Is this the time of monsters — or miracles? | Angus Hervey

Summary

TED Talks Daily: "Is this the time of monsters — or miracles?" | Angus Hervey

Release Date: May 23, 2025

In this compelling episode of TED Talks Daily, host Elise Hu introduces Angus Hervey, a seasoned solutions journalist, who delves into the paradoxical state of our world—caught between looming threats and remarkable progress. Hervey's talk, delivered at TED 2025, challenges listeners to rethink the dominant narratives surrounding global challenges and achievements.

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1. The Dual Narrative of Today's World

Angus Hervey opens his discussion by reflecting on Antonio Gramsci's poignant observation: "The old world is dying, the new world struggles to be born" (03:30). He draws a parallel to the present day, suggesting that we are amidst a period of significant turmoil and transformation.

"Now is a time of monsters." (03:45)

Hervey underscores the prevalent narrative of collapse, citing examples like the erosion of international norms, political upheavals, and environmental crises. He paints a vivid picture of a world grappling with:

• Political Instability: References to leaders like Putin, Zelensky, Trump, and conflicts in regions such as Gaza, Sudan, and Yemen highlight global political tensions.
• Environmental Degradation: Concerns about climate change effects, including melting permafrost, declining pollinators, and coral reef destruction.
• Social and Economic Challenges: Issues like economic vandalism, contempt for the rule of law, and rising inequality are brought to the forefront.

2. Unveiling Overlooked Stories of Progress

Despite the grim headlines, Hervey shifts focus to a series of significant but often overlooked achievements that signal hope and progress:

• Healthcare Advancements: "Just over 12 months ago, humanity began the rollout of the first ever vaccine for malaria... already over 5 million children in 17 countries have been vaccinated." (05:20)

• Disease Elimination: Eleven countries have eradicated diseases, including Jordan's elimination of leprosy.

• Social Reforms: Eight countries have banned or committed to banning corporal punishment, and nations like Zambia and Colombia have outlawed child marriage.

• Democratic Movements: Examples include the fall of long-standing autocratic regimes and significant democratic victories in India.

• Environmental Conservation: Initiatives like China's Great Green Wall and the creation of large conservation corridors in the United States exemplify global environmental efforts.

• Educational and Economic Progress: Over a billion people lifted from extreme poverty and significant improvements in global education rates.

3. The Role of Innovation and Collective Action

Hervey emphasizes the transformative power of human ingenuity and collective action in driving positive change:

• Renewable Energy: "Last year we installed enough solar panels and wind turbines to replace 6% of the world's fossil fuel electricity." (09:15)

• Artificial Intelligence Breakthroughs: AI advancements are enabling breakthroughs in medicine, environmental science, and more, contributing to solutions previously deemed impossible.

• Community Efforts: Small groups and dedicated individuals play a crucial role in driving long-term change, from local conservation projects to global health initiatives.

4. Embracing the Paradox: Monsters and Miracles Coexist

Hervey presents a nuanced perspective, acknowledging that both destructive and constructive forces are at play simultaneously:

"Both of these stories are true. The only question that matters now is which one do you belong to." (13:30)

He highlights that real life doesn't follow a linear narrative—progress and collapse are intertwined. Examples include:

• Simultaneous Crises and Solutions: While conflicts and disasters unfold, parallel efforts in healthcare, education, and environmental conservation make substantial strides.

• Historical Resilience: Drawing parallels to post-World War II reconstruction and the scientific response to the pandemic, Hervey illustrates humanity's capacity to rebound from adversity.

5. The Power of Choice and Agency

In his concluding remarks, Hervey empowers listeners to recognize their role in shaping the future:

• Personal Responsibility: "We all get to decide which one of these stories we are a part of." (13:50)

• Collective Impact: Decisions about where to allocate resources, energy, and attention can influence whether we contribute to narratives of hope or despair.

• Active Participation: Moving beyond belief, Hervey urges proactive engagement in addressing challenges and fostering progress.

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Final Thoughts

Angus Hervey's talk serves as a sobering yet hopeful reminder of the complex realities of our time. By juxtaposing the pervasive sense of global decline with tangible examples of advancement and resilience, he invites listeners to adopt a more balanced and empowered perspective. Hervey's message underscores the importance of recognizing both the "monsters" and "miracles" of our era, ultimately inspiring collective action towards a more hopeful future.

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This summary is based on the transcript of the episode and aims to provide a comprehensive overview for those who haven't had the chance to listen.

Transcript

[Elise Hu]

Hey TED Talks Daily listeners, It's Elise. Thank you for making this show part of your daily routine. We really appreciate it and we want to make it even better for you. So we put together a quick survey and we'd love to hear your thoughts. It's listener survey time. It only takes a few minutes, but it really helps us shape the show and get to know you, our listeners, so much better. Head to the episode description to find the link to the listener survey with we would really appreciate you doing it. Thank you so much for taking the time to help the show.

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[Elise Hu]

This episode is sponsored by Monday.com let's face it, work today moves fast, but Monday.com is here to help with their work management product which enables you to reach your full potential. It's built for more than just marketing teams. It connects entire organizations to gain full visibility, make better decisions and bridge the gap between strategy and execution. The platform gives you real time insights into campaigns, content and projects so you can see what's working, shift gears when needed and make data backed decisions without the guesswork. You'll go from being reactive to strategic plus with built in AI capabilities. Monday Work Management helps your team work smarter, not harder. Maximize your marketing impact with the first work product you and your team will love to use. Visit [e-mail] to learn more. You're listening to TED Talks Daily where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host Elise Hu. Solutions journalist Angus Harvey has been reporting on stories of Progress for years. In his talk, he wonders if he's been wrong for reporting only on the good things, but not in the way you might think. He puts a spotlight on overlooked breakthroughs in a world teetering between collapse and progress, all while asking us, what is the narrative we should be telling about our times? Coming up.

[Angus Harvey]

