Looking at global headlines today, it’s hard not to feel pessimism. Have recent wars, pandemics and autocracies made the idea of progress obsolete? Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker uses data and psychology to provide a fresh perspective on progress: why it is so hard to achieve and what ideas were responsible for progress in the past and will be needed for progress to continue?

This is the full audio from a session at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2025. Watch it here: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2025/sessions/the-arch-of-progress-in-the-21st-century/

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The Arc of Progress in the 21st Century