The Most Important Question

Latest Episodes:

The Dive Into Challenger Deep Mar 20, 2023

Show notes

What if you got the chance to dive to the bottom of the ocean? Would you go? And what would you find there?

That's today's big question and my returning guest, one of my all-time favorites, is Dr. Dawn Wright, better known the world over as Deep Sea Dawn.

Dawn recently became the 27th person ever in history and the first Black person ever to dive into the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of Earth's ocean.

Dawn is an elected member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering and the Chief Scientist at Esri, where she works with other scientists to map the ocean floor in 3D.

As our oceans heat up and rise, as we try to reduce overfishing, and as our governments and companies race to mine minerals for our all-electric future, there has never been a more monumental and historic, and vitally important project than trying to understand our oceans.

A lot has happened, since Dawn and I last spoke.

It shouldn't be surprising then, that this conversation not only talked about the wonder of the deep seas and the Earth's crust but also went to some wonderful and unexpectedly emotional places.

I'm so thankful to have shared another conversation with Deep Sea Dawn.

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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:

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

Links:

5 Ways Scientists, NGOs, and Governments Can Support Indigenous-led Conservation
The “story maps” that Esri made for Victor Vescovo and Caladan Oceanic after Kathy Sullivan’s dive to Challenger
The “story map” of Dawn's dive
The MPA Guide – great resource for all things designating and managing Marine Protected Areas
Dawn's mom’s story
Follow Deep Sea Dawn on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn

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Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
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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

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Mentioned in this episode:

Become An Important Member

Essay: Welcome to the Unknown Unknowns Mar 17, 2023

Show notes

This week:

What we know — and more importantly, what we don’t — about what AI is capable of, and how much change we’re capable of absorbing.

Plus: the Willow Project, H-1B visas, blueberries, honeybee vaccines, climate disclosure rules, next-gen bed nets, and health insurance in North Carolina

Here's What You Can Do:

⚡️ Just a few bucks buys some life-saving bed nets with Against Malaria, maybe the most effective NGO on the planet
⚡️ The only thing dumber than cancer is rare cancers. Good news: you can help fund research against them (and work up a sweat at the same time) with our friends at Cycle for Survival
⚡️ This is the best electric vehicle you can buy
⚡️ Get educated and follow the Black Maternal Health Caucus on Twitter
⚡️ Understand your home’s exposure to flooding, fires, heat and wind with Risk Factor

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

What’s second-hand stress?
Next-gen bed nets are coming and could save so many lives
Medicaid expansion might finally be coming to North Carolina

Climate

Joe Biden approved the Willow Project in Alaska and it sucks, but on the other hand, the US is on track for a major clean energy milestone
The world’s first honeybee vaccine is like “magic”
Use this tool to see how early spring came to your neighborhood
In the future, it might still cost $1 trillion per ppm of CO2 removed, we should pay for it
The SEC’s climate disclosure rules are coming. 85% of business execs said they’re not ready.
Why did insurers slash Hurricane Ian payouts?

Food & Water

The EPA proposed their strongest ever standards for keeping coal plant pollution out of your water (right after they went after forever chemicals)
Blueberries are packed with pesticides?
A Supreme Court case could reshape Indigenous water rights in the (parched) southwest

Beep Boop

Some additional AI reading: Azeem Azhar on “Everything, everywhere, all at once”; Are LLM’s the new CPU’s?
Amid mass tech layoffs, workers on H-1B visas have 60 days to find a job, or leave the country, and we’re really just doing this all wrong

COVID

COVID made maternal health outcomes much worse (and especially among Black people)
There doesn’t seem to be an association between Paxlovid and a COVID rebound, which is great

Get more:

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Mentioned in this episode:

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Best Of: Is The Ocean Running Out of Oxygen? Is That Bad? Mar 13, 2023

Show notes

What if I told you there was less oxygen in the ocean than there used to be?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Dawn Wright, or as many in the ocean community know her "Deep Sea Dawn."

Dawn Wright is an elected member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. She's the Chief Scientist at ESRI, where she works with other scientists to map the ocean floor in 3D.

In 2018, when I was just a baby podcaster, when Brian was my co-host, I saw a headline about the ocean that made me question a lot. I knew the oceans were heating up. I was beginning to understand, I think we were all beginning to understand, just how much global heating the oceans had absorbed over the years.

But I didn't know what that meant for the billions of creatures that call the ocean home. I didn't know what it meant for us. So I called Dawn.

In celebration of Dawn's return to the show next week, I wanted to replay this incredible conversation we had with her to better understand how far we've come.

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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.

-----------

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

⚡️Your Home Electrification Questions, Answered Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

This week:

In response to our ongoing and delightful home electrification series with our friends at Rewiring America, we have received a hell of a lot of questions that are beyond our ability to answer.

