Important, Not Important

This week: For the next few weeks, I’m rewriting and sharing a selection of essays I wrote in 2020 and 2021, so about two hundred years ago. I think they’re more relevant than ever — I can’t wait to hear what you think.This week: What would you say you do here? (Originally published July 2020, updated February 2023)Why do we exist?After a hundred years of progress, humanity faces stress tests unlike any we’ve faced before, and all at once. The good news: Your company can help rewrite the future.Here's What You Can Do:⚡️ The death toll in Turkey and Syria continues to rise. Relief agencies are having a hell of a time, but you can donate to the Syrian American Medical Society, Doctors Without Borders, and World Central Kitchen.⚡️ There’s never been a better time for educators to bring climate crisis solutions into the classroom, and no better tool than the All We Can Save Project.⚡️ Renter? Landlord? Either way you can find out how to green your building with BlocPower.⚡️ Clean up the air in your town with Mom’

How does innovation actually work? That's today's big question, and my guest is Christopher Mims. Chris is a journalist for the Wall Street Journal, and I had him on the show in 2021 to understand how he asks big questions.Chris is constantly asking questions about the most pressing technological and societal issues we face from robot trains to the future of batteries, brain implants, and whatever happens to land in between. And his thesis is this: every little bit counts. And innovation is more predictable than you think - or is it?In this conversation, Chris and I explore the team dynamics of innovation, the "great man" question, the invisible force behind Moore's Law, and more.The bad news: Nobody gets to save the world. The good news: Everyone gets to save the world a little bit.-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at importantnotimportant.com/podcast.-----------INI Book Club:Life as We

This week: Everyone needs insurance. But what kind? And what does it mean to have it, or not?Well, there’s actual insurance, which is a policy where you and an insurer contract with one another in case things go south with (usually) your home, your car, or your body. That’s the layman’s technical explanation, but more colloquially, and for our purposes today, “insurance” can mean just having a buffer or a back up plan, or a “thing you might do to make sure a big decision (like buying a home, having a child, or just generally being a person) doesn’t go to hell in a hand basket.” All of these decisions are usually the result of understanding that just by being alive you’re really putting yourself out there. While you believe in your choices, and the odds of actual calamity are (usually) reasonable, the costs of calamity can be devastating. My friends: We are in a time of calamity. It’s time to get some insurance.Here's What You Can Do:⚡️Understand your home's flood and fire risk with Risk Factor⚡️ Work for a lo

How do we reimagine capitalism in a world on fire? That's today's big question, and my guest is Rebecca Henderson, Harvard professor behind the wildly popular class "Reimagining Capitalism". I had Rebecca on the show in 2020 to discuss her book of the same name and her research, which explores the degree to which the private sector can play a major role in building a more sustainable economy, focusing on the relationships between organizational purpose, innovation, productivity, and high-performance organizations.What Rebecca discovered over the last decade or so of research is that focusing exclusively on shareholder profits is a pretty terrible way to run a company in the long run. And it could burn this whole thing down in the short, in the long term. The silver lining is, as we try to present here all the time, of the four to five catastrophes happening in this country at any given moment, many also present unprecedented opportunities to build a better today and tomorrow for everyone.Here's my 2020 conver

This week: What does it mean when people say “revolution”? For these purposes, which are pretty narrow and entirely of my own invention, I don’t mean some single moment in time, unless it was a bellwether for something bigger. And I don’t mean the revolutions that have necessarily most directly impacted me. When I think “revolution” I imagine a building up of…something…that affected most people directly or indirectly, so that’s the threshold I’ll use here. This list is in no way comprehensive, I’m a generalist bonehead who definitely missed some significant items. I am 40, though I feel like I’m 99, so anyways I’m going to use 1982 as my starting point. YMMV. INI is about looking forward, to understanding where we are and where we might be going, so we can build a better today and tomorrow for everyone. But to do so, it’s helpful to look back a little bit to understand how we got here, what’s underway, and what might be brewing, for better or worse. Because the more we have our eyes on these currents, the mor

How can I be a better ancestor? This question has haunted and inspired me since way back in 2019 when I first read the Optimist's Telescope. A beautiful, helpful, inspiring book by Bina Venkataraman. Then I had Bina on the show. I think it's fair to say it reframed and focused my work and now all of our work here. You simply cannot be a better ancestor by hoping shit gets better in posting black boxes on your Instagram stories. You have to do the work for today and tomorrow. If you want your descendants to consider you the cool, great-great uncle, you need to drive change today.Bina is a journalist. She's an author and a science policy expert. She's the editor at large at the Boston Globe and a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. She's been an advisor to President Obama on everything from climate innovation to Ebola to public school science education. I hope you enjoy this wonderful throwback conversation.It is mid-Trump presidency. It is before COVID, before Biden, w

Across the front of our website, in big bold letters, is our calling card: “Science for people who give a shit.”You may have seen it and immediately thought “That’s me!” or “You sir, are a child.” Either reaction is well and great. We’re not for everybody.You’re here, though, so let's assume you’re on board with the whole idea. However you identified with that tagline, you may have also asked yourself what it means, in practice. And that’s a good question because while the mantra isn’t changing, I’m more focused than ever on putting it into practice for me, and you. To Do Better Better requires trust in one another. That we care, that we'll step up when it counts, that we won't pull the ladder up after us. It requires a radical reorientation of our assumptions and expectations, to put into practice our values, to show up for one another -- together whenever we can, and when we're most alone -- to understand 1% better every day doesn't feel very different today -- if anything, it can feel like nowhere near eno

We’re taking giving a shit quite literally this week! Our guest is Newsha Ghaeli, the president and co-founder at Biobot Analytics. If you read our newsletter, you’ll have heard me go on and on about Biobot, whose mission is to transform wastewater infrastructure into public health observatories.As an architect turned urban studies researcher, Newsha met her co-founder, Dr. Mariana Matus, at MIT almost a decade ago. Their work on the MIT Underworlds Project led to a dissertation, scientific publications, and coverage by dozens of local and national media outlets, and places in the DeltaV, DesignX, and Y Combinator accelerators.Obviously, Biobot’s work couldn’t have come along at a better time.Public health data in the US is fractured and difficult to aggregate, much less on the fly.Three years into the pandemic, most COVID testing is done at home and unreported, and most states have stopped reporting the data they do get.Building a baseline understanding of what’s quite literally floating around in our t

What’s one big change we can make that can make our food healthier, make farming more lucrative, draw down carbon in the atmosphere, and reduce climate emigration?That’s today’s big question, and my guest is Sasankh Munukutla, another fellow in our series with the 776 Foundation. Sasankh is the Co-Founder of Terradot, a satellite and AI-based gigaton-scale, soil-carbon sequestration verification system. Sasankh originally hails from Singapore and grew up across countries as a third-culture kid and a future global citizen attending international schools. Before college, Sasankh took two gap years and served as a Commander in the Singapore Armed Forces. Once at Stanford, he completed his undergraduate degree in Computer Science with distinction as a Terman Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, and with the Stanford Award of Excellence.So, you know.As you’ll hear, Sasankh is deeply passionate and thoughtful about the intersection of technology and social impact. He’s worked in the refugee space, on accessib

Aluminum. It’s everywhere!And we’re going to need a hell of a lot more of it in the future.Aluminum is a primary ingredient in solar, wind, hydro, concentrated solar, bioenergy, the grid, batteries, hydrogen, and more. And that’s just electricity generation and distribution, to say nothing of consumer goods, from EVs to baseball bats.  Great news: we already collect and recycle a hell of a lot of it. Compared to, say, plastic, this is a huge win!But…the bit we haven’t been able to recycle is 1) at scale, a lot, and 2) FAIRLY hazardous.Luckily, some very smart young folks may have figured out how to recycle more of it, and maybe even power their whole operation from the inside out.We have to rebuild our entire economy to get to zero new emissions, and then go even further. Some sectors are far easier than others, and deep tech, heavy industry, is the latter.It’s not sexy, but heavy industry is – often literally – the foundation for everything we do. Think metals and minerals and concrete and steel an

