The Current - The magazine that finds reasons to be cheerful

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

Journalist Will Doig says there’s reasons for hope in even the darkest topics. As editor of the online magazine Reasons to be Cheerful — launched by David Byrne of the Talking Heads — Doig searches for stories that embody change and remind us of what’s good in the world.

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with Season 3 of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. We have all heard it before. There is too much bad news. It's relentless, it's depressing. From polarizing politics to wars, cost of living crisis, can seem like a real chore to find hope. But Reasons to be Cheerful, which is an online magazine,

is dedicated to doing just that, one solution at a time. And this week, the publication, which was started by David Byrne of The Talking Heads, celebrates five years of bringing us stories with a silver lining. Will Doig is executive editor of Reasons to be Cheerful. Will, good morning. Good morning. Go back five years of bringing us stories with a silver lining. Will Doig is executive editor of Reasons to be Cheerful. Will, good morning. Good morning. Go back five years. Where did the idea for this, for something that is going to highlight,

as the name says, Reasons to be Cheerful, where did that come from? Yeah, it actually started as a personal project of David Byrne's. A few years ago, more than five years ago, he was feeling a little bit depressed about the news. And so he just started looking for news stories that he felt were hopeful and that were about people who are solving problems. And he saved them on his hard drive. I think he saved them in a little folder called Reasons to be Cheerful. And then he started sending them to friends and people said, oh, these are great. These give me hope. And then he started

doing some talks around New York City with the same name, Reasons to be Cheerful. And I think after a few years of doing that, he realized, you know, this could be an online magazine for everybody. And so he brought on a small team of us, and we turned it into what you see today. When he called you to be involved in this, what was your reaction to the need for something like this? I have worked in conventional journalism for my entire career. And to be completely honest, I at first thought he was being ironic. When I heard the name Reasons to be Cheerful, I thought, oh, this is like a David Byrne art project where he's going to kind of twist the meaning into something interesting. But he assured me, no, he was completely serious. He wanted to publish stories about hopeful,

positive news, things that were working in the world, bringing all the same rigor and standards of conventional journalism to that genre. And I thought, that's kind of a crazy idea, but that could work. And, you know, so we started doing it. At the time, I think this was sort of a crazy idea in the time since solutions journalism, as it's called, has caught on and is being embraced by more mainstream news organizations. But five years ago, it was sort of wild. And at first, people didn't quite know what to make of it. But then they really seemed to catch on. And now we have more readers than ever. Did you feel a need for this? I mean, personally, as somebody who, as you said, had worked in conventional and mainstream journalism, were you looking for something like this? Yeah, I genuinely do think that it is a really important part of journalism.

I mean, journalism has—I think it is failing to some degree as an institution. And I think it's also failing its audience. You know, if you read the statistics, you see more and more people who are turning away from the news because they feel like it's not getting them anywhere or it's affecting their mental health. Or it's just, you know, sort of bad for the world in the way that it's been done traditionally. of bad for the world in the way that it's been done traditionally. But when you read the same studies where people say that, they also say that they would come back to the news if it was more positive or more constructive or offered them solutions that they could actually do something about or get involved in. And so that's what we're trying to do is, in a way, I think that, you know, the picture of the world that most news gives us, even though the information it's giving us might be accurate, the overall picture is inaccurate because it's painting this picture of the world where absolutely everything is terrible. And what we're trying to do is refocus that picture a little and present a more accurate vision of the world, which is, yeah, there's a lot of horrible things out there, but there's also a lot of solutions out there that are making the world a better place. And the fact that you're not hearing

about those, that's kind of warping your perception of things. And we're trying to fix that. Why do you think that is? I mean, I want to get to what you're doing, but why do you think that is, he says, as somebody who is involved in perhaps telling people that there are terrible things that are going on in the world, that that's what we end up being fixated on. Because you could say, well, there are, I mean, there are awful things that are happening, wars and a climate crisis and a cost of living crisis. And those are the things that suck up the oxygen. Why is it that we find it difficult in this profession to also highlight the good?

My guess is that the news has found that kind of capturing our negativity bias as humans is a really good way to make a profit. So like we evolutionarily, we have evolved to focus on bad things, like focus on threats, which has served us pretty well as a species because it's helped us survive.

