The Most Important Question

In Episode 77, Quinn & Brian discuss: How Colorado can fix this wholllllle thing with one little election.Our guest is Mike Johnston, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Colorado and the first in our series of conversations about the 2020 elections.The 2020 Senate elections are going to be really important because flipping the Senate is one of the only protections we might have from another four years of a Republican President – or, if we want to think a little more optimistically, it will allow a new President to make more significant and impactful changes to policies that affect everyone, everywhere.Colorado is the state where we're most likely to flip a seat, so it’s really going to set the tone for the rest of the 2020 elections.And we like what Mike has done with his political career so far. As a State Senator, he passed major legislation that opened the doors of college to undocumented students, invested in renewable energy, and won a fight with the NRA to pass common sense gun safety. As Mike said when he announced his campaign, “Colorado deserves a U.S. Senator who will run to our hardest problems and show the leadership to pass real progressive policy.”Want to send us feedback? Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message at anchor.fm/important-not-important/message!Trump’s Book Club: Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America by Helen Thorpe: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3Links: Have feedback or questions? Send a message to funtalk@importantnotimportant.com Leave us a voice message: anchor.fm/important-not-important/message Support Mike at https://www.mikejohnstonforcolorado.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikejohnstonco/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MikeJohnstonCO/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeJohnstonCO These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore: https://www.amazon.com/These-Truths-History-United-States/dp/0393635244Connect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com! Check out our Morning Show and other daily bite-size content on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant

In Episode 76, Quinn & Brian discuss: What you don’t see (any more) when you snorkel.Our guest is Dr. Kim Cobb, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology who specializes in climate change, specifically how the extremes of climate change are changing in the ocean due to anthropogenic greenhouse gasses. She describes herself as 40% Climate Scientist, 40% Mom, and 20% Indiana Jones, somehow managing to balance research in remote areas of the world with raising four children. So she’s definitely badass, probably super human.Dr. Cobb, like some of our other guests who are researching the future of climate change impacts, is doing so with increasing urgency and desperation in a valiant effort to help us avoid the worst effects of climate change. As science and Dr. Cobb’s body of work are actively attacked by politicians, policy makers, and the public, she and her colleagues are being forced to stand up and scream that we need different policies, now, to keep our communities clean and safe – and we’re happy to at least offer our roof as another place to shout from.Want to send us feedback? Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message!Trump’s Book Club: Merchants of Doubt by Erik M. Conway and Naomi Oreskes: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3Links: Have feedback or questions? Send a message to funtalk@importantnotimportant.com Leave us a voice message: anchor.fm/important-not-important/message Dr. Cobb’s lab: shadow.eas.gatech.edu/~kcobb Twitter: twitter.com/coralsncaves Citizens’ Climate Lobby: citizensclimatelobby.orgConnect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com! Check out our Morning Show and other daily bite-size content on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant Leave us a voice message: anchor.fm/important-not-important/message Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant Pin us on Pinterest: pinterest.com/ImportantNotImportant Tumble us or whatever the hell you do on Tumblr: importantnotimportant.tumblr.com Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 50, Quinn & Brian discussed: How D.C. and LA are dealing with urban heat issues.  Our guests are Yesim Sayin Taylor and Molly Peterson. Yesim is the founding Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center and Molly is a renowned reporter focusing on the environment and climate change (and our first returning guest!).We all remember when Nelly said, “It’s getting hot in herre,” but not a lot of people remember the whole verse: “It’s getting hot in herre, so take off all your clothes / all of the poor minorities in America are suffering and dying before everybody else / Uh, uh, uh, let it hang all out.” But it’s a shame, really, because if we’d just paid more attention to Nelly’s important message back in 2002, maybe we wouldn’t be facing this problem today.Trump’s Book Club: The Old Man Who Read Love Stories by Luis Sepúlveda Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason StearnsLinks: Learn more at https://www.dcpolicycenter.org Yesim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yesimsy Check out https://pactio.us/host/molly-peterson Molly on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mollydacious Greater Greater Washington: https://ggwash.orgConnect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com! Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant Check us on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp Pin us on Pinterest: pinterest.com/ImportantNotImportant Tumble us or whatever the hell you do on Tumblr: importantnotimportant.tumblr.comImportant, Not Important is produced by Podcast Masters

