The Positive News Podcast

What Went Right is a weekly video podcast from Positive News, bringing you the good news that matters. In every episode, Positive News chief digital editor Tom Pattinson and journalist and broadcaster Lucy Watson pick three of the week’s most interesting positive developments – from climate solutions and scientific breakthroughs to advances in healthcare, ambitious community projects, conservation wins and tech innovations. Expect informed conversation, surprising stories and a closer look at the people and ideas behind positive change.This week: A victory for the Amazon, a breakthrough in cancer treatment, Oxford Street goes car-free and Sardinian restaurants put conversation back on the menu.🌳 A victory for the Amazon – Lula’s re-election in Brazil brings fresh hope for the rainforest, with deforestation falling sharply and a pledge to end it by 2030. But can he deliver?💉 A breakthrough in skin cancer treatment – A personalised mRNA vaccine is showing promising results in trials, raising hopes of a new way to fight cancer. Could the same technology help treat other cancers?🚶 Oxford Street goes pedestrianised – One of London's most famous shopping streets is going car-free, with plans for more trees, public spaces and a boost to local businesses. Could this be the future of our high streets?📵 Phones off, conversation on – Restaurants in Sardinia are encouraging diners to put away their phones and start talking again. Could a simple experiment help families reconnect, and should more restaurants follow suit?Subscribe to Positive News on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And for 10 stories of progress delivered to your inbox each week, sign up to our What Went Right newsletter at positive.news/letter.What Went Right is a Positive News production.Hosts: Tom Pattinson and Lucy WatsonProduced and edited by Tom PattinsonResearch and reporting: Robin EveleighExecutive producers: Pauline Milligan and Sean Wood#WhatWentRight #PositiveNews #GoodNews

What Went Right is a weekly video podcast from Positive News, bringing you the good news that matters. In every episode, Positive News chief digital editor Tom Pattinson and journalist and broadcaster Lucy Watson pick three of the week's most interesting positive developments – from climate solutions and scientific breakthroughs to advances in healthcare, ambitious community projects, conservation wins and tech innovations. Expect informed conversation, surprising stories and a closer look at the people and ideas behind positive change.With Lucy Watson away this week, Positive News associate editor Gavin Haines joins Tom Pattinson. This week: Could bird poo help save low-lying islands from rising seas? Could giving people free money help protect the Amazon rainforest? And what can an award-winning factory in Bangladesh teach us about the future of architecture?🐦 Seabirds helping save tropical islands – Scientists have discovered that restoring seabird populations and native vegetation could help tropical islands withstand rising seas, with coral reefs around bird-rich islands growing up to 2.5 times faster.🌳 Basic income protecting the Amazon rainforest – In the Peruvian Amazon, a basic income trial has shown promising results, reducing food insecurity while encouraging Indigenous communities to adopt more sustainable farming practices. Could financial security be one of the keys to protecting the rainforest?🏗️ Sustainable, award-winning architecture – We look at some remarkable architecture projects, including an award-winning factory in Bangladesh designed with workers' wellbeing in mind, a housing development in London that puts green space at its heart, and a museum in Belgium built largely from recycled construction waste.Special thanks to Positive News associate editor Gavin Haines for joining us this week.Subscribe to Positive News on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And for 10 stories of progress delivered to your inbox each week, sign up to our What Went Right newsletter at positive.news/letter.What Went Right is a Positive News production.Hosts: Lucy Watson and Tom PattinsonProduced and edited by Tom PattinsonResearch and reporting: Gavin HainesExecutive producers: Pauline Milligan and Sean Wood#WhatWentRight #PositiveNews #GoodNews

What Went Right is a weekly video podcast from Positive News, bringing you the good news that matters. In every episode, Positive News chief digital editor Tom Pattinson and journalist and broadcaster Lucy Watson pick three of the week's most interesting positive developments – from climate solutions and scientific breakthroughs to advances in healthcare, ambitious community projects, conservation wins and tech innovations. Expect informed conversation, surprising stories and a closer look at the people and ideas behind positive change.This week: Indonesia has slashed extreme poverty, London's new super sewer has dramatically reduced sewage entering the Thames, researchers have linked walking to better mental health in children, and giant tortoises are thriving again in the Seychelles.🇮🇩 Indonesia's extraordinary poverty reduction – Millions have escaped extreme poverty thanks to decades of economic growth, investment and development. But how did it happen, and could other countries follow its example?💧 London's super sewer delivers – A 25km tunnel beneath the capital has reduced sewage overflows into the Thames by an estimated 86%. Tom explains how it works, while Lucy recalls her experience swimming in Paris as the French capital worked to clean up the Seine.🚶 Could walking improve children's mental health? – New research involving more than 5,500 young people links higher daily step counts with better mental health and differences in brain development. Tom and Lucy discuss walking to school, competitive step counting and how to encourage children to exercise more.🐢 Giant tortoises make an extraordinary comeback – Once hunted to the brink of extinction, the giant tortoises of Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles now number around 180,000. That's more tortoises than people living in the entire country!Subscribe to Positive News on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And for 10 stories of progress delivered to your inbox each week, sign up to our What Went Right newsletter at positive.news/letter.What Went Right is a Positive News production.Hosts: Lucy Watson and Tom PattinsonProduced and edited by Tom PattinsonResearch and reporting: Gavin HainesExecutive producers: Pauline Milligan and Sean Wood#WhatWentRight #PositiveNews #GoodNews #ConstructiveJournalism

