(First Broadcast January 2016)

 

Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss a recent article in the Atlantic claiming that 2015 was The Best Year in History for the Average Human Being.

A few highlights:

In the US, 600,000 fewer than violent crimes in 2014  in 1995—that’s a 35 percent decline over the period

6.7 million fewer kids under the age of five are dying each year compared to 1990

The number of kids not in school has fallen from 100 million in 2000 to a projected 57 million in 2015.

The World Bank declared in September that, for the first time ever, less than 10 percent of the global population lived in extreme poverty, on less than $1.90 per day.

What Does it All Mean?

Why doesn’t it feel like the best time to be alive?

Why is everyone so upset all the time? 

What is the likelihood that these trends will continue / accelerate?

 

Plus:

Phil and Stephen provide a list of 25 more things that it is the  best time ever to to do.

 

Join us.