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The Existential Hope Podcast

by Foresight Institute

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Latest episodes

The boring revolution humanity needs most | Indy Johar

October 29, 2026 · 35 min

Since 2011, anyone could have downloaded an open-source house design, cut out the parts and assemble it themselves. So why is building a new home still so hard? In this episode, we talk with Indy Johar, founder of Dark Matter Labs. He…
Should we choose politicians by lottery? | Jeremy Lent

October 14, 2026 · 55 min

We see elections as the foundation of our democracy, but Aristotle thought they create an oligarchy. In ancient Athens, democracy worked by choosing leaders among ordinary citizens by lottery. How could we revive this idea to improve…
The safest AI might be one that doesn't know what we want | Stuart Russell

September 30, 2026 · 41 min

For 50,000 of generations, humans have passed civilization down to their children. We could be the first generation to hand its future to AIs instead. Should we? Or could the best AI be the kind that chooses to step back and leave some…
How a board game helps Google DeepMind plan for AI in science

September 22, 2026 · 35 min

Google DeepMind has a 7-hour-long roleplaying game that helps real scientists and policy makers understand how AI will transform science by 2030. And those who played it have found it more informative than any policy brief. In this…
Civic tech in action: how 447 random citizens fixed an AI deepfake crisis | Audrey Tang

September 16, 2026 · 32 min

In 2024, Taiwan was flooded with deepfake scam ads. Instead of a crackdown, the government texted 200,000 random citizens: what should we do? People’s proposals became law within months, and by 2025 deepfake ads were down 94%. In this…

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What happens when you let an AI run a science lab

August 26, 2026 · 49 min

There are AIs running labs with little human intervention right now. And they’re doing experiments that human experts would never try. Is this changing what and how science gets done? In this episode, we speak with Antony “Ant” Rowstron…
The only 12 proven self-help tools for a meaningful life and improving the world

July 28, 2026 · 41 min

There's an overwhelming amount of self-help advice out there, which makes it really hard to know what will work for you. But it turns out that over 450 self-help techniques from 100 books and 20 types of therapy actually boil down to just…
How tech can earn public trust and why 21st century science needs 21st century funding | Dorothy Chou

July 16, 2026 · 43 min

What does it take to fund a Nobel Prize-winning idea? Apparently, not a Nobel Prize. AlphaFold solved the shape of 200 million proteins in one shot, a problem that used to take a PhD four years per protein, and biotech investment still…
AI learned to be a villain from Hollywood. Here's how we retrain it. | Peter Diamandis

June 18, 2026 · 43 min

Science fiction has always shaped the technologies we build, from the submarine to the smartphone. But almost every story we've ever told about AI is dystopian. And now we're training AI on those stories. In this episode, we spoke with…
Why people agree on the future more than the present, and what it means for governance

May 27, 2026 · 33 min

Political polarization might have a surprisingly simple fix: ask people what they want for their communities in 50 years instead of today, and their answers start to look remarkably similar. But almost no political system is built to plan…
The AI future where humans get paid to be creative

May 13, 2026 · 51 min

Most AI futures give us two options: mass unemployment, or a government handout to soften the blow. But what if there's a third option, one centered on completely new categories of creative work that don't yet exist, where people get paid…
Teaching AI empathy using brain signals

April 28, 2026 · 50 min

AIs could get much better at understanding what we truly value if we gave them access to our brain signals. And doing that is becoming easier than ever before. In this episode, we talk with Thorsten Zander, professor at Brandenburg…

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About the show

The Existential Hope Podcast features in-depth conversations with scientists, technologists, and thinkers about the ideas that could shape a better future. In contrast to both doom and hype narratives, we focus on what positive futures are possible through scientific and technological progress, and the decisions we make about it. Existential Hope is an initiative of the Foresight Institute, an independent nonprofit that has been advancing technology for the benefit of life since 1986. → Show notes, transcripts and resources: https://www.existentialhope.com/podcasts → Join our newsletter to get the best ideas from our podcast and opportunities to help build great futures: https://theexistentialhope.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.