Best Stephen Thomas Miles Podcasts (2024)

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Ep. 24 - Connor McCann is back - NI Champs - Antrim Coast preview ft. event director James McIlroy 1:21:01

9h ago1:21:01

1:21:01

Big fortnight on and off the track so we called in the experts! Both Connor McCann and James McIlroy join us on the pod this week to recap some past events and to preview what is to come in the Antrim Coast Half this weekend. Connor helps us chat through the NI Track and Field Championships and gives us some highlights from his time spectating at t…

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Ep. 23 - 2 x Olympian Kevin Seaward - Paris 2024 - The local races 1:20:34

15d ago1:20:34

1:20:34

It's Olympic time and we have been revelling in all of the results and drama from Paris 2024! 2 x Irish Olympian Kevin Seaward joins us on the podcast this week for part 2 to discuss the behind the scenes of his Olympic campaigns as well as what has been happening in distance running so far in Paris! How about that men's 1500m final eh! Part 1 we c…

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Ep. 22 - Thomas Moran Interview - Griggs on fire - Diamond Leagues and Olympic chat 1:08:15

1M ago1:08:15

1:08:15

It almost time fo the big dance in Paris and we simply cannot wait! The Back Straight is delighted to welcome sub-4 minute Thomas Moran a.k.a the Ciara Mageean Alpha Pacer onto the podcast for some yarns! This episode includes chat about the stunning performances by Mid Ulster's very own Nick Griggs, Diamond League recaps and much more! Thomas also…

1
Ep. 21 - National Championships ft. Connor McCann 1:28:26

1M ago1:28:26

1:28:26

Lace up your spikes, folks! This week on The Back Straight, we're diving headfirst into the thrilling world of National Athletics Championships. We'll be recapping all the action from the Irish Life National Athletics Championships, the British Athletics Championships, and even peeking across the pond at the USATF Outdoor Championships. Joining us …

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Ep. 20 - Sub 4 minutes for the mile ft. Callum Morgan 1:02:14

2M ago1:02:14

1:02:14

It is a stacked episode this week with tonnes of race results and an interview with Belfast's newest 3:58 miler, Callum Morgan! Callum destroyed the legendary 4-minute barrier at the BMC Belfast and we were lucky enough to hear directly from the man himself. On top of the BMC we recap a tonne of other races including the Lisburn Half Marathon and 1…

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Ep 14 - Interp, latent robustness, RLHF limitations w/ Stephen Casper (PhD AI researcher, MIT) 2:42:17

2M ago2:42:17

2:42:17

We speak with Stephen Casper, or "Cas" as his friends call him. Cas is a PhD student at MIT in the Computer Science (EECS) department, in the Algorithmic Alignment Group advised by Prof Dylan Hadfield-Menell. Formerly, he worked with the Harvard Kreiman Lab and the Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI) at Berkeley. His work focuses on better unders…

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Ep 13 - AI researchers expect AGI sooner w/ Katja Grace (Co-founder & Lead Researcher, AI Impacts) 1:20:28

2M ago1:20:28

1:20:28

We speak with Katja Grace. Katja is the co-founder and lead researcher at AI Impacts, a research group trying to answer key questions about the future of AI — when certain capabilities will arise, what will AI look like, how it will all go for humanity. We talk to Katja about: * How AI Impacts latest rigorous survey of leading AI researchers shows …

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Ep. 19 - European Champs 2024 - BMC Belfast Preview with Mark Kirk 1:15:05

2M ago1:15:05

1:15:05

It is a fantastic time of the year with long evenings of track and road racing to be had at home and abroad! On this week's episode we are joined by Mark Kirk for a preview of the Belfast BMC meet on June 15. We also get chatting to Mark about the European Champs in Rome and throw a few random questions his way. Speaking of Rome, the action has bee…

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Ep. 18 - Newell Stores Races - BMC Manchester - IFAM Belgium - Prefontaine Classic 1:18:53

3M ago1:18:53

1:18:53

Faithful Back Straight enthusiasts, we are back for a packed 18th episode! In this week's ep. we cover the Newell Stores Races and are joined by Keep Er Lit's very own Cathal O'Hagan for an interview! The Annadale lads smashed it in the men's 5 and 10k and the women's races were just as spicy! It is also getting pretty warm on the Back Straight as …

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Ep. 17 - Belfast Irish Milers Meet - Belfast Marathon ft. Interview with Gladys Ganiel 1:41:53

4M ago1:41:53

1:41:53

It is a HUGE episode this week with all of the results and happenings from the Belfast Irish Milers Meet in Association with TripAdvisor as well as the 2024 Belfast Marathon! We go deep on the results for both events and are joined by none other than Gladys Ganiel, the first female local athlete home in this year's marathon. Not only do we catch up…

