Volcanoes are erupting in The Philippines, but on-fire Australia received some welcome rain. The Iran war cries have been called off and The Donald’s military powers are about to be hamstrung by the Senate. Meanwhile, his impeachment trial is starting, and we’re all on Twitter for a front-row seat.
The Progress Network Celebrates Its First Anniversary
Maybe we aren't going to hell in a handbasket.
Along with its more than 100 members and thousands of community members, The Progress Network celebrates its first anniversary today as a media platform and ideas space for envisioning and developing a bright future in an era defined not only by the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change but also by the assumption that the world is on a dangerous path downward.
“I started the Progress Network last year in the belief that we can create the future of our dreams instead of the future of our fears,” explained author and columnist Zachary Karabell, founder of The Progress Network. “To do that, we need to pay more attention to what is working and to how we are actually solving many of the problems we’ve made. A year later, we have made a meaningful start toward building a robust network of thinkers and doers creating a more constructive present and a better future.”
The eminent members of The Progress Network include David Brooks, Hubert Joly, Heather McGhee, Krista Tippett, Steven Pinker, Matthew Yglesias, Bina Venkataraman, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Fareed Zakaria. While they may not speak with one voice, they are united in the belief that, with the right focus and effort, the world can make progress.
Under executive director Emma Varvaloucas, former executive editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, the nonprofit news platform runs live events featuring roundtables with its members and publishes a weekly newsletter whose collection of progress news from around the world is an antidote to addictive doomscrolling.
Karabell and Varvaloucas co-host the anti-apocalypse, conversational podcast “What Could Go Right?”, available on The Progress Network site as well as all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
The Progress Network’s first-year numbers are impressive:
101 members | 32,107 website users
YouTube
49,115 views of The Progress Network’s editorial content 238,000 ad views
Total: 287,115 views
Social Media
17.5K Twitter followers
1.5 million Tweet impressions per month 5,031 Facebook followers
814 Instagram followers
What Could Go Right? podcast: 51,668 downloads
What Could Go Right? weekly newsletter: 3,917 readers
The Progress Network also conducts exclusive, one-on-one video interviews with its members, published on the site and its YouTube channel. The “Progress in Five Minutes” series zooms in on one important issue each month. In early winter, The Progress Network will begin publishing a full calendar of original written content, including reported articles and opinion essays from notable journalists, innovators, and thought leaders. Areas of focus include politics, health, science, foreign affairs, climate change, technology, psychology, race relations, and economic outcomes.
“The Progress Network has been an invaluable source of ideas, inspiration, and practical suggestions,” said Deborah and James Fallows, two members of The Progress Network, both journalists and the founders of Our Towns Civic Foundation. “It has accomplished a lot within just one year, and we look forward to even more.”
The Progress Network is based at New America, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and is supported by individual contributions. To learn more, or to sign up for the weekly newsletter, visit http://www.theprogressnetwork.org. Follow on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @progressntwrk. For media inquiries, contact executive director Emma Varvaloucas at emma@theprogressnetwork.org.