News can feel relentlessly negative, but as this week's guest points out, that's a choice about what gets covered, not a reflection of what's actually happening in our communities. Mebane Rash is the founder and CEO of <a href= "https://www.ednc.org/">EdNC</a>, a nonprofit, paywall-free online newsroom that covers every public school and all 58 community colleges in North Carolina. She joins Bill to talk about building a newsroom on the principle of "do no harm," why her team aims to be the best in the world at listening, and how being in schools day in and day out makes it hard not to be optimistic. Mebane started EdNC in 2015 with three people and a mandate to "fail forward, fail fast." Today her 15-person team spends four days a week on the road in all 100 counties, and half of EdNC's readers now live outside North Carolina. When Hurricane Helene devastated the western part of the state, EdNC didn't just report on the damage; they used that same reporting to write grants and bring funding into the hardest-hit counties, earning the North Carolina Press Association's Public Service Award. She also shares what she saw in Singapore's classrooms, why she's never seen cell phones be a real problem in thousands of school visits, and how she thinks about AI as just the latest change teachers will figure out, as they always have. Chapters: 00:00 A Journey into Public Policy Journalism 03:58 Building a Modern Education Platform 10:54 Listening as a Core Value 20:09 Journalism During Times of Crisis 30:04 Technology and Future Educational Models 40:46 The Path Forward for EdNC

News can feel relentlessly negative, but as this week's guest points out, that's a choice about what gets covered, not a reflection of what's actually happening in our communities. Mebane Rash is the founder and CEO of EdNC, a nonprofit, paywall-free online newsroom that covers every public school and all 58 community colleges in North Carolina. She joins Bill to talk about building a newsroom on the principle of "do no harm," why her team aims to be the best in the world at listening, and how being in schools day in and day out makes it hard not to be optimistic. Mebane started EdNC in 2015 with three people and a mandate to "fail forward, fail fast." Today her 15-person team spends four days a week on the road in all 100 counties, and half of EdNC's readers now live outside North Carolina. When Hurricane Helene devastated the western part of the state, EdNC didn't just report on the damage; they used that same reporting to write grants and bring funding into the hardest-hit counties, earning the North Carolina Press Association's Public Service Award. She also shares what she saw in Singapore's classrooms, why she's never seen cell phones be a real problem in thousands of school visits, and how she thinks about AI as just the latest change teachers will figure out, as they always have. Chapters: 00:00 A Journey into Public Policy Journalism 03:58 Building a Modern Education Platform 10:54 Listening as a Core Value 20:09 Journalism During Times of Crisis 30:04 Technology and Future Educational Models 40:46 The Path Forward for EdNC

News can feel relentlessly negative, but as this week's guest points out, that's a choice about what gets covered, not a reflection of what's actually happening in our communities. Mebane Rash is the founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.ednc.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer">EdNC</a>, a nonprofit, paywall-free online newsroom that covers every public school and all 58 community colleges in North Carolina. She joins Bill to talk about building a newsroom on the principle of "do no harm," why her team aims to be the best in the world at listening, and how being in schools day in and day out makes it hard not to be optimistic. Mebane started EdNC in 2015 with three people and a mandate to "fail forward, fail fast." Today her 15-person team spends four days a week on the road in all 100 counties, and half of EdNC's readers now live outside North Carolina. When Hurricane Helene devastated the western part of the state, EdNC didn't just report on the damage; they used that same reporting to write grants and bring funding into the hardest-hit counties, earning the North Carolina Press Association's Public Service Award. She also shares what she saw in Singapore's classrooms, why she's never seen cell phones be a real problem in thousands of school visits, and how she thinks about AI as just the latest change teachers will figure out, as they always have. Chapters: 00:00 A Journey into Public Policy Journalism 03:58 Building a Modern Education Platform 10:54 Listening as a Core Value 20:09 Journalism During Times of Crisis 30:04 Technology and Future Educational Models 40:46 The Path Forward for EdNC

