This woman just heard sound for the first time. John the good new day. Thats our show, tonight. You worried about the future . Hard not to be if you watch the news. Its mostly negative, violence, disasters, danger and i suppose thats our job to tell you about problems. If a plane crashes, thats news. The fact that thousands of planes will land and take off safely during this tv program is a miracle, but its not news. So we soak in disasters and heed warnings about the next one. Global warming, pesticide residues. I covered hundreds of scares and finally wised up. In england, a journalist smarter than i quickly realized he was focusing on the wrong things that led to this book. The rational optimist. Matt ridley gives lectures around the world explaining why hes an optimist. Back in the 1970, the future was bleak, the population explosion was unstoppable. Famine was inevitable. Bird flu is going to kill us, the ice age is coming back. All these, the desert was advancing. Y2k computer bug, all these things were going to go wrong. Thats what everybody said about the future. I was surprised when i grew up to find that things are getting much better for most people most of the time. John some people call this pessimism porn or fear porn, it sells in the media. People want to be scared. Sounds wiser to talk about what might go wrong than to talk about what might go right. It seems foolish to talk about what might go right. On the whole, there is much more market for bad news than good news. John you mentioned overpopulation, when i was in college, that was the scare at they were selling me, that the book, the population bomb was a bestseller. The author warned that the 1980s would bring mass starvation because population growth would have outrun the food supply, and the population did double. He said there would be mass starvation by the 80s. 80s came and went without a shortage of food. Some in the media continue to shriek about unsustainable population growth. There are 7 billion people on earth. At some point theres not going to be enough stuff for everybody. John really . Heres another wrinkle. Since Global Warming is the hyped scare of the moment. This mandatory population control be a part of the fight against Global Warming . John mandatory population control. A Government Official would come to your house, matt, and forcibly tie our tubes. Thats roughly what happened in china for the last 30 years. There has been mandatory population control, extraordinarily cruel and with a huge amount of suffering involved. Its unnecessary, population growth rates have been falling all around the world whether you have mandatory or voluntary control. All you have to do is give people a bit more prosperity, wealth, education, and turns out if the kids stop dying, they have fewer kids. The media are hyping crime and terrorism, and there is a reason to be fearful, almost 3,000 people did die on september 11th, and there have been Mass Shootings in schools. Head of the nra recently said this is why we need guns. There are terrorists, home invaders, drug cartels, carjackers, knockout gamers, rapers, haters, campus killers, airport killers. John he goes on and on, and those things have happened, and there are good reasons why people should be allowed to have guns, but it upsets me to see the head of the nra hyping this stuff. Crime is declining. Violence is declining all around the world to an extraordinary extent. The number of rapes, the number of murders, you know, going down steadily in countries like the United States, and the number of People Killed in warfare globally was the lowest in the last decade of any decade since records began. That may not feel like it tos you in the west because of iraq and afghanistan, but it was true globally that we are seeing much less violence around the world. John and yet, if you survey people and ask them if thats true, i would think most would not believe that. Because we were constantly being told about the violence happening and not told about the gradual trend towards less violence of all kinds. Finally, matt. Many people envy the life royalty once lived. To be a king in the good old days, and yet you made a video for your book points out today, most of us live better than kings once did. Though the kings had hundreds of servants. Consider louis the son king, he chose from 40 dishes taking 498 people to prepare each meal. Todays average person can go into a supermarket and buy a fresh, frozen, tin, smoked or prepared meal made with beef, chicken, lamb, beans carrots or choose to eat from scores of nearby restaurants, italian, chinese, japanese, indian, each has a team of skilled chefs waiting to serve at less than an hours notice. Add all this up and realize you have far more than 978 servants at your beck and call. We have thousands and thousands of people working for us. Thats what the system of commerce. Its a collaborative, cooperative system. John thank you, matt ridley. Heres another reason the good old days were not as good as today. Most everything is smaller, faster, lighter, denser cheaper, thats the title of robert bryces new book. What do you mean, smaller, faster, lighter and so on. John, look, i carry a cell phone in my pocket, a smartphone, it has 250,000 times more digital Storage Capacity than the computer that went to the moon. The other day i bought an ipod nanoholds as much music as 300 lps. 200 times more