Important, Not Important

Let’s say you get sick. Diabetes. Cancer. Heart disease. Long COVID. PTSD. MS. Depression. Alzheimer’sDespite the best efforts of your physician, nothing’s working. They’re out of answers, and you’re out of questions. You might both be increasingly out of time. Where do you turn?There must be someone, somewhere, working on your problem. Working to better understand it, at least, maybe to treat it, maybe cure it, or prevent it for the next person who might be susceptible to getting it. How do you find out if they exist? And if they do, how do you find them? How could you volunteer for their work, knowing they might not have the answers – but knowing you won’t know and they won’t know – until you try?For almost twenty-five years the best answer has been to visit a government-run website called clinical trials dot gov. I know because I’ve sent tens of thousands of people to it, for help. But even if you are able to sort through a Windows 95-era database and find the trial that’s right for you – what if it’s

This week: What's happening with cars and micro-mobility in AmericaBrain fogA food system rundownThe corporations backing a national abortion banBorder agents are taking your phone dataAction StepsWatch this short about Statiq, the Indian startup electrifying transportation, then check out Ride Review to find an e-bike or scooter (here's Quinn's beloved e-bike)Read about the success of the new COVID boosters, then get boostedDonate to or volunteer with World Central KitchenRead this article listing the corporations backing a national abortion ban, then share it everywhereCall your senators and insist they support S.2957, Senator Wyden's "Protecting Data at the Border Act"Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve itAdvertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/sponsors

Curious about the climate? Then there’s a show I want to tell you about—A Matter of Degrees, where Dr. Leah Stokes and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson tell stories about the powerful forces behind climate change — and the tools we have to fix it.You know climate change is a problem. So what can we do about it? The new season of A Matter of Degrees kicks off with a mini-series to answer that question. What can we do personally, professionally, and politically? Episode four is a favorite…it’s about coping with our emotions about the climate crisis. And there’ll be more expert interviews and compelling narratives that touch on everything from crypto to Indigenous stewardship. Find A Matter of Degrees wherever you listen to podcasts. The new season launches on September 15!-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at importantnotimportant.com/podcast.-----------Links:Listen to A Matter of DegreesF

This week: Corporate clean energy purchases go down as temperatures go upThe current status of COVID-19 vaccinesMoving towards a healthier, climate-friendly dietA promising new malaria vaccineBack to the drawing board for a federal online privacy billAction StepsLearn how to talk to kids about climate change with Science MomsGet BioBot to get your county's wastewater treatment plant access to free COVID-19 wastewater testingShare your ideas with the White House before the Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, and apply to submit your organization as a stakeholderDonate to Against MalariaRead and contribute to The MarkupGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

This week: The cost of electrificationThe end of free COVID testsThe water crisis in JacksonMinimizing cancer treatment side effectsThe companies selling your location data to the policeAction StepsRead Rewiring America's home electrification guide, and then share it with your apartment/HOA/city councilUse BioBot to get your county's wastewater treatment plant access to free COVID-10 wastewater and variant testingDonate to Cooperation Jackson, a local cooperative ensuring water access for the homeless, elderly, and those with limited access to transportationJoin INI's Team in the "10th Annual Million Mile" from Alex's Lemonade Stand FoundationRead the WIRED coverage of data brokers (5m) and then donate to the EFFGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

This week: Heat in China ramping up a clean economy arms raceHow to learn more about Long COVIDCleaning up after coalMagic mushrooms and depressionBetter data for pregnant peopleAction StepsCheck out CTVC's rundown on Ira's impact on capital costsIf you or someone you love is suffering from Long COVID, sign up to participate in the RECOVER studyDonate to EarthJusticeSign up for a psilocybin mental health studyListen to my conversation with Representative Lauren Underwood about better maternal health in AmericaGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

This week: What IRA means for carsCentralizing data for the next pandemicA parched EarthBig Pharma is Big Mad about IRAFingers crossed that Big Tech will protect democracyAction Steps:Listen to a very-Ira episode of "The Coolest Show" podcastCheck out this COVID dataset of sequences by variant and countryDonate to bring clean drinking water to people in developing countriesCall your senators to urge them to support the INSULIN ActSign up to be paired with a cybersecurity expertGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

“What can I do?” This is the question I get most often. It’s the question that early on pivoted our newsletter and then this podcast towards measurable action steps that help you feel better and drive systemic change.I don’t have anywhere near all the answers to basically anything, so I usually answer people with “What CAN you do?”…to stall for time, but also to open up the conversation.Because the answer to what CAN you do is usually best found at the intersection of your interests or passions or skills, and the eleventy billion problems and opportunities we have before us.And so, almost a hundred and fifty published conversations later and ten times as many offline, some of my favorites remain talking to young people about their lived experiences and how they’re directing it towards a problem and solution, towards a radically better world, however ambitious and however much I am a moron and don’t understand the basic science behind it.But on the other hand, somebody’s gotta support these folks. And so

