WantToKnow.info: Inspirational News

Three sports groups using movement to tackle isolation

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

“Sport in Mind began with one simple intention: to help a friend who was unwell,” [said founder] Neil Harris. “Today, having supported more than 60,000 people, I’m reminded every day of the power of sport.” Founded in 2010, the charity runs free sport and physical activity sessions for people experiencing mental health problems, from walking and football to gardening, dance and movement. It creates welcoming spaces where sport is treated less as competition and more as a route back into routine, confidence and recovery. The Bluetits Chill Swimmers is a free, volunteer-led community built around cold water swimming. What began in Wales has grown into a global network of informal local groups, where people meet outdoors to swim, dip, chat and build confidence in the water. Its appeal is not endurance or elite sport, but the chance to spend time in nature. GoodGym turns exercise into practical community action. Its members run, walk or cycle to help local projects and isolated older people, whether that means clearing a garden, sorting donations at a food bank or helping someone with a task they can no longer manage alone. “GoodGym was founded on a simple idea that we could use being active to help people and strengthen communities, Ed Field, head of operations, said. “What we’ve seen is that the benefits go both ways and that the people participating feel healthier, more connected and more purposeful through helping others.”

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division.

- Positive.News

How Lithuania More Than Halved Its Suicide Rate

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In 2016, [Marius iuželis] and his wife Kristina started Sidabrin Linija, or Silver Line, a nonprofit that offers free support to isolated seniors in Lithuania through regular phone calls with a “befriender” matched to their interests. “On the first day we spoke for 10 minutes. The next time we spoke for nearly an hour, and she shared a lot about her life with me,” recalls iuželis from his office in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital. “Her husband of 50 years died about six years ago, and she has no children. She is completely alone and in poor health. A social worker visits twice a week, but otherwise she’s basically locked in her house because she can’t move.” Sidabrin Linija, which has befriended 6,000 seniors since its inception, has been just one of the many pieces of the puzzle to reduce Lithuania’s suicide rate, which is particularly high among senior citizens. Senior suicides, according to iuželis, account for more than 39 percent of all deaths of this type. “We may say it’s a natural problem that your support network shrinks when you get older. But let’s imagine the couple who lived happily for 50 years, and now one has gone. We get many calls saying, ‘I tried to do my best to live on my own, but I can’t anymore and I need help.’ We have many callers who say they call us as a last chance,” says iuželis. Mental health support more generally is also expanding nationwide. Since 2020, free psychological well-being services have been available ... in every one of Lithuania’s 60 municipalities.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division.

- Reasons to be Cheerful

The Spanish Town Doing Capitalism Better

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There are all kinds of enormous, impressive and, frankly, noisy machines at work across the 20,000 square meters of industrial warehouses at the headquarters of Fagor Arrasate, a manufacturing company in Spain’s northern Basque Country. Fagor Arrasate belongs to the larger Mondragón Corporation, which in 2025 had a revenue of €11.3 billion ($12.8 billion U.S.) and aggregate profits of more than €600 million. Founded by five coworkers in 1956 as a small stove factory, Mondragón Corporation is today the largest federation of worker-owned cooperatives in the world. It employs more than 70,000 workers across 92 cooperatives ... making it the largest employer in the Basque Country and the fifth-largest private employer in Spain. Its grocery-store chain, Eroski, has hundreds of outlets across the nation; the Mondragón University offers college degrees; it includes Spain’s ... largest producer of bicycles; and according to Mondragón’s estimates, more than a third of Europe’s solar panels use its tech and 60 percent of the world’s trains contain its parts. The group, despite being owned by its workers ... is capitalist. Yet Mondragón’s model has social good and humanism — rather than profit-maximizing — at its heart. The base salary for a Mondragón worker is on average 40 percent higher than Spain’s minimum wage. On top of that, company profits are shared. From annual earnings, 60 percent is reinvested in the business, 30 percent goes to employees (as capital that can only be claimed once they retire or leave the group), and 10 percent is invested in the local community. In 2025, Mondragón allocated more than €49 million for projects spanning social inclusion, poverty reduction, education, culture, sports, preservation of the Basque language and environmental sustainability. While cooperative governance may slow business decision-making, studies have found that cooperatives can make as much profit as companies under conventional systems.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on reimagining the economy.

- Reasons to be Cheerful

This 21-Year-Old Metro Atlanta Black Man Went Viral For Turning Plastic Into Fuel, Here’s How it Works

Thu, 29 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Atlanta native Julian Brown has launched an innovation as powerful as it is sustainable. Declaring a war on waste, this self-starter is working to turn pollution into power with his company, Naturejab. Intrigued by hands-on discovery early on, it’s no wonder he’s grasped the mechanics of Pyrolysis, recycling plastic waste into a fuel he calls “Plastidiesel.” “The very issue we have is the production of plastic,” Brown, 21, told The Root. “The reason why recycling hasn’t been done is because it hasn’t been profitable. But now, we are able to make a product of super high value out of something that otherwise is just seen as waste.” Brown isn’t just tooting his own horn either. The entrepreneur recently returned from a trip to Vancouver, Washington for the purpose of testing his recycled diesel with some heavyweights in fuel testing, ASAP Labs. His samples passed with flying colors on May 22, showing more favorable results than its industry competitors. “It looks like it definitely burned cleaner,” an employee at ASAP Labs confirmed in a documentation of the fuel’s results Friday. “It appears that this diesel probably burns cleaner than typical diesel.” According to Julian Brown, as long as he’s around, “there will be no such thing as plastic waste — only untapped energy.” With sky-high ambition rooted in his childhood and a deep sense of gratitude for how his journey has unfolded, Brown is stepping into his purpose on the world stage. And we’re here for it.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good.

- The Root

Food scraps and mushrooms: the closed-loop garden behind the world’s first community-powered sauna

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This ivy-topped wall shelters an urban oasis, within which sits an unprecedented sustainable project. The world’s first “community-powered” sauna – heated by food waste from residents of the neighbouring housing estate – is set to open here. Scraps from the kitchens of residents on the Teviot estate in Poplar, will be processed in a local-scale anaerobic digester ... to produce methane gas to power the sauna. The completely circular design is just one part of R-Urban Poplar, a civic space and “living lab” where members of the community are invited to experiment with ways of taking charge of their own food supply, while adapting to the climate crisis. Andy Belfield, an architect from the R-Urban Poplar team, says those behind the project believe it is the UK’s – and the world’s – first food waste powered community sauna. Nine years ago, the site was an unused car park and empty garages. Now, butterflies flutter around leaves and flowers in raised, no-dig beds. Micro-allotments and communal growing spaces offer opportunities for local people to grown herbs, courgettes, potatoes and passion flowers. But R-Urban Poplar is more ambitious than just a community garden. It is an “ecology hub”, where workers and local residents are prototyping circular urban farming, mushroom-growing and restore-and-repair services. Wild spaces encourage pollinators. There is a community kitchen and classroom, a workshop and a tool library, even a mushroom farm.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and reimagining the economy.

- The Guardian

Blockchain Is The Next Big Thing For Renewable Energy

Sat, 27 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Blockchain has been touted as the next big technological advance. But what does it mean for renewable energy? Essentially an online register that securely stores information, blockchain serves as a repertoire of knowledge accessible to everyone. Rather than being controlled by one entity, blockchain is spread across multiple computers and uses a form of data logging to ensure that the information cannot be changed or corrupted. By decentralizing data and protecting the way it is manipulated, blockchain promotes transparency and the sharing of information. As such, the record has immense potential in helping shape a wave of new technology and our ability to interact with it. Blockchain is far more than just a platform for cryptocurrency. Many startups are already using blockchain as a tool to make energy grids more accessible and sustainable. The idea behind creating energy grids linked to blockchain is fairly simple: by giving consumers total control over where they source their energy as well as the information behind the production itself it drives competition and promotes sustainable energy. Consumers using a smart-grid that relies on blockchain will be able to compare their energy providers and buy directly from them. In Estonia, a blockchain-powered smart grid called WePower has been testing just how well a choice-driven energy market could work by teaming up with an independent energy provider who shares their energy data in real time.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good and reimagining the economy.

- Forbes

Fringe or frontier: Is our current scientific paradigm still the best fit?

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A scientific paradigm is the set of assumptions, principles, and methods that define the science of an era. It’s what establishes “normal science” and “fringe” or “pseudo” science. A paradigm needs to be elastic enough to accommodate new scientific discoveries and comprehensive enough to explain most of how the world works. [English biologist Rupert] Sheldrake ... refers to our current scientific paradigm as “mechanistic materialism,” which is characterized by three main elements. First, everything can be reduced to some smaller component — tissues are made of cells, which are made of molecules, which are made of atoms. Second, everything in the world is physical or “real.” Third, and most importantly, this physical matter is unconscious and purposeless. Sheldrake argues that our current paradigm can no longer ignore two things. First, dark matter and dark energy. As he puts it, “So we’ve now reached the point where 95% of reality is supposed to be dark matter and energy, about which we know nothing and for which there’s not a shred of independent evidence ... Ninety-five percent of reality is nothing like the physics you learned about at school, in physics classes, or that people study at university.” Second, is the presence of consciousness. How can consciousness exist in an entirely unconscious paradigm? Sheldrake suggests we need “a larger, more inclusive model of reality, which includes these anomalies” rather than ignoring them. He proposes ... that the so-called “laws of nature” be seen “more like habits, and that they’ve evolved along with nature,” instead of being fixed constants imposed at the moment of the Big Bang. This means shifting .. to “a more holistic approach of seeing things at different levels of organization,” and where “consciousness is a fundamental reality,” not just “an illusion produced by brain activity.” Rather than continuing to “sweep under the carpet 95% of reality,” Sheldrake argues for expanding the scope of science to include the study of consciousness, memory in nature, and other excluded phenomena — while remaining grounded in empirical research.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good and the mysterious nature of reality.

