RATIONALITY. CULTURE. EVERYTHING ELSE.

Welcome to the longest running rationalist podcast on the internet. For over a decade Steven and Eneasz have been pacing the Rationalist beat. Join us every other Wednesday as we discuss Rationalism - it's culture, current events, and other adjacent topics of interest.

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273 – Vaden Masrani on… Critical Rationalism?

Previous Episodes

350 EPISODES · NEWEST FIRST
  1. 273 – Vaden Masrani on… Critical Rationalism?
  2. BayesWatch – Stephan on EA/Rat differences, Iliad Intensive, & the AI Safety Musical
  3. 272 – Rat Goss, and Podcast Meta
  4. BayesWatch – Moma: Aella makes her community safer for women
  5. 271 – PlzDontKillUs, and Tell Your Parents, w Keltan
  6. 270 – The AIs Aren’t Aligned and Everyone Is Finally Noticing, w Matt Freeman
  7. 269 – The Power of Specificity in Argument
  8. BayesWatch – Vishal: Short form video is kinda Satanic
  9. 268 – The Other Sexual Orientation & Disappearing the Kinky
  10. BayesWatch – Milo on PlzDontKillUs, short form video, and rationality
  11. BayesWatch – Jessiah on HPMOR, video essays, and fiction
  12. 267 – HuggingFace Hack & Effective Altruism Funding Flood
  13. 266 – AI2040 Plan A Rundown
  14. 265 – VibeCamp 5 with Wes, Gina, and Mary
  15. 264 – Becoming a Romantic with Damon and Ivy
  16. 263 – Human Values Were Forged in Malthusian Competition
  17. 262 – EA Veganism Revisited
  18. 261 – The Button That Almost Nuked Glosso Got Eneasz Instead
  19. 260 – The Right to be Wrong About Doom
  20. 259 – Chill Out on AI in 2028?
  21. 258 – How Effective Altruism Has Evolved
  22. 257 – Pentagon Comes For Claude
  23. 256 – Writing for LLMs
  24. 255 – Eneasz goes to CFAR, and Epistemically Honest Reassurance
  25. 254 – The True Theme and Meaning of HPMOR
  26. 253 – The Seven Vicious Vices of Rationalists
  27. A Harried Meeting (audio)
  28. House elves are crystalized cosmic power
  29. Christmas 2025: Couple of Quick Shoutouts
  30. 252 – The 12 Virtues of Rationality, with Alex and David
  31. 251 – Matt Freeman on What Makes a Good Story
  32. Bayes Blast 46 – Get Involved in Local Politics with Booker Lightman
  33. 250 – Making the Good Life with Matt Freeman
  34. 249 – Red Heart and IABIED with Max Harms
  35. 248 – Seeking Alpha, with Jay
  36. 247 – The Void, with Matt Freeman, part 2
  37. 246 – The Void, with Matt Freeman, part 1
  38. pre246 note
  39. 245 – AI Welfare, with Rob Long and Rosie Campbell of Eleos
  40. 244 – How and Why to Form a Church, with Andrew Willsen
  41. Bayes Blast 45 – Bees Blast
  42. 243 – Wes Is Not The Monogamy Police, with Wesly Fenza and Jennifer Kesteloot
  43. Bayes Blast 44 – Play-By-Post Storytelling
  44. 242 – TracingWoodgrains, live at Manifest 2025
  45. Bayes Blast 43 – Die-ing to Intuit Bayes’ Theorem
  46. Bonus – AI Village Hosts An Event For Humans
  47. 241 – Doom Debates, with Liron Shapira
  48. 240 – How To Live Well With High P(Doom) – with Ben Pace, Brandon Hendrickson, Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg
  49. Bayes Blast 42 – Epic AI Music
  50. 239 – SymbyAI
  51. 238 – Part 2 of How A Rationalist Becomes A Christian
  52. 237 – How A Rationalist Becomes A Christian
  53. 236 – Twilight of the Edgelords with Liam Nolan
  54. 235 – Gender Differences, with Wes and Jen
  55. 234 – GiveDirectly, with Nick Allardice
  56. 233 – AI Policy in D.C., with Dave Kasten
  57. Bayes Blast 41 – AI Action Plan
  58. 232 – The Milton Friedman Theory of Change, with John Bennett
  59. Bayes Blast 40 – HPMOR 10 Year Anniversary Parties
  60. 231 – SuperBabies, with Gene Smith
  61. Bayes Blast 39 – Ladylike for Autistics
  62. 230 – Making Dating Not Suck with Jacob Falkovich
  63. Bayes Blast 38 – Shitcoins
  64. Bayes Blast 37 – Kill Your Friend’s Cat
  65. 229 – Integrating Emotions
  66. LW Census 2024
  67. 228 – The Deep Lore of LightHaven, with Oliver Habryka
  68. 227 – Longevity, Aimed Communities, Network States, with Zoe Isabel Senon
  69. 226 – The Illusion of Moral Decline
  70. 225 – Live at Lighthaven!
