Important, Not Important

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 candidates to donate to, and GoFundMe’s to donate to, but also by the just infinite plethora of opportunities for engagement, if only for a moment. It’s getting harder for us to read long-form writing, to focus on one thing without instinctively reaching for another at the same time.And here’s the broader implication: If we can’t pay attention to what’s going on with our planet, with our communities, with the heat, and viruses, and opportunities to electrify everything, to train and hire more nurses, to educate more people, to elect folks that matter in districts and elections that matter, then we’re going to have a very hard time fixing any of it.But we are less in control than we’ve ever been – maybe there’s free will, maybe not – w

This week: SEC climate risk reporting gets closer to realityWhat's the Paxlovid rebound?How to make strawberries last weeks longerWhat the hell is monkeypox?Mastercard wants to give you variable interest rates in exchange for your faceGet 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: Lithium is expensive AF because it's in wildly short supplyPaxlovid and Long COVID, a thing?Global breadbaskets are getting hotter and/or wetter and/or laced with explosivesFuck gunsHealthcare info privacy is not a thing, apparentlyGet 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

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?” and “Does it have to be this way?”It is 14 times more deadly to deliver a baby than to have a legal abortion in America.We have no universal healthcare, we have no mandatory paid sick leave, we have no mandatory paid parental leave, we have no mandatory paid time off, preschool is unaffordable, childcare is unaffordable, mental health care is unaffordable, diapers are unaffordable.And so before this — before this decision comes down, before they use this precedent and legal approach to start to ban abortions immediately after conception, before they try to ban contraception altogether, and more — — we have some of the highest maternal death rates in the developed world, and if you’re poor or a Black woman or bo

This week: Water in the WestWho will get Long COVID?The baby formula shortage, explainedDrug overdoses and gaslightingData privacy improvementsGet 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: India's heat continuesWhen a surge is not a surgeAntibiotics (still) in meatAbortionEmail cybersecurity is...lackingGet 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

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 future, of our climate present.There’s a lot of guilt, a lot of shame, a lot of shame about that shame, a lot of furious action – we’re here, aren’t we.And running parallel alongside all of those emotions is the dread of what’s being done out there, about the lack of action, and for the people who are taking action on the frontlines of the future, giving it their all.But, as Dr. Katharine Hayhoe says, we have to talk about it. Not just what’s happening, but how we’re dealing with it. How we can recognize it and move forward, for ourselves, together, for the planet, for the people who will come after us.My guest today is Dr. Britt Wray.Britt is the author of the fantastic new book “Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Cri

This week: Wind isn't profitableKids vaccines on the hold upThe kitchen sink answer to food waste, it's metaphors galore todayMenthol cigarettes are all smoked outAmerica's new AI chiefGet 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: Should we mine the ocean?Mask mandates are over, what else?Split up the FDAAlzheimer's trials are very whiteRonan Farrow comes for Pegasus spywareGet 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: Carbon removal: Hope is not a plan. A bajillion dollars might be!COVID and diabetes is the new BenniferWalmart's regenerative farming pledge is about dirtPFAS in food wrappers, not deliciousHow hospitals get cyberattacked, but whyGet 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

TLDR: INI/Membership is here.Today we’re launching the first way for INI readers and listeners to come together, to go deeper, and to unlock a place where you can gain wisdom and organize to make concrete progress towards a cleaner, more equitable world — for everyone.And just in time.Here’s what won’t change: The newsletter and podcast will remain free, forever. Even better: Memberships will not only make sure the newsletter and podcast remain free for everyone across the world, but will also support INI’s growing business along the way. Members on the annual plan can apply to our new Community, and every Member will benefit from:Monthly live AMA’s with Quinn and special guests; plus other eventsExclusive special reports and quarterly updates on INIExclusive first looks at INI-driven investment opportunities across climate tech, health tech, biotech, and moreInvitations to participate in working groups and panelsJoin now to solve problems with other Shit Givers on the frontlines of t

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 countries will follow suit.From November:Roughly two-thirds of voters (64 percent) think that the U.S. should invest in cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable energy sources rather than ramp up fossil fuel production and continue relying on foreign energy exportsFrom March:When asked about changes to infrastructure in light of the IPCC report, an overwhelming majority (81 percent) of voters, said they would support government investments to increase the climate resilience of our buildings, roads, bridges, and other structuresBut here’s the thing, and I think you know this, and it might even be you: lots – lots – of voters who are registered, and even those who do vote in presidential elections – don’t turn out for midterms.Much less for state and

This week: The climate tech gap, explainedFree COVID tests, over (for some)The future of freshwaterMillions of nurses, lostFacebook, unregulated, stillGet 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: The SEC's new climate rule, summarizedJ&J's COVID shot, redeemed?How to protect food workers in the climate agePTSD and ecstasyRussia's lack of cyber warfare, hypothesizedGet 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

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 a pretty clear-cut case where whatever we have done, however complex the system, it’s nowhere near enough.I can’t be more clear here. This will affect you.We’re handing out 21 million shots a day across the world, and yet, 36.8% of the world’s population – 2.9 billion people – still haven’t received a single shot.87% of people in low-income countries still haven’t received a single shot.The international organization that was supposed to shepherd this whole endeavor to vaccinate the world, COVAX, has, however you squeeze it, failed.I want to understand technically what the issues have been, but also as always, to understand why we do what we do when it’s so morally corrupt, when it costs so many lives, and even when all of

This week: ESG's crumblingCOVID on the rise, funding vanishesCalifornia's breadbasket at riskGene therapy pricingYour biometric data for sale, part 73Get 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

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 of North America’s Indigenous peoples, who lived in an entirely different, co-dependent relationship with nature.That is to say, to have had a relationship at all.A relationship with the very same nature of which we’re inextricably part of, of which we rely on for clean air, food, and water – or it’s game over.And now, if we’re not facing game over, we’re certainly up against the final boss.We live on stolen lands that were tended for thousands of years by Indigenous and Native peoples have been dried out by mostly white settlers in what seems like the blink of an eye.Land now covered in cities, in suburbs, in industrialized agriculture, desperately and even controversially conserved as national and state par

This week: Putin's oil, rejectedThe lives we write offWhat "sustainable" really means, or, nothingLead pipes, stillMicrosoft's new cancer botGet 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

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 Terminator movies and only 1/3 of them are any good.Anyways! Re: today’s conversation, we need to design and implement standardized AI ethics regulations across everything AI touches, so, everything, while also asking questions like: what is “ethical”?And who gets to decide? And why do they get to decide? And how are they incentivized to decide, in today’s society? And who provides those incentives? Who gets to regulate all of this? Who elects the regulators? And how do we make sure companies actually implement all of this?These are among the most important questions of our time, because AI touches everything you do. The phone in your hand, your insurance, your mortgage, your flood risk, your wildfire risk, your electronic health record, your face, your ta

This week: The IPCC report, by the numbersBiden's new COVID planWheat (prices) on the riseMental health apps need to meditate on some randomized control trialsPegasus: Not a horse! This timeGet 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