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.
How this woman overcame the marginalization of women in Turkey with flying colors
Although Turkey claims it's becoming a cosmopolitan country, patriarchy in the nation is still ever present. In fact, Turkey ranked 130 out of 145 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Gender Gap Report, and less than 30 percent of women ages 15-64 participated in the labor force in Read More...
Monsanto Bayer deal shows that GMO support is weakening
At first glance, people looking for more sustainable solutions in the world might shrug their shoulders about the news of pharmaceutical and chemical multinational Bayer acquiring agrochemical giant Monsanto. Monsanto has been a target of the worldwide environmental movement for two decades for its Read More...
32,000 people in Japan turned 100 this year and the economy can't keep up
Japan doesn't really believe in dying young. At least, not according to conventional timelines. New data from the country's Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare reveal Japan has broken its own record for most centenarians by population for the 46th straight year. With 32,000 new 100-year-olds, Read More...
How Europe's influx of refugees is inspiring creative, affordable housing for everyone
When hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants started arriving in Europe in 2015, many cities started quickly building simple shelters, sometimes repurposing old shipping containers as temporary places to sleep instead of tents. But these makeshift sites were also often on the edges of Read More...
Google-backed blockchain start-up Ripple raises $55 million from big banks
Chris Larsen, the chief executive of Ripple, said the company was investing the fresh funds in global expansion. "We have been expanding our office locations. We want to continue that and grow those teams, we want to be hiring so we can have engineers on the ground with local banking partners as Read More...
1.5 billion people lack a legal identity; blockchain technology can change that
Many refugees and migrants cross borders without proper documentation or their passports are lost or stolen along the way. German police said recently that 80 percent of Syrian refugees in that country didn't have the right paperwork. Without official identification refugees don’t have access Read More...
The true story of a scientist who discovered the equation for altruism—and gave himself away
Laura met George in the pages of Reader’s Digest. In just a couple of column inches, she read an abridged version of his biography and was instantly intrigued. In the 1960s, apparently, egotistical scientist George Price discovered an equation that explained the evolution of altruism, then Read More...
Crowdfunding development aid would direct funds where they are needed most
As world leaders descend on New York this week for the UN general assembly, the funding of international development programmes will be high on the agenda – given that efforts to meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are estimated to cost as much as $4.5tn (£3.4tn) annually – more than Read More...
How to make it as a refugee in America
Despite the U.S. aiming to admit 85,000 refugees this year—the most accepted in more than a decade—the odds of getting in for any given refugee are extremely low. Each must pass a rigorous screening process (involving iris scans and in-person interviews) conducted by the UN and multiple Read More...
Cryptocurrencies and the future of money
What happens when the way we buy, sell and pay for things changes, perhaps even removing the need for banks or currency exchange bureaus? That's the radical promise of a world powered by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. We're not there yet, but in this sparky talk, digital currency Read More...