Briefing No. 12
WHAT WE'RE READING
On the Greenwood Place bedside table
“I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child - What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.” Michelle Obama
Most of the team at Greenwood Place have been listening to Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” on audiobook over the past few weeks. It’s been a pleasure. LISTEN HERE
HOW ICELAND GO TEENS TO SAY 'NO' TO DRUGS
Curfews, sports, and understanding kids’ brain chemistry have all helped dramatically curb substance abuse in the country, and the model rolled out at national scale in Iceland is now being adopted by cities across Europe and beyond. More here:
OUR WORLD IN DATA
The World is much better, the world is awful; the world can be much better.
Perhaps all three statements are true. Click on the link below to see research and interactive data visualisations to understand the worlds largest problems.
PEAK CAR
We’re fascinated by micro-mobility. In the City of London, bikes are now the dominant vehicle during rush hour, and congestion has fallen more than 40% since 1999. App-enabled scooters and bikes might prove to be all of 1. an unregulated, VC-funded nuisance; 2. the beginning of truly clean air cities and 3. a signal of global, declining car sales to come. Have we reached peak auto ?
RWANDA's CLOSING GENDER GAP
We’ve been enjoying the BBC World Service’s “ My Perfect Country” series, which searches the world to find countries doing one thing so well that their innovation should form part of an amalgam “perfect country”.
Series 3 opens by looking for the best place to be a woman and, perhaps surprisingly, chooses Rwanda.
TOP TEN TECHNOLOGIES
The SpaceX capsule took to the skies this month. What’s next? Bill Gates writes here about his top ten breakthrough technologies:
ONE MORE THING #ReclaimSocial
A viral campaign from charities to ‘reclaim social media for good’ has inspired thousands of positive messages on Twitter and other social networks
A campaign to ‘reclaim social media for good’ went viral this week, with thousands of people, charities and other social organisations calling for more positivity on social media.
Under the hashtag #ReclaimSocial, the movement trended on Twitter, and has already reached more than 14 million people. See the campaign here.