- Big Think

Seeds Can ‘Hear’ the Rain–And the Sound Waves Make Them Grow Faster Shows MIT Study

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Seeds may come alive to the soothing sound of rainfall, sensing the drops while they are still beneath the surface, suggests a new study. A series of experiments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology demonstrated that rice seeds sprouted faster to the sound of rainfall. The sound of falling droplets effectively shook the seeds out of a dormant state, stimulating them to germinate at a faster rate compared with seeds that were not exposed to the same sound vibrations. The findings, published yesterday in the journal Scientific Reports, are the first direct evidence that plant seeds and seedlings can sense sounds in nature. Rice seeds can germinate in either soil or water, and these experiments involved seeds submerged in shallow water. The researchers suspect that many similar seed types may also respond to the sound of rain. The MIT team found that when a raindrop hits the surface of a puddle or the ground, it generates a sound wave that makes the surroundings vibrate, including any shallowly submerged seeds. The vibrations can be strong enough to dislodge a seed’s “statoliths”, tiny gravity-sensing organelles within certain cells of a seed. When the statoliths are jostled, their movement is a signal for seeds and seedlings to grow and sprout. The groups of seeds that were exposed to the sound of water drops were able to germinate 30% to 40% faster than the seed groups that were not exposed to rain sounds but were otherwise in identical conditions.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and the mysterious nature of reality.

- Good News Network

‘When you kill it, it doesn’t die’: the jellyfish that has cracked the secret of immortality

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As associate professor Maria Pia Miglietta, a marine biologist at A&M University in Texas, explains, Turritopsis dohrnii has an incredible ability to cheat death. “Turritopsis is unique, because when faced with unfavourable conditions – and I mean high temperature, physical cutting, starvation, chemicals in the water, you name it – when you try to kill the jellyfish, it doesn’t die.” Most normal jellyfish start off life as larvae. They metamorphose into polyps (tiny, stationary soft bodies) that bud off swimming medusas, which grow up to become adult jellies. Eventually, after reproducing, most will stop swimming, crumble a little and then die. But the immortal jellyfish escapes that fate. It reverts to a juvenile form, and starts its life cycle again. The process is called “cellular transdifferentiation”, Miglietta says. The jellyfish looks like it’s dying and sinks to the bottom. Then – like a butterfly returning to a caterpillar – it shrinks into a ball, and within 24 to 48 hours, buds off a new polyp with the same identical genome, she says. It’s one of “nature’s coolest tricks”, says ... Raquel López-Aragón. “When this jellyfish gets old or gets hurt, instead of just dying like most animals, it transforms itself back into a baby jellyfish and grows up all over again. It can do this as many times as it wants, which means theoretically it never has to die from getting old, it just keeps hitting the reset button on its life.”

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on animal wonders.

- The Guardian

Singing the Shopping List: How Music Can Rewire the Brain After Stroke

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In 2023, a stroke transformed Naresh Shanbhag, a 53-year-old smooth-talking sales professional in Bengaluru, into someone who was unable to speak words, let alone sentences. Initially, when a doctor friend suggested music therapy, Shanbhag thought it would be interesting, but was skeptical that listening to songs would help him recover. That skepticism disappeared right away. “From the very first session, I was hooked,” he says. In a soundproof room in India’s first music cognition lab at Bengaluru’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Shanbhag was given simple rhythms and beats to emulate. When his therapist noted that he could sing more fluently than he could talk, he asked Shanbhag to sing sentences. “One year later, I still do this,” he laughs. “Every morning when I go to fetch milk and groceries, my shopping list is a song that I belt out!” The lab is run by Shantala Hegde, a professor of neuropsychology as well as a trained classical vocalist. She and her team of researcher-collaborators and PhD scholars provide rehabilitation services to dozens of patients per month who have brain injuries like Shanbhag. “Music is a powerful tool for neuropsychological rehabilitation because you engage the entire brain to engage with it,” Hegde says. “We give them specific musical exercises that engage the entire brain, activate different brain areas and strengthen the connections between them,” Hegde clarifies.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the power of art.

- Reasons to be Cheerful

Woman with Alzheimer’s starts conversing again after taking psilocybin

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A woman with severe Alzheimer’s disease who spent years communicating in monosyllables started initiating conversations after receiving a large dose of psilocybin. The woman, who also had urinary incontinence and was unable to get around without assistance, also regained control of her bladder and experienced improved mobility in the weeks after taking the drug. The case report, published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, adds to evidence that psychedelics can acutely alter cognition and brain function. The woman, who has not been named, is 83 and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease 10 years ago. With the consent of her son, the woman was given 5 grams of the Enigma strain of the highly potent magic mushroom species Psilocybe cubensis, administered orally. She initially began sweating profusely and entered a prolonged deep sleep-like state. But around 19 hours later, her son reported her initiating a conversation that included her memories and reflections, which lasted around 4 hours. Over the subsequent days and weeks, Lago and his colleagues observed her regaining urinary continence, dressing herself and spontaneously entering conversations. The researchers have stressed that her Alzheimer’s has not been reversed, but she may have some residual functional capacity that psychedelics can tap into. We know that psilocybin activates serotonin receptors in the brain, which is thought to boost its plasticity.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on psychedelic medicine.

