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Important, Not Important

Science for people who give a sh*t.Want to feel better AND unf*ck the world? The 6-time Webby nominee delivers deep conversations with the world's smartest people (scientists, doctors, CEO's, farmers, and more!), and digestible news updates every single week, loaded with tips and steps you and we can take to fix this place right up.We're talkin' clean energy and coral reefs, COVID vaccines and pediatric cancer research, clean water and carbon capture tech, asteroid deflection and artificial intelligence ethics."A vital service in an era where important truths, outright fiction and mere trivia all compete for your attention.” - Craig Mazin, creator, writer, and executive producer of HBO's ChernobylHosted by Quinn Emmett
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Introducing: Not Right Now
14 February 2025
Introducing: Not Right Now

Not Right Now is a podcast for parents navigating the impossible task of raising kids while *gestures wildly at everything*. Join Quinn Emmett (Important, Not Important) and Claire Zulkey (Evil Witches) for honest conversations about parenting in an era of climate change, artificial intelligence, social media anxiety, all while trying to get your kid to just please put on their shoes. From discussing how to talk to kids about the news without traumatizing them (or yourself), to debating the right age for a phone, to admitting that sometimes the best parenting happens when you're hiding in the pantry eating handfuls of trail mix for dinner- Quinn and Claire bring humor, empathy, and real talk to the wild adventure of raising tiny humans in these chaotic times. Because being a good parent doesn't mean having all the answers - it means figuring it out together, one "not right now" at a time.Join us every week, wherever you get your podcasts.-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------Links:Follow Not Right Now on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notrightnowpodcast/Email Not Right Now at questions@notrightnow.showFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmettProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comAdvertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors

1 min
Essay: Have Mercy
10 February 2025
Essay: Have Mercy

This week: I’m not religious. But I did (barely) successfully major in religious studies.For better and often for worse, the history of faith and organized religion has been the backbone of human history, political science, culture, wars, sexual ethics, and more.Subtle or not, religion and faith are most often the answer to why people do what they do, and to how we got here, even now as the west barrels towards majority secularism.Here's What You Can Do:Donate to the Climate Justice Alliance to amplify grassroots leadership working towards a Just Transition.🌏️ Volunteer with the Green Faith Alliance and get your faith group involved in climate action.🌏️ Learn about how colonialism is a historical and ongoing driver of climate change and its impacts.Be heard about science-based health care and tell your Senator to vote “No” on RFK Jr’s nomination.Invest in a more equitable world by investing in the Black Farmer Fund to increase the representation and success of Black agricultural and food businesses.Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpFollow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmettProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comTake a nap you deserve itAdvertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors

19 min
Essay: Build Something Useful
3 February 2025
Essay: Build Something Useful

This week: You're wasting your talent on bullshit while the world burns.You — yes, you — can actually use your very unique set of skills for good. Even and especially at scale, even — yes — right now.Here's What You Can Do:Donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation to help get Zuckerberg’s grubby little paws off of your data.Volunteer with Tech Shift and start creating technology that actually contributes to the betterment of humanity.🌎️ Get educated about social media, deepfakes, misinformation, and all the other internet foes by taking this Media Literacy Crash Course.Be heard about creating the appropriate safeguards for AI by urging your representatives to support the Algorithmic Accountability Act.🌏️ Invest in tech that reduces emissions instead of dismantling democracy using Carbon Equity.Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpFollow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmettProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comTake a nap you deserve itAdvertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors

26 min
We Need To Talk About Bird Flu
27 January 2025
We Need To Talk About Bird Flu

We (Quinn) has been avoiding this question for quite a while. I even wrote a few thousand words about it a couple months ago and didn't publish it because it was a bit of a downer. But that's kind of malpractice in a way because we promised we don't shy away from the hard stuff even if the goal is to help you understand what you can do about it. Just like there's never really an optimal time in your life to get married, or have a baby, or get arrested, there's never a good time to talk about bird flu, which means it's always the right time to talk about bird flu, and especially when you've got the best of the best on the line.What can I do about bird flu? That's today's big question and my returning guest is the wonderful Dr. Nahid Bhadelia. Dr. Bhadelia is the founding director of the BU Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases. She's a board certified infectious diseases physician and an associate professor at the BU School of Medicine.She served as the Senior Policy Advisor for Global COVID 19 Response for the White House COVID 19 Response Team in 2022 and 2023, where she coordinated the interagency programs for global COVID 19 vaccine donations from the United States. Nahid was also the policy lead for Project NextGen, a 5 billion dollar health and human services program aimed at developing next generation vaccines and treatments for pandemic prone coronaviruses. She also served as the interim testing coordinator for the White House mpox response team and is the Director and Co-founder of Biothreats Emergence Analysis and Communications Network, or BEACON, an open source outbreak surveillance program. -----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------Links:Keep up with Dr. Bhadelia's work at BUFollow Dr. Bhadelia on BlueskyFind air filters at Filterbuy.comLearn more about what you can do to support public healthFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our <a...

