The Progress Network: Progress-Focused Thinking Here and Now
The Progress Network is a nonprofit media platform and idea movement dedicated to shifting our collective attention away from fear-based narratives and toward evidence-based progress. In an era when doomscrolling has become the default mode of staying informed, it offers something increasingly rare: a grounded, intellectually honest alternative that highlights real improvements and explains how they come about.
Rather than asking us to ignore serious challenges, The Progress Network invites us to look more carefully at the full picture. It seeks to restore balance by surfacing progress that often goes unseen - not because it isn’t real, but because it doesn’t generate the same clicks as crisis.
A different kind of story.
Much of today’s media environment amplifies breakdown, conflict, and division. While these realities deserve attention, they can distort our perception when presented without context or counterbalance. The Progress Network asks a more useful question instead: What could go right, and why?
Through articles, podcasts, and newsletters, the Network aims not to deny problems, but to clarify what’s working, how progress emerges, and why it matters. Its content explores how innovation spreads, how institutions improve, and how societies adapt, offering insight without naïveté and optimism without denial.
Who’s shaping this shift.
• Zachary Karabell — Founder and principal voice behind The Progress Network. He advances the idea that the stories we tell about the world actively shape how we engage with it. Rather than accepting the default “everything is collapsing” narrative, he promotes disciplined inquiry into progress, asking where it’s happening, why it matters, and how it can continue.
• Emma Varvaloucas — Executive Director, responsible for guiding editorial direction and execution. She helps ensure the Network’s work remains rigorous, thoughtful, and genuinely useful, translating big ideas into consistent, accessible output.
• The Network of thinkers and doers — A curated group of writers, researchers, and practitioners spanning many disciplines. Together, they contribute perspectives that help map progress across culture, science, policy, technology, and society, reinforcing the idea that progress is rarely singular or linear.
Why it matters.
When fear and outrage drive attention and engagement, constructive focus becomes a scarce resource. The Progress Network matters because it restores that focus, balancing narrative with evidence and pessimism with perspective.
It doesn’t sugarcoat reality. Instead, it illuminates where and how progress is actually occurring. In doing so, it equips us with a clearer map of the world. One that supports more effective action, whether in policy discussions, community initiatives, or personal decision-making.
Just as importantly, it broadens our understanding of what progress looks like. Progress isn’t only technological breakthroughs. It also includes better systems, improved health outcomes, smarter governance, and cultural resilience built over time.
How to engage.
Explore The Progress Network’s What Could Go Right? newsletter and podcast. Pay attention not only to what’s broken, but to what’s improving, and why. Notice the patterns behind progress, the conditions that enable it, and the lessons it offers.
Cultivating curiosity about how progress happens is itself a useful possibility. One that can lead to more grounded thinking, more constructive conversations, and more thoughtful action in the world.
About UP:
Promoting quality content that cracks open the mind and sparks curiosity. Standing Cyclist presents Useful Possibilities (UP), spotlighting extraordinary teachers and leaders, athletes and activists, researchers and writers, filmmakers and engineers, and their groundbreaking projects. UP recognizes individuals and teams who raise awareness and drive innovation in areas such as health and wellness, environmental science, spirituality, personal growth, and human rights. We celebrate those who promote unity, tolerance, respectful collaboration, mindful living, and the [responsible] use of technology, social media, and modern marketing tools. Honoring people and content that inspire us to be the very best versions of ourselves.
Useful Possibilities is powered by our valued partners and related brands:
