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
Newsletter #287: France has *how many* EV mail trucks??
This week:
- Ira’s here and ready to fund the future
- It’s back to school and the air’s still not clean
- Our relationship with water is changing everywhere
- Monkeypox folks are helping each other
- Facebook’s l…
Episode X: A Far Out Geek Girl Rises
In a world where trust in institutions and in news is falling and the role of influencers is growing, finding the connective tissue between you and your audience is key to, well, connecting.
To estab…
Newsletter #286: Holy sh*t what a week
This week:
- A surprise for climate development that isn't terrifying?
- Facebook might relax their COVID misinformation policies
- Less land, more rice
- Alzheimer's under a microscope
- A treasure trove of biolo…
Newsletter #285: How to beat the heat and avoid quacks
This week:
- How to beat the heat in your city
- COVID quackery
- Introducing "Explainers"!
- A blockbuster depression study
- A new federal privacy bill is comin'
Get more:
- Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps…
Newsletter #284: How to beat plastic
This week:
- Manchin fuels more heat waves
- COVID reinforcements on the way
- India and California fight plastic
- How we fight monkeypox
- Wow Ring doorbells are not great
Get more:
- Get more news, analysis, and Ac…
Vaginas and Friends
We have ignored vaginas for so long. Hear me out.
On the one hand, history and popular culture, from god-kings to love songs to movies to fan fiction, are littered with supposedly straight men with a …
Newsletter #283: What Google's hiding (for you)
This week:
- What's a chief heat officer?
- Fixing schools in the time of COVID
- Why plant-based meat is a massive 80/20 move for the climate (and your health)
- Uh, Juul is back?
- Google's hiding your "sensitiv…
Life Finds A Way
I think about time a lot. Some days I feel ancient, some days I can’t believe how old I am.
I’ve got kids, too. I can’t believe how fast they’ve grown up already. They love so many things. Swimming. C…
Newsletter #281: What to eat and where to get it
This week:
- The SEC's coming for greenwashing in a real way
- BA4: Endgame and BA5: Infinity War are here and immune evasive
- Eat more local veggies
- Bye-bye vapes (and nicotine?)
- A digital privacy bill might…
Newsletter #280: What's next for Alzheimer's?
This week:
- Where do gas cars go when we buy electric?
- A bunch of COVID updates
- The Colorado River's next chapter
- What's next for Alzheimer's
- Holy shit Facebook's tracking pixel is more invasive than expe…
Newsletter #279: Moderna's got a new booster
This week:
- Biden's going it alone on electrification
- Moderna's got a new booster
- Why food is so expensive
- An unbelievable cancer result
- Apple's saying goodbye to passwords
Get more:
- Get more news, analysis…
COVID: The Update
Soup to nuts, I’m more concerned about COVID today than I’ve been at any point in the past year. I don’t think it’ll be a horror show soon, not like it was before, but we haven’t (yet!) put ourselves…
Why We Can't Focus
We are all being pulled in so many different directions.
The clock is ticking and we have a climate and virus and society and economy to fix and we’re distracted, all of the time.
Not just by all of th…
Newsletter #278: The deal with monkeypox
This week:
- SEC climate risk reporting gets closer to reality
- What's the Paxlovid rebound?
- How to make strawberries last weeks longer
- What the hell is monkeypox?
- Mastercard wants to give you variable inte…
Newsletter #277: Why EV batteries are suddenly SO expensive?
This week:
- Lithium is expensive AF because it's in wildly short supply
- Paxlovid and Long COVID, a thing?
- Global breadbaskets are getting hotter and/or wetter and/or laced with explosives
- Fuck guns
- Health…
Black Moms Matter, Redux
A woman’s right to choose is under renewed attack in America and the federal protection it has benefited from for so long, however tenuous, is closer than ever to going away.
It's vitally important w…
Newsletter #276: Who gets Long COVID?
This week:
- Water in the West
- Who will get Long COVID?
- The baby formula shortage, explained
- Drug overdoses and gaslighting
- Data privacy improvements
Get more:
- Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at ne…
Newsletter #275: How Hot is it in India?
This week:
- India's heat continues
- When a surge is not a surge
- Antibiotics (still) in meat
- Abortion
- Email cybersecurity is...lacking
Get more:
- Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importa…
Internal Activism
If you give a shit, well, you’ve probably had at least a few moments where the enormity of what’s in front of us has challenged your mental health in some way.
I can’t imagine there are many folks lis…
Newsletter #274: Is Wind Power Unprofitable?
This week:
- Wind isn't profitable
- Kids vaccines on the hold up
- The kitchen sink answer to food waste, it's metaphors galore today
- Menthol cigarettes are all smoked out
- America's new AI chief
Get more:
- Get m…