The Most Important Question

Turns out it's our 200th episode. It has been a journey.

The show is now called The Most Important Question, and I can't think of a better answer than just fucking run for something. What can I do abo…

Congress just jammed the brakes on America's clean energy boom, however short-lived it may have been.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law after a lot of debate in the House and the Sen…

Imagine waking up to discover that the United States has just pulled $35 billion out of foreign aid overnight, and that hundreds of HIV clinics, and child malnutrition programs, and poverty graduatio…

Toilet paper. You use it. I use it. Sometimes, even my children use it. The point is, toilet paper is everywhere.

Almost everyone needs it, and so much of it still comes from actual forests, and yet …

You've heard people say it. It shouldn't have been called Earth. It should have been called Ocean, but it is simultaneously a planet of trees.

As Richard Powers put it in The Overstory: We live in a …

Picture a city that beats brutal heat waves with cool tree-lined streets, slashes household energy bills, and cuts carbon pollution by as much as 80%, without waiting for these miracle technologies.

…

In every flood scarred bend of an Appalachian river sits a chance to rebuild something stronger, cleaner water for people, and room for a 160 million-year salamander to thrive again.

Hurricane-shaped…

This week:

There are a million legitimate reasons why standing up to bullies may require a pseudonym (and a cowl), or even anonymity.

As has been clear for centuries, and even more so in this moment o…

63% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and yet here we are. So what can we do to make the language around abortion more positive?

My guest today is Sophie Nir.

Sophie is …

Sometimes you buy organic, sometimes you hit a restaurant that's plant-based, or at least you choose the veggie option.

Maybe the fish option at the market or the restaurant is marketed as being sust…

We've spent the last few years learning up close how a crisis like a global pandemic reveals and deepens all of our faults, inequalities, biases, and outright failures of empathy.

But here's the kick…

The United States has long been the largest aid donor in the world, accounting for about 40 percent of humanitarian assistance globally last year, according to the United Nations. But that is quickly…

This week:

You’ve never had a better opportunity to improve one person’s life than you do right now.

I would argue, in fact, that there’s never been a better time to improve one person’s life than the…

One of the ways this Trump administration is different from the last is, relatively at least, how much more unconstitutional, how much more organized and comprehensive the attacks on our institutions…

We didn't always call our work science for people who give a shit.

But ever since we did, we've welcomed at least two types of people to our flock. The first is people who are deeply invested in scie…

What can we do about land power?

It's the most important question and my guest today is Mike Albertus.

Mike is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. He's the author of the ne…

This week:

Not. Right. Now.

I hope you enjoy our new show. It’s super, super informal, and fun, and full of profanity, and personal, and — I hope — something you or a parent in your life can identify …

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 …

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 Witch…

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 his…