What Could Go Right?
What if instead of being on the brink of disaster, we’re on the cusp of a better world? No one can deny the challenges the world faces, from pandemics to climate change to authoritarianism. But pessimism and despair are too easy a response. Each week, Progress Network Founder Zachary Karabell and Executive Director Emma Varvaloucas convene a diverse panel of experts to discuss the central issues of our era, including sustainability, polarization, work, and the economy, and make the case for a brighter future. They emerge from their conversations with a counterintuitive but informed take: progress is on its way.
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What really went wrong with global politics? Emma welcomes Brink Lindsey, Senior VP at the Niskanen Center and author of The Captured Economy: How the Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, and Increase Inequality. Lindsey traces how politics, culture, and economics became unstable, from the development of liber
How can parents use data without becoming overwhelmed by getting things right and wrong? Zachary and Emma welcome Emily Oster, a professor of economics and author of several data-driven parenting and pregnancy books, including Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong and What You Really Need to
On this week’s Progress Report, Emma covers a whopping five reports of optimism from around the world. Poverty is declining in Iraq and Indonesia, and risk of child poverty is down across Europe. China reports a dip in its emissions that may continue, and Africa has invested heavily in solar energy over the past year.
What can we learn from the history of the American Right? Zachary and Emma welcome Sam Tanenhaus, historian and author, whose most recent work is his biography Buckley: The Life and Revolution That Changed America. Sam shares insights from his deep dive into the career of conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr., the c
This week on The Progress Report, Zachary and Emma cut through the doom and gloom to deliver feel-good news. This episode covers stories from the USDA’s hilariously unconventional wolf-deterring tactics (hint: it involves Scarlett Johansson) to an inspiring drop in U.S. divorce rates, America’s hidden fitness boom, and
It’s time to right the ship of democracy! Zachary and Emma sit down with powerhouse legal expert Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney and author of the popular Civil Discourse Substack and upcoming book Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy. Pulling on her 25 years of experience at the DOJ, Joyce pul
