Effective Altruism is in the news. The War Department casts Effective Altruists as opponents of "AI Dominance" while others are finding their warnings of existential risk from AI prescient. The philosophy and social movement have a longer history and broader concerns than current AI issues though, and SASS is hosting a talk with Matt Reardon, a former advisor at prominent EA institution 80,000 Hours and current leader of the Network for EA Support and Training, to describe both the philosophy of Effective Altruism and the concrete projects it endorses, along with a history of the people and institutions behind the movement and what they find emotionally resonant about these ideas.

Matt is the founder of the Network for EA Support & Training (Nest), which partners with in-person EA groups to help them find members, craft & execute events, and communicate EA ideas. Before that, he was a program manager at the Institute for Law & AI and worked on 80,000 Hours’s advising team from 2021 to 2024. In the more distant past, Matt practiced as a patent litigation attorney. Matt blogs at frommatter.substack.com and hosts the Expected Volume podcast.