While studying acting in college, Erica Halverson decided that while she loved the theater, being on stage would not be for her. Instead, she moved into different areas and now is teaching arts education at the University of Wisconsin. She also hosts a terrific podcast, “Arts Educators Save the World,” on which artists are joined by teachers and mentors to reflect on the transformative impact that these people had on them.

When Earl B. Hunter’s son was seven years old, he took him on three-month, multi-state camping. It was a positive life-changing experience for them both. But Earl was struck by the fact that over the entire trip, they saw just one other black family. As someone who was working in sales in the outdoor industry, Earl saw an opportunity and went on to found the for-profit company, Black Folks Camp Too.

On this month’s installment of“A Bit of Blue Sky,” and in honor of National Optimism Month, host Bill Burke reflects on lessons learned from two years of hosting the Blue Sky podcast.

Sal Khan is one of the great innovators in education and in this Blue Sky episode, he discusses his book, Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That’s a Good Thing).He and his colleagues at Khan Academy are well on their way to creating powerful AI teaching assistant called Khanmigo. At a time when many fear the onset of AI applications, Sal Khan presents an inspiring vision for the future of this technology in the classroom and beyond.

Leslie and Richard Strauss are a husband-and-wife team who oversee Spirit Series, an innovative educational program in which young students perform plays about timeless stories. Through Spirit Series’ immersive and rigorous process, participants gain confidence in themselves and improve their teamwork, higher order thinking and focus in the classroom. The program has served more than 60,000 students and research shows that it has improved their cognitive and social/emotional skills and even lowered absenteeism in participating schools.

Business school professor and author Amy Edmondson shares her views on how we can make our workplace more productive, enriching, and positive for everyone. By creating and environment with “psychological safety,” Amy says that organizations allow people to do their best work by not fearing to make the “right kinds” of mistakes and/or speaking up when things go wrong.

On this installment of “A Bit of Blue Sky,” host Bill Burke describes five books he recommends that will help listeners be more optimistic (and hopefully, fulfill their New Year’s resolution to do so)!

Neal Foard is an accomplished marketing expert and storyteller. On this episode, Neal describes why, after helping build household name global brands like Budweiser, Lexus, and Sony, he has turned his attention to telling and teaching stories. He’s inspired by what he describes as the kindness of everyday people and shares personal anecdotes and stories online, hoping others will engage in what he’s calling, “The Conspiracy of Kindness.” He is also the founder of Storyfire, an online storytelling course.

In this Blue Sky episode, Zach Karabell describes how the roots of his optimistic worldview come from his deep understanding of history and the important societal trends that continue to move in a positive direction. This conversation covers a lot of ground, including how Zachary views President Trump and the “chaos” and “hysteria” he expects will be created during his second term, the remarkable medical breakthroughs like mRNA vaccines, and his new Substack newsletter, “The Edgy Optimist.”

Daniel Pink joins Blue Sky for a lively and wide-ranging discussion. He describes the importance of what he sees as a personal portfolio that includes a predominance of optimism that’s balanced by a healthy and helpful dose of pessimism. He also forceful debunks “the cynical genius illusion,” which leads to an undue bias towards those with cynical, negative viewpoints. He and Bill also discuss the connections between curiosity and optimism and Daniel describes the research and powerful conclusions from his latest bestseller, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward.

Chloé Valdary shares her unique way of thinking about –and training others –in the field of diversity and difference. She describes her fascination with human beings in all our complexity and resists and rejects our tendencies to put everyone into the limiting categories of “oppressors or oppressed.” Her thoughtful insights will make you think and might even challenge some listeners’ long-held beliefs.

Bill Burke hosts this first-ever installment of “A Bit of Blue Sky.” In this shorter episode, Bill explains that on the first Wednesday of every month, The Optimism Institute will release a shorter episode with information about the podcast, reflections on past episodes, and hints about new shows in the queue. This month, to kick of 2025, Bill challenges his audience to make being more optimistic a New Years resolution.

This is an encore presentation of the 50th episode of Blue Sky, when Bill was joined by someone who has completed more than 400 of them. Bestselling author and TV/podcast host Kelly Corrigan describes to Bill the many things she’s learned in her life and career about optimism and how we all can benefit from life’s setbacks to become better people and forge stronger relationships. Kelly reflects on lessons she learned from her parents and how facing her own cancer diagnosis and battle with the disease left her with a greater sense of empathy for others with similar hardships. She also explains why she thinks intellectual humility is a key ingredient for an optimistic outlook and also that “there’s no feeling as good as being useful to someone.”

Don Carpenter has spent the bulk of his career working on youth development. Today he’s executive director of the Rural Futures Fund, an organization focused on kids in rural settings, working to help them close what he calls the “aspirations gap,” between them and their peers in more affluent settings.

When Olivia Clarke was first diagnosed with cancer and began treatment, she looked for ways to keep her spirits up as the grueling treatments and symptoms became increasingly difficult. Gradually, she noticed moments –in waiting rooms, treatment areas, with strangers –that, when looked at with a certain lens, could be seen as downright funny. This inspired her to launch “Humor Beats Cancer,” and online community that encourages other cancer patients to share their own moments of levity to soften the blows of this terrible disease. Olivia’s attitude of empathy, hope, and optimism is infectious and comes through loud and clear in this Blue Sky conversation.

November is Gratitude Month at the Optimism Institute and this episode wraps up our celebration while kicking off Thanksgiving weekend. Blue Sky host and founder of The Optimism Institute Bill Burke shares his thoughts on the tight link between gratitude and optimism and has selected excerpts from past episodes to drive this point home. Blue Sky alums explain the health benefits of gratitude, the many reasons to be grateful to be alive today, and why, despite our many challenges, the United States and its founding ideals are worth believing in and being thankful for.

Kevin Adler grew up with a beloved uncle, Mark, who never forgot to send him a Hallmark card on his birthday. Overtime, Kevin learned that his uncle was unhoused and suffering from schizophrenia. When Mark died at the age of 50, Kevin decided that working to solve the crisis of homelessness would be his life’s work. The experience of having a close relative in this predicament made him realize that “everybody is somebody’s somebody,” and deserving of our compassion. He founded Miracle Messages, a nonprofit working to tell the stories of individuals who are unhoused,in hopes of connecting and reuniting them with estranged friends and family. To date, they have facilitated more than 800 people and have created a phone buddy system where volunteers communicate weekly with their assigned partner, building relationships where none existed before. Kevin Adler tells this story in his new book, When We Walk By, and shares many of these stories on this episode, while also describing his optimistic views on how basic income and affordable housing programs.