If the name Actually Pro Life is deliberate, then so is the logo. Because like I said in our intro post, we’re reclaiming "pro-life" from the same people who blame kindergartners for getting shot at school, and we’re grounding it in evidence. Evidence like, “Does this action make it measurably less likely or more likely that kindergartners will get shot at school?” Any action can only go one way, and we only go one way, and you can go our way, or 🎵 you can go your own way 🎶, in which case — go...
May 18, 2026•14 min
250 years after a group of slaveowners wrote that "all men are created equal", we're done letting hypocrites own the language of life. Introducing Actually Pro Life: a reframe, a research platform, and a direct challenge to anyone willing to be held accountable to what they claim to believe. This is the foundation that unites everyone you actually gives a sh*t: No life is worth more than another. That foundation comes with eight non-negotiable Principles, six Guardrails, and 160+ measurable Posi...
May 12, 2026•14 min
Last Christmas we teamed up with about 40 other big podcasts to support our dear friends at Give Directly with a very special campaign called Pods Fight Poverty . The goal was to raise $1 million to send to families in extreme poverty in Bwakira, Rwanda . Today, I want to share some of those results with you, and some of those stories from the folks you helped. But first, a reminder, some context in Bwakira, most people are farmers, but they don't own large enough plots to grow enough food, and ...
May 04, 2026•9 min
Your kids are hearing about the news whether you are ready or they're ready or not. One study said two-thirds of kids aged 8 to 14 are absorbing current events at least every few days, and almost none of it was made for them. They're getting the fear without the context, the headlines without any nuance, and the algorithms without any sort of filter, and in a country arguing over whether to teach history or ban books. The question of who helps kids make sense of the world has never been more nec...
Apr 27, 2026•52 min•Ep. 215
Whoever said this country can't come together about anything anymore in the year of our Lord twenty twenty-six was wrong because PFAS, or forever chemicals, are in the blood of ninety-seven percent of Americans right now. They're in our water, our cookware, our food packaging, children, pets. The companies that made them knew they were toxic as early as the 1960s, and the federal government is trying to roll back the drinking water protections we've had for them for about a year, but they're not...
Apr 20, 2026•46 min•Ep. 214
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 rec...
Apr 13, 2026•44 min•Ep. 213
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. Scientis...
Mar 30, 2026•43 min•Ep. 212
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 t...
Mar 23, 2026•1 hr 12 min
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 happen in plain sight. The quiet, active dismantling of the systems built to catch outbreaks early, coordinate a response, and keep hospitals and communities from getting overwhelmed. Websites have been scrubbed, teams have been hollowed out. Early warning signals have gone silent, and at the exact same time, diseases that many of us haven't thought...
Mar 16, 2026•52 min•Ep. 211
Plastic. It is the miracle material that has quietly become the infrastructure of modern life over the past 63 years and the almost undefeated business model that's continuing climate change and keeping fossil fuel companies alive and reshaping our bodies, our oceans, and our politics. Yeah, plastic keeps food fresh and hospitals running, and cars and planes lighter, and it's also in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the supply chains that keep churning out more of it while they tell u...
Mar 09, 2026•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 210
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 help really wealthy people, help people. So today's question, what can I do about high net worth philanthropy? And look, hey, maybe you're among the vast majority who just heard that and you're like, well, this one doesn't apply to me, but hear me out. We have some of the worst billionaires of all time, but if billionaires are gonna continue to exist...
Jan 19, 2026•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 209
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 run, and will ever run, probably. Right now it's $30/year. On January 1st, it'll be $50/year, and it's never going back. So right now you can go to ImportantMembership.com and lock in $30/year forever , and we'll all be in a better place. You even get a free 30 day trial. Huzzah. Here's a fun fact: 95% of people who joined are still Members. That's ...
Dec 22, 2025•3 min
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 podcasts across the planet for Pods Fight Poverty , a campaign directly supporting our good friends at Give Directly . Now, if you've been with us since episode 116 , which feels like a thousand years ago, you'll remember when we asked one of the most deceptively simple, world altering questions ever. Why is just giving people money the most effectiv...
Dec 15, 2025•1 hr 24 min
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, at the clinic, and on the campaign trail because when we name what's happening in our bodies, three things can follow: better care, better research, and better policy. Normalizing the conversation around something that's gonna happen to half the population isn't oversharing. It's infrastructure. This is how we're gonna get appointments that move t...
Dec 01, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 208
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 explore and drastically expand on why it happened, who was involved, and what it set us up for than right now. My guest today again is David Schmidt. David is the producer and co-director, along with Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein , of American Revolution , a six-part, 12-hour series premiering on PBS this November. David is a childhood friend, but two...
Nov 24, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 207
I've recorded hundreds of conversations with incredible people working on the front lines of the future. People who've asked the most important question: what can I do? Who found their answer and followed it. But for today's conversation, we're going back to the front lines of the past because the past can tell us a whole hell of a lot about today and how tomorrow might go. But only if we tell the full story of how we got here, about who got us here, about how my great-great-grandparents got her...
