Reasons to be Cheerful
Reasons to Be Cheerful is an online magazine founded by musician and activist David Byrne. It shares inspiring, solutions-oriented stories highlighting positive developments and innovative approaches to global challenges. The platform covers a wide range of topics, including environmental sustainability, social justice, urban design, health, and culture, emphasizing practical, replicable solutions that are making a difference. Reasons to Be Cheerful aims to counterbalance the often negative news cycle by showcasing stories of progress, resilience, and creativity. The website encourages readers to engage with and support these initiatives, fostering a sense of hope and empowerment. It also offers a newsletter to deliver uplifting content directly to its audience.
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Are Sailing Ships the Future of Sustainable Shipping?
This story has been co-published by Reasons to be Cheerful and the Outrider Foundation. For centuries, tall sailing ships quietly navigated the planet’s waterways, trading and delivering needed goods. Powered by wind, this sustainable mode of transportation endured until the advent of fossil fuels in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
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American Lawn Care Is Going Electric
For generations of Americans, the soundtrack to spring weekends has been a rise in bird song and the loud, constant “virrrrrr” of neighbors cutting their growing grass. But the gas lawn mowers, leaf blowers and weed eaters that have been used for over a century to keep lawns manicured are...
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What We’re Reading: Oaxaca’s Clever, Low-Tech Drought Fixes
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Let us know what you think at info@reasonstobecheerful.world. Holding water When we think of climate solutions, we often think of large-scale, expensive initiatives. But as a story shared this week by RTBC Executive Editor Will Doig from...
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Crisis Survivors in Australia Are Rebuilding Their Wardrobes in Style
Ross Mitchell is a traveling salesman of sorts. He spends up to two months a year on the road, driving a van thousands of miles across Australia, taking in the country’s changing landscapes, from its dry “outback” terrain to its lush tropical north. The van Mitchell drives is full of...
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In Sri Lanka, ‘the Ocean Is For Everyone’
When 18-year-old Ishi Mosha — who goes by the nickname Amzhii — glides down the face of a wave, she feels alive. Amzhii just finished school, but she’s already one of the few local female surf instructors in Sri Lanka. “I want to be as free as the ocean,” she...
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Preserving Cherokee Language, 10 Books at a Time
This story was originally published in the Daily Yonder. For more rural reporting and small-town stories visit dailyyonder.com. At the entrance to the New Kituwah Academy in Cherokee, North Carolina, a big red sign reads ‘English Stops Here.’ The school, which teaches preschool through the sixth grade, is a Cherokee language...
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What We’re Reading: A Spongier New Orleans
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Let us know what you think at info@reasonstobecheerful.world. Water wise Nearly 20 years after Hurricane Katrina, green infrastructure projects all over New Orleans are proving their worth, as residents witness first-hand the way that rain gardens and...
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‘Shark Tank’ for Youth-Led Solutions
Christelle Kwizera was still a teenager and hadn’t even graduated from her engineering studies when she decided to tackle an urgent problem in her home country: safe water sources for local villages in Eastern Rwanda. “Crocodiles had migrated into the local lakes, and their only source of food was people...
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Women Plumbers in Jordan Are Breaking Taboos
Humiliating. Not a woman’s job. Shame on the family. Such comments were frequently directed at Tahani Al Shati and Yusra Mohammad Nmour when they started training as plumbers. In Jordan, the proportion of women in paid work is among the lowest in the world, due in large part to social...
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Stitch It, Don’t Ditch It: Resisting Fast Fashion Through Visible Mending
Once a month between April and October, a group of stitchers takes to the streets of Edinburgh, making themselves comfortable on camping chairs decorated with hand-embroidered banners inviting people to #stitchitdontditchit. Equipped with sewing baskets and mending skills, they repair their garments in public and teach interested passers-by how to...
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