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Ep. 16 - London Marathon recap - Belfast Marathon Preview - Belfast Irish Milers ft. Eamonn Christie 1:03:48

4M ago1:03:48

1:03:48

On this week's episode we are joined by Eamonn Christie, the brains behind one of Ireland's most successful track meets, the Belfast Irish Milers! Eamonn gives us exclusive access to all of the juicy details for the meet on 11th of May and also his hot-takes for the big hitters in this weekend's Belfast Marathon. Danny gives us the full London reca…

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Stephen Scullion - London Marathon 2024 1:10:33

5M ago1:10:33

1:10:33

We have only gone and done it! The Back Straight is stoked to have 2.09 marathoner and Northern Irish record holder Stephen Scullion on the pod! Stephen is running London marathon this year and goes deep on his marathon training, olympic hopes and plans for the future. There are so many great pieces of advice that Stephen shares in the episode and …

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Ep. 15 - NBH Afternoon of 5000s Ft. John Black and Conor Curran 1:05:29

5M ago1:05:29

1:05:29

Another huge episode on the Back Straight this week as Michael and Danny are joined by some of North Belfast Harriers' finest, John Black and Conor Curran! This episode starts with the coming together of some brilliant minds to talk race results from the Omagh Half Marathon, Irish Unis track meet, Larne 10 mile and the Manchester Marathon! The myst…

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Ep. 14 - Barkley Marathons - Belfast 5km 1:10:42

5M ago1:10:42

1:10:42

It has been an epic couple of weeks in the local and international running scene! As usual, Michael and Dan chat about some local results including the Coleraine 5k and Whitehead 5 mile which takes place annually around Easter. From there the conversation moves on to the World Cross Country Championships and the mysteriously epic Barkley Marathons …

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Ep. 13 - Queen's 5k - Inter-Counties - Marty Rea 1:22:01

5M ago1:22:01

1:22:01

Episode 13 is jam-packed with all the local action and a great interview with Belfast running legend, Marty Rea. Michael and Dan go deep on the recent Inter-Counties Cross Country as well as the annual Queen's 5k race around the river. A few other results from the Derry 10 mile, Jimmy's 10k, Bohermeen Half-marathon, National Schools and University …

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Ep 12 - Education & advocacy for AI safety w/ Rob Miles (YouTube host) 1:21:26

6M ago1:21:26

1:21:26

We speak with Rob Miles. Rob is the host of the “Robert Miles AI Safety” channel on YouTube, the single most popular AI alignment video series out there — he has 145,000 subscribers and his top video has ~600,000 views. He goes much deeper than many educational resources out there on alignment, going into important technical topics like the orthogo…

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Ep. 12 - Grace Carson 56:01

6M ago56:01

56:01

Grace Carson is a Northern Irish runner's household name and we are absolutely delighted to have her feature on the podcast this week! Grace joins us to talk us through her running career so far and opens up about her recent diagnosis with RED-S. Grace talks us through how she discovered that she was suffering from this condition and gives great in…

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Ep. 11 - Senior Cross Country recap ft. sub 4 minute miler, Seamus McCann 1:23:20

6M ago1:23:20

1:23:20

The Back Straight is back with an action packed episode for number 11! Danny and Michael are joined by the brilliant Seamus McCann from North Belfast Harriers to shed some light on what is in the water over at NBH headquarters! There are tonnes of results to go over and some big stories in the world of running to highlight. Danny chats through some…

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Ep. 10 - Armagh 5k ft. special guest Stephen Connolly 1:08:11

7M ago1:08:11

1:08:11

It is the week of the annual Armagh 5k international road race and we are joined by Waste Land Track Club co-founder Stephen Connolly to unpack the race as well as some recent results! Stephen runs us through his return to form and we then jump straight into the heavy hitting topic of the Armagh 5k! Predictions are made and weather is forecast, we …

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Ep. 9 - Back Straight is back for 2024! 1:05:23

7M ago1:05:23

1:05:23

2024 is here and it is going to be a good one! Michael and Dan return to the airwaves to bring you all of the latest race results, wild speculation and plans for the year ahead. This episode features a round up of what has been happening since the last episode both at home and abroad. Dan recaps his time in Australia and Michael questions what coul…

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Ep. 8 - Nick Griggs - Euro Cross - Telford 10k 57:24

9M ago57:24

57:24

Thanks for joining us for another episode and the last for 2023! This one is a real cracker as we are joined by the one and only Nick Griggs! Nick recently competed at the European Cross Country Championships and came away with a team gold and individual bronze. Nick goes deep on the race as well as his highlights from the year and what is to come.…

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Ep 11 - Technical alignment overview w/ Thomas Larsen (Director of Strategy, Center for AI Policy) 1:37:19