I'm a solutions journalist. For over a decade I've been reporting on stories of progress. But in the last few months, I started to think that maybe I was wrong. Almost a century ago, the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, thrown into prison by Mussolini, wrote, the old world is dying, the new world struggles to be born. Now is a time of monsters. Those words are haunting. It feels like he could be speaking to us today. A great unraveling is underway. And you know this story because it is everywhere. The end of the international rules based order. Power over principle, aid budgets obliterated. Science under attack. Putin, Zelensky, Trump. Gaza, hospitals, hostages, Sudan, famine, DRC rebels, Yemen, Venezuela, Turkey, Hungary, Taiwan, the United States of America. The economic vandalism, the contempt for the rule of law, the casual cruelty, the measles. All of the values that we assumed were universal truth, decency, common sense. Face not just reversal, but violent backlash beneath the surface, deeper, more menacing undercurrents. The digital platforms that were supposed to connect us now do the opposite. Algorithms breed paranoia, manufacturing division, drowning truth and deliberate falsehoods. Carl Sagan warned us about this. An era where people unable to distinguish between what feels good and what is true slide almost unnoticed back into superstition and darkness. And as we argue online, planetary crisis. Firestorms in our cities, plastic in our blood, the pollinators, the permafrost, the coral reefs and ice free Arctic. Within our lifetimes, the tipping points loom and Gramsci's monsters are at the gates precisely at the moment that we seem least equipped to deal with them. This is the story of collapse. It is on the front page of all the news sites, is at the top of all our news feeds. We are intimately familiar with its graphic details. You can tune it out, you can turn it off, but you cannot ignore it. There is something missing though, from this story. There's a bit of room in it for the words of people like Helen Awiro, a nurse from Kenya. What I can say is that the deaths that we used to see from the severe forms of malaria in children under five have greatly gone down. And I think this is being attributed to the presence of this vaccine. The mere fact that we can now reduce these deaths is really great for our community. Because no one should lose a child. Just over 12 months ago, humanity began the rollout of the first ever vaccine for malaria. And as you can hear, it's working. The kids aren't dying anymore. Already over 5 million children in 17 countries have been vaccinated. By the end of this decade, the plan is to reach 50 million, 50 million children finally protected against a disease that has been killing children since before we invented writing. And that is not the only story that's missing since you were last all in this room. 11 countries have eliminated a disease, including Jordan, the first ever country to eliminate leprosy. Eight countries, home to over 100 million children, have either banned or committed to banning corporal punishment in all settings. Zambia, Sierra Leone and Colombia all banned child marriage. Syria rid itself of a 50 year old autocratic regime. Bangladesh's students sparked democratic change through massive protests. Voters in India, the world's largest democracy, firmly rejected authoritarianism. England, Ireland and Canada extended free contraception to more women. Indonesia launched a program to feed all 70 million of its school students. And did you know that Cambodia, once the world's most mined country, is on its track to be landmine free within the next few years? In 20 and 24, fewer people died from natural disasters than almost any year in history. The murder rate in the United States saw its biggest ever 12 month decline, beating the previous record which was set in 2023. And deforestation in the Amazon declined to its fourth lowest level on record. An achievement that gives me more hope for life on Earth than all the rockets that we send to Mars. Last year we installed enough solar panels and wind turbines to replace 6% of the world's fossil fuel electricity. This year, we will install even more. We are bending the curve. Emissions are declining in Europe and America and have finally levelled off in China. Electric vehicles are biting into oil demand. Now wind, water and sunshine will overtake coal this year as the world's leading power source. Regardless of what anyone says in the White House. And thanks to artificial intelligence, we are now starting to see breakthroughs we once thought impossible. The biggest boost to human knowledge since the scientific revolution. We are determining the structure and interaction every single one of life's molecules, inventing extraordinary new enzymes, new drugs, new materials controlling plasma and nuclear fusion experiments. Last year we got a new miracle drug for HIV prevention. MRNA vaccines for cancer. We found the building blocks for life in an asteroid, decoded whale speech, and discovered fractals in the quantum realm. Did you know that sea turtle populations are increasing around the world? Or that overfishing is declining? In the Mediterranean. Or that last year, China finished encircling its largest desert with a giant belt of trees, its very own great green wall. And this year, the United States created its largest conservation corridor, stretching from Utah down to California. These are all victories from the last 12 months, but they happen because people, often small groups of people, fought for years and sometimes decades. And if we extend our time frame out, even better news. Over 4 million square kilometers of the world's oceans have been protected in the last four years. Air pollution has started to decline. In the last decade, over 250 million children have gained access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene at school. And in this century, this insane rollercoaster of a century, over a billion people have been lifted from extreme poverty. Deaths from the world's deadliest infectious diseases have halved. And for the first time in history, over 50% of students receive a high school education. We have no precedent for that. A world where a majority of people can read, write and calculate. Where most humans possess the tools to question authority and determine their own destinies. So which one of these stories is true? Is this the long awaited fall from grace? Or are we on a journey to the promised land? Collapse or renewal? The answer, of course, is that it's both. And the truth is that it has always been this way. Even as we rebuilt from the ashes of the Second World War, the shadow of nuclear annihilation loomed. The pandemic devastated our communities, yet our scientific response was revolutionary. Climate change threatens our future, yet we its solution, clean energy, offers us a fairer, better world. This is not an easy paradox to hold in your head or in your heart the understanding that in the same moment, innocent people are being snatched off the streets and children are dying in airstrikes. The malaria wards are emptying across an entire continent. And in a faraway village under a thousand stars, a young girl who had once been forced into marriage is studying equations under an electric light that wasn't there a year ago. Real life isn't a story. History doesn't have a moral arc. Progress isn't a rule. It is contested terrain fought for daily by millions of people who refuse to give in to despair. Ultimately, none of us know whether we're living in the downswing or the upswing of history. But I do know that we all get a choice. We, all of us get to decide which one of these stories we are a part of. We add to their grand weave in the work that we do, in the daily decisions we make about where to put our money, where to put our energy and our time in the stories we tell each other and in the words that come out of our mouths. It is not enough to believe in something anymore. It is time to do something. Ask yourself if our worst fears come to pass and the monsters breach the walls, who do you want to be standing next to? The prophets of doom? Or the cynics who said, we told you so? Or the people who, with their eyes wide open, dug the trenches and fetched water? Both of these stories are true. The only question that matters now is which one do you belong to?

[Elise Hu]

That was Angus Harvey speaking at TED 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out [e-mail] curationguidelines and that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Greene, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar and Tonsika Sarmarnivon. It was mixed by Christopher Faizy Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Ballarezzo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.

[Angus Harvey]

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[Elise Hu]

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