Chelsea Olivia Follett
@chellivia
Managing Editor of @HumanProgress & @CatoInstitute Policy Analyst. Author of #CentersofProgress: http://a.co/d/5hL3lch
I've been Managing Editor of @HumanProgress since 2014 — over a decade. In that time, the world has changed for the better: 📈 Life expectancy rose from 72 → 73 years 👶 Infant mortality dropped from 33 → 27 per 1,000 births 🤰 Maternal mortality decreased from 231 → 197 per…
The average American was 13 times poorer in 1860 than in 2022 (adjusted for inflation), though that doesn't even capture real gains (19th century robber barons didn't have air conditioning, cell phones, antibiotics, etc.).
Two ways of measuring 160 years of economic growth in the United States— Economic growth is easy to understand: it means that people have access to goods and services of increasing quantity and quality. What is hard, however, is to measure economic growth. This chart shows two…
Yesterday, @Marian_L_Tupy and @PeterBoettke published an excellent op-ed in @WSJopinion making a simple but powerful point: AI can’t replace markets ⚖️🤖 🔗 wsj.com/opinion/algori… One of the most misguided ideas I’ve seen in the past decade is that central planning is (or soon…
AI Can’t Replace Free Markets by @Marian_L_Tupy and @PeterBoettke wsj.com/opinion/algori…
The common phrase "studies show that" should usually be replaced by the phrase "studies suggest".
Medical innovation is wondrous. apnews.com/article/premat…
🧵Now available! My paper with Ashruta Acharya and Alek Psrurek on the most generous engagement with the most influential "model" of degrowth. TLDR: It doesnt hold empirically. It predicts the opposite.
@HumanProgress is my favorite newsletter & I highly recommend it. Perhaps the biggest irony of today’s age is that pessimism & fear dominate our narratives but the trends are more positive than ever before in human history. Positive things are multiplying exponentially, faster…
I've been Managing Editor of @HumanProgress since 2014 — over a decade. In that time, the world has changed for the better: 📈 Life expectancy rose from 72 → 73 years 👶 Infant mortality dropped from 33 → 27 per 1,000 births 🤰 Maternal mortality decreased from 231 → 197 per…
Fun personal lore: I'm one six kids and one of the end-of-show PSAs for Captain Planet told me to keep my family small. I realized that Captain Planet definitely wished that my siblings didn't exist and I never watched the show again.
A live-action ‘CAPTAIN PLANET’ series is in the works at Netflix. Leonardo DiCaprio and Greg Berlanti will exec produce the series with their production companies. (Source: Deadline)
Growth now means resilience later
Here's something heartening: Individuals who experienced more economic growth as kids tend to see the world as less zero-sum. That is, they're less likely to see someone's gains as another's loss.
One of the joys of parenthood is revisiting childhood classics. This Schoolhouse Rock video on the national debt still holds up, though the “shocking” numbers now seem quaint. youtu.be/qaHnejpwkc4?fe…
Huge congratulations to @madeleinekearns on the birth of her baby! Grateful that modern medicine could help, and her reflections on the experience are worth reading. A few years back, we spoke about birth rates on the Human Progress Podcast: youtu.be/Df5fooIiasY?fe…
A thousand miles from New York City, the place @MadeleineKearns call home, there’s a clinic that vows to help women with ‘unexplained infertility.’ She traveled there last year, in her quest to become a mother. thefp.com/p/what-i-went-…
Just Out: Updated version of the "Chart of the Century" with data through June 2025. It should be noted that the consumer goods that have become more and more affordable over time -- e.g., cars, household furnishings, clothing, toys and TVs -- are either imported or subject to…
🇰🇷 Our book, Centers of Progress, is now available in Korean! Special thanks to Kim Si-deok, author of The Future of Korean Cities, who has endorsed the translation. Pick up a copy here: hdjisung.com/bbs/board.php?…
There was a medieval moral panic about pointy shoes. "Fashionable pointy-toed shoes called poulaines were alleged to promote sexual deviancy and, as a resulting sanction from God, were blamed for bringing about the plague." In 1362 Pope Urban V tried to ban them... via @BBC…
Everybody agrees the bulk of the lifting out of poverty was done in China. Due to the policies of the Chinese Communist Party…. So I dunno. Not all that clear imo.
Everybody agrees the bulk of the lifting out of poverty was done in China. Due to the policies of the Chinese Communist Party…. So I dunno. Not all that clear imo.
The notion that NPR can somehow become unbiased is about as believable as the IRS sending you a fruit basket to commend you for filing your taxes. reason.com/2025/07/18/the…
The Korean translation of Centers of Progress is beautifully designed:
#신간안내 『40가지 테마로 읽는 도시 세계사』 철학의 도시 아테네부터 금융의 도시 뉴욕까지 혁신의 상징이 된 40개 도시에 새겨진 1만 년 인류 역사의 결정적 순간들!💫 ❝도시에는 새로운 사상과 운동을 키워내는 마법이 있다!❞ _스티븐 핑커 👉자세히 보러 가기: buly.kr/74Wv5Nh
Thrilled to share that my book Centers of Progress is now in Korean! 🇰🇷 This edition includes new blurbs by Kim Si-deok, author of The Future of Korean Cities, and historian Choi Tae-seong. It also features many more photos and illustrations than the original.…
