The Most Important Question

This Week: China takes on methane; Moderna's downturn; Inflated food costs; Measles on the rebound; Google's new drug company

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 125, Quinn asks: How can venture capital offer solutions to two of the biggest problems of our time?

His guests are Vida Asiegbu and Anthony Oni, two incredible climate venture capitalists with Elevate Future Fund.

Vida Asiegbu is a Principal within the Elevate Future Fund, working to make sure that the companies and organizations that they represent within their portfolio meet all of their goals and values.

Anthony Oni is the Managing Partner of the Elevate Future Fund, part of Energy Impact Partners, focused on creating a transition into clean energy through investments – while also building a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable future.

Together, Vida and Anthony ask (and answer): How do we build new systems that help and support all people, as we face this incredible crisis (and opportunity)? 

How do we approach the obligation we have to help others? How do we address the very personal – and very local – effects of climate change? 

And how the hell do we find and invest in companies that are moving the needle in both directions?

Today’s episode is brought to you by Avocado Green Brands, where sustainability comes first. They craft their GOTS certified organic mattresses, pillows, and bedding with natural materials sourced from their organic farms in India, in their own clean-energy powered facility in Los Angeles, where their team shares a singular purpose: To raise the bar for what it means to be a sustainable business. Avocado is Climate Neutral Certified for net zero emissions and donates one percent of all revenue to environmental nonprofits through its membership with 1% For the Planet. Find out what it means to sleep organic at AvocadoMattress.com.

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This week: Checking in on COP; How is this still happening?; An Impossible evaluation; Digitizing Medicade; Facebook is deleting your face; Did Big Oil lie in front of Congress?

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 124, Quinn interviews Dr. Elizabeth Ruzzo, a brilliant human geneticist who left the world of academia to launch adyn, her effort to help women find the best birth control for their unique bodies.

Family planning affects everybody – whether they use it themselves or not. With 200 forms of birth control to choose from, you’d think women would be able to easily find an option that didn’t make them feel like hot trash garbage -- but you’d be wrong.

In 2021, genetic testing means we can make this process much, much, much easier. Enter adyn. Family planning is (wait for it) more or less ignored by medical research, but adyn’s goal is to address that disparity head on and usher in a new age where women don’t have to experiment with 43 different forms of birth control until they (maybe) find one that doesn’t cause side-effects ranging from depression to blood clots and worse. 

Listen in as Elizabeth describes a world where a simple and private genetic test shared with adyn can lead to a medicine that gets the job done but doesn’t ruin your day, every day.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Avocado Green Brands, where sustainability comes first. They craft their GOTS certified organic mattresses, pillows, and bedding with natural materials sourced from their organic farms in India, in their own clean-energy powered facility in Los Angeles, where their team shares a singular purpose: To raise the bar for what it means to be a sustainable business. Avocado is Climate Neutral Certified for net zero emissions and donates one percent of all revenue to environmental nonprofits through its membership with 1% For the Planet. Find out what it means to sleep organic at AvocadoMattress.com.

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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• https://bookshop.org/shop/importantnotimportant

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This Week: Biden's agreement, revealed; Why vaccinating kids matters for everyone; Plant-based meat emissions questioned; Public health's original sin; Fixing Facebook

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode #123, Quinn gets a masterclass on Snapchat AND running for office with RFS co-founder, returning guest, and our favorite human alive, Amanda Litman!

Amanda’s helped thousands of progressive young people run and get elected to office across the country. Now, she’s here to tell us how Snapchat can further save democracy, thanks to its fancy new partnership with her org. 

Snap it! (I don’t know if that’s what the kids say -- I’m so sorry)

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This Week, Summarized: Moving on from Manchin; Kids shots; Forever chemicals regulated (finally); Google vs. Iran

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

This week: climate finance exposed; Moderna’s COVID profits are… a lot; beef’s emissions problem examined; startups for aging, and who gets to write the AI Bill of Rights?

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

This week: How to reduce methane; America’s out of diapers; COVID questions; A new day against malaria; Food systems examined; How you’re tracked

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

We’re bringing back one of our all-time most popular conversations, and not just because it kicks ass.

When this interview was recorded back in 2018, Dr. Sian Proctor was almost an astronaut. Now, in 2021, Dr. Proctor has just returned to Earth after becoming the first black, female pilot of a spacecraft. Let’s reflect back on her incredible story and it will become clear how this amazing achievement came to be.

In Episode 42, Quinn & Brian ask: What happens when you’re almost an astronaut... and what comes next?

Our guest is Dr. Sian Proctor, an explorer, scientist, full-time professor, STEM communicator, and almost an astronaut. Today she joins the show to tell us how we can all help get more women and more people of color into space, one way or another. If you didn’t know – and we weren’t sure – being a white, male military pilot isn’t the only way to get to space! You can be exposed to radiation and get superpowers, become an (evil?) genius who starts their own electric car and space flight companies or become a college-educated engineer, biologist, physical scientist, computer scientist, or mathematician.

So we’re still out, but that’s still a pretty wide range of qualifications.

Dr. Proctor was so much fun to talk to and so inspirational, and this episode will serve as the booster shot you need to not give up on your dreams (even if your dream is to be the best anti-vaxxer out there because, like most vaccines, it’s completely safe for you and your children). It’s basically like watching The Greatest Showman over and over and over again, but it only takes about an hour, and with less singing.

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• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

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