Hope Is A Verb - Ask Us Anything

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

What do KPop Demon Hunters and Bluey have to do with stories of progress? Well, you’ll hear the answer in this ‘Ask Us Anything’ episode. From controversial opinions on the climate crisis, to our very first News Fix bulletin, Gus and Amy dive into a range of topics and answer some big, burning questions from subscribers. Other topics discussed: Why solar energy is such big news, the role of solutions journalism in Gaza, good humans everywhere, individual action versus systemic change, the question of scale and the launch of our audio documentary about the malaria vaccine, A Shot At History.What did you think of our News Fix? If you want to send us a question, feedback or nominate a potential guest for the podcast, go to our website or email [e-mail] podcast is hosted by Angus Hervey and Amy Davoren-Rose from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Fix The News⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Audio sweeting by Anthony Badolato at Ai3 – audio and voice. 

Welcome back to Hope is a verb and our very first Ask Us Anything episode. Yay! We've had such a great response to our call-out. Yeah, we really did. We were delighted with voice notes and the messages be received from people all over, the United States, Australia, Canada, the Bahamas. and we really appreciate everyone taking the time to send in the notes, to send in the emails.

We're going to try to answer a few today, and as you'll hear, the questions and topics are pretty diverse. And I think in a weird, strange roundabout way, they actually do provide a pretty good snapshot of where things are at in the world right now. Yeah, I think so too. But before we dive in, Gus, I actually want to start with the question

that we ask all our guests. What is sparking hope for you right now? I think this answer is always the same for me. It's the same whether you ask me six months ago or then six months' time. I cannot get enough of what is happening with solar energy around the world. It is absolutely astonishing. The interesting thing about the clean energy space is that I've been monitoring it for over a decade. So I feel like I have an almost sixth sense about what the zeitgeist is like.

and it's strange because energy is such a technical subject it's always lots of graphs and numbers and statistics but there is also a vibe I guess is the only way I can explain it that you start to pick up on if you've been doing this for long enough and right now the vibe especially around solar is off the hook country after country across Europe we've seen solar surge by 10 20 30 percent compared just to last year

we're seeing incredible new records in solar output in the United Kingdom across the pond the United States despite all the bad news that we're hearing about what the Trump administration is doing the clean energy juggernaut just keeps on trucking the United States is on track to install its highest level of new energy in 2025 and more than half of that is made up of solar so we have this real kind of changing of the guard where the momentum now just seems to be completely unstal And there's also a really great story of this week, actually, about how solar energy is suddenly starting to surge across the African continent.

And what I really love here is this sense that African countries, after decades, are trying to electrify using fossil fuels. They've finally woken up and realized that actually the best way to do this is via cheap solar panels. And the beauty of solar panels, of course, is that they don't lend themselves to the kind of corruption that fossil fuels do. They're decentralized, they're cheaper, it's difficult for. for people to create a monopoly on that.

And then last but not least, of course, the biggest climate story in the world in the first half of 2025, China's carbon emissions declined, which is crazy, because China is by far the largest emitter in the world. And we're seeing carbon emissions come down there, not because everyone suddenly developed a conscience

and decided to switch off all the coal, but because China has installed so many solar panels that they are starting to eat into coal's lunch. And that makes me more hopeful, about climate than any other story on the planet right now. So for me, it's all solar energy all the way down. It's all about the sun. It's all about the sun. Yeah. Amy, what about you? What is sparking hope for you right now? Well, it's funny because I've been out of the newsletter for the past few months, really, while I've been working on all things podcast. I am reading the newsletter like

everybody else. And every week, I struggle to get through the whole edition that there are so many stories out there and they just keep coming at a point where on the street you're talking to people about how bad the world is. It sounds a little bit like navel-gazing, but what is sparking hope for me is getting all of those stories each and every week. And then seeing the team WhatsApp feed that there's too much. Yeah. It's a strange problem to have, especially at this moment when it feels like so much is falling apart and there are so many awful things happening counterbalanced by I guess what I've started calling the hidden half of the ledger all of these incredible stories of progress and healing and restoration and that's not to take

away from all the really genuinely awful things that are happening right now yeah which is actually a really good segue into our first question and this one comes from George my name is George I would like to receive, if possible, information about the ongoing reconstruction of Gaza and humanitarian aid as it is being delivered or not delivered. Hopefully there will be some good news henceforth. I would look forward to reading that in your magnificent publication. All right, Gaza.

