The Most Important Question

Latest Episodes:

Check Your Insurance Policy May 01, 2023

Show notes

You've got insurance, right? Are you sure?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Washington Post reporter Brianna Sacks.

Brianna's an extreme weather and disaster reporter for the Post where she explores how climate change is transforming the United States through violent storms, intense heat, widespread wildfires, and other forms of extreme weather.

Brianna deploys to disaster zones, which are sometimes very close to home, and does enterprise reporting on the preparations for responses to and the aftermaths of catastrophic events.

We're having this conversation today because last month Brianna revealed how insurers have slashed Hurricane Ian payouts far below damage estimates, often up to 80%.

I cannot emphasize enough that the future includes an insurance landscape that is among the most important in our very brittle economy and society.

It underpins everything we rely on, so understanding not only your own insurance but how well your mortgage holder and the system at large are prepared for what's here and what's coming, is essential.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com

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INI Book Club:

What I Talk about When I Talk about Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Training for the Uphill Athlete by Steve House, Scott Johnston, and Kilian Jornet
The Great Displacement by Jake Bittle
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

Follow Brianna on Twitter and Instagram
Read Brianna's piece on Hurricane Ian insurance cuts
Read more of her reporting at The Washington Post

Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors

Essay: What Would You Say You Do Here Apr 26, 2023

Show notes

This week:

Is what you’re working on important?

Plus: The cleanest produce, a mosquito factory, lots of rooftop solar, autonomous GPT, maybe, and the latest with the Colorado River

Here's What You Can Do:

⚡️ Climate change and mental health are inextricably linked. Get some help with the Climate Mental Health Network.
⚡️ Live in or own a multi-family building? Check out how BlocPower can help electrify it.
⚡️ If you’re like “I wonder if my town or state has e-bike rebates”, here’s a Google Sheet with every known rebate in the country
⚡️ Start a student alliance for tech ethics at your university with the Techshift Alliance.

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

The countries with the highest rates of malaria deaths have approved Oxford’s new vaccine
Brazil built a massive mosquito factory — it’s not what you think
Our friends at Biobot Analytics have expanded their wastewater monitoring into norovirus outbreaks
Are we close to a combo flu and COVID vaccine?

Climate

Why SUV’s got so big, and so popular
Germany shut down their remaining operational nuclear plants for really no reason, but banned new gas and oil heating?
Elon’s Twitter could break disaster response
Jigar’s Energy Department committed $3 billion to rooftop solar access for those with lower credit scores

Food & Water

These are EWG’s “Dirty Dozen” in produce
Radical “seed breeding” could bring about more climate friendly crops
The Colorado River crisis didn’t have to be this way, but big meat made it this way
The massive batteries sloshing around beneath our feet

Beep Boop

OpenAI’s hunger for data might come back to bite them
State tech laws are starting to look like state marijuana laws
How Mexico became the biggest user of Pegasus spyware
Hype grows over “autonomous” GPT

COVID

The NIH spent $1 billion on Long COVID research. Where’d it go?
Ed Yong is back and asking why we’re so keen on erasing Long COVID

Get more:

Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

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Every Climate Action Matters Apr 24, 2023

Show notes

What can I do?

The simple question is the underlying premise of everything we do here. It's often the easiest one to help people answer for themselves, but from the outside, it's often the most imposing.

All of which is why we keep coming back to it, and why I'm so excited about the fantastic new book, The Climate Action Handbook by Dr. Heidi Roop.

Dr. Roop is the Director of the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership and an assistant professor of climate science and extension specialist at the University of Minnesota. She also serves as the Director of Knowledge Transfer for the NSF-funded COLDEX Science and Technology Center.

Dr. Roop's research and extension programs have taken her from Antarctica to Minnesota, and they combine cutting-edge climate science and effective science communication to increase the use and integration of climate change information in decision-making at a whole range of scales, from city and state to national and international levels.

Safe to say, I'm very into that and you're going to love her.

If you've struggled to find a way to get involved in the climate fight, this book and this conversation are for you.

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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.

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INI Book Club:

The Climate Action Handbook by Heidi Roop
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie by Connie & Peter Roop
A Brief History of Life on Earth by Clemence Dupont
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

Follow Heidi on Twitter
Keep up with Heidi's work

Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors

Essay: This Isn't Rocket Science (Unless It Is) Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

