{"podcast":{"title":"For Humanity: An AI Risk Podcast","slug":"for-humanity-an-ai-risk-podcast-6669100","podcast_index_feed_id":6669100,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/5979336/s/261561.rss","website_url":"https://theairisknetwork.substack.com/s/for-humanity-an-ai-risk-podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/5979336/s/261561/54666450f7ec2d2c5e41bf6e2b3f9036.jpg","author":"The AI Risk Network","episode_count":125,"summary":"For Humanity, An AI Safety Podcast is the the AI Safety Podcast for regular people. Peabody, duPont-Columbia and multi-Emmy Award-winning former journalist John Sherman explores the shocking worst-case scenario of artificial intelligence: human extinction. The makers of AI openly admit it their work could kill all humans, in as soon as 2-10 years. This podcast is solely about the threat of human extinction from AGI. We’ll name and meet the heroes and villains, explore the issues and ideas, and what you can do to help save humanity.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-14T14:18:16.201317+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/for-humanity-an-ai-risk-podcast-6669100"},"episode":{"title":"The Filmmaker Who Sat Across From Sam Altman - And Walked Away With Nothing","slug":"the-filmmaker-who-sat-across-from-sam-altman-and-walked-away-with-nothing","published_at":"2026-04-14T15:51:20+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/for-humanity-an-ai-risk-podcast-6669100/the-filmmaker-who-sat-across-from-sam-altman-and-walked-away-with-nothing","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/for-humanity-an-ai-risk-podcast-6669100","url":"https://theairisknetwork.substack.com/p/the-filmmaker-who-sat-across-from-9b7","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/194200396/b4f7d309a900aaa884fd79f6bb6255e1.mp3","summary":"In this episode of For Humanity, John sits down with Daniel Roher - Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker and director of The Apocaloptimist , a new feature-length film designed as what Roher calls “a first date with AI” for people who haven’t been following the technology closely. Roher brings a career in high-profile documentary filmmaking and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths. Now he’s turned that lens on AI - and what he found shook him. The central question: what happens when you sit across from the most powerful people building AI, ask them the hard questions, and get nothing back? Together, they explore: * Why Roher describes making this film as “a suicide run” - an impossible task no viewer would ever feel was done perfectly * What it was like to interview Sam Altman - and why Roher describes an “energetic misalignment” that left both of them frustrated * How speaking to both Eliezer Yudkowsky and Peter Diamandis made Roher feel like he was losing his mind - because both are brilliant, both are convincing, and both can’t be right * The meaning behind “apocaloptimist” - not a binary between doom and utopia, but a call to hold both promise and peril at the same time * Why Roher believes rejecting cynicism and nihilism is essential - and that public pressure and collective action still matter * John’s thought experiment: if curiosity is at the core of intelligence, why would a system a million times smarter than us tolerate being controlled by us? * Roher’s pushback: if it’s that smart, couldn’t it equally become a benevolent guide? And why he prefers to focus on what can be done now rather than speculate about superintelligence * The historical parallel to nuclear weapons - and why AI may demand similar international institutional responses * John’s…","meta_description":"In this episode of For Humanity, John sits down with Daniel Roher - Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker and director of The Apocaloptimist , a new featu…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2324,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/for-humanity-an-ai-risk-podcast-6669100/episodes/the-filmmaker-who-sat-across-from-sam-altman-and-walked-away-with-nothing/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/for-humanity-an-ai-risk-podcast-6669100/the-filmmaker-who-sat-across-from-sam-altman-and-walked-away-with-nothing.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}