So we brought in the experts: previous pod guest John Semmelhack, home electrification wiz and co-owner of The Comfort Squad, and Joel Rosenberg, member of the Special Projects team at Rewiring America.

Your regularly scheduled newsletter will return next week!

Here's What You Can Do:

Find a reputable contractor in Colorado with Renu, Xcel Energy, Elephant Energy, or Helio
Find a reputable contractor in California with The Switch Is On from TECH Clean California
Find a reputable contractor in Maine with Efficiency Maine
Not from any of those states? Check with your State Energy Office
Check out Redwood Energy's retrofit guide
Learn more about smart heat pump water heaters
Buy a low-level carbon monoxide sensor/alarm

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 and watch this episode
Get fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/store
Take a nap you deserve it

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Mentioned in this episode:

Become An Important Member

Essay: A living act of resistance Mar 08, 2023

Show notes

This week:

Can little-old-you really make a difference? Hell yes you can.

Plus: cheaper insulin, cleaner camping gear, a new (lidless) coffee cup, good news on BetterHelp, and maybe even some paid leave.

Here's What You Can Do:

⚡️ Help your local farmers sell online — not just at farmer’s markets — with GrownBy.
⚡️ Help people worldwide get clean, safe, accessible drinking water with charity: water.
⚡️ Support Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s Urban Ocean Lab as they write the future of ocean policy.
⚡️ Stay ahead of water news with the award-winning Circle of Blue non-profit newsroom
⚡️ Queer student journalists: Apply to be a member of the 2023 Nat’l LGBTQ Journalists’ Conference Student PROGRAM, a week-long all-expenses-paid reporting intensive

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

REI has committed to stop selling products with forever chemicals
Eli Lilly will cut insulin prices to $35, should still be regulated
There’s a new bipartisan push for paid family and medical leave
Endovascular thrombectomy will (eventually) save millions of lives

Climate

The Interior Department released guidance on how states can claim $500 million to clean up oil wells
The world swore they’d eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. Funny story! They doubled them (it’s complicated)

Food & Water

This new coffee cup is entirely compostable (and cool as hell)
The Mediterranean diet is, one, delicious, and two, may improve a person’s response to immunotherapy

Beep Boop

The FTC will ban BetterHelp from sharing mental health data for ad targeting, which, I don’t know, sounds pretty damn obvious
Instead of legislative bodies, judges are making consequential tech policy, and, look, nobody’s prepared for this stuff

COVID

This is the first at-home COVID and flu test
Why forest clearing doesn’t just release emissions — it helps viruses jump to humans

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

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Mentioned in this episode:

Become An Important Member

Best of: Lessons From Plants Mar 06, 2023

Show notes

What can we learn from trees?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Beronda Montgomery.

Beronda's a transformative writer, researcher and scholar who pursues a common theme of understanding how individuals perceive, respond to and are impacted by the environments in which they exist.

She recently moved from Michigan State University to Grinnell College where she's a professor of biology and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, which is perfect because I can't think of anyone who is more intentional about mentorship than Beronda.

She is the author of one of my favorite books, Lessons From Plants.

She's also one of my all-time favorite podcast guests, so I'm excited to share one of our most popular conversations from all the way back in 2021 as we more urgently and comprehensively try to understand how to adapt ourselves, our society and our economy and our ecosystems to mitigate further harm from climate change.

We can learn a lot from plants which are living things that are literally planted in place and so they are forced to adapt to whatever comes their way.

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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:

"Breathe: A Letter to My Sons" by Imani Perry
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: Did A.I. Just Make My Life’s Work Obsolete? Feb 27, 2023

Show notes

How many nights have you spent up recently worried that AI is just gonna take your job?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Mohammed AlQuraishi.

Almost three years before chatGPT and New Bing really hit the scene, Mohammed showed up to a conference excited to share his life's work on protein folding, one of the biggest problems in biology.

But Mohammad quickly discovered that Deep Mind or to be more specifically AlphaFold had solved the whole damn thing.

Mohammad is an assistant professor in the Department of Systems Biology and a member of Columbia's program for mathematical genomics, where he works at the intersection of machine learning, biophysics and systems biology.

Obviously, all this is more important and more relevant than ever before.

Literally, it changes every week, so I'm excited to share this conversation from 2019 or a million years ago.

The world and AI is moving so quickly, but it's messy and in many places it's moving faster than our societal and ethical guardrails can keep up.

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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.

-----------

INI Book Club:

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

Learn more at https://moalquraishi.wordpress.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/moalquraishi
“The Future of Protein Science will not be Supervised”
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: chanzuckerberg.com

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: How to get sh*t done Feb 24, 2023

Show notes

This week:

Pulled in a million directions? Wondering what the hell you do with your days?

