300 episodes
Important, Not Important Important, Not Important
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- Science
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4.7 • 109 Ratings
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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, loaded with tips and steps you and we can take to fix this place right up.
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
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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 Research at Stanford University under the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research. Her lab examines the impact of air pollution and wildfires on health, specifically immune health.
Dr. Prunicki and I got together in late summer 2021 as fires and smoke just enveloped the American West and eventually the East Coast too.
Almost two years later, the west has seen a very wet winter and relative if temporary respite from fires, but Canada's on fire now, and everyone can see and taste the smoke as the jet stream carries it all the way across the continent.
So it's always a good time to understand how to protect yourself and your family, and that begins with understanding what you're protecting yourselves from, so we're rerunning this very popular and necessary conversation to make sure you and I, and all of us are up to speed all over again.
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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com
New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.
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INI Book Club:
Night by Elie WieselFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
profiles.stanford.edu/mary-prunickiBuy Purple Air monitor (or just look at the live map)How to Buy a *Real* N95 MaskEPA Air Quality & Climate Change ResearchCalifornia Air Resources BoardAmerican Lung Association on Outdoor Air QualityStanford Center for Air Quality ResearchFrom Bloomberg: Wildfire's Toxic Legacy Leaves Children Gasping for Air Years Later
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpSubscribe to our a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkUwIVGwYxsZHEgL2fstz9Q"... -
🌎 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 What You Can Do:⚡️Wildfire smoke exposure is directly linked to myriad health impacts due to poor air quality. Know your daily risk by using this Purple Air outdoor air monitor.⚡️We need to heal ourselves to heal the planet. Find resources and community to help with your climate anxiety through the Climate Mental Health Network.⚡️Act locally. Use ReFED to find current food waste policies and programs you can learn from and implement in your town.⚡️Work in local government? Biobot Analytics provides wastewater testing tools so we can better estimate the number of COVID-19 (and other diseases) infections in the community
News RoundupHealth & Medicine
These are the cities with most bike deaths per capita (I share news like this to illustrate where we can make drastic improvements)Not to be outdone, the South Carolina House passed a six-week abortion banUnitedHealthcare wants doctors to get prior authorization for colonoscopies. People are very pissed off.Where American air pollution is improving, and getting worse
Climate
Our friends at the All We Can Save project are hiring a Programs & Community Manager — details here!Could enormous robots dramatically speed up solar farm construction? Sure!How can we a... -
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 in Health.
Sheila entered the global health arena in 1999, responding to the global HIV and AIDS pandemic. A few years later, she co-founded a small NGO that worked in both South Africa and Boston on a wide array of health projects, including the operation of a rural village nurse clinic.
She joined PIH in 2010 as their main operation in Haiti was torn apart by the earthquake there and worked her way up over the years, becoming the Chief of the Ebola response during the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic. And then as the Chief of Clinical Operations and the Chief Nursing Officer, Sheila oversaw nursing efforts as well as the supply chain, medical informatics, laboratory infrastructure, and quality improvement activities.
Dr. Davis is a frequent national speaker on global health and clinical topics, including HIV and AIDS, the Ebola epidemic, leadership in public health, and the role of nursing and human rights.
And folks, if it is not clear enough for the past few years, just in the US, much less everywhere around the world, yes, healthcare is a human right, and everyone deserves a fair shake.
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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com
New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.
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INI Book Club:
Devotions by Mary Oliver (a starting point, as one of many Mary Oliver poetry selections)Mountains Beyond Mountains by Paul FarmerAbove Ground by Clint SmithFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Get involved with Partners In HealthFollow Dr Davis on Twitter
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmettEdited by Anthony... -
🌎 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, water report cards, and more
Here's What You Can Do:⚡️ Discover which websites are harvesting your data using The Markup’s Blacklight tool ⚡️ Prepare your home for a wildfire using these resources from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection⚡️ Ensure everyone, everywhere, receives access to quality healthcare by donating to Partners In Health⚡️ With SNAP benefits getting rolled back, make sure more people have access to food and volunteer with or donate to Feeding America⚡️ Keep an eye on wastewater tracking data to understand the prevalence of COVID in your area
News RoundupHealth & Medicine
The APA has released a health advisory on social media use for kids Gay and bisexual men are now eligible to donate blood without having to abstain from sex. Welcome to the... -
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 thermostats, Founder of incite.org, and former Chairman of Carbon180. He is now the Co-Founder and CEO of Mill.
What's Mill? It's a membership to a food-shrinking, de-stinking kitchen bin, and it just may be one of the most important levers you and I can take to fight food waste and climate change.
I'm a huge fan of Matt's multidisciplinary work to drive systems change across tech, non-profits, and politics.
Mill may be his most direct take on it yet.
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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com
New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.
-----------
INI Book Club:
The Alchemy of Air by Thomas HagerCradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael BraungartFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Reserve your Mill binFollow Mill on Instagram and TwitterFollow Matt on TwitterRead the recent Nature article on food waste and emissions
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmettEdited by Anthony LucianiProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors -
🌎 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.
Plus: Seasonal allergy news, a new Barbie, non-profit grocery stores, climate hackers, the SEC, the WHO, Google’s huge new feature, and Khan Academy revolutionizes education — again
Here's What You Can Do:⚡️ Floods or not, fire season’s (probably) right around the corner. Get up to the minute air quality reports with a Purple Air monitor (and nifty map, too) ⚡️ Your community may need to replace toxic lead water service lines. Check out Beyond Plastic’s report on the pros and cons of PVC pipes. ⚡️ Sure, the economy and market are completely unpredictable at this point, but there’s no better time to put your retirement fund to work fighting climate change. Do it with Carbon Collective. ⚡️ Speaking of lead pipes — will microplastics and PFAS (“forever chemicals”) be our version? Check out PFAS Central’s PFAS-free brands and consumer products.
News RoundupHealth & Medicine
Seasonal allergies are coming for us all In Cancer Alley, US chemical giants mounted a campaign against grassroots organizers, so they can continue to kill people Apparently forever chemicals in food packaging (like a...
Customer Reviews
good stuff
I'm subscriber to the newsletter, and every week I can count on learning something I didn't know, or getting a perspective I hadn't considered. So far, I can say the same about the podcast. And knowing how thourough and engaging the newsletter is, I'm excited for the future of this podcast.
This is excellent.
V engaging. Look forward to #2!
Essential listen for everyone
Put simply: Important, Not Important makes you a better person and helps the world. What Quinn and team are doing with these exceptional conversations gets at the heart of how we can make an impact on the critical issues that we so often feel helpless to attack. The discussions are lively, heartfelt, funny, and informative. I love the science-based approach and the bigger picture view combined with individual actions that empower listeners to make change in their own lives while pushing for even greater action. We are all better off because this exists.