This week: Global climate news roundup beyond COP27The human cost of vaccine inequityWater runs dryChatbots aren't your friendsCaveats to exciting AI developmentsHere's What You Can Do:More Democratic Senators means a greater chance the US can stand by it's climate commitments. Donate to Senator Warnock's December runoff campaign here, and the invaluable "Georgia Safe and Strong" alliance of local organizers here.Check out Biobot's wastewater monitoring program for local governments and then take it to your next city council meetingGet deeper water news from our friends at Circle of BlueEvery bit of leverage for data privacy policy matters. Donate to Senator Warnock's December runoff campaign here, and the invaluable "Georgia Safe and Strong" alliance of local organizers here, so we can get ahead of this dangerous nonsense for once.Get free weekly updates on ethical AI from our friends at the Montreal AI Ethics Institute.Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com/newslett

There’s nothing quite like breaking bread with family and friends, old or new. By mid-2020, we’d have all taken the opportunity to break bread with just about anyone.Why are recipes, and the stories behind them, some of the most enduring parts of each of our cultures?How can we be more intentional about cooking food more often, food that makes us feel good, that tastes good, that’s good for the planet, food that nourishes others, and that allows us to let our guards down for a moment, and share our joys and struggles?One thing I never make enough time for is hosting others, and feeding others. I mean, besides my kids, who I love to feed, but they never stop feeding, and so it’s relentless, but that’s another story altogether.Some of my favorite food to make is from my guest today Joanne Lee Molinaro, the Korean Vegan.Joanne is a runner, an attorney, a blogger, a podcast host, and the author of the James Beard-award-winning Korean Vegan Cookbook named one of the best cookbooks of 2021.But you may know her best

It’s always worth revisiting the inarguable fact that our country was designed to be inequitable.And while much progress has been made over time, the powers that be continued to imagine and design new ways of marginalizing, at best, Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous people throughout our society and economy.But who will tell their story? And who should?Local news has all but disappeared. Meanwhile, the communities most marginalized and least covered by mainstream publishers continue to struggle.It’s important we help them tell their stories, not only so we are – very simply – more aware and educated about lived experiences different from our own, but so we can understand the specific mechanics behind the systems oppressing them, where their organizing has been successful, and where it hasn’t, and why.And finally, how best to help.We need new models of local and regional and even national news, where the news and stories are more accessible, more a product of relationships inside those communities, and more

This week: Climate change in the curriculumIncreasingly divergent subvariantsCell-cultured meatRSV vaccines are comingGenerative AI (...didn't write this, but it might one day)Here's What You Can Do:Teachers can't teach without understanding the material. Check out ClimeTime and the CLEAN project for free, vetted resources for educators K-12.Bring everyone you know to get their bivalent boosters, bring masks back (they can help defend against the flu and RSV too), and improve your air quality wherever you canOur friends at Climate Tech VC put together a free deep-dive on methane emissions from cows. Read it and get up to speed.Join our friends at Pod Save America to call, text, knock on doors, and vote for people who will fight for the 75% of Americans who don't have access to paid leave through an employerCheck out Bleeding Edge AI for a cool timeline for developments as they happen, and/or Ben's Bites, a free, digestible, pithy email update with all things generative AIGet more:Get more news, analysis, and

Climate change is a touchy topic in farm country. But one third of greenhouse gas emissions come from food and agriculture, so it’s crucial that the industry becomes part of the climate change solution. For years almost all the action on climate change centered on energy – solar and wind and electric vehicles taking on coal and gas and oil. But now Washington is suddenly buzzing about “climate-smart agriculture,” and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is in the middle of the action. He just announced $3 billion in grants for “climate-smart commodities.” The Inflation Reduction Act is sending the USDA $20 billion for climate-smart projects. It’s incredible how quickly the food and climate issue has moved to the center of the plate.This week, Mike and Tamar welcome Secretary Vilsack as their first Climavores guest. They dig in on everything from regulating farmers to regenerative agriculture to subsidies as a bridge to market solutions. And of course Mike pushes the Secretary on his favorite topic – 

This week: $1 billion for electric school busesA potential "tripledemic" sandwich (not as delicious as it sounds!)One person's (treated) wastewater is another person's drinking waterMost pregnancy-related deaths in America are preventableBumble goes public with their "Private Detector" codeHere's What You Can Do (usually more varied, but until November 8th, it's all hands on deck):Join our friends at Pod Save America or the Environmental Voter Project to call/text/donate and vote for people who will continue to build the foundation for a healthier worldIf you lead or even work at a company with paid leave, message every to stay home as much as necessary, and if you don't - Join our friends at Pod Save America or the Environmental Voter Project to call/text/donate and vote for people who actually learned something from the pandemicJoin our friends at Pod Save America or the Environmental Voter Project to call/text/donate and vote for people who have lived experiences that reflect reality and will fight for a

Throughout history, kings, queens, governments, churches, and donors have funded contests and awarded prizes for solving the most difficult problems of the day.Today, as we stand on the precipice of huge problems and opportunity, with everyone looking around going “What can I do?” the utility and relative inclusivity of prizes like these remains compelling.And there’s one group that’s driving them more than anyone – XPRIZE.My guest today is Dr. Marcius Extavour.Marcius is the Chief Scientist & Executive Vice President of Climate and Energy at XPRIZE.Marcius moved to XPRIZE after over a decade of working at the intersection of science,  policy, education, and technology development. He served as Director of Government and Corporate Partnerships in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto.Dr. Extavour is active in science and energy policy more broadly, having held positions at the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resource as the OSA/SPIE/AAAS Congression

This week: Plant-based meat stocksAnother COVID winter is comingA long-term plan for the baby formula shortageThe uncertain future of telehealthWillfully shunning data privacyHere's What You Can Do:Help elect progressive state and federal candidates who will shift our diets and land use toward healthier, more sustainable food systemsCheck your wastewater data here or hereIf you've got extra, unopened, not-expired formula, donate it through the Free Formula Exchange. You can also get screened and donate breast milk at one of 31 regional milk banks.We need people in office, at every level, who understand how quickly technology is progressing, how we can use it to help people, and the infrastructure required to enable broad access. Help get them elected.We should make sure that the companies and governments that build tech only collect the data they absolutely need, and transparently, and not use it against us. Help elect people who understand where the puck is going.Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action

Let's talk robots.But first: There’s a very particular bottleneck where groundbreaking science is more applicable than ever but inaccessible to many. The tools are unaffordable to the schools and groups who could use them to hook kids right when they’re most excited, kids with a huge variety of lived experienced, who have grown up in the climate era, and in the COVID era, who see and want to solve problems they can touch and feel – but because of costs and access, they never get to try.Or the bottleneck presents as being frustratingly inefficient, to the labs who actually do this stuff every day, the ones who see a peer’s research and try to replicate it, but don’t have the funding or people or bandwidth or all three to spend time filling test tubes.Building better processes isn’t the sexiest science you can do, but the science doesn’t happen, or nearly enough of it, or fast enough, without the help of someone who’s been affected by these inefficiencies.Someone who can see the whole journey and identify

How lucky are we?How lucky are we that we live in a time of such great opportunity – when, yes, we’re teetering on the edge of a global climate calamity, still reeling from a pandemic, knowing that our problems and challenges are not only enormous, but systemic, all-encompassing, and often linked together.How lucky are we to be able to say – look at all of this opportunity, look at all of the ways I could have an impact, need to have an impact, right now?How lucky are we that so many people, both scared for their futures and emboldened by a feeling of having both nothing to lose, and everything, all at the same time – that they are choosing not to go trade derivatives or build more ad tech, but instead dream?People, and especially young people, dreaming and actually designing, building, and testing innovative, groundbreaking solutions.This episode is another in our series of conversations with 776 Foundation fellows and I’m so excited to share it.Part of the reason I left California was because of the fire ri