Former Talking Heads leader David Byrne has launched an online magazine focused on solutions to the world’s biggest problems.
ReasonsToBeCheerful.world will feature stories detailing “real changes with measurable impact” designed to “inspire and uplift”.
Each article will be written and edited by professional writers and experts in their fields.
The initiative will be the first project of Byrne’s Arbutus Foundation, created to to highlight the work of others “via novel and innovative presentation”.
Announcing the launch on Saturday (24Aug19), the rocker said, “It often seems as if the world is going straight to hell. I wake up in the morning, I look at the paper, and I say to myself, ‘Oh no!’ Often I’m depressed for half the day. I imagine some of you feel the same.
“Recently, I realised this isn’t helping. Nothing changes when you’re numb. So, as a kind of remedy, and possibly as a kind of therapy, I started collecting good news. Not schmaltzy, feel-good news, but stuff that reminded me, ‘Hey, there’s positive stuff going on! People are solving problems and it’s making a difference!’
“I began telling others about what I’d found. Their responses were encouraging, so I created a website called Reasons to be Cheerful and started writing. Later on, I realised I wanted to make the endeavour a bit more formal. So we got a team together and began commissioning stories from other writers and redesigned the website. Today, we’re relaunching Reasons to be Cheerful as an ongoing editorial project.
“We’re telling stories that reveal that there are, in fact, a surprising number of reasons to feel cheerful that provide a more optimistic and, we believe, more accurate depiction of the world. We hope to balance out some of the amplified negativity and show that things might not be as bad as we think. Stop by whenever you need a reminder.”
The new online magazine’s relaunch comes two months before the start of the Road to Nowhere singer’s American Utopia at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre.
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