9M ago1:37:19

1:37:19

We speak with Thomas Larsen, Director for Strategy at the Center for AI Policy in Washington, DC, to do a "speed run" overview of all the major technical research directions in AI alignment. A great way to quickly learn broadly about the field of technical AI alignment. In 2022, Thomas spent ~75 hours putting together an overview of what everyone i…

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Ep. 7 - Seeley Cup 2023 - Conal McCambridge takes on the Valencia Marathon 1:08:14

9M ago1:08:14

1:08:14

Ormeau Park (Belfast) played host to the annual Seeley Cup and the stories from this year's edition will continue to be told for years to come! A huge run by Hannah Gilliland (Annadale Striders) was the story of the day and we get chatting to both Hannah and the men's winner, Paul Pollock (Kent AC). We go deep on how the race played out and how col…

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Ep 6.1 - Back Straight Bonus Episode! Matthew Lavery and Neill Weir 1:08:48

9M ago1:08:48

1:08:48

Did someone say Bonus Episode?! We could not wait to drop these two interviews that we recorded with North Belfast Harrier Matthew Lavery and Willowfield Temperance Harrier Neill Weir. Matthew recently qualified for the European Cross Country in Brussels and we thought it would be a great opportunity to hear from him how on how he is going prior to…

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Ep. 6 - Irish National Cross Country Championships and the Seeley Cup Preview 1:00:23

9M ago1:00:23

1:00:23

The Irish National Cross Country Championships have come and gone for 2023 and it was one to be remembered! Malcolm McCausland jumps back on the pod to help Michael do a deep dive on the results with a focus on our beloved Northern athletes. There is plenty of speculation during this episode on how the Seeley Cup will play out and where Andrew Mill…

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Ep. 5 - Dublin Marathon ft. Roadrunners A.C. 59:42

10M ago59:42

59:42

It's our fifth episode so what better way to celebrate than with friends! It was our great pleasure to chat to Roadrunners A.C athletes Caitlyn Harvey and Noel McNally. Caitlyn is fresh off her marathon debut of 2:45 in Dublin and Noel reflects on starting the Roadrunners Athletics Club that has now seen over 40 people complete the 26.2 mile distan…

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Ep 10 - Accelerated training to become an AI safety researcher w/ Ryan Kidd (Co-Director, MATS) 1:16:58

10M ago1:16:58

1:16:58

We speak with Ryan Kidd, Co-Director at ML Alignment & Theory Scholars (MATS) program, previously "SERI MATS". MATS (https://www.matsprogram.org/) provides research mentorship, technical seminars, and connections to help new AI researchers get established and start producing impactful research towards AI safety & alignment. Prior to MATS, Ryan comp…

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Ep 9 - Scaling AI safety research w/ Adam Gleave (CEO, FAR AI) 1:19:12

10M ago1:19:12

1:19:12

We speak with Adam Gleave, CEO of FAR AI (https://far.ai). FAR AI’s mission is to ensure AI systems are trustworthy & beneficial. They incubate & accelerate research that's too resource-intensive for academia but not ready for commercialisation. They work on everything from adversarial robustness, interpretability, preference learning, & more. We t…

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Ep. 4 - Marathon Madness! Jimmy Ashworth and Dearbhla Cox 1:21:17

10M ago1:21:17

1:21:17

It's marathon season! Michael and Dan get chatting with the legendary Jimmy Ashworth and in-form Dearbhla Cox. Jimmy has a marathon PB of 2:11:43 and has won several major marathons such as Berlin! He tells us about how it was living and training in a 'golden era' of British distance running and how to get through a 150 mile week with no carbon-pla…

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Ep 8 - Getting started in AI safety & alignment w/ Jamie Bernardi (AI Safety Lead, BlueDot Impact) 1:07:23

11M ago1:07:23

1:07:23

We speak with Jamie Bernardi, co-founder & AI Safety Lead at not-for-profit BlueDot Impact, who host the biggest and most up-to-date courses on AI safety & alignment at AI Safety Fundamentals (https://aisafetyfundamentals.com/). Jamie completed his Bachelors (Physical Natural Sciences) and Masters (Physics) at the U. Cambridge and worked as an ML E…

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Ep. 3 - Crikey! It's Hannah Irwin and the Armagh 10 Mile Road Race 1:11:06

11M ago1:11:06

1:11:06

North Belfast Harrier Conor Curran joins us this week to chat about some big race results and the Chicago Marathon. We get updated on the newly crowned NI & Ulster 10km Champions, how our Masters athletes went in sunny Pescara, and hear from the winners of the Armagh 10 Mile Road Race. We then catch-up with Great Britain and Northern Irish athlete …

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Ep. 2 - The Back Straight Podcast - Mark Kirk interview and £400 Super Shoes 1:02:32