Find your north stars (and become devastatingly effective) with one simple question.

What We Can Do:

⚡️ Please don’t use public wifi without a VPN. Please? If you can’t just hotspot, use the lightning-fast Mullvad VPN to secure your data.
⚡️ On the hunt for new furniture? Save some trees and check out Kaiyo’s marketplace to buy and sell fancy used furniture!
⚡️ Cancel out your transportation emissions and find your next (or first!) e-bike at Ride Review
⚡️ Want to go to climate farm school, or be a climate VC? Get the education you need and build an incredible network with our friends at Terra.do.

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

Are we getting closer to curing Alzheimer’s?
5th person confirmed cured of HIV
After a brutal winter, an RSV vaccine might finally be around the corner
Social media has been a major cause of mental illness in girls for a long time. Here’s the evidence.

Climate

How disinformation is slowing the clean energy rollout
Global corps climate pledges are ‘misleading’, not the word I would have used
Biden wants all of the floating offshore wind
Why the hell has climate change made tampons more expensive?
Governments spent a record $1 trillion on fossil fuel subsidies last year

Food & Water

One year later, the infant formula crisis is still a thing, and could happen again
Cereal companies are NOT pumped about the FDA’s new “healthy” label
Congress killed a bill to give farmworkers a path to citizenship
Healthier school lunches may reduce obesity

Beep Boop

Why haven’t digital therapeutics got payer coverage yet?
How Google’s ad business funds misinformation (I wrote a deep dive into disinformation last week)

COVID

That meta-study on masks is decidedly not as decisive (or honest) as expected
What happens with COVID-era food benefits end?

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

Essay: What Do You Need? Feb 22, 2023

Show notes

This week:

The future of search and chatbots looks a lot like our ancient past. Why do we keep making the same tools over and over again?

What We Can Do:

⚡️ Addiction is brutal. Help yourself or a loved one or someone you’ve never met with Shatterproof.
⚡️ I’m so excited to share that my favorite event on Earth, “LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade Stand” is finally back. Support pediatric cancer research and buy yourself some tickets to eat food from some of the greatest chefs on the planet.
⚡️ It’s a pretty pretty pretty good moment to read Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence and The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values.
⚡️ Want to switch your retirement fund to one without fossil fuels? Check out Fossil Free Funds to find mutual funds and ETFs that qualify.

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

It’s probably helpful to understand that half of all American hospitals are projected to be in the red this year
American teenage girls are suffering in a very real way. There are a million things we can do, here are a few ways to start to help
E-bikes incentives are SO POPULAR
Sure, we need to get toxic gas out of our homes, but also — why is asthma the way that it is?

Climate

This amazing new solar farm is also a prairie restoration project and a carbon sink, you’re welcome (also, let’s hear it for hedgerows!)
Harvard voted to build climate change into its medical school curriculum

Food & Water

Sorghum is one of our oldest and most reliable grains and could be a stalwart in the age of climate change
Can food be medicine, after all?

Beep Boop

Tesla’s recalling 300,000+ cars because self-driving was bullshit all along
Supermarkets, like everyone else, are selling your data

COVID

China’s recent COVID death toll could top a million
Is Long COVID a neurological disease?

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

Clean Air Is An Inside Job Feb 20, 2023

Show notes

Imagine you’re in a sci-fi movie. The one where everything’s on the line.

And while dinosaurs or aliens or a virus takes over down on the ground, you’re the scientist unexpectedly riding in the helicopter with the actual president, the scientist who’s run the calculations and asked the questions nobody else thought to ask, who’s uncovered the virus’s single weakness.

But nobody’s listening to you. Because it’s complicated when everything is on the line. But you know that what you know could save millions of lives.

What do you do next?

That’s today’s big question, and my guest is Dr. Linsey Marr.

A renowned scientist and multidisciplinary engineer who pioneered research into a better understanding of the flu’s airborne status, and how humidity plays a role in the flu’s seasonality. She is among a very small group of scientists who truly understand the aerosol transmission of bacteria and viruses.

Three years later, we’re still wrestling with the implications of this virus and how we level the playing field by cleaning up our indoor air.

And nobody understands the challenges we face – and the opportunities in front of our faces, literally under and inside of our noses – like she does.

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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.

-----------

INI Book Club:

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

Follow Dr. Marr on Twitter
Read and implement the EPA Clean Air In Buildings Challenge
Learn more about air pollution
Read the CDC recommendations for ventilation in buildings
Install a PurpleAir air quality monitor in your home
Monitor CO2 in your home with an Aranet4
Purchase an Air Purifier for your home

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

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