Reasons to be Cheerful
Reasons to Be Cheerful is an online magazine founded by musician and activist David Byrne. It shares inspiring, solutions-oriented stories highlighting positive developments and innovative approaches to global challenges. The platform covers a wide range of topics, including environmental sustainability, social justice, urban design, health, and culture, emphasizing practical, replicable solutions that are making a difference. Reasons to Be Cheerful aims to counterbalance the often negative news cycle by showcasing stories of progress, resilience, and creativity. The website encourages readers to engage with and support these initiatives, fostering a sense of hope and empowerment. It also offers a newsletter to deliver uplifting content directly to its audience.
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Depleted Tennessee Farmland Is Now Teeming With Wildlife
In May 2010, extraordinarily heavy rainfall hit Tennessee. In some parts of the state, as much as 20 inches fell over two days. Dams were inundated, waterways overflowed and communities experienced historic flooding. Farmers in West Tennessee aren’t strangers to floods. Their farmland is adjacent to the Mississippi Alluvial Plain,...
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Tiny Island, Big Dreams
This story is published in collaboration with the Local Catch Network. At the end of a short road that spreads out into a paved spit of working waterfront on the tiny island of Culebra sits a small building with hurricane-proof windows, a sunflower yellow trim and two rows of solar...
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What We’re Reading: The ‘Unstoppable’ Development of a European Subway
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. No turning back Belgrade is known as the largest capital city in Europe without a subway. But if all goes to plan,...
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Removing Gang Tattoos Is Helping San Diegans Start Fresh
When people walk into the Clean Slate tattoo removal clinic at the University of California San Diego, they carry more than just ink on their skin. Many are justice-impacted adults — people with histories of incarceration, probation, or parole — trying to shed a visible reminder of a past they’ve...
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People Are Painting Crosswalks Across L.A. to Protect Pedestrians
This article was originally published by Next City, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on solutions for equitable and just cities. Get Next City’s stories in your inbox here. Painting a crosswalk is cheap and easy. A group of neighbors can paint an entire intersection in one morning for $100 or less. Getting the...
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The City That Turns Human Waste into Clean Fuel
Every time somebody flushes a toilet in Mannheim, they contribute to ecological shipping. Since March 2025, the German city’s wastewater treatment plant has been feeding an experiment of global relevance: Transforming sewage gases into green methanol, a cleaner, nearly-carbon-neutral alternative to heavy fuel oil. The pilot, known as Mannheim 001,...
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What We’re Reading: The Woman on a Mission to Make the World More Bike-Friendly
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Pedal power We know a bunch of bike lovers who’ve visited the Netherlands and come home extolling its glorious cycling infrastructure. But...
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One Year Later: A Dam Removal and a River’s Rebirth
When someone at the Washington Department of Natural Resources told Pete Barber about a derelict dam on the upper Washougal River, he was intrigued. Barber, the Habitat Restoration Program Manager for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, had grown up near the Washougal, a tributary of the Columbia River, and had heard...
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You Can Foster an Endangered Species in Your Home
When special-education teacher Thomas Ackermann comes home from work, he heads straight for the basement of his house in Aachen, Germany. Behind the door of his self-described “man cave” lies a four-by-four-meter world of mossy logs, trickling water and humid air — an astonishing micro-jungle he has built in a...
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The Startups Producing Drinkable Water from Air
Blistering suns, endless dunes and almost no water. This is the imagined world on the planet Tatooine in Star Wars. Here, survival depends upon towering vaporators that loom over the sand, drawing in air and condensing its moisture into life-giving water. But this technology isn’t just limited to the world...
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