This week: Ira’s here and ready to fund the futureIt’s back to school and the air’s still not cleanOur relationship with water is changing everywhereMonkeypox folks are helping each otherFacebook’s liable for a whole lot of dataGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at importantnotimportant.com/newsletterGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

In a world where trust in institutions and in news is falling and the role of influencers is growing, finding the connective tissue between you and your audience is key to, well, connecting. To establish a rapport, which can if nourished, lead to trust, which can lead to a genuine connection. And for the creator to go further, to push deeper, to find meaning and bearing in places we as consumers or readers or listeners might not otherwise look or expect, like in local news or video game reviews or recipes.I think that matters a lot. We’re not only losing trust but feeling that loss. With so much coming at us, we notice and feel a lack of connection, we feel adrift and unmoored. I am moved by people whose work and art I can connect with, whether I’m seeking it out or not.Because connection matters. Who we get our COVID information or our weather forecasts from matters, but also who helps us understand where we can find comfort, and why.My guest today is Swapna Krishna.Swapna is a writer and journalist cov

This week: A surprise for climate development that isn't terrifying?Facebook might relax their COVID misinformation policiesLess land, more riceAlzheimer's under a microscopeA treasure trove of biological proteinsGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

This week: How to beat the heat in your cityCOVID quackeryIntroducing "Explainers"!A blockbuster depression studyA new federal privacy bill is comin'Get more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

This week: Manchin fuels more heat wavesCOVID reinforcements on the wayIndia and California fight plasticHow we fight monkeypoxWow Ring doorbells are not greatGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

We have ignored vaginas for so long. Hear me out.On the one hand, history and popular culture, from god-kings to love songs to movies to fan fiction, are littered with supposedly straight men with a single pursuit: intercourse with a vagina. But along the way these same men have pigeonholed women and their vaginas into simple vehicles for heterosexual sex or reproduction. They’ve ignored almost everything else in the area, and shamed women for even considering pleasuring themselves, or pleasure at all, for getting sick, for failing to carry a child, and more. This ignorance touches everything – from the law to culture to racism to medicine to psychotherapy.Sex-ed is under attack. Birth control is under attack. Reproductive rights are under attack. Trans rights are under attack.There has simply never been a better or more consequential time to understand how and why the vagina and friends work, every day, not just on "sex day", or during menstruation or menopause, to understand what lies beneath and how i

This week: What's a chief heat officer?Fixing schools in the time of COVIDWhy plant-based meat is a massive 80/20 move for the climate (and your health)Uh, Juul is back?Google's hiding your "sensitive" location dataGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

I think about time a lot. Some days I feel ancient, some days I can’t believe how old I am.I’ve got kids, too. I can’t believe how fast they’ve grown up already. They love so many things. Swimming. Cooking. Plain pasta. The beach. Vegetables, somehow. Their friends. Their family. Dinosaurs.Man, oh man, do they love dinosaurs.I love to challenge them, to help them think about how long ago it all was, and how long it lasted. How different the world was. How the land under their feet was an ocean, once.And of course, knowing what we know now, how fast it can all change. How an asteroid - or a virus, or a fire, or a flood - can change your life forever.I try to help them understand that, unlike the dinosaurs, we have the tools to prevent many of these things, and we have the foresight to understand when and how, and why they might happen.As much progress as we’ve made in these 300,000 years of Homo sapiens, from fire to wheels to meat to agriculture to handwashing –  we are in a moment when we are challenged

This week: The SEC's coming for greenwashing in a real wayBA4: Endgame and BA5: Infinity War are here and immune evasiveEat more local veggiesBye-bye vapes (and nicotine?)A digital privacy bill might actually see the light of dayGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

This week: Where do gas cars go when we buy electric?A bunch of COVID updatesThe Colorado River's next chapterWhat's next for Alzheimer'sHoly shit Facebook's tracking pixel is more invasive than expected, which is saying somethingGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

This week: Biden's going it alone on electrificationModerna's got a new boosterWhy food is so expensiveAn unbelievable cancer resultApple's saying goodbye to passwordsGet more:Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comGot feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter at @importantnotimpGet fun merch at importantnotimportant.com/storeTake a nap you deserve it

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 job is to find ways around our defenses, and now it’s doing just that.My usual caveats:I’m not a virologistI’m not an MDI’m not an epidemiologistI’m not a sociologistI’m not a policy makerI’m not a journalistI’m not a catI am: A former liberal arts major with a popular and critically acclaimed newsletter and a podcast, and I’ve spent the past few years trying to learn about the world’s most complex problems from a broad array of incredibly smart, capable, and thoughtful folks to understand where we are, why we’re here, where we might be going, and what the hell you and I can do about it all.I’ve covered the broader shifts of COVID every week in this newsletter, standing on the shoulders of some of the most incredible journalism we've ever seen.And here are the fa