Nov 17, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 206
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 clean water more affordable, reliable, and less controversial? 'cause remember, it's fucking water. Look, you might feel like you're giving it all you got but when you look around things are a little dark out there. So you, our listeners and readers and viewers and users, whatever, across the world, want and demand more examples of fight and progre...
Nov 03, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 205
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 everything you got, but when you look around, things feel kind of dark out there. So you, our listeners and readers and viewers across the country and across the world want, demand, need more examples of fight and real progress you can actually see and touch and feel and taste. And in these conversations, in partnership with our best friends at Run For Som...
Oct 31, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 204
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 viewers and users across the country and across the world, you're demanding more examples of fight and progress you can actually see and touch and feel, and in these conversations, in this series, in partnership with our very best friends at Run For Something, we're gonna give you exactly what you asked for. Each of these episodes features two guests, b...
Oct 30, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 203
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 series of conversations, in partnership with our best friends at Run for Something, we are giving you exactly what you asked for. Each episode features two guests, both sourced from the Run for Something pipeline and graduating classes, the next generation of American leaders. First, I'll introduce one young elected official at the state or local l...
Oct 24, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 202
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 billionaires own every single media channel, when everything from housing to childcare to elderly care and healthcare have been made unaffordable, if accessible at all, and the question, what can I do? Can feel more fruitless than ever, I come bearing good news. Look to the young people. Look to our school boards, our cities, and in many cases to ou...
Oct 20, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 201
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 team and The Science of Fiction now lives at Important, Not Important. The Science of Fiction explores the real-world science behind fictional monsters and alien planets, and stuff like that. Quinn and Maddie get into the reasons why The Science of Fiction was a perfect fit for Important, Not Important , and then we get into their conversation fro...
Oct 06, 2025•1 hr 19 min
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 just fucking run for something. What can I do about anything? Run for something. And so obviously the best guest to answer that question, is returning guest, Amanda Litman . If you are new here, she is the co-founder and president of Run For Something, which recruits and supports young, diverse progressives running for down-ballot office, state an...
Aug 18, 2025•48 min•Ep. 200
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 law after a lot of debate in the House and the Senate and in public. It will wipe out most of the wind, solar, and EV tax credits. It's directing agencies to unwind renewable energy support, much less the mass electrification we need to do. These are changes the industry warns could kill new projects and spike electricity costs for homeowners and re...
Jul 21, 2025•54 min•Ep. 199
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 child malnutrition programs, and poverty graduation trials will shut their doors within days and weeks. Now imagine there's a rapid response team quietly sifting through every single grant, ranking them by lives saved per dollar and building lifeboat bridge grants before the lights go out. That team exists. It's called Project Resource Optimization ...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 198
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 so much of it still comes from actual forests, and yet 2 billion people don't have access to even basic sanitation, much less readily available and recycled toilet paper. That's about 40% of the global population . 289,000 children under five die every year from diarrheal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. That's almost 800 children per day , ...
Jun 16, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 197
You've heard people say it. It shouldn't have been called Earth. It should have been called Ocean, but it is simultaneously a planet of trees . As Richard Powers put it in The Overstory : We live in a world of trees. Once something like 6 trillion trees, and humanity are the late arrivals. So how do we reconnect with trees to stop using them for toilet paper? How do we learn more about why they're suffering and in some unexpected places surviving to know them, to care for them, and maybe even kn...
Jun 09, 2025•53 min•Ep. 196
Picture a city that beats brutal heat waves with cool tree-lined streets, slashes household energy bills, and cuts carbon pollution by as much as 80%, without waiting for these miracle technologies. That future-positive vision is already taking shape in fast-growing places like Ahmedabad, India, where community-designed cooling plans and demand-side innovations are proving that climate action can double as a public health and equity upgrade. It's co-benefits. You've heard it a thousand times. We...
May 26, 2025•58 min•Ep. 195
In every flood scarred bend of an Appalachian river sits a chance to rebuild something stronger, cleaner water for people, and room for a 160 million-year salamander to thrive again. Hurricane-shaped chaos is unveiling a surprising truth when we restore stream banks, fund green storm water projects, and protect keystone species like the Eastern Hellbender, we don't just rescue wildlife, we buffer towns and farms and drinking water intakes against the next big storm. The same fixes that help a sn...
May 19, 2025•57 min•Ep. 194
This week: There are a million legitimate reasons why standing up to bullies may require a pseudonym (and a cowl), or even anonymity. As has been clear for centuries, and even more so in this moment of inescapable mass surveillance, some of us — by nature of our birth nation, skin color, ethnicity, sex, gender, religious beliefs, and/or who we love — are in far more clear and present danger than someone like me. And yet — millions of people over decades and centuries have stood in broad daylight...
May 12, 2025•24 min
