#164 – Kevin Esvelt on cults that want to kill everyone, stealth vs wildfire pandemics, and how he felt inventing gene drives

#164 – Kevin Esvelt on cults that want to kill everyone, stealth vs wildfire pandemics, and how he felt inventing gene drives

"Imagine a fast-spreading respiratory HIV. It sweeps around the world. Almost nobody has symptoms. Nobody notices until years later, when the first people who are infected begin to succumb. They might die, something else debilitating might happen to them, but by that point, just about everyone on the planet would have been infected already.

And then it would be a race. Can we come up with some way of defusing the thing? Can we come up with the equivalent of HIV antiretrovirals before it's too late?" — Kevin Esvelt

In today’s episode, host Luisa Rodriguez interviews Kevin Esvelt — a biologist at the MIT Media Lab and the inventor of CRISPR-based gene drive — about the threat posed by engineered bioweapons.

Links to learn more, summary and full transcript.

They cover:

  • Why it makes sense to focus on deliberately released pandemics
  • Case studies of people who actually wanted to kill billions of humans
  • How many people have the technical ability to produce dangerous viruses
  • The different threats of stealth and wildfire pandemics that could crash civilisation
  • The potential for AI models to increase access to dangerous pathogens
  • Why scientists try to identify new pandemic-capable pathogens, and the case against that research
  • Technological solutions, including UV lights and advanced PPE
  • Using CRISPR-based gene drive to fight diseases and reduce animal suffering
  • And plenty more.

Producer and editor: Keiran Harris
Audio Engineering Lead: Ben Cordell
Technical editing: Simon Monsour
Additional content editing: Katy Moore and Luisa Rodriguez
Transcriptions: Katy Moore

Jaksot(320)

#210 – Cameron Meyer Shorb on dismantling the myth that we can’t do anything to help wild animals

#210 – Cameron Meyer Shorb on dismantling the myth that we can’t do anything to help wild animals

"I really don’t want to give the impression that I think it is easy to make predictable, controlled, safe interventions in wild systems where there are many species interacting. I don’t think it’s eas...

29 Marras 20243h 21min

#209 – Rose Chan Loui on OpenAI’s gambit to ditch its nonprofit

#209 – Rose Chan Loui on OpenAI’s gambit to ditch its nonprofit

One OpenAI critic calls it “the theft of at least the millennium and quite possibly all of human history.” Are they right?Back in 2015 OpenAI was but a humble nonprofit. That nonprofit started a for-p...

27 Marras 20241h 22min

#208 – Elizabeth Cox on the case that TV shows, movies, and novels can improve the world

#208 – Elizabeth Cox on the case that TV shows, movies, and novels can improve the world

"I think stories are the way we shift the Overton window — so widen the range of things that are acceptable for policy and palatable to the public. Almost by definition, a lot of things that are going...

21 Marras 20242h 22min

#207 – Sarah Eustis-Guthrie on why she shut down her charity, and why more founders should follow her lead

#207 – Sarah Eustis-Guthrie on why she shut down her charity, and why more founders should follow her lead

"I think one of the reasons I took [shutting down my charity] so hard is because entrepreneurship is all about this bets-based mindset. So you say, “I’m going to take a bunch of bets. I’m going to tak...

14 Marras 20242h 58min

Parenting insights from Rob and 8 past guests

Parenting insights from Rob and 8 past guests

With kids very much on the team's mind we thought it would be fun to review some comments about parenting featured on the show over the years, then have hosts Luisa Rodriguez and Rob Wiblin react to t...

8 Marras 20241h 35min

#206 – Anil Seth on the predictive brain and how to study consciousness

#206 – Anil Seth on the predictive brain and how to study consciousness

"In that famous example of the dress, half of the people in the world saw [blue and black], half saw [white and gold]. It turns out there’s individual differences in how brains take into account ambie...

1 Marras 20242h 33min

How much does a vote matter? (Article)

How much does a vote matter? (Article)

If you care about social impact, is voting important? In this piece, Rob investigates the two key things that determine the impact of your vote:The chances of your vote changing an election’s outcome....

28 Loka 202432min

#205 – Sébastien Moro on the most insane things fish can do

#205 – Sébastien Moro on the most insane things fish can do

"You have a tank split in two parts: if the fish gets in the compartment with a red circle, it will receive food, and food will be delivered in the other tank as well. If the fish takes the blue trian...

23 Loka 20243h 11min

Suosittua kategoriassa Koulutus

rss-murhan-anatomia
psykopodiaa-podcast
rss-narsisti
voi-hyvin-meditaatiot-2
aamukahvilla
rss-vapaudu-voimaasi
rss-niinku-asia-on
psykologia
rss-liian-kuuma-peruna
adhd-podi
kesken
dear-ladies
leveli
rss-duodecim-lehti
rss-koira-haudattuna
rss-luonnollinen-synnytys-podcast
rahapuhetta
aloita-meditaatio
ihminen-tavattavissa-tommy-hellsten-instituutti
rss-ai-mita-siskopodcast