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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Inside the Mud-Walled High-Rise That Cools Itself
It was a hot, sticky September afternoon in New Delhi, the kind of heat that clings to your skin. After navigating congested traffic and rough roads, we reached the city of Faridabad, 60 kilometers from the capital. There, Soumya Jain greeted us in her newly renovated home, a three-bedroom apartment...
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The Fundamental Power of The Mississippi River
Ten years ago, I climbed into a canoe and paddled onto the Mississippi River. This was a magazine assignment, one of the first big adventures in my then-new career as a freelance journalist. The story was simple; I was meant to profile a river guide who took tourists out on...
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The World’s First Rewilded Sharks Are Thriving
This article was originally published by Mongabay, an independent media organization reporting on nature and planetary challenges. In the shallows of Raja Ampat, Indonesia, a bold conservation experiment is underway — one that blends marine biology, local stewardship and international collaboration in an effort to bring a species back from the brink. It’s...
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A ‘Secret Weapon’ for Fighting Climate Change Comes Surging Back
This story has been co-published by Reasons to be Cheerful and the Outrider Foundation. In late spring last year, Betty Hodgson, president of the Nova Scotia non-profit group Friends of the Pugwash Estuary, sat in the bow of a small boat with Kristina Boerder, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University. As they maneuvered...
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What We’re Reading: How U.S. States Are Resisting Book Bans
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. Freedom to read It’s Banned Books Week! To mark the occasion, Anythink Libraries has launched free access to roughly 300 banned and...
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The Spark: The Unforeseen Benefits That Blossom When You Reuse and Repair
Welcome back to The Spark, our monthly newsletter that’s all about how people just like you are creating positive change, one meaningful step at a time. The Spark is generously supported by Laura Rice. Anyone can dig into community composting A school where kids learn to fix what’s broken Don’t demolish...
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For Better Therapy, Just Add Mushrooms
One day, psychologist Brian Pilecki watched one of his patients travel back in time. Pilecki, a clinical mental health provider in Portland, Oregon, is licensed in the state to facilitate sessions where people take a dose of psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in more than 200 species of mushrooms. His...
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Fungi Are Becoming Invaluable First Responders in Eco-Crises
When Mount Saint Helens in southwestern Washington erupted on the morning of May 18, 1980, the stratovolcano spewed a plume of debris high into the earth’s atmosphere and spread ash to at least eleven nearby states. The blast produced lahars — landslides of mud and ash — that barreled down...
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The Granddaddy of All Things Mushroom
Paul Stamets might never have found his life topic if he hadn’t been a painfully shy boy. As a child, he had a severe stutter and dreaded social interactions, spending much of his time staring at the ground. What he found there would come to define his life: Mushrooms. Today,...
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An Environmental Triumph 400 Million Years in the Making
Each planting season, Claudia Bashian-Victoroff ventures out into Bole Woods, a 70-acre old-growth forest on the outskirts of Holden Forests & Gardens in the Cleveland suburbs, in search of fungi. But as she navigates the sugar maples, chestnut oaks, American beech and western red cedar that tower overhead, she focuses...
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