Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Giveaway What happens if you trust people to be generous? That’s the question behind Drop Dead Generous, a social experiment that is giving 1,000 people $500 each — half a million dollars total — to commit acts of kindness.  Since donating a kidney, co-founder Tom Cledwyn’s life has been shaped by acts of generosity towards strangers. “The feeling I had when I woke up from that operation is something I want other people to experience,” he told Positive.News in a story shared by RTBC Contributing Editor Michaela Haas. Michaela says: What would you do if you were gifted $500 to help others? Some give out flowers, some build a house (in Uganda). Lessons in hope “I’ve been on the faculty at Duke University for five years now, and this past one has been the most challenging and the strangest by far,” writes Frank Bruni in a New York Times opinion piece that resonated with Executive Editor Will Doig. Bruni is asking the question that many people in teaching and mentoring roles are asking themselves: How do I prepare my students for life in a world full of trouble and uncertainty while still providing hope? “I need to communicate that for all this country’s current trials, it still brims with opportunities, its promise greater than its woes,” Bruni concludes. “And a blurry future isn’t the same as a bleak one.” Will says: When I was an American Studies major, I had a college professor who often lectured about the oppression, corruption, unfairness and bias woven throughout this country’s systems. But she always framed it as something we could change, through our participation in what she referred to as “the greater social project.” That optimistic takeaway had a huge influence on my mindset. Young adults need that kind of hope if they’re going to make a difference. What else we’re reading The Soundtrack to Philly’s Waning Gun Violence — shared by Executive Editor Will Doig from the New York Times As ICE shipped Minnesotans to Texas, El Paso groups stepped up — shared by Editorial Director Rebecca Worby from Sahan Journal How Camden, N.J., Cut Its Murder Rate to a 40-Year Low — shared by Audience Engagement Editor Steven Davis from the New York Times In other news… Last week, we published a powerful story by Michaela Haas about how formerly incarcerated mentors are changing lives in California. Peer support specialists, as they’re called, help others navigate trauma, addiction and life after prison.  “We harness our lived experience and come alongside people in their recovery,” Tyson Atlas, who facilitates peer support trainings, tells Haas. “All the years someone spent incarcerated — those experiences can prevent someone else from going down the same path.” The story has also been republished by our friends at MindSite News. The post What We’re Reading: What Good Deed Would You Do With $500? appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.

When Pat Sajak left Wheel of Fortune, fans worried that Vanna White would have a hard time adjusting to a new co-host. But she had no trouble finding her rhythm with her longtime friend, Ryan Seacrest. Vanna White and Pat Sajak became iconic friends and celebrities during their decades-long stint on Wheel. Pat began his run as host in December 1981, and Vanna joined him almost exactly one year later as the letter turner. They had a chemistry that kept fans tuning in. So naturally, it was disappointing when Pat retired in 2024. When Pat left, the producers decided that the show must go on and began the search for Pat’s replacement. However, many believed Pat’s retirement was ultimately the end. Fans said they’d never adjust to a new host and viewership would drop, especially when Ryan Seacrest was hired. But it wasn’t long before fans realized he was the perfect fit. Vanna, however, never doubted Ryan. She knew fans would learn to love him because she’d learned to love and respect him after sharing a decades long friendship with him. “Ryan and I have been friends for over 20 years,” she told Woman’s World. “So when he stepped into this position, it was like a good friend.” Vanna White Says She and Ryan Seacrest are “the Same Kind of Person” Vanna White admitted that she and Ryan had never worked together before Wheel of Fortune. But they’re both from the South and “the same kind of person.” So they quickly bonded. “We work off of each other,” she added. “He’s professional; he’s kind; he’s hard working, and it’s great to work with him.”  And fortunately, losing Pat Sajak has been one of the only things she’s had to adjust to over the past 43 years. While the show has updated its technology and look over the years, things have stayed consistent for Vanna, and that’s something she appreciates. “In all these years, it really hasn’t changed,” she shared. “I show up in the morning, around seven o’clock. We normally do a little fitting to try dresses on, not necessarily for that day, for future shows. I go into hair and makeup, then we start our first show. We do five or six shows that day, and I go home.” This story’s featured image is by Eric McCandless/Disney via Getty Images.