Mebane Rash: Journalism in the Business of Hope

Educators John Holdridge and Lowell Libby join Bill Burke to talk about the <a href= "https://www.waynflete.org/community/the-can-we-project">Can We</a><a href= "https://www.waynflete.org/community/the-can-we-project">?</a> <a href= "https://www.waynflete.org/community/the-can-we-project">Project,</a> a Maine-based initiative launched in 2018 that teaches high school students the mindset and skills needed for constructive dialogue across political, social, and cultural divides. Through full-day retreats held in schools across Maine (and now New Hampshire), students learn to move past their first instinct to react and their second instinct to rationalize, and instead reach what one student memorably called her "third thought" — genuine understanding. John and Lowell share the origin story of the project, how it's expanded into events like Can We Connect? (which brings 250+ students together at the Augusta Civic Center), and how students themselves are taking the work into their own hands—organizing intergenerational dialogues, community conversations, and even a nationwide online class built around the question, "Is American democracy on fire?" It's a hopeful, practical look at how young people are relearning face-to-face conversation in a digital, polarized world. Chapters: 00:00 Intro to John Holdridge and Lowell Libby and the Can We? Project 02:00 The origin story: a student's concept of the "third thought" 06:00 How the Can We? Project works — full-day retreats, student-chosen topics, and ground rules for dialogue 10:00 Why college students said high school conversations didn't carry over — the gap that sparked the project 14:00 The "big sort," bowling alone, and how Americans have self-segregated into like-minded communities 18:00 Students leading their own intergenerational dialogues — including a town hall on U.S. foreign policy 23:00 Can We Connect? — bringing 250+ students from across Maine together for a day of youth-led dialogue 27:00 Breaking down assumptions: the "ladder of inference" and the gun control conversation between rural and urban teens 32:00 The mindset of curiosity, care, and courage — and "swimming toward the shark" 36:00 School smartphone policies and how phone-free retreats change how students connect 40:00 A nationwide online class asking, "Is American democracy on fire?" — and what happened on election night 45:00 Closing thoughts on optimism, democracy, and the next generation

Educators John Holdridge and Lowell Libby join Bill Burke to talk about the Can We? Project, a Maine-based initiative launched in 2018 that teaches high school students the mindset and skills needed for constructive dialogue across political, social, and cultural divides. Through full-day retreats held in schools across Maine (and now New Hampshire), students learn to move past their first instinct to react and their second instinct to rationalize, and instead reach what one student memorably called her "third thought" — genuine understanding. John and Lowell share the origin story of the project, how it's expanded into events like Can We Connect? (which brings 250+ students together at the Augusta Civic Center), and how students themselves are taking the work into their own hands—organizing intergenerational dialogues, community conversations, and even a nationwide online class built around the question, "Is American democracy on fire?" It's a hopeful, practical look at how young people are relearning face-to-face conversation in a digital, polarized world. Chapters: 00:00 Intro to John Holdridge and Lowell Libby and the Can We? Project 02:00 The origin story: a student's concept of the "third thought" 06:00 How the Can We? Project works — full-day retreats, student-chosen topics, and ground rules for dialogue 10:00 Why college students said high school conversations didn't carry over — the gap that sparked the project 14:00 The "big sort," bowling alone, and how Americans have self-segregated into like-minded communities 18:00 Students leading their own intergenerational dialogues — including a town hall on U.S. foreign policy 23:00 Can We Connect? — bringing 250+ students from across Maine together for a day of youth-led dialogue 27:00 Breaking down assumptions: the "ladder of inference" and the gun control conversation between rural and urban teens 32:00 The mindset of curiosity, care, and courage — and "swimming toward the shark" 36:00 School smartphone policies and how phone-free retreats change how students connect 40:00 A nationwide online class asking, "Is American democracy on fire?" — and what happened on election night 45:00 Closing thoughts on optimism, democracy, and the next generation

