Lifestyle
Alongside taking care of other people and the planet, make sure you take good care of yourself. The Lifestyle section at the Optimist Daily has solutions for everyday wellbeing on topics like food, beauty, fashion, and the latest trends. Curious about caring for houseplants, eating plant-based, or parenting tips? It’s all in there.
What the humble turnip can teach us about economic growth
Remember how the turnip triggered the Industrial Revolution and lifted millions out of poverty? In England, in the early 1700s, fields were increasingly “plow sick” — they had exhausted their fertility. Farmers had to let them lie fallow to restore nutrients to the soil. But then, farmers Read More...
‘Economics profession is obsessed with the wrong things and not helping people’
The profession of economics should guide society how best to use available resources to create an optimal outcome for people and environment. But it’s terribly failing at that, according to Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor at Columbia University. Sachs says that economics is obsessed with Read More...
This app lets you listen to every radio station in the world
If you want to have an inspiring one world experience, check our Radio Garden. This “Google Earth of radio” lets you listen to any station in the world. You can click on any radio station just by spinning the globe. You will find out that they play the same music in Novokuznetsk in Russia as in Read More...
Can a universal basic income fix economic inequality?
It has been a socialist welfare dream for decades: Give everyone a universal basic income. Such a safety net would provide safety and security for the whole society. But does it work? The system has never been thoroughly researched. Now, with a $10 million grant, that’s going to Read More...
World Bank: Giving money to poor people actually works
Giving money—instead of services—to poor people actually works. As a result, more children are sent to schools while the money is not spent on alcohol or tobacco. That's the message of a new World Bank report that analyzes 19 separate studies. Contrary to what governments suspect, poor people Read More...
The EU is rolling out free wifi in all cities and towns by 2020
Finding wifi in one of the countries within in the E.U may soon be as easy as opening up your smartphone and logging into a free network called “Wifi4EU”. Last Friday, the European Council approved a proposal that will roll out free, high-speed internet for “every European village and every Read More...
Marijuana legalization in US states triggers innovation: Cannabis coffee pods
Cannabis is being legalized across the U.S. and some entrepreneurs have been waiting for years for that moment. The trend is now triggering a lot of entrepreneurial innovation. Here is a company promising to introduce cannabis coffee pods that will be compatible with familiar Keurig machines. The Read More...
An education revolution is giving kids the skills to be 21st-century citizens
This year’s Brexit vote and U.S election revealed the remarkable inability of citizens to have thoughtful debates on policy. It displayed that beyond developing work skills, people need to develop the ability to be strong citizens. That’s why in small pockets around the world, teachers and Read More...
Take a cruise and find your purpose in life
In 2013 Fathom Cruises introduced “social impact cruises” where travelers could go ashore and volunteer in local communities to work on projects like planting trees, making chocolate, and creating life-saving water filters. It turns out that the projects Fathom introduces their travelers to Read More...
Could crowdsourcing expertise be the future of government?
We lack public institutions - a participatory bureaucracy and open parliamentary processes - that know how to tap into the collective intelligence of our communities, and draw power from the participation of the many, rather than the few. It is the absence of these open institutions, and the Read More...