Where to begin? I think it's really interesting to think about the role of Solutions Journalism when it comes to something like what is happening in Gaza. And when you see those images, when you hear the news, it is a very difficult thing to hold and a very difficult thing to even think about. I think the role of Solution Journalism is interesting here. It's not our job to try to find good news

in all the places all of the time. I think that does a disservice to reality. This is not rose-colored glasses at any cost. And I think it's important that when things are going wrong and when truly evil things are taking place. I think it's important for Solutions Journalists to call that out. I don't think we should try and gloss over what's happening there and try to say, yes, it's really awful.

But amidst all of that, there are some aid trucks getting through and maybe famine is not widespread through the entire enclave of Gaza. That's not Solutions Journalism. That's papering over the cracks. Yeah, I know there have been, we've been working together now for five years. And I would say there's usually two or three, times a year where putting out stories of progress feels really hard and it feels really awkward. I think it's really important to have those moments. But one thing that I always go back to

is finding the people, right? So it's not about the progress. It becomes about the people who are in there and doing something. It is also one of the reasons why I'm really grateful for our circular news model. So for anyone that doesn't subscribe to our newsletter, we donate a third of our revenue, so not our profit, but our revenue, to different charities and organizations, mainly grassroots that are really driving change on the ground. A couple of weeks ago, we crowdfunded 10,000 US dollars for an organisation called Glea. We interviewed the founder Tarek on this very podcast. They're an organisation that use open source technology to basically 3D print medical supplies

into conflict, crisis zones, low-resource countries. But they have also been doing a whole lot more on the ground in Gaza. They've been running clean water programs. They've been running clinics. They are part of the emergency response in the hospitals. And Gus, we also found out that they're involved in the massive rollout of the polio vaccination drive that happened in Gaza last year. Yeah, these people are amazing.

And I think a lot about all those people on the ground, the humanitarian workers, the people helping in the kitchens, the medical professionals who stay there in what are unimaginable circumstances. It's a reminder of what humanity is capable of, even in the darkest of times and in the darkest of places. Yeah, and I also think it's worth remembering that as impossible as this seems right now, there are a lot of people on the ground over there working really hard towards peace. You know, last season we spoke to two incredible women-led movements,

women wage peace in Israel, women of the sun in Palestine, two groups of mothers on different sides of enemy lines who are working together to find ways to convince their governments, to create a peaceful future. You know, I think they currently have one of the toughest jobs in the world right now. And yet they roll up their sleeves and they keep on going day after day

in the most horrific and hardest conditions. Yeah. One day it will not be like this. And if that day comes, it will be because people like this did the hard yards. And when the bombs stop, there will be people there on the ground trying to piece things back together, the same as there are after every major crisis. Yeah. Yeah.

People not progress in that part of the world at the moment. Speaking of people, we have another question from Rainey. Hi, my name is Rainey and I'm from the Bahamas, Exuma. My question is, how do you get somebody nominated for your part? podcast. There's an amazing young woman. Her name is Alana. She is from Australia, but she runs an organization called for you Haiti, and it's on the island of Luganoff in Haiti, and she does amazing things with children. She feeds like 350 kids a day, and she has a school. I just think she would be an absolutely amazing person for your podcast. Thank you.

Great question. Thanks, Rainey. I think this is a good reminder that there are just so many wonderful human beings out there that fly beneath the radar. One of the things I like most about the circular news model is that in my travels across the darker corners of the internet, trying to dig up all of the stories of progress that you never see, you do come across these really amazing individuals who are doing this kind of work. And it always makes me think, if that's what I'm picking up just myself, then how many more am I not seeing or how many more have I not discovered? I often feel like there's an invisible army out there.

