The Most Important Question

By Important, Not ImportantSociety & Culture Science Technology

The Most Important Question episodes

June 07, 2023Essay: 10 Questions You Need to Ask Right Now
This week:
Ask these questions before you click on ANYTHING.

Plus: Gut inflammation news, California insurance gets harder to find, 750k adults just lost Medicaid, what (non-vaccinated) COVID actually does to your lungs, and more
Here's What You Can Do:
⚡️ PFAS (“forever chemicals”) have been linked to serious health problems. Urge Congress bans PFAS from all food contact materials by using this script from Toxic-Free Future.
⚡️ Work in marketing? Join Clean Creatives, a movement of advertisers and PR professionals, and pledge to cut ties with fossil fuels.
⚡️ Reclaim your right to privacy online with the Mullvad VPN (I use it every day).
⚡️ Keep informed with Circle of Blue’s in-depth reporting on the solutions and challenges to the water scarcity crisis.
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
Most pregnancy-related deaths occur in the year after a baby is born, prompting new strategies in caring for new mothers
The science behind how chronic stress impacts gut health
Nano-plastics are causing inflammation in the gut and brain, but the damage is reversible when they’re removed
Maybe everyone knowing where you are at all times isn’t actually the healthiest thing for our relationships? Imagine being a teen worrying that everyone is hanging out without you, and then confirming your suspicions are correct
Climate
State Farm is no longer accepting homeowner insurance applications in California
What the Debt Ceiling Deal means for the climate
The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is changing the way the government calculates the costs and benefits of regulation, all in the name of fighting pollution
How and where to build a strong manufacturing base for clean energy in the US
Food & Water
How the debt ceiling agreement will put 750,000 older adults at risk of losing food assistance
Commodity farmers are using regenerative cover cropping to adapt to climate change
A million plastic bottles are purchased worldwide every minute. EVERY MINUTE! That’s a shit ton. If you need help visualizing a shit ton, here’s a visual.
Beep Boop
A summary of Wolfram Alpha’s breakdown on what the hell is going on with ChatGPT and LLM’s
It’s time to start thinking about the governance of superintelligence
Amazon has settled with the FTC for illegally spying on users and collecting kids data
COVID
Here’s what COVID does to your lungs
And the 12 most common symptoms associated with Long COVID
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

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16 min
May 29, 2023Best of: How to Protect Yourself from Wildfire Smoke
What's in wildfire smoke and how can you protect yourself from it?

Those are today's big questions, and my guest is Dr. Mary Prunicki.

Dr. Prunicki is the Director of Air Pollution and Health Research at Stanford University under the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research. Her lab examines the impact of air pollution and wildfires on health, specifically immune health.

Dr. Prunicki and I got together in late summer 2021 as fires and smoke just enveloped the American West and eventually the East Coast too.

Almost two years later, the west has seen a very wet winter and relative if temporary respite from fires, but Canada's on fire now, and everyone can see and taste the smoke as the jet stream carries it all the way across the continent.

So it's always a good time to understand how to protect yourself and your family, and that begins with understanding what you're protecting yourselves from, so we're rerunning this very popular and necessary conversation to make sure you and I, and all of us are up to speed all over again.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected]

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

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INI Book Club:
Night by Elie Wiesel
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
profiles.stanford.edu/mary-prunicki
Buy Purple Air monitor (or just look at the live map)
How to Buy a *Real* N95 Mask
EPA Air Quality & Climate Change Research
California Air Resources Board
American Lung Association on Outdoor Air Quality
Stanford Center for Air Quality Research
From Bloomberg: Wildfire's Toxic Legacy Leaves Children Gasping for Air Years Later
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Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
1 hr 4 min
May 19, 2023Essay: Gradually, and then all at once
This week:
Things feel pretty out of control. Get used to it.

