Positive News Discussions in Today’s World, What Could Go Right

I know that most of us want to be informed citizens, but it feels daunting to try and dive into the world of cable news. Finding positive news in today’s world can be a major challenge. This week’s podcast is called What Could Go Right with hosts Zachary Karabell and Emma Varvaloucas, They take on the issues of the day with a less gloomy outlook and bring listeners positive news each week.

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What if instead of being on the brink of disaster, we’re on the cusp of a better world. No one can deny the challenges the world faces from pandemics to climate change to authoritarianism, but pessimism and despair are too easy a response. Each week, the hosts convene a diverse panel of experts to discuss the central issues of our era.

They emerge from their conversations with a counterintuitive but informed take. Progress is on its way. The length of each episode is about an hour. The series is ongoing with new episodes available on Wednesdays.

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Meet Emma

I have been in nonprofit media for a little over 10 years. I’m the executive director of the Progress Network. As part of that, I co-host What Could Go Right. Before then I was working for many years at a magazine and digital outlet called Tricycle. This is a Buddhist publication.

I am a practicing Buddhist and was in Buddhist journalism for a long time. I did a couple of books along the way and still help people write and edit. Now I’m with the Progress Network.

People Need Positive News Discussions

This podcast was an initiative from the Progress Network. The Progress Network was founded by Zachary Karabell who’s a co-host of What Could Go Right.

He started the Progress Network because he felt like there was a need in the media environment for an organization that was bringing constructive ideas and constructive people, and a constructive outlook on the news together. The news right now is a fire hose of negative information.

Some of that is because mistakes the media’s making and some of that is just the nature of the beast. Zachary felt like we needed an antidote to that. He felt like the more we assume society is going to go to hell in a handbasket, the more we’re probably upping the probability that it will. This inspired him to start The Progress Network back in the midst of the pandemic.

When started, we were more of like a news collector. An idea and people collector. As things started to go along we were seeing what people were responding to. We realized that there was a pretty big positive response to original content. We started the newsletter, which goes out weekly now to around 60,000 – 70,000 people.

Basics of this Podcast

The What Could Go Right the podcast is every week but we do have seasons. So it’s not every week out of the year. but it’s every week when the season is active. The format is essentially about a half hour interview with a guest who’s an expert in their field.

We’re coming to whatever topic it is, even if it’s a difficult topic like the American economy or the American worker or the over classification of government documents, we’re coming to it with a constructive perspective. Then after that Zachary and I do a little bit of positive news back and forth. We share good news you might have missed because it’s very easy to miss the positive news.

Become a More Informed Citizen

We want to provide people with a way to engage with difficult topics and the news. We want them to engage with the sheer amount of information that’s out there in a way that’s positive. You’re not going to leave with a smile, but positive in regards that they’re not shutting down. They aren’t becoming apathetic, becoming cynical. We want people to feel like it provides an entry point to engagement and engagement as a citizen. The podcast are nonpartisan. We’re not trying to direct people to think one way or another, or vote one way or another.

Empowering People in Today’s World

We just want people to participate and feel that they can be a constructive participant in both the news and everything that that affects. Zachary and I want them to see their country and the world around them in a way that provides them with a sense of agency. It is not all positive news, but it is importnat to know what is going on in the world.

I think part of the danger of getting overwhelmed with the news and overwhelmed by how politics is and overwhelmed just in general, is that people become very disempowered, very feeling that they don’t have agency over anything. That they’re maybe not even capable of understanding what’s going on. They may feel that there’s really no point because climate change or because the Republicans or because the Democrats. Whatever each person’s personal thing is that holds them back and we want to be an antidote to that.

Engaging Wide Perspectives

The vibe is intellectual, but not boring. Intellectual while it’s still being nourishing.

We also try very hard not to silo information. It’s hard to find podcast shows that will talk about politics seriously, We will also talk about something like the environment or the economy seriously, then we also have people come on and talk about their faith.

We also have people come on and talk about how to live a happier life and psychology. So I would put that in there as well. Let’s say multi-variant, multi-perspectival. Let’s say, it’s broad.

There is Positive News Out There

There’s lots of things that are informative out there, but when you come out of it, you’re like ugh.. Maybe you curse a little bit. We’re trying to inform people and educate you without also bringing you to the point of despair.

Connect With Us

Our main site is the progressnetwork.org.

You’ll find the newsletter sign up there, you’ll find the podcast there. The podcast is also on basically all of the podcast platforms. Whatever your favorite platform is, Amazon, Spotify, Apple, one of the other smaller ones. You can also just search the name, what could Go right on those platforms.

We’re on Instagram, we’re on Twitter, we’re on TikTok, we’re even on LinkedIn. We’re on Facebook and YouTube. If you put in The Progress Network, we should come up. The handle in particular is at @ProgressNTWRK across all of the platforms.

Favorite Episodes

Zachary makes a joke a lot on the podcast, like, we can’t pick between our children. Picking between interviews for a favorite is like picking between our kids.

I don’t wanna say a favorite, but I’ll give you one that’s the most listened to. I’ll also share a recently recorded one.

Our recent episode with Matthew Connolly about government classification is popular. I think it’s a really good example of what we were talking about previously. We’re talking about a topic that’s actually kind of dark. It’s billions of documents the government has classified that they’re essentially hiding from us.

That means that we can’t see what happened, even, 50 plus years ago. We get into how that happened, what’s going on now. Also if there are any solutions to that. We approach it in a very positive way, weirdly enough. I recommend that.

If you’re less of a politics, government kind of person, I recommend our episode with Arthur Brooks. He’s a psychology professor at Harvard, I believe it is our most listened to episode of all time. He talks about how to find meaning in your life and often in ways that are counterintuitive. It’s usually the opposite of what people just do by their nature and habit. So I’m going to give those as two that I recommend.

Podcasts for Moms

I don’t think that there’s gonna be any bad words, The content is gonna be above a lot of little ears heads.

I will say that we do discuss things like drug laws, psychedelics, those topics do get brought up. It’s not like we’re promoting drug use, but those topics are there. There’s definitely no inappropriate language but they are adult topics. We are talking about the issues of the day.

I feel like if your kid is listening in and at the age where they can understand the conversation and ask about it, they are pretty intelligent. It’s probably time to talk about some of that stuff anyway. But I’m not a mom so everyone make your own wisest decision.

Engage with the News – Be a Citizen of the News

I am definitely a passionate advocate of people being able to engage with the news. I think it is an important part of being a citizen in our democracy of the United States. I know that sometimes it can feel really hard because everyone’s lives are so busy. Especially for parents who have a full plate I know that the podcast is not one where you can shut your brain o

I’m going to advocate for making space in your life for intellectual thought as a responsible citizen of democracy. That’s gonna be my final message.

If you know someone who could use What Could Go Right in Their Life, will you share this episode with them? If you want to have fingernails that bring you joy, get 20% off and Olive and June mani system by using the link in the show notes.