The Most Important Question

Latest Episodes:

Push Them Down Feb 20, 2025

Show notes

Please enjoy the debut episode from our new show, Not Right Now.

Every week, Claire (Evil Witches) and Quinn (Important, Not Important) dive into the chaotic reality of raising tiny humans in these wild times.

From behavioral reflection forms and schoolyard diplomacy to the eternal question of "how many water bottles does one child need?", we explore the messy, hilarious, and occasionally terrifying truth about modern parenting.

Plus: why every parent should have friends who don't make you add "...but of course I love them!" to your rants, the special anxiety of raising boys who won't become supervillains, and the paradox of counting down to bedtime while simultaneously scrolling through baby photos.

A conversation for parents who know that both dreading dinner and cherishing every moment can be true at the same time.

A new show from Important, Not Important.

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Have feedback or questions? Send a message to questions@notrightnow.show

Get all of our episodes at https://www.notrightnow.show/

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Subscribe to Quinn's newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Subscribe to Claire's newsletter at https://www.evilwitches.com/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notrightnowpodcast/
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Produced and edited by Willow Beck
Music by Tim Blane: timblane.com

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Mentioned in this episode:

What Can I Do?

Introducing: Not Right Now Feb 14, 2025

Show notes

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.

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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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Links:

Follow Not Right Now on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notrightnowpodcast/
Email Not Right Now at questions@notrightnow.show

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

Mentioned in this episode:

What Can I Do?

Essay: Have Mercy Feb 10, 2025

Show notes

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.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com
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

Mentioned in this episode:

What Can I Do?

Essay: Build Something Useful Feb 03, 2025

Show notes

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.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com
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

Mentioned in this episode:

What Can I Do?

We Need To Talk About Bird Flu Jan 27, 2025

Show notes

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.

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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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Links:

Keep up with Dr. Bhadelia's work at BU
Follow Dr. Bhadelia on Bluesky
Find air filters at Filterbuy.com
Learn more about what you can do to support public health

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

Mentioned in this episode:

What Can I Do?

Essay: Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. Jan 13, 2025

Show notes

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.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com
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

Mentioned in this episode:

What Can I Do?

Essay: About 2025 Jan 06, 2025

Show notes

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.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com
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

Mentioned in this episode:

What Can I Do?

Bridging Misinformation Gaps with Local Journalism Nov 11, 2024

Show notes

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.

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

Links:

Read more about Lyndsey's community engagement work at Grist
Keep up with Lyndsey's work
Support Grist's nonprofit journalism

Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Take action at whatcanido.earth
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

Mentioned in this episode:

Become An Important Member

Essay: Only 86,000 To Go. You in? Nov 01, 2024

Show notes

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.com
Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade
Take Action at whatcanido.earth
Get our merch
Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com
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

Thinking In Systems To Save An Indivisible World Oct 28, 2024

Show notes

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.

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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: