Episodes
April 29, 2022
Newsletter #274: Is Wind Power Unprofitable?
This week: Wind isn't profitable Kids vaccines on the hold up The kitchen sink answer to food waste, it's metaphors galore today Menthol cigarettes are all smoked out America's new AI chief Get more: Get more news, analysis, ...
April 22, 2022
Newsletter #273: Where Batteries Come From
This week: Should we mine the ocean? Mask mandates are over, what else? Split up the FDA Alzheimer's trials are very white Ronan Farrow comes for Pegasus spyware Get more: Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newslett...
April 15, 2022
Newsletter #272: Is carbon removal real?
This week: Carbon removal: Hope is not a plan. A bajillion dollars might be! COVID and diabetes is the new Bennifer Walmart's regenerative farming pledge is about dirt PFAS in food wrappers, not delicious How hospitals get cy...
April 14, 2022
A Very Big Deal
TLDR: INI/Membership is here . Today we’re launching the first way for INI readers and listeners to come together, to go deeper, and to unlock a place where you can gain wisdom and organize to make concrete progress towards a...
April 4, 2022
Peer Pressure Works
Over the past few years, more and more voters have cited “action on climate” as a reason for voting the way they do. From Data for Progress , in October: Over two-thirds of voters ( 68 percent ), agree that the U.S. should le...
April 1, 2022
Newsletter #271: What is the climate gap?
This week: The climate tech gap, explained Free COVID tests, over (for some) The future of freshwater Millions of nurses, lost Facebook, unregulated, still Get more: Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.imp...
March 25, 2022
Newsletter #270: Did you hear about ecstasy?
This week: The SEC's new climate rule, summarized J&J's COVID shot, redeemed? How to protect food workers in the climate age PTSD and ecstasy Russia's lack of cyber warfare, hypothesized Get more: Get more news, analysis, and...
March 21, 2022
3 Billion Shots, Part Deux
A little while ago, I had a conversation with Dr. Madhukar Pai about vaccine equity. In it, I tried to understand why and how developed countries were spending billions on COVID vaccine boosters, but so relatively little in l...
March 18, 2022
Newsletter #269: The ESG Bubble
This week: ESG's crumbling COVID on the rise, funding vanishes California's breadbasket at risk Gene therapy pricing Your biometric data for sale, part 73 Get more: Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.impo...
March 14, 2022
Fresh Banana Leaves
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...
March 11, 2022
Newsletter #268: This is the transition in real time
This week: Putin's oil, rejected The lives we write off What "sustainable" really means, or, nothing Lead pipes, still Microsoft's new cancer bot Get more: Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnoti...
March 8, 2022
Abhishek vs Terminator
There’s these metaphors that sum up a lot of what we’re trying to do here, what needs to be done on planet Earth, from climate change to COVID to AI ethics, which is something you definitely need to know and care about before...
March 4, 2022
Newsletter #267: What's in the IPCC plan
This week: The IPCC report, by the numbers Biden's new COVID plan Wheat (prices) on the rise Mental health apps need to meditate on some randomized control trials Pegasus: Not a horse! This time Get more: Get more news, analy...
Feb. 28, 2022
The Cure of a Lifetime
Jafar Tabebordbar was in his early 30’s, living and working as an accountant in Shiraz, Iran, when he became a father. It was 1986, nearly a decade after the 1979 revolution, and Jafar’s muscles were already beginning to whit...
Feb. 25, 2022
Newsletter #266: What gas means in all of this
This week: Gas: the forever bridge fuel Boosters, boosted Megadrought self-awareness Maternal deaths on the rise Your location data, for sale Get more: Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimpor...
Feb. 25, 2022
Putin Takes Chernobyl
In 2019, Quinn interviewed his good friend Craig Mazin , writer, producer, and creator of the hit HBO miniseries, Chernobyl , to learn what happened there, and what it means for our energy future. This week, Vladimir Putin de...
Feb. 19, 2022
Newsletter #265: What Sea Level Rise Means
This week: America will see an average of 12 inches of sea level rise by 2050 1 million COVID deaths $1 billion for cover crops Antimicrobial resistance got next Clearview's next steps (to harvest your data) Get more: Get mor...
Feb. 11, 2022
Newsletter #264: Where masks are coming off
This week: Carbon markets are magic and demand to be taken seriously, Michael Mask mandates are ending Food prices up the rise Biden's cancer moonshot IRS FaceTime cancelled Get more: Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps...
Feb. 8, 2022
Newsletter #263: Michael Scott on vaccines
This week: Will the EPA's powers be gutted? Don't forget your vaccines for everything else PFAS can't get regulated soon enough Everywhere needs more nurses The database with virtually everyone's most private health info just...
Jan. 31, 2022
3 Billion Shots
It's been 26 months since so many of us took our kids out of schools, downloaded an app called Zoom, and started videoconferencing our work from our kitchens and sweatpants. For many others, especially the marginalized and th...
Jan. 28, 2022
Newsletter #262: Rihanna has entered the chat
This week: Gas stoves can GTFO Omicron means we still need masks at schools The future of "organic" food Throwing cash at bigger baby brains Pregnancy apps are a data nightmare which is so so great Get more: Get more news, an...
Jan. 21, 2022
Newsletter #261: How to market climate change
This week: How to market climate change to the people Here come the masks - are they enough? What's "enough"? Kids EBT food on the wane Expanding the blood donor pool The IRS wants your selfie (or do they?) Get more: Get more...
Jan. 14, 2022
Newsletter #260: What "Mild" COVID Really Means
This week: Moving on from Machin; What "mild" COVID really means; How China's going plant-based; How exercise defeats anxiety; This is what happens when old senators misunderstand new tech Get more news, analysis, and Action ...
Dec. 21, 2021
129. Indigenous DNA
In Episode 129 , Quinn tries to better understand data privacy, data stewardship, and what it means for Indigenous cultures in the future of biotech, how we design equity into genetic research, and who gets to make those deci...