What Could Go Right?

Latest Episodes:

Why AI and Drones Won’t Bring the Apocalypse | with Sarah Kreps Jun 03, 2026

Show notes

What does a future where autonomous weapons and artificial intelligence collide on the battlefield look like? Sarah Kreps, a Cornell University professor and former US Air Force officer, joins host Zachary Karabell to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of drones and military AI.

The conversation looks beyond the doomsday prognostications surrounding lethal tech. Kreps shares insights from her time in the military around 9/11, reflecting on how constantly gaming out worst-case scenarios surprisingly led her to a more optimistic view of the future. Together, Karabell and Kreps explore the recent tensions between AI companies like Anthropic and the Pentagon. They also examine whether historical conventions for nuclear or biological weapons can offer a blueprint for governing AI and ubiquitous drone swarms.

While acknowledging the genuine uncertainties of our technological leap, Kreps explains why false certainty about the apocalypse is dangerous and why she believes society can harness this disruption without breaking.

What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.

For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org

Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/

Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork

Subscribe to Zachary’s Substack: www.edgyoptimist.substack.com/

What the Headlines Aren’t Telling You About Ebola, Plus India's Solar Revolution and a Chicago Medical Miracle Jun 01, 2026

Show notes

A rare strain of Ebola is making headlines — but before you spiral, there's more to the story than what meets the eye. The Democratic Republic of Congo has successfully contained 15 previous outbreaks, and scientists are working around the clock on experimental treatments. We know one thing for certain: this is not the 2014–2016 outbreak.

Plus: India is on its way to becoming the first major country in history to industrialize using solar energy; Hungary's new prime minister has proposed a constitutional amendment that would effectively bar his authoritarian predecessor Viktor Orbán from ever returning to power; and a 28-year-old woman from Chicago's South Side underwent a successful quadruple organ transplant — only the sixth of its kind in the United States.

What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.

For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org

Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/

Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork

Follow Emma on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyemmavarv/

The Surprising Ritual Renaissance | with Bruce Feiler May 27, 2026

Show notes

What happens when the traditional ways we gather and mourn start to disappear?
Bestselling author Bruce Feiler joins host Zachary Karabell to discuss his latest book, A Time to Gather, and explore the modern celebration recession. Instead of yielding to isolation, Feiler reveals a surprising grassroots renaissance of human connection happening right now.
Feiler shares deeply personal stories, from navigating his father's funeral to establishing a meaningful family ritual following the recent loss of his sister-in-law. Karabell and Feiler also discuss the dual nature of social media, highlighting how it acts as an amplification tool that helps democratize new traditions, like hospital honor walks for organ donors and even Taylor Swift-themed divorce parties.
While acknowledging the very real threats of loneliness and the isolating effects of our digital lives, Feiler explains why he remains optimistic about our collective future.

What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.

For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org

Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/

Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork

Subscribe to Zachary’s Substack: www.edgyoptimist.substack.com/

American Dads Are Stepping Up, Hope for Pancreatic Cancer Patients, and Oklahoma Bans Child Marriage May 25, 2026

Show notes

The pandemic triggered something unexpected: American fathers started working less and spending significantly more time on childcare and housework — and new research suggests it wasn't remote work or job loss driving the shift, but a genuine realignment of gender norms.

Plus: some scientists are calling this the biggest advancement in cancer treatment in 15 years – a drug called daraxonrasib which is nearing FDA approval and substantially extends the lives of pancreatic cancer patients; Brazil has officially begun demarcating over a million acres of protected land for an uncontacted Indigenous tribe in the Amazon; and Oklahoma became the 17th U.S. state to ban child marriage, ruffling some feathers.

What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.

For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org

Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/

Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork

Follow Emma on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyemmavarv/

Real Progress: Why We Ignore How Good We Have It | with Nick Gillespie May 20, 2026

Show notes

Why does historic abundance breed widespread cultural anger? Nick Gillespie, editor-at-large of Reason Magazine and host of the Reason podcast, joins host Zachary Karabell to unpack the great conundrum of the 21st century: why humans have more security and financial means than ever before, yet feel increasingly dissatisfied. In a world deeply divided along absolute binary lines, Gillespie explains how a philosophy of libertarianism provides a refreshing, pre-partisan alternative to standard political gridlock.

Moving past abstract data, Gillespie shares his own personal history as the son of a high school dropout from a working-class white ghetto in Hell's Kitchen. He contrasts his own path of white-knuckling student debt payments with the unique anxieties facing modern generations. And they ask the question, what does the world look like post Trump season two?

