Peter Singer

When I published The Most Good You Can Do in 2015, effective altruism was still a relatively new movement. Now The Economist has put effective altruism on its cover and called it “this century’s biggest idea.” It describes the movement as “admirable, but dangerous.”

That means taking evidence seriously, comparing the impact of different interventions, and being willing to direct our efforts where they can make the greatest difference, even when that takes us beyond the causes closest to us.

When I published The Most Good You Can Do in 2015, effective altruism was still a relatively new movement. Now The Economist has put effective altruism on its cover and called it “this century’s biggest idea.” It describes the movement as “admirable, but dangerous.”

I don’t agree with everything in The Economist’s account, including some of the reasons it gives for calling effective altruism “dangerous.” I’ll have more to say separately about the broader campaign of criticism directed at effective altruism in recent weeks.

Watching “The Deadliest Decision You’ve Never Heard Of”, a short film produced by Giving What We Can, I kept coming back to one thought: we already know a lot about how to prevent malaria, and yet far too many children still die from it.

The film is a reminder that history is shaped not only by breakthroughs, but also by the moments when we choose not to act. And that is why this is not really a story about 1955. It is a story about the choices we are still making now.

Watching “The Deadliest Decision You’ve Never Heard Of”, a short film produced by Giving What We Can, I kept coming back to one thought: we already know a lot about how to prevent malaria, and yet far too many children still die from it.

When I received the $1 million Berggruen Prize, I gave it away: half to effective charities helping people in extreme poverty, and half to organisations working to reduce animal suffering, especially factory farming.

Imagine being lowered into a gas chamber while fully conscious. The gas causes pain as it dissolves into the moist tissues of your eyes, nose, mouth and lungs. Breathing becomes extremely painful. And you may remain conscious for up to 60 seconds before finally blacking out.

The UK Government’s own Animal Welfare Committee says the method causes conscious pigs pain, respiratory distress and fear, visible through gasping, vocalisations and attempts to escape. For how much longer will millions of sentient animals have to endure a method that causes avoidable suffering?

Imagine being lowered into a gas chamber while fully conscious. The gas causes pain as it dissolves into the moist tissues of your eyes, nose, mouth and lungs. Breathing becomes extremely painful. And you may remain conscious for up to 60 seconds before finally blacking out.

Billions of animals are confined, mutilated, and killed because their suffering is treated as less important than our taste. In this interview with @bigthink.com, I argue that species membership is not what makes suffering matter. #PeterSinger #BigThink #Philosophy #FactoryFarming #AI

If children grow up interacting with AI companions, how might that shape the way they understand relationships? In this episode of Lives Well Lived, we speak with Dana Suskind, pediatric surgeon and author of Human Raised. #PeterSinger #DanaSuskind #Podcast #AI #Parenting

In this episode of Lives Well Lived, we speak with physicist and philosopher @seanmcarroll.bsky.social about the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the mystery of consciousness, whether morality is constructed, and how we create meaning in a universe without an objective purpose.

9 in 10 children in the world’s poorest countries cannot read this sentence. In my new Substack issue, I look at why the global education crisis is not quite the crisis many of us think it is, and why some solutions are remarkably effective. #PeterSinger #Education #GlobalPoverty

In this excerpt from my conversation with Jack Symes, we discuss chickens, factory farming, and what our appetite for cheap meat asks us to ignore. Watch the full conversation, “Is Eating Animals (Always) Wrong?”, on YouTube. Videos: @weanimals.bsky.social

In this episode of Lives Well Lived, we speak with Ryan Holiday, the best-selling author of several books on Stoicism, about why that philosophy still resonates today, how to respond to adversity, and what remembering that we will die can teach us about presence and gratitude. #Stoicism #Podcast

In this episode of Lives Well Lived, we speak with @michaelpollan.bsky.social about food and ultra-processed diets, psychedelics and altered states of consciousness, plant sentience, the mystery of consciousness, and whether AI could ever become conscious. Listen to the full conversation 🎧

In this episode of Lives Well Lived, we speak with physicist and philosopher @seanmcarroll.bsky.social about the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the mystery of consciousness, whether morality is constructed, and how we create meaning in a universe without an objective purpose.

In this episode of Lives Well Lived, we speak with physicist and philosopher @seanmcarroll.bsky.social about the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the mystery of consciousness, whether morality is constructed, and how we create meaning in a universe without an objective purpose.