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
Essay: 10 Questions You Need to Ask Right Now
This week:
Ask these questions before you click on ANYTHING.
Plus: Gut inflammation news, California insurance gets harder to find, 750k adults just lost Medicaid, what (non-vaccinated) COVID actually…
Best of: How to Protect Yourself from Wildfire Smoke
What's in wildfire smoke and how can you protect yourself from it?
Those are today's big questions, and my guest is Dr. Mary Prunicki.
Dr. Prunicki is the Director of Air Pollution and Health Resear…
Essay: Gradually, and then all at once
This week:
Things feel pretty out of control. Get used to it.
Plus: The Canadian West is burning, Oregon bans PFAS, ChatGPT plugins for everyone, the All We Can Save project is hiring, and more
Here's …
Health Care Is A Human Right
Is healthcare a human right?
That's today's big question, and it clearly shouldn't be a question, but here we are. My guest to help explain the obvious today is Dr. Sheila Davis, the CEO of Partners …
Essay: COVID has ended (or has it?)
This week:
COVID is over (as far as we know it). What did we learn, and what’s next?
PLUS: Gay blood donations are a go, wind power in the UK, social media guidelines, millions for Black farmers, wate…
Fighting Food Waste With The iPhone of Trash Cans
How much food do you throw away every week? And do you have to?
That's today's big question, and my guest is Matt Rogers.
Matt is a former Apple iPod and iPhone engineer. The Co-Founder of Nest therm…
Essay: Never Tell Me The Odds
This week:
Solutions to our biggest problems shouldn’t be so perplexing. On the other hand, washing our hands wasn’t obvious for a couple hundred thousand years, and my kids STILL don't want to do it…
Check Your Insurance Policy
You've got insurance, right? Are you sure?
That's today's big question, and my guest is Washington Post reporter Brianna Sacks.
Brianna's an extreme weather and disaster reporter for the Post where s…
Essay: What Would You Say You Do Here
This week:
Is what you’re working on important?
Plus: The cleanest produce, a mosquito factory, lots of rooftop solar, autonomous GPT, maybe, and the latest with the Colorado River
Here's What You Can …
Every Climate Action Matters
What can I do?
The simple question is the underlying premise of everything we do here. It's often the easiest one to help people answer for themselves, but from the outside, it's often the most impos…
Essay: This Isn't Rocket Science (Unless It Is)
This week:
A very basic way to use a mental model, you’re welcome.
PLUS: Mosquitoes, overseas abortion pills, healthy ice cream, German nuclear power, electric school buses, and more.
Here's What You C…
Best of: Black Moms Matter
Why is it so dangerous to have Black babies in America?
April 11-17th is Black Maternal Health Week, and so we are replaying one of our favourite episodes from 2021 with guest Representative Lauren Un…
Finding the Humanity in Artificial Intelligence
If you had all of the data in the world at your hands, what question would you ask first?
That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Emma Pierson.
Emma is an assistant professor of computer scie…
Best of: What Really Happens When You Just Give People Money?
What if we just gave people money?
That's today's big question and my guests are Caroline Teti and Michael Faye from GiveDirectly. This conversation from 2021, one of my all-time favorites is one of …
Best of: How to Stop School Shootings in the USA
We're going to keeping re-running this 2020 episode until America stops sacrificing children.
---
Here we are, yet again.
We first ran this episode with Fred Guttenberg, father of Parkland victim, Jaim…
Where In The World Are All Of The Electricians?
Where the hell did all of the electricians go?
That's today's big question, and my guest is leading journalist Emily Pontecorvo.
Until recently, Emily was an energy, environment, and climate reporter…
Essay: ESG is good business (but don't call it ESG)
This week:
Fighting over ESG is stupid, risky, and bad business. Let’s move on.
Plus: RSV vaccines, the E-BIKE Act, Skittles (?), deepfakes, allergies, and a new season of DRILLED
What We Can Do:
- ⚡️ Sub…
The Dive Into Challenger Deep
What if you got the chance to dive to the bottom of the ocean? Would you go? And what would you find there?
That's today's big question and my returning guest, one of my all-time favorites, is Dr. Da…
Essay: Welcome to the Unknown Unknowns
This week:
What we know — and more importantly, what we don’t — about what AI is capable of, and how much change we’re capable of absorbing.
Plus: the Willow Project, H-1B visas, blueberries, honeybee…
Best Of: Is The Ocean Running Out of Oxygen? Is That Bad?
What if I told you there was less oxygen in the ocean than there used to be?
That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Dawn Wright, or as many in the ocean community know her "Deep Sea Dawn."
…