LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

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**LessWrong (Curated & Popular)**

Audio narrations of LessWrong posts. Includes all curated posts and all posts with 125+ karma.

If you’d like more, subscribe to the “Lesswrong (30+ karma)” feed.

Latest Episodes:

Four-panel meme showing crowd's reaction split between agreement and anger. — **"You’re an AI Expert – Not an Influencer" by Max Winga** Feb 19, 2026
Show notes
**Your hot takes are killing your credibility.**
Prior to my last year at ControlAI, I was a physicist working on technical AI safety research. Like many of those warning about the dangers of AI, I don’t come from a background in public communications, but I’ve quickly learned some important rules. The #1 rule that I’ve seen far too many others in this field break is that You’re an AI Expert - Not an Influencer.
When communicating to an audience, your persona is one of two broad categories: Influencer or Professional

Influencers are individuals who build an audience around themselves as a person. Their currency is popularity and their audience values them for who they are and what they believe, not just what they know.
Professionals are individuals who appear in the public eye as representatives of their expertise or organization. Their currency is credibility and their audience values them for what they know and what they represent, not who they are.
So… let's say you’re trying to be a public figure making a difference about AI risk. You’ve been on a podcast or two, maybe even on The News. You might work at an AI policy organization, or [...]
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**Outline:**
(00:11) Your hot takes are killing your credibility.
(02:10) STOP - What Would Media Training Steve do?
(05:22) Dont Feed Your Enemies
(07:07) The Luxury of Not Being a Politician
(09:33) So How Do You Deal With Politics?
(10:58) Conclusion
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First published:
February 17th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/hCtm7rxeXaWDvrh4j/you-re-an-ai-expert-not-an-influencer
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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**Images from the article:**
*Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.*

Graph showing monthly probability of pregnancy ending in birth by male partner age. — **"The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19" by GeneSmith** Feb 18, 2026
Show notes

If you're a woman interested in preserving your fertility window beyond its natural close in your late 30s, egg freezing is one of your best options.
The female reproductive system is one of the fastest aging parts of human biology. But it turns out, not all parts of it age at the same rate.
The eggs, not the uterus, are what age at an accelerated rate. Freezing eggs can extend a woman's fertility window by well over a decade, allowing a woman to give birth into her 50s. In fact, the oldest woman to give birth was a mother in India using donor eggs who became pregnant at age 74!
In a world where more and more women are choosing to delay childbirth to pursue careers or to wait for the right partner, egg freezing is really the only tool we have to enable these women to have the career and the family they want.
Given that this intervention can nearly double the fertility window of most women, it's rather surprising just how little fanfare there is about it and how narrow the set of circumstances are under which it is recommended.
Standard practice in the fertility [...]
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**Outline:**
(05:12) Polygenic Embryo Screening
(06:52) What about technology to make eggs from stem cells? Wont that make egg freezing obsolete?
(07:26) We dont know with certainty how long it will take to develop this technology
(07:48) Stem cell derived eggs are probably going to be quite expensive at the start
(08:36) Cells accrue genetic mutations over time
(09:12) How do I actually freeze my eggs?
(12:12) Risks of egg freezing
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First published:
February 8th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dxffBxGqt2eidxwRR/the-optimal-age-to-freeze-eggs-is-19
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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**Images from the article:**

Monthly probability of getting pregnant for couples not on birth control. Note that these couples weren't actively trying for pregnancy, which is why the absolute probability is so low. See figure A4 from Geruso et al. for context. — **"The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19" by GeneSmith** Feb 18, 2026
Show notes

If you're a woman interested in preserving your fertility window beyond its natural close in your late 30s, egg freezing is one of your best options.
The female reproductive system is one of the fastest aging parts of human biology. But it turns out, not all parts of it age at the same rate.
The eggs, not the uterus, are what age at an accelerated rate. Freezing eggs can extend a woman's fertility window by well over a decade, allowing a woman to give birth into her 50s. In fact, the oldest woman to give birth was a mother in India using donor eggs who became pregnant at age 74!
In a world where more and more women are choosing to delay childbirth to pursue careers or to wait for the right partner, egg freezing is really the only tool we have to enable these women to have the career and the family they want.
Given that this intervention can nearly double the fertility window of most women, it's rather surprising just how little fanfare there is about it and how narrow the set of circumstances are under which it is recommended.
Standard practice in the fertility [...]
---
**Outline:**
(05:12) Polygenic Embryo Screening
(06:52) What about technology to make eggs from stem cells? Wont that make egg freezing obsolete?
(07:26) We dont know with certainty how long it will take to develop this technology
(07:48) Stem cell derived eggs are probably going to be quite expensive at the start
(08:36) Cells accrue genetic mutations over time
(09:12) How do I actually freeze my eggs?
(12:12) Risks of egg freezing
---
First published:
February 8th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dxffBxGqt2eidxwRR/the-optimal-age-to-freeze-eggs-is-19
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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**Images from the article:**

