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Indias Love Commandos
Once upon a time, a couple fell in love in the village of Bulundshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India. She was from a rich family, he from a poor one. Both shared the same religion, Islam, and they wanted to spend their lives together. She knew her family wouldn’t agree to let her marry a man from such a Read More...
Brief Encounter
Four years ago, in a restaurant in East Palo Alto, California, three people were eating soup. One of them was Karin Schlanger, who left Argentina in her 20s to come to the U.S. Another was Thomas Madson, principal of the East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy, an inner-city high school he cofounded in a Read More...
Letter from the Editor
Your attention, please We used to joke during our editorial meetings that each story always ended with God. That’s not because of any specific religious affiliation. We realized that if we want to contribute to solving problems—and that’s the core of our mission—we need to go to deeper Read More...
A theater for banned films
Thousands of artists live and work in the village of Songzhuang, just outside Beijing. In the middle of town, independent filmmakers show new features and documentaries at the Fanhall Center for the Arts. These productions are uncensored and unapproved by the government, so they can’t get into Read More...
Finding your voice
It’s early afternoon in Arkansas, and a high school gym full of kids in assembly listens raptly to a bespectacled man with a microphone. “We have two minds,” he tells them. “We have our logical, analytical mind, and we have this other part of us where our emotions and feelings live. And Read More...
Here comes the bus
When Andy Didorosi opened the newspaper in January and discovered that Detroit had axed plans to build a light rail system, he was deeply disappointed. He’d been hoping the new railway would rejuvenate his city, which has suffered decay, poverty, crime and joblessness since the decline of the Read More...
Knock on Wood
Trees grow slowly, but growing trees for a living requires -constant maintenance—controlled burns, pruning, thinning, harvesting, planting. Most tree farmers stop at that, but Chuck Leavell takes it further. On Charlane Plantation, his 2,200-acre tree farm about 20 miles southeast of Macon, Read More...
Energy for all
It sounds almost too simple: Install solar panels in remote homes and villages, and thereby improve the lives of residents. Solar power allows people to read at night, watch TV and heat clinics and schools. “A big change for a little effort,” says Robert Freling, director of the Solar Electric Read More...
Green is good
Every Sunday morning I go to the gym to do 30 minutes of strength training. I don’t really enjoy it but I see it as a kind of necessary physical therapy. After all, it slows muscle loss. And since I decided I don’t have to like it but that I do need to do it, I’ve managed to keep up with my Read More...
Transformational media
For many years The Intelligent Optimist’s reporting was unusual in a world dominated by media only interested in whatever goes wrong. The voice of our magazine was soft, almost a gentle whisper. But the tide is changing. We see more and more seeds of promise and possibility sprouting. Read More...