Continuing our longstanding tradition of using yearend to reflect on moments of joy and hope, here are 25 events during 2025 that renewed our sense of optimism…
— from The Washington Post, December 2025.
Some bad things happened in 2025. Everybody knows about them, thanks to our hardworking news industry. Of which I consider myself a part. Albeit a minor part.
The news media doesn’t always agree on what things are “the worst”. But that’s understandable considering the number of bad things we had to choose from.
I posted a column on Monday, about a news quiz I found on the Associated Press website: 25 news events that you or I might (or might not) remember. It’s a perfectly natural thing to post a news quiz containing 25 items at the end of 2025, because “25” comes at the end of “2025”.
Most of the AP quiz questions concerned unfortunate events. War. Wildfire. Idiocy. But The Washington Post took a different tack this week, and posted an article titled “25 Good Things That Happened in 2025”.
It was written by The Editorial Board, thus suggesting that multiple people — probably, all with college degrees in journalism — agreed that these 25 things were “Good Things”.
Normally, the Lamestream Media tries to avoid anything that smacks of good news. So the promise of 25 things that would normally be ignored, all collected in one convenient article, made my ears perk up. Not literally, but almost literally.
I plowed into the article to see if I could have my faith in humankind restored. Or at least, get a few laughs.
Good Thing Number One:
The Catholic Church elected Robert Prevost to become the first American pope. The Chicago native took the name Leo XIV.
Pope Leo XIV looks like the kind of guy you’d want as your grandfather, especially if you were from Chicago.
But of course, he’s not actually anyone’s grandfather, because… you know… celibacy. Which is sort of a shame. But it means he can be everyone’s grandfather.
The Editorial Board didn’t indicate whether they picked Pope Leo as their Number One Good Thing because he is the Best of all the Good Things, or if the list of the 25 Good Things is just in a random order. They also gave no indication why they even thought the election of Robert Prevost was a Good Thing. If you study at the history of the previous 13 popes who took the name “Leo”, you will quickly see that it’s best to “wait and see” before deciding whether their election was a Good Thing.
I’m tempted to assume that The Editorial Board thought this election was a Good Thing just because Robert Prevost was born in the U.S. But an awful lot of bad people were born in U.S., as we are finding out.
Other Good Things included in The Editorial Board’s list:
2. The U.S. economy seems strong “thanks largely to a boom in AI innovation.”
Here we are, at Good Thing Number 2, and I had already started reaping the benefits of laughter. According to other news outlets less concerned about renewing their sense of optimism, close to 100% of capital expenditures made in the U.S. in 2025 were directly or indirectly related to the construction of data centers. Per a Fortune magazine headline, December 23:
A huge chunk of U.S. GDP growth is being kept alive by AI spending ‘with no guaranteed return,’ Deutsche Bank says.
Should I really be laughing about investors sinking billions of dollars into something that’s going to prove essentially impossible to monetize? Well, I can’t help it. Call me heartless. (Presumably, Deutsche Bank is not among the investors.)
A few more moments of joy and hope:
3. The U.S. obesity rate has fallen from about 40% of the population to about 37% of the population, thanks to new weight-loss drugs.
4. The rate of overdose deaths decreased from 2024.
5. The Food and Drug Administration approved a twice-a-year HIV shot, the closest thing to an AIDS vaccine.
6. Google announced that a new quantum computer could run an algorithm 13,000 times faster than a top supercomputer would be able to.
Sure, these could all be classified as Good Things — for some of us. Personally, I’m okay with a little extra weight, and it’s been years since I used any drugs that could possibly cause an overdose. Not really worried about HIV these days. (Because… you know… celibacy.)
As for algorithms, I’d be perfectly happy if I never ran another algorithm in my entire life. But The Editorial Board has every right to feel differently.
Finally, at the very bottom of the list of Good Things, we arrive at Number 25.
The Best Good Thing of 2025, IMHO.
Last but not least, who could forget Taylor Swift’s engagement to Travis Kelce?
True love is alive and well as we move into 2026. And these two deserve it as much as anyone.
And they can afford it.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.