Plus: The Canadian West is burning, Oregon bans PFAS, ChatGPT plugins for everyone, the All We Can Save project is hiring, and more
Here's What You Can Do:
⚡️Wildfire smoke exposure is directly linked to myriad health impacts due to poor air quality. Know your daily risk by using this Purple Air outdoor air monitor.
⚡️We need to heal ourselves to heal the planet. Find resources and community to help with your climate anxiety through the Climate Mental Health Network.
⚡️Act locally. Use ReFED to find current food waste policies and programs you can learn from and implement in your town.
⚡️Work in local government? Biobot Analytics provides wastewater testing tools so we can better estimate the number of COVID-19 (and other diseases) infections in the community
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
These are the cities with most bike deaths per capita (I share news like this to illustrate where we can make drastic improvements)
Not to be outdone, the South Carolina House passed a six-week abortion ban
UnitedHealthcare wants doctors to get prior authorization for colonoscopies. People are very pissed off.
Where American air pollution is improving, and getting worse
Climate
Our friends at the All We Can Save project are hiring a Programs & Community Manager — details here!
Could enormous robots dramatically speed up solar farm construction? Sure!
How can we restore oyster reefs without oyster shells?
Octopus Energy continues to be a model for…everyone else
The Canadian west continues to burn, and climate change is a big reason why
Food & Water
Oregon banned PFAS (forever chemicals) in food containers
How plant-based food makers can fight back against meat and dairy disinformation
If growing one almond requires 3.2 gallons of water out west, how do we reconcile that?
The women working for food sovereignty on island territories
Undercover audio of a Tyson employee reveals “free-range” chicken is bullshit (more on humanewashing)
Beep Boop
OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT plugins to everyone, should be fine
Ransomware hackers are zeroing in (again) on under-resourced cities and towns
The Supreme Court ruled Twitter and Google aren’t legally liable for terrorists using their platforms
COVID
This isn’t COVID-specific (I wrote that big update last week), but it could be monumental, if we do the work: the CDC released a new health-based indoor air ventilation target, and the the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers released its own enhanced ventilation standard.
Here’s Joseph G. Allen on why it could be a game-changer.
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

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24 min
May 17, 2023Health Care Is A Human Right
Is healthcare a human right?

That's today's big question, and it clearly shouldn't be a question, but here we are. My guest to help explain the obvious today is Dr. Sheila Davis, the CEO of Partners in Health.

Sheila entered the global health arena in 1999, responding to the global HIV and AIDS pandemic. A few years later, she co-founded a small NGO that worked in both South Africa and Boston on a wide array of health projects, including the operation of a rural village nurse clinic.

She joined PIH in 2010 as their main operation in Haiti was torn apart by the earthquake there and worked her way up over the years, becoming the Chief of the Ebola response during the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic. And then as the Chief of Clinical Operations and the Chief Nursing Officer, Sheila oversaw nursing efforts as well as the supply chain, medical informatics, laboratory infrastructure, and quality improvement activities.

Dr. Davis is a frequent national speaker on global health and clinical topics, including HIV and AIDS, the Ebola epidemic, leadership in public health, and the role of nursing and human rights.

And folks, if it is not clear enough for the past few years, just in the US, much less everywhere around the world, yes, healthcare is a human right, and everyone deserves a fair shake.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected]

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

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INI Book Club:
Devotions by Mary Oliver (a starting point, as one of many Mary Oliver poetry selections)
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Paul Farmer
Above Ground by Clint Smith
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Get involved with Partners In Health
Follow Dr Davis on Twitter
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
1 hr 8 min
May 16, 2023Essay: COVID has ended (or has it?)
This week:
COVID is over (as far as we know it). What did we learn, and what’s next?

PLUS: Gay blood donations are a go, wind power in the UK, social media guidelines, millions for Black farmers, water report cards, and more
Here's What You Can Do:
⚡️ Discover which websites are harvesting your data using The Markup’s Blacklight tool
⚡️ Prepare your home for a wildfire using these resources from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
⚡️ Ensure everyone, everywhere, receives access to quality healthcare by donating to Partners In Health
⚡️ With SNAP benefits getting rolled back, make sure more people have access to food and volunteer with or donate to Feeding America
⚡️ Keep an eye on wastewater tracking data to understand the prevalence of COVID in your area
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
The APA has released a health advisory on social media use for kids
Gay and bisexual men are now eligible to donate blood without having to abstain from sex. Welcome to the 21st century, FDA!
A new discovery about T cells could inspire new anti-tumor treatments
Google is using AI to improve hearing technology
Climate
In Europe, British wind power has overtaken gas, and e-bikes are taking over in Germany
The Biden-Harris Administration is committing $50 million to fund clean energy solutions in rural America
We can halve the amount of land use needed for renewables in the US
Exxon is in breach of its Environmental Permit in Guyana, according to a High Court Judge
Food & Water
Louisiana is publishing report cards for its water systems to improve transparency
Black farmers are getting a $20 million boost
The Farm Bill needs to include funding for Indigenous food producers
Beep Boop
Google Search is facing some big AI-related challenges
A lawsuit is threatening the cybersecurity of US critical infrastructure
An interactive map from The Markup explores what neighborhoods internet providers excluded from fast internet
COVID
Nearly a million New Yorkers lost at least 3 loved ones to COVID
Food banks are being hit hard as pandemic aid expires
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
33 min
May 08, 2023Fighting Food Waste With The iPhone of Trash Cans
How much food do you throw away every week? And do you have to?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Matt Rogers.

