The Optimist View
Our weekend edition long form journalism explores in-depth solutions to global issues.
Healing the world by slowing down
Every family has two or three qualities they prize. In one family, parents praise their children for being good at sports; in another, for being musical or socially adept. At our house, speed was highly esteemed. The faster you could do a thing, the better. I turned out to have a knack for it. As Read More...
Home Runs and Horticulture: Urban Gardens Hit the Big Leagues
Think Global, Eat Local Part II By Sadie Wilbur, Editorial Intern, August 2018 Gardening has a power that is political and even democratic. And it is a political power that can be applied constantly, whereas one can only vote or demonstrate occasionally.—Wendell BerryJust behind centerfield wall Read More...
The Compassion Instinct: How to become more compassionate
Research shows that a compassionate attitude towards others improves mental and physical health. The Dalai Lama has been telling us for years that compassion is the source of happiness, and recently he added that compassion is good for health too. “If you want others to be happy,” reads the Read More...
Think Global, Eat Local (Part I)
By Sadie Wilbur, Editorial Intern, July 2018 “A garden is a solution that leads to other solutions. It is part of the limitless pattern of good health and good sense." – Wendell BerryDirty Hands, Happy Heart My love for all things green began when I was a young girl. I grew up alongside a Read More...
Embracing diversity, welcoming insight
Seeing in a new light When France won the 2018 World Cup in Moscow last week, it was hard not to notice the diversity of the team and the abundance of African surnames on the jerseys. The majority of the 23 French team members, 16 to be exact, are immigrants or children of immigrants from Read More...
The Optimist's View: The Value of Sadness
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. - Kahlil Gibran In my book, Daring to Love, I discuss how love arouses sadness, which tends to frighten us and cause us to push love away. But when we challenge our attitudes about sadness and dare to feel this valuable Read More...
The Optimist's View: The Value of Sadness
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. - Kahlil Gibran In my book, Daring to Love, I discuss how love arouses sadness, which tends to frighten us and cause us to push love away. But when we challenge our attitudes about sadness and dare to feel this valuable 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...
Vintage fashion from recycled cotton
Everyone has heard about the plastic waste ruining our planet by now. But who knows about the 13.1 million tons of textile waste (worth roughly USD 350 billion) the United States alone produce every year? And who knows that 11 million of that textile waste goes almost directly to landfills? Read More...
Flying a kite for clean high altitude wind energy
Wind turbines are a wonderful invention, producing clean energy from an abundant natural resource: the wind. Since the oil crisis in the 1970s, we’ve continuously developed new and more efficient wind turbines. The key to an efficient wind turbine is a steady flow of… you guessed it, the wind. Read More...