Thought Leader Series: Practicing Planetary Health
Want doctors to practice better planetary health? Teach advocacy better. Here's how... BY Dr. Bhargavi Chekuri My journey to climate advocacy started with a three-week plastic-free challenge that happened to coincide with the start of my family medicine residency training in 2018. What began as Read More...
Thought Leader Series: Improving Black student college graduation rates
The percentage of first-time, full-time undergraduate students who complete their bachelor’s degree in six years or less is 61 percent. This statistic isn’t great, but for Black students, the rate is even more alarming. Only 42 percent of first-time, full-time Black undergraduates complete a Read More...
Thought Leader Series: Tribal Nations pave a path to renewables
Last year, we shared a story about Native Renewables, a female-led company providing renewable energy to the Navajo Nation with small-scale, independent, solar grids. Initiatives like this have been instrumental in both electrifying and providing economic prosperity for Native American Read More...
Thought Leader Series: Reflections on optimism from an Emissary
We use our Thought Leader Series as an opportunity to amplify the voices of some of the world’s most prominent thinkers and to evaluate more critically the complex topics we cover here at The Optimist Daily. Sometimes we are lucky enough to find great thought leaders within our own Emissary Read More...
Thought Leader Series: Agnes Kalibata on science and the future of farming
Agnes Kalibata is a Rwandan-born agricultural scientist and policymaker. She was recently appointed as UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ special envoy for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, which calls for tangible action on how we produce food to address the limitations of our food system in Read More...
Thought Leader Series: Awakening creativity with Deepak Chopra
As children, our creativity is regularly encouraged. Through art, games, and play we are constantly expanding our imaginative side, but as we get older, we tend to let our creativity slide. Fortunately, our brains’ plasticity allows us to continue to learn and grow even into old age so it is Read More...
Thought Leader Series: We need more controlled burns to prevent wildfires
Many residents in California woke up this week to apocalyptic orange skies due to fast-growing wildfires across the state. Today, for our Thought Leader Series, we share a ProPublica article that dives deeper into solutions for reducing the severity of what many are now calling Read More...
Thought Leader Series: Post-pandemic travel needs to be regenerative
Tourism has been decimated by the pandemic, but when travel returns, what will it look like? This week’s Thought Leader Series from The New York Times, shared with us by an Emissary, looks at the concept of regenerative travel and how we can take sustainable vacations one step Read More...
Thought Leader Series: On Climate Doom
It seems like these days the headlines just go from bad to worse. Whether it’s melting glacial sheets, apocalyptic fires, or police violence, it’s pretty easy to feel like giving up on the world by mid-morning. When it comes to the climate crisis, this bombardment of negative news, combined Read More...
Thought Leader Series: The 19th Amendment and why intersectionality can’t wait
This week we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, but while this granted white women the right to vote, Black women were not granted full voting rights until 1965 and many Latinx, Asian American, and Native American women couldn’t vote until 1975. As we Read More...