This is a thread about how the news shows you the worst of humanity, while intentionally ignoring the best.

And it has to do with Jackie Robinson.

🧵 Jackie Robinson was born 105 years ago today. At the age of 28, he broke baseball’s color barrier — and changed the game forever.

But last week, something horrible happened.

When you watch the news, it's easy to believe everything is getting worse.

It's not.

Since it’s that time of year, here are 39 good news stories that you didn’t hear about in 2023.

Let’s go 🧵 1. More girls are getting an education

This year, UNICEF reported there are 50 million more girls in school compared to just ten years ago. Girls are also graduating at higher levels, with 89% completing primary school and 61% completing high school.

Education for the win!

On this day, a tiny town in Canada opened up their hearts — and their homes — to 7,000 stranded passengers in their time of need.

They didn’t care about politics, or who the President was.

They did it because it's what Canadians do. Here's how they did it.

A Goodable Thread🧵 On the Eastern coast of North America, there's a Canadian province called Newfoundland.

It’s filled with cold winters, warm summers, and even warmer hearts.

In this province is a town called Gander.

In the 1940s, its airport used to be one of the biggest in the world.

Without further adieu, we present cute pets reading this week's best Goodable headlines.

A Thread.

🐶🧵 This is Daisy.

She likes how this Top Chef star is helping victims of the wildfires in Maui.

Everyone knows that people trust the news less and less these days.

The question is why?

Reuters just surveyed thousands of people across six continents.

The results are disturbing.

A Goodable Thread🧵 If you’ve stopped trusting the news, you’re not alone.

In nearly every country, trust in news has been plummeting. Only 40% of all people say they overall trust the news. In America, it’s just 32%.

Think about what that means for democracy.

And it gets worse.

Everyone knows that the media is built on negativity. Without it, they wouldn’t exist.

We’ve been saying for years that their negativity is actually killing us. To prove it, we did a small experiment.

The results were disturbing.

A Goodable Thread 🧵 We wanted to see just how addicted the world’s top news sites are to negativity, so we ran an audit. We focused on only the biggest news sites, which included:

Apple
Google
Yahoo
ABC
CNN

Together, they have over a billion visitors per day.

Here’s what we found 👇🏼

In a world of corporate billionaires, there’s a Canadian ice cream company that’s been doing the opposite.

They look after employees, donate to the community, and even provide housing to refugees.

This is how they became a national icon - by doing the right thing.

A Goodable🧵 Ask any Canadian to name an ice cream brand, and they’ll probably say Chapman’s.

Even though they’re available everywhere, most people don’t know they’re a family-owned business in a town with a population of just over 1,200.

They’ve been looking after the town for decades.

For decades, cartoons have made us laugh, smile, and think differently about life.

But occasionally, they give us scenes so powerful, they shake us to our core.

Here are the most gut-wrenchingly powerful animated scenes of all time.

(Warning: you'll need some tissues.)

🧵 We all remember this scene from The Lion King when Simba finds Mufasa, who had just been killed.

Young Simba’s hesitant cry of “Dad” is enough to bring even the coldest heart to tears.

It's pure innocence.

A Vietnamese immigrant just became America’s newest billionaire.

He came as a refugee, sold products out of his van, and turned it into an empire that became a household name.

Here's how he did it.

A Spicy Goodable Thread.

🌶️ In the 1970s, David Tran was conscripted into the South Vietnamese Army as a cook.

David developed a unique skill — making hot sauce for soldiers.

When Saigon fell in 1975, he returned home and worked on his brother's chili pepper farm.

That’s when he noticed something.

During the Civil War, an enslaved African-American taught himself to read, commandeered a ship, rescued the enslaved crew, then sailed them all to freedom.

Then, he came back, bought his former master’s home and was elected to Congress.

Here’s how.

A #BlackHistoryMonth Thread. Robert Smalls was born in Charleston, South Carolina.

He grew up working on the docks, and because of his knowledge of boats, the Confederate army forced him to steer a steamship.

They didn’t know it, but Robert had other plans. He was going to sail to freedom.

The news coming out of Turkey and Syria is heart-breaking. What the headlines don’t show is the many heroes who are risking their lives to save others.

Here are just some of them.

A Goodable Thread on heroes. 🧵 Greece was one of the first countries to send in rescue teams to Turkey.

