//podcastplus.net/feed/podcast~ea595ff687471ab31e176ac15ac73442ffbd09233888e44e6d2b61b4759fe9ba Interviews and debates with people in the know. thequotient.substack.com Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:50:49 +0000 https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/34132008/ae22fe546c5abb4e0738a15468cbef13.mp3 Image: earth.com I talk to Ethan Tupelo , a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and part owner of the Pedal People worker cooperative in Northampton, MA, about waste management, human power, and the possible future of local trash collection. If you live in the Northeast U.S., chances are your trash ends up in a 2,600-acre facility in New York State. The Seneca Meadows Landfill is one of the largest waste disposal sites in the country. It accepts trash from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In addition to solid waste management, the site recycles tires, produces methane gas for electricity, and offers a range of other services. It is one of Seneca County’s largest employers. The Seneca Meadows Landfill is an example of growing consolidation in the waste management industry. In the last few decades, population growth and urbanization have turned garbage disposal into an industry worth billions of dollars, with large corporations l... Mon, 22 Mar 2021 13:50:37 +0000 https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/34132008/ae22fe546c5abb4e0738a15468cbef13.mp3 https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/32327805/6e90647a1bff783bf5bd02cc11ec66a8.mp3 Image: Cleveland Clinic - https://health.clevelandclinic.org/head-toe-benefits-cardio-workout-infographic/ I talk to Bri Cawley , a personal trainer based in Chicago, about health, how the pandemic has changed the fitness industry, and why it’s important to keep moving during lockdowns. When COVID-19 restrictions went into effect early last year, the fitness industry took a massive hit. Gym closures and other limitations led to an estimated 480,000 jobs lost by Oct. 1, 2020, according to a report by the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association. Now, nearly a year after the lockdowns fundamentally changed how we interact with each other, the $94 billion fitness industry has reinvented itself by going online. But, while Zoom sessions, fitness apps, and high-speed internet make it possible for people to remain in contact with trainers during the pandemic, online communication cannot reproduce the distinctiveness of face-to-face interaction – a defining feature of the fitnes... Mon, 08 Feb 2021 15:00:23 +0000 https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/32327805/6e90647a1bff783bf5bd02cc11ec66a8.mp3 https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/31559858/63b2bb217a48f2e2adff5edd98ff9843.mp3 Image: https://www.domo.com/learn/data-never-sleeps-7 Aoun Jafarey, a data analytics professional based in New York City, talks about the gray areas that exist in the enormous amounts of data we produce, consume, and utilize daily. Imagine, if you can, stacks upon stacks of iPads stretching from the Earth’s surface all the way to the moon. Or, visualize 292 Great Pyramids filled with millions of external hard drives. As a final example, try to picture around 33 Empire State Buildings packed with billions of USB sticks. According to Domo , a cloud software company based in the United States, this would have been the physical representation of the amount of data produced per year, over five years ago. The meaning of the word “big” in the term big data is so mind-boggling that it is hard to imagine what our collective digital footprint would look like if physicalized. Though big data has always referred to information that requires advanced techniques and software to process, the scale at w... Fri, 15 Jan 2021 15:00:47 +0000 https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/31559858/63b2bb217a48f2e2adff5edd98ff9843.mp3 https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/27286083/0775fb97b026006603f6d5c2a7f2ae84.mp3 Source: “10 things to know about Sehat Sahulat Programme” https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/477223-things-know-about-Sehat-Sahulat-Programme In this episode of The Quotient podcast, I talk to Fahad Khan, a program manager and healthcare delivery specialist with the Indus Health Network’s Global Health Directorate , about Pakistan’s healthcare delivery system and whether recent efforts by the government to achieve Universal Health Coverage are realistic. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by the year 2030 is a Sustainable Development Goal . Despite this commitment, however, extending healthcare remains a challenge for national governments and public health officials. According to the World Health Organization , for instance, at least half of the world’s population lacks access to essential health services. Out of pocket health expenditures, meanwhile, are pushing as many as 100 million people into extreme poverty. In low-income countries particularly, there is a lack of quality and co... Mon, 21 Dec 2020 15:52:30 +0000 https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/27286083/0775fb97b026006603f6d5c2a7f2ae84.mp3 https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/10077419/0b73ead8a0eba6170cdbbbbec9a90a43.mp3 The coronavirus in Pakistan has public health experts stumped. At the end of May, the South Asian nation of over 220 million people faced disaster. With limited health services, widespread poverty, and a population that largely lives in crowded cities, global health officials feared Pakistan would be one of the countries worst hit by the deadly virus. These fears seemingly came true in mid-June this year when the daily number of reported cases jumped to nearly 6,000. To make things worse, a study published by the Imperial College London predicted around 2.2 million deaths in the coming weeks. The federal government, in turn, was hesitant to impose a country wide lock-down despite this alarming forecast, proposing, instead a “ smart lock-down ” strategy which targeted virus hot spots in urban areas. By the end of August, however, Pakistan’s active number of cases had fallen drastically with the number of new daily reported cases decreasing to around 500. Source: World Health Organization “... Mon, 12 Oct 2020 16:00:42 +0000 https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/10077419/0b73ead8a0eba6170cdbbbbec9a90a43.mp3