BlueDot Narrated

Hosted by BlueDot Impact

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Episodes

215

Latest episode

Jan 2026

Language

EN-GB

About the show

Audio versions of the core readings, blog posts, and papers from BlueDot courses.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

January 16, 20267 min

Far-UVC

Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Original text: https://www.faruvc.org/ Author(s): Jeff Kaufman. A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

January 15, 202618 min

What is AI Alignment?

Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Original text: https://blog.bluedot.org/p/what-is-ai-alignmentAuthor(s): Adam Jones.A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

January 15, 20265 min

Flipping the switch on far-UVC

Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Original text: https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/flipping-the-switch-on-far-uvc?hide_intro_popup=true Author(s): Richard Williamson.A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

January 15, 202621 min

Innovate and Stockpile: Respiratory Protection for Essential Workers in a Catastrophic Pandemic

Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Original text: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/hs.2022.0126 Author(s): Nadia X. Montazeri and Jonas B. Sandbrink. A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

January 12, 202614 min

What Are the Odds H5N1 Is Worse Than COVID-19

Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.Executive SummaryThe chance of H5N1 or one of its descendants causing a pandemic is slim, but the impact would probably be more severe than COVID-19A reasonable forecast that H5N1 causes a pandemic as bad as or worse than COVID-19 beginning in the next year is ~4%, which means the expected cost in terms of potential harms to the U.S. is at least $640 billionThe federal government can reduce that risk by: Scaling up testing & sequencingBanning mink farmsNot pursuing H5N1 gain-of-function researchLaying the groundwork for mass production of an H5N1 vaccineInvesting in general pandemic preventionBackgroundThough COVID-19 is often referred to as a “once-in-a-century event,” this expression should not be taken literally. Another COVID-like pandemic at some point is almost inevitable, and the chances of a devastating pandemic materializing in any given year are low but constant. Recently, media figures have raised concerns that the highly pathogenic avian [...]Original texthttps://progress.institute/what-are-the-chances-an-h5n1-pandemic-is-worse-than-covidFirst published14 February 2023A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

January 5, 202630 min

The Four Pillars: A Hypothesis for Countering Catastrophic Biological Risk

Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Original text: https://defensesindepth.bio/the-four-pillars-a-hypothesis-for-countering-catastrophic-biological-risk/ Guide: Andrew Snyder-Beattie leads Coefficient Giving’s Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness program. Here he lays out their thinking on the key pillars in biodefense, including PPE and biohardening of indoor spaces. Author(s): Andrew Snyder-Beattie. A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

January 5, 202632 min

Do the Biorisk Evaluations of AI Labs Actually Measure the Risk of Developing Bioweapons?

Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Original text: https://epoch.ai/gradient-updates/do-the-biorisk-evaluations-of-ai-labs-actually-measure-the-risk-of-developing-bioweapons Author(s): Anson Ho and Arden Berg. A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

January 5, 202621 min

Scaling US Pathogen Detection

Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Description: This post models how an effective biosurveillance system might work in the US using metagenomic sequencing (MGS). Metagenomic sequencing can read out any nucleic acid (RNA or DNA) in a sample. Analyzing these fragments allows the identification of both known pathogens as well as unknown reads that could represent a new threat. Original Text: https://naobservatory.org/blog/biothreat_radar/Author(s): Simon Grimm, Lennart Justen, and Jeff Kaufman. A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

December 21, 202516 min

Why do we take LLMs seriously as a potential source of biorisk?

Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Original text: https://red.anthropic.com/2025/biorisk/ Author(s): AnthropicA podcast by BlueDot Impact.

December 21, 20256 min

Securing Civilisation Against Catastrophic Pandemics

Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Original text: https://www.gcsp.ch/sites/default/files/2024-12/securing-civilisation-against-catastrophic-pandemics-gp-31.pdf Author(s): Anjali Gopal, William Bradshaw, Vaishnav Sunil, and Kevin M. Esvelt.A podcast by BlueDot Impact.