It doesn't serve us particularly well, you know, on a day when we're turning on our computers and just reading the news because we can't do much about those threats. We're just kind of reading about them and getting stressed out about them. And so I, you know, personally, listen, I still indulge in that all the time. This morning, I'm reading about, you know, Hurricane Milton. I'm reading about the upcoming election. It's mostly making me feel bad. And so I think that that's why the news has often done that. In a weird way, I think that it might not be working as well for them as they think it is, because as we said, a lot of people are starting to tune that out. And so what we are seeing now is more mainstream

news organizations really taking up solutions journalism and seeing that people are responding to that. So I think that there might be a little bit of a turn happening. I remember, and I know this because it's written down in a little piece of paper that's stuck on the wall of my office, David saying, when he's talking about what makes a story fit in the reasons to be cheerful kind of universe, we look for evidence that good things are happening. How do you go about figuring out what that evidence is and what story might fit in reasons to be cheerful? So we have a very kind of sort of strict bright line test for stories. They have to be about solutions that are implemented and working and have shown evidence of success. So not just happy news, not good ideas that might one day become something real.

It has to be stuff that's happening now. And that was really important to David from the beginning, that we focus only on that stuff because, A, everybody can report on happy news. I mean, there's stuff out there that's lots of good ideas, but until they're implemented, they might not mean much. But then two, really for our own credibility, I mean, listen, we were founded by an artist. Our name is Reasons to be Cheerful. Like we have a lot of sort of, you know, we have an uphill battle to make sure that people don't see us as some sort of goofy, funny, little happy project. And so what we try to do with every single story is make sure that we are, you know,

showing evidence that everything is successful, almost bringing a sort of like scientific method to these solutions and seeing, does this work? Yes, it works. Okay, then we can report on it. That is the kind of thing that changes behavior in some ways. Yeah, exactly. And that's actually part of the mission.

I mean, we hope that by reading these stories, people will say, hey, they have found a way to solve this problem in New Delhi. Maybe this could work in Columbus, Ohio, where I live. You never know. And it's actually something that we hear from readers about sometimes, where people email us and they'll say, oh, I read this story about something that you reported on, and I'm now working to get that implemented where I live. And that is really kind of the ultimate, you know, that's like the ultimate impact that we're looking for. Obviously, that's not going to happen with every story. A lot of what we are doing is also just trying to show people that the world is not terrible. You know, we say that we are part therapy session, part blueprint for a better

world. And we want to do both of those things, right? We want to like actually help, you know, create impact and spread positive change. But we also want to just help readers understand that things are not terrible and that, you know, we should be looking forward with hope. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal.

I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. What are one or two of the stories that you've done that you think have really connected with people? I mean, there are ones, I think all of us who have read it have ones that stand out to us. But for you, what are the things that you think that you have done that have really met that mandate and really had a connection with readers? I can tell you our most popular story of last year was about a dam removal project in Maine. So basically, you know, dam removal is something that is becoming

a big issue all across the world, really. I'm sure some of your listeners are familiar with the Klamath dam removals out in the western part of North America that have really brought rivers back to life. We looked at a similar project in Maine where they took down some dams and it was instantaneous the change. The rivers came back to life. The fish came back. We also spoke with the indigenous tribes up there that were very involved in the dam removals and bringing those rivers back to life was part of bringing their culture back. And I think that the kind of alchemy of all of that, the sort of instantaneous improvement that you could see with your own eyes, the cultural benefits, helping to write a past injustice, all of that came together.

And that story was incredibly popular with our readers. So I think that when you can bring a lot of kind of unlikely solutions together like that, that really connects with people. And in fact, we ended up doing an event up in Waterville, Maine at a venue right on the river, right across from one of those dams with some of the members of the indigenous tribe who are involved in it. And it was just a really magical event. Let me ask you about climate change, which is, I mean, obviously a huge pressing issue of our time, but we know from research that often the way that stories are presented, which is, this is an overwhelming problem, we're in big trouble, can turn people off. I mean, it can lead to that whole idea of news avoidance because people think, well, we're cooked. What am I going to do?

I'm not going to read this. It's going to bum me out. How do you go about bringing solutions-based reporting to climate change? I actually think that some of the kind of biggest, scariest, darkest problems are some of the most fertile grounds for this type of journalism.