Group of owls with prominent orange eyes perched together. — **"The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference" by Abhishaike Mahajan** Feb 17, 2026
Show notes

In 1654, a Jesuit polymath named Athanasius Kircher published Mundus Subterraneus, a comprehensive geography of the Earth's interior. It had maps and illustrations and rivers of fire and vast subterranean oceans and air channels connecting every volcano on the planet. He wrote that “the whole Earth is not solid but everywhere gaping, and hollowed with empty rooms and spaces, and hidden burrows.”. Alongside comments like this, Athanasius identified the legendary lost island of Atlantis, pondered where one could find the remains of giants, and detailed the kinds of animals that lived in this lower world, including dragons. The book was based entirely on secondhand accounts, like travelers tales, miners reports, classical texts, so it was as comprehensive as it could’ve possibly been.
But Athanasius had never been underground and neither had anyone else, not really, not in a way that mattered.
Today, I am in San Francisco, the site of the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, and it feels a lot like Mundus Subterraneus.
There is ostensibly plenty of evidence to believe that the conference exists, that it actually occurs between January 12, 2026 to January 16, 2026 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, 335 Powell Street, San Francisco [...]
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First published:
January 17th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eopA4MqhrE4dkLjHX/the-truth-behind-the-2026-j-p-morgan-healthcare-conference
---
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
---
**Images from the article:**
*Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.*

Document titled — **"The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference" by Abhishaike Mahajan** Feb 17, 2026
Show notes

In 1654, a Jesuit polymath named Athanasius Kircher published Mundus Subterraneus, a comprehensive geography of the Earth's interior. It had maps and illustrations and rivers of fire and vast subterranean oceans and air channels connecting every volcano on the planet. He wrote that “the whole Earth is not solid but everywhere gaping, and hollowed with empty rooms and spaces, and hidden burrows.”. Alongside comments like this, Athanasius identified the legendary lost island of Atlantis, pondered where one could find the remains of giants, and detailed the kinds of animals that lived in this lower world, including dragons. The book was based entirely on secondhand accounts, like travelers tales, miners reports, classical texts, so it was as comprehensive as it could’ve possibly been.
But Athanasius had never been underground and neither had anyone else, not really, not in a way that mattered.
Today, I am in San Francisco, the site of the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, and it feels a lot like Mundus Subterraneus.
There is ostensibly plenty of evidence to believe that the conference exists, that it actually occurs between January 12, 2026 to January 16, 2026 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, 335 Powell Street, San Francisco [...]
---
First published:
January 17th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eopA4MqhrE4dkLjHX/the-truth-behind-the-2026-j-p-morgan-healthcare-conference
---
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
---
**Images from the article:**
*Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.*

"The world keeps getting saved and you don’t notice" by Bogoed Feb 17, 2026

Show notes

Nothing groundbreaking, just something people forget constantly, and I’m writing it down so I don’t have to re-explain it from scratch.
The world does not just ”keep working.” It keeps getting saved.
Y2K was a real problem. Computers really were set up in a way that could have broken our infrastructure, including banking, medical supply chains, etc. It didn’t turn into a disaster because people spent many human lifetimes of working hours fixing it. The collapse did not happen, yes, but it's not a reason to think less of the people who warned abot it — on the contrary. Nothing dramatic happened because they made sure it wouldn’t.
When someone looks back at this and says the problem was “overblown,” they’re doing something weird. They’re looking at a thing that was prevented and concluding it was never real.
Someone on Twitter once asked where the problem of the ozone hole had gone (in bad faith, implying that it — and other climate problems — never really existed). Hank Green explained it beautifully: you don't hear about it anymore because it's being solved. Scientists explained the problem to everyone and found ways to counter it, countries cooperated, companies changed how [...]
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First published:
February 16th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qnvmZCjzspceWdgjC/the-world-keeps-getting-saved-and-you-don-t-notice
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

"Solemn Courage" by aysja Feb 17, 2026

Show notes

Every so often it slips. It seems I am writing a book, but I can’t remember why. Somehow, the sentences are supposed to perform that impossible, intimate task: to translate my inner world into another. Yet they sit there so quiescent and small. How could an arrangement of words do anything, let alone reduce that ultimate threat to which it is all supposedly connected: the looming god machines? I look again at the monitor in which the words are contained and suddenly what once felt so raw and powerful deflates into limpness. Why would anyone listen to me, anyway? Have I said anything new? Or is too weird—the strangeness in my head failing to find handholds in other minds? And it floods, these pieces of doubt. Each one flitting by almost unnoticeably, but in the background they build.
Then sometimes the flood abates as quickly as it came. The world is made of scary stuff: we really may all die, and I really might not be capable of reducing or even much affecting that terrifying threat. Yet somehow this has little to do with the words on the page. The outcomes matter—they do—but that isn’t where the motivation [...]
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First published:
February 4th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fnRqyuceyLuZRFFbZ/solemn-courage-1
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.