41 min
Essay: Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
13 January 2025
Essay: Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

This week: Be prepared — because these fires that are still burning are only the beginning. Start somewhere, start right in front of you, do what you can.Here's What You Can Do:LA isn’t the only place suffering this week, but it was home for a long time, so here’s vetted ways you can contribute right now, from near or afar.Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpFollow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmettProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comTake a nap you deserve itAdvertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors

11 min
Essay: About 2025
6 January 2025
Essay: About 2025

This week: It’s been a minute. Thanks for your patience. Please check out my 2025 preview, and if you’d be so kind, share it widely.Here's What You Can Do:Donate to Everytown to support their efforts to end gun violence, community by community.Volunteer with Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) to build the supports your community needs to respond to climate impacts.Get educated about how you can run for a local office and make a huge, direct impact on peoples lives using Run For Something’s Local Office Guide. 2025 is your year, let’s go.Be heard about incentivizing heat pump installations and bring our Heat Pump Targets script to your local government meetings.Invest in affordable housing by becoming an investor with Enterprise, a non-profit working to increase housing supply and build community resilience.Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/importantnotimp"...

21 min
Bridging Misinformation Gaps with Local Journalism
11 November 2024
Bridging Misinformation Gaps with Local Journalism

What's the missing link in local journalism? That's today's big question, and my guest is Lyndsey Gilpin. Lyndsey is the Senior Manager of Community Engagement at Grist. Lyndsey was the founder and executive editor at Southerly, a nonprofit media organization that equipped people who face environmental injustices and are at most at risk of climate change effects with journalism and resources on natural disasters, pollution, food, energy, and more.It was very groundbreaking, and now she's brought that to Grist. Lyndsey was recently a John S. Knight Community Impact Fellow at Stanford University, focusing on information access in rural southern communities of color, where she is from, based in Louisville. And in an age of mass dis and misinformation it's more important than ever that we not only fund journalism and obviously read it, but local journalism and journalists and publishers, editors, photographers, documenters, and more that are of the communities they are based in, who have and continue to build trust in an ongoing, two way conversation to help people get information, to connect the last mile and make sure it goes back and forth.-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------INI Book Club:The Quickening by Elizabeth RushFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Read more about Lyndsey's community engagement work at GristKeep up with Lyndsey's workSupport Grist's nonprofit journalismFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeTake action at whatcanido.earthGet our merchFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our <a...

62 min
Essay: Only 86,000 To Go. You in?
1 November 2024
Essay: Only 86,000 To Go. You in?

This week: This entire (short!) episode is a call to action. It's time to do this thing...do the thing, but also take care of yourselves and your loved ones these next couple weeks. It's a lot right now.Here's What You Can Do:Donate to the groups that are on the ground every day organizing and fighting for a better, stronger democracy (go)Volunteer for democracy by picking up the phone and knocking on doors with the people who have mobilizing voters down to a science. Time’s ticking but it’s not too late (go)Learn about ways you can become a more active citizen (like running for a local office!) (go)Be heard about the issues you care about the most, like reproductive rights or clean energy, and find candidates in your district that support those causes.Invest in companies that are scaling climate solutions so we still have a planet where the privilege to vote is possible.Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeTake Action at whatcanido.earthGet our <a...

9 min
Thinking In Systems To Save An Indivisible World
28 October 2024
Thinking In Systems To Save An Indivisible World

Is multisolving the future? Is it today? Should we do more? That's all today's big question and my guest is Dr. Elizabeth Sawin. Dr. Sawin is the Founder and Director of the Multisolving Institute, which is convenient for our conversation. She's an expert on solutions that address climate change while also improving health, well being, and economic vitality. She developed multisolving to describe such win win win solutions. Beth writes and speaks about multisolving, climate change, and leadership in complex systems for both national and international audiences. Since 2014, Beth has participated in the Council on the Uncertain Human Future, a continuing dialogue on issues of climate change and sustainability among a select group of humanities scholars, writers, artists, and climate scientists.Beth is a biologist with a Ph.D. From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M. I. T. She co-founded Climate Interactive in 2010 and served as Climate Interactive's co-director from 2010 until 2022. Beth’s work has influenced me quite a bit, as you can see in the app.We've got co benefits all over the place, more on that soon and today. She's been on the list for a while here, and yet it took a couple recent hurricanes to actually get her on the show to talk about her journey, her mentors, her new book, and how we can most effectively deal with all of this.-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------INI Book Club:Always Coming Home and The Dispossessed by Ursula Le GuinFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Learn more about multisolving at the Multisolving InstituteBuy Dr. Sawin's book Multisolving: Creating Systems Change in a Fractured WorldCheck out the FLOWER AppFollow Dr Sawin on Bluesky and TwitterFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchFollow us on Twitter: <a...

70 min
Poverty Is A Policy Choice
21 October 2024
Poverty Is A Policy Choice

How do we make it easier for more Americans to reliably put food (in particular, hot food) on the table? That's today’s big question, and my guest is Salaam Bhatti. Salaam is the SNAP Director at the Food Research and Action Center, a 501c3 that uses advocacy and strategic partnerships to improve the health and well being of people struggling against poverty related hunger in the United States.Before joining the Food Research and Action Center, Salam was the Public Benefits Attorney and Deputy Director of the Virginia Poverty Law Center where he specialized in public benefits law. Salaam also served as the director of Virginia Hunger Solutions, where he supported the initiative's mission of eradicating hunger and enhancing the nutrition, health, and overall well being of children and families living in poverty throughout this great commonwealth.-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------INI Book Club:Llama Llama and the Bully Goat by Anna DewdneyFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Follow Salaam on TikTok and TwitterFollow FRAC on Instagram and TwitterGet involved with the FRAC Action NetworkDonate to FRAC to help end hunger in AmericaCheck out FRAC's Road to the Farm Bill resourcesCall on Congress to protect and strengthen SNAPRead the USDA Food Security report and FRAC's Statement of Poverty reportRead FRAC's brief with the National Women's Law CenterFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our...

48 min
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