Educators John Holdridge and Lowell Libby join Bill Burke to talk about the <a href="https://www.waynflete.org/community/the-can-we-project" rel="noopener noreferrer">Can We</a><a href="https://www.waynflete.org/community/the-can-we-project" rel="noopener noreferrer">?</a> <a href="https://www.waynflete.org/community/the-can-we-project" rel="noopener noreferrer">Project,</a> a Maine-based initiative launched in 2018 that teaches high school students the mindset and skills needed for constructive dialogue across political, social, and cultural divides. Through full-day retreats held in schools across Maine (and now New Hampshire), students learn to move past their first instinct to react and their second instinct to rationalize, and instead reach what one student memorably called her "third thought" — genuine understanding. John and Lowell share the origin story of the project, how it's expanded into events like Can We Connect? (which brings 250+ students together at the Augusta Civic Center), and how students themselves are taking the work into their own hands—organizing intergenerational dialogues, community conversations, and even a nationwide online class built around the question, "Is American democracy on fire?" It's a hopeful, practical look at how young people are relearning face-to-face conversation in a digital, polarized world. Chapters: 00:00 Intro to John Holdridge and Lowell Libby and the Can We? Project 02:00 The origin story: a student's concept of the "third thought" 06:00 How the Can We? Project works — full-day retreats, student-chosen topics, and ground rules for dialogue 10:00 Why college students said high school conversations didn't carry over — the gap that sparked the project 14:00 The "big sort," bowling alone, and how Americans have self-segregated into like-minded communities 18:00 Students leading their own intergenerational dialogues — including a town hall on U.S. foreign policy 23:00 Can We Connect? — bringing 250+ students from across Maine together for a day of youth-led dialogue 27:00 Breaking down assumptions: the "ladder of inference" and the gun control conversation between rural and urban teens 32:00 The mindset of curiosity, care, and courage — and "swimming toward the shark" 36:00 School smartphone policies and how phone-free retreats change how students connect 40:00 A nationwide online class asking, "Is American democracy on fire?" — and what happened on election night 45:00 Closing thoughts on optimism, democracy, and the next generation

"Can We Talk?": Teaching High Schoolers the Art of Civil Dialogue

Sam Demma had his sights set on a professional soccer career from age five — training in Italy at 13, playing for one of Canada's top club teams by 17 — until three major knee injuries and a torn labrum ended that dream in his final year of high school. What came next is the subject of this conversation: how Demma rebuilt his sense of purpose, first through small volunteer garbage cleanups with a friend, then through public speaking, and eventually through writing. Just shy of his 27th birthday and about to publish his third book, Return on Goodwill, Sam has delivered close to 800 talks across four continents. In this episode, he shares the stories behind his books — Empty Your Backpack, born from a conversation with a bullied student, and Be Someone's Taco, inspired by a pandemic-era gesture that brought a friend to tears — and unpacks the idea at the heart of his new work: that doing good with no expectation of return has a way of coming back around. The conversation also covers: <ul class="BulletListStyle1 SCXW135028653 BCX0" role="list"> <li class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW135028653 BCX0" role="listitem" aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="15" data-list-defn-props= "{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"> The mentor (a high school teacher) and the "small consistent actions" lesson that changed Demma's trajectory </li> </ul> <ul class="BulletListStyle1 SCXW135028653 BCX0" role="list"> <li class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW135028653 BCX0" role="listitem" aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="15" data-list-defn-props= "{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1"> Why closing the loop — telling people the impact they had on you — matters more than we think </li> </ul> <ul class="BulletListStyle1 SCXW135028653 BCX0" role="list"> <li class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW135028653 BCX0" role="listitem" aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="15" data-list-defn-props= "{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="3" data-aria-level="1"> The practice of "assuming positive intent" and how it protects your energy day to day </li> </ul> <ul class="BulletListStyle1 SCXW135028653 BCX0" role="list"> <li class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW135028653 BCX0" role="listitem" aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="15" data-list-defn-props= "{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="4" data-aria-level="1"> How Stephen Covey's circles of concern, influence, and control connect to Demma's philosophy </li> </ul> <ul class="BulletListStyle1 SCXW135028653 BCX0" role="list"> <li class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW135028653 BCX0" role="listitem" aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="15" data-list-defn-props= "{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="5" data-aria-level="1"> Building a speaking career from scratch: years of cold outreach, a mentor who changed his approach to business, and the slow climb to hundreds of events a year </li> </ul> Chapters: 00:00 Sam Demma's Journey: From Soccer to Success 05:07 Finding Purpose After Athletic Setbacks 11:11 The Power of Intentional Appreciation 16:05 Empty Your Backpack: Letting Go 20:49 Be Someone's Taco: Acts of Kindness 27:04 Return on Goodwill: A Life Philosophy 32:09 Practical Tips for an Optimistic Life