So we launched in 2019, and then a few months later, the pandemic started. And I think we thought to ourselves, you know, we're looking down the barrel of a global pandemic with a publication called Reasons to be Cheerful. This is not going to work well for us. But it actually was pretty good timing because what the pandemic did was it laid the groundwork for amazing solutions to emerge all over the world that were like urgent and needed and could kind of, you know, emerge really quickly. And I think that climate change in a way is sort of similar, right? This

is like a global problem that affects everybody. It is incredibly urgent, but it's also something where there are just solutions everywhere you look. And some of those are really impactful solutions. They range from the biggest ones that you can think of that are all about solving climate change on a global level, down to the community level solutions that people can really feel like, this is something that I could do. So climate, environment, those stories are actually our most popular stories. And I think the reason is because people are hungry for solutions in those areas. And there are a lot of really exciting and surprising solutions to report on. You also mentioned the election. And I mean, there's a section

on the site of We Are Not Divided, which is about kind of countering the narrative that your country, our country, the world is super polarized and split and that people don't talk to each other. People just yell at each other. How has that connected with your readers, do you think? Yeah, that was a project that we launched in 2020 around the U.S. election. It's always a little tough for us because we are, you know, strictly nonpartisan. We don't look for solutions that adhere to any kind of ideology. So whenever an election comes around, we think, how are we going to deal with this? And last time around, we decided to do a project called We Are Not Divided that looked at how people who are often, you know, feel divided are bridging

those divides and coming together and solving problems together. A lot of unlikely partnerships, a lot of people who, you know, you would think would hate each other actually figuring out ways to work together, solve problems together. And it was a really, really successful project that readers really connected with. This year, we're working on our election coverage. We're doing a smaller project that we're calling No Matter Who Wins. Now, I want to be super clear with your listeners. We're not saying that it doesn't matter who wins the election.

It matters a great deal. It's going to have a huge impact on the world. But what we're trying to look at is, you know, the issues and the solutions that will continue to make the world a better place, no matter who wins, that are almost beyond politics and have to some degree reached an escape velocity so that no matter who wins the election, these are things that will keep getting better. And so those are solutions in climate and environment, in public health, in the way we work, in the way we organize society. There's all sorts of ways that things will keep getting better no matter what. And so we feel like in an election year, that's the kind of thing that we can bring to our readers. It's a sense of hope that not everything in the entire world will either, you know, succeed or fail based on who wins this election, that there are things that are going to keep getting better no matter what.

Is this, it's not the answer, but is it an answer to cynicism, which is really easy right now, I think? And just thinking like that and thinking in that way that there is possibility in the world. Thinking like that and thinking in that way that there is possibility in the world. I think so. I mean, listen, like, you know, we are really trying to, you know, create a sense that you don't need to be cynical. No matter how bad things seem, no matter how dark things seem, the key to not being cynical is to try to focus on what you can change. is to try to focus on what you can change. I mean, that's really the entire point of the publication, is to show people who are making positive changes, even when things seem to be, you know, beyond hope.

And so a lot of the time, we're talking about people who are in places where life is really hard. We're talking about issues that are really difficult sometimes. I mean, just because we're called Reasons to be Cheerful, we don't shy away from tough issues. We've reported on gun violence. We've reported on really kind of stuff that you would think does not fit into a publication like ours. But the reason that we do that is because you can find reasons for hope even in the darkest topics. You can find solutions that are happening and

that are real and that are measurable, even in kind of like the places where you think that's absolutely impossible. So, you know, listen, we're not like the New York Times. We're small but mighty, but we're trying to, you know, provide a little bit of hope and be an antidote to cynicism in, youicism in the small way that we can. You had a big party to celebrate the fifth anniversary. What was the highlight? Oh, yeah. That was an antidote to cynicism. The highlight, I mean, we were aiming for Unhinged, and I think that we achieved that. It was a completely ruckus, zany party that we had in New York City. We did it at a big theater in Midtown. It was sold out.

The audience went crazy. Everybody seemed to be having an amazing time. I don't want to pick a favorite performer because I feel like that would be unfair, but I'll just tell you that there was a ventriloquist who used human dummies taken from the audience.

There was finger puppetry. There was hula hooping. There were musical performances. David performed. Fred Armisen performed. It was just 90 minutes of pure joy, and it was really, really amazing. We've needed this for the last five years, but it feels like we really need it now.

Congratulations on the work that you're doing, and thanks for talking to us about it. Thank you so much for having me. Will Doig is the executive editor of Reasons to Be Cheerful. That publication just celebrated its fifth anniversary. For more CBC Podcasts,

go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.