187 | Andrew Leigh on the Politics of Looming Disasters

187 | Andrew Leigh on the Politics of Looming Disasters

We're pretty well-calibrated when it comes to dealing with common, everyday-level setbacks. But our brains aren't naturally equipped for dealing with unlikely but world-catastrophic disasters. Yet such threats are real, both natural and human-induced. We need to collectively get better at anticipating and preparing for them, at the level of political action. Andrew Leigh is an academic and author who now serves in the Parliament of Australia. We discuss how to move the conversation about existential risks from the ivory tower to implementation in real policies.

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Andrew Leigh received his Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is a member of the Australian House of Representatives representing Fenner. He was previously a professor of economics at Australian National University, and has served as Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury and Charities. His recent book is What's the Worst That Could Happen? Existential Risk and Extreme Politics.


Jaksot(416)

148 | Henry Farrell on Democracy as a Problem-Solving Mechanism

148 | Henry Farrell on Democracy as a Problem-Solving Mechanism

Democracy posits the radical idea that political power and legitimacy should ultimately be found in all of the people, rather than a small group of experts or for that matter arbitrarily-chosen heredi...

24 Touko 20211h 26min

147 | Rachel Laudan on Cuisine, Culture, and Empire

147 | Rachel Laudan on Cuisine, Culture, and Empire

For as much as people talk about food, a good case can be made that we don't give it the attention or respect it actually deserves. Food is central to human life, and how we go about the process of cr...

17 Touko 20211h 16min

AMA | May 2021

AMA | May 2021

Welcome to the May 2021 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). I take the large number of questio...

13 Touko 20212h 58min

146 | Emily Riehl on Topology, Categories, and the Future of Mathematics

146 | Emily Riehl on Topology, Categories, and the Future of Mathematics

"A way that math can make the world a better place is by making it a more interesting place to be a conscious being." So says mathematician Emily Riehl near the start of this episode, and it's a good ...

10 Touko 20211h 16min

145 | Niall Ferguson on Histories, Networks, and Catastrophes

145 | Niall Ferguson on Histories, Networks, and Catastrophes

The world has gone through a tough time with the COVID-19 pandemic. Every catastrophic event is unique, but there are certain commonalities to how such crises play out in our modern interconnected wor...

3 Touko 20211h 25min

144 | Solo: Are We Moving Beyond the Standard Model?

144 | Solo: Are We Moving Beyond the Standard Model?

I've been a professional physicist since the 1980's, and not once over the course of my career has a particle-physics experiment produced a completely surprising new result. We've discovered particles...

26 Huhti 20211h 11min

143 | Julia Galef on Openness, Bias, and Rationality

143 | Julia Galef on Openness, Bias, and Rationality

Mom, apple pie, and rationality — all things that are unquestionably good, right? But rationality, as much as we might value it, is easier to aspire to than to achieve. And there are more than a few h...

19 Huhti 20211h 32min

AMA | April 2021

AMA | April 2021

Welcome to the April 2021 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). I take the large number of quest...

14 Huhti 20212h 41min

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