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 Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback?…
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 low-income countries. Not to say that nothing has been done, but it’s…
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.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com (mailto:questions@importantnotimportant.com) •…
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 wasteful use of a resource”, would have been, and continue to be, foreign to many…
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.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com (mailto:questions@importantnotimportant.com) • Follow…
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 it's too late, there are like 7…
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, analysis, and Action Steps at…
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 whither. As his sons grew, and watched, their father Jafar lost his…
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 declared war on Ukraine, directing the Russian military to take Ukraine's bases, cities, people,…
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.importantnotimportant.com (https://my.captivate.fm/newsletter.importantnotimportant.com) • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com • Follow us on…
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 more news, analysis, and Action…
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 at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com (https://my.captivate.fm/newsletter.importantnotimportant.com) • Got feedback? Email…
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 sold (again) Get more: • Get more news, analysis, and…
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 those working in the service industry, working from home was never an option.…
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, analysis, and Action…
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 news,…
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 Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com • Follow us on…
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 decisions. His guest is Krystal Tsosie, a geneticist, bioethicist, and—first and foremost to…
This week: Biden's executive orders; What Omicron means for you; The future of coffee farmer migration; Telehealth lobbying on the rise; China's queer internet is being erased • Find links and Action Steps from this newsletter and more at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com • Follow us…
Yes, we all know that the 1998 Michael Bay flick Armageddon is a masterpiece of cinema, but two years ago we asked ourselves this question: How much does it actually hold up as a blueprint for preventing planetary destruction? Let’s say it doesn’t: What can we do to keep from…
This week: McDonald’s isn’t trying; Biden’s test plan had to be better; Plant-based meat math is obvious; We need more biotech data scientists; We need less crime prediction software • Find links from this newsletter and more at importantnotimportant.com/newsletter (http://importantnotimportant.com/newsletter) • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com • Follow us…
In Episode 128, Quinn unpacks the most delicious olive oil in the world, how it came to be, and what it means to start a food business in the age of climate change. Our guest is Aishwarya Iyer, dreamer, doer, and eternal optimist. Ash is the founder and CEO of…
This Week: Is there a green bubble?; Can you get a booster?; Where to find clean water; Why health workers are quitting; Amazon’s privacy nightmare • Find links from this newsletter and more at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com (http://newsletter.importantnotimportant.com/) • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com • Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp…
In Episode 127, Quinn wants to know just how the hell “innovation” actually works. His guest is Christopher Mims, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal, who’s spent a career asking big questions about the most pressing technological and societal issues we face, from robot trains to the future of…