The Most Important Question
The Most Important Question

The Most Important Question

Important, Not Important

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Episodes

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You already know things are broken. You read the news, you listen to the analysis, you've got the outrage. What you don't have is a plan. The Most Important Question — 6x Webby-nominated, 2x Signal Award-nominated — is a weekly conversation with one person who stopped asking "what can I do?" and went and found out. Not pundits. Not commentators. The scientists, doctors, nurses, journalists, farmers, activists, and policymakers who are doing the actual work on the frontlines of climate, public health, democracy, AI, food, water, medicine, and justice. Host Quinn Emmett goes deep with each of them — the infectious disease doctor building new outbreak surveillance tools, the investigative journalist who traced how forever chemicals got into 97% of our blood, the economist building emergency lifeboats for foreign aid that got axed overnight, one of the greatest writers alive reckoning with the history we were never taught — and every conversation ends with something nobody else gives you: a plan. What you can do. Specifically. This week. However you show up. We don't care if you donate or volunteer or vote or organize or just finally understand what the hell is happening with measles so you can push back at Thanksgiving. We care that you do something. 220+ episodes. 110+ countries. One question: What can I do? New episodes weekly. You're already informed. Let's get to work.

Recent Episodes

Life Under A Microscope
APR 13, 2026
Life Under A Microscope
Since the dawn of recorded history, our living earth has been changed by everyone who spends time on it or in it from the smallest bacteria to the largest animals. But like the brain-gut axis inside of us that we still barely understand, we've really never had the ability to see and document and even begin to ask questions about the smallest among us out in the world. In the soil, in the air, in the mud, and, of course, all the different kinds of water on this very, very watery planet. Until recently. Thankfully, there are scientists and documentarians among us who can see and share and spark joy in a simple tablespoon of water. Who can help so many more of us who don't have access to those things, see and understand what's around us every day. And as the world has changed so much faster than ever before, it is vital we support as much of this work as possible. Just when it is most possible.  My returning guest today is the great Ariel Waldman. Ariel is a National Geographic Explorer, a documentary filmmaker, an Antarctic researcher, a TED main stage speaker, NASA advisor, YouTube host, producer, and an author. Her solo expeditions in science exploration work have earned her global recognition for bridging adventure, storytelling and cutting edge science. I'm so thankful for making all this for coming back on the show today to share news about her wonderful new six part series, Life Unearthed with Ariel Waldman, premiering in April on PBS. ----------- Have feedback? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected] New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com. Find every action recommended in The Most Important Question here: www.whatcanido.earth ----------- INI Book Club: Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club Links: Watch LIFE UNEARTHED with Ariel Waldman on PBS https://www.pbs.org/show/life-unearthed-with-ariel-waldman/ Check out lifeundertheice.org Volunteer for a citizen science project near you https://www.whatcanido.earth/results/?verbs=volunteer&nouns=clean-water,conservation&nounsExclusive=true Donate to The Nature Conservancy https://www.whatcanido.earth/action/the-nature-conservancy/ Find native plants to plant in your yard using Native Plant Finder https://www.whatcanido.earth/action/native-plant-finder/ Follow us: Subscribe to our newsletters at importantnotimportant.com Join us at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade Get our merch! Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmett Produced by Willow Beck Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
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44 MIN
Public Health Just Got Personal
MAR 30, 2026
Public Health Just Got Personal
The CDC issued six health alerts in all of 2025, down from dozens in a normal year, whatever that means anymore. Measles, a disease we basically eliminated 26 years ago, is closing in on 1000 cases, with children hospitalized for brain swelling. And the people now running our top health agencies are the same people who spent years questioning the science those agencies existed to defend.But the good news is people are building new things. States are forming their own health alliances. Scientists are organizing to fight misinformation where it lives. And one epidemiologist in Texas turned a six-week email experiment in March, 2020 into one of the most trusted public health resources on the planet.So what can I do about the collapse of trusted public health communication? Today's guest is Dr. Katelyn Jetelina. Katelyn is an epidemiologist, a mom, a wife, a data scientist, and the founder of the incredibly popular Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter. It is free. She started it from our kitchen table, and it now reaches something like 310,000 subscribers in 130 plus countries. She's one of the Time 100 most influential people in health, former advisor to the White House and the CDC, and she now leads Project Stethoscope as well.We're gonna talk about how Katelyn built YLE, why the old model of top-down public health communication was always broken and is now definitely broken, and what Project Stethoscope and Phoenix are actually doing about it.-----------Have feedback? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected] here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.Find every action recommended in The Most Important Question here: www.whatcanido.earth-----------INI Book Club:All The Shah's Men by Stephen KinzerFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Subscribe to Your Local Epidemiologist https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/Follow us:Subscribe to our newsletters at importantnotimportant.comJoin us at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merch!Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmettProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comAdvertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors Mentioned in this episode:What Can I Do?Get beehiivGet Reader
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47 MIN
Public Health Just Got Personal
MAR 30, 2026
Public Health Just Got Personal
The CDC issued six health alerts in all of 2025, down from dozens in a normal year (whatever that means anymore).  Measles, a disease we basically eliminated 26 years ago, is closing in on 1000 cases, with children hospitalized for brain swelling. And the people now running our top health agencies are the same people who spent years questioning the science those agencies existed to defend. But the good news is people are building new things. States are forming their own health alliances. Scientists are organizing to fight misinformation where it lives. And one epidemiologist in Texas turned a six-week email experiment in March, 2020 into one of the most trusted public health resources on the planet. So what can I do about the collapse of trusted public health communication?  Today's guest is Dr. Katelyn Jetelina.  Katelyn is an epidemiologist, a mom, a wife, a data scientist, and the founder of the incredibly popular and free Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter.  She started it from her kitchen table, and it now reaches something like 310,000 subscribers in 130 plus countries. She's one of the Time 100 most influential people in health, former advisor to the White House and the CDC, and she now leads Project Stethoscope as well. We talk about how Katelyn built YLE, why the old model of top down public health communication was always broken and is now definitely broken, and what Project Stethoscope and Phoenix are actually doing about it. ----------- Have feedback? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected] New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com. Find every action recommended in The Most Important Question here: www.whatcanido.earth ----------- INI Book Club: All The Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club Links: Subscribe to Your Local Epidemiologist https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/ Follow us: Subscribe to our newsletters at importantnotimportant.com Join us at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade Get our merch! Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmett Produced by Willow Beck Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors 
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42 MIN
Not Right Now: Coloring Pages of Karl Marx
MAR 23, 2026
Not Right Now: Coloring Pages of Karl Marx
This week, we're dropping an episode from our other show, Not Right Now, in the feed, where Quinn and Claire have community organizer and dad, Garrett Bucks, on the show to chat about parenting, of course, but also how he answered the most important question by building community locally and across the nation, and how you can make it easier for parents (and kids, why not) to engage civically as well. Garrett runs The Barnraisers Project, writes The White Pages newsletter, and is the author of the memoir The Right Kind of White. He also has a son who is very mad that his sister thinks they live in a suburb. The gang gets into why your son talks differently to his sister than to his friends, kids not knowing what the Epstein files are, growing up in rural Montana, how to get work done in between school drop off and soccer practice, and why protests are important AND performative AND boring and worth doing anyway, and how to actually get your kids to come. ----------- Have feedback? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected] New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com. Find every action recommended in The Most Important Question here: www.whatcanido.earth ----------- INI Book Club: Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club Links: Get all of our Not Right Now episodes at notrightnow.show Find Garrett's work at garretbucks.com Subscribe to The White Pages at thewhitepages.net Check out The Barnraisers Project at barnraisersproject.org Read Garrett's memoir, The Right Kind of White https://bookshop.org/a/8952/9781982197209 Join The Interdependence Relay at jointherelay.org Follow us: Subscribe to our newsletters at importantnotimportant.com Join us at importantnotimportant.com/upgrade Get our merch! Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportant Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmett Produced by Willow Beck Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com Advertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
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72 MIN
Not Right Now: Coloring Pages of Karl Marx
MAR 23, 2026
Not Right Now: Coloring Pages of Karl Marx
This week, we're dropping an episode from our other show, Not Right Now, in the feed, where Quinn and Claire have community organizer and dad, Garrett Bucks, on the show to chat about parenting, of course, but also how he answered the most important question by building community locally and across the nation, and how you can make it easier for parents (and kids, why not) to engage civically as well.Garrett runs The Barnraisers Project, writes The White Pages newsletter, and is the author of the memoir The Right Kind of White. He also has a son who is very mad that his sister thinks they live in a suburb.The gang gets into why your son talks differently to his sister than to his friends, kids not knowing what the Epstein files are, growing up in rural Montana, how to get work done in between school drop off and soccer practice, and why protests are important AND performative AND boring and worth doing anyway, and how to actually get your kids to come.-----------Have feedback? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected] here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.Find every action recommended in The Most Important Question here: www.whatcanido.earth-----------INI Book Club:Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Get all of our Not Right Now episodes at notrightnow.showFind Garrett's work at garretbucks.comSubscribe to The White Pages at thewhitepages.netCheck out The Barnraisers Project at barnraisersproject.orgRead Garrett's memoir, The Right Kind of White https://bookshop.org/a/8952/9781982197209Join The Interdependence Relay at jointherelay.orgFollow us:Subscribe to our newsletters at importantnotimportant.comJoin us at importantnotimportant.com/upgradeGet our merch!Follow us on Threads: www.threads.net/@importantnotimportantSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow Quinn: on Twitter - twitter.com/quinnemmett; Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/quinnemmett.bsky.social; Threads - www.threads.net/@quinnemmettProduced by Willow BeckIntro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.comAdvertise with us: importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
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72 MIN