This week: A very basic way to use a mental model, you’re welcome. PLUS: Mosquitoes, overseas abortion pills, healthy ice cream, German nuclear power, electric school buses, and more. Here's What You Can Do: ⚡️ Interested in community solar? Check out Wattbuy’s tools to get some. ⚡️ One of the most effective ways to make fashion more sustainable is to partner up with our friends at Fashion Revolution ⚡️ Want to understand if there’s (actually) a moral case for fossil fuels? You should read Amy Westervelt’s handy little guide. ⚡️ There are over 9000 school board seats up for election this year. Help Run for Something support candidates who actually give a shit about kids. ⚡️ Over 60? Put your experience and skills to work and join Third Act to help fight the climate crisis. News Roundup Health & Medicine Here come the mosquitoes (the screened porch is one of mankind’s best inventions) Could an mRNA treatment wipe out peanut allergies? Inside the online market for overseas abortion pills Air pollution is increasingly linked with both dementia and reduced lung function in kids Hear me out: could ice cream have health benefits? (Happy Birthday, Dad! I got you a study scientists are very confused about) Climate Germany quit nuclear power, which isn’t helpful Puma, a brand I’m nowhear near fashionable enough to rock, opened up their supply chain to Gen Z sustainability nerds Why the next EV push is to electrify school buses Southeastern US seas are rising triple the global average Check out how your state’s clean electricity efforts are going The new EV rules are in — here’s 7 big takeaways before you go shopping Food & Water Wall Street made a run on the west’s precious groundwater supplies Speaking of: All those atmospheric rivers have temporarily reduced drought warnings, which is (truly) great, but flooding’s getting worse, and the Colorado River is still in trouble, so the feds finally stepped in Italy’s plan to ban lab-grown meat won’t help their climate issues Beep Boop OpenAI launched a bug bounty program Semi-related: Spain and Italy are investigating whether OpenAI breached GDPR Is ChatGPT hallucinating, or bullshitting? Millions of Facebook users had their info stolen in a ChatGPT app Semi-related: WhatsApp made it harder for scammers to steal your account info COVID COVID is climbing steadily in India — here’s why Semi-related: Antimicrobial resistance is growing in India — and everywhere — because we’re over-prescribing them The jury is still out on how often you and we should get COVID boosters Get more: Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/ Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp Subscribe to our YouTube channel Take a nap you deserve it Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors

Full show notes at the publisher

Best of: Black Moms Matter Apr 17, 2023

Show notes

Why is it so dangerous to have Black babies in America?

April 11-17th is Black Maternal Health Week, and so we are replaying one of our favourite episodes from 2021 with guest Representative Lauren Underwood of Illinois, a nurse and former senior advisor to President Obama.

We discuss how this country is failing Black mothers, and her incredible Momnibus Act, a suite of 12 bills designed to improve Black maternal health outcomes in America, where Black women are dying in or after childbirth at 3x-4x rates of white women.

In this incredible conversation, Rep. Underwood goes deep to help us understand the complexities of the problem, the crushing personal inspiration for her work, and what we can all do to help.

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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.

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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:

Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors

Mentioned in this episode:

Become An Important Member

Finding the Humanity in Artificial Intelligence Apr 10, 2023

Show notes

If you had all of the data in the world at your hands, what question would you ask first?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Emma Pierson.

Emma is an assistant professor of computer science at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, and a computer science field member at Cornell University with a secondary joint appointment as an assistant professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College. Sure. Why not?

Emma has published a number of game-changing papers, and we talk about those today and how they all tie together. She's written for the New York Times, 538, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Wired, all my favorites, and has been named to the MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35 list, and the Forbes 30 under 30 in Science list.

Her team's work has helped unlock answers and solutions to some of our biggest, most lingering and also sometimes most urgent questions.

Emma and her team work diligently to develop data science and machine learning methods to study two vital, huge interlocking areas: inequality and healthcare.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com

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

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INI Book Club:

The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values by Brian Christian
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

Follow Emma on Twitter
Keep up with Emma's work on her website

Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Find our more about our guests here: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/guest-stats

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/sponsors

Mentioned in this episode:

Become An Important Member

Best of: What Really Happens When You Just Give People Money? Apr 03, 2023

Show notes

What if we just gave people money?

That's today's big question and my guests are Caroline Teti and Michael Faye from GiveDirectly. This conversation from 2021, one of my all-time favorites is one of those conversations that can help you truly think outside the box and reconsider how to most effectively take a simple action that can have cascading effects.

Caroline Teti or just Teti as she likes to be called, I swear, works on the ground in Kenya, Nairobi, where she is the Director of Recipients Advocacy for GiveDirectly's global operations, and the Director of Governmental and External Relations.

Michael Faye is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of GiveDirectly.

I think we can all understand that different people need different things on different days. We're talking about life essentials: clean air, clean and accessible water, healthy food, shelter, medicine. The needs can vary enormously among people and on a day-to-day basis.

But one thing that unites us all in need is a need for agency over our own life.

From everything I've understood in this conversation and talking to so many folks over the past few years, nothing takes away agency like poverty.

And it turns out that giving people cash can create that power.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com

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

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INI Book Club:

“The Biggest Bluff” by Maria Konnikova
“The Art of Reading Minds” by Henrik Fexeus
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Find our more about our guests here: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/guest-stats

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/sponsors

Mentioned in this episode:

Become An Important Member

Best of: How to Stop School Shootings in the USA Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

We're going to keeping re-running this 2020 episode until America stops sacrificing children.

---

Here we are, yet again.

We first ran this episode with Fred Guttenberg, father of Parkland victim, Jaime Guttenberg in 2020 - and what has changed? More gun violence and more senseless deaths.