In Episode 75, Quinn & Brian discuss: Beating the crap out of childhood cancer with science and... zebrafish?We’re getting really nerdy about beating childhood cancer with Dr. Jaclyn Taroni and Dr. Genevieve Kendall. Dr. Kendall is a Postdoctoral scholar at UT Southwestern Medical Center who utilizes zebrafish genetic models to understand how pediatric muscle cancers develop and better identify any therapies we can use to treat it.  Dr. Taroni is a Principal Data Scientist at the Childhood Cancer Data Lab, an initiative of Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, and her job is to help childhood cancer researchers like Dr. Kendall use data to answer some of the most important questions in the field.We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: these badasses are trying to beat kid cancer, so if you don’t care or understand why this is important, you’re a monster.Want to send us feedback? Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message!Trump’s Book Club: Alex and the Amazing Lemonade Stand by Liz Scott, Jay Scott, and Pam Howard & Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3Links: Have feedback or questions? Send a message to funtalk@importantnotimportant.com L.A. Loves Alex's Lemonade 2019: https://www.alexslemonade.org/event/279/register Jaclyn-taroni.com Dr. Taroni on Twitter: twitter.com/jaclyn_taroni Childhood Cancer Data Lab: ccdatalab.org Dr. Kendall on Twitter: twitter.com/genkendall “Zebrafish expose tumor pathway in childhood muscle cancer”: https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2018/zebrafish.htmlConnect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com! Check out our Morning Show and other daily bite-size content on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant Leave us a voice message: anchor.fm/important-not-important/message Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant Pin us on Pinterest: pinterest.com/ImportantNotImportant Tumble us or whatever the hell you do on Tumblr: importantnotimportant.tumblr.com Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

In Episode 74, Quinn & Brian discuss: Making carbon capture suck more (but this time, with carrots).Our guest is Henry Elkus, the frustratingly young and impossibly optimistic founder of Helena, an organization that assembles “some of the world’s most remarkable people to develop and lead projects that help build a better tomorrow.” They’re a little different from other think-tanks, though, because they focus on one problem at a time, creating projects that aim to operationally address a societal problem.The first project Helena focused on was a carbon capture solution – one of the most positive and lucrative possible solutions for addressing the excess carbon in our atmosphere, which has to be done if we want to slow down and possibly reverse climate catastrophe. They helped build and scale the world’s first commercial carbon capture company, Climeworks, creators of the first carbon capture plant that is carbon net-negative.Want to send us feedback? Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message!Trump’s Book Club: On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3Links: Have feedback or questions? Send a message to funtalk@importantnotimportant.com www.helena.org www.climeworks.com Henry on Twitter: www.twitter.com/henryelkus The Elk List: www.instagram.com/elklistConnect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com! Check out our Morning Show and other daily bite-size content on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant Leave us a voice message: anchor.fm/important-not-important/message Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant Pin us on Pinterest: pinterest.com/ImportantNotImportant Tumble us or whatever the hell you do on Tumblr: importantnotimportant.tumblr.com Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

Today’s episode is a rerun of Episode 56, where Quinn & Brian asked: What’s it feel like to be asked to save the world?Our guest is Rhiana Gunn-Wright, who is writing policy and leading the Green New Deal project at New Consensus, which is one of the main think tanks working on the Green New Deal.The Green New Deal is one of the most important pieces of policy being worked on right now, and it could have wide sweeping effects that impact not just our generation but the future for everyone. Conversations around environmental topics tend to get real political real fast, but Rhiana reminds us that this isn’t a political issue – this is not a political game and millions of people will die. Sorry, no joke there, just a stark reality that too many people are happily ignoring.Trump’s Book Club: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3Links: Rhiana Gunn-Wright on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rgunns Rhiana Gunn-Wright on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rgunner New Consensus: https://newconsensus.com/ Green New Deal explainer: bit.ly/2tgm66v  The official GND resolution: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/text Data for Progress GND Report: https://www.dataforprogress.org/green-new-deal Sunrise Movement: https://www.sunrisemovement.orgConnect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com! Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant Check us on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp Pin us on Pinterest: pinterest.com/ImportantNotImportant Tumble us or whatever the hell you do on Tumblr: importantnotimportant.tumblr.com

