Today's episode of Rationally Speaking is brought to you by Givewell. There are over a million

and a half non-profits in the U.S. alone, but some of them are a lot more effective than others.

How do you know where your donation will actually make a difference? Givewell does thousands

of hours of research every year to figure out which charities have the strongest empirical case

for impact. Visit givewell.org to see their list

of recommended charities. Some help people in dire poverty. Others save children from dying of

cheaply preventable disease. The research is free for anyone to use and Givewell doesn't take

a cut of your donation. Give With Int intention at givewell.org. Welcome to rationally speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.

I'm your host, Julia Galeith. And before we get into today's episode, I just wanted to remind you all that

my book is coming out very soon on April 13th, and you can pre-order it now. It's called The Scout Mindset, and it's

about the motivation to see things as they are, and not as you wish they were. Basically,

how and why to be intellectually honest and curious about what's actually true. It's an easy read

and full of lots of stories and examples that I haven't shared before. And if you

enjoy this podcast, I think you'll enjoy the book. Okay, let's dive into today's episode. This is

one that features three different interviews, all of which are investigating one question,

kind of like my episode a few months ago on the question of whether baby boomers are to blame for millennials

woes. And the question I'm investigating in this episode is, are drivers for Uber and Lyft being

exploited? Your answer to that question depends, as I learned from my interviews, on how you think

about a few key questions, such as how much

are rideshare drivers really earning after expenses like the upkeep of their car? And do they

have an accurate picture of how much they're earning? Would drivers be better off if Uber and Lyft made

them official employees instead of independent contractors?

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