0:00

Politics has never been stranger, or

0:03

more online. Which is why

0:05

the politics team at Wired is making a

0:07

new show, Wired Politics Lab. It's

0:09

all about how to navigate the endless stream of

0:11

news and information, and what to look out for.

0:14

Each week on the show, we'll

0:16

dig into far-right platforms, AI chatbots,

0:18

influencer campaigns, and so much more.

0:21

Wired Politics Lab launches Thursday, April 11th.

0:24

Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. Hey

0:32

y'all, I'm Erin Haines, the host

0:34

of The Amendment, a brand new weekly podcast

0:36

on gender, politics, and power brought to you

0:38

by the 19th News and Wonder Media Network.

0:42

You've probably heard the news that this election

0:44

year, our democracy is at stake. On

0:46

The Amendment, I'm breaking down what that

0:49

actually means, specifically for the marginalized folks

0:51

who depend on our democracy the most. This

0:54

is a show that dives past the headlines and

0:57

gets clear on the unfinished work of our

0:59

democracy. Listen to The

1:01

Amendment now, wherever you get your podcasts.

1:10

What Could Go Right? I'm Zachary

1:12

Karabell, the founder of The Progress Network,

1:14

joined as always by Emma Varvaloukos, the

1:17

executive director of The Progress Network. And

1:20

What Could Go Right? is our podcast, which

1:22

is combined with our weekly

1:24

newsletter of the same name, What Could

1:26

Go Right?, which you can

1:28

sign up for for free at theprogressnetwork.org.

1:32

And these are our new weekly

1:34

installments of The Progress

1:36

Report, which is our

1:38

look at news that you probably weren't as

1:41

aware of in the daily maelstrom of negativity,

1:43

which we wouldn't even be aware of had

1:45

we not made an effort to

1:47

look for news of people

1:50

solving problems, of problems being solved, of

1:52

things going well in the world, even

1:55

though we live and swim in a sea of

1:57

stories of all that is not going well

1:59

in. And

2:02

as always, we will be led

2:04

by the supreme

2:06

leader of all news that is good,

2:09

Emma Varfelukas. Thank

2:13

you so much for the introduction,

2:15

Zairee. I'm actually

2:17

going to start out with a banger today. It's

2:20

not a good news item, but I wanted to

2:22

bring it up because it's so pertinent to what

2:24

we're doing here at the Progress Network. So this

2:26

is the first sentence of a BBC article, more

2:29

people are turning away from the news,

2:31

describing it as depressing, relentless, and boring,

2:34

a global study suggests. That

2:36

is harsh. I'm so curious if our listeners

2:39

feel that way as well. It may

2:41

be harsh, but it kind of feels

2:43

resonant and true. I mean, at some

2:46

point, you've been all over this for

2:48

years now and are thinking about expanding

2:50

that, about how to read the news

2:52

without losing your mind. The human nature

2:54

is, if it's a one note, relentless,

2:57

metronomic, you just

2:59

tune out. There's nothing really at some

3:03

point, the just constant drip,

3:05

drip, drip of negativity. Even

3:08

if it's totally accurate, even if every

3:11

single one of those stories represents a

3:13

real and critical problem, you know, none

3:15

of us can live our lives with

3:17

any degree of equanimity

3:19

or productivity or sanity

3:22

with that kind of constant imbalance, right? That

3:24

there is a yin and

3:27

a yang of human existence that may not

3:30

be in perfect balance at any given time,

3:32

but is nonetheless how most of

3:34

us exist for most of

3:36

the time. And if the news diet is

3:39

like a human diet full

3:42

of lots of, if not unhealthy, then

3:44

stuff that if consumed in

3:46

excess can be harmful,

3:48

people will for their own sanity and

3:50

wellbeing tune out. Yeah,

3:53

it says that four in 10

3:55

people worldwide say they sometimes are

3:57

often actively avoid the news. Ryan

9:18

Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. With the price

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of just about everything going up during inflation,

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we thought we'd bring our prices down. So

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9:47

Wireless. fertilizers.

12:01

Well, not artificial, but artificially, non-naturally

12:03

occurring as opposed to like guano

12:06

and what had been used for

12:08

fertilizer or night soil. So,

12:11

less fertilizer, less carbon intensivity

12:13

for agriculture. And we can

12:17

talk about this at more length than maybe

12:19

another discussion, but the

12:21

genetic modification of rice, not just

12:23

corn, there's already golden rice which

12:26

has been controversial just

12:28

like GMO corn has been

12:30

controversial. Next generation

12:32

of those, bioengineering will

12:35

allow for pest resistant

12:37

strains of rice, meaning you won't

12:40

need to use pesticides because the

12:43

genome of the rice itself will be

12:46

uninteresting to many of the pests that

12:48

currently assail the crops. So, that will

12:50

have its own, I'm sure, cultural

12:53

debate question mark whether we should

12:55

allow that. But there are certainly

12:57

technologies in place and constantly being

12:59

developed that could point to any less

13:02

carbon intensive agricultural future. If we

13:04

embrace or if we allow for,

13:06

there may be risks that come

13:08

with bioengineering that are unforeseen because

13:11

whenever you mess with the ecosystem, there are

13:13

likely to be unforeseen risks. But

13:16

is taking that risk worth the trade off,

13:18

i.e., fewer pesticides

13:20

period for all the

13:23

reasons that we would want fewer pesticides. Yeah,

13:26

I mean, less carbon intensive, fewer pesticides,

13:28

and as you say, also just producing

13:30

more food. I mean, we

13:32

still have a population that's going to

13:35

be growing until what, 2015 to

13:37

2060s. So, those people

13:40

have got to be fed. So we've got

13:42

one more story, right? We got one more

13:44

and it's going to be quick because we've

13:46

talked about this a lot, but we just

13:49

need to do a quick update. That Thailand

13:51

is officially going to become the first nation

13:53

in Southeast Asia to legalize same sex marriage.

13:55

The bill just passed the Senate. It

13:57

was 130 senators voting in.