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 ...
This week: You're wasting your talent on bullshit while the world burns.You — yes, you — can actually use your very unique set of skills for good. Even and especially at scale, even — yes — right now.Here's What You Can Do:Donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation to help get Zuckerberg’s grubby little paws off of your data.Volunteer with Tech Shift and start creating technology that actually contributes to the betterment of humanity.🌎️ Get educated about social media, deepfakes, misinformation, and all the other internet foes by taking this Media Literacy Crash Course.Be heard about creating the appropriate safeguards for AI by urging your representatives to support the Algorithmic Accountability Act.🌏️ Invest in tech that reduces emissions instead of dismantling democracy using Carbon Equity.Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchGot feedback? Email us at [email protected] us on Twitter at @importantnotimpFollow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmettProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comTake a nap you deserve itAdvertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
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26:52
We Need To Talk About Bird Flu
We (Quinn) has been avoiding this question for quite a while. I even wrote a few thousand words about it a couple months ago and didn't publish it because it was a bit of a downer. But that's kind of malpractice in a way because we promised we don't shy away from the hard stuff even if the goal is to help you understand what you can do about it. Just like there's never really an optimal time in your life to get married, or have a baby, or get arrested, there's never a good time to talk about bird flu, which means it's always the right time to talk about bird flu, and especially when you've got the best of the best on the line.What can I do about bird flu? That's today's big question and my returning guest is the wonderful Dr. Nahid Bhadelia. Dr. Bhadelia is the founding director of the BU Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases. She's a board certified infectious diseases physician and an associate professor at the BU School of Medicine.She served as the Senior Policy Advisor for Global COVID 19 Response for the White House COVID 19 Response Team in 2022 and 2023, where she coordinated the interagency programs for global COVID 19 vaccine donations from the United States. Nahid was also the policy lead for Project NextGen, a 5 billion dollar health and human services program aimed at developing next generation vaccines and treatments for pandemic prone coronaviruses. She also served as the interim testing coordinator for the White House mpox response team and is the Director and Co-founder of Biothreats Emergence Analysis and Communications Network, or BEACON, an open source outbreak surveillance program. -----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected] here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------Links:Keep up with Dr. Bhadelia's work at BUFollow Dr. Bhadelia on BlueskyFind air filters at Filterbuy.comLearn more about what you can do to support public healthFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our
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41:08
Essay: Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
This week: Be prepared — because these fires that are still burning are only the beginning. Start somewhere, start right in front of you, do what you can.Here's What You Can Do:LA isn’t the only place suffering this week, but it was home for a long time, so here’s vetted ways you can contribute right now, from near or afar.Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchGot feedback? Email us at [email protected] us on Twitter at @importantnotimpFollow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmettProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comTake a nap you deserve itAdvertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
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11:05
Essay: About 2025
This week: It’s been a minute. Thanks for your patience. Please check out my 2025 preview, and if you’d be so kind, share it widely.Here's What You Can Do:Donate to Everytown to support their efforts to end gun violence, community by community.Volunteer with Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) to build the supports your community needs to respond to climate impacts.Get educated about how you can run for a local office and make a huge, direct impact on peoples lives using Run For Something’s Local Office Guide. 2025 is your year, let’s go.Be heard about incentivizing heat pump installations and bring our Heat Pump Targets script to your local government meetings.Invest in affordable housing by becoming an investor with Enterprise, a non-profit working to increase housing supply and build community resilience.Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merchGot feedback? Email us at [email protected] us on Twitter at
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21:24
Bridging Misinformation Gaps with Local Journalism
What's the missing link in local journalism? That's today's big question, and my guest is Lyndsey Gilpin. Lyndsey is the Senior Manager of Community Engagement at Grist. Lyndsey was the founder and executive editor at Southerly, a nonprofit media organization that equipped people who face environmental injustices and are at most at risk of climate change effects with journalism and resources on natural disasters, pollution, food, energy, and more.It was very groundbreaking, and now she's brought that to Grist. Lyndsey was recently a John S. Knight Community Impact Fellow at Stanford University, focusing on information access in rural southern communities of color, where she is from, based in Louisville. And in an age of mass dis and misinformation it's more important than ever that we not only fund journalism and obviously read it, but local journalism and journalists and publishers, editors, photographers, documenters, and more that are of the communities they are based in, who have and continue to build trust in an ongoing, two way conversation to help people get information, to connect the last mile and make sure it goes back and forth.-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected] here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------INI Book Club:The Quickening by Elizabeth RushFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Read more about Lyndsey's community engagement work at GristKeep up with Lyndsey's workSupport Grist's nonprofit journalismFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.comSupport our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeTake action at whatcanido.earthGet our merchFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our
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
Colombia