The Most Important Question

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 yet again on a global scale, and unlike the dinos, our future is of our own making.Things can change quickly, and we need to understand how that’s happened before.My guest today is Riley Black.Riley is a science writer and amateur paleontologist based in Salt Lake City, Utah, right in the center of dinosaur country, where she chases tales of vanished lives from museum collections to remote badlands.Riley’s published books include Written in Stone, my favorite and critically-acclaimed My Beloved Brontosaurus, When Dinosaurs Ruled, Prehistoric Predators, and her newest: The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, a fascinating, emotional page-turner that explores the minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, and centuries after the dinosaurs were wiped out by the Chicxulub asteroid 66 million years ago.Riley’s journey and storytelling are powerful and so important in this moment when we’re so ready to move on to the next thing that we haven’t taken the time to cherish the people, the places, the world around us, and how lucky we are to have them.-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------INI Book Club:Why Won't You Apologize? by Harriet LernerThe Last Days of the Dinosaurs by Riley BlackMy Beloved Brontosaurus by Riley BlackFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Follow Riley on TwitterFind more of Riley's work on her websiteFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmettEdited by Anthony LucianiProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comArtwork by Amrit Pal

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 facts on the ground:Because of a huge, overlapping variety of societal and institutional failures, our bodies and health system, however immunized, are under assault from an increasingly wide variety of subvariants of our own making.We have chosen not to vaccinate the world, and at home, we have almost completely let our guard down, relying on a population whose existing vaccines are becoming less potent every day and who are reluctant to get any additional new ones, no matter how capable.Today I want to elaborate on these factors, and help you understand where I think we are, where we might be going, and why, and what we can do about it. While historically our “numbers” remain low (and that’s great!), there’s a very good chance the variants keep evolving to feature better immunity evasiveness, leaving our current vaccines markedly more ineffective and our population exposed again.Again, a caveat: I might be very, very wrong, and I hope I am. But I don’t think I am.-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------Links:Read the full piece, including references cited hereFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmettEdited by Anthony LucianiProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comArtwork by Amrit Pal

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 – we’ve evolved in this way, to constantly be scanning, like anxiety has a purpose to keep us alive, but it’s overworked and overclocked and spread too thin.And so is our attention.My guest today is Johann Hari.Johann is the author of three New York Times best-selling books. His TED talks have been viewed more than 80 million times. The first is named ‘Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong.’ The second is entitled ‘This Could Be Why You Are Depressed or Anxious’. Johann is the author of the new book “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention, and How to Think Deeply Again”His work here and this conversation can go a long way towards helping you be more effective, not only at home and in your job, but at giving a shit, understanding why you give a shit, and how to most effectively put that mission to use. -----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------INI Book Club:The Anatomy of a Moment by Javier CercasThe Apology by Eve EnslerFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Read Johann's book, "Stolen Focus"Follow Johann on TwitterDiscover more of Johann's workFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmettEdited by Anthony LucianiProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comArtwork by Amrit Pal

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 both — they’re 3-4x higher. Last year I had Representative Lauren Underwood of Illinois on the show to talk about the heartbreaking reason maternal health means so much to her, about her incredible Momnibus Act, about how and why we treat moms the way we do in this country, and what the hell we can all do about it.I learned so much from Lauren, and we got an overwhelming response from folks inside and outside the system who are fighting for better care every day, and folks who truly didn’t understand the scope of how dangerous it is to have a baby in America.Lauren is an inspiration and a leader and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate conversation to replay this week in light of what’s happening.-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------INI Book Club:https://bookshop.org/shop/importantnotimportantLinks:underwood.house.govTwitter: @RepUnderwoodBlack Maternal Health Momnibus ActFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmettEdited by Anthony LucianiProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comArtwork by Amrit Pal