What Could Go Right?
It's easy to be pessimistic, especially with headlines dominated by global challenges like a changing geopolitical landscape, the rise in authoritarianism, and a seemingly unstable global economy. But what if, despite all that, humanity is actually making progress?Join Progress Network Founder Zachary Karabell every Wednesday as he chats with leading experts like Ian Bremmer and Anne Marie Slaughter to challenge the negativity and find out whether we should be so pessimistic about everything from sustainability and polarization to the future of work. Plus, start your week right with Progress Network Executive Director Emma Varvaloucas, who delivers a weekly dose of essential good news every Monday. If environmental success stories and medical breakthroughs are your thing, you won’t want to miss it.Tune in to discover the evidence for progress and find your reason for cautious optimism.
Episodes
April 29, 2026 • 42 mins
What happens when the person building the world's most powerful technology is just as worried about it as we are? Sebastian Mallaby, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of The Infinity Machine, joins host Zachary Karabell to pull back the curtain on Demis Hassabis, the founder of DeepMind who is currently leading the global charge into artificial intelligence.
From the "Ender’s Game" mission that drives Hassabis to the chilling lo...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 27, 2026 • 11 mins
Trump just signed an executive order to fast-track psychedelic medical research. Emma Varvaloucas, the Executive Director of The Progress Network, breaks down how a 50-year political taboo went mainstream. Plus: San Diego achieves water independence and starts brewing beer from recycled sewage, a humpback whale stampede breaks a sighting record off South Africa, and gene-edited bananas that don't turn brown are finally here.What Co...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 22, 2026 • 40 mins
What happens when the rules of the global game are being rewritten in real-time? Ian Bremmer, the founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, joins host Zachary Karabell to discuss how to navigate a world defined by a "long geopolitical recession" and the erosion of the post-1945 order.
From the escalating conflicts in the Middle East and the surprising vulnerabilities of the economic models in the Gulf to the "asymmetric war fighti...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 20, 2026 • 10 mins
Hungary just voted out its authoritarian prime minister of 16 years, and did it with an 80% voter turnout powered by Gen Z. Emma Varvaloucas, the Executive Director of The Progress Network, breaks down how they pulled it off and what it means for democracies under pressure elsewhere.
Plus: over 10% of the world's oceans are now protected, US rents are finally dropping, and Thailand just criminalized online sexual harassment, incl...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 15, 2026 • 54 mins
What do we do when our systems stop working? Anne-Marie Slaughter, the CEO of New America, former Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department under Secretary Hillary Clinton, and one of the most influential voices in American foreign policy joins Zachary Karabell to reckon with a country in the middle of a massive realignment.
From democratic reform and the collapse of the two-party system to America's fraying role on...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
October 8, 2025 • 54 mins
Let’s close out Season 7! Zachary and Emma look back on seven months of thought-provoking positive conversations, from global politics to the depths of sci-fi, exploring how to stay hopeful in a world hooked on negative news. They dive into protecting your mental health by controlling your news intake while also celebrating how social media platforms empower 8 billion voices to be heard!What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progr...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
October 3, 2025 • 20 mins
Get ready for a Progress Report season finale packed with good news as Emma shares some life-changing breakthroughs! The Gates Foundation is funding a game-changing GBS vaccine, while a cutting-edge AI stroke diagnosis system in England is significantly improving recovery rates. Plus, China steps up with a bold pledge to slash greenhouse gas emissions while NASA’s James Webb Telescope just uncovered an astonishing 6,000 new planets...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
October 1, 2025 • 55 mins
It’s time for a lesson in civics! Zachary and Emma are joined by Nick Capodice, co-host of the Civics 101 podcast where he gets into the basics of how the U.S. government works and also helps teachers design lesson plans to pair with the show. Nick highlights how our collective grasp on how things work in Washington is slipping, the decrease of civics education funding since the 1950s, and the recent rise of deep divisions in Ameri...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
September 26, 2025 • 20 mins
Emma brings you a solo edition of the Progress Report, highlighting several positive global advancements. Brazil goes bold with a two-part strategy against dengue fever, involving both a homegrown vaccine and specially bred mosquitoes that carry an anti-dengue bacteria. Africa is leading a major expansion of school meal programs for children. And around the world we have two stories of security, with the High Seas Treaty recently r...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
September 24, 2025 • 55 mins
Can today’s science fiction become tomorrow’s guidebook for change? Zachary and Emma sit down with Ed Finn, the visionary behind the Center for Science and the Imagination at ASU and academic director of Future Tense. Ed explores the intersection between sci-fi and real world science, the complexities of new technologies like AI and gene editing, and why our imaginations can be the launchpad for tomorrow’s innovations and building ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
