Hear This Idea is a podcast showcasing new thinking in philosophy, the social sciences, and effective altruism. Each episode has an accompanying write-up at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes.
Dean Spears (https://deanspears.net/) is an an Economic Demographer, Development Economist, and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin. With Michael Geruso (https://mikegeruso.com/), Dean is the co-author of After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220160941-after-the-spike).
You can see a full transcript and a list of resources on the episode page on our website (https://www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/spears).
We're back from a hiatus! We still intend to post new episodes, but less frequently from now.
You can get in touch through our website (https://hearthisidea.com/) or on Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/hearthisidea). Thanks for listening.
13 Mar 2025
#83 – Max Smeets on Barriers To Cyberweapons
Max Smeets (https://css.ethz.ch/en/center/people/smeets-max.html) is a Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich's Center for Security Studies and Co-Director of Virtual Routes
You can find links and a transcript at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/smeets (https://www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/smeets)
In this episode we talk about:
The different types of cyber operations that a nation state might launch
How international norms formed around what kind of cyber attacks are “allowed”
The challenges that even elite cyber forces face
What capabilities future AI systems would need to drastically change the space
You can get in touch through our website (https://hearthisidea.com/) or on Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/hearthisidea). Consider leaving us an honest review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!
14 Dec 2024
#82 – Tom Kalil on Institutions for Innovation (with Matt Clancy)
Tom Kalil (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kalil) is the CEO of Renaissance Philanthropy (https://renaissancephilanthropy.org/).
He also served in the White House for two presidents (under Obama and Clinton); where he helped establish incentive prizes in government through challenge.gov (https://www.challenge.gov/); in addition to dozens of science and tech program. More recently Tom served as the Chief Innovation Officer at Schmidt Futures (https://www.schmidtfutures.org/), where he helped launch Convergent Research (https://www.convergentresearch.org/about-fros).
Matt Clancy (https://mattsclancy.com/) is an economist and a research fellow at Open Philanthropy (https://www.openphilanthropy.org/). He writes ‘New Things Under the Sun’ (https://www.newthingsunderthesun.com/), which is a living literature review on academic research about science and innovation.
We talked about:
What is ‘influence without authority’?
Should public funders sponsor more innovation prizes?
Can policy entrepreneurship be taught formally?
Why isn't ultra-wealthy philanthropy much more ambitious?
What's the optimistic case for increasing US state capacity?
What was it like being principal staffer to Gordon Moore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Moore)?
What is Renaissance Philanthropy (https://renaissancephilanthropy.org/)?
You can get in touch through our website (https://hearthisidea.com/) or on Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/hearthisidea). Consider leaving us an honest review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best way to support the show. Thanks for listening!
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
4,905
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
11 ratings
Spotify
4.9 / 5
60 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 62 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
58
Social presence
0
YouTube
74
Engagement
90
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