Does the Effective Altruism Movement Get Giving Right?

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Effective altruism is a philosophical and social movement that uses empirical data to maximize the impact of charitable efforts. Those who champion EA praise its methodological framework for maximizing the effectiveness of donations, thus ensuring equal consideration for all individuals. Those who challenge EA argue that its emphasis on measurable outcomes may overlook important yet hard-to-quantify causes, potentially restricting the scope of what's considered beneficial. Now we debate: Does the Effective Altruism Movement Get Giving Right? Arguing Yes: Peter Singer, Author of “The Most Good You Can Do”; Philosopher and Emeritus Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University Arguing No: Alice Crary, Co-Editor of “The Good it Promises, The Harm it Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism”; University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates Visit our Substack to watch more insightful debates and subscribe to our newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, this is John Donvan. We decided to re-release this staff favorite episode,
0:06.9	which is about the effective altruism movement, and we're doing it for this Thanksgiving weekend.
0:11.8	As we are all giving thanks, and of course, looking forward to giving Tuesday,
0:15.2	we hope that you will consider open to debate among the organizations you consider worthy of
0:19.7	your support as we kick off this
0:21.8	season of giving. Also, I wanted to let you know about a big change right now at Open to Debate.
0:26.4	We have moved to Substack. You can find us still at OpenToDibate.org, but all of our debates and
0:32.4	newsletters have now been migrated to our new substack. We're very excited about this move, especially because it makes
0:38.5	us more able to be in community and communication with you, our listeners. So please find
0:44.4	us there on Substack. You can watch and vote on recent debates and comment on posts and be in
0:49.3	conversation with us for real. Also, we have created a paid subscription tier on substack so that you can support
0:55.8	our mission, and that tier comes with a few perks. Because we're a nonprofit, as I note at the
1:00.3	end of the program every week, I'm sure you know that it's tough out there for media companies
1:04.1	just now. So if you love what we do and you want to support our work, we would deeply appreciate it.
1:09.1	Check it out. Again, all of our debates are on there,
1:11.7	the full catalog, which stretches back 19 years now, and you will get subscriber-only conversations
1:17.8	behind-the-scene conversations, and it is tax deductible. So, okay, that's a little on the
1:23.4	nose given the premise of this upcoming episode, but nonetheless, whether or not you want to be a
1:27.7	paid subscriber, we encourage you to join and follow along with us on Substack. And now, on to the show.
1:35.4	This is open to debate. I'm John Donvan. Hi, everybody. Warren Buffett, Melinda French Gates,
1:40.7	Sam Bankman-Fried. These are just some of the present and in one case former billionaires who have pledged not to hold on to their wealth, but to give most or all of it away.
1:51.0	A gesture that is aligned with the spirit of a movement known as effective altruism.
	...

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