The Most Important Question
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The Most Important Question
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...
Episódios recentes
903 episódios
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 lar...
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 basicall...
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 elim...
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...
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...
Public Health In A Post-Evidence World
Just because we're done caring about an outbreak doesn't mean the outbreak is done with us. Over the last year, we have watched something unsettling h...
Public Health In A Post-Evidence World
Just because we're done caring about an outbreak doesn't mean the outbreak is done with us.
Over the last year, we have watched something unsett...
The Plastic Crisis Isn't On You, Actually
Plastic. It is the miracle material that has quietly become the infrastructure of modern life over the past 63 years and the almost undefeated busines...
The Plastic Crisis Isn't On You, Actually
Plastic. It is the miracle material that has quietly become the infrastructure of modern life over the past 63 years and the almost undefeated busines...
What's The Purpose of Your Wealth?
If our mission is to help people, everyone, answer the most important question, what can I do? Then at some point we need to talk to the people who he...
What's The Purpose of Your Wealth?
If our mission is to help people, everyone, answer the most important question, what can I do? Then at some point we need to talk to the people who he...
We need your help
Hi! It's Quinn. We have huge plans for 2026, and we need your help. So we're running the biggest discount on an Important Membership that we've ever r...
The biggest discount we'll ever run
Hi! It's Quinn. We have huge plans for 2026, and we need your help.
So we're running the biggest discount on an Important Membership that we've...
Pods Fight Poverty: What Really Happens When You Just Give People Money?
Hey friends, I want to talk about something big. Change the actual world big, because the world won't unfuck itself, as we all know.
We are jo...
Pods Fight Poverty: What Really Happens When You Just Give People Money?
Hey friends, I want to talk about something big. Change the actual world big, because the world won't unfuck itself, as we all know. We are joining po...
Let's Talk About Menopause
What if talking about menopause out loud was as normal as talking about sports scores or school pickup?
Imagine it in movie plots, in your grou...
Let's Talk About Menopause
What if talking about menopause out loud was as normal as talking about sports scores or school pickup? Imagine it in movie plots, in your group chat,...
The American Revolution's Unfinished Promise
If the American Revolution was, as Ken Burns put it, the biggest event since the birth of Christ, then there's probably never been a better time to ex...
The American Revolution's Unfinished Promise
If the American Revolution was, as Ken Burns put it, the biggest event since the birth of Christ, then there's probably never been a better time to ex...
History vs Nostalgia
I've recorded hundreds of conversations with incredible people working on the front lines of the future. People who've asked the most important questi...
History Is A Story We're Told
I've recorded hundreds of conversations with incredible people working on the front lines of the future. People who've asked the most important questi...
Running for Water (Because Shutoffs Are Immoral)
Chronically parched is not something anyone in this country or anywhere should ever have to feel, but here we are.
So how are towns and states...
Running for Water (Because Shutoffs Are Immoral)
Chronically parched is not something anyone in this country or anywhere should ever have to feel, but here we are. So how are towns and states making...
Running for School Meals (Because Learning Requires Eating)
I think we can all agree that kids shouldn't go hungry ever really, but especially at school. You might feel right now like you are giving it everythi...
Running on School Meals (Because Learning Requires Eating)
I think we can all agree that kids shouldn't go hungry ever really, but especially at school.
You might feel right now like you are giving it e...
Running for Gun Control (In The Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens)
Maybe you feel like you're already giving it all you've got. You look around, and things are tough out there. You, our listeners and readers and viewe...
Running for Gun Control (In The Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens)
Maybe you feel like you're already giving it all you've got. You look around, and things are tough out there. You, our listeners and readers and viewe...
Running for Transit (Because Your Commute Doesn't Have to Suck)
Things are a little tough out there. So you, want, no need, more examples of fight and progress you can actually see and touch and feel. And in these...
Running for Transit (Because Your Commute Doesn't Have to Suck)
Things are a little tough out there. So you, want, no need, more examples of fight and progress you can actually see and touch and feel. And in these...
Running for Housing (Because Someone Has To)
In a moment when the news out of Washington can seem untenably rough, when the gerontocracy that got us here won't give up their hold on power, when b...
Running for Housing (Because Someone Has To)
In a moment when the news out of Washington can seem untenably rough, when the gerontocracy that got us here won't give up their hold on power, when b...
(Re)Introducing The Science of Fiction
This week we're rerunning our 2024 episode with Maddie Stone, writer of The Science of Fiction blog, to celebrate the fact that Maddie has joined our...
(Re)Introducing The Science of Fiction
This week we're rerunning our 2024 episode with Maddie Stone, writer of The Science of Fiction blog, to celebrate the fact that Maddie has joined our...
The Answer is Always Run for Something
Turns out it's our 200th episode. It has been a journey.
The show is now called The Most Important Question, and I can't think of a better answe...
The Answer is Always Run for Something
Turns out it's our 200th episode. It has been a journey. The show is now called The Most Important Question, and I can't think of a better answer than...
Making Your Climate Dollars Count When Government Won't
Congress just jammed the brakes on America's clean energy boom, however short-lived it may have been.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed...
Making Your Climate Dollars Count When Government Won't
Congress just jammed the brakes on America's clean energy boom, however short-lived it may have been. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into l...
When Foreign Aid Gets Zeroed Out Overnight
Imagine waking up to discover that the United States has just pulled $35 billion out of foreign aid overnight, and that hundreds of HIV clinics, and c...
When Foreign Aid Gets Zeroed Out Overnight
Imagine waking up to discover that the United States has just pulled $35 billion out of foreign aid overnight, and that hundreds of HIV clinics, and c...
Taking Care of Business (Sustainably)
Toilet paper. You use it. I use it. Sometimes, even my children use it. The point is, toilet paper is everywhere.
Almost everyone needs it, and...