- New Scientist

The Bizarre Story Of Titu Singh, The Boy Who Claimed To Be The Reincarnation Of A Murder Victim

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What’s the true story behind Titu Singh’s apparent reincarnation? After Titu was born, he began telling his family tales of a past life. “He would tell his mom and dad loads of stories about how he had a wife and two kids, and they owned a radio cassette shop,” [Tom] Carty explains. “Sure enough, when the parents brought the boy to the radio cassette shop back then, guess who was there? His wife,” Carty explains. “And he starts speaking to his wife and saying, ‘I know your name, and I know our two kids’ names,’ and going into mad detail.” Not only that, but Titu claimed he had been murdered — and he knew who did it. Eventually, the boy identified the killer, who was later prosecuted for the crime. In a 1989 study, researcher Antonia Mills documented as many of the known details about the case as possible. According to Mills, a family reported that their son, Toran “Titu” Singh, began making strange claims as soon as he could talk, around 18 months old. The family claimed that Titu said he was from the city of Agra, had a wife and children, and owned a shop in Sadar Bazaar. Most astonishingly, Titu reportedly knew that he had been killed via gunshot — though, contrary to many online versions of the events, he said that he was unable to identify the attackers. While later reports say his words were used to identify the culprit, there’s no solid evidence that this is the case. Still, some people are convinced that Titu was telling the truth. There are countless other details that believers point to indicating that Titu Singh was genuinely the reborn Suresh. For example, a 1988 article in India Today reported that there was a birthmark on Titu’s head in the exact location where Suresh was shot.

Note: For more inspiring and credible material on past-life memories in children, read our Substack investigations, How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World. Explore more positive stories like this on near-death experiences and the mysterious nature of reality.

- All That's Interesting

The volunteers who want to continue working with sex offenders

Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Circles South West uses a network of volunteers to monitor, support and hold sex offenders to account after they have been released from prison. "For every man that is in a circle of support and accountability, they are being supported, monitored and held to account; and, if they don't receive that, it's possible they could go on to re-offend," said Circles South West co-ordinator Jamie Stephenson. A circle involves four volunteers who meet with a convicted sex offender once a week at the same time and location for a period of 12 to 18 months. The charity works with a range of people from those who commit sexual harm online or other non-contact sexual offences, to those who have committed acts of sexual murder. The process is voluntary and the core member, as the offender is called by the charity, is referred by the police or the probation service. Stephenson said: "Protecting victims is our strapline, and the way Circles does that is by targeting the risk factors, which are things like social isolation, loneliness, substance misuse, lack of constructive use of time, sexual preoccupation and using pornography. "There is empirical evidence that circles makes a difference by reducing the risk that someone could potentially re-offend and, if someone re-offends, then a new victim is created and we are all about no more victims." Since Circles South West formed in 2010, its network of volunteers has worked with about 400 convicted sex offenders in circles of support.

Note: Studies show that men with a Circle are 70 to 80% less likely to reoffend than a control group. Explore more positive stories like this on repairing criminal justice and ending human trafficking.

- BBC News

'I was raped - but offenders need help to rejoin society'

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Rachel was only a teenager when she was raped, and has now lived half of her life as a survivor. Despite being robbed of her virginity, and living in fear of being controlled, she backs a charity that tries to prevent attacks and save victims by forming support networks around those who have offended. The charity is called Circles of Support and Accountability (often shortened to Circles). A charity which aims to prevent sexual re-offending should surely be lauded and supported by all, no? How could anyone take a dim view of a group of people who devote their time to preventing sexual re-offending? Lots of people do, however, take a dim view of Circles' work, and it is because of the first two parts of the sentence above, describing their aim: working with sex offenders to minimise alienation, and support reintegration. The trouble is, very few people want sexual offences to be committed, but very few people want to take any responsibility for helping the people who commit the offences. I fully support the work that Circles does, because I strongly believe that people who are supported, who aren't treated like slugs on a rose, and who are made to face up to the consequences of their actions (remember the accountability part of the charity's name) are much less likely to re-offend on release from prison. It feels like our world is lacking in compassion, empathy and support right now.

- Sky News

A shooting survivor forgives the Louisiana man who tried to kill him. Now they're helping others rebuild.

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In 1996, Marcus Cheffen robbed Don Allison at gunpoint, shooting him in the leg and narrowly missing a critical artery. At the time, Allison believed Cheffen deserved to spend his entire life behind bars, and Cheffen was sentenced to 95 years in prison. Cheffen spent 24 years in prison, including 13 years at Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. During his incarceration, he said he made a conscious decision to change, learning a trade as a barber and working as a hospice worker. He began writing letters to Allison from prison to express remorse. Allison's spoke out against Cheffen's release at his first parole hearing, but a conversation with his wife that same day made him begin to change his mind. The Louisiana Department of Corrections Victim-Offender Dialogue Program ... allowed him to meet the man who nearly killed him. During an eight-hour conversation, Cheffen admitted everything and shared how his work in hospice care had humbled him. "He said, 'Mr. Allison, I change men's diapers. It is a humbling experience,'" Allison said. At Cheffen's 2020 parole hearing, Allison spoke in his favor. "I have forgiven Marcus. I'm very confident in telling you that Mr. Cheffen is a different man. He clearly deserves a second chance," Allison testified. Today, the two are more than just acquaintances. They are friends and advocates, working together with the Louisiana Parole Project to provide legal aid, education, and housing to formerly incarcerated individuals.