The University of Calgary just celebrated its 60th birthday. And to mark the occasion, it broke the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as dinosaurs. On April 11th, 682 people gathered for the campus Community Day, and they were all dressed as their favorite dinos. By doing so, they beat the previous record of 468, set by Cox Science Center and Aquarium in West Palm Beach, FL, on January 10th, 2025. University of Calgary broke the Guinness book of world records, for most dinosaurs. pic.twitter.com/UFargOrglr— Ron S. Friedman (@RonSFriedman) April 14, 2026 To get people into the spirit, the university administration invited students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, and locals to a Rex’s Jurassic Jamboree, encouraging everyone to wear their favorite dinosaur costume. The event included free barbecue and a meet and greet with Olympians with ties to UCalgary. “People showed up in some fabulous onesies [and] blow-up dinos where you could not see any part of the person inside except for their feet,” University of Calgary Vice-Provost Verity Turpin told the Canadian Broadcasting Company. The University of Calgary Smashed the Previous Records Set in 2019 and 2025 Once everyone arrived, they danced to songs by a local band. And they sang We Are the Champions by Queen while waiting for a Guinness adjudicator to make the official count. “As soon as we heard Guinness say, ‘Six,’ we knew we broke the record,” Turpin shared. “And no one listened to anything after that. We were all screaming and hugging each other. It was awesome.” “The old record is extinct,” UC’s president and vice-chancellor Ed McCauley joked during an interview with the Calgary Herald. “This is just a great example of the University of Calgary and our Calgary community coming together to set a world record.” The original record for the largest gathering of people dressed as dinosaurs was set on January 26, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. This story’s featured image is by Visionhaus/Getty Images.

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When 15 Girl Scouts in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, gathered to watch the Artemis II launch, troop leader Heather Willard wasn’t sure how captivated they’d be. Then the rocket lifted off. “All of the girls were mesmerized,” she said. Across the country, the same thing kept happening. For ten days, as Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen flew around the far side of the moon and came back safely, a country that can’t agree on much of anything found itself watching the same thing. The mission ended with splashdown off the coast of San Diego, the first crewed lunar voyage in more than 50 years. It was an aerospace milestone. It was also something that turns out to be surprisingly rare: something almost everyone wanted to see. A country that disagrees on almost everything agreed on this About 69 percent of Americans say they get excited about space exploration. Around 80 percent hold a favorable view of NASA, Republicans and Democrats alike, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken during the mission. Nearly 69 percent said it matters to them that astronauts go back to the moon. At Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, senior astronomer Gaza Gyuk watched hundreds of people come in to track the mission: different backgrounds, different ages, the same room. “Everyone can be excited about humans extending their capabilities, learning new things, and doing so in a positive, peaceful way,” he said. In Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, astronomy enthusiast Hector Ybe organized a launch watch party that drew around 225 people: families, kids, people from different ethnic and religious communities. For two hours, he said, the outside world dropped away. “For two hours, everybody forgot what was happening outside in the world, everybody was talking about space,” Ybe said. The crew the country needed to see Part of what made Artemis II feel different was who was on board. Victor Glover was the first Black astronaut to travel to the moon. Christina Koch was the first woman. Commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to fly a lunar mission, rounded out a crew that looked more like the country watching than any Apollo team ever had. In Northglenn, Colorado, engineering teacher Erin Brabant covered her school hallway with mission posters and had students build their own lunar lander models. Whenever Artemis came up in class, the same thing happened. “When we talk about Artemis, it’s like every kid stops what they’re doing,” Brabant said. “Their little side conversations stop, and they have questions.” For the Girl Scouts in North Carolina, Koch meant something specific. She is a former Girl Scout herself, and the troop had been preparing presentations on famous alumnae for Women’s History Month when the launch pulled their attention to her story. Why the moon still pulls at us The draw people feel toward the moon goes back further than any space program, and it is not only emotional. Earth and the moon came from the same collision. Around 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized body called Theia slammed into a young Earth, and the debris that coalesced in orbit became the moon. The atoms from that impact are present in every living thing on this planet, the same ones that were in every person who stood outside to watch the launch. The moon has never been foreign to us. It was formed from the same event we were. It also never stopped shaping how life works here. The moon stirs the oceans, steadied Earth’s axial tilt during the long stretch when complex life was getting started, and its craters hold geological history that wind and rain on Earth have long since erased. Scientists are still reading what is in them. There may be effects that nobody has catalogued yet. When Gyuk shared images from the Artemis mission showing Earth from deep space, oceans and landmasses clear but no borders in sight, he noticed what happened in the room. “That helps people sort of realize that we’re all in this together,” he said. “We will always choose Earth” The moment people keep returning to is what Koch radioed to Mission Control in Houston, looking back at a planet that had become small and distant after the crew’s translunar burn. “We hear you can look up and see the moon right now. We see you, too,” she said. “When we burned this burn towards the moon, I said that ‘we do not leave Earth, but we choose it.’ And that is true. We will explore. We will build. We will build ships. We will visit again. We will construct science outposts. We will drive rovers. We will do radio astronomy. We will found companies. We will bolster industry. We will inspire. But ultimately we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other.” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called the splashdown “just the beginning,” with a lunar landing planned for 2028 and a permanent base as the longer-term goal. Whether any of that stays on schedule is an open question. What Artemis II already gave people is harder to plan for: a few days when millions of them stopped arguing and looked at the same sky. The moon has been pulling that off since before anyone thought to write it down.     Did this solution stand out? Share it with a friend or support our mission by becoming an Emissary.The post Artemis II shows the moon can still unite a divided world first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM You’ve arranged the furniture. You’ve put up the art. The room looks fine. But it still feels a little off, heavy or flat, like you can’t quite settle into it. The fix might not be another trip to the store. “Most people spend all their time on furniture and finishes and never think about these three things,” says Lauren Lerner, founder and principal designer of Living with Lolo. “But they’re what actually determine how a space feels.” The three things she means: light, scent, and sound. These aren’t aesthetic details. “Light, scent, and sound can change how a space feels on a nervous-system level,” says Chloë Bean, a somatic trauma therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Your body is reading environmental cues constantly, and the signals from your home can help you feel settled and focused, or leave you overstimulated without your realizing it. Light: the one that changes the most Natural light is the most powerful reset, and it costs nothing. It regulates your body’s internal clock, which affects sleep, mood, energy, and mental clarity. It can also shift the heavy, sluggish feeling that winter leaves behind. Two easy changes: hang sheer linen curtains to filter harsh afternoon glare without blocking light entirely, or position a mirror across from a window to bounce sunlight deeper into the room. For evenings and cloudy days, layering your artificial light makes a real difference. Use overhead ambient lighting alongside floor and table lamps, and swap in warm-toned bulbs where you can. The goal is to move away from flat overhead light, which has a way of making rooms feel like waiting rooms. If you’ve been dragging since winter, a light therapy box might be worth adding to your morning routine. It gives the brain a cue for alertness that sunlight would normally provide. Therapist and psychology professor Jillian Amodio says it can “restore hormonal balance, release feel-good chemicals in the brain, and regulate natural cycles and rhythms in the body and brain.” In plain terms: it can help you feel like yourself again after months of dim days. Scent: more personal than you think There’s no single right answer here, and that’s kind of the point. Bean notes that when a scent feels pleasant and familiar, it creates “a greater sense of ease and safety in the body.” Lavender, chamomile, sandalwood, and vanilla tend to calm. Citrus, eucalyptus, and peppermint lean more energizing. Start with whichever direction you need more of right now. The delivery method matters more than people expect. Interior designer Pamela Stang of Stang Design recommends cold-air diffusion devices over candles for consistent dispersal without fire risk; they come in small portable versions or ones that connect directly to an HVAC system. Lerner’s preference is a reed diffuser: subtle, constant, and requires no attention once it’s in place. Sound: steadier than silence Easy to overlook, but it adds up. Bean says the most soothing sounds for the nervous system are “gentle, rhythmic, and predictable.” Think rain, ocean waves, birds, white noise, a fan, or soft ambient music. They give the mind something steady to orient to, which is useful during stress or when the house feels too quiet in a way that puts you on edge rather than at ease. The surfaces in a room affect this too. Hard materials like tile, stone, and glass bounce sound around and can make a space feel louder and more tiring than it actually is. Rugs, drapes, upholstered furniture, and other textiles absorb ambient sound and pull the room back to something quieter without any rearranging. None of this requires buying anything new. It’s more about paying attention to what the room is already doing to you, and adjusting the things that are easy to change.     Did this solution stand out? Share it with a friend or support our mission by becoming an Emissary.The post Light, scent, and sound: the free home refresh you haven’t tried yet first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.