This is the moment their team pulled out a six-year-old girl from underneath the rubble to safety.

Libraries are more than just buildings filled with books. They’re magical places that can take us anywhere.

We could all use a break, so here's a look at the world's most incredible libraries.

Let’s take a journey together 🧵 This is the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It's regarded as one of the most beautiful libraries in the world.

It houses the biggest and most valuable collection of Portuguese literature outside of Portugal.

During WW2, an entire village stood up to the Nazis.

It’s a story you’ve never heard of, in a town you’ve never been to.

Instead of fear and hatred, they chose kindness — and saved thousands of lives.

A Powerful Thread for #HolocaustMemorialDay This is the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in Southern France.

It’s a picture perfect village on the rolling hills of the French countryside.

During WW2, when the villagers saw what the Nazis were doing, they knew they had to take a stand.

Did you know that one of the world’s most popular foods didn’t even exist 50 years ago?

This is the story of Chicken Tikka masala.

How it was made, where it came from, and why it's an example of multiculturalism at its best.

A Delicious Thread. Walk into any South Asian restaurant and you’ll find Chicken Tikka Masala on the menu.

It’s heaven on a plate — juicy chicken simmering in a spicy sauce, with cumin, coriander, ginger, and chili.

The crazy thing is, it’s not even a real South Asian dish.

It never has been.

When people think of Dolly Parton, they think of an actress or a singer, but did you know that she’s quietly helped millions of children to read?

Here’s how she did it.

A Goodable Thread. 🧵

#HappyBirthdayDolly This is Sevierville, Tennessee.

It has a population of 18,600.

In 1990, the town’s high school dropout rate was 54% – one of the highest in the country.

Dolly was born in Sevierville and unlike other megastars, she never forgot where she came from.

So here’s what she did.

Everyone’s talking about billionaires these days, but did you know the richest man in history wasn’t a CEO or a tech mogul?

He was a Black African man, in a kingdom you never learned about, who was richer than Elon and Jeff Bezos combined.

A Goodable Thread.

🧵 You didn’t learn this in history class, but back in the 14th century, West Africa was an economic powerhouse.

The kingdom of Mali stretched across modern day Nigeria, Chad, Senegal, and several other regions.

Just how powerful was it?

Let’s face it – 2022 has been filled with a lot of heavy news.

But not all is lost. Here are all the ways the world actually GOT BETTER in 2022.

Let us restore your faith in humanity.

The Goodable thread you’ve been waiting for.

🧵 This year, NASA unveiled the first full color image from the James Webb Space Telescope.

It’s the highest resolution image of our universe anyone has ever seen.

Scientists can now see further back in time than ever before.

Every year, there's a special photography contest for wildlife. It's unlike anything you've ever seen.

Introducing the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.

A Goodable Thread 🧵 When you wake up and find out that Taylor dropped another edition of Midnights with more songs at 3 am while you were sleeping.

(📸: Andy Evans/Comedy Wildlife 2022)

Did you know that a Canadian helped create the modern day US Special Forces?

He was Indigenous, a war hero, and a survivor of Canada’s residential school system.

This is the story of the most badass war hero you’ve never heard of.

A Goodable Thread. 🧵 This is Tommy Prince.

As a child in Manotiba, he was forced into a residential school, a government system designed to brutally strip away all Indigenous culture and history.

Prince survived and when WW2 began, he decided to enlist in the army.

On this day, a tiny town in Canada opened up their hearts — and their homes — to 7,000 stranded passengers in their time of need.

They didn’t care about politics, or who the President was.

They did it because it's what Canadians do.

Here's how they did it.

A Goodable Thread🧵 On the east coast of North America, there's a Canadian province called Newfoundland. It’s filled with cold winters, warm summers, and even warmer hearts.

The province has a small town called Gander.

In the 1940s, its airport used to be one of the biggest in the world.

They say dogs are a man’s best friend – but did you know they’ve also changed the course of history?

To celebrate #InternationalDogDay, here are 9 amazing dogs you need to know about.

A Goodable thread. During WWI, a stray dog became the unofficial mascot of the 102nd Infantry Division.

He served alongside the soldiers, alerting them to incoming artillery and deadly gas, and even comforting wounded soldiers.

Tubby is the only dog to be promoted to Sergeant through combat.