I'll be presenting “It's Brighter Than It Looks,” “Reasons to Look Forward To the Future” at TEDxHawkesbury, Sydney, “Unbreak The Future,” April 18th, 2026

This doesn’t get enough airtime — “where a century ago only seven countries had a life expectancy over 60 years, today just six fall below 60 years.” — It’s Brighter Than It Looks, excerpt from TEDxHawkesbury, April 18th, 2026

“Left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Carrington, 1787

How the Grinch stole free trade. “Donald Trump’s War on Christmas — It’s a bad year for shoppers. It’s a terrible year for small-business owners.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

TLDW: It's a combination of innovation and the protection of property rights, and the balance between the two. “The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics: Explained” — Economics Explained youtu.be/u4hZAMp25s4?... ⚖️

E22: “Pears grown in Argentina, packed in Thailand and sold in the United States” — How international trade drives progress, a call for free markets, "The Engine of Progress," how the media is misrepresenting our risk of death, and much more. www.theupwing.com/edition22/

E21: In defence of neoliberalism, most people think life is likely to get better, mining for progress, and more: Edition 21, Tony Morley for The Up Wing newsletter; progress delivered. www.theupwing.com/edition21/

Despite what you hear in the news, from the United States to Nigeria; and from Indonesia to India — "most people are fairly optimistic that their lives will improve" ourworldindata.org/data-insight...

“Which means anytime we think about giving Washington more power to restrict speech, we ought to ask, “How would I feel if my least favorite politician was the one deciding which thoughts could land me in jail?” — Why free speech matters, Kite and Key Media

A new breakthrough gene therapy has shown dramatic results in the world’s first treatment for Huntington's disease. The new drug reduced the progression of Huntington symptoms by 75% over 3 years in a small test group. www.newscientist.com/article/2497...

“The mortality impact of extremely hot days fell by 75 percent in the United States between 1960 and 2004, driven primarily by the adoption of residential air conditioning (AC).” — Rising temperatures don't necessarily mean rising death rates. newsletter.humanprogress.org/p/half-baked... ❄️

In 1990, 37.6% of the global population survived on just $1—$3/day, by 2025, that ratio has fallen to just 8.5%, and continues to decline. Economic growth, trade and globalisation have been the unprecedented principal drivers of this progress. “The world has not gotten poorer.”

“But the facts are clear: There can be enough for everyone. The data tell us that lives are better now than lives were in the past—even though there are now many more lives around. Fears of a depleted, overpopulated future are out of date.” — Dr. Michael Geruso and Dr. Dean Spears

E20: “Good vs Evil” — the best podcast episode of the year, declining global poverty, crop yields continue to increase through 2025 and more. Edition 20, Tony Morley for The Up Wing newsletter; progress delivered.

“Most crops, with the exception of sorghum and millet, have seen steady increases over the past 60 years, and that trend is expected to continue this year.” — The world is on track for record harvests this year Hannah Ritchie 🌽

“My next claim is that capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system.” — 1 Capitalist vs 20 Anti-Capitalists Patrick Bet-David youtu.be/cwSXDr7XkNc?... 📈

The United States is taking in billions in tariffs, paid for by Americans, to the tune of $642 million a day, every day. Americans are taxing themselves to pay themselves. youtu.be/w2HBhjcAtLM?... 📦

E19: Poverty is declining, the benefits of freer trade, Ireland’s escape from poverty and more: “While freer trade—in both exports and imports—makes us better off, the opposite is also true.” — Tony Morley for The Up Wing, Edition 19

Between 1950 and 2025, Ireland’s GDP grew from $6580 per capita, to >$100,000 — while over the same period, life expectancy increased by 22 years; and just for good measure, child mortality fell from 5.4% to <0.3%. — How Ireland wrote the modern story of progress

We shouldn't have to explain 'comparative advantage' with crayon, but here we are: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” — Smith, The Wealth of Nations

“In fact, while nuclear power plants make up just 0.4 percent of all the power plants in the U.S. … they provide 18.6 percent of our electricity. And that’s because nuclear power gets you incredible bang for the buck.” — Kite & Key Media youtu.be/jgfeqgyP6Dg?...

Nuclear and solar are dominating power generation in Hungary, with solar overtaking gas, and coal's share falling to just 6%. Together, nuclear and solar made up roughly 66% of power generation in Hungary in 2024. ourworldindata.org/data-insight...

Global extreme poverty has declined significantly in the last 35 years, no matter how it's measured; however, in some of the poorest regions, progress has stalled. Free markets, free trade and globalization are the best tools we have to maintain momentum. ourworldindata.org/new-internat...

E18: Trump is a degrother, tariffs are taxing Americans hard, trade lifts all boats and “Breakfast for Eight Billion” Tony Morley — The Up Wing. If we're going to turn our backs on something, let's make it degrowth. www.theupwing.com/edition18/

“Degrowth argues that people should not only tolerate but desire a smaller economy. That’s second-term Trumponomics, and everyone stands to be worse off for it.” — Trump Is a Degrowther @annielowrey.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...

