Food & Water Episodes

If our mission is to help people, everyone, answer the most important question, what can I do? Then at some point we need to talk to the people who help really wealthy people, help people. So today's question, what can I do about high net worth philanthropy? And look, hey, maybe you're among the vast majority who just heard that and you're like, well, this one doesn't apply to me, but hear me out. We have some of the worst billionaires of all time, but if billionaires are gonna continue to exist...

Chronically parched is not something anyone in this country or anywhere should ever have to feel, but here we are. So how are towns and states making clean water more affordable, reliable, and less controversial? 'cause remember, it's fucking water. Look, you might feel like you're giving it all you got but when you look around things are a little dark out there. So you, our listeners and readers and viewers and users, whatever, across the world, want and demand more examples of fight and progre...

Turns out it's our 200th episode. It has been a journey. The show is now called The Most Important Question, and I can't think of a better answer than just fucking run for something. What can I do about anything? Run for something. And so obviously the best guest to answer that question, is returning guest, Amanda Litman . If you are new here, she is the co-founder and president of Run For Something, which recruits and supports young, diverse progressives running for down-ballot office, state an...

Sometimes you buy organic, sometimes you hit a restaurant that's plant-based, or at least you choose the veggie option. Maybe the fish option at the market or the restaurant is marketed as being sustainable. Maybe you compost. It's all useful. But we've been doing it for a while and it's not moving the needle for climate, for restaurants, for farmers, for our health. So anyone who gives a shit wants to know, what can I actually do to scale regenerative agriculture to benefit everyone? My guest t...

One of the ways this Trump administration is different from the last is, relatively at least, how much more unconstitutional, how much more organized and comprehensive the attacks on our institutions, particularly the scaffolding we built for ourselves the most precious parts of of our societies: immigration, agriculture, the VA, NIH, the CDC, the NSF and humanitarian work around the globe. Do some of these need reform? Of course, they do. Is this the way to do it? No, it is not. These instituti...

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 brou...

Is multisolving the future? Is it today? Should we do more? That's all today's big question and my guest is Dr. Elizabeth Sawin . Dr. Sawin is the Founder and Director of the Multisolving Institute , which is convenient for our conversation. She's an expert on solutions that address climate change while also improving health, well being, and economic vitality. She developed multisolving to describe such win win win solutions. Beth writes and speaks about multisolving, climate change, and leaders...

How do we make it easier for more Americans to reliably put food (in particular, hot food) on the table? That's today’s big question, and my guest is Salaam Bhatti . Salaam is the SNAP Director at the Food Research and Action Center , a 501c3 that uses advocacy and strategic partnerships to improve the health and well being of people struggling against poverty related hunger in the United States. Before joining the Food Research and Action Center, Salam was the Public Benefits Attorney and Deput...

There’s no word for “conservation” in many Indigenous languages. Some come close, but mean something more like “taking care of” or “looking after.” And that’s probably because the very idea of conservation, to “prevention the wasteful use of a resource”, would have been, and continue to be, foreign to many of North America’s Indigenous peoples, who lived in an entirely different, co-dependent relationship with nature. That is to say, to have had a relationship at all. A relationship with the ver...

How do we stop overfishing if we don't know who's doing the fishing? That's today's big question, and my guest is Jennifer Raynor . Jennifer is an Assistant Professor of natural resource economics at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Before entering academia, she conducted policy-relevant economic research for the U.S. federal government for nearly a decade, most recently at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries. Jennifer's research focuses on improving the efficiency ...

How do we tackle huge systemic intersectional environmental justice issues at the local level? That's today's big question, and my guest is Jacqui Patterson . Jacqui is the Founder and Executive Director of the Chisholm Legacy Project , which helps connect Black communities that are being disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis with the resources they need to create systemic change across connected challenges. Jacqui was recently named to Time Magazine's 2024 list of Women of the Year ...

What have we learned from millennia of water insecurity, of climate changes and disasters, of building along freshwater ways and the ocean, that we can apply today? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Amber Wutich . Dr. Wutich is an ASU President's Professor , Director of the Center for Global Health , and 2023 MacArthur Fellow. She's an expert on water insecurity, and directs the Global Ethnohydrology Study , a cross cultural study of water knowledge and management in over 20 count...

