Episodes
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 - a...
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 fa...
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 kee...
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 t...
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 disclo...
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 ...
March 9, 2023
⚡️Your Home Electrification Questions, Answered
This week: In response to our ongoing and delightful home electrification series with our friends at Rewiring America , we have received a hell of a lot of questions that are beyond our ability to answer. So we brought in the...
March 8, 2023
🌎 A living act of resistance
This week: Can little-old-you really make a difference? Hell yes you can. Plus: cheaper insulin, cleaner camping gear, a new (lidless) coffee cup, good news on BetterHelp, and maybe even some paid leave. Here's What You Can D...
March 6, 2023
Best of: Lessons From Plants
What can we learn from trees? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Beronda Montgomery . Beronda's a transformative writer, researcher and scholar who pursues a common theme of understanding how individuals perceiv...
Feb. 27, 2023
Best Of: Did A.I. Just Make My Life’s Work Obsolete?
How many nights have you spent up recently worried that AI is just gonna take your job? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Mohammed AlQuraishi . Almost three years before chatGPT and New Bing really hit the scen...
Feb. 24, 2023
🌎 How to get sh*t done
This week: Pulled in a million directions? Wondering what the hell you do with your days? Find your north stars (and become devastatingly effective) with one simple question. What We Can Do: ⚡️ Please don’t use public wifi wi...
Feb. 22, 2023
🌎 What Do You Need?
This week: The future of search and chatbots looks a lot like our ancient past. Why do we keep making the same tools over and over again? What We Can Do: ⚡️ Addiction is brutal. Help yourself or a loved one or someone you’ve ...
Feb. 20, 2023
Clean Air Is An Inside Job
Imagine you’re in a sci-fi movie. The one where everything’s on the line . And while dinosaurs or aliens or a virus takes over down on the ground, you’re the scientist unexpectedly riding in the helicopter with the actual pre...
Feb. 15, 2023
🌎 How to Survive
This week: There are a default group of problems that exist in our society because of the basic needs required to be a human. They are: Air Water Food Sleep These, our most primal needs, are more or less biologically inarguab...
Feb. 13, 2023
🌎 "Why Do We Exist?"
This week: For the next few weeks, I’m rewriting and sharing a selection of essays I wrote in 2020 and 2021, so about two hundred years ago. I think they’re more relevant than ever — I can’t wait to hear what you think. This ...
Jan. 30, 2023
Best of: How To Innovate
How does innovation actually work? That's today's big question, and my guest is Christopher Mims . Chris is a journalist for the Wall Street Journal , and I had him on the show in 2021 to understand how he asks big questions....
Jan. 27, 2023
🌎 Insurance, for you and me
This week: Everyone needs insurance. But what kind? And what does it mean to have it, or not? Well, there’s actual insurance, which is a policy where you and an insurer contract with one another in case things go south with (...
Jan. 24, 2023
Best of: How Do We Rebuild Capitalism in a World on Fire?
How do we reimagine capitalism in a world on fire? That's today's big question, and my guest is Rebecca Henderson , Harvard professor behind the wildly popular class "Reimagining Capitalism". I had Rebecca on the show in 2020...
Jan. 23, 2023
🌎 You Say You Want A Revolution
This week: What does it mean when people say “revolution”? For these purposes, which are pretty narrow and entirely of my own invention, I don’t mean some single moment in time, unless it was a bellwether for something bigger...
Jan. 17, 2023
Best of: How To Be A Better Ancestor
How can I be a better ancestor? This question has haunted and inspired me since way back in 2019 when I first read the Optimist's Telescope . A beautiful, helpful, inspiring book by Bina Venkataraman. Then I had Bina on the s...
Jan. 13, 2023
🌎 What it all means
Across the front of our website, in big bold letters, is our calling card: “Science for people who give a shit.” You may have seen it and immediately thought “That’s me!” or “You sir, are a child.” Either reaction is well and...
Dec. 19, 2022
Can Your Poop Predict The Next Pandemic?
We’re taking giving a shit quite literally this week! Our guest is Newsha Ghaeli , the president and co-founder at Biobot Analytics . If you read our newsletter, you’ll have heard me go on and on about Biobot , whose mission ...
Nov. 28, 2022
Why You Should Care About Soil Health
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 Munukutl...
Nov. 21, 2022
The Future of Aluminum Recycling
Aluminum. It’s everywhere! And we’re going to need a hell of a lot more of it in the future. Aluminum is a primary ingredient in solar, wind, hydro, concentrated solar, bioenergy, the grid, batteries, hydrogen, and more. And ...