#208 – Elizabeth Cox on the case that TV shows, movies, and novels can improve the world
80,000 Hours Podcast21 Marras 2024

#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 to be really important and shape the future are not in the Overton window, because they sound weird and off-putting and very futuristic. But I think stories are the best way to bring them in." — Elizabeth Cox

In today’s episode, Keiran Harris speaks with Elizabeth Cox — founder of the independent production company Should We Studio — about the case that storytelling can improve the world.

Links to learn more, highlights, and full transcript.

They cover:

  • How TV shows and movies compare to novels, short stories, and creative nonfiction if you’re trying to do good.
  • The existing empirical evidence for the impact of storytelling.
  • Their competing takes on the merits of thinking carefully about target audiences.
  • Whether stories can really change minds on deeply entrenched issues, or whether writers need to have more modest goals.
  • Whether humans will stay relevant as creative writers with the rise of powerful AI models.
  • Whether you can do more good with an overtly educational show vs other approaches.
  • Elizabeth’s experience with making her new five-part animated show Ada — including why she chose the topics of civilisational collapse, kidney donations, artificial wombs, AI, and gene drives.
  • The pros and cons of animation as a medium.
  • Career advice for creative writers.
  • Keiran’s idea for a longtermist Christmas movie.
  • And plenty more.

Check out Ada on YouTube!

Material you might want to check out before listening:

Chapters:

  • Cold open (00:00:00)
  • Luisa's intro (00:01:04)
  • The interview begins (00:02:52)
  • Is storytelling really a high-impact career option? (00:03:26)
  • Empirical evidence of the impact of storytelling (00:06:51)
  • How storytelling can inform us (00:16:25)
  • How long will humans stay relevant as creative writers? (00:21:54)
  • Ada (00:33:05)
  • Debating the merits of thinking about target audiences (00:38:03)
  • Ada vs other approaches to impact-focused storytelling (00:48:18)
  • Why animation (01:01:06)
  • One Billion Christmases (01:04:54)
  • How storytelling can humanise (01:09:34)
  • But can storytelling actually change strongly held opinions? (01:13:26)
  • Novels and short stories (01:18:38)
  • Creative nonfiction (01:25:06)
  • Other promising ways of storytelling (01:30:53)
  • How did Ada actually get made? (01:33:23)
  • The hardest part of the process for Elizabeth (01:48:28)
  • Elizabeth’s hopes and dreams for Ada (01:53:10)
  • Designing Ada with an eye toward impact (01:59:16)
  • Alternative topics for Ada (02:05:33)
  • Deciding on the best way to get Ada in front of people (02:07:12)
  • Career advice for creative writers (02:11:31)
  • Wikipedia book spoilers (02:17:05)
  • Luisa's outro (02:20:42)


Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio engineering: Ben Cordell, Milo McGuire, Simon Monsour, and Dominic Armstrong
Content editing: Luisa Rodriguez, Katy Moore, and Keiran Harris
Transcriptions: Katy Moore

Jaksot(317)

#100 Classic episode – Having a successful career with depression, anxiety, and imposter syndrome

#100 Classic episode – Having a successful career with depression, anxiety, and imposter syndrome

Today’s episode is one of the most remarkable and really, unique, pieces of content we’ve ever produced (and I can say that because I had almost nothing to do with making it!).The producer of this sho...

27 Joulu 20232h 51min

#176 – Nathan Labenz on the final push for AGI, understanding OpenAI's leadership drama, and red-teaming frontier models

#176 – Nathan Labenz on the final push for AGI, understanding OpenAI's leadership drama, and red-teaming frontier models

OpenAI says its mission is to build AGI — an AI system that is better than human beings at everything. Should the world trust them to do that safely?That’s the central theme of today’s episode with Na...

22 Joulu 20233h 46min

#175 – Lucia Coulter on preventing lead poisoning for $1.66 per child

#175 – Lucia Coulter on preventing lead poisoning for $1.66 per child

Lead is one of the most poisonous things going. A single sugar sachet of lead, spread over a park the size of an American football field, is enough to give a child that regularly plays there lead pois...

14 Joulu 20232h 14min

#174 – Nita Farahany on the neurotechnology already being used to convict criminals and manipulate workers

#174 – Nita Farahany on the neurotechnology already being used to convict criminals and manipulate workers

"It will change everything: it will change our workplaces, it will change our interactions with the government, it will change our interactions with each other. It will make all of us unwitting neurom...

7 Joulu 20232h

#173 – Jeff Sebo on digital minds, and how to avoid sleepwalking into a major moral catastrophe

#173 – Jeff Sebo on digital minds, and how to avoid sleepwalking into a major moral catastrophe

"We do have a tendency to anthropomorphise nonhumans — which means attributing human characteristics to them, even when they lack those characteristics. But we also have a tendency towards anthropoden...

22 Marras 20232h 38min

#172 – Bryan Caplan on why you should stop reading the news

#172 – Bryan Caplan on why you should stop reading the news

Is following important political and international news a civic duty — or is it our civic duty to avoid it?It's common to think that 'staying informed' and checking the headlines every day is just wha...

17 Marras 20232h 23min

#171 – Alison Young on how top labs have jeopardised public health with repeated biosafety failures

#171 – Alison Young on how top labs have jeopardised public health with repeated biosafety failures

"Rare events can still cause catastrophic accidents. The concern that has been raised by experts going back over time, is that really, the more of these experiments, the more labs, the more opportunit...

9 Marras 20231h 46min

#170 – Santosh Harish on how air pollution is responsible for ~12% of global deaths — and how to get that number down

#170 – Santosh Harish on how air pollution is responsible for ~12% of global deaths — and how to get that number down

"One [outrageous example of air pollution] is municipal waste burning that happens in many cities in the Global South. Basically, this is waste that gets collected from people's homes, and instead of ...

1 Marras 20232h 57min

Suosittua kategoriassa Koulutus

rss-murhan-anatomia
psykopodiaa-podcast
voi-hyvin-meditaatiot-2
rss-niinku-asia-on
kesken
rss-duodecim-lehti
adhd-podi
aamukahvilla
aloita-meditaatio
rss-liian-kuuma-peruna
rss-valo-minussa-2
ihminen-tavattavissa-tommy-hellsten-instituutti
rss-elamankoulu
rss-psykalab
rss-narsisti
rahapuhetta
salainen-paivakirja
rss-uskonto-on-tylsaa
rss-vapaudu-voimaasi
rss-hereilla