The Progress Network

We are currently living in a time filled with negativity. With constant exposure to grim news and the challenges of a post-COVID world, it’s easy to feel like we are on the brink of disaster. The narrative of chaos and failure is well-supported by information that’s widely available, and it doesn’t take much to find evidence for this viewpoint. However, what if that narrative isn’t the whole truth? There are equally valid ideas and evidence that suggest a more hopeful outcome, though they often go unheard. The Progress Network seeks to elevate and share these optimistic perspectives, offering a vision for a stable and sustainable future. Our contributors come from various sectors, including business, technology, journalism, and politics, but they all share a common belief: that human creativity and our ability to work together for the greater good are ultimately stronger than the negative forces at play.

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What Could Go Right?

1 week ago | theprogressnetwork.org | Emma Varvaloucas

This is our weekly newsletter, What Could Go Right? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday at 5am ET. You can read past issues here. When I say that child marriage is still legal in most American states, do you ask whether that means a minor marrying an adult, or two star-crossed 17-year-olds marrying each other? It means both, and that’s the rub.
2025’s Big Crime Drop

2 weeks ago | theprogressnetwork.org | Emma Varvaloucas

This is our weekly newsletter, What Could Go Right? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday at 5am ET. You can read past issues here. That the media covers crime’s ascent but not its descent is at this point a truism. It does bring with it a real risk, however—that the bubble of public fear, once it has swelled, will never pop. Let me pop it for you now. So far, 2025 is shaping up to be the most nonviolent year in recent memory, and in some cases, on record, in the United States.
What Could Go Right? - The Pope Effect

3 weeks ago | theprogressnetwork.org | Emma Varvaloucas

This is our weekly newsletter, What Could Go Right? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday at 5am ET. You can read past issues here. On Monday, Dylan Page, who with over 15 million followers runs TikTok’s second-largest news account (the British tabloid The Daily Mail runs the largest) posted a video covering the “pope effect.” Following the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost to Pope Leo XIV, conflict hotspots all over the world took some surprising steps toward peace.
Buried by a Volcano, Read by AI

1 month ago | theprogressnetwork.org | Emma Varvaloucas

This is our weekly newsletter, What Could Go Right? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday at 5am ET. You can read past issues here. About 2,000 years ago, the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus sat down to record his thoughts on a group of vices that are no less pertinent today: flattery, arrogance, greed, and slander. These musings eventually became a multi-volume set of at least ten books together referred to as On Vices.
The Electric Bus Revolution

1 month ago | theprogressnetwork.org | Emma Varvaloucas

This is our weekly newsletter, What Could Go Right? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday at 5am ET. You can read past issues here. There is nothing like experiencing climate solutions firsthand to convince you that the transition is worth it. I’m currently spending a few months in the Netherlands, one of the European leaders for bus electrification. Here, along with Finland and Iceland, all new urban buses are electric.
Is Donald Trump Serious About a Third Term?

1 month ago | theprogressnetwork.org | Emma Varvaloucas

This is our weekly newsletter, What Could Go Right? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday at 5am ET. You can read past issues here. Dear WCGR? readers: Today we are republishing a piece from our friends at The Dispatch, by senior editor Michael Warren, previously a reporter for CNN. Is Donald Trump serious about running for a third term? Trump himself may not even know.
What Could Go Right? - Ghost Gun Kits Will Still Be Regulated—for Now

2 months ago | theprogressnetwork.org | Emma Varvaloucas

This is our weekly newsletter, What Could Go Right? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday at 5am ET. You can read past issues here. Last week, the Supreme Court found a gun regulation they could get behind: a Biden-era rule that subjected ghost gun kits to the same purchasing requirements as ordinary firearms, such as a serial number, background check, age verification, and sales tracking. The 7-2 decision in Bondi v.
Ordinary People Rescue Democracy

2 months ago | theprogressnetwork.org | Emma Varvaloucas

This is our weekly newsletter, What Could Go Right? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday at 5am ET. You can read past issues here. What does a country whose descent into illiberalism was brought to a standstill by ordinary people look like on the other side? Over a year ago, Polish voters wrested control of their country away from the Law and Justice (PiS) party that had been elected in 2015.
Four Cents Closer to Parity

2 months ago | theprogressnetwork.org | Emma Varvaloucas

This is our weekly newsletter, What Could Go Right? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday at 5am ET. You can read past issues here. In the past two decades, the gender pay gap in the United States has narrowed by four cents. New data from the Pew Research Center shows that in 2024, women earned an average of 85 cents for every dollar that men earned. In 2003, it was 81 cents. Four cents over 20 years sounds unimpressive, I know, but society-wide changes take time.
Justice, One Kit at a Time

Mar 6, 2025 | theprogressnetwork.org | Emma Varvaloucas

This is our weekly newsletter, What Could Go Right? Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Thursday at 5am ET. You can read past issues here. The gist:The backlog of untested rape kits in the United States used to number over 200,000, leaving many victims without justice and allowing rapists to commit multiple offenses without being caught. Since 2016, the backlog has been slashed in half, and every state except one has passed some kind of rape kit reform law.