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.

5 min read
Image: two people sitting in chairs underneath a tree silhouetted against a sunset

People’s Actions Leaving You Baffled? Here’s How to Cultivate Understanding

Encountering behavior that seems inexplicable can be immensely frustrating. Whether it's a family member, friend, or colleague making decisions that appear counterintuitive, our first instinct might be to react with confusion or annoyance. However, amidst this confusion, there lies an opportunity to cultivate understanding.
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2 min read
Image: A group of friends and people in relationships holding up their glasses to cheers

How to Build Great Relationships!

How well do you know your parents and how are your relationships with them? There will come a time when your parents become your children. Trust me—it will happen. And then they will be gone, and you realize that you are alone, and you never really knew them. So how do you make sure that you form closer bonds with them before they exit the stage?
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1 hr 4 min watch
Podcast Host & Retired Media Executive Bill Burke

Why Optimism Is Your Greatest Survival Skill with Bill Burke (Episode #177)

Bill Burke is the former CEO of The Weather Channel, and former President of the TBS Superstation. His long life at the highest echelons of media leadership has made him a master at choosing his own perspective, and he considers optimism to be one of our greatest superpowers. In this episode, he shares his insights about how it’s possible to harness the power of optimism with a few key strategies.
Read MoreWhy Optimism Is Your Greatest Survival Skill with Bill Burke (Episode #177)
2 min read
Image: A person holding a snow globe

Lessons From a Snow Globe and Other Insights

Have you ever shaken a snow globe? Picture the picturesque scene it holds inside, and see in your mind how it grows hazy as if snow is falling. Could the snow falling be a great representation for our mental chatter, quickly spinning us out of control until we can't see our hand in front of our face? Here's a story of how we can eliminate that snow in our brain and bring tranquility back into our lives.
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80 min watch
Image: Liesl Ulrich-Verderber

Nurture Your Positive Worldview and Watch It Change Everything with Liesl Ulrich-Verderber (Episode #165)

Suppose that in 2024 you found there was one simple thing that could improve by just 1% each day, which would allow you to make leaps in personal progress. It would be foolish not to consider it, right? Well, this episode will help you to find that one thing that affects almost everything else. Today, we talk to social innovator, journalist, and CEO Liesl Ulrich-Verderber about how easy and powerful it can be to nurture a worldview that serves us, rather than burdens us.
Read MoreNurture Your Positive Worldview and Watch It Change Everything with Liesl Ulrich-Verderber (Episode #165)
72 min watch
Image: Ronald Young Jr.

Liberate Yourself From the Scale: A Refreshing Take on Body Positivity with Ronald Young Jr. (Episode #163)

Ronald Young Jr. is an emerging voice in the body positive movement, and he’s leading us to new places on this old topic. His insights on common sense and honesty are like piano wire stretched tight between two important pins, and his boundless good humor is a hammer striking an incredibly beautiful note of wisdom for us all to carry forward. If you or someone you love struggles with their weight, this conversation will provide leaps of insight, and plenty of smiles.
Read MoreLiberate Yourself From the Scale: A Refreshing Take on Body Positivity with Ronald Young Jr. (Episode #163)
59 min watch
Image: Dewitt Jones

Nat Geo Photographer Captures The Beauty That Transcends Our Differences with Dewitt Jones (Episode #160)

Renowned National Geographic Photographer Dewitt Jones shares with us a life-changing habit, available to us all: celebrate what’s right with the world. The perspectives he shares today can open up a radically improved landscape of possibilities for you and I. As a bonus, today’s video episode contains some of his most inspiring images: stunning views of the night sky, time lapses of water rushing in on the shore beneath a gorgeous sky, beautifully-lit hot air balloons reflecting off the water below, and more. This is an episode you won’t want to miss.
Read MoreNat Geo Photographer Captures The Beauty That Transcends Our Differences with Dewitt Jones (Episode #160)
43 min listen
Image: Kiarra Danielle Lucas

Love, Fear, and Courage: Choices that Lead to a Future of Radical Optimism with Kiarra Danielle Lucas (Episode #156)

If you had any doubt about the next generation coming up in colleges today, Kiarra Danielle Lucas will fill you with confidence in Gen Z. Today we all get a new perspective on how children can practice a kind of radical optimism, in the worst circumstances, and use it to build remarkable futures for themselves and others. Kiarra is an 18-year-old inspiration for anyone who thinks their circumstances limit their potential and her vision for the future might be just the spark you need to find exactly what you are built to contribute.
Read MoreLove, Fear, and Courage: Choices that Lead to a Future of Radical Optimism with Kiarra Danielle Lucas (Episode #156)
56 min listen
Image: Kristina McKean

You Can Transform Your Outrage into Action: The Proof Is In This Elephant Plushie with Kristina McKean (Episode #155)

Kristina McKean has a story that demonstrates exactly why we should not wait to start building lives of meaning and purpose. Kristina found a way to take the skills of her working life and combine them with her lifelong passion for animal welfare. Now, she finds joy every day in her work and the impact it’s having on wildlife and a new generation of very young philanthropists through her work at The Elephant Project.
Read MoreYou Can Transform Your Outrage into Action: The Proof Is In This Elephant Plushie with Kristina McKean (Episode #155)
73 min listen

Your Life Is One Continuous Mistake, Just Like Everyone Else’s with Sunni Brown (Episode #154)

Sunni Brown is an intrepid and inspiring “creative” who is zooming through our world, project after project, sparking bursts of hidden potential everywhere she goes. She was named one of the “10 Most Creative People” on X (formerly Twitter), and she has been featured in every major U.S. publication: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, and CBS Sunday Morning, the latter of which has celebrated her work twice! And so will you, once you’ve enjoyed her infectious positive energy.
Read MoreYour Life Is One Continuous Mistake, Just Like Everyone Else’s with Sunni Brown (Episode #154)

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There is a wave of goodness and progress well underway, all around the world.