The Most Important Question

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 the future, to support our work, and to improve your decision making for company and family.Link to join: https://newsletter.importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGot questions? Email us at Questions@importantnotimportant.com.

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 local races.Even registered voters who list the environment or climate as their most important issue do the same. Millions of them don’t turn out.Success might not actually be about identifying and focusing on one specific issue, campaign, or candidate. It might come down to how we want to see ourselves, why we wear those little “I Voted” stickers, how we identify, and our behaviors.And that’s what the Environmental Voter Project is all about.My guest today is Nathaniel Stinnett.Nathaniel founded the Environmental Voter Project in 2015 after over a decade of experience as a senior advisor, consultant, and trainer for political campaigns and issue-advocacy nonprofits. Hailed as a "visionary" by The New York Times, and dubbed "The Voting Guru" by Grist magazine, Stinnett is a frequent expert speaker on cutting-edge campaign techniques and the behavioral science behind getting people to vote. Nathaniel has held a variety of senior leadership and campaign manager positions on U.S. Senate, Congressional, state, and mayoral campaigns, and he sits on the Board of Advisors for MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative. And he’s here to help me understand the EVP’s mission and tactics, and how we can help them achieve their goal of turning out more climate-focused voters this year and in the years to come.-----------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 Overstory by Richard PowersFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Follow Nathaniel on TwitterVolunteer with the Environmental Voter Project today!Follow the Environmental Voter Project on TwitterFollow 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 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 the evidence tells us that it will come back to bite us.My guest today is Gayle Smith.Gayle served until recently as Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security at the Department of State and has recently returned to her role as the President and CEO of the ONE Campaign.Prior to the ONE Campaign, Smith was the Administrator of USAID, where she led a staff of more than 10,000 people working to end extreme poverty, foster sustained and inclusive economic growth, and promote resilient, democratic societies all over the world. Smith has also served as Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Development and Democracy at the National Security Council, where she helped lead the U.S. and global response to the Ebola crisis in 2014 and 2015, and as Special Assistant to President Clinton and Senior Director for African affairs at the National Security Council.If anyone can help me understand where the US, in particular, has fallen short of helping to vaccinate the world and get us out of this thing, it’s Gayle.-----------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:Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Follow Gayle on TwitterONE CampaignONE Campaign TwitterFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmettEdited by Anthony LucianiIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comArtwork by Amrit Pal

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 parks.Waters onshore and offshore, full of plastic and fertilizer, once bountiful, now overfished.The receipts are in and it’s not gone well for colonialists’ stewardship over the single habitable ecosystem as far as anyone can tell.New voices are needed, new policies and practices are needed, and perhaps the most compelling ones come from our land’s longest-tenured human inhabitants.And while, yes, I’m focused on actions we can take to build a vastly cleaner and better future for all people, you know I work hard to bring you the necessary context, to understand how we got here, why we got here, to understand the decisions and systems involved – all of which should only make us more effective at taking action.My guest today is Dr. Jessica Hernandez.Dr. Hernandez is an environmental scientist, founder of environmental non-profit Piña Soul, and the author of the new book, “Fresh Banana Leaves”, where she weaves together her family’s relationship with nature, as part of nature, her family’s history of being displaced over and over, through the lens of eco-colonialism, and how Indigenous-led restoration is the way forward.-----------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:Le Maya Q’atzij/Our Maya Word by Dr. Emil’ Keme Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Dr. Jessica Hernandez on TwitterJessica Hernandez websitePiña SoulFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmettEdited by Anthony LucianiIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comArtwork by Amrit Pal

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 taxes, your police record, those Instagram ads for the concerningly comfortable sweatpants, your 401k – – some version of AI, whether it’s the AI we always thought was coming or not – is integrated into every part of your life.My guest in Episode #132 is Abhishek Gupta.Abhiskek is the founder and principal researcher at the Montreal AI Ethics Institute, an international non-profit research institute, with a mission to democratize AI ethics literacy.He works in machine learning and serves on the CSE Responsible AI Board at Microsoft, he works as the Chair of the Standards Working Group at the Green Software Foundation, and is the author of the widely read AI Ethics Brief, and the State of the AI Ethics Reports, the most recent of which just dropped.Abhishek helps me ask better questions every single week and his work is instrumental to helping society build not only more powerful and equitable AI, but one that somehow improves on the most important element of all: us.-----------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:Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Montreal AI Ethics InstituteFollow Abhishek on TwitterGet Volume 6 of the State of AI Ethics Report (PDF)Subscribe to The MarkupFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.comFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImpFollow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmettEdited by Anthony LucianiIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comArtwork by Amrit Pal

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