Important, Not Important

This week: Operate from a place of self-awareness; God, we are so bad at math; A half-century later; Drive pediatric cancer research; What’s the future of meat work? TikTok misinformation enters the chat.Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 122, Quinn has big questions about AI ethics and, like many other situations, is left wondering: was Dr. Ian Malcolm right all along?Our guest is Dr. Rumman Chowdury. She is the director of the Machine Ethics Transparency & Accountability (META) team at Twitter, where she’s helping to build a new ethical backbone into Twitter from the inside out.On every social media platform you interact with on a regular basis, there is some type of machine learning or algorithm determining what you see and how you interact with it. Obviously, that is quite a responsibility to bear. We’ve seen algorithms in the past be straight-up racist, suck people into alt-right conspiracy funnels, and cater to the worst of our human tendencies.These are all running on systems designed by humans – mostly white men – and that shows in the ways that they work. It’s Dr. Rumman’s job to clamp down on the worst of these to make algorithms that perform ethically – and she’s certainly got her work cut out for her.Have feedback or

In Episode #121, Quinn’s got a fantastic new guest to help answer his favorite question: “What can I do?”Isaias Hernandez – or, as he’s known pretty much everywhere on the internet, Queer Brown Vegan -- shares the mic today. He’s built a massive following using an intersectional approach to reach people through empathy and education.In this series, we look at how young people are using their passions and lived experiences to participate in this transformational moment in history. Isaias exemplifies this by taking his passion for the environment, his frustration with the inaccessibility of academia, and his skill for graphic design, to create the kinds of educational content he wished he had access to when he was younger.Isaias has taken every aspect of who he is and incorporated it into that educational platform. From understanding his own role in the food system, the way that humans are exploited in agricultural systems, and the inevitability of climate change, he looks to his own interests and what makes hi

This week: 50% isn’t good enough; Facebook fossil fuel ads; How to get shots to Africa; Oysters!?; Why has AI failed to help during COVID?Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 120, Quinn discusses retraining our mind to understand and operate in the discontinuity we are in. Let’s get META.HIs guest is Alex Steffen, a longtime climate reporter and futurist, as well as writer of the forthcoming book The Snap Forward.The world as we know it is changing – in fact, it’s already changed. The changes brought on by human-made effects on climate are now the context in which we live our lives. Whether you’ve been fighting the powers behind climate change for years or are just now finding your place, what comes next?Step one: accept that everything you ever thought you knew about the world has changed. Not an easy task, but very soon we’re all going to be forced to reconcile with our situation –  whether we like it or not. The thing to remember is not how bad things are, but how good they can get – and how quickly – if we just face up to reality. It all starts with acknowledging where we are. Then we can snap forward.Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to q

This week: FDA got next?; Flooded subways; Delta's a game-changer; Epic (AI) fail; Fire predictions; Food stamp groceries delivered.Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 119, Quinn asks: what’s in wildfire smoke, what does it do to your body, and how can you stay safe?Our guest is Dr. Mary Prunicki, the director of air pollution and health research at Stanford University under The Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research. Her lab examines the impact of air pollution and wildfires on health – specifically, immune health.We’re going to talk about something timely: the wildfires ravaging the western side of the country, and the smoke that’s reaching all the way to the east.Wildfires are inherent to nature. They’re important. Hell, they’re vital. They’re also far out of hand. Global warming has resulted in drier vegetation and human intervention has suppressed fires instead of allowing them to burn in a controlled way.On top of that, when these fires burn it’s not just the green stuff – homes, businesses, cars, roads, and more are going up as well. And that complicates the kind of shit getting kicked up as smoke. Regular old brushfire smoke is bad, bu

I don't have to tell you folks – climate change is the story of our time. There’s been a sharp rise (like last week) in people are anxious, angry, and want action – and the opening for bold climate action has never been wider.And “A Matter of Degrees” gives them a place to find community: it's a narrative podcast from two of INI’s fan-favorite former pod guests, Dr. Leah Stokes & Dr. Katharine Wilkinson!The show helps listeners understand the climate story in a deeper way. They explore the reality of climate denial and delay, the solutions that are available and in motion today, and why justice and equity are so central to the fight.Today's episode covers our opportunity to implement a national clean electricity standard and illustrates what a tremendous difference it could make in our efforts to decarbonize this place, stat.The team behind A Matter of Degrees is composed of highly influential voices in the climate community and seasoned podcast producers (Jaime Kaiser, Dalvin Aboagye, and Stephen Lacey)

This week: The climate crisis kicked down the door of the west and global north this week; The Pizza King of Vaccines; Mental health care now available everywhere; The Human-Machine interface; You like drugs, Danny? Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 118, Quinn discusses: the big mosquito problem.Our guest is Dr. Omar Akbari, one of the world’s pre-eminent biotechnology and mosquito researchers.For how afraid people are of sharks, mountain lions, or even just other people (the worst), mosquitoes have actually killed more humans than pretty much anything on the planet. Ever. So, the fact that the problem is only getting worse… really fucking sucks.Table stakes: The increase in mosquito populations is being exacerbated by – surprise – climate change. Safe places like Los Angeles are very much not that anymore.Dr. Akbari shares how mosquitoes came to be such a big problem, how viruses pass via their population, and the potential doomsday scenario of something like COVID-19 becoming a thing mosquitoes jive with. He also explains how our good friend, the CRISPR, may offer a solution, the ethical problem surrounding its use, and how you can help expedite the safe rollout of futuristic answers to a very (very) annoying problem.Have feedback or qu

This week: deep breath; COVID all around the world; there are two Americas and it’s obvious why; the global hungry jump to 768 million; call your doctor!; money for nothing; held hostage by hackers.Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 117, Quinn discusses: how accountability works – and doesn’t – in the climate movement, how you can get involved, and how the best in the world are doing it.Our guests are Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt. The duo makes up Hot Take, a podcast and newsletter that gives an honest look at the climate crisis while providing some of the most empathetic voices in the climate justice movement.We’ve heard it again and again: the biggest barrier to climate action is political will, but how do you build that (besides putting polluters in jail)? Well, partly through discourse: by helping people understand why they should be fired up. Nobody’s penned more influential, moving climate essays than Mary.On the other hand, there’s still so much f*cking money and power wrapped up in the fossil fuel industry – and, consequently, the policy surrounding it. And nobody’s done more to uncover their bullshit than Amy, through her investigative podcast series, Drilled.With their powers combined, we lay the groundwork

This week: To understand Africa, look to India -- or not; Reverse course; Don’t believe everything you read -- especially Best Buy food labels; New headline, who dis?Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

This week, Quinn is proud to share a new favorite podcast: “The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women (HERO).” Could empowering women in the workplace be the simplest way to boost the global economy? In a word: “yes,” but how do we get there? “The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women” is a new limited series podcast from Foreign Policy. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the show is about women around the world who are shaking up the status quo in surprising ways. And we're going to air their first episode here, which is about an innovative approach to franchising affordable childcare centers and how it’s changing the lives of low-income mothers and daycare owners in Kenya.The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women debuts new episodes on Tuesdays. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comLinks:“The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women (HERO)”Connect with us:Subscribe to our n

This week: What’s a dew point, anyways?; The COVID Delta variant is here; And then there were six; An all female Justice League of social media.#51: Are We Talking About CRISPR All Wrong? Also, What The Hell Is CRISPR?Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 116, Quinn wants to know: why is simply giving people money the most effective way to 1) help them make positive changes to their lives and 2) erase global poverty along the way?To help him understand the answer, he brought on Caroline Teti and Michael Faye from GiveDirectly.Caroline Teti (or just Teti, as she likes to be called, we swear) works on the ground in Kenya, Nairobi, handling recipient advocacy for GiveDirectly’s global operations. She’s our new favorite person, sorry Michael.Michael Faye is the co-founder and president of GiveDirectly, and he’s great too. Seriously! You’re great. So great. But Teti, wow.Anyways! There’s so many amazing programs out there helping folks in extreme poverty by providing food, water, clothing, medicine, and more. But different people need different things on different days. Michael and Teti have done tremendous work to explore the data behind poverty and how to fix it: and it turns out the best way to get people what they need is to give them the resour

This week: it’s Bolsonaro all the way down; the 99%; 44 thousand patients can’t be wrong; “fire beats water” should be relegated to D&D;Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In light of new research on toxic ingredients, it looks like America might finally start regulating cosmetic products, so it’s a great moment to re-run one of our most popular episodes with Beautycounter CEO Gregg Renfrew.In episode 87, Quinn & Brian ask: what, exactly, are we putting on our bodies (and why aren’t more people asking questions about it)?Our guest is: Gregg Renfrew. Gregg is a serial entrepreneur who, most recently, founded Beautycounter to increase transparency and safety in the personal care industry. She also actively lobbies for regulation in the cosmetics industry. She wants to limit the number of harmful chemicals included in products sold in America because, you know, less poison in and on our bodies is a good thing – and a good thing that many other companies in the beauty industry vehemently oppose.There are complicated ingredients in our cosmetics, moisturizers… well, pretty much everything we’re sold to put on our bodies to make them look or feel better. And these ingredients are

In celebration of New York state passing Bill S6532A, permitting underwater kelp cultivation, we’re re-playing one of our coolest (and most entertaining) episodes. Kelp could be THE crop of the 21st century. But why? Listen in to find out.In Episode 81, Quinn & Brian discuss: legalizing the weed of the sea.Our guests are Bren Smith and Tom Ford, two fine, clean-living gentlemen who are out on the water every day. They’re trying to change the way that we eat to our benefit and, more importantly, the ocean’s benefit (which seems obvious to us, but apparently is not).Bren Smith started The Thimble Island Ocean Farm, dedicated to restorative ocean farming, and is Executive Director and Co-Founder of GreenWave, a nonprofit supporting a new generation of ocean farmers to feed the planet and build a blue-green economy in the era of climate change. Tom Ford is Executive Director of The Bay Foundation, Director of the Santa Monica Bay National Estuary Program, and Co-Director of the Coastal Research Institute

This week: “Do not come”; The pandemic is not over for everyone; We can do better, can’t we? Cover crops; Language barriers in AI.Visit ImportantJobs.com to find your next role working on the frontlines of the future.Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media