Filter Articles:
Need a Dose of Optimism These Days?
Subscribe for good news, no politics, and a guide to a better life online!
Sign upWake up to Good News for a Change!
Get the Ever Widening Circles App! Feeling better about the world is as easy as tapping our app on your phone.


Jump to another article!
Surprise Me!14 minutes
[ Animals ]
Solving Old Problems by Studying New Species
How can studying new species lead to a brighter future? Here’s a great reminder that inspiration is all around us, we just have to search for connections!
9 minutes
[ Conservation & Sustainability ]
Celebrating Solar: Look How Far We’ve Come!
Let’s give solar power its day in the sun! Solar energy advancements are making access to sustainable energy more affordable and widespread and that’s worth celebrating!
9 minutes
[ Design ]
The Playful History of Innovation
How is the flute the great-grandfather of the computer? Here’s a look at the playful history of innovation to give you a little perspective for the future!
14 minutes
[ Design ]
Engineering the Tallest Building in the World
By Dr. Lynda
Ever look up at a skyscraper, sparkling in the night sky and wonder, “How did they do that?” Here’s a great look at one major challenge in the tallest building in the world!
10 minutes
Bolster Your Immunity to Fear!
Did you know fear is contagious? Here are some simple ways you can avoid contagious fear while building a more positive world around you!
11 minutes
[ Animals ]
A Second Chance for Abandoned Animals and Inmates
By Dr. Lynda
Here’s a great example of the kinds of stories the nightly news could be bringing us, instead of all the doom and gloom. Another thought-leaders – the Monroe County Jail – teaches us about possibility.
17 minutes
[ Design ]
Alpha Jetman Blows the Doors of Possibility Wide Open
By Dr. Lynda
Sometimes we need an eccentric person with a crazy idea to push back the edge of possibility for us all! Take a look at a wonder in innovation you will not believe!
6 minutes
[ Innovation ]
How to Memorize Anything!
Have a tough time learning names, remembering directions, or just want to impress your friends? Never fear! Let us introduce you to your memory palace, a place where you can memorize anything.
13 minutes
[ Art ]
Saving Rivers by Turning Toxins Into Art!
How can painting with toxic sludge save rivers? Two professors at Ohio University are teaming up to combine art and science to conserve and protect polluted waterways!
30 minutes
Using Light as a Therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease!
Remarkable science alert! Scientists have recently found a therapy for Alzheimer’s that uses light to reverse some of the symptoms of the disease!
5 minutes
[ Design ]
What Can A Thousand Swarming Robots Teach us About Nature?
How do fish swim in schools, or birds fly in giant flocks without running into each other? Take a look at the tiny swarming robots that are helping us understand some of nature’s most complex phenomena!
7 minutes
[ Happiness & Hope ]
How the Kindness of Strangers Can Save Lives
What happens when we use the kindness of strangers to catalyze life-saving daisy chain of kidney donation? Here’s a reminder that compassion is still out there!
15 minutes
[ Conservation & Sustainability ]
Hype Aside: What Are Our Real Energy Options?
By Derek Dodge
Do you feel us edging away from fossil fuels? If we look where innovation is moving, it’s not in coal, oil and gas. No the creative thought leaders and clever young innovators are moving on. See where they are taking us!
5 minutes
[ Happiness & Hope ]
It’s the Little Things That Lead to Big Changes
Could we do more with less? Here are a few simple ways we can improve our impact on the environment, and find ourselves a little less cluttered, simply by noticing the little things!
4 minutes
Got a Question? Give the “Human Google” a Call!
Ever asked yourself “What did I do before Google?” For the past 40 years, the New York Public Library has had its own “human Google” where you can call and ask any question. The best part? You can still call them today!
14 minutes
[ Business ]
A Renaissance Story: Oysters and the Chesapeake Bay
By Dr. Lynda
There are some great stories of renewal and the resilience of nature and people. The story of oysters and the Chesapeake Bay is one of them.
5 minutes
[ Animals ]
Powering Your World with Fish Scales?
Yes, you read that correctly, we can use fish scales to generate power! It turns out those fish you see in the market could be an alternative energy source. Here’s how this alternative energy source could be used in the future!
18 minutes
MakerNurse Bringing Innovation to the Bedside
What happens when you put the tools for innovation into the hands of nurses? You get MakerNurse, and incredible project changing the future of patient care!
12 minutes
[ Conservation & Sustainability ]
Innovators to the End: Mushroom Burial Suits!
By Dr. Lynda
Ingenious people are always the ones dragging culture forward. It is time to start innovating when it comes to death. How about a mushroom burial suit!
6 minutes
[ Art ]
How Dance is Informing Wheelchair Technology
Check out the Rolling Dance Chair, an incredible example of how innovation can happen when we think outside of the box about possibility!
23 minutes
[ Business ]
4th Graders Can Solve World Peace! Can We?
By Dr. Lynda
What if we all have the innate skills to solve some of the world’s most intractable problems, when we are in the 4th grade? Take a look at this bit of wonder!
18 minutes
[ Conservation & Sustainability ]
Biosphere 2: A Rainforest and a Reef in the Middle of the Desert?
Have you heard about Biosphere 2? This incredible living laboratory is helping us figure out what life could look like on a colony beyond our planet!
13 minutes
[ Culture ]
Driverless Cars: How Our Bodies Can Inspire the Future
Are driverless cars and other forms of futuristic transportation a far-off dream? It turns out that our own bodies can provide a little inspiration to turn science fiction into reality!
4 minutes
Soccer Without Sight: Finding Joy in the Beautiful Game!
So often we forget to nurture and savor the moment in the things that make us truly joyful. Here’s the powerful way one man’s life was changed by finding exactly where his joy came from!
10 minutes
[ Business ]
The Cutting Edge Cafe of 1995
What did using the web in public look like 20 years ago? Here’s the story of the hippest internet cafe of 1995! It’s an amazing look at how far we’ve come.
25 minutes
[ Design ]
Building Futures with Half a House
What happens when you are forced to think creativity in the face of scarcity? This is a story of innovation that speaks something much larger in us all!
17 minutes
[ Animals ]
News That Will Leave You a Little Smarter!
One of our favorite Youtube channels, The Brain Scoop, is bringing science news to everybody with their new show the Natural News! Check out some news that will leave you a little smarter!
12 minutes
Finding Human Ancestors and Shifting Perspectives
The discovery of Homo Naledi, a new human ancestor, was a momentous occasion. It not only shifted our understanding of our origins, it also changed the way we conduct and talk about scientific research!
32 minutes
[ Happiness & Hope ]
Space: the Future, the Frontier
Explore the story of a remarkable movement to colonize space spurred on by a spirit of possibility and innovation! Here’s a piece of fascinating history that shouldn’t be forgotten.