SCIENCE FOR PEOPLE WHO GIVE A SHIT
IMPORTANT, NOT IMPORTANT

Episodes

June 30, 2023

🌎 Life, Liberty, and Solar Panels

This week: Texans have a huge opportunity to get even MORE liberty — from the sun. Plus : Diabetes is expected to double, the state of carbon removal, A.I. detection tools, future pandemic prepping, BEES?!, and more Here's W…
June 28, 2023

🌎 An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

This week: Can Apple help improve mental health? Here's What You Can Do: ⚡️LGBTQ+ youth are 4x more likely to attempt suicide than their peers. Help the The Trevor Project build a safer, more-inclusive world through crisis s…
June 26, 2023

🌎 The Inevitable Future

This week: Is the future inevitable? Plus: A lack of OB-GYN’s in a post- Roe world, some new bills for agrivoltaics, the best in climate journalism, the link between COVID and Alzheimer’s, misinformation, and more Here's Wha…
June 9, 2023

🌎 Start Over (Again)

This week: Got fired? Start over. Plus: More young people are getting cancer, the rise of solar power, new YouTube misinformation rules, getting paid to bike to work, and more Here's What You Can Do: ⚡️ If apocalyptic skies …
June 8, 2023

🌎 10 Questions You Need to Ask Right Now

This week: Ask these questions before you click on ANYTHING. Plus: Gut inflammation news, California insurance gets harder to find, 750k adults just lost Medicaid, what (non-vaccinated) COVID actually does to your lungs, and…
May 29, 2023

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 …
May 19, 2023

🌎 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: ⚡️Wild…
May 17, 2023

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 entere…
May 16, 2023

🌎 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…
May 8, 2023

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 inc…
May 5, 2023

🌎 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 …
May 1, 2023

Check Your Insurance Policy

You've got insurance, right? Are you sure? That's today's big question, and my guest is Washington Post reporter Brianna Sacks . Brianna's an extreme weather and disaster reporter for the Post where she explores how climate …
April 26, 2023

🌎 What Would You Say You Do Here

This week: Is what you’re working on important? Plus: The cleanest produce, a mosquito factory, lots of rooftop solar, autonomous GPT, maybe, and the latest with the Colorado River Here's What You Can Do: ⚡️ Climate change a…
April 24, 2023

Every Climate Action Matters

What can I do? The simple question is the underlying premise of everything we do here. It's often the easiest one to help people answer for themselves, but from the outside, it's often the most imposing. All of which is why …
April 18, 2023

🌎 This Isn't Rocket Science (Unless It Is)

This week: A very basic way to use a mental model, you’re welcome. PLUS: Mosquitoes, overseas abortion pills, healthy ice cream, German nuclear power, electric school buses, and more. Here's What You Can Do: ⚡️ Interested in…
April 17, 2023

Best of: Black Moms Matter

Why is it so dangerous to have Black babies in America? April 11-17th is Black Maternal Health Week , and so we are replaying one of our favourite episodes from 2021 with guest Representative Lauren Underwood of Illinois, a …
April 10, 2023

Finding the Humanity in Artificial Intelligence

If you had all of the data in the world at your hands, what question would you ask first? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Emma Pierson . Emma is an assistant professor of computer science at the Jacobs Techn…
April 3, 2023

Best of: What Really Happens When You Just Give People Money?

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…
March 28, 2023

Best of: How to Stop School Shootings in the USA

We're going to keeping re-running this 2020 episode until America stops sacrificing children. --- Here we are, yet again. We first ran this episode with Fred Guttenberg, father of Parkland victim, Jaime Guttenberg in 2020 - …
March 27, 2023

Where In The World Are All Of The Electricians?

Where the hell did all of the electricians go? That's today's big question, and my guest is leading journalist Emily Pontecorvo . Until recently, Emily was an energy, environment, and climate reporter at Grist , one of our f…
March 24, 2023

🌎 ESG is good business (but don't call it ESG)

This week: Fighting over ESG is stupid, risky, and bad business. Let’s move on. Plus: RSV vaccines, the E-BIKE Act, Skittles (?), deepfakes, allergies, and a new season of DRILLED What We Can Do: ⚡️ Submit your comment to ke…
March 20, 2023

The Dive Into Challenger Deep

What if you got the chance to dive to the bottom of the ocean? Would you go? And what would you find there? That's today's big question and my returning guest, one of my all-time favorites, is Dr. Dawn Wright , better known …
March 17, 2023

🌎 Welcome to the Unknown Unknowns

This week: What we know — and more importantly, what we don’t — about what AI is capable of, and how much change we’re capable of absorbing. Plus: the Willow Project, H-1B visas, blueberries, honeybee vaccines, climate discl…
March 13, 2023

Best Of: Is The Ocean Running Out of Oxygen? Is That Bad?

What if I told you there was less oxygen in the ocean than there used to be? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Dawn Wright, or as many in the ocean community know her "Deep Sea Dawn." Dawn Wright is an elected…