Note: Read more powerful stories of forgiveness playing a healing role in criminal justice. Explore more positive stories like this on repairing criminal justice.

- CBS News

Earth’s Underground Fungus Network Is So Gigantic That If You Stretched It Out, It Would Reach to Other Star Systems

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Scientists have mapped the Earth’s entire underground fungal network, showing that it’s so extensive that if it were stretched into a straight line, it would reach other star systems — and span a sizable chunk of the Milky Way galaxy, for that matter. The groundbreaking work, published in a study in the journal Science, focused on microorganisms known as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Forming the hidden backbone of our planet’s soil, they circulate water and nutrients and regulate the climate by locking away vast stores of carbon. Altogether, the global fungal network weighs around 300 megatons, the study found, which is four to six times more than the biomass of all human beings. Around 40 percent of that fungal mass resides in high-altitude or flooded grasslands, like the Everglades in Florida. The authors hope that their work will highlight the indispensable but overlooked role that these fungal networks play in the Earth’s ecosystems, with around 70 percent of all ground-based plant life depending on the fungi. In all, the model found that the planet is lined with more than 110 quadrillion kilometers of hyphae, or 68 quadrillion miles, which is almost a billion times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. On a cosmic ruler, that equals nearly 12,000 light years, or about a tenth the diameter of our galaxy. It’s the clearest picture yet of just how much fungal networks underpin our terrestrial ecosystems.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good and the mysterious nature of reality.

- Futurism

The continuity of consciousness

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

After reading George Ritchie's 1979 book Return From Tomorrow, a psychiatrist's account of his own Near-Death Experience (NDE)... I started to ask patients who had survived a cardiac arrest if they had memories from their period of unconsciousness. Within two years, 12 patients out of 50 survivors of cardiac arrest told me about their NDE. That piqued my scientific curiosity. According to our current medical concepts, it is not possible to experience consciousness during a cardiac arrest. Those patients should have no memories at all! Certain elements of the NDE ... might be of particular interest to psychologists. First, the Out-of-Body Experience, or OBE. People have the feeling that during their NDE they have apparently taken off their body like an old coat, and to their surprise they appear to have retained their own identity with the possibility of perception, emotions, and a very clear consciousness. This out-of-body experience is scientifically important because physicians, nurses and relatives can verify the details of the reported perceptions, and they can also corroborate the precise moment the NDE with OBE occurred. Another common experience [is] the Life Review. During such a life review, one feels connected to the memories, emotions and consciousness of those with whom they have interacted in the past, thereby experiencing the consequences of their own thoughts, words, and actions and more generally, their interconnectedness with others. NDEs are always transformational, often causing profound changes in life-insight, the loss of fear of death, and enhanced intuitive sensitivity (Van Lommel, 2010).

- British Psychological Society

May Cause Joy: The Full-Spectrum Health Benefits of Dance

Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I signed up for “Groove Therapy” with a local dance teacher, Leah Lynn. The youngest in our group is 16, the oldest over 70. Every Saturday, we play out a verb each of us brings to class — release, gather, resist, invite — translating abstract intentions into motion. It sounds faintly ridiculous. It is also, disarmingly, effective. Within minutes, something shifts. Stress loosens. Then for the next hour, we learn hip hop shuffles and swing our hips to Kool & the Gang or Beyoncé. I always return home exhausted and exhilarated. The dance classes provoked such a profound shift in my mood as well as my body that I decided to find out if there was more to it. Modern research is now catching up to the fact that dance is medicine, a deeply effective intervention for physical, cognitive and emotional health. Behind the feel-good performance lies hard science. Dance improves cardiovascular fitness, strength and coordination. Dancing activates a wide network: auditory pathways, visual and motor cortex, the amygdala and, above all, the somatosensory cortex and networks that keep track of where your body is in space. A German study that followed older adults in a dance program for more than a year reported increases in gray matter volume and synaptic density in regions important for memory and executive function. [Another study showed] that people who danced more than once a week had a 76 percent lower risk of developing dementia than those who danced less often.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies and the power of art.

- Reasons to be Cheerful

City food forests offer a chance to experience nature — and eat it

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Food forest projects have been taking root in multiple U.S. cities. In Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Seattle and elsewhere, groups have partnered with local communities to cultivate layers of edible plants on public parkland, in empty lots and along roadsides. Their champions say that in addition to food, these forests offer a host of climate and environmental benefits. “It’s the most hopeful form of land management that I’ve heard about,” said Lincoln Smith, founder of Forested, a 10-acre experimental forest garden in Bowie, Maryland. Just down the road from a private golf course, beyond a gate made of rough-hewn branches and chicken wire, lies a dense thicket of trees. A rustic fence, obscured by greenery, keeps deer from gorging on the smorgasbord of nuts, berries, and other fruits and edible plants growing in Smith’s forest garden. The food forest’s benefits can also be gauged by the number of nonhuman visitors. Small butterflies and moths fluttered among the greenery, while birds chirped from inside thick treetops. Bumblebees and honeybees swarmed an anise hyssop, crawling all over the plant’s lavender stalks. Beyond increasing people’s access to fresh food and nature, and serving as wildlife habitats, these forest ecosystems can sequester carbon and help improve water quality. “You can see photos of this place from when it was a cornfield and know that runoff has been drastically reduced and carbon is being accumulated in the soil,” Smith said.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and reimagining the economy.

