The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - 32 Positive Trends to Ponder | Foundations Friday 68

Episode Date: November 3, 2022

Sharing 32 positive changes we should celebrate from Hans Rosling's book 'Factfulness: 10 Reasons We're Wrong About the World'

Hey everybody, thanks so much for coming to KevTalks podcast, this episode six of KevTips Think Positive. Why is that? Well, I have read, or at least read most of, the book called Factfulness by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rundlund. Hopefully I said that correctly. But the subtitle of it is called 10 Reasons We're Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. This is a book that came out in 2018, so a little pre-COVID, but still tons of great data. And all the data really helps remind us that one, the news loves to report negative stuff. It sells better. It plays better. It gets us arguing with each other. So why not look at some clear data? and that's what I'm going to share

right now. So I'm going to share 32 things. 16 of them are 16 bad things that are decreasing from 1800 to today or roughly from them looks like different scales and 16 good things that are increasing. So just some quick facts to start your Friday. Ready? 16 bad things that are decreasing. Legal slavery, oil spills, expensive solar panels, HIV infections, children dying, battle deaths, death penalty, leaded gasoline, plane crash deaths, child labor, deaths from disaster nuclear arms smallpox smoke particles ozone depletion and hunger again these are 16 pretty significant pretty impactful areas that are on the decrease that are getting better um where again bad news sells what about all this good stuff now what are 16 good things that are increasing? New movies. I think that's good, but Netflix and Amazon maybe screen what you're doing a little bit more. That's Kevin

Pinnell's two cents. Okay, get back to the list. Protected nature, women's right to vote, new music, science, harvest, literacy, democracy, child cancer survival, girls in school, monitored species, electricity coverage, mobile phones, water, internet, and immunization. All 16 things that are increasing. And I'm going to read a paragraph. This is from page 64 of Factfulness. Again, came out in 2018 by Hans Rosling. Here's a good kind of summary statement for this episode. It is hard to see any of this global progress by looking out your window. It is taking place beyond the horizon.

But there are some clues you can tune into if you pay close attention. Listen carefully. Can you hear a child practicing the guitar or the piano? That child has not drowned and is instead experiencing the joy and freedom of making music. So think about that the next time you see a horrible story or the news talking about how we're all going to melt when the ozone goes away or drown when the polar ice caps, you know, take over and the sea levels rise and all that, or just how everything's so bad between everybody else. I've done episodes about this before. Facts, not fear. Double check the facts.

Is it the left calling the right something? Is it the right calling the left something? Is it the middle saying it's not fair? Regardless, there's data to support all of what Hans Rosling talks about in Factfulness. This book from 2018, I got it from my library. You can get it there or wherever else you get books. Thanks so much for listening to this short episode. Please make sure that you and your teams have a plan, that you are staying informed with the facts, and that you are getting involved to make a difference.

Have a great weekend, everyone. For now, I gotta fly.