Happiness & Hope

Need a pick-me-up? These feel-good tales of people changing the world for the better will restore your confidence in humanity and put a spring in your step.

Image: Naila Francis grief coach and death midwife

Rebranding Loss and Grief: How Beginnings AND Ends Can Be Celebrated with Naila Francis (Episode #125)

Many of us have first-hand experience with grief and loss, but our guest today—a grief coach and death midwife—will give us alternatives to how we approach this rite of passage. Today’s guest, Naila Francis, shows us how we find simple sources of joy even in the depth of our losses, that help us move forward with grief, NOT move on from it.

Saving Endangered Lives in the First Sea Turtle Hospital

We've all been hearing that sea turtles need help... so, who's been helping them? Some really inspiring people you'll want to meet yourself! This fantastic video brings us into a sea turtle clinic to give us a look at what's being done to save these ancient creatures from the injuries and diseases they've picked up as they go about. It's a truly amazing place.

2 min read

Image: A woman sat astride one of her local library's ebikes, holding her hands up in the air happily.

Libraries That Lend E-Bikes are Part of a Growing Trend

At the public library in Madison, Wisconsin, you can check out books, movies, and even electric bicycles. That’s right, city residents with library cards can check out an ebike to run errands on or just to enjoy cycling through the city. This library is one of many from Vermont to Texas who are joining in on this growing trend to encourage easy, green transportation.

One Eagle Scout’s Hydroponic Gardening Project Tackles Hunger in Five Countries with Christian Heiden (Episode #123)

There’s a generation coming up that could be called the “see it and then solve it” generation. They look at problems like riddles just waiting to be solved, and then they start ingeniously doing what they can with what they’ve got. Today’s guest, Christian Heiden, is an amazing example of this style of innovator. He has taken an Eagle Scout project he started at age 16, and turned it into a solution to malnutrition and food insecurity in 5 countries and the impact of the endeavor is expanding at an extraordinary, inspiring pace.

Image: Japan's "Do-Nothing Guy" walking through Tokyo

Tokyo’s “Do-Nothing Guy” Shows Us the Power In Being Present for Others

Would you rent a guy to do absolutely nothing? In a society where productivity is praised, can someone make a living by just being around? Today we’re introducing Shoji Morimoto, Tokyo’s “Do-Nothing Guy”, who gets paid to simply show up. He’s enriching the lives of others without hardly saying a word, and his approach to making a career out of his seemingly useless talent is brilliant. Here’s why.

Image: Zach King wearing a purple shirt and backwards baseball cap, speaking on stage at VidCon 2014 in Anaheim, CA.

Wonder Makes Us Healthier: A Magician’s Secret to Experiencing it Every Day

Reclaiming our childlike wonder does more than just make life a little more fun. It can make us healthier, too! YouTuber and magician Zach King, known best for his hard-to-believe illusions online, has some thoughts about how we take back this spirit and add a dash of magic into our adult lives. So, how do we do it?

Looking for Easy Ways to Volunteer? There’s an App for That! with Stephanie Page (Episode #119)

What if you could instantly connect with people who share your passions, and then, spur of the moment, do something fun together that makes the world a better place. Oh, and while you are expanding your friend network, you’d also be learning about your community and building your skills and resume! Turns out, all that is very possible, and today’s guest may send you spinning off into a new life of possibility. Stephanie Page is co-founder of POINT, the app and website that the world has needed for too long. (Think Uber meets volunteerism.)

Image: Students in a classroom learning from their teacher. 1 in 7 of these students experience food insecurity, and their primary source of food is the school cafeteria.

Heroes of the Cafeteria, Keeping 9 Million Children from Going Hungry

School cafeterias are some of the busiest kitchens in America, and when 1 in 7 kids relies on school meals as their major source of nutrition, the job of cafeteria worker becomes even more important! It’s time we take a minute to thank those cafeteria workers and to get a glimpse into their world.

Reintroducing Yourself as You Are, Not as You Were with Cheldin Barlatt Rumer (Episode #115)

Communication is a struggle for most of us. Either we don’t really know when to keep quiet, or we can’t muster the courage to speak up. Our guest, Cheldin Barlatt Rumer, is an expert in seeing our communication landscape, in every moment, with fresh eyes. She has some inspiring perspectives on how we elevate the voices of others, re-introduce ourselves to others after all we’ve been through, and how we can re-imagine the role of the internet in our lives as a tool for communication that can help us thrive.

Image: spacex launch streak of light on a dark cloudy sky

How Space Can Heal What Divides Us!

Why is it that when astronauts leave this planet they come back humanitarians and artists? Here's a perspective from a filmmaker who has stood next to and interviewed some of the greatest space explorers of our time on how the lessons we've learned from space exploration may help us to be more empathetic, compassionate, and bring us together.

Get Closer to the Good Life: Ditch the Fast Life with Carl Honoré (Episode #114)

If many days end with you feeling depleted and wondering what just happened because of your dizzying pace, Carl Honoré has insights that will help you break free from this need for speed. Carl is the originator of the “Slow Movement,” a growing way of thinking about how we spend our time: Should we continue rushing through everything, or consciously decide which things we will slow down for so we can truly savor the moments? Due to Carl’s work, there are growing communities around Slow Travel, Slow Food, Slow Schools, Slow Living, Slow Biking, Slow Money, and more.

A pair of legs sticking out of a dryer, wearing long yellow socks and white shoes, at a laundromat.

Special Laundromat Helps Families Stay Clean

Wearing clean clothing every day is not something to be taken for granted. This is why Pastor Leo Robinson II founded Good Laundry, a laundromat service for his North Flint, Michigan community and the surrounding neighborhoods, to combat hygiene poverty, Flint Beat reports. The laundry will be servicing around 100 families and helping them have access to clean clothes on a regular basis, at an affordable price. For these families, taking home a big pile of clean laundry is about much more than just hygiene, it can have a positive influence on many aspects of their lives.