September 19, 2025 • 13 mins
Get ready for another uplifting Progress Report! This week, Zachary and Emma bring you inspiring stories of innovation and hope from across the globe. Trekkies rejoice as Apple’s new AirPods push tech into sci-fi territory with real-time language translation, Europe is seeing fewer flood fatalities and less damage thanks to cutting-edge warning systems and disaster response improvements, and France just made history by launching th...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
September 17, 2025 • 51 mins
How do we protect America’s wild open spaces while meeting the demands of conservation, recreation, and development? Zachary welcomes Josh Jackson, author of The Enduring Wild: A Journey Into California's Public Lands. Founder of the Forgotten Lands Project, Josh aims to connect people with these landscapes through immersive storytelling and experiences. He explores the Bureau of Land Management’s role in sustaining the health of 2...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
September 10, 2025 • 44 mins
What really went wrong with global politics? Emma welcomes Brink Lindsey, Senior VP at the Niskanen Center and author of The Captured Economy: How the Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, and Increase Inequality. Lindsey traces how politics, culture, and economics became unstable, from the development of liberal capitalism since the 1990s to the resulting rise of right-wing populism. He explores the contradictory ways this...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
September 3, 2025 • 50 mins
How can parents use data without becoming overwhelmed by getting things right and wrong? Zachary and Emma welcome Emily Oster, a professor of economics and author of several data-driven parenting and pregnancy books, including Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong and What You Really Need to Know. Known for her data-driven approach to parenting and pregnancy, Oster shares how she accidentally became the c...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 29, 2025 • 14 mins
On this week’s Progress Report, Emma covers a whopping five reports of optimism from around the world. Poverty is declining in Iraq and Indonesia, and risk of child poverty is down across Europe. China reports a dip in its emissions that may continue, and Africa has invested heavily in solar energy over the past year. There are positive developments since the release of the U.S.’s first over-the-counter birth control, and NASA has ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 27, 2025 • 71 mins
What can we learn from the history of the American Right? Zachary and Emma welcome Sam Tanenhaus, historian and author, whose most recent work is his biography Buckley: The Life and Revolution That Changed America. Sam shares insights from his deep dive into the career of conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr., the country’s “first intellectual entertainer.” He discusses how Buckley’s blend of intellect and charisma set the stage...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 22, 2025 • 11 mins
This week on The Progress Report, Zachary and Emma cut through the doom and gloom to deliver feel-good news. This episode covers stories from the USDA’s hilariously unconventional wolf-deterring tactics (hint: it involves Scarlett Johansson) to an inspiring drop in U.S. divorce rates, America’s hidden fitness boom, and a remarkable victory over poverty in Mexico. Join Zachary and Emma as they guard the walls of optimism and spotlig...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 20, 2025 • 54 mins
It’s time to right the ship of democracy! Zachary and Emma sit down with powerhouse legal expert Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney and author of the popular Civil Discourse Substack and upcoming book Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy. Pulling on her 25 years of experience at the DOJ, Joyce pulls back the curtain on how federal courts have confronted Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of power, the evolving r...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 15, 2025 • 19 mins
On this week’s episode, Zachary and Emma dig into three surprising pieces of underreported good news. Illinois becomes the first state to ban AI from acting as a therapist, which is sparking a debate about ethics, tech limits, and vulnerable users. Global deaths from extreme weather have hit record lows in 2025, and in the U.S., the FBI’s final 2024 crime stats show a dramatic drop in murder, violent crime, and property crime, even...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
August 13, 2025 • 50 mins
How can an American pope change the world? Zachary and Emma dive deep with renowned papal expert Austen Ivereigh, British journalist, acclaimed author, and historian, to discuss Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the US. Austen shares insider insights into the pope’s whirlwind early months at the Vatican and unpacks the ideological tug-of-war between tradition and reform within the Catholic Church. Discover how Pope Leo plans to con...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Nancy Grace dives deep into the day’s most shocking crimes and asks the tough questions in her new daily podcast – Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Nancy Grace had a perfect conviction record during her decade as a prosecutor and used her TV show to find missing people, fugitives on the run and unseen clues. Now, she will use the power of her huge social media following and the immediacy of the internet to deliver daily bombshells! Theme Music: Audio Network