This week Claire and Quinn welcome Sarah Wheeler, creator of the Mom Spreading blog, host of The Mother Of It All podcast, educational psychologist, and self-described 90s R&B enthusiast. Sarah brings her expertise in ADHD and neurodiversity to help parents navigate everything from summer medication decisions to ADHD parenting superpowers…
Tolkien described life (and often, his stories) as a "long defeat", where evil frequently, inevitably wins. But he allowed for "eucatastrophe" — sudden joyous turns (just like breakthroughs in elections and voting rights). Get more: • Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com (https://www.importantnotimportant.com/) • Support our work…
This week, Quinn returns from an epic family trip to Alaska with stories of whales, glaciers, and kids who packed two socks for a week-long adventure. But as always, the conversation happens when they get home: dealing with post-vacation lows, kids who think bobbleheads grow on trees, and the daily…
This week: Why don't I eat animals? • Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/ • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com (mailto:questions@importantnotimportant.com) • Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp (https://twitter.com/importantnotimp) • Subscribe to our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkUwIVGwYxsZHEgL2fstz9Q) • Take a nap you deserve it Advertise with us:…
Congress just jammed the brakes on America's clean energy boom, however short-lived it may have been. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law after a lot of debate in the House and the Senate and in public. It will wipe out most of the wind, solar, and…
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. • Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com (https://www.importantnotimportant.com/)…
This week: Because I am a sap, I have been thinking about my kids a lot lately. And kids in general. They’re going to grow up and live in a world that’s very different from ours, and it’s important to me that they’re all as ready for that as they…
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, culture, wars, sexual ethics, and more. Subtle or not, religion and faith are most…
This week: How the hell does the brain work? And what does it have to do with lemonade stands and school supplies? • Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com (https://www.importantnotimportant.com/) • Support our work and become a Member at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade (https://www.importantnotimportant.com/upgrade) • Got feedback? Email us at…
Telling better stories is a type of Compound Action. Get more: • Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/ • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com (mailto:questions@importantnotimportant.com) • Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp (https://twitter.com/importantnotimp) • Subscribe to our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkUwIVGwYxsZHEgL2fstz9Q) • Take a nap you deserve…
This week: You’d think that -- considering we just spent two years building our new What Can I Do? (https://www.whatcanido.earth/) - that I’d have a really good answer for why we were doing it in the first place. But I didn’t. I knew, of course, the practical reasons why it…
This week, Quinn and Claire are diving into the ever-evolving world of childcare, from the brutal economics of quality care to the desperate measures parents take just to keep working. They explore how childcare standards change from first kid (extensive vetting) to third kid (you haven't murdered recently), the impossible…
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 doors within days and weeks. Now imagine there's a rapid response team quietly sifting…
The 2024 elections hit hard. But here's the thing about baseball legend Roberto Clemente's philosophy: "All that matters is tomorrow's game." Democrats are almost entirely out of power nationally. The new administration promises to blow past climate targets, gut public health, and attack civil liberties. But we've been here before—and…
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 have access to even basic sanitation, much less readily…
This week, Claire and Quinn welcome screenwriter and director Chris Winterbauer (Moonshot, What Went Wrong podcast) to chat about movies! They cover what they let their kids watch, what they force them to watch, and which movies scarred them for life. Featuring passionate defenses of Dumb and Dumber, the death…
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 something like 6 trillion trees, and humanity are the…
This week, Claire and Quinn ask: How do you raise charitable, empathetic kids when you can barely manage getting them to put their dishes in the sink? Topics include when your anti-gun household meets the school rummage sale Nerf gun haul, teaching empathy vs. performative wokeness, the privilege and burden…
This week Claire and Quinn welcome their first guest, Lindsey Stanberry, founder of The Purse and former editor at Fortune. Together they explore how to teach kids about money in 2025 -- from birthday party gift overload to teaching financial literacy when you can barely manage your own finances. We…
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 vision is already taking shape in fast-growing places like Ahmedabad, India, where community-designed cooling plans and demand-side…
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 surprising truth when we restore stream banks, fund green storm water projects, and protect keystone…
Hatch alarm clocks Bed Jet cooling/heating system Feals sleep gummies Sleep mediation machines for kids Merlin sleep suit Follow us: Subscribe to Quinn's newsletter at importantnotimportant.com Subscribe to Claire's newsletter at https://www.evilwitches.com/ Try a free 30 day free trial of the Important Membership here: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/upgrade. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notrightnowpodcast/…
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 surveillance, some of us — by nature of our birth nation,…
This week, we talk about the humbling experience of parenthood and how reality shatters expectations. We cover: The gap between pre-parenting fantasies (museum trips and Christmas traditions) versus post-kid realities (barbecue chip crumbs in the car) Why buying your postpartum wife lingerie is a terrible idea How having children affects…