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.
-
The Beauty of Lining a River With Willow
In the Stone Age, Neolithic folks used willow branches and mud to build roundhouses for their families. Jump forward several thousand years and European farmers were fashioning panels of stitched willow, called hurdles, to fence their farms or screen their gardens. Meanwhile, Native Americans constructed frames of black willow stakes...
The post
-
The Ecological Havens Flourishing Beneath Power Lines
Power lines zig-zag across North America, strung between towers that rise 100 feet or more into the sky. Beneath lie vast swaths of often barren land up to 100 feet wide and stretching for hundreds of miles. “I think that there’s an incredible opportunity to use these really large tracts...
The post
-
What We’re Reading: A Movement to Ban Something That Doesn’t Exist
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Hands off the tentacles California and Washington have banned octopus farms. Seven other states are trying to do the same, as are...
The post
-
Repair and Rent Out: Creating Affordable Housing in New Mexico
This article was originally published by Shelterforce, an independent newsroom reporting on affordable housing. The apartment complex had been condemned. Nicole Scarpa and her kids were given a week’s notice to vacate. She was afraid she would soon be homeless, and not for the first time. About 10 years ago, one...
The post
-
The Spark: Maximize the Mirth, Minimize the Waste
Welcome back to The Spark, our monthly celebration of how people just like you are creating positive change, one meaningful step at a time. The Spark is generously supported by Laura Rice. Sign up to Reasons to be Cheerful’s weekly newsletter here and you’ll get The Spark in your inbox...
The post
-
Depleted Tennessee Farmland Is Now Teeming With Wildlife
In May 2010, extraordinarily heavy rainfall hit Tennessee. In some parts of the state, as much as 20 inches fell over two days. Dams were inundated, waterways overflowed and communities experienced historic flooding. Farmers in West Tennessee aren’t strangers to floods. Their farmland is adjacent to the Mississippi Alluvial Plain,...
The post
-
Tiny Island, Big Dreams
This story is published in collaboration with the Local Catch Network. At the end of a short road that spreads out into a paved spit of working waterfront on the tiny island of Culebra sits a small building with hurricane-proof windows, a sunflower yellow trim and two rows of solar...
The post
-
What We’re Reading: The ‘Unstoppable’ Development of a European Subway
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. No turning back Belgrade is known as the largest capital city in Europe without a subway. But if all goes to plan,...
The post
-
Removing Gang Tattoos Is Helping San Diegans Start Fresh
When people walk into the Clean Slate tattoo removal clinic at the University of California San Diego, they carry more than just ink on their skin. Many are justice-impacted adults — people with histories of incarceration, probation, or parole — trying to shed a visible reminder of a past they’ve...
The post
-
People Are Painting Crosswalks Across L.A. to Protect Pedestrians
This article was originally published by Next City, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on solutions for equitable and just cities. Get Next City’s stories in your inbox here. Painting a crosswalk is cheap and easy. A group of neighbors can paint an entire intersection in one morning for $100 or less. Getting the...
The post