The Most Important Question

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 available and recycled toilet paper. That's about 40% of the global population.

289,000 children under five die every year from diarrheal diseases caused by ...

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 late arrivals. So how do we reconnect with trees to stop using them for toilet paper?

How do we learn more about why they're suffering and in some unexpected plac...

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 innovations are proving that climate action can double as a public health and equit...

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 species like the Eastern Hellbender, we don't just rescue wildlife, we buffer towns and farms and drinking water ...

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, skin color, ethnicity, sex, gender, religious beliefs, and/or who we love — are in far more clear and present danger than someone like me.

And yet — mi...

63% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and yet here we are. So what can we do to make the language around abortion more positive?

My guest today is Sophie Nir.

Sophie is the CEO of the Abortion Positivity Project. The Abortion Positivity Project seeks to destigmatize abortion by more or less overhauling the framework by which we currently understand and discuss it.

They've developed a training curriculum...

Sometimes you buy organic, sometimes you hit a restaurant that's plant-based, or at least you choose the veggie option.

Maybe the fish option at the market or the restaurant is marketed as being sustainable. Maybe you compost. It's all useful. But we've been doing it for a while and it's not moving the needle for climate, for restaurants, for farmers, for our health.

So anyone who gives a shit wants to know, what can I actually do t...

We've spent the last few years learning up close how a crisis like a global pandemic reveals and deepens all of our faults, inequalities, biases, and outright failures of empathy.

But here's the kicker: it's not the first time. Plagues and epidemics have always shown us who we really are. And they've left footprints, good and bad, on our institutions and the stories we tell ourselves.

So why do we keep missing the lessons?

My guest t...

The United States has long been the largest aid donor in the world, accounting for about 40 percent of humanitarian assistance globally last year, according to the United Nations. But that is quickly changing. 

Most U.S. foreign aid is currently on hold. Thousands of projects are at risk of elimination. And nearly all staff from the U.S. Agency for International Development are on administrative leave. 

How did we get to th...

This week:

You’ve never had a better opportunity to improve one person’s life than you do right now.

I would argue, in fact, that there’s never been a better time to improve one person’s life than there is today.

Sounds crazy, right, considering all the destructive nonsense?

Here's What You Can Do:

• Donate to Matriarch to help progressive working women run for office and win.
• Volunteer with your ...

One of the ways this Trump administration is different from the last is, relatively at least, how much more unconstitutional, how much more organized and comprehensive the attacks on our institutions, particularly the scaffolding we built for ourselves the most precious parts of of our societies: immigration, agriculture, the VA, NIH, the CDC, the NSF and humanitarian work around the globe.

Do some of these need reform? Of course, t...

We didn't always call our work science for people who give a shit.

But ever since we did, we've welcomed at least two types of people to our flock. The first is people who are deeply invested in science, but are unsure how to tie it into measurable action on the human level. And the second is people already fighting for a healthier, more equitable society, but who are curious about the evolving science behind our complex systems.

Th...

What can we do about land power?

It's the most important question and my guest today is Mike Albertus.

Mike is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. He's the author of the new book, Land Power. Who has it? Who doesn't? And how that determines the fate of societies. 

In the book, Mike examines how land became power, how it shapes power today still, and how who holds that power determines the fundamental ...

This week:

Not. Right. Now.

I hope you enjoy our new show. It’s super, super informal, and fun, and full of profanity, and personal, and — I hope — something you or a parent in your life can identify with, and maybe get some relief from.

It’s intentionally and decidedly NOT an advice show. 

It is a once-a-week parasocial commiseration session about trying to raise kids and continue to be a human and maybe even a par...

Please enjoy the debut episode from our new show, Not Right Now.

Every week, Claire (Evil Witches) and Quinn (Important, Not Important) dive into the chaotic reality of raising tiny humans in these wild times.

From behavioral reflection forms and schoolyard diplomacy to the eternal question of "how many water bottles does one child need?", we explore the messy, hilarious, and occasionally terrifying truth about modern parenting.

P...

Not Right Now is a podcast for parents navigating the impossible task of raising kids while *gestures wildly at everything*.

Join Quinn Emmett (Important, Not Important) and Claire Zulkey (Evil Witches) for honest conversations about parenting in an era of climate change, artificial intelligence, social media anxiety, all while trying to get your kid to just please put on their shoes.

From discussing how to talk to kids about the n...

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 often the answer to why people do what they do, and to how we got here, even now as the west barrels towards majority se...

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.

Here's What You Can Do:

• Donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation to help get Zuckerberg’s grubby little paws off of your data.
• Volunteer with Tech Shift and start creating technology that actually contributes to...

We (Quinn) has been avoiding this question for quite a while.

I even wrote a few thousand words about it a couple months ago and didn't publish it because it was a bit of a downer.

But that's kind of malpractice in a way because we promised we don't shy away from the hard stuff even if the goal is to help you understand what you can do about it.

Just like there's never really an optimal time in your life to get married, or have a b...