11M ago1:02:32

1:02:32

ANI Endurance Coordinator, Mark Kirk, joins us on the Back Straight to give us the inside line on altitude training camps, the future of distance running in Northern Ireland and his training philosophy. We share some local race results from the Belfast City Half Marathon, the NI & Ulster Road Relays and the first XC event of the season in Armagh. O…

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Ep. 1 - The Back Straight Podcast - Track Season Review and Mullets? 48:50

12M ago48:50

48:50

The 'Back Straight' is back, baby! Michael McKnight and Daniel Squires talk results, upcoming races and hairstyles for the fashionable runner. Big thank you to Malcolm McCausland for joining us for a review of the 2023 track season, what a season it was! As always, thank you for listening and we look forward to catching up with you all again in a c…

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Ep. 0 - The Back Straight Podcast - Is there anyone out there? 9:42

1y ago9:42

9:42

Welcome to the 'Back Straight'! Daniel Squires and Michael McKnight get together to introduce the podcast and talk plans for the future. Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoy it and join us for our first full-length episode landing mid-September! Contact us here: Instagram: @thebackstraightpodcast Email: thebackstraightpod@gmail.com Twitter: @the…

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Episode 0011: Feat. Lockjaw Marteen, Sheen Stiltskin, & Peter Pesto 42:13

1y ago42:13

42:13

We're back with a brand new episode and new faces! It's been a couple years, lots of news happenedBy S.E. Thomas

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Ep 7 - Responding to a world with AGI - Richard Dazeley (Prof AI & ML, Deakin University) 1:10:05

1y ago1:10:05

1:10:05

In this episode, we speak with Prof Richard Dazeley about the implications of a world with AGI and how we can best respond. We talk about what he thinks AGI will actually look like as well as the technical and governance responses we should put in today and in the future to ensure a safe and positive future with AGI. Prof Richard Dazeley is the Dep…

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Ep 6 - Will we see AGI this decade? Our AGI predictions & debate w/ Hunter Jay (CEO, Ripe Robotics) 1:20:58

1y ago1:20:58

1:20:58

In this episode, we have back on the show Hunter Jay, CEO Ripe Robotics, our co-host on Ep 1. We synthesise everything we've heard on AGI timelines from experts in Ep 1-5, take in more data points, and use this to give our own forecasts for AGI, ASI (i.e. superintelligence), and "intelligence explosion" (i.e. singularity). Importantly, we have diff…

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Ep 5 - Accelerating AGI timelines since GPT-4 w/ Alex Browne (ML Engineer) 38:26

1+ y ago38:26

38:26

In this episode, we have back on our show Alex Browne, ML Engineer, who we heard on Ep2. He got in contact after watching recent developments in the 4 months since Ep2, which have accelerated his timelines for AGI. Hear why and his latest prediction. Hosted by Soroush Pour. Follow me for more AGI content: Twitter: https://twitter.com/soroushjp Link…

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Ep 4 - When will AGI arrive? - Ryan Kupyn (Data Scientist & Forecasting Researcher @ Amazon AWS) 1:03:23

1+ y ago1:03:23

1:03:23

In this episode, we speak with forecasting researcher & data scientist at Amazon AWS, Ryan Kupyn, about his timelines for the arrival of AGI. Ryan was recently ranked the #1 forecaster in Astral Codex Ten's 2022 Prediction contest, beating out 500+ other forecasters and proving himself to be a world-class forecaster. He has also done work in ML & w…

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Ep 3 - When will AGI arrive? - Jack Kendall (CTO, Rain.AI, maker of neural net chips) 1:01:34

1+ y ago1:01:34

1:01:34

In this episode, we speak with Rain.AI CTO Jack Kendall about his timelines for the arrival of AGI. He also speaks to how we might get there and some of the implications. Hosted by Soroush Pour. Follow me for more AGI content: Twitter: https://twitter.com/soroushjp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soroushjp/ Show links Jack Kendall Bio: Jack i…

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Ep 2 - When will AGI arrive? - Alex Browne (Machine Learning Engineer) 58:26

1+ y ago58:26

58:26

In this episode, we speak with ML Engineer Alex Browne about his forecasted timelines for the potential arrival of AGI. He also speaks to how we might get there and some of the implications. Hosted by Soroush Pour. Follow me for more AGI content: Twitter: https://twitter.com/soroushjp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soroushjp/ == Show links =…

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Ep 1 - When will AGI arrive? - Logan Riggs Smith (AGI alignment researcher) 1:10:51

2y ago1:10:51

1:10:51

We speak with AGI alignment researcher Logan Riggs Smith about his timelines for AGI. He also speaks to how we might get there and some of the implications. Hosted by Hunter Jay and Soroush Pour Show links Further writings from Logan Riggs Smith Cotra report on AGI timelines: Original report (very long) Scott Alexander analysis of this report…