lighter and 6,000 times more efficient than an lp. John progress haters say we are overwhelmed with choice, doesnt make our lives better. Overwhelmed with choice . John i dont use most of the stuff on the cell phone, its too complicated. Fair enough. Lets look at smaller computers, faster communications, denser engines, denser agriculture, all of these things allowed increasing standards around the world. John is that a line from the book . All this may be true, some people arent happy unless they are scared or miserable. What do you mean . No politician ever got elected by saying everything is okay. The devil is at the or. You have to elect me, if you dont elect me, ruin nation will come. This is part of the media, if it bleeds, it leads, that is something we see all the time. And yet this continuing increase in Living Standards all over the world has been truly remarkable. John now, im old, and all my life ive heard, were going to run out of oil almost four years ago, my president told me we had to have an unpleasant talk about the Energy Crisis. This is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetime. The Energy Crisis is not yet overwhelming, but it will if we dont act quickly. We must balance our demand for energy with rapidly shrinking resources. John rapidly shrinks resources. Isnt that remarkable . You know, if you look back. John its logical, yeah. Were using stuff, so the resources must be shrinking. Sure, but whats happening . Better drill rigs, better drill bits, seismic technology, new technologies are allowing computer sensors at the edge of the drill bill. Lets look back at history. 2005, the chairman of exxon mobil said mass production has peaked in north america. Mass production is 41 higher than 2005 and the u. S. Is producing so much natural gas were looking at exporting natural gas. John on page 180 of the book, the 1914, u. S. Bureau of mines said oil supplies would be depleted within ten years. Sure. So in 20 years we have oil. Department of interior says theyll be gone in 13 years, in 1946, maybe we have 20 years left says the state department. The department of interior again in 1951, depleted, they like the 13 year number. Of course. And yet whats happened, january of this year, 2014, the u. S. Exported, exported an average of 4 Million Barrels of oil a day. Almost all of it in the form of gasoline and refined products. John you are cherry picking oil and gas, were going to run out of other stuff, maybe food. John boies, an economist at the university of calgary looked as prices of industrial commodities over more than 100 years and found that the overwhelming majority they fell in price. John if it falls in price, that means theres more of it. The combination of price and innovation is remarkably powerful combination, thats what weve seen. Effort towards smaller lighter denser faster cheaper is happening all around us, given that weve seen it, why cant we see it . Wow. Thats a good question. I think part of it is that again, there is a tendency to want to be pessimistic as we look forward. We have 3d printing and ever faster communications, ever cheaper computers. All of these things cheap or Free Education now thanks to online courses. John and information thats free all over the world. And cheaper energy, the foundation of modern society. You add all of these things together, were poised in the u. S. For another American Century because we have all of these things in spades that other countries lack. John we will get more into that during the snow. Thank you, robert bryce, you keep the conversation going at facebook or twitter, use the hashtag. Good news let people know what you think. Murder, war, miserable poverty. It does persist and yet ill tell you why these are the good new days . [ male announcer ] legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses. If you have a buness idea, we have a personalized legal solution thats right for you. With easy stepbystep guidance, were here to help you turn your dream into a reali. Start your Business Today with legalzoom. What is this place . Where are we . This is where we bring together the Fastest Internet and the best in entertainment. We call it the x1 entertainment operating system. It looks like the future he has a phaser its not a phaser its my phone he can use his voice to control the tv. You can use your woice . My voice. Your woice. My voice. Vuh, voice. His voice. Your woice . Look. Watch scifi. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. John are you poor . What does it mean to be poor in america these days . Around the world about, 300 Million People struggle to live on a dollar a day or less. 300 Million People, equal on to americas entire population. And this is a terrible thing, and yet, its really good news, its the good new days, because 300 million very poor people is a smaller portion of the world than ever before. This chart shows the percentage of People Living on less than a dollar a day, now 5 of the world. When i graduated college, it was 25 . Millions have listed themselves out of poverty. And its great to read on the website think progress. Articles like five reasons why 2013 was the best year in Human History . Fewer people are dying. Dying young. And more live longer. Fewer people suffer from extreme poverty, and the worlds getting happier. But wait a second, think progress is this lefty website. Government liberals who are generally clueless about economic phe sensible articles . Who wrote it . Well, actually zack beauchamp, and not only do you realize life got better, but you say its largely because of free markets. Yeah, markets are a big part of the story. The reason they are is they spark innovation. Way back in the 17th century people started ideas about science and reason and research and led to the medicines and sciences about the great remedies for diseases that killed millions and millions of people young earlier. Markets are one important way we distributed the diseases and got the benefits of the diseases to a large number of people around the world. John so many wanted to make a profit curing people . In part, markets and people worked in taem. Poorer people and wealthier people alike. John so its so obvious to me, and you got it, why didnt your colleagues at think progress get it . They do. Modern liberals and conservatives agree that markets are good and should have market systems. Wait, im looking, you left think progress, but on the site, nine reasons why 2013 was not the best year in history. School closing, shutting the doors on black and hispanic students. College grads cant buy houses. The gender wage gap. Women are being murdered at work. This is a different world view. There are lots of things that are still bad. Fact that the world has gotten much better is not a reason to be complacent about things that are terrible. Global Climate Change is catastrophic and dangerous. Set that aside, celebrate the progress weve made, its the greatest accomplishment in the past 200 years of Human History. John and shouldnt attack the free markets that brought us. Regulating free markets in the way that we deal with the problems we have, including environmental ones. Regulating them, we dont have enough of that or too much of that . No, i dont think so. The benefits of growth and the way they used to be arent distributed appropriately. People arent getting welfare lessons. Were talking about people getting richer. Poor people around the world could be doing much better than they are. Theyre doing much better than they used to be. Governments can help with the process. John so how is that working now the cuba and former soviet union . You know there is space between cuba and sweden. John okay, so sweden worked it out. And countries do the best in the world. John they rate themselves as happy, but thats because theyre swedes. You ask them in the surveys, they are happy. This is a point you wont like. The wealthier countries get per capita, the happier they are, too. They tend to be happier as time goes. John but they dont invent anything. The inventions are part of the global market. John yeah, we invent. They invent some things. Skype. John astonia is a free market country. Whats sweden done since volvo . Lots of things that have made peoples lives better in the country. Why the hostility to market . Not hostility to the markets, its hostility towards underregulated markets. John piles and piles of regulations . Yeah, because theyre not giving enough to the people who need things. There are people who are suffering and theres a great deal of discrimination against women and minorities. John and more regulation wont kill the golden goose . No, it wont. Global Life Expectancy was 47 in 1950, since then its gone up to 70. John not because of regulation. Yeah, in part it has. Take innovation, id say, thank you,zack, coming up, something that poisons your Drinking Water and the air we breathe and causes Global Warming. Thats what i hear, but i look at same thing and see mostly good news. Thats next. The controversy is over tentacles being injected into the earth to break up rock and release natural gas. John its called fracking and scared people, it might pollute my Drinking Water. They use dangerous chemicals, they might spill them. So fracking is banned many places including in this state, my state. Ann mcelhinney grew up in ireland where she was a dutiful left wing environmentalist. You must be against this dangerous way of suck oil out of ground . Not even slightly. Its wonderful because energy is important. We need more of it, not less of it. John what brought you around . The truth actually brought me around, and i sort of discovered that a lot of the environmentalists who are scaring us to death with nonsense about fracking are making stuff up. John you make fracking sound good. Heres a video about one of the dangers. They take good water, mix it up with not so good stuff and shoot it into the wells to force out the gas. Poisonous vapors find ways into the lung, and cancercausing chemicals find a way into your glass. John poisonous vapors and cancercausing chemicals. They do use them. Unbelievable. The fracking fluid has carcinogens, if youre work about fracking fluid, worry about coffee. There is carcinogens in absolutely everything. John this is hard to accept, but it was hard for me, too. In big doses in broccoli and coffee, there are carcinogens. Absolutely. John were scared of the chemicals. Were scared of everything. One of the poshest hotels in california has a sign saying there is carcinogens in there. There is carcinogens but it matters the quantity of what it is. If thats all you eat every day of your life, then youre in trouble. It is minuscule the amounts in the fracking fluid, complete nonsense. John antifracking movie won oscar nomination telling viewers we allow fracking, tap water may catch fire, but as i reported before, there are many places in america where no fracking is done, but . Water still catches fire. This is a lake in alaska. This man lives in new york where fracking is banned, yet so why does the water catch fire . Lucky, lucky people. Do check and see if water is flammable. If it is, lucky, lucky you. It means there is so much hydro carbons out there. If it is, lucky, lucky you. John you will be making a lot of money. A lot of money. Why in america have people figured this out but not in other countries in the natural gas drop in price boom in supply, mostly america, not because we necessarily have more of it. America is unique in so many ways. Extraordinary country, there is something absolutely unique to america that doesnt happen anywhere else where individuals own mineral rights and a gamechanger. The oil and gas company go directly to your door. Wouldnt you be so happy if someone knocked on your door and said were going to give you a Million Dollars and royalty check that will come with regularity. If you have a nice piece of hydro carbon, that check will come for 30, 40, 50 years. John its my money, i have a deed to my property. I own it. In my country, the government will own it. In england, the queen will own it. John why bother . Why should they bother . Theyre not going to benefit. Here in america, the people benefit. You can see that no more so than in north dakota where this has been a gamechanger for people. John energy is important. Put the slide up of the woman in africa. This has been life for people forever. The washing machine liberated people more than the pill. The truth is that this woman should be either having a cocktail or finding a cure for cancer, and instead of that shes doing this backbreaking, mindless rubbish of a job. John almost all day. Anyone who traveled to india or africa see women wasting their lives, when they can be playing tennis or finding cure for a disease. Instead they are wasting time doing this. Energy matters. Thats the least of it. John when they say more regulation, be safe rather than sorry, delay it. Be sure were condemning people like her to a life of drudgery. The regulations already in existence on a state level to regulate oil and natural Gas Production is almost obscene already. I think this idea needs further regulation is nonsense. And the idea we stop women from having what we is an appalling thing to do. John thank you, ann mcelhinney. Coming up, more reasons why these are the good new days . This woman is hearing sound for the first time. November, september. Did you hear those . Saturday, sunday. You can hear my voice coming through both yes, yes. John that womans hearing sounds for the first time because she just got cochlear implants. What a Difference Technology can make. Could you hear those words . Yes. Yes. John makes me cry just watching, and theres more that could make us cry if we knew about it. 40 years ago manmade body parts were a fantasy in tv shows like the 6 million man. We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability of make the worlds fir bionic man better, stronger, faster. John fiction then, and the actor lee majors did actually age. Here he is more recently. Most of you remember me as the six Million Dollar man whose physical abilities were enhanced by technology. Now im here to introduced lee majors bionic rechargeable hearing aid. Selling hearing aids. Dr. Kevin campbell sayshe world caught up to the tv show, really . Absolutely. It is amaze the time we live in now is one of the most exciting times in history for science and technology and medicine. Were able to provide things for patients that wed never imagine will be true like on the six Million Dollar man. John and one of the biggest new things is the 3d printer, and i get how they can make a gun or other nonliving things, but the next thing is replacing organs . Printing organs . Exactly. Its Amazing Technology. It uses the same technology as an inkjet printer. We have a matrix of skin cells and organic compounds and the computer generates this three dimensional image thats a living organ. This could solve so many problems in medicine with organ shortages for heart transplants and kidney transplants and the like this. Has been accomplished already with children born without a windpipe and three dimensional tracheas that are implanted in the children and doing well now. Well be able to serve patients who normally may die waiting on a transplant list. John which is about 18 people a day, most waiting for kidneys. Exactly right. John and wake forest, where you went to school, researchers figured out how to print new skin cells on the burn wounds using 3d printers. Different kinds of skin cells that only need a patch of skin, a tenth of the size of the burn to grow enough skin cells to print skin. Before burn victims have to have skin grafts, large surgeries where your own skin was harvested from other locations in your body. You have multiple wounds at risk for infection, if we can print skin i think that Plastic Surgery and burntype medicine is really going to leap forward. John lets move to other bionic body parts. This teenager was born with an arm that doesnt extend beyond the elbow. A charity surprised her with news in the auditorium. To actually give you a bionic arm. [ cheers ]. This is what shes always wanted her whole life. She always wanted to do things. Now its opened up a whole new world for her. John that was her father speaking, and these artificial arms, hands, knees, keep getting better. They really do, the technology is amazing, now we can control these body parts with thoughts, just like when you think i want to move my arm, it happens. The way the surgeons maintain this, the nerves in the shoulder exist and can receive signals from the brain. They then connect the nerves to a muscle group in the chest that allows the chest muscles to respond to your thoughts. Then an electrode goes from the chest to the mechanical parts in the arm and you can zip a jacket, you can hold an egg and not break it with a bionic arm. The six Million Dollar man is here now, and its wonderful for folks like this young woman who was able to receive this arm. John the Technology Keeps improving for diagnosis. Im holding an ordinary iphone, it has an app and special case that will allow me by pressing my fingers on this to get an ekg and send this to you via email and can you treat me . Absolutely. I used it on a flight to San Francisco last week. There was a gentleman in respiratory distress, trouble breathing and i used my iphone to determine he wasnt having a heart attack and we figured out what was going on, and i was able to communicate with the pilot and we were able to decide about diversion of the plane appropriately. This is Amazing Technology that really puts so much information at the patients fingertips and allows me to do so much better for that patient because i have this data to use. John and you have a device with you that will be used for treating migraines . I do. This is the device. It has been shown in Clinical Trials in belgium to decrease the amount of migraines. You put it on the head like this. It delivers impulse to the nerve. You do this for 20 minutes a day every day and it was shown to decrease migraines. It is now fda approved in the United States and you need a prescription for it, but this is an amazing device. It gets people off pain medicine. Its wonderful. John thank you, dr. Campbell. Next, this commentator from the National Rifle association on why these are the good new days for people like him . The final battle is about to begin. John this clips from a History Channel tv show where marksmen compete. Chris cheng. John shoot cross bows, rifles, grenade launchers. Chris you have earned the title of historys top shot. Chris cheng, after that show, quit his job and now works at the nra, he makes speeches about guns and gun culture, and yet that almost certainly would not have happened in the good old days. Why . Yeah, i mean someone like me whos a gay, asian guy. John youre a twofer in terms of being a discriminated against group, asians were less harshly discriminated against but have you relatives who were locked up during world war ii. Yep. Im half japanese and so some of my family members were internment camps in world war ii, obviously things are much better for asianamericans now. John the one that really sets off often macho men,nd i associate that with the nra is your being gay. Uhhuh. John and on the show, you didnt say im gay. My competitors didnt care. They knew. What was interesting is that the History Channel never outed me because they said it never became an issue. And for me that was a really, really cool moment. My own stereotypes i have brought into the Gun Community were shattered. Life has come a long way from 17 years ago when Ellen Degeneres said this on her sitcom. Why cant i say the truth, being who i am, im 35 years old, im so afraid to tell people. I mean im im gay. Her studio audience applauded but america did not. Advertising Agency Reports chrysler, j. C. Penney dropped commercials from her show, her ratings took a dive. The show was canceled. Ellen was unemployed and reportedly came close to bankruptcy. Just 15 years later, shes hired as j. C. Penneys spokeswoman and hosted the Academy Awards twice. This is so quick. Amazing to see the tide shift in American Culture and the change of opinion that nowadays, theres so much more support for gay rights, for samesex marriage and equality. John samesex marriage is yet a different point, and lets look how quickly attitudes changed there. In 2004, abc Washington Post poll found gay marriage was opposed by 59 of americans. 10 years later supported by 59 . Amazing to see so many out and proud gay americans like ellen, Anderson Cooper and Neil Patrick Harris and now with michael sam being the first openly gay nfl player. John there were a lot of people very upset by that. One Football Player derrick ward tweeted, man, you got little kids looking at the draft when the kiss was played. If its okay for the media to show, heterosexual couples kissing and being affectionate, why shouldnt it be okay to have samesex couples doing the same thing . John lets move from Sexual Orientation to women. The good old days were not great for most women. Nancy pelosi underood that when she became the first female speaker of the house. It is a moment for which we have waited over 200 years. Today, we have broken the marble ceiling. The marble ceiling, great, but somehow a few years later, liberal women are screaming about how terrible life is for women. We start with sandra fluke. Too many women are shut out in silence. Up until now, being a woman is a preexisting medical condition. We are so far from equality in this industry. Women are not making it to the top of any profession. John women are not making it to the top of professions. You work in silicon valley. Whats your experience . Sarah sandberg, the chief operating officer of facebook and marissa mayer, ceo of yahoo . Things are changing. Female execs run hp, xerox, avon products, and still a victim of culture out there among women, achieving women . The whole victim mentality to me, its a choice to be made, when someone is hurlingant gay or racial epithets its how do i take this energy and translate it on something positive . One quick example, on asianamericans in executive leadership, there are not many asianamericans in ceo. John is it discrimination . Other cultural factors affecting asianamericansability to rise through the corporate ranks of america. John we tend to forget how different america was recently. Just wasnt that gays couldnt get security clearances. 40 years ago women couldnt get a credit card without her husbands permission. Good old days were not so good for women or blacks. When i was born black people couldnt attend the same schools or eat at the same lunch counter. Now we have a black president. Hes my president , even though hes wrong about most everything. This is the moment when the ocean began to flow and the planet began to heal. If youve got a business, you didnt build, that somebody else made that happen. John when we return how he and bill oreilly are wrong about the future, which is good news, with one exception. John there is some bad news, our nation is in decline. So says the curmudgeon in chief of fox news, i say, bill, give me a break on almost all fronts. These are the good new days. And tonights show highlights why life should keep getting better. Except for one big problem politicians, politicians who have the power to spend other peoples money. They can destroy our future and they are on the road to doing that. This is federal spending per person since america began, started low, less than 5 of the economy. Heres world war i. Heres world war ii. Used to go down after wars but now in peacetime, it only goes up. Pretty soon, were up here. How are we going to pay for that . John we cant pay for it, even if we doubled tax rate, tripled them. America couldnt afford to pay for medicare, Social Security and other new spending. Start of the show i made fun of media scaremongers, probably unfair to include sound bites like these. Were talking about the destruction of our society. John another depression. Everything comes to a grinding halt. Programs lose funding, Social Security checks go unpaid. Employers cant meet payrolls. And one day the system breaks. John those warnings make sense, they were talking about our debt. Thats a real problem most like the others we talked about tonight. We are going broke and the response of our politician says not to cut anything, its the double down on idiotic policies that increase our debt. This clueless excongressman once bragged he was responsible for allowing you to buy a home if you put down a measly 1,000 down payment . Is he now an outcast . No now the president appointed him head of the federal Housing Finance agency. This month melvin watt announced fanny and freddie will dump the prudent rules they imposed after the last housing bubble and taxpayers will guarantee your mortgage if you put down a small down payment. It creates what economists call moral hazard, it invites us to behave badly, when we do, they reward us with taxpayer money. Our politicians are the biggest threat to our future, but lets not add them in our note, despite our irresponsible politicians, life has gotten better. Silicon valley keeps inventing things faster than government can crush them. Google will inform them about anything in seconds and its free, free all around the world. People in the poorest countries have access to more information than the rich used to have. Air bnb lets us share homes. Uber and lift lets us share our cars. Facebook allows us to share all kinds of things, so does email, and its all free skype is free it lets you chat with anyone anywhere in the world, hear students in a school in brazil skype with old people in america. We created a phone that connects our students with people in a retirement home. Hello, hello. John students learn english . And the elderly are less lonely. Im good, how are you. John and again its all free. These innovations happen because they happened before politicians could crush them. Theyre part of what am theerer calls preventiveness innovation, create apps for apple, if we, did they probably would never have happened. If innovators could keep creating new things faster than politicians and regulators can kill them, our future will indeed be the good new days. Thats our show. See you next week. Kennedy december last year we launched a show, not only to reflect our political preferences but one that highlights shifting beliefs that many of you have. Like you, weve grown sick of both parties so we wanted to do a show that called people out on their nonsense and also something that would give us a way to talk to their friends about stories and issues that excite us. From national security, music, parenting, politics, its all here and were going to look at the guests who inspired us with thoughtful lives and analysis and others who threw us, mostly me, into fits of adolescent rage, from Rick Santorum to