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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Our 2nd Annual ‘Amazing Humans’ Variety Show Was Wild!
At 8:13 p.m. an 11-piece Balkan brass band kicked off the night. By 8:34, a human rights lawyer had been turned into a living ventriloquist dummy. It wasn’t even nine o’clock yet when a naked woman popped out of an enormous balloon. (We didn’t see that one coming). After that,...
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How Farmers in Oregon Are Preserving Their Land for the Next Generation
Jan Wallinder and Ron Webb are the farmer-owners of Forest Edge Vineyard, an organically farmed vineyard 24 miles southeast of Portland that also has a fruit orchard and adjacent 22-acre forest. The couple, who have owned this land since 1984, are in their mid-70s and have no children. Yet they...
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What We’re Reading: How a Teen ‘Green Crew’ Fights Climate Anxiety
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. Planting hope It’s no secret that grappling with the reality of climate change is a source of anxiety, especially for young people. But some research has shown that participating...
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The Shops Where Trash Becomes Crafters’ Treasure
On an early spring day, Brandon Brownell greeted shoppers as they came into Smart Art and Craft Supplies in northeast Nashville. The shop is a crafter’s paradise. Tables in the front are loaded with weaving supplies, like cones of caramel and black yarn. Shelves in the back overflow with bolts...
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How Blind Women Are Learning to Rock a Look
On a spring morning in March 2025, a group of women gathered in a hall above a bus station in Hackney, about 4.5 miles from London. In front of them was a dazzling array of conditioners, serums, mousses and hairbrushes, punctuated by the odd mannequin head. Amid merriment and banter,...
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‘We Are the People of the River’
A pelican descends through a canopy of green cottonwood leaves. The frost-plumed bird lands upon an exposed sandbank in a thin ribbon of blue water flanked by lithe willows. Gorgeous as it is, this lush Sonoran Desert oasis is but a relic of a time when the water was much...
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We’ve Long Known That Music Eases Pain. Now, Science Is Proving It.
At the University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, cancer patients can ask for an unusual medicine: Could a guitar player come and play a tune by their bedside, like the Beatles’ “Let it Be”? “We have empirical evidence that shows music can help reduce a person’s pain perception,” says Seneca Block,...
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What We’re Reading: Bringing Chestnut Trees Back From the Brink
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. That old chestnut Once upon a time, American chestnut trees thrived across the forests of the eastern United States. It’s estimated that there were about four billion of them...
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How Conservationists Are Preparing Nature for Tomorrow’s Hotter World
This article was originally published by Mongabay. About 90 kilometers (56 miles) southeast of Cape Town lies the tranquilly-named town of Betty’s Bay in South Africa, home to less than 2,000 people. But it’s not the people that draw Nik Sekhran’s eye. “I enjoy watching the African oystercatchers,” says Sekhran,...
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Former Navy SEALs Are Diving to Save the Ocean
When Rodolfo “Rudy” Reyes went diving in the Cayman Islands in 2015, the experience changed his life. The highly decorated veteran had logged thousands of dives as a Special Ops Force Recon Marine in 18 years of service. But, as Reyes recalls, “As combat divers we operate at night, pushing...
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