What are reverse coattails, and how might they slow climate change, prevent the next pandemic, and keep Nazis off of school boards? That's today's big question, and my returning guest is Amanda Litman . Amanda is one of my favorite people. She is the co-founder and co-executive director of Run for Something , which recruits and supports young, diverse progressives running for down-ballot office, state, and local, and all those fun levels. Since launching in 2017 , a thousand years ago, Run for S...

Has there ever been a more important time, a more consequential time, to lead with ethics? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Susan Liautaud . Susan is the author of The Power of Ethics and of the Little Book of Big Ethical Questions . She teaches cutting-edge ethics courses at Stanford University . She is the C hair of the Council Trustees at the London School of Economics and Political Science . She's the Vice Chair of the Global Partnership for Education , and is Chair of the St...

Every single one of us needs air, water, food, shelter, and energy. So why are the infrastructure that provides them, the systems we are most reliant on hidden in plain sight? How can we reconnect with them, appreciate them, rebuild them, reinforce the ones we already have, and build new ones that actually benefit everyone? Those are today's big questions, and my guest is Deb Chachra . Deb is a material scientist and professor of engineering at Olin College of Engineering . She has studied bones...

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 t...

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. ...

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 those conversations that can help you truly think outside the box and reconsider how to most effectively take a simple action that can have cascading effects. Caroline Teti or just Teti as she likes to be called, I swear, works on the ground in Kenya, Nairobi , where she is the Director of Recipient...

What’s one big change we can make that can make our food healthier, make farming more lucrative, draw down carbon in the atmosphere, and reduce climate emigration? That’s today’s big question, and my guest is Sasankh Munukutla, another fellow in our series with the 776 Foundation . Sasankh is the Co-Founder of Terradot , a satellite and AI-based gigaton-scale, soil-carbon sequestration verification system. Sasankh originally hails from Singapore and grew up across countries as a third-culture ki...

There’s nothing quite like breaking bread with family and friends, old or new. By mid-2020, we’d have all taken the opportunity to break bread with just about anyone. Why are recipes, and the stories behind them, some of the most enduring parts of each of our cultures? How can we be more intentional about cooking food more often, food that makes us feel good, that tastes good, that’s good for the planet, food that nourishes others, and that allows us to let our guards down for a moment, and shar...

In Episode 128 , Quinn unpacks the most delicious olive oil in the world , how it came to be, and what it means to start a food business in the age of climate change. Our guest is Aishwarya Iyer , dreamer, doer, and eternal optimist. Ash is the founder and CEO of Brightland , the new gold standard in pantry essentials. They are proponents and advocates for authenticity and transparency in the food industry, starting with olive oil. There are something like six bajillion bottles of olive oil at y...

I’m very excited to share an awesome show with you today, from the fine folks at PBS! God, I love PBS. The show is called “NOVA Now” and I’m a longtime huge fan. This episode is near and dear to the moment we’re in. As the Western U.S. faces increasingly dry conditions, the show takes a look at the technologies and practices being developed to cope with drought — especially in vulnerable communities. Folks: 93% of land in seven Western states is affected by drought. We’re transitioning into dese...

In Episode #121 , Quinn’s got a fantastic new guest to help answer his favorite question: “ What can I do? ” Isaias Hernandez – or, as he’s known pretty much everywhere on the internet, Queer Brown Vegan -- shares the mic today. He’s built a massive following using an intersectional approach to reach people through empathy and education. In this series, we look at how young people are using their passions and lived experiences to participate in this transformational moment in history. Isaias exe...

In Episode 116 , Quinn wants to know: why is simply giving people money the most effective way to 1) help them make positive changes to their lives and 2) erase global poverty along the way? To help him understand the answer, he brought on Caroline Teti and Michael Faye from GiveDirectly . Caroline Teti (or just Teti, as she likes to be called, we swear) works on the ground in Kenya, Nairobi, handling recipient advocacy for GiveDirectly’s global operations. She’s our new favorite person, sorry M...