What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.
For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org
Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/
Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork
Follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok: @progressntwrk
Subscribe to Zachary’s Substack: www.edgyoptimist.substack.com/

Looted Artifacts Returned, Rape Kit Backlogs Slashed, and a Fatal Disease That's Now Treatable May 18, 2026

Show notes

France just passed a landmark law allowing the return of cultural artifacts taken from nations during the colonial era — a long-overdue step nearly a decade in the making.

Plus: all 50 U.S. states have now enacted rape kit reform, cutting the national backlog in half; violent crime in major American cities is falling faster than you might expect; and a new drug is doing something doctors have never been able to say about ALS — it's making some patients actually improve.

What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.

For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org

Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/

Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork

Follow Emma on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyemmavarv/

The Case for Not Knowing | with Simone Stolzoff May 13, 2026

Show notes

What happens when our biological need for certainty clashes with an increasingly unpredictable world? Simone Stolzoff, author of How to Not Know, joins host Zachary Karabell to discuss why our modern intolerance for uncertainty is fueling a global anxiety crisis. Rather than seeing the unknown as a threat, Stolzoff argues that uncertainty is the fundamental birthplace of scientific breakthroughs, original art, and human progress.

Stolzoff and Karabell explore how to navigate everything from the climate crisis and the AI revolution to high-stakes parenting and career choices through the framework that the false certainty we cling to might actually be detrimental to our success.

While acknowledging the hard truths of today's world, Stolzoff explains why "action absorbs anxiety" and makes the case for diversifying our identities so we remain adaptable in the face of an unwritten future.

What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.

For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org

Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/

Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork

Subscribe to Zachary’s Substack: www.edgyoptimist.substack.com/

Gene Therapy Is Giving Blind People Their Sight Back + The UK Bans Smoking Forever and Solar Power From Space May 11, 2026

Show notes

Gene therapy has been quietly pulling off miracles, and this week, it got its Oscars moment. Emma Varvaloucas, Executive Director of The Progress Network, breaks down how a husband-and-wife scientific team's decades-long quest has restored sight to over 100 blind Americans, and how a brand-new drug called Otarmeni just became the first-ever FDA-approved gene therapy for genetic deafness. The science is extraordinary. The price tags, less so.
Plus: The United Kingdom passes a genuinely radical generational ban on smoking; the US Senate unanimously bans members and staffers from betting on prediction markets, after some were caught betting on their own races; and Meta inks a deal to beam solar power down from space.
What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.
For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org
Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/
Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork
Follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok: @progressntwrk
Follow Emma on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyemmavarv/

Why $6 Gas Isn't the End of the World | with Jason Bordoff May 06, 2026

Show notes

What happens when the global energy supply faces its greatest disruption since the 1970s? Jason Bordoff, a leading energy expert and former advisor in the Obama White House, joins host Zachary Karabell to navigate a world where the Strait of Hormuz is closed and gasoline prices are soaring.

The conversation moves past the immediate panic at the pump to look at the future of how we power our lives. Bordoff shares personal stories of his father’s Brooklyn gas station in the 1970s, contrasting that era with today's physical reality of the shale revolution. The discussion focuses heavily on the innovation frontier. Bordoff and Karabell explore whether new technologies like advanced geothermal, modular nuclear power, and even fusion can finally deliver on the promise of universal energy abundance.

While acknowledging the hard truths of climate change and the energy needs of emerging markets, Bordoff explains why he is betting on policy and technology over pessimism.

What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.

For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org

Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/

Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork

Subscribe to Zachary’s Substack: www.edgyoptimist.substack.com/

Chernobyl’s Unintended Nature Reserve + The End of the Coal Era and a New Frontier in IVF May 04, 2026

Show notes

For the first time in over a century, renewables have knocked coal out of the top spot for global electricity generation — and solar is the reason why. Emma Varvaloucas, Executive Director of The Progress Network, breaks down what this energy milestone actually means, and why geopolitics is unexpectedly accelerating the clean energy transition.

Plus: forty years after the worst nuclear disaster in history, wildlife is flourishing inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone; a Utah startup claims it has grown functional human sperm in a lab — a potential breakthrough for male infertility; and NASA is branching into the human organ delivery industry.

What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and Kaleidoscope.

For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org

Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://theprogressnetwork.org/newsletter/

Watch the podcast on YouTube: / theprogressnetwork

Follow Emma on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyemmavarv/

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