What Went Right is a weekly video podcast from Positive News, bringing you the good news that matters. In every episode, Positive News chief digital editor Tom Pattinson and journalist and broadcaster Lucy Watson pick three of the week's most interesting positive developments – from climate solutions and scientific breakthroughs to advances in healthcare, ambitious community projects, conservation wins and tech innovations. Expect informed conversation, surprising stories and a closer look at the people and ideas behind positive change.This week: Two retired teachers have taken on a mining giant and won a landmark climate case in Australia, scientists have revealed promising results from a potential new Parkinson’s treatment, and Prince William has launched a toolkit to help communities prepare for emergencies.🌍 People power wins landmark climate case in AustraliaRetired teachers Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan helped lead a community campaign against the expansion of the Mount Pleasant coal mine in New South Wales. Now Australia's High Court has backed their legal challenge, in a ruling that could change how future fossil fuel projects are assessed. We discuss the extraordinary victory for people power and its implications for global climate action.🧠 A promising breakthrough in Parkinson's researchCould a new drug help scientists tackle Parkinson's disease before symptoms develop? Early clinical trials of SNT-4728 have produced encouraging results, reducing brain inflammation and improving movement in people with a sleep disorder linked to a high risk of Parkinson's. We explore the research, its potential and the questions scientists still need to answer.🤝 Prince William's plan to help communities prepare for disastersFrom floods and wildfires to power cuts and cyber attacks, how prepared are we for the unexpected? Prince William has launched Ready Together, a new emergency preparedness toolkit designed to help communities support each other during a crisis. Positive News' associate editor Gavin Haines reports on how it works, while Lucy shares her experiences reporting from disaster zones around the world.Subscribe to Positive News on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And for 10 stories of progress delivered to your inbox each week, sign up to our What Went Right newsletter at positive.news/letter.What Went Right is a Positive News production.Hosts: Lucy Watson and Tom PattinsonProduced and edited by Tom PattinsonResearch and reporting: Gavin HainesExecutive producers: Pauline Milligan and Sean WoodExplore the Ready Together toolkit: https://www.readytogether.co.ukRead more about the Parkinson's trial: https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/news/2026/parkinsons-uk-funded-drug-improves-movement-symptoms-early-trial#WhatWentRight #PositiveNews #GoodNews

What Went Right is a weekly video podcast from Positive News, bringing you the good news that matters. In every episode, Positive News chief digital editor Tom Pattinson and journalist and broadcaster Lucy Watson pick three of the week's most interesting positive developments – from climate solutions and scientific breakthroughs to advances in healthcare, ambitious community projects, conservation wins and tech innovations. Expect informed conversation, surprising stories and a closer look at the people and ideas behind positive change.This week: the women challenging powerful institutions win the ‘alternative Nobel prize’, renewable energy helps shield the UK from the global gas crisis, countries make progress on healthy ageing, and a rescued gorilla gives birth after being returned to the wild.🏆 The women taking on entrenched powerThe 2026 Right Livelihood Award, often known as the ‘alternative Nobel prize’, has gone to four women and women-led organisations working on human rights, democracy, AI and rural communities. Tom and Lucy look at Pakistani human rights lawyer Jalila Haider, the Rural Women’s Assembly in southern Africa, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and AI researcher Timnit Gebru, whose work questions who builds artificial intelligence, who benefits from it and who gets to decide how it develops.🌞 Renewables soften the energy shockRecord wind and solar generation has supplied 41% of UK electricity so far this year, compared with 25% from gas, according to Carbon Brief.With global gas prices hit by disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, Tom and Lucy look at how renewable energy is increasingly being seen not only as a climate solution, but as a route towards greater energy independence. Across 12 European countries, heat pump sales have also risen 11% in the first half of 2026, with around 1.16 million units sold.👵 Are we getting better at ageing?The number of people aged 60 and over is expected to grow from around one billion in 2020 to 2.1 billion by 2050, putting new pressure on health and care systems around the world.But a new report from the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing finds signs of progress. More countries now have laws tackling age discrimination and national long-term care policies, alongside growing efforts to help people remain mobile, socially connected and independent for longer. Tom and Lucy discuss whether the answer to an ageing population lies less in expanding traditional care and more in helping people live healthier, more independent lives in the first place.🦍 A rewilded gorilla becomes a motherLulingu was rescued from the illegal wildlife trade in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when she was around 18 months old and spent years being rehabilitated before finally being returned to the wild in Virunga National Park in 2024. Now she has given birth after mating with a wild silverback, becoming one of the first rewilded Grauer’s gorillas to successfully reproduce in the wild.For conservationists working to rebuild one of the world’s smallest and most isolated gorilla populations, the new arrival offers evidence that carefully managed rewilding can work.Subscribe to What Went Right on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts, and get 10 stories of progress in your inbox each week by signing up to the What Went Right newsletter at positive.news.What Went Right – good news that matters.What Went Right is a Positive News production.Hosts: Lucy Watson and Tom PattinsonProduced and edited by Tom PattinsonResearch and reporting: Gavin HainesExecutive producers: Pauline Milligan and Sean Wood#WhatWentRight #PositiveNews #GoodNews