SCIENCE FOR PEOPLE WHO GIVE A SHIT

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June 17, 2022

Newsletter #280: What's next for Alzheimer's?

This week: • Where do gas cars go when we buy electric? • A bunch of COVID updates • The Colorado River's next chapter • What's next for Alzheimer's • Holy shit Facebook's tracking pixel is more invasive than expected, which is saying something Get more: • Get more news,…

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June 10, 2022

Newsletter #279: Moderna's got a new booster

This week: • Biden's going it alone on electrification • Moderna's got a new booster • Why food is so expensive • An unbelievable cancer result • Apple's saying goodbye to passwords Get more: • Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback? Email us at…

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June 9, 2022

COVID: The Update

Soup to nuts, I’m more concerned about COVID today than I’ve been at any point in the past year. I don’t think it’ll be a horror show soon, not like it was before, but we haven’t (yet!) put ourselves in a position to get ahead of a virus whose entire…

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June 8, 2022

Why We Can't Focus

We are all being pulled in so many different directions. The clock is ticking and we have a climate and virus and society and economy to fix and we’re distracted, all of the time. Not just by all of these immense, complicated, systemic issues, not just by an explosion of…

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June 3, 2022

Newsletter #278: The deal with monkeypox

This week: • SEC climate risk reporting gets closer to reality • What's the Paxlovid rebound? • How to make strawberries last weeks longer • What the hell is monkeypox? • Mastercard wants to give you variable interest rates in exchange for your face Get more: • Get more news,…

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May 27, 2022

Newsletter #277: Why EV batteries are suddenly SO expensive?

This week: • Lithium is expensive AF because it's in wildly short supply • Paxlovid and Long COVID, a thing? • Global breadbaskets are getting hotter and/or wetter and/or laced with explosives • Fuck guns • Healthcare info privacy is not a thing, apparently Get more: • Get more news,…

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May 16, 2022

Black Moms Matter, Redux

A woman’s right to choose is under renewed attack in America and the federal protection it has benefited from for so long, however tenuous, is closer than ever to going away. It's vitally important we understand the underlying systems behind any singular issue, and ask “Why is this this way?”…

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May 6, 2022

Newsletter #275: How Hot is it in India?

This week: • India's heat continues • When a surge is not a surge • Antibiotics (still) in meat • Abortion • Email cybersecurity is...lacking 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 us on Twitter…

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May 3, 2022

Internal Activism

If you give a shit, well, you’ve probably had at least a few moments where the enormity of what’s in front of us has challenged your mental health in some way. I can’t imagine there are many folks listening to this show who’ve never felt the heaviness of our climate…

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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, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com •…

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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 newsletter.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback? Email us…

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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 cyberattacked, but why Get more: • Get more…

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April 14, 2022

A Very Big Deal

TLDR: INI/Membership is here (https://newsletter.importantnotimportant.com/upgrade). Today we’re launching (https://newsletter.importantnotimportant.com/upgrade) the first way for INI readers and listeners to come together, to go deeper, and to unlock (https://newsletter.importantnotimportant.com/upgrade) a place where you can gain wisdom and organize to make concrete progress towards a cleaner, more equitable world — for everyone. And…

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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 lead the world in addressing climate change so other…

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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.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com (mailto:questions@importantnotimportant.com) •…

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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 Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback?…

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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 low-income countries. Not to say that nothing has been done, but it’s…

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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.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com (mailto:questions@importantnotimportant.com) •…

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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 wasteful use of a resource”, would have been, and continue to be, foreign to many…

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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.importantnotimportant.com • Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com (mailto:questions@importantnotimportant.com) • Follow…

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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 it's too late, there are like 7…

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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, analysis, and Action Steps at…

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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 whither. As his sons grew, and watched, their father Jafar lost his…

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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 declared war on Ukraine, directing the Russian military to take Ukraine's bases, cities, people,…

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