Best Jacob Trefethen Podcasts (2025)

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The history of vaccines 2:06:23

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8d ago2:06:23

2:06:23

Before vaccines became routine, they were risky experiments. In this episode, Jacob and Saloni travel back to the world of smallpox, cowpox, and cow-based “vaccine farms” to see how scientists stumbled toward the first vaccines against infectious diseases: smallpox, rabies, TB, polio, and more. Through the stories of milkmaids and aristocrats, secr…

1
The history of vaccines 2:06:23

8d ago2:06:23

2:06:23

Before vaccines became routine, they were risky experiments. In this episode, Jacob and Saloni travel back to the world of smallpox, cowpox, and cow-based “vaccine farms” to see how scientists stumbled toward the first vaccines against infectious diseases: smallpox, rabies, TB, polio, and more. Through the stories of milkmaids and aristocrats, secr…

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Should we ban ugly buildings? 1:19:29

9d ago1:19:29

1:19:29

The YIMBY movement is divided about whether there is a tradeoff between building more homes and building beautifully. Ben, Sam and Samuel talk about how aesthetic regulations can make building more popular by generating goodwill from the public and decreasing appetite for historic preservation and how one can differentiate between good-faith compla…

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The economics of the baby bust with Jesús Fernández-Villaverde 1:23:20

28d ago1:23:20

1:23:20

Why are birth rates plummeting across the developing world? Why should we even care about the baby bust? Where can we find the most elastic baby? Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, explains why Japan’s decline might be the best case scenario, the problems with childcare subsidies, why you shouldn’t…

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#84 – Dean Spears on the Case for People 1:43:24

1M ago1:43:24

1:43:24

Dean Spears is an an Economic Demographer, Development Economist, and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin. With Michael Geruso, Dean is the co-author of After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People. You can see a full transcript and a list of resources on the episode page on our website. We're bac…

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Will AI solve medicine? 4:34:48

1M ago4:34:48

4:34:48

Artificial intelligence is transforming how we discover and develop new medicines. But how far can it really take us? In this episode, Jacob and Saloni trace the path of drug development from discovery to testing, manufacturing, and delivery. They explore where AI could speed things up, and where it still hits the limits of biology, data, and econo…

1
Will AI solve medicine? 4:34:48

1M ago4:34:48

4:34:48

Artificial intelligence is transforming how we discover and develop new medicines. But how far can it really take us? In this episode, Jacob and Saloni trace the path of drug development from discovery to testing, manufacturing, and delivery. They explore where AI could speed things up, and where it still hits the limits of biology, data, and econo…

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Treating cost disease with Congressman Jake Auchincloss 58:07

1M ago58:07

58:07

How can we build new cities in America? Which historical president is Trump most like? Why did immigration policy go so wrong? Sam and Pieter sit down with Congressman Jake Auchincloss to discuss the politics of the Abundance movement. They talk about Auchincloss's fight against free parking, regulating big tech, the success of YIMBYs, and why curi…

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The art of protein design with AI 1:00:21

2M ago1:00:21

1:00:21

What if you could design a protein never seen in nature? In this episode, Jacob and Saloni explore how researchers are using new tools like RFDiffusion, AlphaFold, and ProteinMPNN to ‘hallucinate’ entirely novel proteins: designing them from scratch to solve problems evolution hasn’t tackled. They talk about how these technologies could transform m…

1
The art of protein design with AI 1:00:21

2M ago1:00:21

1:00:21

What if you could design a protein never seen before? In this episode, Jacob and Saloni explore how researchers are using new tools like RFDiffusion, AlphaFold, and ProteinMPNN to ‘hallucinate’ entirely novel proteins: designing them from scratch to solve problems evolution hasn’t tackled. They talk about how these technologies could transform medi…

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Hacking proteins with AI 54:36

2M ago54:36

54:36

Nature didn’t evolve all the proteins we need, but maybe artificial intelligence can help. Jacob and Saloni explore how tools like AlphaFold and ProteinMPNN are helping researchers re-engineer proteins, to make them safer, more stable, and more effective. They talk about how new technologies could help make a long-sought vaccine against Strep A, wh…

1
Hacking proteins with AI 54:36

2M ago54:36

54:36

Nature didn’t evolve all the proteins we need, but maybe artificial intelligence can help. Jacob and Saloni explore how tools like AlphaFold and ProteinMPNN are helping researchers re-engineer proteins, to make them safer, more stable, and more effective. They talk about how new technologies could help make a long-sought vaccine against Strep A, wh…

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How traffic modernism ruined cities with Nicholas Boys Smith 1:12:38

2M ago1:12:38

1:12:38

Nicholas Boys Smith joins Ben and Sam to explain how to plan spaces that people like; dense, sociable and, above all else, beautiful. He says people don't like new buildings because they don't trust what planners and architects are going to do to the places that matter to them. As an alternative he presents his playbook for how YIMBYs can win over …

