The World Is Getting Better w/ Marian Tupy #1067

14 snips

Nov 26, 2025

Marian Tupy, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and founder of HumanProgress.org, dives into the surprising ways humanity has advanced despite perceived setbacks. He discusses how openness to ideas has driven innovation since the 18th century, challenges the negative media bias shaping our views, and emphasizes the fragility of progress. Tupy highlights the importance of gratitude, the rise in life expectancy, and the connection between economic freedom and prosperity, all while presenting a hopeful perspective on the future.

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INSIGHT

Openness Unleashed Modern Progress

Progress accelerated when societies became open to new ideas and tolerated innovation across cultural, scientific, and ethical domains.
Marian Tupy links this openness to centuries of unprecedented innovation and improved human welfare.

INSIGHT

Negativity Contagion Distorts Perception

Media competition and human negativity bias amplify bad news and create a false perception that the world is getting worse.
Marian Tupy calls this a negativity contagion that drowns out hundreds of small daily improvements.

ADVICE

Subscribe To Weekly Good-News Summaries

Sign up for HumanProgress.org's weekly email to counterbalance doom-and-gloom information with documented positive developments.
Marian Tupy recommends consuming curated good-news summaries to restore a balanced view.

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Though it seems like the world is in shambles, humanity has progressed quite impressively when you look at virtually any length of history. Our modern society has produced a slew of nice things that would have been hard to fathom 50 years ago, much less 250 years ago- smartphones, duct tape, GPS. They’ve all, to greater or lesser degrees, made our lives better and that’s simply looking at consumer goods. Think of other clear markers like infant mortality, literacy rates, longer lifespans and how they all point to incredible progress. But how did those innovations and that abundance come about? Why does 2025 look so radically different in the developed world than 1825? Marian Tupy’s book Superabundance explains it all and demonstrates how far we’ve come in easy-to-understand language. Marian Tupy is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He’s also the founder and editor of HumanProgress.org, a site that seeks to evidence these dramatic improvements. Listen as we cover how:

Progress is not guaranteed and can regress under certain conditions
Life expectancy has dramatically increased over the last 200 years
Economic freedom and openness to trade drive prosperity
Nostalgia often overlooks the harsh realities of the past
Environmental concerns can be addressed through innovation and technology
Time prices illustrate the abundance of resources available today
Gratitude for our current circumstances can lead to greater happiness
And plenty more!

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