Project summary:

Elizabeth and Timothy create a podcast about truthseeking, values drift, and a potential EA Renaissance (or diaspora).

ETA: we have enough pledged donations to meet our goal of 5 episodes. Small donations are still emotionally meaningful, but not necessary at this time.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Short term (up to 5 episodes): shed clarity on truthseeking, integrity, and group intelligence within Effective Altruism via discussion on podcast. Timothy hopes to use this to aid healing EA; Elizabeth has given up on this and is hoping to find more like minded people.

Long term: If successful, we'd like to expand to other topics that catch our interest and seem valuable to discuss publicly. Could include topics such as epistemic norms, hope for an EA renaissance or splinter group, group intelligence, building productive cultures good for the people in them,, etc.

How will this funding be used?

Pay for both people’s time, equipment (e.g. microphones), software (e.g. Descript for editing), and services (currently just Elizabeth’s editing and research but these could be hired out in the future).

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Elizabeth Van Nostrand: known for science writing and epistemic spot checks at AcesoUnderGlass.com, has received grants and done work for a variety of EA orgs. She had a year+ blog sequence outlining problems in truthseeking within EA. This sequence received many compliments but there is no concrete evidence of change she cares about.

Timothy Telleen-Lawton: Has worked at a variety of EA orgs, been a member of Effective Altruism since 2013 and East Bay Rationality since 2016 

Our first episode has been released here. Discussion here.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

The information falls on deaf ears, or generates a lot of heat and no light. 

In earlier years there might have been risk of inflammation; seems like that market is now saturated and one more source won’t make it worse. 

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

Elizabeth has a <$500 Patreon that is currently per-post but will become per-month in the near future.

We are particularly interested in crowdfunding because the number of donors (independent of donation size) is a predictor of impact. However, if successful, we plan to fundraise from larger donors for larger projects as well.