If you haven’t already heard, we received a Webby nomination for Best Podcast Episode in the Science & Education category. We’re really proud to be nominated again… but, we also really want to win. So, today, we’re re-airing the episode that received a nomination and asking you to help us with your vote.

Back in Episode 70, Quinn & Brian discussed: When things are broken, when the people who are working on those things are also broken, and why we need to help them.

Our guest was Nikki Silvestri, the founder and CEO of Soil and Shadow, the Co-Founder of Live Real, and the former Executive Director of People's Grocery and Green for All. She is a nationally recognized thought leader and general good doer, including being named as one of The Root's 100 Most Influential African Americans and receiving both ELLE Magazine's "Gold" Award and OxFam America's "Act Local, Think Global" Award.

We don’t hesitate or feel like we’re overselling things when we say that what Nikki has to say is something that most people need to hear, and this could be a truly transformative message if it falls on the right ears. Brian said it, Quinn took credit for it, and now we hope you take it to heart.

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.

INI Book Club: 

• I Hate You - Don't Leave Me by Hal Straus and Jerold Jay Kreisman

Links:

• www.soilandshadow.com
• www.nikkisilvestri.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/nikki_silvestri

Connect with us:

• Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com
• Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
• Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
• Follow Brian: twitter.com/beansaight
• Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
• Artwork by Amrit Pal

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

That's right, we are now a four-time Webby-nominated podcast! But what we really want is to be a Webby-winning podcast. So, please, go vote! It's free and you can stick it to the AARP.

Vote for Important, Not Important for Best episode (Science & Education): https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2020/podcasts/individual-episodes-mini-series-specials/science-education

Vote for Important, Not Important for Best newsletter: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting/#/2020/websites/general-websites/email-newsletters 

 In Episode 73, Quinn & Brian asked: Did A.I. take our jobs?

Of course, we aren’t talking about our jobs. If A.I. took our jobs, the show would have won that goddamn Webby.

No, no — we’re talking about really, really important jobs – the jobs being done by people like Dr. Mohammed AlQuraishi, who is a Department Fellow at the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology and the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School.

Still, Dr. AlQuraishi is hopeful about the future and his role in it — an attitude that was refreshing the first time we aired this episode and is downright necessary right now.

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.

INI Book Club: 

• The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
• INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

• Learn more at https://moalquraishi.wordpress.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/moalquraishi
• “The Future of Protein Science will not be Supervised”
• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: chanzuckerberg.com

Connect with us:

• Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com
• Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
• Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
• Follow Brian: twitter.com/beansaight
• Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
• Artwork by Amrit Pal

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

Our “Good News” series of replays begins today with Episode 66, when Quinn & Brian hosted a delightfully important discussion: Why, apparently, we shouldn’t just blow up asteroids.

Our guest is: Professor K.T. Ramesh, who is an absolute delight and may have the coolest job in the world. He is the founding director of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI), which is pretty much a real-life Avengers, except every member is like Bruce Banner without all the Hulk-iness or Tony Stark if he was never kidnapped by terrorists. Every day, they’re working to protect people, structures, and the planet, exploring a number of topics that are both critically important and impenetrably complicated.

If, like us, you’ve always considered the seminal feature film Armageddon a blueprint for what to do in case of planetary disaster, Professor Ramesh is here to set the record straight about how we will have to deal with any incoming extraterrestrial projectiles.

This conversation is just so much fun, and we hope it provides a welcome distraction to everything else going on in the world right now.

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.

INI Book Club: 

• These Truths by Jill Lepore
• https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3
• INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

• Learn more about Professor Ramesh & HEMI: https://hemi.jhu.edu/the-hemi-team/leadership/k-t-ramesh/
• “If We Blow Up an Asteroid, It Might Put Itself Back Together”: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/science/asteroids-nuclear-weapons.html
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jhu_hemi
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HopkinsExtreme/
• Listen to Radiolab’s Dinopocalypse ep: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/dinopocalypse
• Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission: https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/dart



Connect with us:

• Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com
• Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
• Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
• Follow Brian: twitter.com/beansaight
• Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
• Artwork by Amrit Pal

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 90, Quinn & Brian discuss: What it’s like to be a COVID-19 Lab Rat.

Our guest is: Allie Broas, an almost-MBA and one of Quinn’s many, many cousins.

We weren’t exactly planning to do more of these episodes right now — most of the people who are trying to change the world are quite busy at the moment — but then we had this unique opportunity to talk to someone who is not just a COVID-19 survivor but also, now, a COVID-19 test subject! So, we had to take it and learn more about how she contracted the virus, what her experience was like, and how she’s able to help doctors and scientists research it now.

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.

INI Book Club: 

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3

Links:

• "How You Can Help (And Mostly Still Stay At Home)"
• Twitter: twitter.com/alliebbroas
• TikTok: @alafama

Connect with us:

• Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com
• Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
• Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
• Follow Brian: twitter.com/beansaight
• Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
• Artwork by Amrit Pal

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media