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The Most Important Question
The most important question in today's world of climate chaos, AI psychosis, and crumbling democracy is: what can I do? Your host, Quinn Emmett is completely unqualified to answer it, so he's calling the people that already are. If you've got the news, the analysis, the outrage, but still no plan — join us as we figure it out together with long-form conversations with amazing people working on the frontlines, and quick updates responding to today's most important headlines, and what you can do…
Episodes
The Most Important QuestionMaking Your Climate Dollars Count When Government Won't
Congress just jammed the brakes on America's clean energy boom, however short-lived it may have been. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law after…
The Most Important QuestionWhen Foreign Aid Gets Zeroed Out Overnight
Imagine waking up to discover that the United States has just pulled $35 billion out of foreign aid overnight, and that hundreds of HIV clinics, and child…
The Most Important QuestionTaking Care of Business (Sustainably)
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…
The Most Important QuestionWe Live In A World of Trees
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…
The Most Important QuestionClimate Solutions That Make Everything Better
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…
The Most Important QuestionHow Saving Salamanders Could Save Us All
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…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: What's in a name?
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…
The Most Important QuestionChanging the Abortion Conversation
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?…
The Most Important QuestionTable To Farm
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 Most Important QuestionHistory's "Viral" Lessons We Keep Ignoring
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…
The Most Important QuestionYou Might Also Like: The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women
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 Most Important QuestionEssay: Give A Little
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…
The Most Important QuestionDon't Move The Goalposts
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…
The Most Important QuestionGoing Quietly Is Not An Option
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…
The Most Important QuestionNo Country for Poor Men (or Women)
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…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: The Story of Not Right Now
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…
The Most Important QuestionPush Them Down
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…
The Most Important QuestionIntroducing: Not Right Now
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…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: Have Mercy
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…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: Build Something Useful
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…
The Most Important QuestionWe Need To Talk About Bird Flu
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…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
This week: Be prepared — because these fires that are still burning are only the beginning. Start somewhere, start right in front of you, do what you can…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: About 2025
This week: It’s been a minute. Thanks for your patience. Please check out my 2025 preview, and if you’d be so kind, share it widely. Here's What You Can Do…
The Most Important QuestionBridging Misinformation Gaps with Local Journalism
What's the missing link in local journalism? That's today's big question, and my guest is Lyndsey Gilpin. Lyndsey is the Senior Manager of Community Engagement…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: Only 86,000 To Go. You in?
This week: This entire (short!) episode is a call to action. It's time to do this thing...do the thing, but also take care of yourselves and your loved ones…
The Most Important QuestionThinking In Systems To Save An Indivisible World
Is multisolving the future? Is it today? Should we do more? That's all today's big question and my guest is Dr. Elizabeth Sawin. Dr. Sawin is the Founder and…
The Most Important QuestionPoverty Is A Policy Choice
How do we make it easier for more Americans to reliably put food (in particular, hot food) on the table? That's today’s big question, and my guest is Salaam…
The Most Important QuestionBest of: Check Your Insurance Policy
We first ran this episode in May 2023, but following back-to-back hurricanes in Florida this month, it remains as relevant as ever. You've got insurance…
The Most Important QuestionBest of: 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…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: Why We Made An App
This week: You’d think that -- considering we just spent two years building our new What Can I Do? app -- that I’d have a really good answer for why we were…
The Most Important QuestionIntroducing: What Can I Do?
