know anyone with radio or podcasting experience, it is likely to come across as amateurish at first.
- GiveWell already has something like this on their 'Conversations' page. On the other hand, these interviews are not designed to be entertaining or accessible, and so I doubt they are read or listened to by many people.
So my questions are:
- Would this be a good use of my or someone else's time?
- If so, would you be interested in helping schedule these conversations, turn the recordings into podcast episodes, and perhaps later take over doing the interviews yourself?
I expect we would add an intro theme at some point - perhaps a song with relevant lyrics.
I would let the length vary quite a bit from 15 to 60 minutes depending on the person.
My guess is that I would mostly get people to describe what exactly they are doing and why they do it that way. Perhaps then a bit about what drives them personally. Here's an example: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/08/odonohoe_on_pot.html
Another line of podcasts would speaking to people about their prioritisation research. But to begin with I would rather talk to people doing things directly rather than working in meta-charity.