Why is it so important that we share the science of fiction, and what do we do with it once we have it?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Maddie Stone.

Maddie is a prolific science journalist. She is a doctor of earth and environmental sciences. She's the former science editor of the technology website Gizmodo, which I love, and the founding editor of Earther, Gizmodo's climate focused vertical, which I love.

Maddie has edited articles for The Verge, Polygon, and Grist, and her original and award winning journalism has appeared in National Geographic, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Grist, Vice, MIT Technology Room, Technology Review, and Drilled, and many other outlets we love and link to basically every day.

An avid science fiction fan like me, Maddie runs one of my favorite blogs called The Science of Fiction, an email newsletter and a blog, if you're old, that explores the real world science behind fictional monsters and alien planets and stuff like that (which checks all of my boxes).

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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:

• Not The End of The World by Hannah Ritchie
• The Right to Repair by Aaron Perzanowski
• Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

• Subscribe to The Science of Fiction
• Keep up with Maddie's writing, including her recent story holding Microsoft accountable to their sustainability pledges
• Check out the Climate Reality Check report from Good Energy

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• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

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Do you like cookies? What about olive oil cake? What about chocolate chip coffee cake? Listen on.

• 🌍️ Donate to support African farmers by increasing incomes and improving food security through the Alliance for a Green Africa.
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• Be heard about your eco-anxiety by connecting with others having similar feelings at a Climate Psychology Alliance Climate Cafe near you.
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• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
• Take a nap you deserve it

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How do we take a huge chronic disease burden like Lyme disease or long COVID or even long flu and make it so personal that we simply can't ignore it anymore?

That's today's big question and my guest is Dr. Mikki Tal, an immunoengineer and a principal scientist at MIT.

Dr. Tal leads the Tal Research Group within the Department of Biological Engineering, and also serves as the Associate Scientific Director of the Center for Gynepathology Research. Mikki is working to identify the connections between infections and chronic diseases.

I've written a bit recently about the lessons we finally need to learn about post viral and bacterial health issues, the societal and medicinal and health and economic issues and improving our baseline of wellness and community health, so that we don't suffer from those quite as much.

These things are very real, we've known about them for a very long time and the compounding effects of chronic diseases are just going to continue add up the longer we ignore them, and we gaslight people.

There has never really been a better time for Mikki's work, or for this wonderfully inspiring and personal conversation.

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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:

• Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

• Participate in the MAESTRO Study
• Explore more of Dr. Tal's research (including recent papers here and here)
• Keep up with Dr. Tal's work on X and Linkedin
• Read more about Dr. Tal's work here and here

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• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

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This week I wrote about a groundbreaking and essential new study that — thank christ — is not actually about which seemingly reasonable dietary supplement will definitely extend/tragically cut short your life.

It’s about 🍿 film, and after you’re done reading, I’d love it if you replied to this email with some favorite movies that moved the needle for you in some way. We’ll share the list with everyone soon.

• Donate to Eco-Anxious Stories to help create stories about meaning, mental health, and climate change.
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• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
• Take a nap you deserve it

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In this essay, I will argue that Bridget Jones is the perfect climate-era hero, because she is all of us.

• 🌍️ Donate to Project HOPE to support frontline teams working to strengthen healthcare systems and respond to crises globally.
• 🌎️ Volunteer to share your climate solutions work with the Global Solutions Diary from Project Drawdown and use your story to inspire hope in the climate community.
• Get educated about how you can join a network of people working on climate, and get started on working on solutions, in your city with Climate Tech Cities.
• Be heard about feeding hungry kids and urge your representatives to support the Universal School Meal Program Act.
• Invest in a climate-friendly 401(k) using Sphere.

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• Edited by Anthony Luciani
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• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
• Take a nap you deserve it

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Who is still covering Long COVID, and how much is the audience actually growing?

That's today's big question, and my guests are Betsy Ladygetz and Miles Griffis, editors and co-founders of The Sick Times, a journalist-founded website chronicling the Long COVID crisis.

The Sick Times investigates injustices, challenges powerful institutions, wades through the latest research, assesses COVID-19 data, and offers an essential platform for those most affected by the crisis.

Betsy is an independent science, health, and data journalist and writer focused on COVID-19 and the future of public health in general. Prior to The Sick Times, she ran the COVID-19 Data Dispatch. She was recently a journalism fellow at MuckRock, where she contributed to award-winning and impactful COVID-19 investigations, such as the Uncounted Project, investigations into the National Institute of Health's Recover Program, and stories covering public health responses in several states.

Miles is an independent journalist and writer who covers Long COVID, science, and LGBTQ plus issues. He developed Long COVID at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and has used his lived experience to report on the disease.

So many people are struggling directly or indirectly with Long COVID.

Sometimes they don't even know themselves, but with journalism just crumbling around us, new publications like The Sick Times operated by people with very particular essential skills and lived experiences can help make sure that these massive all all-encompassing issues of our lifetimes stay in the news, giving everyone else a way to stay in touch, and of course, to act.

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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 Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor by Hamilton Nolan
• Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT Up New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman
• Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

• Subscribe and donate to The Sick Times
• Find a Mask Bloc near you
• Support the COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project
• Support the Patient-Led Research Collaborative
• Support the Long Covid Action Project
• Learn about diseases related to Long Covid and support #MeAction, Solve ME/CFS, and Dysautonomia International
• Support the Clean Air Club and A.I.R. NYC
• Buy high-quality masks from Project N95
• Get more COVID-19 info from People's CDC

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• Follow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmett
• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

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Let’s talk about the Information Era.

• 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.
• 🌏️ Get educated about the powerful institutions using technology to change society through the invaluable reporting by The Markup.
• Be heard about keeping companies accountable to assessing AI for bias and effectiveness and ask your representatives to support the Algorithmic Accountability Act.
• Invest in climate tech solutions that will accelerate the transition to a clean economy with Full Cycle.

• Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com
• Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
• Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
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• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
• Take a nap you deserve it

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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.

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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:

• 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 BlueSky
• Donate or volunteer with Water For People
• Donate to Dig Deep
• Learn more about Amber's work with NSF-funded Household Water Insecurity Experiences Research Coordination Network
• Learn more about the National Science Foundation

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• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

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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.

• 🌎️ Donate to Partners in Health to ensure that everyone, everywhere has access to quality healthcare.
• Volunteer for a clinical trial to help us better understand the impacts of COVID and Long COVID.
• Get educated about how you can start a career in public health.
• Be heard about early detection in your community and get your local officials to start a wastewater intelligence program with Biobot.
• 🌎️ Invest in a matching fund with Gavi to get people vaccinated worldwide.

• Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com
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• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
• Take a nap you deserve it

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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.

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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.

-----------

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 Lab
• Follow Srijan on Twitter
• Suicide Crisis Lifeline (Call 988)
• The Trevor Project Hotline for LBGTQ+ youth
• Listen to Srijan's first episode

Follow us:

• Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
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• Follow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmett
• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

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