Oct 30, 20261h 59m
Vaden manages to penetrate deep into the rationalist stronghold in San Francisco, the Mecca of Yudkowsky himself, and - exactly as we'd all expect - gets into an epistemological standoff. Can he shake a Bayesian's...
society
Increments
Hosted by Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani · society · EN-US
About this Podcast:
Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon. Bribes, suggestions, love-mail and hate-mail all welcome at incrementspodcast@gmail.com.
Pitch Analysis
Required Pod Score for this podcast. PitchCentric checks your profile against host openness, topical fit, and audience signals before you generate a pitch.
Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
30%
Guest openness
Selective
80/100
Required Score
Sign up to generate a grounded pitch for Increments.
Signup to Generate a PitchQuestions about Increments
What is Increments about?
Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon.
Who hosts Increments?
Increments is hosted by Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani. The show has published 109 episodes to date.
What has Increments covered recently?
Recent episodes include "#109 - Vaden on The Bayesian Conspiracy [FULL UNEDITED DEBATE]" (30 October 2026, 119 minutes), "#108 - The OpenAI/HuggingFace "incident": Responding to Sam Harris and Ryan Greenblatt" (6 October 2026, 77 minutes), and "#107 - Is Too Much Therapy Ruining a Generation?" (12 September 2026, 85 minutes).
How often does Increments publish?
Increments publishes roughly monthly, with episodes averaging 86 minutes across 109 episodes.
How hard is it to get booked on Increments?
Booking probability for Increments is 30%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. Increments requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. Increments's contact route on record: verified email.
Who should pitch Increments?
The strongest fits for Increments are Scientific Research & Development. Increments has a society audience.
About the host
Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani hosts Increments, a society podcast with 109 episodes published.
Verified host email: ████████@████.comSign in to unlock →
Recent episodes
Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.
Oct 6, 20261h 17mVaden has been annoyed about the Hugging Face incident for weeks, and the only known cure is yelling about it on the podcast. Ben, who as usual is more even-headed and objective about the incident (incidentally, he also...
Sep 12, 20261h 25mAt 3am, tossing and turning in your bed, have you ever wondered why this generation is full of a bunch of fragile sissies? Journalist Abigail Shrier has, and her answer is: Therapy. Too much God d*** therapy. Is she...
Aug 22, 20261h 19mAfter Jason Arday, the second biggest topic of conversation has of course been the rise of the neuro-grifting guru. And for good reason! Neuroscience has been causing confusion lately. What is the hippocampus up to in...
Jul 17, 20261h 19mWe've spent a long time bashing Bayesian epistemology on the podcast. Unfortunately, this is sometimes taken to mean that we bash all things Bayesian. But our God-fearing listeners will be pleased to learn that we do...
View More
Jun 27, 20261h 3mIt's only taken us 104 episodes of talking incessantly about Karl Popper to get one of the most important and popular criticisms of falsification: The Duhem-Quine thesis. Should we wrap the podcast here? Is it game...
May 29, 20261h 47mDid you ever see the video of two regular people trying to fight Eddie Hall, the strongest man on earth? Ben and Vaden bring that same energy to this conversation, where they gang up on Robert Wright on the subject of...
May 12, 20261h 47mTurning on our own! Vaden sits down with Bruce Nielson and Peter Johansen to discuss some of the bad memes that run rampant in the online "crit-rat" community, in an attempt of some intra-tribal error-correction. Ben...
Apr 19, 20261h 17mWasn't Popper a falsificationist? Then why did he try to develop ideas about corroboration and versimilitude - the extent to which a theory was closer to truth than another theory? Isn't this verging dangerously close...
Increments
#100 - Celebrating the Centennial
Mar 26, 20261h 21m100 episodes! To celebrate, Vaden tries to get personal with Ben, while Ben dodges his questions and wants to know how Vaden feels about incest. All in all, a pretty typical episode. The questions From Vaden to Ben: How...
Mar 6, 20262h 10mBen is hesitant to talk too much about politics on the podcast. So, naturally, we're having a political debate. We have on a pseudonymous guest to talk Trump, MAGA, and what's wrong with the left and the right. We...
Feb 17, 20261h 25m"What is Truth?", said jesting podcasters, who then stuck around for an answer. Back at it again with The Conjectures and Refutations Series (part three) on Chapter 10: Truth, Rationality, and the Growth of Scientific...
Jan 23, 20261h 42mTwo years without discussing effective altruism -- did you miss it? Not as much as Vaden, surely. And probably a right bit more than Ben. Well, we're back in the game with a spicy one. Was EA a front for AI safety from...
Dec 22, 202541 minHappy Christmas and Merry Festivus y'all! Today we're releasing a patreon episode, as both of us are away on vacation with the family for the holidays. In this episode we have a meandering discussion about parenting...
Nov 29, 202558 minAfter a long hiatus where we both saw grief counsellors over our fight about Popper's theory of content in the last C&R episode, we are back. And we're ready to play nice ... for about 30 seconds until Vaden admits that...
Nov 6, 20251h 25mThe time has come for Vaden to defend his faith in the face of cold, hard scientific rationality. Will AI take over the world, automating away everything that makes humans distinct? Or can Vaden defend the church of...
Oct 16, 20251h 47mBack to basics baby. We're doing a couple introductory episodes on Popper's philosophy of science, following Chapter 10 of Conjectures and Refutations. We start with Popper's theory of content : what makes a good...
Increments
#92 - Confronting the Paradox of Tolerance: Christianity in the age of Trump (w/ Jonathan Rauch)
Sep 25, 20251h 7mWe're joined by Jonathan Rauch to discuss what it means to be a radical incrementalist, how to foment revolution on geological timescales, and whether Christianity can be a force for good in politics. Can Jon convince...
Sep 4, 20251h 17mProfessor of electrical engineering and computer science Ben Recht joins us to defend Bayesianism, AI doom, and assure us that the statisticians have everything under control. Just kidding. Recht might be even more...
Increments
#90 (Reaction) - Disbelieving AI 2027: Responding to "Why We're Not Ready For Superintelligence"
Aug 18, 20251h 36mAlways the uncool kids at the table, Ben and Vaden push back against the AGI hype domininating every second episode of every second podcast. We react to "We're not ready for superintelligence" by 80,000 Hours - a bleak...
Recent guests
Recent guests on Increments. Study who booked and why before you pitch.
R
Robert Wright
Visiting Professor of Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, Basilica School of St. Mary's Star of the Sea
P
Peter Johansen
Jels
S
Scott Aaronson
Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, Electric Subsector Coordinating Council
J
Jonathan Rauch
author of "The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth", Center for Effective Public Management
Best industries to pitch Increments for
PitchCentric classifies Increments under these industries. Guests from them are the closest fit, and each links to the best podcasts in that industry.
Similar Podcasts
Shows with the most semantically similar episode content. Pitch one, pitch all; producers cluster.
The Bayesian Conspiracy
36~508 listeners82% similar
Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast
27~383 listeners81% similar
Question Everything (Except This Podcast!)
22~308 listeners81% similar
The Shift Lab
24~339 listeners81% similar
The Breaking Normal Podcast
33~477 listeners80% similar
Arjun Khemani Podcast
24~338 listeners80% similar
Podcasts like Increments
Is this podcast yours and you'd like to remove or correct details? Request removal or email privacy@pitchcentric.com.
Questions about the free trial? See the pricing FAQ