300 episodes

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

Important, Not Important Important, Not Important

    • Science
    • 4.7 • 113 Ratings

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

    Turning The Tide On Microplastics

    Turning The Tide On Microplastics

    What are microplastics doing to us? And how do we stop putting them into our water, and our bloodstreams, and our food? That's today's big question, and my guest is Julia Yan. Julia is the co-founder and CEO at Baleena, a closed-loop, consumer-facing laundry startup working to tackle ocean microplastic pollution.
    Julia is a recent graduate at UPenn, and with her two co-founders, some funding, including from our friends at 776 and a bunch of big name partners, they're trying to tackle one of the biggest microplastic inputs. Your washing machine.
    Microplastics are not great. They're so prevalent that we have found them on the bottom of the ocean and on the top of mountains. We have found them in deserts, in our crops, in our soil. We have found them in adult bloodstreams and in unborn babies and placentas.
    It is an enormous, wildly complicated problem and the implications are becoming more clear. The good news, like carbon emissions, we can choose to stop it.
    It's just going to take an intentional systemic approach and people like Julia.
    -----------
    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:
    Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle ZevinFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
    Links:
    Join the waitlist to pre-order your Baleena product nowFollow along with Baleena's journey on InstagramRead more about the 5 Gyres Microplastics Solutions sailing expedition
    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

    • 1 hr
    The Next Big Test

    The Next Big Test

    This week: Are you ready for the next big test?
    Here's What You Can Do:Donate to Cooperation Humboldt, a worker-led, non-hierarchical non-profit that delivers programming in seven areas that are key to basic human rights.Volunteer with Global.health to help create a global resource of public health information and assist in preventing the next pandemic.Get educated about steps to solving the climate crisis by receiving a weekly challenge in your inbox from Minimum Viable Planet.Be heard about better outbreak tracking, and get your local government officials to sign up for Biobot Analytics wastewater testing.Invest in getting the world vaccinated by having your company sign up for a matching fund with a...

    • 23 min
    Did You Hear The One About The Starfish?

    Did You Hear The One About The Starfish?

    This week: Because I am a sap, I have been thinking about my kids a lot lately. And kids in general. They’re going to grow up and live in a world that’s very different from ours, and it’s important to me that they’re all as ready for that as they can be.
    So this week: Did you hear about the starfish?
    Here's What You Can Do:Donate to Tobacco Free Kids to help fight against flavored e-cigarettes.Volunteer with Mothers Out Front and come together to fight against climate injustice and for our children’s future.Get educated about how to electrify your child’s school, making it cleaner, healthier, and climate-safe with these resources from Rewiring America.Be heard about protecting children from pesticides and urge your representative to support the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act.Invest in a better world for kids and make sure your philanthropic dollars make a measurable difference witha...

    • 29 min
    Best of: Peer Pressure Works

    Best of: Peer Pressure Works

    Over the past few years, more and more voters have cited “action on climate” as a reason for voting the way they do.
    But here’s the thing: lots of voters who are registered, and even those who do vote in presidential elections – don’t turn out for midterms.
    Much less for state and local races.
    Millions of registered voters who list the environment or climate as their most important issue do the same. 
    Success might not actually be about identifying and focusing on one specific issue, campaign, or candidate. It might come down to how we want to see ourselves, why we wear those little “I Voted” stickers, how we identify, and our behaviors.
    And that’s what the Environmental Voter Project is all about, and why we are rerunning our 2022 conversation with Nathaniel Stinnett.
    Nathaniel founded the Environmental Voter Project in 2015 after over a decade of experience as a senior advisor, consultant, and trainer for political campaigns and issue-advocacy nonprofits, and he sits on the Board of Advisors for MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative. 
    He’s here to help me understand the EVP’s mission and tactics, and how we can help them achieve their goal of turning out more climate-focused voters this year and in the years to come.
    -----------
    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 Overstory by Richard PowersFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
    Links:
    Follow Nathaniel on TwitterVolunteer with the Environmental Voter Project today!Follow the Environmental Voter Project 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 LucianiProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: a href="http://timblane.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

    • 1 hr 2 min
    Introducing: Catalyst with Shayle Kann - The Carbon Market's Quality Problem

    Introducing: Catalyst with Shayle Kann - The Carbon Market's Quality Problem

    Voluntary carbon credits are a lot like used cars: You really have no idea what their quality might be. Or maybe they’re more like expensive bottles of wine. Many people (or at least Shayle) can’t tell whether they’re actually buying good-quality wine. If it’s expensive, it must be good, right?
    That’s the kind of logic that has plagued voluntary carbon markets for years. 
    A carbon credit can work in one of two ways. First, it can avert 1 metric ton of emissions that would have otherwise happened by, for example, preventing deforestation. Alternatively, a credit can directly remove a ton of carbon from the atmosphere through methods such as direct air capture or biochar.
    But widespread reporting reveals that most credits don’t do what they say they do. Just this month, the CEO of the world’s leading certifier stepped down after an investigation by The Guardian revealed that over 90% of rainforest carbon credits were worthless. In May, a $1 billion lawsuit filed in California alleges that the credits that Delta Air Lines relies on for its claim of reaching carbon-neutrality are bogus.
    Carbon credits have reached a crisis point at the same moment we need to massively scale them up to meet net-zero goals. So what do we do about these quality problems? 
    In this episode, Shayle talks to Allister Furey, co-founder and CEO of Sylvera, a company that rates the quality of credits in a manner akin to what agencies like Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s do for bonds.
    Shayle and Allister cover topics including:
    The history of the first voluntary carbon markets and their early problems, such as producing fluorocarbons just to destroy them.The current state of the market, including its size, segments and prices.The wide gulf in price between the cheapest avoidance credits and the most ambitious engineered removal credits Why Allistair thinks we need to be on a  “war footing” to reach the highly ambitious carbon-removal targets needed to meet net zero, such as growing the market from $2 billion to $1 trillion by 2050.Why high prices do not necessarily mean high quality.
    Recommended resources:
    The Guardian: Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest certifier are worthless, analysis showsThe Guardian: Delta Air Lines faces lawsuit over $1B carbon neutrality claim
    Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
    More episodes of Catalyst can be found here.
    -----------
    Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to a href="mailto:questions@importantnotimportant.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

    • 46 min
    🌎 The Best Kinds of Stories

    🌎 The Best Kinds of Stories

    This Week:Telling better stories is a type of Compound Action.
    Here's What You Can Do:Check out the Good Energy Project's playbook on how to tell better climate stories.Donate to Experiment, a platform where scientists can crowdfund their research, and you can pick and choose what research you want to support.Volunteer with our friends at the Environmental Voter Project, a non-partisan non-profit with a proven track record of getting non-voting environmentalists to the polls.Get educated about climate change and combat disinformation with Climate Feedback, a worldwide network of scientists sorting fact from fiction in climate change media coverage.Be heard about climate action and keep your representative accountable by checking out this list of candidates and elected officials that have signed the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge.Invest in deforestation-free companies by moving your money into investments that aren’t killing the planet with Deforestation Free Funds.
    Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpSubscribe to our YouTube channelTake a nap you deserve it
     
    Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors

    • 35 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
113 Ratings

113 Ratings

Wound$Pollo ,

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.

Yofi78 ,

This is excellent.

V engaging. Look forward to #2!

Brock Benefiel ,

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.

Top Podcasts In Science

Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam
WNYC Studios
Alie Ward
Mike Carruthers | OmniCast Media | Cumulus Podcast Network
Sam Harris
Neil deGrasse Tyson

You Might Also Like

Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam
This American Life
New York Times Opinion
Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher
Gimlet
Vox