The Most Important Question

By Important, Not ImportantSociety & Culture Science Technology

The Most Important Question episodes

September 27, 2024Essay: Why We Made An App
This week:
You’d think that -- considering we just spent two years building our new What Can I Do? app -- that I’d have a really good answer for why we were doing it in the first place.

But I didn’t. Not until about a week ago.

I knew, of course, the practical reasons why it needed to exist, and I had a good idea of what I wanted it to look and feel like.

I knew it was the natural evolution and a significant missing piece of our work.

But I had never really interrogated myself to understand why I was so hell-bent on building an app -- a tool -- that gathered all the action steps we’d researched over the years, and made them accessible to anyone across the world, anytime they wanted or needed them.
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmett
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
28 min
September 23, 2024Introducing: What Can I Do?
It’s another big day in a very big month for us.

Our extremely tiny team has been busting our asses for almost two years to bring you something fucking extraordinary, something I’m just so proud of, and now it's here:

Our new app: "What Can I Do?"

A one stop shop for taking action on the issues you give a shit about.

Why?

Because the world won't unf**k itself.

Get it here: https://www.whatcanido.earth/
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmett
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
12 min
September 16, 2024Finding Joy In Climate Solutions
What if we get it right?

That's today's big question, and my returning guest is Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist. She is a policy expert, a writer, and a teacher working to help create the best possible climate future. She co-founded and leads the Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities, and is the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College.

Ayana authored the forthcoming book, What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures, co-edited the best selling climate anthology, All We Can Save, and co-created and co-hosted the Spotify slash Gimlet podcast, How to Save a Planet. Lastly, she co-authored the Blue New Deal, a roadmap for including the ocean, what an idea, into climate policy.

This is a special one for me.

Ayana was guest number seven or eight on the show a long time ago. She took a chance on us. And almost 200 episodes later, a pandemic later, a few degrees of warming later, a lot has changed.

But Ayana's passion for nature, her influence on U.S. and global policy and our one wonderful habitable planet has not.

I am such a huge fan of hers, and I am so thankful she came back to spend time with us.

If you have been trying to find your way into this whole thing, today just might be your day.

-----------

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:
What If We Get It Right by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
All We Can Save by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine Wilkinson
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Subscribe to Ayana's What If We Get It Right? newsletter
Find climate action resources to pair with What If We Get It Right?
Join and donate to the All We Can Save Project
Donate and check out the Resource Hub at Urban Ocean Lab
Keep up with more of Ayana's work
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmett
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
42 min
September 09, 2024Best of: A Conversation With A Future President of the United States
In this throwback episode from October 2020, Quinn & Brian discuss: Why state elections matter not just for your state but for the future of our planet.

Our guests are: Aimy Steele & Amanda Litman.

Aimy is a candidate for the North Carolina House of Representatives in District 82, a mother of five, a former Spanish teacher, and a former K-12 principal.

Amanda is the co-founder and Executive Director of Run For Something, a PAC that is recruiting and supporting young progressives who want to run for state and local elections. They’re endorsing more than 500 candidates in the 2020 elections, primarily women and people of color, and they’re inviting all of us to take an active role in writing a new future for our country.

And let me tell you -- if those 500 candidates are even half as inspiring as Aimy, we’re in for one hell of a new generation of state representatives. Aimy represents one of those rare times when we get the hero we need and they’re so much better than we deserve.

Really, we probably do deserve a horde of bitter white men who all go to the same discount barber, but our world will be so much better off if we elevate diverse voices who actually know how to help our country’s diverse communities.

-----------

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:
"Indecent Assembly: The North Carolina Legislature's Blueprint for the War on Democracy and Equality" by Gene R. Nichol
"Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Find a great local candidate to vote for: directory.runforsomething.net/candidates
Support Run for Something: runforsomething.net/give
Listen to Amanda’s first episode: #60: Why You Should Run for Something in 2020
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
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

Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
1 hr 23 min
August 26, 2024Essay: How to Eat More Plants (And Less Beef)
This week:
Next up in our series of “How to Eat More Plants”. Today’s topic? Beef!
Here's What You Can Do:
Read the essay and get the links online here
Donate to the Humane Farming Association to support their work against factory farming.
Volunteer with Planted Society to help cities, restaurants, and individuals make sustainable changes in their food culture.
🌎️ Get educated about ways to transition to plant-based options by checking out the Meatless Monday campaign.
Be heard about animal cruelty, air and water pollution, and public health by asking the Department of Agriculture to stop supporting factory farming.
🌏️ Invest in industries that aren’t cutting down the Amazon using Deforestation Free Funds.
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
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
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
23 min
August 12, 2024Essay: The Sun Machines Cometh
This week:
Please enjoy this hopeful ditty on how we have finally harnessed the sun ☀️ — and how we’re just getting started.
Here's What You Can Do:
Donate to Grid Alternatives to advocate for community-powered solar policy that gets everyone on a clean energy grid (🌎 go global: Donate to GiveDirectly so people have the agency to buy their own solar)
Volunteer to become a member of the Green Workers Alliance to help ensure the creation and maintenance of well-paying, sustainable green jobs in the clean energy transition.
Buy solar for your home, company, school district, and/or your town with help from our best friends at Rewiring America.
🌏️ Get educated about where your power is coming from with electricityMap.
Be heard about continuing to expand solar access and ask your representative to support clean energy progress.
Invest in positive climate action and use your money to fund solar expansion with ATMOS.
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
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
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
14 min
August 05, 2024Essay: How To Eat More Plants
This week:
Today’s post is more of a macro introduction to the why and how of the “eat more plants (and consequently) fewer animals” lifestyle.

Deep-dives on how to eat fewer animals, by type, including meat/beef/pork, chicken/turkey, dairy, and fish (and humans! Can’t forget humans) will follow in subsequent posts.

My overall goal is to help you — someone who already gives a shit for one reason or another — understand why eating more plants and fewer animals is intersectional as hell.
Here's What You Can Do:
Donate to Friends of the Earth to help transition our food system into one that is more sustainable, healthier, and more just.
Volunteer with Kiss The Ground to help shift policies and resources towards regenerative agriculture.
Get educated about more ways to eat more plants by subscribing to Vox’s Meat/Less newsletter.
Be heard about passing a strong Farm Bill that provides critical funding so farmers can grow nutritious food via sustainable farming practices.
Invest in sustainable farming with Farm VC.
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
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
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
19 min
July 29, 2024Essay: The Turn of the Tide
This week:
We're running an updated version of a popular essay from last year.

Tolkien described life (and often, his stories) as a "long defeat", where evil frequently, inevitably wins.

But he allowed for "eucatastrophe" — sudden joyous turns (just like breakthroughs in elections and voting rights).

We must keep fighting, to hold off the darkness.
Here's What You Can Do:
Donate to protecting voting rights and advocating for democracy with Fair Fight.
Volunteer to bring together conservatives, progressives, and everyone in between to fix America’s political system with RepresentUS.
Get educated about quick, easy, daily actions you can take to save democracy by subscribing to the Chop Wood, Carry Water newsletter.
Be heard about fair elections and add your name to the End Gerrymandering Pledge.
Run for your state or local office with Run for Something (if you’re under 40, if you’re over 40, donate!)
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
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
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
34 min
July 22, 2024Everything Is Connected (No, Seriously)
How did our planet come to life? Is it alive? And where are we as part of that?

Those are today's big questions and my guest is Ferris Jabr.

His new book, Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life, is one of the most compelling, beautiful, timely, and important reads I've ever got to underline throughout.

Ferris is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and Scientific American. He has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's, National Geographic, Wired, Outside, Lapham's Quarterly, McSweeney's, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other wonderful publications.

I've been on a bit of a bender lately. I'm getting older. I've got kids that are getting older quickly. Work continues. Everything keeps changing and staying the same. I'm trying to contextualize for myself, for this work, for you all, and for my kids, time and place and presence and relationships.

How much time do we each have here? Do we as a species have here? Who do we spend it with? How do we spend it? How precious is it to each of us? Does it become more so, less so? How should we use our time and experience, and how can we help?

-----------

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 Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Read Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life
Read more of Ferris' work and follow him on social media
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmett
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
59 min
July 08, 2024AI Ethics Not Found
When is a cancer scare, a rejected mortgage loan, a false arrest, or predictive grading, more than a glitch in A.I.?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Meredith Broussard.

Meredith is a data journalist and associate professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University, Research Director at the NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology and the author of several books I loved, including More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender and Ability Bias in Tech, and Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World.

Her academic research focuses on A.I. in investigative reporting and ethical A.I., with a particular interest in using data analysis for social good.

She's a former features editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer. She's also worked as a software developer at AT&T Bell Labs and at the MIT Media Lab. Meredith's features and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Slate, and other outlets.

If you have ever turned on a computer or used the internet in some way to apply for something, or literally anything, this one is for you.

-----------

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:
Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Read Meredith's books: More Than A Glitch and Artificial Unintelligence
Check out Meredith's website and follow her on social media
Get up to speed on A.I. ethics by reading: Weapons of Math Destruction, Algorithms of Oppression, Automating Inequality, Race After Technology, Black Software
Follow algorithm and bias influencers Avriel Epps and Joel Bervell
Check out the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, NIST's AI Risk Management Framework, GAO's Algorithmic Audit, and the Algorithmic Accountability Act
Check out Encode Justice
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
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

Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
1 hr 1 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.