It doesn't have to be this way.

In Episode 98, Quinn & Brian discuss: common sense solutions to prevent gun deaths and destroy the gun lobby.

Our guest is: Fred Guttenberg, a gun safety activist and political troublemaker.

14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg was killed in her high school on February 14, 2018 in Parkland, FL. We usually like to make some jokes at this point, but not today. This is a loss that no person should have to experience — and it’s all the more painful for how utterly avoidable it is. Which side you choose to be on this issue should be as simple as answering this question: do you want to wake up and discover that one of your friends or loved ones has been shot? If the answer is no, then pay attention.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com

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

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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:

VOTE: votesaveamerica.com
“Find the Helpers: What 9/11 and Parkland Taught Me About Recovery, Purpose, and Hope (Grief Recovery)” by Fred Guttenberg
Support Orange Ribbons for Jamie
fredguttenberg.com
Instagram: @orangeribbonsdad
Facebook: facebook.com/orangeribbonsdad
Twitter: @fred_guttenberg

Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Find our more about our guests here: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/guest-stats

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/sponsors

Mentioned in this episode:

Become An Important Member

Where In The World Are All Of The Electricians? Mar 27, 2023

Show notes

Where the hell did all of the electricians go?

That's today's big question, and my guest is leading journalist Emily Pontecorvo.

Until recently, Emily was an energy, environment, and climate reporter at Grist, one of our favorite publications. She's now moved on to the new climate newsroom Heatmap.

Emily has covered the whole enchilada from green hydrogen subsidies to coal ash, scope three emissions, Fashion Week, airports, locusts, frequent flyers, college divestment movements, carbon removal, you name it.

And so when Emily did a deep dive on the worker's subsidies and training schools behind America's electricians or lack thereof, I knew she was the perfect person to help me, and therefore you, understand where we go from here because we need a lot of electricians to electrify everything.

It's complicated, it's systemic, and it's holding us back.

We need to understand what the bottlenecks are when you can't find an electrician, how we can market to future electricians, then educate them, train them, and support them as a new generation of truly essential workers.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com

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

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INI Book Club:

Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero Is Not Enough by Holly Jean Buck
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

Read Emily's electrician shortage piece in Grist
Subscribe to Heatmap
Follow Emily on Twitter
Upgrade your home or building with BlocPower
Upgrade your home with Sealed
Support an equitable transition to a world powered by renewable energy with GRID Alternatives
Check out ChargerHelp
Help decarbonize California with resources from TECH Clean California

Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Find our more about our guests here: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/guest-stats

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/sponsors

Mentioned in this episode:

Become An Important Member

Essay: ESG is good business (but don't call it ESG) Mar 24, 2023

Show notes

This week:

Fighting over ESG is stupid, risky, and bad business. Let’s move on.

Plus: RSV vaccines, the E-BIKE Act, Skittles (?), deepfakes, allergies, and a new season of DRILLED

What We Can Do:

⚡️ Submit your comment to keep Virginia in the very-successful — and very lucrative — RGGI
⚡️ Some folks need shelter. Some need water. Or food. The data says giving them agency — and straight cash — works better. Do that by donating to GiveDirectly.
⚡️ Health care is a universal human right. Setup a new monthly donation to the legendary Partners in Health to provide care first to those who need it most.
⚡️ You know what’s cool? A BILLION oysters. Plant them with the Billion Oyster Project and help clean up New York’s waters.
⚡️ There’s 1000 words about ESG investing below, so now’s a good time to find a bank that supports climate action AND your community with Bank for Good.

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

The FDA recommends 2 RSV vaccines for older adults — a huge public health win
We can learn a lot about how to eradicate homelessness from Houston and Helsinki
The 988 suicide hotline is expanding LGBTQ services with 24/7 chat and text - huzzah!
We really should celebrate the enormous — ENORMOUS — impact the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has had (and the thousands of people who fought for it)
The best and worst American cities for allergy-sufferers

Climate

The E-BIKE Act was reintroduced in Congress and I AM SO EXCITED
The new season of Amy Westervelt’s incredible “Drilled” podcast is out, and this year it’s a cross-over with Damages, as they explore Guyana’s oil reserves, and how ExxonMobil is exploiting them
I LOVE the “Third Act” protesters who came after after the big banks who fund fossil fuels
The final rules on EV tax credits are coming — and everyone is both excited and annoyed

Food & Water

Can we make and popularize toilets that don’t use running water?
California might ban Skittles (if this isn’t our most clicked on link, I don’t know what the point is)
We desperately need a new economics of water

Beep Boop

It’s just all moving so, so fast. The first ChatGPT plugins are here.
Meanwhile, vocal deepfakes are already out of control

COVID

A new Medicare designation may save the most vulnerable rural hospitals that are failing after COVID
From Atul Gawande: The aftermath of a pandemic requires as much focus as the start

Get more:

Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com/newsletter
Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Get fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/store
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/sponsors

Mentioned in this episode:

Become An Important Member