The Most Important Question

Back in Episode 51, Quinn & Brian asked: Are we thinking about CRISPR all wrong (and what the hell is it)?

This is one of our most popular episodes, probably because it features one of our coolest guests: C. Brandon Ogbunu, an evolutionary systems biologist with a unique perspective on data and disease, and how both were influenced by evolution and ecology.

We’ve talked about CRISPR before on the show, but if you’re not familiar, here’s a brief and overly simplistic overview of this potentially world-changing technology: it’s scissors for DNA. It’s still a very young technology — it was only patented in 2012 — but it has the potential to do everything from eliminating genetic diseases from our lineage to making our food supply more efficient and productive to creating a real-life Jurassic Park. But what can’t we do with it? And, perhaps more importantly, what shouldn’t we be doing with it? That’s what we’re going to find out today.

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INI Book Club: 

• From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America by Elizabeth Hinton

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We published our company statement on the Black Lives Matter protests on June 8th. This is an audio version of that statement, titled "A Letter to My Fellow White Men." You can read the original at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/blog/a-letter-to-my-fellow-white-men.

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

Please enjoy this preview of our weekly premium audio newsletter. Find out more at https://important.supportingcast.fm.

This week: Racism is distracting us from the climate fight; if you’re black, you probably live near a coal plant; protests will worsen the coronavirus but we don’t really have a choice; COVID tracking apps are here, but how useful are they?; fighting for food equality

Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

Back in Episode 42, Quinn & Brian asked: 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. 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 a pretty wide range of qualifications.

This episode is also extremely timely given what’s going on in the United States right now. This is not just the story of almost becoming an astronaut but the story of navigating a historically white and male space as a woman of color. Dr. Proctor is one hell of an inspiration and scientist — and a whole lot of fun — and we hope you are able to find a ray of light in this conversation.

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In Episode 44, Quinn & Brian discussed: Why food waste is the stupidest thing we do and how can we cut it in half.

Our guest was Dr. James Rogers, founder and CEO of Apeel Sciences and one of our most mind-blowing guests yet. You may think you know about avocados, but you have no idea. This episode is even more applicable now, when so many Americans have lost their jobs and the question of how to put food on the table is being asked by far too many families.

For the first time in a long time, we’re actually talking about one of the things that America is best at — wasting food. We’re wasting about $165 BILLION of food every year. Or,  put another way, about 40% of the food produced in the U.S. is never eaten. It’s staggering and a little heartbreaking. But, of course, we chose this episode because there’s good news: avocados. 

Apeel avocados, to be precise.

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

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Important, Not Important is produced by Crate Media