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100 years of insulin in 15 minutes 17:31

3M ago17:31

17:31

A hundred years ago, insulin was scraped from pig pancreases. Today, it’s made by bacteria in giant tanks. In the second part of a mini series on proteins, drug development and AI, Saloni tells the story of how insulin went from a crude animal extract to the first genetically-engineered drug, kickstarting the biotech industry along the way. Hard Dr…

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100 years of insulin in 15 minutes 17:31

3M ago17:31

17:31

A hundred years ago, insulin was scraped from pig pancreases. Today, it’s made by bacteria in giant tanks. In the second part of a mini series on proteins, drug development and AI, Saloni tells the story of how insulin went from a crude animal extract to the first genetically-engineered drug, kickstarting the biotech industry along the way. Hard Dr…

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Why feminism worked best in the West with Alice Evans 1:16:51

3M ago1:16:51

1:16:51

Social scientist Alice Evans talks about why, despite a superficially similar feminist movement in East Asia, Western feminism has been much successful. Alice, Sam and Aria talk about dating markets, drinking culture at work, top-down media control, and what tax policy is best for motivating people to have more children. For more of Alice's work, c…

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Proteins: Weird blobs that do important things 19:49

3M ago19:49

19:49

This episode kicks off a mini-series on proteins, drug development and AI. Saloni and Jacob explore the world of proteins, including how proteins fold into complex shapes, why that complexity matters and how crowded and dynamic the inside of a cell really is; and they exchange surprising statistics about proteins. Hard Drugs is a new podcast from W…

1
Proteins: Weird blobs that do important things 19:49

3M ago19:49

19:49

This episode kicks off a mini-series on proteins, drug development and AI. Saloni and Jacob explore the world of proteins, including how proteins fold into complex shapes, why that complexity matters and how crowded and dynamic the inside of a cell really is; and they exchange surprising statistics about proteins. Hard Drugs is a new podcast from W…

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How to become President of China with Dan Wang 1:18:44

3M ago1:18:44

1:18:44

Is it better to be run by engineers, lawyers or regulators? Can you build an economy on luxury handbags or do you need advanced manufacturing? Dan Wang, author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future discusses why China outbuilds America, how the young and ambitious succeed in China, and the secret to finding the best Chinese restaurants…

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The underrated economics of land with Mike Bird 1:15:45

4M ago1:15:45

1:15:45

Why is Chinese housing so expensive despite being oversupplied? How did land reforms in Russia lead to the Bolshevik revolution? What killed Georgism? The Economist’s Wall Street Editor, Mike Bird, discusses the underrated economics of land. You can preorder Mike's book here and read more about land readjustment in Works in Progress Issue 19.…

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How Henry VIII accidentally started the Industrial Revolution, with Anton Howes 1:11:47

4M ago1:11:47

1:11:47

Historian Anton Howes discusses how Henry VIII turned Britain into an economic backwater – making it the unlikeliest place for the Industrial Revolution to happen. But, he explains it only took a small cabal of people who understood the problems of the time to turn the fate of the country (and thus, the world) around. You can learn more about the h…

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Stian Westlake on the intangible economy and paying for social science 58:41

5M ago58:41

58:41

Why does London dominate Britain's economy, whereas Germany's is spread out across the whole country? Why don't restaurants scale well? What kind of social science research (if any) should the government be funding? Stian Westlake – Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council and author of Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the…

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Samuel Hughes on The Great Downzoning 1:09:32

5M ago1:09:32

1:09:32

Before the twentieth century, most cities were highly permissive about what people were allowed to build on their land. Nearly all Western householders lost these liberties during the first half of the twentieth century. Samuel Hughes calls this phenomenon The Great Downzoning. In the first episode of the Works in Progress Podcast, he describes how…

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Lenacapavir: The miracle drug that could end AIDS 4:53:46

6M ago4:53:46

4:53:46

Lenacapavir is a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and it could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide. Saloni and Jacob talk about the development and prospects for this new drug, as well as the history of HIV, the initial discovery of retroviruses, and how HIV was transformed from a death sentenc…

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Lenacapavir: The miracle drug that could end AIDS 4:53:46

6M ago4:53:46

4:53:46

Lenacapavir is a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and it could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide. Saloni and Jacob talk about the development and prospects for this new drug, as well as the history of HIV, the initial discovery of retroviruses, and how HIV was transformed from a death sentenc…

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Coming soon: Hard Drugs 0:59

6M ago0:59

0:59

Hard Drugs is a new podcast about medical innovation: how to speed it up, how to scale it up, and how to make sure lifesaving tools reach the people who need them the most. Presented and written by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen. Brought to you by Works in Progress and Open Philanthropy.By Saloni Dattani & Jacob Trefethen

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Coming soon: The Works in Progress Podcast 1:08

6M ago1:08

1:08

Coming soon: the Works in Progress Podcast. Featuring underrated ideas to improve the world – for bigger, more beautiful cities; clean energy that's too cheap to meter; truly pathbreaking scientific research; everyday progress in things like food and drink; and more. Plus: Hard Drugs, a new series hosted by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen about …

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#83 – Max Smeets on Barriers To Cyberweapons 1:36:19

9M ago1:36:19

1:36:19

Max Smeets is a Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich's Center for Security Studies and Co-Director of Virtual Routes You can find links and a transcript at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/smeets In this episode we talk about: The different types of cyber operations that a nation state might launch How international norms formed around what kind of cyber a…

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#82 – Tom Kalil on Institutions for Innovation (with Matt Clancy) 1:17:37

12M ago1:17:37

1:17:37

Tom Kalil is the CEO of Renaissance Philanthropy. He also served in the White House for two presidents (under Obama and Clinton); where he helped establish incentive prizes in government through challenge.gov; in addition to dozens of science and tech program. More recently Tom served as the Chief Innovation Officer at Schmidt Futures, where he hel…

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#81 – Cynthia Schuck on Quantifying Animal Welfare 1:37:16

1y ago1:37:16

1:37:16

Dr Cynthia Schuck-Paim is the Scientific Director of the Welfare Footprint Project, a scientific effort to quantify animal welfare to inform practice, policy, investing and purchasing decisions. You can find links and a transcript at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/schuck. We discuss: How to begin thinking about quantifying animal experiences in a cr…

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#80 – Dan Williams on How Persuasion Works 1:48:43

1y ago1:48:43

1:48:43

Dan Williams is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sussex and an Associate Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) at the University of Cambridge. You can find links and a transcript at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/williams. We discuss: If reasoning is so useful, why are we so bad at it? Do some bad ideas re…

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#79 – Tamay Besiroglu on Explosive Growth from AI 2:09:19

1y ago2:09:19

2:09:19

Tamay Besiroglu is a researcher working on the intersection of economics and AI. He is currently the Associate Director of Epoch AI, a research institute investigating key trends and questions that will shape the trajectory and governance of AI. You can find links and a transcript at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/besiroglu In this episode we talked…

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#78 – Jacob Trefethen on Global Health R&D 2:30:16

1y ago2:30:16

2:30:16

Jacob Trefethen oversees Open Philanthropy’s science and science policy programs. He was a Henry Fellow at Harvard University, and has a B.A. from the University of Cambridge. You can find links and a transcript at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/trefethen In this episode we talked about open source the risks and benefits of open source AI models. We…

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#77 – Elizabeth Seger on Open Sourcing AI 1:20:49

1+ y ago1:20:49

1:20:49

Elizabeth Seger is the Director of Technology Policy at Demos, a cross-party UK think tank with a program on trustworthy AI. You can find links and a transcript at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/seger In this episode we talked about open source the risks and benefits of open source AI models. We talk about: What ‘open source’ really means What is (a…

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#76 – Joe Carlsmith on Scheming AI 1:51:32

1+ y ago1:51:32

1:51:32

Joe Carlsmith is a writer, researcher, and philosopher. He works as a senior research analyst at Open Philanthropy, where he focuses on existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence. He also writes independently about various topics in philosophy and futurism, and holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford. You can find …

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#75 – Eric Schwitzgebel on Digital Consciousness and the Weirdness of the World 1:58:50

2y ago1:58:50

1:58:50

Eric Schwitzgebel is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. His main interests include connections between empirical psychology and philosophy of mind and the nature of belief. His book The Weirdness of the World can be found here. We talk about: The possibility of digital consciousness Policy ideas for avoiding major…

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#74 – Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley on Barriers to Bioweapons 1:54:05

2y ago1:54:05

1:54:05

Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley is an associate professor at George Mason University and Deputy Director of their Biodefence Programme In this episode we talk about: Where the belief that 'bioweapons are easy to make' came from and why it has been difficult to change Why transferring tacit knowledge is so difficult -- and the particular challenges that …

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Bonus: 'How I Learned To Love Shrimp' & David Coman-Hidy 1:18:47

2y ago1:18:47

1:18:47

In this bonus episode we are sharing an episode by another podcast: How I Learned To Love Shrimp. It is co-hosted by Amy Odene and James Ozden, who together are "showcasing innovative and impactful ways to help animals". In this interview they speak to David Coman-Hidy, who is the former President of The Humane –League, one of the largest farm anim…

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#73 – Michelle Lavery on the Science of Animal Welfare 1:27:35

2y ago1:27:35

1:27:35

Michelle Lavery is a Program Associate with Open Philanthropy’s Farm Animal Welfare team, with a focus on the science and study of animal behaviour & welfare. You can see more links and a full transcript at hearthisidea.com/episodes/lavery In this episode we talk about: How do scientists study animal emotions in the first place? How is a "science" …

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#72 – Richard Bruns on Indoor Air Quality 1:47:33

2y ago1:47:33

1:47:33

Dr Richard Bruns is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and before that was a Senior Economist at the US Food and Drug Administration (the FDA). In this episode we talk about the importance of indoor air quality (IAQ), and how to improve it. Including: Estimating the DALY cost of unclean indoor air from pathogens and p…

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#71 – Saloni Dattani on Malaria Vaccines and Missing Data in Global Health 2:52:57

2y ago2:52:57

2:52:57

Saloni Dattani is a Researcher at Our World in Data, and a founder & editor at the online magazine Works in Progress. She holds a PhD in psychiatric genetics from King’s College London. You can see more links and a full transcript at hearthisidea.com/episodes/dattani. In this episode we talk about: The history of malaria and attempts to eradicate i…

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#70 – Liv Boeree on Healthy vs Unhealthy Competition 1:40:11

2y ago1:40:11

1:40:11

Liv Boeree is a former poker champion turned science communicator and podcaster, with a background in astrophysics. In 2014, she founded the nonprofit Raising for Effective Giving, which has raised more than $14 million for effective charities. Before retiring from professional poker in 2019, Liv was the Female Player of the Year for three years ru…

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#69 – Jon Y (Asianometry) on Problems And Progress in Semiconductor Manufacturing 1:46:50

2+ y ago1:46:50

1:46:50

Jon Y is the creator of the Asianometry YouTube channel and accompanying newsletter. He describes his channel as making "video essays on business, economics, and history. Sometimes about Asia, but not always." You can see more links and a full transcript at hearthisidea.com/episodes/asianometry In this episode we talk about: Compute trends driving …

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#68 – Steven Teles on what the Conservative Legal Movement Teaches about Policy Advocacy 1:39:01

2+ y ago1:39:01

1:39:01

Steven Teles s is a Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center. His work focuses on American politics and he written several books on topics such as elite politics, the judiciary, and mass incarceration. You can see more links and a full transcript at hearthisidea.com/teles In this episode …

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#67 – Guive Assadi on Whether Humanity Will Choose Its Future 2:00:07

2+ y ago2:00:07

2:00:07

Guive Assadi is a Research Scholar at the Center for the Governance of AI. Guive’s research focuses on the conceptual clarification of, and prioritisation among, potential risks posed by emerging technologies. He holds a master’s in history from Cambridge University, and a bachelor’s from UC Berkeley. In this episode, we discuss Guive's paper, Will…

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#66 – Michael Cohen on Input Tampering in Advanced RL Agents 2:32:00

2+ y ago2:32:00

2:32:00

Michael Cohen is is a DPhil student at the University of Oxford with Mike Osborne. He will be starting a postdoc with Professor Stuart Russell at UC Berkeley, with the Center for Human-Compatible AI. His research considers the expected behaviour of generally intelligent artificial agents, with a view to designing agents that we can expect to behave…

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#65 – Katja Grace on Slowing Down AI and Whether the X-Risk Case Holds Up 1:43:43

2+ y ago1:43:43

1:43:43

Katja Grace is a researcher and writer. She runs AI Impacts, a research project trying to incrementally answer decision-relevant questions about the future of artificial intelligence (AI). Katja blogs primarily at worldspiritsockpuppet, and indirectly at Meteuphoric, Worldly Positions, LessWrong and the EA Forum. We discuss: What is AI Impacts work…

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#64 – Michael Aird on Strategies for Reducing AI Existential Risk 3:12:56

2+ y ago3:12:56

3:12:56

Michael Aird is a senior research manager at Rethink Priorities, where he co-leads the Artificial Intelligence Governance and Strategy team alongside Amanda El-Dakhakhni. Before that, he conducted nuclear risk research for Rethink Priorities and longtermist macrostrategy research for Convergence Analysis, the Center on Long-Term Risk, and the Futur…

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#63 – Ben Garfinkel on AI Governance 2:58:08

2+ y ago2:58:08

2:58:08

Ben Garfinkel is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and Acting Director of the Centre for the Governance of AI. In this episode we talk about: An overview of AI governance space, and disentangling concrete research questions that Ben would like to see more work on Seeing how existing arguments for the risks from transformative AI have he…

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#62 – Anders Sandberg on Exploratory Engineering, Value Diversity, and Grand Futures 52:52

2+ y ago52:52

52:52

Anders Sandberg is a researcher, futurist, transhumanist and author. He holds a PhD in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University, and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. His research covers human enhancement, exploratory engineering, and 'grand futures' for humanity. This…