“We were a hunting and gathering species whose near-sole occupation was the catching and finding of enough calories and water to fill the bellies and slake the thirst of ourselves and our offspring.” — “Breakfast for Eight Billion” How we fed the world www.theupwing.com/breakfastfor...

“Nepal achieved over 95% coverage for at least one dose of rubella vaccine.” By August of 2025, the highly contagious and deadly disease had been eliminated from the country, removing a major risk for mothers and their unborn children. www.who.int/southeastasi...

Between 2019 and 2025, 52,426 new homes were connected to tap water in rural India every day, with the number of homes with access to a clean piped water connection growing by at least 124 million, from 17% to 80%.

“Population growth has been slowing down over the past 50 years, and the average total fertility rate stands at 2.2. In about half of countries, it has fallen below 2.1, the threshold generally needed to maintain a steady population.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Tariffs raise prices for consumers in the short-run, and the long run, resulting in “an average per household income loss of US$2,700.” “U.S. tariffs have climbed to an average rate of 18.6%—the highest since 1933” www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/charting-...

With productivity gains of up to 25%, the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust is demonstrating that machine learning is accelerating administrative tasks, improving “clinic letter turnaround times from up to a week to one to two days.” www.bbc.com/news/article...

“Already, children in the poorest parts of the world face better survival odds than the richest nobility of centuries past. A baby in 2020s Uttar Pradesh faces much better chances than in the rich countries of 1800: a quarter of the risk of dying." Mike Geruso, Michael Geruso 📉

“Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!” — Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“The more human beings diversified as consumers and specialised as producers, and the more they then exchanged, the better off they have been, are and will be.” humanprogress.org/the-triumph-... 📈

“Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.” — Walter E. Williams, American Economist

Despite the economic turbulence caused by trade wars, tariffs, and a pivot away from neoliberalism, more than 100 million global citizens are expected to join the “global consumer class.” www.weforum.org/stories/2025...

Turns out, “the poor have walked off the land into the factories as fast as the factories could take them.”, and they're richer for it. ourworldindata.org/data-insight...

The benchmark for extreme poverty has been raised to $3 a day, but even under the new calculation, the world's poor are doing better. “globally, the incomes of the poorest are higher in real terms,” up 28%. ourworldindata.org/new-internat... 📈

“Evidence is growing that some HIV-infected infants, if given antiretroviral drugs early in life, are able to suppress their viral loads to undetectable levels and then come off the medicine.” — The First Widespread Cure for HIV Could Be in Children www.wired.com/story/the-fi...

Rather than suffering a global inequality apocalypse, Daniel Waldenström argues that economic growth has lifted wealth and global living standards, and improved the lives of those living in every socio-economic strata. humanprogress.org/lifting-the-... ⚖️

Machine learning could help aircraft avoid unforeseen, and sometimes dangerous turbulence. “The common view is you can either avoid or accept turbulence and deal with it by buckling up and reinforcing the wing,” “But we say you don't need to accept it.” www.bbc.com/future/artic...

E17: Population drives human progress, factories bring prosperity, 'How the West Wins from Globalization' and much more: The Up Wing theupwing.com/edition17/ “If progress halts or reverses, if life becomes worse, then it would be like we moved toward humanity’s poorer past.”

“Bangladesh’s conquest of extreme poverty hasn’t come from any dramatic program of government redistribution, but from rapid economic growth. In the years since 1990, the country has more than quadrupled its living standards” — Noah Smith 📈

In a historic first, China has cut its carbon emissions per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to below 500 grams, down from 514g/kWh during the same period in 2024 and 539g/kWh from January to June 2023. www.reuters.com/markets/comm... 📉

“What if the challenge for humanity’s future is not too many people on a crowded planet, but too few people to sustain the progress that the world needs?” — The Depopulation Bomb, Ronal Bailey reason.com/2025/07/08/t...

“So much of the progress that we now take for granted sprang up in a large and interconnected society. We have flourished beyond the dreams of anyone living in our small-world past. That is no coincidence.” — Dr. Dean Spears, Dr. Michael Geruso, After the Spike

More than a century of medical progress in the field of surgery, the development of new drugs, early detection and improved emergency intervention have reduced deaths from heart disease and stroke dramatically. ourworldindata.org/cardiovascul...

“Globalization and trade didn’t just work for some countries; it worked for nearly everyone — almost no exceptions.”— How the West Wins from Globalization Tony Morley for The Up Wing, and the National Review www.theupwing.com/howthewestwi... 📦

“America should continue to lean into what Americans produce best: brilliant minds and equally brilliant ideas, not toasters and plastic flamingos.” — How the West Wins from Globalization, Tony Morley for National Review www.nationalreview.com/2025/07/how-... 📦

“The most important achievement of Western economies is the broad rise in living standards—not the fortunes of a few billionaires, but the everyday comfort of millions whose grandparents lived without antibiotics, central heating, or higher education.” humanprogress.org/lifting-the-...