It’s another big day in a very big month for us. Our extremely tiny team has been busting our asses for almost two years to bring you something fucking…
The Most Important QuestionFinding Joy In Climate Solutions
What if we get it right? That's today's big question, and my returning guest is Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist…
The Most Important QuestionBest of: A Conversation With A Future President of the United States
In this throwback episode from October 2020, Quinn & Brian discuss: Why state elections matter not just for your state but for the future of our planet. Our…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: How to Eat More Plants (And Less Beef)
This week: Next up in our series of “How to Eat More Plants”. Today’s topic? Beef! Here's What You Can Do: Read the essay and get the links online here Donate…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: The Sun Machines Cometh
This week: Please enjoy this hopeful ditty on how we have finally harnessed the sun ☀️ — and how we’re just getting started. Here's What You Can Do: Donate to…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: How To Eat More Plants
This week: Today’s post is more of a macro introduction to the why and how of the “eat more plants (and consequently) fewer animals” lifestyle. Deep-dives on…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: The Turn of the Tide
This week: We're running an updated version of a popular essay from last year. Tolkien described life (and often, his stories) as a "long defeat", where evil…
The Most Important QuestionEverything Is Connected (No, Seriously)
How did our planet come to life? Is it alive? And where are we as part of that? Those are today's big questions and my guest is Ferris Jabr. His new book…
The Most Important QuestionAI Ethics Not Found
When is a cancer scare, a rejected mortgage loan, a false arrest, or predictive grading, more than a glitch in A.I.? That's today's big question, and my guest…
The Most Important QuestionHouston, We Have An Overfishing Problem
How do we stop overfishing if we don't know who's doing the fishing? That's today's big question, and my guest is Jennifer Raynor. Jennifer is an Assistant…
The Most Important Question🌎 Essay: A Leading Question
This week: We are occasionally asked why we link to scientific journals, news outlets, and sometimes even opinion pieces that are behind paywalls. In a world…
The Most Important QuestionBring A Folding Chair
How do we tackle huge systemic intersectional environmental justice issues at the local level? That's today's big question, and my guest is Jacqui Patterson…
The Most Important QuestionThe Science of Fiction
Why is it so important that we share the science of fiction, and what do we do with it once we have it? That's today's big question, and my guest is Maddie…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: In Bruges
This week: Do you like cookies? What about olive oil cake? What about chocolate chip coffee cake? Listen on. Here's What You Can Do: 🌍️ Donate to support…
The Most Important QuestionChronic Illness: Not Actually Female Hysteria!
How do we take a huge chronic disease burden like Lyme disease or long COVID or even long flu and make it so personal that we simply can't ignore it anymore?…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: How to get more Good Energy
This week: This week I wrote about a groundbreaking and essential new study that — thank christ — is not actually about which seemingly reasonable dietary…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: Bridget Jones, Climate Hero
This week: In this essay, I will argue that Bridget Jones is the perfect climate-era hero, because she is all of us. Here's What You Can Do: 🌍️ Donate to…
The Most Important QuestionKeeping Long COVID In The News
Who is still covering Long COVID, and how much is the audience actually growing? That's today's big question, and my guests are Betsy Ladygetz and Miles…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: Program The World
This week: Let’s talk about the Information Era. Here's What You Can Do: Donate (and subscribe!) to the 19th, an independent, non-profit, kick-ass newsroom…
The Most Important QuestionThe Social Infrastructure of Water
What have we learned from millennia of water insecurity, of climate changes and disasters, of building along freshwater ways and the ocean, that we can apply…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: The Aftermath
This week: Bernie decided March 15th is Long COVID Awareness Day, so I thought it was an appropriate moment to try to pull together the threads of why Long…
The Most Important QuestionThe Best Depression Treatment For You
You know you're stressed. You know you're anxious. Do you have depression? And do you need to know the latest in the biology of how the brain works and…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: How To Give
This week: There are few problems so simple that a single donation can fix them. Usually, to turn a problem into a realistic opportunity takes many donations…
The Most Important QuestionCan Capitalism (Justly) Solve the Climate Crisis?
The climate clock is ticking faster and faster. How can we use capitalism to undo the bad stuff that capitalism did and maybe even make things better? That's…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: How to See The Forest
This week: Are we in the hardest part of the climate transition? Here's What You Can Do: 🌎️ Donate to 350.org, a global movement working towards a fossil…
The Most Important QuestionSaving Democracy From The Bottom Up
What are reverse coattails, and how might they slow climate change, prevent the next pandemic, and keep Nazis off of school boards? That's today's big…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round
This week: How are we supposed to navigate this energy transition, AI, and pandemics, if we cannot agree on the most basic, fundamental shit? We argue about…
The Most Important QuestionEssay: If This, Then What Else?
This week: Today’s essay is a bit of a departure — I just wanted to make super clear where I stand vis a vis the next eleven months. A MAGA party don't stop…
The Most Important Question2024: The Gaps and How to Close Them
This week: Today’s essay is my version of a 2024 preview. Unlike other previews, though, it’s less, “This is what is going to happen” and more “These are the…
The Most Important Question2023 Review: What Just Happened?
This week: I’m back today to share my 2023 wrap-up. It’s a pretty stream-of-consciousness endeavor, but I think it sums up where I was right in my 2023…