  71. Bonus? The 10-Finger Demon
  72. Live Show At Lighthaven
  73. 224 – Cringe Gates and Cultural Drift
  74. Bayes Blast 36 – AI Grifters in Birmingham
  75. 223 – Going Back to the Classics
  76. Bonus – Discord Culture (preview)
  77. Bayes Blast 35 – Disproving The Blindsight Thesis
  78. Bayes Blast 34 – Content Moderation is Infosec
  79. 222 – Consciousness As Recursive Reflections with Daniel Böttger
  80. Bayes Blast 33 – Porn Sims
  81. 221 – Why The Field? Why Zombies?? with Liam
  82. Bayes Blast 32 – Canadian Health Care
  83. 220 – Chalmer’s Zombies, with Liam
  84. 219 – On Excellence, with Tracing Woodgrains
  85. 218 – Bentham’s Bulldog and the Best Argument for God
  86. 217 – Consensual Violence with Rikard
  87. 216 – On Dying (And Cryonics)
  88. Bayes Blast 31 – Blowing Hot Air (Free Version)
  89. 215 – Rationalism and Religion, with Brandon Hendrickson
  90. 214 – Is Death Good? Simone and Malcolm Collins return!
  91. 213 – Are Transformer Models Aligned By Default?
  92. 212 – Feedback Extravaganza
  93. Bayes Blast 30 – Less.Online
  94. 211 – The Social Justice Religion with Tracing Woodgrains
  95. 210 – Demographic Collapse & Religion with Simone & Malcolm Collins
  96. Bayes Blast 29 – VibeClipse
  97. Bayes Blast 28 – Bass Blast
  98. 209 – The World’s Most Wholesome Gangbang, with Lucy Belmont (Fluffer B)
  99. Bayes Blast 27 – SubStack Launch and Animorphs Launch
  100. 208.ai – Eve Theory of Consciousness v3.0 – By Andrew Cutler
  101. 208 – Snakes On A Brain: Eve Theory of Consciousness v3 with Andrew Cutler
  102. Bayes Blast 26 – AskWho On The Future of Narration
  103. 207 – Raising Free Range Kids via Camp Dorkaround
  104. 206 – What Chronic Pain and Trauma Junkies Have In Common
  105. Bayes Blast 25 – Betting On Love
  106. Bayes Blast 24 – The Answerers
  107. 205.ai – The Snake Cult of Consciousness narration
  108. 205 – The Snake Cult of Consciousness
  109. 204 – Simulacra Levels with Zvi (and more)
  110. 203 – The Self-Indulgent Episode
  111. 202 – The Center for AI Policy talks government regulation
  112. Bayes Blast 23 – Less Fingers = Less Blasting?
  113. Bayes Blast 22 – The Penal System
  114. 201 – The Educated Mind + More with Brandon Hendrickson (part 2)
  115. 200 – The Educated Mind with Brandon Hendrickson
  116. 199 – Polyamory with Aella and Yassine
  117. 198 – Tuskegee & Age/Race Bias?
  118. 197 – What To Expect When You’re Expecting To Go To Burning Man
  119. Bayes Blast 21 – Dudes Catching Son of Sam and Dread Pirate Roberts
  120. 196 – Steven Goes To Court
  121. 195 – KataGo vs AlphaGo: Fight!
