Every year, when the monsoons arrive on the North India Gangetic plain, the river spreads its girth across miles on either bank. When the floodwaters recede, they leave behind organic material, which Siyaram Bhind, a farmer in Mirzapur, a town in eastern Uttar Pradesh, calls “black gold.” Downstream, in the... The post Tilling the Floodplain: How Farmers Embrace the Power of Floods appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful ..read more

In the morning before class starts, one by one the students at the Würenloser Gesamtschule near Zürich in Switzerland turn off their smartphones and drop them into a simple wooden box at the front of their classroom. The devices will remain there until the gong rings at the end of... The post When It Comes to Banning Smartphones From Schools, What Really Works? appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful ..read more

Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Let us know what you think at info@reasonstobecheerful.world. Something sweet One of these things is not like the others: apples, bananas, strawberries, pawpaws. Despite being native to the US and delicious — custardy in texture, with a... The post What We’re Reading: Consider the Fickle, Delicious, Climate-Friendly Pawpaw appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful ..read more

This article was original published in Shelterforce. Rest. Heal. Recover. To people with serious illnesses and injuries who are also experiencing homelessness, those three words seem impossible to achieve. How can one rest when lying on a blanket in public is considered a quality-of-life infraction? Where can one heal or recover... The post A Place to Recover: How Medical Respite Programs Help Unhoused People Heal appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful ..read more

This is part two of a two-part series about accessibility in the performing arts. Read part one here. Picture yourself at the opera. If you’re a sighted person, and the opera is in a language you don’t speak, you will likely use the translation surtitles (or supertitles) to follow along.... The post New Zealand’s Disability-Led Path to Accessibility in the Arts appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful ..read more

This is part one of a two-part series about accessibility in the performing arts. Standing in a small circle, a group of performers introduced themselves to a smaller group of audience members. The performers went into great detail, relating not only their names and pronouns but also describing themselves and... The post How Audio Description Sets the Stage for More Accessible Theater appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful ..read more

Switchgrass and foxtail provided the perfect camouflage for a heron slowly wading through a prairie pond. Only the squawking of a Canada goose mother scolding her offspring shattered the bucolic stillness of the wetland. It was the summer of 2023, and throughout large areas of the Canadian prairie provinces and... The post The Land Remembers: Why Farmers Are Bringing Back ‘Prairie Potholes’ appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful ..read more

This is an excerpt from The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service, and Belonging (Simon & Schuster) by Julia Hotz. Jonas has always loved exploring other worlds — whether they’re the post-apocalyptic realms of his computer games, or the ancient civilizations of his history textbooks. “Imagine,... The post Don’t Forget to Take Your ‘Culture Vitamins’ appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful ..read more

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet focused on education. At the end of a semester that presaged one of the hottest summers on record, the students in Associate Professor Michael Sheridan’s business class were pitching proposals to cut waste and emissions on their campus and help... The post Colleges Are Becoming ‘Living Labs’ to Combat Climate Change appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful ..read more

Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Let us know what you think at info@reasonstobecheerful.world. Home team While evictions are on the rise across the US, thousands of renters in Philadelphia have been able to stay in their homes thanks to the city’s eviction... The post What We’re Reading: How Philadelphia Is Preventing Evictions appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful ..read more