Matt is a former Apple iPod and iPhone engineer. The Co-Founder of Nest thermostats, Founder of incite.org, and former Chairman of Carbon180. He is now the Co-Founder and CEO of Mill.

What's Mill? It's a membership to a food-shrinking, de-stinking kitchen bin, and it just may be one of the most important levers you and I can take to fight food waste and climate change.

I'm a huge fan of Matt's multidisciplinary work to drive systems change across tech, non-profits, and politics.

Mill may be his most direct take on it yet.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected]

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

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INI Book Club:
The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager
Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Reserve your Mill bin
Follow Mill on Instagram and Twitter
Follow Matt on Twitter
Read the recent Nature article on food waste and emissions
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
55 min
May 05, 2023Essay: Never Tell Me The Odds
This week:
Solutions to our biggest problems shouldn’t be so perplexing. On the other hand, washing our hands wasn’t obvious for a couple hundred thousand years, and my kids STILL don't want to do it.

Plus: Seasonal allergy news, a new Barbie, non-profit grocery stores, climate hackers, the SEC, the WHO, Google’s huge new feature, and Khan Academy revolutionizes education — again
Here's What You Can Do:
⚡️ Floods or not, fire season’s (probably) right around the corner. Get up to the minute air quality reports with a Purple Air monitor (and nifty map, too)
⚡️ Your community may need to replace toxic lead water service lines. Check out Beyond Plastic’s report on the pros and cons of PVC pipes.
⚡️ Sure, the economy and market are completely unpredictable at this point, but there’s no better time to put your retirement fund to work fighting climate change. Do it with Carbon Collective.
⚡️ Speaking of lead pipes — will microplastics and PFAS (“forever chemicals”) be our version? Check out PFAS Central’s PFAS-free brands and consumer products.
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
Seasonal allergies are coming for us all
In Cancer Alley, US chemical giants mounted a campaign against grassroots organizers, so they can continue to kill people
Apparently forever chemicals in food packaging (like take-out containers) can migrate into food
North Carolina passed a 12 week abortion ban, fuck those guys
Barbie launched the first doll with Down’s syndrome
Climate
None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use
Recycling, which doesn’t really work, also spews microplastics
Environmentalists sue California over their stupidly reduced solar incentives
The SEC is taking forever to regulate climate disclosures, so the EU has gone one farther and oh boy
Florida and Louisiana are borrowing millions to pay insurance claims (go deeper in my must-listen convo with Washington Post reporter Brianna Sacks)
Food & Water
In which the FDA chief dips his toe very gently into the idea of food as medicine
Non-profit grocery stores are trying to rehab America’s food deserts
Inside Big Beef’s (incredibly effective) climate messaging machine
Meet the climate hackers of frontline Malawi
Pollution from farms violates civil rights, maybe?
Beep Boop
WATCH: Sal Khan unveils Khan Academy’s new educational chatbot, Khanmigo
Google began rolling out passkeys — this is a great day for data security (check out how to enable it now)
The FTC wants to stop Meta/Facebook from releasing any new products until they stop trouncing kids’ privacy
Washington State passed a sweeping health data law
COVID
Per the WHO, with commentary from David Wallace-Wells: Apparently the Pandemic Emergency is Over (it was America’s 4th leading cause of death in 2022)
There’s a new culprit behind Long COVID: monocytes
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
29 min
May 01, 2023Check Your Insurance Policy
You've got insurance, right? Are you sure?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Washington Post reporter Brianna Sacks.

Brianna's an extreme weather and disaster reporter for the Post where she explores how climate change is transforming the United States through violent storms, intense heat, widespread wildfires, and other forms of extreme weather.

Brianna deploys to disaster zones, which are sometimes very close to home, and does enterprise reporting on the preparations for responses to and the aftermaths of catastrophic events.

We're having this conversation today because last month Brianna revealed how insurers have slashed Hurricane Ian payouts far below damage estimates, often up to 80%.

I cannot emphasize enough that the future includes an insurance landscape that is among the most important in our very brittle economy and society.

It underpins everything we rely on, so understanding not only your own insurance but how well your mortgage holder and the system at large are prepared for what's here and what's coming, is essential.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected]

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

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INI Book Club:
What I Talk about When I Talk about Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Training for the Uphill Athlete by Steve House, Scott Johnston, and Kilian Jornet
The Great Displacement by Jake Bittle
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Follow Brianna on Twitter and Instagram
Read Brianna's piece on Hurricane Ian insurance cuts
Read more of her reporting at The Washington Post
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
1 hr 7 min
April 26, 2023Essay: What Would You Say You Do Here
This week:
Is what you’re working on important?

Plus: The cleanest produce, a mosquito factory, lots of rooftop solar, autonomous GPT, maybe, and the latest with the Colorado River
Here's What You Can Do:
⚡️ Climate change and mental health are inextricably linked. Get some help with the Climate Mental Health Network.
⚡️ Live in or own a multi-family building? Check out how BlocPower can help electrify it.
⚡️ If you’re like “I wonder if my town or state has e-bike rebates”, here’s a Google Sheet with every known rebate in the country
⚡️ Start a student alliance for tech ethics at your university with the Techshift Alliance.
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
The countries with the highest rates of malaria deaths have approved Oxford’s new vaccine
Brazil built a massive mosquito factory — it’s not what you think
Our friends at Biobot Analytics have expanded their wastewater monitoring into norovirus outbreaks
Are we close to a combo flu and COVID vaccine?
Climate
Why SUV’s got so big, and so popular
Germany shut down their remaining operational nuclear plants for really no reason, but banned new gas and oil heating?
Elon’s Twitter could break disaster response
Jigar’s Energy Department committed $3 billion to rooftop solar access for those with lower credit scores
Food & Water
These are EWG’s “Dirty Dozen” in produce
Radical “seed breeding” could bring about more climate friendly crops
The Colorado River crisis didn’t have to be this way, but big meat made it this way
The massive batteries sloshing around beneath our feet
Beep Boop
OpenAI’s hunger for data might come back to bite them
State tech laws are starting to look like state marijuana laws
How Mexico became the biggest user of Pegasus spyware
Hype grows over “autonomous” GPT
COVID
The NIH spent $1 billion on Long COVID research. Where’d it go?
Ed Yong is back and asking why we’re so keen on erasing Long COVID
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
19 min
April 24, 2023Every Climate Action Matters
What can I do?

The simple question is the underlying premise of everything we do here. It's often the easiest one to help people answer for themselves, but from the outside, it's often the most imposing.

All of which is why we keep coming back to it, and why I'm so excited about the fantastic new book, The Climate Action Handbook by Dr. Heidi Roop.

Dr. Roop is the Director of the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership and an assistant professor of climate science and extension specialist at the University of Minnesota. She also serves as the Director of Knowledge Transfer for the NSF-funded COLDEX Science and Technology Center.

Dr. Roop's research and extension programs have taken her from Antarctica to Minnesota, and they combine cutting-edge climate science and effective science communication to increase the use and integration of climate change information in decision-making at a whole range of scales, from city and state to national and international levels.

Safe to say, I'm very into that and you're going to love her.

If you've struggled to find a way to get involved in the climate fight, this book and this conversation are for you.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected]

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

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INI Book Club:
The Climate Action Handbook by Heidi Roop
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie by Connie & Peter Roop
A Brief History of Life on Earth by Clemence Dupont
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Follow Heidi on Twitter
Keep up with Heidi's work
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
1 hr 15 min

About The Most Important Question

From the publisher's feed

The most important question in today's world of climate chaos, AI psychosis, and crumbling democracy is: what can I do? Your host, Quinn Emmett is completely unqualified to answer it, so he's calling the people that already are.