- Washington Post

Urban Foragers Are Mapping Edible Plants Around the World

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Ethan Welty and Caleb Phillips originally started Falling Fruit so they could keep track of edible plants in their city. The two are avid foragers, often sourcing their fruits and vegetables for free from city streets and public spaces. Foraging can help people save money and prevent food waste. And for Welty, one of the biggest benefits of Falling Fruit is that it can help people learn about the “different plants that have some sort of edible use” in their city. For instance, it’s a useful tool in community education programs, like urban foraging trips, as well as in classes that teach people how to prepare the foraged fruits and vegetables they brought home. Since launching in 2013, Falling Fruit has mapped over 4,000 different species of edible mushrooms and plants — including fruit trees, berries and herbs — across almost 2 million publicly accessible foraging spots in cities around the world. Zooming in on Billings, Montana, the Falling Fruit map reveals edible plants clustered within the city’s parks. These plants are part of the city’s Parkland Gleaning Project to give excess harvest to neighbors facing hunger. The interactive map offers details for foraging, but more than that, people can use it to learn more about their neighborhoods. Community programs ... can have a bigger impact when paired with the Falling Fruit map. Falling Fruit is completely sustained by app sales, with annual expenses sitting at about $2,000. The app costs $1 to download.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and reimagining the economy.

- Sentient Media

These cities turned parks into orchards where anyone can pick for free

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The city of Andernach, Germany, planted 101 varieties of tomatoes in the town center and told everyone to pluck and take whatever they wanted. It was such a hit, the following year the city did the same with beans. The next year, it was onions. After that, the city planted fruit trees, lettuce, zucchini, berries and herbs. All were free to anyone who lived or happened to be in the town of 30,000 people. The town, which sits in the Rhine River Valley, has an unofficial motto: “Picking is encouraged — help yourself.” It’s one of a growing number of places across the globe known as edible cities. In the United States, there are public lands from Seattle to North Carolina where people are welcome to pick and take from fruiting trees and bushes. Since 2018, Andernach has been part of the Edible Cities Network, a group of about 150 cities around the world with fruit trees and vegetable gardens in public places for anyone to access free of charge. Several cities also receive funding for what Edible Cities calls “living labs” — green spaces where residents can hold community events and develop their own plans to help their urban gardens to thrive and produce bountiful harvests. Edible Cities is now supporting a community garden in Cuba, while cities in China, Tunisia, Togo and Uruguay are also developing plans for urban food forests. Edible Cities is trying to encourage people to get involved in their urban parks rather than only think of them as passive places.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and reimagining the economy.

- Washington Post

Germany's pioneer 'edible city' on the Rhine

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Beneath Andernach's medieval city walls, birds flit among apple, pear and peach trees. Strawberry plants and heads of lettuce sprout from the soil alongside patches of herbs and wildflowers. It's also home to the highest cold-water geyser in the world, a big tourist draw. But today, visitors have another reason to come to Andernach — its city gardens. "If you feel like picking something for dinner, feel free," said Anneli Karlsson, the project coordinator of the Edible Cities Network in Andernach. "That's our motto: Feel free to pick." Andernach, with a population of around 30,000 people, is known as an "edible city." Its public green spaces are used to grow food that anyone can harvest free of charge. The city's administration launched the project in 2010. The idea was to get locals more engaged in their community and raise awareness about how food is grown. No pesticides are used, so the produce is all organic. But Andernach's gardens aren't just about food. Karlsson said the project is unique because it hires unemployed people to maintain the plant beds, alongside a team of gardeners. "It has changed my life," said Jörn Schamari, a former truck driver. He suffered burnout and was out of work when he came across the edible city initiative several years ago. "This project helped me bounce back. And from next year, I've been promised a permanent position as a gardener here. The project has also changed my relationship to plants."

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and reimagining the economy.

- DW.com

Mushrooms help remove sewage and E. coli from Devon River

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mushrooms could be used to filter out harmful waste and sewage in rivers, after a trial showed a certain fungi can destroy a type of bacteria that is a risk to human health. The fungi, called turkey tail mushroom, was used in part of a river in Devon and managed to filter out 80% of E. coli bacteria during the trial. During the trial, bags of turkey tail mushrooms were stacked across a riverbed, filtering water through their roots, which are called mycelia. The mycelia acted like a sponge, catching the E. coli bacteria to prevent it going into the river. Water industry regulator Ofwat has given Anglian Water £1.5 million to use fungi to clean up rivers because the trial worked so well. In another trial in Lincolnshire, a similar barricade caught 83% of phosphorus and 35% of nitrogen from rainwater running off farmers' fields. Farmers spread these chemicals as fertilisers, but when they wash into watercourses they can cause thick algae to form, starving fish of oxygen. The mushroom barriers could be placed near sewage overflow pipes to remove pollutants released during storms. Mushrooms can be used as a packaging material. Mycelium has been used by ... companies for packaging, because [it] breaks down naturally within weeks of use. And fashion designer Stella McCartney came up with a really fun-gi idea a few years ago. She created the first ever clothing made of mushroom leather, using the mycelium. Mushroom leather, unlike other fake leathers, is entirely natural and biodegradable.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and technology for good.

- BBC News

Hemp for the future: here’s why one plant can change everything

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hemp – Cannabis sativa L. with a THC content low enough to avoid intoxication – has walked beside humanity for at least 10 millennia. The plant’s renaissance is ... a practical answer to converging crises in climate, resources, and rural economies. Hemp can be spun into linen-soft cloth, mixed into concrete—like blocks, brewed into nutty milk, pressed into nutritious oil, and refined into graphene—grade carbon nanosheets. It grows fast, sequesters more carbon per hectare than most forests, and asks for little more than sunlight, moderate rainfall, and room to stretch. Because every single part of the stalk, seed, leaf, and root can be transformed into something of value, hemp stands apart as a champion of circular design. Early drafts of the Declaration of Independence were [written on] linen-hemp blends. Hemp’s reputation suffered only when petro-synthetic fibers and anti-cannabis laws converged in the 1930s. Eighty years later, reforms from Canada to Australia to continental Europe have reopened fields once taken from the crop. Field trials in Ukraine and Italy show hemp’s phytoremediation power: the plant can bind or volatilize heavy metals such as cadmium and nickel while leaving fiber fractions safe for non-food applications. The plant synthesizes over a hundred other phytocannabinoids. Chief among them, CBD modulates serotonin receptors, calms epileptic seizures in Dravet syndrome, and shows promise in anxiety, pain, and inflammation trials.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and technology for good.

- Lampoon

Art could save your life! Five creative ways to make 2026 happier, healthier and more hopeful

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ever since our Paleolithic ancestors began painting caves, carving figurines, dancing and singing, engaging in the arts has been interwoven with health and healing. Look through the early writings of every major medical tradition around the world and you find the arts. What is much newer – and rapidly accelerating over the past two decades – is a blossoming scientific evidence-base identifying and quantifying exactly what the health benefits of the arts are. Randomised trials on the mental health benefits of the arts now number in triple figures, with regular singing, dancing, reading, crafts, and cultural pursuits shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress for people of all ages. Some studies suggest that combining creative arts therapies such as music therapy with antidepressants and counselling can nearly double the improvements in depressive symptoms compared with standard treatments alone. But the arts can also be beneficial preventatively. People who regularly go to the theatre, live music events, museums, galleries and the cinema have nearly half the risk of developing depression. People who are regularly engaged in cultural activities perform better on cognitive tests as they age, showing slower rates of decline in ability and a lower risk of developing dementia, and they are on average older if and when they do get that diagnosis than people who aren’t engaged in the arts.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the power of art.

- The Guardian

Read a book? Join a club? Stare at a wall? Social media alternatives for under-16s

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

“Kids don’t go on social media because they love social media per se,” the children’s author and National Year of Reading 2026 ambassador, Rob Biddulph says. “They go there looking for connection and for belonging – and for entertainment and inspiration.” The challenge, he says, is not to replace social media itself, it is to replace the things it provides. At the Scouts, Simon Carter says one of their biggest attractions is that they bring young people into contact with others outside their friendship circles. Film clubs, youth theatres and music projects offer similar opportunities: BFI film clubs bring young people together to make films in teams. Youth Music-supported projects include everything from DJing, podcasting and gaming to organising gigs. Libraries and bookshops can play a similar role: many now host gaming sessions, manga clubs, creative workshops, reading groups and book clubs. Youth organisations are not the only route to connection. Wilson recommends environmental activism for older children. John Glancy, of the National Trust, believes parents should start by asking their children why their favourite social media platform and video game appeals to them. “The answer might reveal they’re searching for a sense of identity, stimulation or a sense of achievement,” he says. “Once you know which it is, it becomes easier to find alternatives.” Joe Doherty, of Outward Bound ... recommends activities that offer rewards – be it novelty, progression or excitement.

Note: A 2025 study found that cutting social media use for just one week significantly reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia in young adults. Explore more positive stories like this on reimagining education and healing social division.

- The Guardian

‘A fire, a dog, and the starry sky’: the teens overcoming phone-addiction through Arctic pursuits

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Nineteen-year-old Hege is stricken by all the common anxieties of her generation. She spends too much time scrolling through socials on her phone, and as a result she is obsessed with how other people perceive her, and highly stressed when it comes to interacting with real humans in the flesh. Hege and her classmates are packed off to for 12 months: a “folk high school” ... 200 miles above the Arctic circle. Here the students don’t sit in classes, they “wake up their Stone Age brains” by learning how to pitch a tent, keep themselves warm at minus 30C, and drive dog sleds across the icy landscape. Hege may still be overthinking things when she dons a pair of RayBans at her first campfire, but soon she goes hours without even remembering to check her mobile, and eventually there is nothing greater in the world to her than dashing through the snow on the back of a dog sled, her body racing but her mind finally standing still. In a world where there’s great emphasis on individualism, folk high schools stress community and social interaction in a way that often goes under the radar. Do these young people come out of their folk high school experience better equipped to cope with the challenges of the modern world? “It’s a tricky question, because of course part of the point is to evade the modern world,” says Ewing. “They’re definitely not better at managing ChatGPT or using AI. But they’re better equipped to be decent human beings who can maybe not shrink under pressure in the future.”

- The Guardian

‘Massive boost of serotonin!’: How a dose of nature is treating mental illness

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What you’ve got there from the sun on your face is a massive boost of serotonin!” says Alison Greenwood, founder of Dose of Nature, the charity successfully prescribing time outside as a treatment for mental health. Dose of Nature has already delivered 1,500 one-to-one courses and is outperforming standard NHS talking therapies, boasting a recovery rate of 64% compared with the health service’s 50%, and a reliable improvement rate of 86% compared with 69%. Unlike most green social prescribing schemes, clients are referred directly by their GPs. “Our nature prescriptions are a genuine alternative to medication and more traditional psychological therapies,” Greenwood says. The key, she says, is the rediscovery of something very old: “The idea that nature is good for our mental health and wellbeing has been around for millennia. We evolved outside, under the sky, [and so] we are animals that are caged most of our time, in schools or cars or offices or homes. As soon as we get outside, we’re free.” There are two key parts to the Dose of Nature prescription: helping people get outside and, once there, to start noticing nature to calm their minds and bodies. As well as the serotonin-boosting sun and the phytoncides that can decrease stress hormones, studies have shown that natural sounds such as water, wind and birdsong improve mood. The fractal patterns of nature have been shown to aid recovery from stress and boost alpha waves in the brain.

Note: In New Zealand, green prescriptions have become a formal part of the healthcare system. Over 4,000 green prescriptions have been written by over 10,000 physicians in all 10 provinces of Canada. Read more about social and green prescriptions. Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies and mental health.

- The Guardian

NASA scientist claims she died 3 times — revealing her peek at the afterlife: ‘Everything was interconnected’

Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ingrid Honkala, a former NASA scientist, claims she is intimately familiar with death after allegedly flatlining a staggering three times. Each time, she had the same revelation. “It felt like entering a deeper layer of reality that exists beyond our physical senses,” Honkala, 55, told Jam Press of her trifecta of near-death experiences. “In that state, consciousness felt vast, intelligent, and interconnected.” When she was just two years old ... Honkala fell into an icy tank of water at home, unbeknownst to the maid who was listening to the radio in another room. Thankfully, the tot’s mother ... was able to resuscitate her. During that brief stint on the other side, however, Honkala said “Something extraordinary happened.” Her fear gave way to a “deep calm.” “The panic disappeared and was replaced by an overwhelming sense of peace and stillness,” recalled Honkala. “It felt as if my awareness separated from my body.” “The experience showed me that what we call the afterlife did not feel like a distant place at all,” she said. “To me, the experience suggested that consciousness may not be produced solely by the brain – it may be something more fundamental.” Honkala would undergo two more near-death experiences: one following a motorcycle accident at 25 and the other at 52, when her blood pressure dropped during surgery. She was able to attain the same serene state each time. She claimed it was this spiritual awakening that inspired her to pursue science.

Note: For more inspiring and credible material on this topic, read our Substack investigations: How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World and Insights from Near-Death Experiences Remind Us of Who We Are and What Unites Us. Explore more positive stories like this on inspiring near-death experiences and the mysterious nature of reality.

- New York Post

What I Saw When I Peeked Over the Edge of Consciousness

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Near-death experiencers are the best dancers. I could identify which attendees at the annual conference of the International Association for Near-Death Studies have been to the brink, because they moved their bodies with un-self-conscious abandon, ripping up the floor of a tent on the grounds of a suburban Chicago Hilton. You could walk up to any one of them, and they would matter-of-factly tell you about how they almost died. Facing death, whether your own or a loved one’s, is a core part of making meaning of one’s life. To struggle through this universal contemplation without a community can be brutal. The American religious landscape has become fragmented over the past few decades, and even observant people got out of the habit of going to services in person after 2020. So it makes sense that a group like IANDS could fill a much-needed gap for people who are unsatisfied by the strictures of mainstream observance and who aren’t fulfilled by the loose ties of a virtual and vague spirituality. According to Pew’s huge Religious Landscape Study published last year, almost 80 percent of Americans surveyed said they believed “there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it.” “I feel like I found my tribe,” said Maria Small, a Navy veteran who lost her young daughter, Mia, in 2020 and had not been to an IANDS conference before. She was there with her husband, Derek, who is also a veteran.

- New York Times