Important, Not Important

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 is Meredith Broussard.

Meredith is a data journalist and associate professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University, Research Director at the NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology and the author of several books I loved, including More Than ...

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 Professor of natural resource economics at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Before entering academia, she conducted policy-relevant economic research for the U.S. federal government for nearly a decade, most recently at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fis...

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 where HBO HBO Max Max and Spotify and everyone else raise prices once a month, it’s a great question:

Our newsletter is free — why the hell do we make you click through to something that costs money?

Here's What You Can Do:

• Donate to ...

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.

Jacqui is the Founder and Executive Director of the Chisholm Legacy Project, which helps connect Black communities that are being disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis with the resources they need to create systemic change across connected challenges.

Jacqui was rece...

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 Stone.

Maddie is a prolific science journalist. She is a doctor of earth and environmental sciences. She's the former science editor of the technology website Gizmodo, which I love, and the founding editor of Earther, Gizmodo's climate focused vertical, which I love.

Maddie has e...

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 African farmers by increasing incomes and improving food security through the Alliance for a Green Africa.
• 🌎️ Volunteer to join the Coffee & Climate Network, an organization that connects stakeholders in coffee farming to crea...

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?

That's today's big question and my guest is Dr. Mikki Tal, an immunoengineer and a principal scientist at MIT.

Dr. Tal leads the Tal Research Group within the Department of Biological Engineering, and also serves as the Associate Scientific Director of the Center for Gynepathol...

This week:

This week I wrote about a groundbreaking and essential new study that — thank christ — is not actually about which seemingly reasonable dietary supplement will definitely extend/tragically cut short your life.

It’s about 🍿 film, and after you’re done reading, I’d love it if you replied to this email with some favorite movies that moved the needle for you in some way. We’ll share the list with...

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 Project HOPE to support frontline teams working to strengthen healthcare systems and respond to crises globally.
• 🌎️ Volunteer to share your climate solutions work with the Global Solutions Diary from Project Drawdown and...

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 Griffis, editors and co-founders of The Sick Times, a journalist-founded website chronicling the Long COVID crisis.

The Sick Times investigates injustices, challenges powerful institutions, wades through the latest research, assesses COVID-19 data, and offers an essential platform ...

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 reporting on gender and politics.
• Volunteer with Tech Shift to build a fairer, more just technological future.
• 🌏️ Get educated about the powerful institutions using technology to change society through the invaluable reportin...

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 today?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Amber Wutich.

Dr. Wutich is an ASU President's Professor, Director of the Center for Global Health, and 2023 MacArthur Fellow.

She's an expert on water insecurity, and directs the Global Ethnohydrology Study, a cross cultur...

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 COVID pisses me off so much, examples of other self-defeating issues we never learned from, and a blueprint for how to do better, better.

Here's What You Can Do:

• 🌎️ Donate to Partners in Health to ensure that everyone, everywhere has acce...

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 depression works or doesn't work and whether the gut is involved in getting meaningful help?

That's today's big question. I promise it's kind of one question, even if there are a ton of different answers, and they're going to be different for everybody.

This conversation is a follow-...

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. Over time, spread over a large number of donors.

But all the work before that is kind of exhausting: you’ve gotta make sure your donation goes to the right place, the right organization, the right people — usually the ones closest to the problem — with the most pragmat...

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 today's big (loaded) question, and my returning guest is Akshat Rathi.

Akshat is a London-based senior reporter, newsletter writer, and podcaster for Bloomberg News.

Akshat has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a BTech in Chemical Engineering from th...

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 fuel-free world.
• Volunteer with your local Mothers Out Front chapter to fight for a world that protects kids.
• Get educated about building a clean energy company using the videos, exercises, and curriculum in Third Derivati...

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 question, and my returning guest is Amanda Litman.

Amanda is one of my favorite people. She is the co-founder and co-executive director of Run for Something, which recruits and supports young, diverse progressives running for down-ballot office, state, and local, and all those fun le...

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 tradeoffs or gently suggest expanding the scope of our moral concern to include other people’s air, water, food, shelter, and health, instead of simply saying some things — like the lives of children — are simply, emphatically, non-negotiable.

Here's What You Can Do:...