Education and Charity with Uri Bram

<p>Are universities a cult? Do charitable interventions like de-worming work? How much should we trust the conclusion of well-respected charity evaluators like GiveWell?</p><p>Uri is the publisher of <a href="https://thebrowser.com/">The Browser</a> and <a href="https://thelistener.co/">The Listener</a>, the world's favourite curation newsletters, and the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Statistically-Uri-Bram/dp/1481173502"><em>Thinking Statistically</em></a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Business-Big-Data-Create-Lasting-ebook-dp-B07Z2RHR75/dp/B07Z2RHR75/"><em>The Business of Big Data</em></a>. Uri can be found at <a href="https://uribram.com">uribram.com</a> or <a href="mailto:uri@uribram.com">uri@uribram.com</a>.</p><p>As we mention in the audio, this episode includes a critique of <a href="https://www.givewell.org/">Givewell</a>. Givewell were kind enough to listen to our recording and send us a reply. Here's their reply:</p><blockquote><p>We're excited to see this level of detailed engagement with our research. As Uri and Spencer note, one of the key reasons we share the full analysis behind our recommendations is precisely this: inviting fresh perspectives and debate on the conclusions we reach.</p><p>We operate in an expected value framework when recommending top charities. We recommend deworming programs because of the possibility that deworming may have a large impact on long-term economic well-being. At less than $1 per treatment, we think it's a pretty good bet. We've discussed our views publicly over the years, such as in our blog post titled &quot;<a href="https://blog.givewell.org/2016/07/26/deworming-might-huge-impact-might-close-zero-impact/">Deworming might have huge impact, but might have close to zero impact.</a>&quot;</p><p>The case for deworming's long-term benefits does rely on a relatively small number of studies. And the mechanisms by which it has long-term impact are unclear. But when we account for these uncertainties in our impact estimates, it still remains prom