Sam Demma had his sights set on a professional soccer career from age five — training in Italy at 13, playing for one of Canada's top club teams by 17 — until three major knee injuries and a torn labrum ended that dream in his final year of high school. What came next is the subject of this conversation: how Demma rebuilt his sense of purpose, first through small volunteer garbage cleanups with a friend, then through public speaking, and eventually through writing. Just shy of his 27th birthday and about to publish his third book, Return on Goodwill, Sam has delivered close to 800 talks across four continents. In this episode, he shares the stories behind his books — Empty Your Backpack, born from a conversation with a bullied student, and Be Someone's Taco, inspired by a pandemic-era gesture that brought a friend to tears — and unpacks the idea at the heart of his new work: that doing good with no expectation of return has a way of coming back around. The conversation also covers: The mentor (a high school teacher) and the "small consistent actions" lesson that changed Demma's trajectory Why closing the loop — telling people the impact they had on you — matters more than we think The practice of "assuming positive intent" and how it protects your energy day to day How Stephen Covey's circles of concern, influence, and control connect to Demma's philosophy Building a speaking career from scratch: years of cold outreach, a mentor who changed his approach to business, and the slow climb to hundreds of events a year Chapters: 00:00 Sam Demma's Journey: From Soccer to Success 05:07 Finding Purpose After Athletic Setbacks 11:11 The Power of Intentional Appreciation 16:05 Empty Your Backpack: Letting Go 20:49 Be Someone's Taco: Acts of Kindness 27:04 Return on Goodwill: A Life Philosophy 32:09 Practical Tips for an Optimistic Life

Sam Demma had his sights set on a professional soccer career from age five — training in Italy at 13, playing for one of Canada's top club teams by 17 — until three major knee injuries and a torn labrum ended that dream in his final year of high school. What came next is the subject of this conversation: how Demma rebuilt his sense of purpose, first through small volunteer garbage cleanups with a friend, then through public speaking, and eventually through writing. Just shy of his 27th birthday and about to publish his third book, Return on Goodwill, Sam has delivered close to 800 talks across four continents. In this episode, he shares the stories behind his books — Empty Your Backpack, born from a conversation with a bullied student, and Be Someone's Taco, inspired by a pandemic-era gesture that brought a friend to tears — and unpacks the idea at the heart of his new work: that doing good with no expectation of return has a way of coming back around. The conversation also covers: <ul> <li> The mentor (a high school teacher) and the "small consistent actions" lesson that changed Demma's trajectory </li> </ul> <ul> <li> Why closing the loop — telling people the impact they had on you — matters more than we think </li> </ul> <ul> <li> The practice of "assuming positive intent" and how it protects your energy day to day </li> </ul> <ul> <li> How Stephen Covey's circles of concern, influence, and control connect to Demma's philosophy </li> </ul> <ul> <li> Building a speaking career from scratch: years of cold outreach, a mentor who changed his approach to business, and the slow climb to hundreds of events a year </li> </ul> Chapters: 00:00 Sam Demma's Journey: From Soccer to Success 05:07 Finding Purpose After Athletic Setbacks 11:11 The Power of Intentional Appreciation 16:05 Empty Your Backpack: Letting Go 20:49 Be Someone's Taco: Acts of Kindness 27:04 Return on Goodwill: A Life Philosophy 32:09 Practical Tips for an Optimistic Life

Return on Goodwill: Sam Demma on Why Doing Good Comes Back to You

Hosted by Bill Burke, founder of The Optimism Institute, this weekly podcast will feature inspiring leaders, authors, researchers, and big thinkers who are taking on some of our world's toughest challenges with an infectious sense of optimism. Blue Sky takes its name from the meditation reminder that there's always blue sky above, sometimes you just have to get your head above the clouds to see it.

Hosted by Bill Burke, founder of The Optimism Institute, this weekly podcast will feature inspiring leaders, authors, researchers, and big thinkers who are taking on some of our world's toughest challenges with an infectious sense of optimism. Blue Sky takes its name from the meditation reminder that there's always blue sky above, sometimes you just have to get your head above the clouds to see it.

Introducing the Blue Sky podcast, presented by The Optimism Institute and hosted by Bill Burke

Hosted by Bill Burke, founder of The Optimism Institute, this weekly podcast will feature inspiring leaders, authors, researchers, and big thinkers who are taking on some of our world's toughest challenges with an infectious sense of optimism.   Blue Sky takes its name from the meditation reminder that there's always blue sky above, sometimes you just have to get your head above the clouds to see it.

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