Check out this week’s edition of our new behind-the-scenes series.

We’re trying something a little different: a weekly behind-the-scenes peek at what our team has been reading, learning and discussing.

177 ways the world got better in 2023.

At the end of this busy year, Reasons to be Cheerful’s editors are taking a moment to reflect.

Many people say they actively avoid the news. A new approach to journalism offers an antidote.

Evidence-driven stories about solutions shed light on what’s possible, helping readers to overcome feelings of helplessness.

Founding editor Christine McLaren talks to RTBC’s newest team member about hope for the climate, her time in Texas and the correct pronunciation of that thing that keeps your beer cool.

Stories at the nexus of water, climate and food.

At peer respite facilities, patients who don’t need immediate medical care can get help without feeling judged.

The production of wind energy keeps breaking records, and its potential for expansion is as wide as the oceans.

Silvopasture, the ancient practice of integrating trees and pastureland, is making a comeback as a way for farms to improve animal health while benefiting the climate.

A locally driven push to restore a Himalayan paradise preserved an economy, a community and an ecosystem all at once.

183 ways the world got better in 2022.

For nearly a month, 30 strangers locked down together to test the first major update to the polio vaccines in decades.

Introducing our membership program, a chance to support solutions journalism and help us grow for the future.

How does it work? What are the perks? Is this a paywall? In a short video, David Byrne answers questions about our new membership program.

“This is a hyperlocal model that supports the people who live in the area.”

“Once you have the skills to build one beehive, you can make 100.”

192 ways the world got better in 2021

We don’t have ads or paywalls — we only have you. Will you support us?

From shorter work weeks to repairable computers, here’s what you loved to read about this year.

Technology exists to scan people’s devices for evidence of child abuse. Should we use it?

A tsunami of spent EV batteries is coming, and the effort to recover the valuable materials inside them is already underway.

What makes Paris special? Any tips for learning French? You asked, Peter answered.

From the farmlands of rural Bavaria to the beaches of Southern California, our new colleague’s life has been a fantastic journey.

How has the pandemic changed your life? What’s an average day like in Lagos? What is your favorite Beyoncé song? You asked, Tolu answered.

Before being zoned out of existence, boarding houses gave less privileged city dwellers a place to live. Some places are bringing them back.

“Culture, community and land-based wisdom” form the pillars of a new modeling agency that’s elevating representation above profit.

112 bits of good news that kept us sane in 2020.

Life looks a little different these days.

A system for turning “they” into “we.”

How a platform that rewards informed opinion and civil debate is changing our behavior.

Stanford researcher Jan Gerrit Voelkel explains why a more passion-fueled form of partisanship is on the rise – and how it’s reshaping politics.

For the next six weeks, Reasons to be Cheerful is doing something a little bit different.

If we can hold up a mirror to ourselves and change, that’s a reason to be cheerful.

“Trans-competent” health care services — often staffed with trans doctors and nurses — are enhancing a medical system that has been slow to change its ways.

Embracing uncertainty may be the survival tactic that gets us through this.

Populated by seasonal laborers, Oregon’s Willamette Valley could have been devastated by the coronavirus. Instead, it’s become a model for how to keep workers safe.

The wins we rack up are meaningful beyond the policies they change — they are bursts of propellant that move a long and grueling struggle onward.

Step one: Cover anti-racism rallies more like women’s marches.

In a new series, we explore how the Covid-19 pandemic is making changes once dismissed as pipe dreams happen seemingly overnight.

The pandemic is revealing the many ways our lives intersect. Is this an opportunity for us to reimagine what we can be?

If the press can learn from the mistakes it made during the Ebola outbreak, it could become one of our best assets in fighting the current pandemic.

Seeing painful events as signs that we’ve lost our way misses the point. The truth is, we are less lost now than when we were comfortable.

In this week’s news briefing: moms get mad, journos shack up and cash for cops finds a new home.

Homicides fell, green space grew and your weather forecast got a lot more precise. The last 10 years were filled with positive change—really! Read our list…

In this week’s news briefing: the need to hydrate brings peace between rivals in Darfur, and renewable energy gets some unlikely proponents.

In this week’s news briefing: housing former prison inmates in people’s homes, building bird-friendly skyscrapers and solving an equestrian community’s poop problem.

From us to you, to yours. Give your loved ones a reason to be cheerful this holiday season.

In this week’s news briefing: buying up housing to keep it affordable, crunching the data on opioids and stopping storm surges with sand.

In this week’s news briefing: CPR dummies finally get breasts, lettuce becomes natural gas and an ancient air conditioner cools New Delhi.

In this week’s news briefing: incubating a new generation of agri-preneurs, soaking up stormwater and canceling carbon.

In this week’s news briefing: Brazilians put down roots in Japan, Jamaican gardeners cultivate coral and medical care arrives on the islands of Bangladesh.

In this week’s news briefing: ending homelessness for profit, coffee saves the rainforest and rural America takes on climate change.

In this week’s news briefing: healing Israel’s overcrowded hospitals, healthier snacks for condors and a ski slope that converts waste into energy.

In this week’s news briefing: helping India’s “wandering” people find their way home, a broader lens on bikeability and a plan to keep teachers from walking away.

In this week’s news briefing: Pulling drinking water from the mist, post-prison seniors and hyper-humane malaria eradication.

In this first edition of RTBC’s weekly news briefing, stories of street redesign in Amsterdam, solar systems in California and cooperative farming in China.