In Episode 73, Quinn & Brian ask: Hold On A Minute -- Did A.I. Just Take Our Jobs? Of course, we aren’t talking about our jobs. If A.I. took our jobs, the show would have won that Webby. We’re talking about really, really important jobs – like curing cancer and slowing down our climate collapse. But we are talking about people like our guest Dr. Mohammed AlQuraishi, who is a Department Fellow at the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology and the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School.Still, Dr. AlQuraishi is hopeful about the future and his role in it – an attitude so refreshing it’s like stumbling onto a digital oasis in the internet’s hateful and pessimistic desert.Want to send us feedback? Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message!Trump’s Book Club: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3Links: Have feedback or questions? Send a message to funtalk@importantnotimportant.com Leave us a voice message: anchor.fm/important-not-important/message Learn more at https://moalquraishi.wordpress.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/moalquraishi “The Future of Protein Science will not be Supervised”: https://moalquraishi.wordpress.com/2019/04/01/the-future-of-protein-science-will-not-be-supervised/ Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: https://chanzuckerberg.comConnect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com! Check out our Morning Show and other daily bite-size content on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant Leave us a voice message: anchor.fm/important-not-important/message Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant Pin us on Pinterest: pinterest.com/ImportantNotImportant Tumble us or whatever the hell you do on Tumblr: importantnotimportant.tumblr.com Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 72, Quinn & Brian discuss: Monsoons, food, and people.Our guest is Dr. Deepti Singh, an Assistant Professor in the School of the Environment at Washington State University - Vancouver who is motivated by the potential for climate studies to minimize future disaster risk to vulnerable communities around the world.Because here’s the thing: while there are still many people and governments who are still denying the existence and impact of climate change – or our active climate crisis – it’s already having a noticeable and negative impact on our planet and the people who live on it. And this is, perhaps, the most obvious (really, it’s pretty obvious) when we look at what’s happening to already extreme weather phenomenon, such as monsoons.Good news: we also talk about Dr. Singh’s dog!Want to send us feedback? Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message!Trump’s Book Club: Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know by Alexandra Horowitz: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3Links: Have feedback or questions? Send a message to funtalk@importantnotimportant.com Climate Extremes in a Warming World: https://deeptis47.github.io/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/climatechirperConnect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com! Check out our Morning Show and other daily bite-size content on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant Leave us a voice message: anchor.fm/important-not-important/message Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant Pin us on Pinterest: pinterest.com/ImportantNotImportant Tumble us or whatever the hell you do on Tumblr: importantnotimportant.tumblr.com Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comImportant, Not Important is produced by Crate Media

In Episode 71, Quinn & Brian discuss: Why raising the status of girls can help change everything.Our guest is Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, a Vice President at Drawdown, an author, a public speaker, and an expert in just about everything. She’s made a very specific list of all the ways we can and should be fighting climate change and the climate crisis. She even put the list in order for us – and you won’t believe what number six is!So, this episode is pretty much an audio version of a Buzzfeed listicle, except it could literally change everything and save the planet. But you should still share it to Facebook like you would any other Buzzfeed list. That’d be swell.Want to send us feedback? Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message!Trump’s Book Club: Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming by Dr. Katharine Wilkinson: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3Links: Have feedback or questions? Send a message to funtalk@importantnotimportant.com Learn more at https://www.drawdown.org Read “Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming” http://www.drawdown.org/the-book Instagram: https://instagram.com/DrKWilkinson Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrKWilkinson Watch “How empowering women and girls can help stop global warming”: https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_wilkinson_how_empowering_women_and_girls_can_help_stop_global_warming Mothers of Invention: https://www.mothersofinvention.online Malala Fund: https://www.malala.org Girls Opportunity Alliance: https://www.obama.org/girlsopportunityalliance Marie Stopes International: https://mariestopes.org Pathfinder International: https://www.pathfinder.org Planned Parenthood: https://www.plannedparenthood.org Solar Sister: https://solarsister.org We Do: http://wedo.org Root Capital: https://rootcapital.org Room to Read: https://www.roomtoread.org Camfed: https://camfed.org Study Hall Educational Foundation: https://www.studyhallfoundation.org Komera: https://komera.org/ Akilah Institute: https://www.akilahinstitute.org

In Episode 70, Quinn & Brian discuss: When things are broken, when the people who are working on those things are also broken, and why we need to help them. Our guest is Nikki Silvestri, the founder and CEO of Soil and Shadow, a project development firm designing economic and environmental strategies with human left in. As the Co-Founder of Live Real and former Executive Director of People's Grocery and Green for All, Nikki has built and strengthened social equity for underrepresented populations in food systems, social services, public health, climate solutions, and economic development. She is a nationally recognized thought leader and general good doer, including being named as one of The Root's 100 Most Influential African Americans and receiving ELLE Magazine's "Gold" Award and OxFam America's "Act Local, Think Global" Award. We don’t hesitate or feel like we’re overselling things when we say that what Nikki has to say is something that most people need to hear, and this could be a truly transformative message if it falls on the right ears. Brian said it, Quinn took credit for it, and now we hope you take it to heart. Want to send us feedback? Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message! Trump’s Book Club: I Hate You - Don't Leave Me by Hal Straus and Jerold Jay Kreisman: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3 Links: Have feedback or questions? Send a message to funtalk@importantnotimportant.com https://www.soilandshadow.com https://www.nikkisilvestri.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikki_silvestri Connect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com! Check out our Morning Show and other daily bite-size content on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant Leave us a voice message: anchor.fm/important-not-important/message Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant Pin us on Pinterest: pinterest.com/ImportantNotImportant Tumble us or whatever the hell you do on Tumblr: importantnotimportant.tumblr.com Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com