LIDN Weekly Roundup #40
Welcome to the first roundup of this new year, and this new decade! And my, hasn’t 2020 started with a barrage of very depressing news. From out-of-control bush fires, to political assassinations, to people caring way too much about the royal family. It’s easy to get depressed these days, with the weight of humanity’s failings on your shoulders, feeling like you’re not doing enough.
So instead of piling on more links about what’s going wrong around the world, and all the things you ‘should’ be doing to fix them, I thought I would instead start 2020 with showing you what is going right in the world. Things we have achieved. Good news stories. A bit of positivity to start your decade. Because, as one LIDN member wisely espoused the other day, there are pockets of amazing things happening, and we should stop to recognise them.
- Something to read… National Geographic recaps the top scientific discoveries of the last decade.
- Something to listen to… Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, Director of Technical Coordination at Ghana’s Ministry of Health, talking about the strides they’ve made towards Universal Health Coverage.
- Something to watch… This TedTalk on solutions journalism, or why the news should also focus on good stories that incentivise people to act in a positive way.
- Something to follow… Dina Pomeranz, an Economics professor in Switzerland, is a great Twitter follow if you want occasional good news on what can be the worst platform for it.
- Something to do… Play around with Our World In Data, like this graph showing how child mortality in low-income countries has fallen from 18% to 7% in just 27 years.