Episodes
June 23, 2025
When Foreign Aid Gets Zeroed Out Overnight
Imagine waking up to discover that the United States has just pulled $35 billion out of foreign aid overnight, and that hundreds of HIV clinics, and child malnutrition programs, and poverty graduation trials will shut their d...
June 16, 2025
Taking Care of Business (Sustainably)
Toilet paper. You use it. I use it. Sometimes, even my children use it. The point is, toilet paper is everywhere. Almost everyone needs it, and so much of it still comes from actual forests, and yet 2 billion people don't hav...
June 9, 2025
We Live In A World of Trees
You've heard people say it. It shouldn't have been called Earth. It should have been called Ocean, but it is simultaneously a planet of trees . As Richard Powers put it in The Overstory : We live in a world of trees. Once som...
May 26, 2025
Climate Solutions That Make Everything Better
Picture a city that beats brutal heat waves with cool tree-lined streets, slashes household energy bills, and cuts carbon pollution by as much as 80%, without waiting for these miracle technologies. That future-positive visio...
May 19, 2025
How Saving Salamanders Could Save Us All
In every flood scarred bend of an Appalachian river sits a chance to rebuild something stronger, cleaner water for people, and room for a 160 million-year salamander to thrive again. Hurricane-shaped chaos is unveiling a surp...
May 12, 2025
Essay: What's in a name?
This week: There are a million legitimate reasons why standing up to bullies may require a pseudonym (and a cowl), or even anonymity. As has been clear for centuries, and even more so in this moment of inescapable mass survei...
May 5, 2025
Changing the Abortion Conversation
63% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and yet here we are. So what can we do to make the language around abortion more positive? My guest today is Sophie Nir . Sophie is the CEO of the Abortion P...
April 14, 2025
Table To Farm
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...
April 7, 2025
History's "Viral" Lessons We Keep Ignoring
We've spent the last few years learning up close how a crisis like a global pandemic reveals and deepens all of our faults, inequalities, biases, and outright failures of empathy. But here's the kicker: it's not the first tim...
March 31, 2025
You Might Also Like: The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women
The United States has long been the largest aid donor in the world, accounting for about 40 percent of humanitarian assistance globally last year, according to the United Nations . But that is quickly changing. Most U.S. fore...
March 28, 2025
Essay: Give A Little
This week: You’ve never had a better opportunity to improve one person’s life than you do right now. I would argue, in fact, that there’s never been a better time to improve one person’s life than there is today. Sounds crazy...
March 24, 2025
Don't Move The Goalposts
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 scaffol...
March 17, 2025
Going Quietly Is Not An Option
We didn't always call our work science for people who give a shit. But ever since we did, we've welcomed at least two types of people to our flock. The first is people who are deeply invested in science, but are unsure how to...
March 3, 2025
No Country for Poor Men (or Women)
What can we do about land power? It's the most important question and my guest today is Mike Albertus . Mike is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago . He's the author of the new book, Land Power . Who...
Feb. 25, 2025
Essay: The Story of Not Right Now
This week: Not. Right. Now. I hope you enjoy our new show. It’s super, super informal, and fun, and full of profanity, and personal, and — I hope — something you or a parent in your life can identify with, and maybe get some ...
Feb. 20, 2025
Push Them Down
In our debut episode, Claire (Evil Witches) and Quinn (Important, Not Important) dive into the chaotic reality of raising tiny humans in these wild times. From behavioral reflection forms and schoolyard diplomacy to the etern...
Feb. 14, 2025
Introducing: Not Right Now
Not Right Now is a podcast for parents navigating the impossible task of raising kids while *gestures wildly at everything*. Join Quinn Emmett ( Important, Not Important ) and Claire Zulkey ( Evil Witches ) for honest convers...
Feb. 10, 2025
Essay: Have Mercy
This week: I’m not religious. But I did (barely) successfully major in religious studies. For better and often for worse, the history of faith and organized religion has been the backbone of human history, political science, ...
Feb. 3, 2025
Essay: Build Something Useful
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:...
Jan. 27, 2025
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 beca...
Jan. 13, 2025
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, b...
Jan. 6, 2025
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, co...
Nov. 11, 2024
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 Southe...
Nov. 1, 2024
Essay: Only 86,000 To Go. You in?
This week: This entire (short!) episode is a call to action. It's time to do this thing...do the thing, but also take care of yourselves and your loved ones these next couple weeks. It's a lot right now. Here's What You Can D...