  122. 194 – Kinky Data Science with Aella
  123. Bayes Blast 20 – Blue Pill/Red Pill in Roko’s Blender
  124. Bayes Blast 19 – Musicgen and Audiogen
  125. 193 – Building Baileys with Yassine Meskhout
  126. 192 – Absurdism and the Meaning of Life, with Alex
  127. Bayes Blast 17 – Gay Pride is White Liberal Pride
  128. 191 – What is Post-Rationalism, with Arielle
  129. Bayes Blast 16 – Holding PRNS (Present Rate, No Singularity)
  130. Bayes Blast 15 – Technological Overemployment
  131. 190 – How to be Human Together, at VibeCamp, with GPTBrooke
  132. Bayes Blast 14 – Reddit Sucks
  133. 189 – AI Bloomer David Youssef
  134. 188 – Living in the Early Singularity, with Matt Freeman
  135. 187 – GitLab & Review Bounties to Save Science, with Richard Acton
  136. Bayes Blast 13 – GPT-4 maps every neuron in GPT-2
  137. 186 – Why We Aren’t Technically EAs But Totally Would Be, Unlike This Guy
  138. Bayes Blast 12 – AI White Pills
  139. 185 – The Rise and Fall of Peer Review, with Adam Mastroianni
  140. Bayes Blast 11 – Exposure to Lizardman Is Lethal
  141. Bayes Blast 10 – Shoggoth Tongues
  142. Bayes Blast 9 – The salt in pasta water fallacy
  143. 184 – The Cultic Milieu
  144. Bayes Blast 8 – An AI risk argument that resonates with NYTimes readers
  145. Bayes Blast 7 – Chatbot convinces Belgian to commit suicide
  146. Bayes Blast 6 – The Parable of the King and the Random Process
  147. 183 – Let’s Think About Slowing Down AI
  148. Bayes Blast 5 – Importance Hacking
  149. Bayes Blast 4 – The Waluigi Effect
  150. Bayes Blast 3 – Dynamics Can Arise If You Nudge
  151. Bayes Blast 2 – Logan’s Model of EA Burnout
  152. 182 – The Birth and Death of Sydney (Bing AI)
  153. 181 – How To Read The News With Bounded Distrust, with Wesley Fenza
  154. Bayes Blast 1 – In Defense of Chatbot Romance
  155. Bonus preview – YIMBY follow-ups and Vulgar EA
  156. 180 – YIMBY in CA with Brian Hanlon
  157. 179 – The Plan (to align AI), with John Wentworth
  158. 178 – Out To Get You
  159. 177 – Decision Trees and Butlerian Jihads with Matt Freeman
  160. 176 – Circling with Aella
  161. 175 – FTX + EA, and Personal Finance
  162. BREAKING – FTX collapse & EA shockwaves
  163. 174 – Jon Stewart, The Consensus Emancipator
  164. 173 – Oh Lawd, Strong AI is Comin’
  165. 172 – Virtue Ethics
  166. 171 – All About AGP
  167. 170 – By George, The Rent Is Too Damn High!
  168. 169 – S&E BS re AGI
  169. 168 – Unions Are Governments
  170. 167 – Jugaad Ethics
  171. 166 – Getting Lucky
  172. 165 – DREAM: Dunbar Rules Everything Around Me
  173. 164 – Pregnancy is Body Horror
  174. 163 – Effective Aesthetics
  175. 162 – Roe No Mo’
  176. 161 – Restoring the Kingdom of Hawai’i
  177. 160 – GAI is Imminent
  178. 159 – Cryonics Concerns, and Theses On Sleep
  179. Monarchy Reactions – post Episode 158 discussion (Teaser)
  180. 158 – Can Monarchy Save Us From Fascism?
  181. 157 – A Fistful of Topics
  182. 156 – A Chemical Hunger
  183. Trailer For Bonus Aella
  184. 155 – Normal Predictions, and Change is Bad
  185. Trailer For Wirehead Extras
  186. 154 – Two General Thinkers Discuss General Thinking
  187. 153 – Values and Wireheading with Wes Fenza
  188. 152 – Frame Control with Aella
  189. 151 – Don’t Make This Your Everything
  190. 150 – The Procrastination Equation
  191. 149 – The Roots of Progress, with Jason Crawford
  192. 148 – Decisions, Decisions
  193. 147 – Newcomblike Problems Are The Norm
  194. 146 – What Is A Rationalist?