Yeah. It's like the red car thing. Because we've been in this podcast and doing this work, when you are constantly trying to find the good people, then all of a sudden you start finding more and more and more good people. But Gus, I really love this idea about listeners and subscribers being able to nominate somebody. And I think it would be a great addition to this podcast.

Well, I think we should do it. I think we can create a button on our website and a simple form. And by the time you listen to this podcast, all you have to do is go to fix the news.com. And there'll be a little button there saying nominate someone for the podcast or nominate a charity. And Rainey, just so you know, we have looked up, Alana. She is amazing. And we've added her to our wonderfully long list of good humans to speak to. So thank you so much for taking the time to recommend.

her. Okay, speaking of good ideas, we had another one come through, and this one is from a fellow Aussie named Sweeney. Hey there, love what you're doing with the newsletter. I think a fantastic podcast feature would be reading out the newsletter. I don't always have time to sit down and read through it, and I don't really want to be looking at a screen too much. But if I could listened to all those great news stories being read out by a real human voice every week, it would be so much easier to digest and then I might go back and read over the newsletter. I would love that. Sweeney, this is not the first time that we have been asked this question.

However, I think you were the first one to actually say that it needs to be read out by a real human voice. Well, Sweeney, you asked and we listened. We dug around for a real human being. We didn't have to go far because Anthony Badalato, our audio engineer, has a wonderful news reading voice. So Anthony, how would you feel about reading out six or seven of the top news stories for this week's news? Gus, I would be absolutely on it. Hopping in the booth now and I'll produce something up for you, Sweeney. Welcome to the inaugural news fix update.

This week's news fix, school lunches are dishing up good news around the world. Eleven countries have now eliminated a disease this year, a new protected area for Peru, and what exactly is a neutrino detecto? Okay, let's get into the details. At the end of July, leaders from around the world gathered in Ethiopia for a stock take on school meals. Over 170 countries now run programs, and 16 countries have enshrined. the right to adequate food in their constitutions. Investment in school meal programs is at $48 billion a year and rising, and in the last two years, an additional 20 million children started receiving

school meals across Africa. Nepal has officially eliminated Rebella as a public health problem, making it the 11th country to eliminate a disease in 2025. The win is thanks to successive national campaigns that pushed vaccine coverage above 95%. And if we check the tally, this means Nepal is the sixth country in WHO's Southeast Asia region to eliminate Rebella, reducing the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and lifelong congenital defects. Meanwhile, Europe dismantled 542 river barriers last year, the highest ever restoring 2,900 kilometres of waterways. Finland, led with 138 removals, while Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Turkey saw their first demolitions. The EU counts over 1.2 million barriers, which have driven a 75%

decline in migratory fish since 1970. It's fair to say that the rivers in Europe simply don't give a damn anymore, and the plan is to reconnect at least 25,000 kilometres of river by 2030. To Peru, Peru has created the San Pedro de Chonta Reserve in Wanuko, protecting 519 kilometers square of diverse landscapes and forests. The area is home to 131 orchid species, 296 birds, 29 mammals and 570 plants, and it also safeguards the headwaters of three rivers and 39 high altitude lagoons, ensuring clean water for over 40,000 people. A huge win for people and planet. And Gus was right, US solar and wind are leaving coal in the dust. In the first half of 2025, wind and solar delivered just over 20% of

US electricity, overtaking both coal and nuclear for the first time. And across Africa, solar panel imports have surged over the past year. 20 countries have set new import records from Sierra Leone, importing enough solar panels in one year to make up to 65% of their entire nation's generating capacity. After 60 years of trying to electrify populations with fossil fuels, people finally figured out there's a much better way. Electricity poverty is real and clean energy is now at scale to solve it. It's time to unleash human flourishing. Okay, this is really good news. have fallen sharply since 1990. Leukemia is the most common cancer in kids, accounting for between one quarter to one-third of all childhood cancer cases. A new analysis found the global

mortality rate declined by 59% between 1990 and 2021, with the greatest reduction in children aged 2 to 4. Finally, deep beneath southern China, the world's largest neutrino detector, Juno, has gone live. A neutrino detector is basically a huge science trap for one of the universe's most slippery particles, and it will help us solve the long-standing question of neutrino mass ordering. I know, that's been keeping me up at night too, and deepen insights into supernovae and exotic physics. A bold leap into the quantum unknown. Thanks for that, Sweeney. I'm Anthony Badalato, and that was your news fix. Back to you, Amy and Gus.

OK, Gus, I know we've got a lot going on, but I really like the sound of this. I think we've got something here that maybe down the track we can roll out into some kind of weekly release. Potentially, if you listen to this and you like this, let us know. We'll put the contact details in the show notes, as always.

What do you think? Would you like to hear Anthony back reading news again? Just like a tiny little news fix. Tiny newsfixes from Anthony. All right, let's get on to the next question. This one comes from Celeste also in Australia. Hi, Fixer News. I love reading your articles and listening to the podcast,

but sometimes I can get concerned with how your news stories are compartmentalized. After all, sometimes countries do good things while exploiting the workers carrying out the good works. These people are often, in my view, considered expendable and it takes some of the varnish off the projects, as is not for the good of humanity, but to serve those holding the reins. I can't help but feel that if the aims of some superpowers

were to be realised in the name of world domination, good humans would be cast off having served their purpose, which would be not good for the world. This is interesting, Celeste, and I think it gets into almost, philosophical territory, but something that I've realized over many years of doing this work is that in us versus their mentality increasingly doesn't really describe the reality of how progress happens. The problem with this frame is that it plays into the idea of conflict and it ignores

the systemic issues around why things fall apart and why progress doesn't happen in certain places. Instead, the world is a much more complex and much more difficult place to really turn into those kinds of us versus them narratives. And ultimately, what this comes down to is an individual responsibility to say, you know what, I belong to something bigger than myself that is trying to make things better. It's just up to me to play my small part. What comes up for me in hearing this. As you said, Gus, the world is complex and then progress is also complex. I think about a lot of the stories when I first started coming into this work and it was how finance was starting to drive a lot of these really old fossil fuel companies into switching to renewable energy. Now,

you could say that the intention when it's driven by money isn't great, but the outcome that is going to happen from that is good. So is it progress at any costs? Because as you said, there's so many forces in the world that are all operating at the same time that it does get quite hard to unpick all of that. Yeah. And that means that it's very hard to clinically dissect all of this

and figure out where do you push what's causing what? And this is what makes progress such an interesting story. Yeah. Because sure, there are rainbows, but there is also a lot of grey. it's not the other side of the coin, it's just a bigger picture. It reminds me of something I've been thinking a lot about recently, which is the principle we call the paradox of generative narratives, which is quite a mouthful.

You'd be fun to sit at dinner parties at the moment. Hello, I'd like to tell you about an idea I've been working on. What is it again? Can we give it an acronym? The paradox of generative narratives. Pog. Here's the paradox of generative narratives. Hang on, hold up. What is a generative narrative?

A generative narrative is a story about how things can get better or about how things are being fixed, how there is always light even in the darkest of places. I like that. I like that because often progress is a press release, right? That's right. But we don't get the story of how it's happened. Yeah, a generative narrative.

is a story of how things got better or something was overcome. But it's not like eating your vegetables. It's not just a kumbaya story of, yay, it all happened and everyone lived happily ever after. It's a story that's full of twists and turns and setbacks and failures and about how people had to come together, but then some people had to make moral compromises. It's a real story.

And generative narratives are much more difficult to pull off, but they are much more. impactful than our usual storytelling, which relies on emotional hooks like fear and danger in order to draw in the reader's attention. Three really great examples of generative narratives. One of them is Andor, the new Star Wars series. A second one, Bluey. It is the most streamed television show of all time. And it is all generative narrative. There's no evil villains. There's no scary hooks. Instead, it's a very, very simple story about a family in Brisbane in Australia and about how they go through their daily lives in the most mundane way

possible and yet somehow there is a magic in there which has captured the entire world's attention. And my third example, the most popular story on planet Earth right now, K-pop demon hunters, which is on track, if not already, the most streamed movie in Netflix history. It is a story about how someone manages to mend their broken halves of their personality and their identity and overcomes great evil through singing together with their fans. Another great example of a generative narrative. Well, Celeste, I feel like Gus has been waiting four seasons to talk about some of this stuff. I mean, we could keep talking forever about this kind of stuff. But we do have a question from Mike in Canada.

the news, lots of good stuff. However, the human race is on the endangered species list, along with the white rhino and various other of our neighbors on the planet. I want to see news that is working towards getting us off that list. And I think, for instance, the average human being, and we are the ones that are going to have to make the difference. It's not not the oil companies or the big corporations. We have to get rid of our fossil fuel vehicles. We have to start monitoring the amount of plastic we're bringing home in our shopping bags from Walmart and the grocery store.

I would like to see some coverage of this subject. All right, this is a very interesting question for me about the difference between individual responsibility and collective action. I think one of the big myths that has been perpetuated by fossil fuel interests over the last two decades is that the solution to the climate crisis is individual responsibility. That is not the solution to the climate crisis. In the last 20 years, China has produced and consumed more coal than was dug up and consumed in all of history by all the industrial superpowers up to that point in the space of just 20 years. And in the course of doing so, released billions of

tons of planet warming gas into the atmosphere. And it is the reason that we are seeing such a huge acceleration of global warming right now. In other words, if you take China out of the equation over the last 20 years, what you see is that around about 2015-2016, emissions for the world as a whole kind of start leveling off. So if you take China out of the equation, it turns out that the Paris Agreement kind of worked that the world said we need to stop emitting fossil fuels and that the giant oil tanker of fossil fuels started turning around that point.

This is a very controversial take on the climate crisis, especially because it's not actually China's fault. What actually happened over the last 20 years is that most of the world outsourced their manufacturing to China and China had to manufacture all of the world's goods using its existing system and using fossil fuels. As always, it's complex. So the point that I'm trying to make over here

is that if you're trying to understand what has happened in the world, it's really important to look at the trend lines and not the headlines. Plastic is another great example. Most of the world's plastic is coming into the world's oceans via a very small handful of highly polluting rivers in the world. And so that if you're trying to solve that problem, you need to go to where the problem is taking place. All of our attention and energy

should be focused on trying to stop that plastic pollution entering the oceans at that small handful of rivers rather than worrying about the individual plastic wrapper that we did or didn't use in order to wrap up our food. I'd say this in full understanding that's a controversial point of view, and I still think that individual responsibility matters, but purely in the sense that your actions

match up with the change that you want to see in the world, world. And so I still want to drive an electric vehicle. I'm still very conscious of my waist. I make sure I turn off all the lights. But that's because that is the way I want to live. I'm not carrying out those actions because I think that they are going to make an impact on where the carbon emissions turn the corner in a place like China. So that is my highly controversial answer to Mike's question. Oh, okay, challenge accepted, Gus. I mean, from where I see it, the global, the local, the individual, it can be very chicken and egg. And, you know, the problems that we're dealing with, they're not only really big,

they're interconnected. And so they're really, really hard to pull apart. And I think that is why so many of us get overwhelmed when we look at these issues. And then when you layer that on with a media ecosystem that is constantly throwing at us what's going wrong and what we're doing wrong, this is where circling back to the role of solutions journalism, there is such a place to keep highlighting what is going right and what is working and what we can do because our individual agency at this point in time is so important. We need to know that no matter how small the actions that we're taking are, that they are in some way contributing to a much greater change.

Sounds like you and I slightly disagree on the role of individual agency, which is good. There had to be a first time for everything. I would say I disagree. I would say it's an and. I think we need both of those things. In true, conciliatory Amy style. All right. Question number six from Matt.

In the Netherlands. Which actually came as an email, yeah. Great. I'm going to read Matthias's question out. Dear Fix the News team, thank you for creating Fix the News. I signed up for the paid version today. A little late to the game, it helps me tremendously to deal with the news and climate anxiety. As a lifelong news addict, I'm exhausted by Endus Problem-focused reporting.

I crave media with a solution bias. That's why I wonder, could Fix the News grow into a truly global, independent news network, one with the reach and impact of today's dominant platforms. Is this on your horizon, or is it just a naive dream? Matthias, I think we've definitely dreamed about that kind of impact in the past, but I also wonder whether there comes some kind of compromise with that kind of scale, that if you want to grow out to a truly kind of world-spanning a genuine media network, in order to achieve that kind of growth

and square the circle on the commercial realities of what that actually takes, you would end up diluting the reporting. You would end up diluting the independence and I don't actually think it would be successful. When it comes to solutions journalism, you are by definition swimming upstream against consumer tastes

and that one news organisation can't single-handedly change the way that people consume the news. So instead of a world-spanning media network, I like to think of Fix the News as the initial vaccination against the stories of death, disaster, and division, and that we are manufacturing an inoculation against despair, and that we are inoculating our small readership of tens of thousands of readers, but that we're hoping that those people then go on to inoculate a few more people around them. and that via that, those kinds of stories of progress spread. So in many senses, this puts the onus on our listeners and our readers to spread this kind of news. Well, Gus, I have been part of the mainstream media machine before I came here. And I have to say, I like being part of, I would describe it as the Margaret Mead of media.

We are the small group of concerned citizens that has kind of started to join forces with other small groups of concerned citizens around the world and I think that the reason why this is working for us is because we are feet on the ground and we're staying low to the ground and we really know what we are yeah I like that though although we are a small team and we are swimming upstream that doesn't mean that we can't do big things and right now the biggest thing in the fix the news world is that we are working on our first really big piece of original reporting in the form of an audio documentary about the rollout of the malaria vaccine. We've been working on it for over a year,

so it's been a real labour of love. I think back to when we first decided to do this thing, Amy, we were different people. Yeah. Well, you only had two kids when we started doing this, and now you have three. I did. and it's interesting now that we've got a third little girl in our lives me and Sammy

it really has kind of brought home how important this story is because this is ultimately a story about mothers and their babies across an entire continent one nice way maybe to think about this is that this is our very own attempt to put our money where our mouth is and create a generative narrative we don't just talk about it we are doing it You took the words right out of my mouth. When you talk about a story that is against all odds, this story is against all odds at every single stage.

And sometimes this happens in creative work where the subject that you are documenting actually mirrors the process of documenting it. Yeah, it has been a real road coaster. Yeah. We have certainly hit our roadblocks. we have had to keep pushing through, we've had to keep finding more people,

but the end product is going to be a very full picture and a very human story, which is something I think I'm most proud of. We think it's the biggest hidden story of progress on the planet right now, and it is an amazing story, but it is one that is getting almost no visibility in mainstream news.

And when it comes to the world getting better, trying to inoculate millions of kids against a disease that is one of the biggest killers of humanity in history, well, I don't think it comes bigger than that. And that is why the documentary series is called a shot at history, because this is one of those lines in the sand that over the next 10 years we will see before the malaria vaccines rolled out

and after the malaria vaccines rolled out. So, please make sure that you subscribe to the podcast to make sure that you don't miss it or make sure that you're on the newsletter, FixTheNews.com. First episode drops next Friday, the 5th of September. It will be rolled out over three episodes, which will drop weekly. And we can't wait to share it with you. We are really proud of it. We have put our hearts, minds, hours into this.

And there are just some incredible people that you are going to. going to meet. And that is probably a great place to end this episode of Hope is a verb. Our very first ask us anything, our apologies for controversial statements for long rambling, long-winded answers. Thank you so much to everyone who wrote in or who left a voice note. We really appreciate it. We hope you enjoyed the episode. And we'll see you next week for a shot at history. We'd like to thank our paying subscribers for making projects like this podcast possible. possible. If you're interested in finding out more about our work, check out fixthenews.com. There are a lot of podcasts out there. It means a lot to us that you chose this one. This podcast

is recorded in Australia on the lands of the Gardagal and the Wurundry and Wayorong people. If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Hope as a verb, make sure you subscribe and leave a review. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Thank you.