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The Case Against Cynicism | with Greg Jackson & Steven Johnson
Despite record highs in life expectancy and historic lows in violent crime, society remains convinced that everything is completely broken.
Steven Johnson (The Infernal Machine) and historian Greg Jackson (host of History That Doesn’t Suck) join Zachary Karabell at the Aspen Ideas Festival to decode our cultural doom loop. Rather than fueling the panic of our daily newsfeeds, the panel zeroes in on the psychological and historical roots of our negative worldview, revealing that our current crisis of faith isn't nearly as unprecedented as it feels.
In this episode, we explore:
The Negativity Bias: How our natural survival instincts and modern algorithmic media team up to skew reality.
The Origins of "Fake News": Why sensationalist journalism is actually a 19th-century invention.
The Invisible Arc of Progress: Why true, incremental improvements rarely make the front page—and why choosing human agency over apocalyptic defeatism is our best path forward.
What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.
For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org
Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/
Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork
Follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok: @progressntwrk
Subscribe to Zachary’s Substack: www.edgyoptimist.substack.com/
View all episodes
By The Progress Network with Zachary Karabell and Emma Varvaloucas
4.2
8181 ratings
Despite record highs in life expectancy and historic lows in violent crime, society remains convinced that everything is completely broken.
Steven Johnson (The Infernal Machine) and historian Greg Jackson (host of History That Doesn’t Suck) join Zachary Karabell at the Aspen Ideas Festival to decode our cultural doom loop. Rather than fueling the panic of our daily newsfeeds, the panel zeroes in on the psychological and historical roots of our negative worldview, revealing that our current crisis of faith isn't nearly as unprecedented as it feels.
In this episode, we explore:
The Negativity Bias: How our natural survival instincts and modern algorithmic media team up to skew reality.
The Origins of "Fake News": Why sensationalist journalism is actually a 19th-century invention.
The Invisible Arc of Progress: Why true, incremental improvements rarely make the front page—and why choosing human agency over apocalyptic defeatism is our best path forward.
What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.
For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org
Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/
Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork
Follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok: @progressntwrk
Subscribe to Zachary’s Substack: www.edgyoptimist.substack.com/
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