This week: Because I am a sap, I have been thinking about my kids a lot lately. And kids in general. They’re going to grow up and live in a world that’s very different from ours, and it’s important to me that they’re all as ready for that as they can be. So this week: Did you hear about the starfish?Here's What You Can Do:Donate to Tobacco Free Kids to help fight against flavored e-cigarettes.Volunteer with Mothers Out Front and come together to fight against climate injustice and for our children’s future.Get educated about how to electrify your child’s school, making it cleaner, healthier, and climate-safe with these resources from Rewiring America.Be heard about protecting children from pesticides and urge your representative to support the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act.Invest in a better world for kids and make sure your philanthropic dollars make a measurable difference with<a...

Did You Hear The One About The Starfish?

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We're talkin' clean energy and coral reefs, COVID vaccines and pediatric cancer research, clean water and carbon capture tech, asteroid deflection and artificial intelligence ethics. 

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This week: Let’s talk about the Information Era.Here's What You Can Do:Donate (and subscribe!) to the 19th, an independent, non-profit, kick-ass newsroom reporting on gender and politics.Volunteer with Tech Shift to build a fairer, more just technological future.

Program The World

What have we learned from millennia of water insecurity, of climate changes and disasters, of building along freshwater ways and the ocean, that we can apply today? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Amber Wutich. Dr. Wutich is an ASU President's Professor, Director of the Center for Global Health, and 2023 MacArthur Fellow.  She's an expert on water insecurity, and directs the Global Ethnohydrology Study, a cross cultural study of water knowledge and management in over 20 countries. Dr. Wutich’s two decades of community based field work explore how people respond individually and collectively to extremely water scarce conditions. She leads the NSF Action for Water Equity, a participatory convergence study that develops collaborative water solutions with water insecure U.S. communities. Her teaching has been recognized with many awards, including the Carnegie Case Arizona Professor of the Year. As maybe the most important thing that neither you or I can live without, water is both becoming more scarce in Central America, Northern India, Syria and other places, and more prevalent through sea level rise, flooding and storms where we're not ready for it. ----------- Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com. ----------- INI Book Club:Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:Connect with Amber on LinkedIn, Twitter, and BlueSkyDonate or volunteer with Water For PeopleDonate to Dig DeepLearn more about Amber's work with NSF-funded Household Water Insecurity Experiences Research Coordination NetworkLearn more about the National Science Foundation
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The Social Infrastructure of Water

This week: Bernie decided March 15th is Long COVID Awareness Day, so I thought it was an appropriate moment to try to pull together the threads of why Long COVID pisses me off so much, examples of other self-defeating issues we never learned from, and a blueprint for how to do better, better.Here's What You Can Do:

The Aftermath

You know you're stressed. You know you're anxious. Do you have depression? And do you need to know the latest in the biology of how the brain works and depression works or doesn't work and whether the gut is involved in getting meaningful help?  That's today's big question. I promise it's kind of one question, even if there are a ton of different answers, and they're going to be different for everybody. This conversation is a follow-up to our last couple of conversations about the brain, the gut, and depression. My returning guest is Srijan Sen.  Srijan is still the Francis and Kenneth Eisenberg Professor of Depression and Neurosciences at the University of Michigan and the Director of the Francis and Kenneth Eisenberg and Family Depression Center.  His leading research focuses on the interactions between genes and the environment and their effect on stress, anxiety, and depression. Content WarningThis week we're talking about depression, and stress, and anxiety, and mental health, and suicide.This is a very important conversation but if any of this could be triggering to you, please just skip over the next one. Nothing in this conversation, of course, should be taken as medical advice. If a treatment, or some combination of treatments, prescribed or recommended, by your health care provider is working for you, huzzah. That's great. Stay with it. Your personal experience with the treatment is much more relevant than anything in this conversation. If you're using a depression medication or other therapy and not getting relief from your depression symptoms, talk with your health care provider.If you are struggling and feeling distressed, or that you might hurt yourself, text or call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, right now, to get help. And you can even call and press 3 to speak to a counselor with the Trevor Project, who provide wonderful support for LGBTQ+ folks. ----------- Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com. ----------- INI Book Club:Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:Follow along with the work of The Sen LabFollow Srijan on TwitterSuicide Crisis Lifeline (Call 988)The Trevor Project Hotline for LBGTQ+ youthListen to Srijan's first episode 
Follow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at <a href="https://www.importantnotimportant.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

The Best Depression Treatment For You

This week: There are few problems so simple that a single donation can fix them. Usually, to turn a problem into a realistic opportunity takes many donations. Over time, spread over a large number of donors. But all the work before that is kind of exhausting: you’ve gotta make sure your donation goes to the right place, the right organization, the right people — usually the ones closest to the problem — with the most pragmatic intentions.Here's What You Can Do:Donate to Give Directly and put cash straight into the pockets of the people who need it the most.Volunteer with Overdose Lifeline to support their harm reduction and awareness efforts.Get educated about starting a resilience hub in your community with resources from the USDN.Be heard about making healthy school meals free for students everywhere.Invest in a sustainable future and find a clean bank to move your money into using <a...

Did You Hear The One About The Starfish?

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