  195. 145 – You Are In Newcomb’s IQ Shredder
  196. 144 – The Guild Of The Rose (beta)
  197. 143 – Crazy Like Us
  198. 142 – Do This
  199. 141 – Raising Younglings
  200. 140 – Trigger Warning: Old Men Yelling at Clouds
  201. 139 – Kids These Days
  202. 138 – Are Teens People?
  203. 137 – Can You Consent to Listening to this Episode?
  204. 136 – Obviously (and Legally) Murder
  205. 135 – Live Episode #2
  206. Live Episode Announcement
  207. 134 – We’ve Got Class
  208. 133 – Is Libertarianism a Gateway Drug to Anarcho-Capitalism?
  209. 132 – Mind Killed by Libertarianism
  210. 131 – Feedback Grab Bag
  211. 130 – The Cause of the Hate Revolution (or: Hate is the New Sex)
  212. 129 – Sympathy For The Devil
  213. 128 – The Q-Coup
  214. 127 – All About Aging with Richard Acton
  215. 126 – LessWrong 2.0 and Books
  216. 125 – Hacking Away at Careers
  217. 124 – Longevity
  218. 123 – Stuff Has Been Weird Lately
  219. 122 – EARN IT vs America
  220. 121 – Crony Beliefs
  221. 120 – Why Can’t We Brain Good?
  222. Episode 119 – If You’re A Human, You’re Already Losing To GPT-3
  223. 118 – Guns, Germs, and Guns (except the Germs are actually More Guns)
  224. 117 – The Guild of Servants
  225. 116 – Truth, Falsity, and Censorship
  226. 115 – Does Rationality Actually Do Anything?
  227. 114 – Epistemic Rigor and BLM
  228. 113 – Refining Niceness with Wes Fenza
  229. 112 – Nice Places Are Nice
  230. 111 – Rational Practices in Everyday Living
  231. The Mind Killer Episode 4 – Are We Committing Collective Suicide?
  232. 110 – Socratic Grilling
  233. The Mind Killer Episode 3 – Opening Up
  234. 109 – What Have We Been Consuming?
  235. The Mind Killer Episode 2
  236. 108 – Rudi Hoffman on How to Beat Death and Taxes
  237. The Mind Killer 001 – The Hammer and The Dance
  238. 107 – Talking to Even More Strangers
  239. 106 – Talking to Strangers (with COVID-19)
  240. 105 – The Anthropic Principle is da bomb
  241. 104 – Do You Want To Ask or Guess This Episode’s Topic?
  242. 103 – Radical Honesty
  243. 102 – Decade in Review
  244. 101 – The Live Episode (pt2)
  245. 100 – The Live Episode (pt1)
  246. Live Episode on Sunday Dec 15, 1pm MT (GMT -6)
  247. 99 – Whiteshift
  248. 98 – A GSV Very Different From Ours
  249. 97 – Oops, We Accidentally Over Two Hours of Feedback
  250. 96 – Do Words Mean Things, Also Sex Science!
  251. 95 – It’s Gender Time! Part 1
  252. 94 – The Problem At Yale Isn’t Free Speech, It’s Lack of Batmans
  253. 93 – Conflict vs Mistake
  254. 92 – Replacing Guilt
  255. 91 – Are You Jesus or Hitler??
  256. 90 – Secret to Our Success
  257. 89 – Is Rationalism Being Co-opted by the Alt-Right?
  258. 88 – UBI and Other Forms of (Evil?) Taxes
  259. 87 – Degrees of Freedom
  260. Bonus Abortion non-episode
  261. 86 – Quick Shout Out to the Consolidated Nature of Morality Thread
  262. 85 – Stuff is Weird, Yo
  263. 84 – Yang-arang!
  264. 83 – REACH
  265. 82 – Revenge of the Feedback!
  266. 81 – That’s Too Much Feedback, Man
  267. 80 – The Reward and Peril of GPT2
  268. 79 – CyberChristianity
  269. 78 – Seriously, an Atheism Episode?
  270. 77 – Meandering Around Albion’s Seed
  271. 76 – Patreon and Censorship
  272. 75 – Culture Roots of America
  273. 74 – Adventures in Feedback!
  274. 73 – Truth and Winning
  275. 72 – Productivity Tools, Part 2
  276. 71 – Researching Qualia with Andrés Gómez Emilsson
  277. 70 – Kick-offs
  278. 69 – Culture War 2.0
  279. 68 – Can’t Give Up Freeman
  280. 67 – Freestyle Community Talk with Matt Freeman
  281. The Sword of Good
  282. 66 – Feedback & Productivity (pt1)
  283. 65 – Religion, and The Intelligent Social Web
  284. 64 – Magick with David Youssef
  285. 63 – Rational Fiction
  286. 62 – Stoic Chatter and RatChat!
  287. 61 – Biohacking 101
  288. 60 – 98% Likelihood This Episode is about Metaculus
  289. 59 – Gettin’ Schooled
  290. 58 – Inside Trump Country with Joshua
  291. 57 – Community Talk with Bayesed and Confused
  292. 56 – Adventures in Tough Subjects
  293. 55 – Keeping up with the Rationalists
  294. 54 – Nothing Can Prepare You For Robin Hanson
  295. 53 – Principles of Curiosity with Brian Dunning
  296. 52 – Marriage is Obsolete Technology
  297. 51 – Robert McIntyre Returns
  298. Holiday
  299. 50 – Approaching Rationality with Kyle Moore
  300. 49 – Spirituality via Drugs
  301. 48 – Cryonics 2 – Lacuna Matata (with Robert McIntyre)
  302. 47 – Post Scarcity
  303. 46 – Social Media and Outrage Culture
  304. 45 – Cryptocurrencies
  305. 44 – Burning Man
  306. 43 – Parenting as a Rationalist
  307. 42 – Emotionally Charged Discussion
  308. 41 – Ritual and Spirituality
  309. 40 – Making Humans Legible
  310. 39 – Transhumanism (pt 2)
  311. 38 – Transhumanism (pt 1)
  312. 37 – AlphaGo Returns
  313. 36 – The Other Kind of Drugs
  314. 35 – Your Brain on Nootropics
  315. 34 – Lies, All Lies!
  316. 33 – MIRI, and EA meta-discussion
  317. 32 – Who’s Afraid of AI?
  318. 31 – Digital Rights and Privacy
  319. 30 – Of Specks and Omlettes
  320. 29 – Fiction and Fun with Max Harms
  321. Bonus Mini-Episode: I Did Nazi That Coming
  322. 28 – Effective Altruism
  323. 27 – On Punching Nazis
  324. 26 – Concept Networks and Hanging Nodes
  325. 25 – Tinder, Actually
  326. 24 – Signaling
  327. 23 – Desirism with Alonzo Fyfe
  328. 22 – Moral Philosophy
  329. Bonus mini-episode: Trump-Reacting
  330. 21 – Kids, These Days
  331. 20 – What’s important?
  332. 19 – Political Pitfalls
  333. 18 – Robin Hanson Interview
  334. 17 – The Feels
  335. 16 – Animals Again
  336. 15 – Animals
  337. 14 – Street Epistemology
  338. 13 – Game Theory
  339. 12 – Listener Feedback
  340. 11 – Voting
  341. 10 – Polyamory (part 2)
  342. 9 – Polyamory (part 1)
  343. 8 – Interview with Brian Dunning
  344. 7 – Kill All Humans?
  345. 6 – Cryonics
  346. 5 – When Grandmas ask “What is Rationality?”
  347. 4 – AlphaGo, with Patrick Chapin
  348. 3 – Interview with Eliezer Yudkowsky
  349. 2 – What is this “Sanity Waterline” you speak of?
  350. 1 – What Use is Rationality?

Featuring Interviews With

Photo credit

Aella: ReasonTV, 2023, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Cropped and resized.