What Could Go Right?

What is happiness, and why does it feel so difficult to find? The path to purpose, meaning, love, and contentment is actually no mystery, says Harvard University social scientist Arthur C. Brooks. He shares the research for how to invest in a thriving “happiness 401k.”What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Work ain’t what it used to be—just ask the millions of Americans who are part of the “Great Resignation.” Venture capitalist and head of Bloomberg Beta, Roy Bahat, is looking to shape work for the better, from new forms of labor organizing to remote-friendly tech.What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is progress still possible? We believe so, and we're not alone. Jason Crawford, founder of The Roots of Progress, sits down with us to talk about the possibilities of the future and makes a case for optimism in the face of pessimistic predictions about tomorrow.What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It might seem counterintuitive to ask in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, but is humanity winning the fight against infectious disease? Charles Kenny, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, says we are. But we must continue availing ourselves of the solutions that have led to this progress if that answer is to stay. In this interview, Kenny speaks with The Progress Network Executive Director Emma Varvaloucas about his new book, The Plague Cycle, outlining the immense headway humanity has already made in flattening "the plague cycle" and what we need to keep doing it, talks about the beneficial ripple effects of our triumph over infectious disease, and sets our current pandemic experiences in the context of history.This conversation was recorded on January 19th, 2021.What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The United States is a country divided, characterized by collapsing levels of trust in our institutions, in our politics, and in each other. How did we get into this mess, and how do we get out? Join The Progress Network for a conversation with TPN Members David Brooks and Theodore R. Johnson, hosted by our founder, Zachary Karabell, centered around this question. They examine ideas for how to bridge our divides at both an individual and collective level.This conversation was recorded on December 21st, 2020.What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are we on the brink of a population explosion with untold global consequences? On the contrary, a growing number of experts argue that we are headed for a worldwide decline. Hear from Empty Planet authors John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker on how this could bring with it many benefits as well as surprising disruptions.This recording was first released on March 5th, 2019.What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do university students in Britain and Trump voters in the United States have in common? They're lonely. In fact, Noreena Hertz says, loneliness is the defining feature of this century, thanks to a host of drivers ranging from the technological to the economic. The Progress Network founder Zachary Karabell joins Noreena, an economist and author of The Lonely Century, as she elucidates whether we're really more lonely than we used to be, what has led, pandemic aside, to our current state of hyper-loneliness, and which solutions—individual, governmental, and entrepreneurial—she thinks are the best bet for reconnecting us.This conversation was recorded in May 2021.What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's no secret that social media is politically divisive. What we may not be as aware of is how our own behavior feeds into a positive feedback loop that leaves both sides progressively more outraged and more extreme in their beliefs. What should we be aware of before we like, share, and react to politically inflammatory content online? What techniques do we have at our disposal to improve our online behavior? The Progress Network Member Robert Wright, president of the Nonzero Foundation and a longtime journalist who writes about science, history, politics, and religion, discusses this phenomenon with The Progress Network executive director Emma Varvaloucas and gives his best tips for how to avoid a civil war.This conversation was recorded before the 2020 presidential election.What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are we to make of the social and financial phenomenon of cryptocurrency? Will it spell the democratization of money free from government control, or is it simply a bubble that is going to pop? The Progress Network founder Zachary Karabell sits down with Wences Casares, a technology entrepreneur and one of the early advocates of Bitcoin, who believes that it will prove to be bigger than the Internet.This recording was first released on January 23rd, 2018.What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ideas start wars and movements, undergird societies and governments, and shape the daily experiences of our personal lives. We ignore or underestimate the power of ideas to our detriment. And yet they can feel slippery to reckon with; difficult to see, tougher still to understand their complex movement through the world.Join The Progress Network for a wide-ranging discussion on ideas—which ones are significant now, which may be significant in the future, and how we can participate in ideas' power ourselves—with Joan Blades, co-founder of Living Room Conversations and MoveOn.org, and public intellectual Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now and several other books. Zachary Karabell, founder of The Progress Network, moderates.This conversation was recorded on May 12, 2021.What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices