The Most Important Question
Science for people who give a sh*t.
Want to feel better AND unf*ck the world? The 6-time Webby nominee delivers deep conversations with the world's smartest people (scientists, doctors, CEO's, farmers, and more!), and digestible news updates every single week, to help you answer the world's most important question: What can I do?
We're talkin' clean energy and coral reefs, COVID vaccines and pediatric cancer research, clean water and carbon capture tech, asteroid deflection and artificial intelligence ethics.
"A vital service in an era where important truths, outright fiction and mere trivia all compete for your attention.” - Craig Mazin, creator, writer, and executive producer of HBO's Chernobyl
Hosted by Quinn Emmett
- Update frequency
- every 5 days
- Average duration
- 46 minutes
- Episodes
- 435
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2025
Issue #238: Seattle in the Oven, Vaccine Money Grab, Building Biased Robots
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 a…
Introducing HERO, from Foreign Policy
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? …
Issue #237: Do the Dew Point, Thanos SNAP Benefits, Putting the AI in Ethical
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.
116: What Really Happens When You Just Give People Money?
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 hi…
Issue #236: Amazon Held to Ransom (Not That One), COVID Doesn’t Discriminate (But We Do), Vaccinate the 99%
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 importantnotimporta…
Best of the Best: Do We Really Know What’s in that Moisturizer (& Where the Hell Did it Come From?)
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 Beautycou…
Best of the Best: Legalizing the Other Weed
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 …
Issue #234: Tripping Over Our Bootstraps, Cover My Crops, AI is as Bad as Us
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 frontli…
115: Fossil Fuel Propaganda
In Episode 115, Quinn & Brian discuss: How to stop fossil fuel advertising.
Our guests are JaRel Clay and Jamie Henn.
JaRel Clay is the Digital Director of Hip Hop Caucus, a national nonprofit focused …
Issue #233: Big Renewable Energy, AI Isn’t All That (Yet), Hot Vax Summer
This week: bigger doesn’t mean better; COVAX has got next, finally; a brand new day… and vaccine; AI and medicine – so close, and yet so far.
- Visit ImportantJobs.com to find your next role working on …
114. Carbon Offsets: Not A Get Out of Jail Free Card, TBH
In Episode 114, Quinn asks: What are carbon offsets, and do they even work?
Our returning guest is Akshat Rathi, a reporter at Bloomberg Green.
Carbon offsets -- like our planet -- are so hot right n…
Issue #232: These Shrooms Aren’t Fungi, Climate Change Is Costly, Keep the Vaccines Rolling
This week: a brutal day for oil; fungi on the move (not great); wastewater: so hot right now; paying for climate protection; vaccine inequities; and facial recognition on the way out (for now).
- Find l…
Do Better Better #18: Back to the Future
Synopsis: We can time travel to the past to understand how we got to where we are today. But the past doesn’t dictate the future - not anymore. So we have to look forward. The decisions we make today…
113: Lessons from Plants
In Episode 113, Quinn asks: What can we learn from plants?
The answer, it turns out, is: A whole heck of a lot.
Our guest is the wonderful and way overqualified Dr. Beronda Montgomery -- PhD, writer, r…
Issue #231: Electric Truck Boogaloo, Get Your Colon Checked, What’s Your Beef
This week: An electric truck for the masses; India’s vaccine production stays home; Better cancer screening; Beef emissions.
- Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsl…
112. The Next Pandemic
Oh, when we were young and so naive.
In Episode #9 (!), Quinn and Brian got to know Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, an infectious diseases physician, Associate Professor at the Boston University School of Medicin…
111: When Your Government Runs on Windows 95
In Episode 111, Quinn & Brian discuss the past, present, and future of government IT infrastructure. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED???
Our guest is Aneesh Chopra, the first Chief Technology Officer of the Un…
Issue #229: Fossil Fuel Funding, MDMA Magic, Leaky Legislation
This week: fossil fuel financing under the microscope, India’s COVID summer, MDMA to the rescue, how to fix our water pipes.
110. The End of the Universe
In Episode 110, Quinn’s talking about the end of the universe.
His guest is Sarafina Nance, Ph.D. candidate at Berkeley, astrophysicist, author, and women’s health advocate. She also hosts Constellati…
Issue #228: Carbon Offset Upset, the COVID Baby Bust, Man vs. Mosquito
This week: AI is going backwards; carbon offsets are a mirage; falling birthrates and COVID; the end of malaria?; Jordan’s out of water.
- Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimporta…