In good company
Inspiration From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 Is there room for idealists inside Fortune 500 companies? Christine Bader’s book The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil chronicles the time she spent with BP, and what it was like to be a corporate idealist in one of the Read More...
Courage is every day
Possibility Commentary From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 It’s easy to get pessimistic. We have large-scale terror attacks, the environment might have reached a “no going back” tipping point, and there’s always the next health crisis around the corner. In these moments, the critical Read More...
Organizing is much like sports
Possibility From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 Otto Scharmer can be considered an expert on leadership. Focusing his work on evolutionary stages of complex living systems, such as organizations, his book Theory U became an international bestseller. He’s a senior lecturer at MIT, Read More...
Saving leftovers
Possiblity From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 In 2011 Ben Simon, then a student at University of Maryland, noticed that his school was wasting massive amounts of food, with one dining hall throwing out between 100 and 200 pounds of leftovers every day. Simon started taking the leftover food to Read More...
More monkeying around
Possibility From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 Bullrush used to be a popular chasing game at schools in New Zealand. It starts with a “chaser,” one child who tries to tackle other children as they run to the other side of a field. But at some point, it got banned at schools. The reason: Read More...
Wildlife whistle blowers
Possibility From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 WildLeaks.org is a whistle-blowing website where people can anonymously submit information about wildlife and forest crime. Andrea Crosta, executive director of the Elephant Action League, an elephant-welfare group, started WildLeaks in early Read More...
Peace Warrior
Possibility From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 The Maasai of East Africa are famous for their warrior culture. Tradition dictates that the boys of this nomadic tribe earn the respect of their clan by fighting with lions or with rivals. Disputes between villages over grazing rights for cattle or Read More...
Speaking from the heart
Possibility From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 When it comes to avoiding heart attacks, new studies suggest the best medicine might be music, prayer, and just having someone to talk to. “Coronary heart disease is not just physical but also has a psychological component,” says Zoi Read More...
Doctors without orders
Possibility From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 “We will once again give you the facts that show that our secretary of health, Adonis Georgiadis, is lying systematically and shamelessly.” This statement is flaunted on the home page of the Metropolitan Community Clinic, in Athens. Read More...
First of the season
From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 Time to celebrate the asparagus. A fear of hunger is lodged in human beings’ DNA. So it’s logical that creating nonperishable foods was a crucial priority as we evolved. We’re so good at it that today we can eat whatever we want, any time of year. But Read More...