7 Good Things That Happened in 2024

1. There is a new malaria vaccine. Malaria has been one of the major killers globally for a long time. Cameron Conaway wrote about this in his 2014 poetry collection — Malaria, Poems — which earned a lot of well-deserved praise. Check out my two-part interview with Cameron. Part 1 + Part 2

2. There was a new drug approved to help manage schizophrenia. It’s been decades since we’ve had any notable developments.

3. The FDA approved [some] Apple AirPods as low-cost OTC hearing aids.

4. The European Union (EU) has cut their emissions. There is also hope that China may have peaked. Fingers crossed. The U.S. on the other hand…

5. There is evidence that conservation efforts are working.

6. We’re finally addressing the risks and toll on mental health associated with social media use, social media addiction, and smartphone addiction. Australia and France are doing the rest of the world a favor and trialing real world changes in tech use—especially among those aged 16 and under.

7. As of the most recent available data, we’ve seen declines in global child death rates. In fact, by some estimates, a historic low.