Applications are open until June 1st for the 2026 Roots of Progress Blog-Building Intensive! Launch a blog and improve your progress-focused writing with expert guidance and an amazing community progress builders, writers and intellectuals. You'll learn from a phenomenal advisor lineup including @tylercowen, @_brianpotter, @elidourado, @vpostrel, @_alice_evans, @kesvelt, @glukianoff, @akoustov, @Brendan_McCord, and Elle Griffin. RPI fellows are now leading conversations on AI policy, transportation, agriculture, biotech, housing abundance, and more—with work appearing in major outlets like the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Atlantic. What you'll get: Launch/re-launch a blog/Substack, develop consistent writing habits, improve your craft, build your audience, and connect with progress studies leaders and build community with engaged, thoughtful fellow writers. During the 10-week program, you'll write and publish 4 essays with feedback from our developmental editor @MikeRiggs, the RPI team, and your fellow writers. This year features two tracks, in addition to our general progress track: human flourishing & potential and security & resilience. We welcome fellows writing on ANY progress topic, but a handful of spots will be reserved for these tracks. BONUS: Attend a 3-day in-person retreat in Pennsylvania and receive a free ticket to the invitation-only 2026 Progress Conference with ~400 authors, technologists, policy experts, academics, and nonprofit leaders. Meet your peers and your heroes! This is for you if: You're passionate about progress studies and love writing. Maybe you want to explore a writing career, join a think tank, write to build community around a cause area, and of course take your existing blog to the next level. Commitment: 10–15 hours weekly for 10 weeks (July 27–Oct 2). The weekend retreat is August 20–23. There is no cost to participate. Applications close June 1st!

Applications are open until June 1st for the 2025 Roots of Progress Blog-Building Intensive! Launch a blog and improve your progress-focused writing with expert guidance and an amazing community progress builders, writers and intellectuals. You'll learn from a phenomenal advisor lineup including @tylercowen, @_brianpotter, @elidourado, @vpostrel, @_alice_evans, @kesvelt, @glukianoff, @akoustov, @Brendan_McCord, and Elle Griffin. RPI fellows are now leading conversations on AI policy, transportation, agriculture, biotech, housing abundance, and more—with work appearing in major outlets like the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Atlantic. What you'll get: Launch/re-launch a blog/Substack, develop consistent writing habits, improve your craft, build your audience, and connect with progress studies leaders and build community with engaged, thoughtful fellow writers. During the 10-week program, you'll write and publish 4 essays with feedback from our developmental editor @MikeRiggs, the RPI team, and your fellow writers. This year features two tracks, in addition to our general progress track: human flourishing & potential and security & resilience. We welcome fellows writing on ANY progress topic, but a handful of spots will be reserved for these tracks. BONUS: Attend a 3-day in-person retreat in Pennsylvania and receive a free ticket to the invitation-only 2026 Progress Conference with ~400 authors, technologists, policy experts, academics, and nonprofit leaders. Meet your peers and your heroes! This is for you if: You're passionate about progress studies and love writing. Maybe you want to explore a writing career, join a think tank, write to build community around a cause area, and of course take your existing blog to the next level. Commitment: 10–15 hours weekly for 10 weeks (July 27–Oct 2). The weekend retreat is August 20–23. There is no cost to participate. Applications close June 1st!

Announcing Progress Conference 2026 Hosted by @rootsofprogress with @abundanceinst @foresightinst @JoinFAI @HumanProgress @IFP @TheIHS and @WorksInProgMag. Speakers include @tylercowen @dmitri_dolgov Michael Kremer, John Martinis, Stephen Winchell. Oct 8-11 • Berkeley, CA Other fantastic speakers: @A_G_I_Joe @jasoncrawford @erika_alden_d @kesvelt @_alice_evans @bobbyfijan @Gena_I_Gorlin @akoustov @moxie @AndrewMillerYYZ @Brendan_McCord @patio11 @ryanzip @UrbanCourtyard @KelseyTuoc @brianpotter @rSanti97 @noor_siddiqui @mspringut @Vernon3Austin @Scott_Wiener … and more to come. A big thanks to our early sponsors: @coeff_giving @AsteraInstitute @JaneStreetGroup Ken Broad @WorksInProgMag @LENSDetect @MNX_fi @ArchbridgeInst @GoodSciProject @TheIHS @CirculateSD @feeonline (Sponsorship opportunities still available). Four days of intellectual exploration, inspiration, and interaction that will help shape the progress movement into a cultural force. Tracks this year explore Human Talent & Potential, AI & Robotics, and Security & Resilience. Participants will attend talks on topics ranging from drone delivery to housing construction to psychology and philosophy of builders, organize and run unconference sessions, mingle in garden, and more. Thursday and Sunday are add-on days, with optional gatherings for interest groups and other activities like factory tours to Bay Area startups. We're excited to continue this regular gathering of the progress community. Let's get together again in Berkeley this fall!

We're hosting a workshop on teaching progress at the university level with @SNFAgora this May. Talks from: Steve Teles, @simondhalliday, @jasoncrawford, @Afinetheorem, @matthewgburgess, @_John_Handel, @STS_News, @OhidYaqub, and more. There are a few spots left at this invitation-only event. Interested in attending? More details below.

How You Can Help Pass Meaningful State & Local Policy | @AlecStapp with @RyanPuzycki, @mishachellam, and @mnolangray

Operationalizing Abundance | @EconDerek

Creating a Marketplace for Outcomes | @tkalil2050

Government at the Speed of Progress | @pahlkadot

Would that all diseases had but one neck! | @leportfr

Four numbers define progress in Longevity | @MartinBJensen

Rethinking life expectancy in the 21st century | @jburnmurdoch

A techno-humanist perspective on female fertility extension | @RuxandraTeslo

Automating Scientific Research | @ludomitch

High school students: want to see what “medicine” looks like before you commit to a track? Meet Gavriel Kleinwaks, a near-peer mentor for Progress in Medicine (PiM). She works on preventing airborne infectious disease by making clean indoor air as universal as clean water. Profile: rootsofprogress.org/expert/g…

Building a Rad Future | @isodope & @MadiHilly

How Do We Get SAI Right? Risks, Research, and the Route Forward | @dakotagruener

Table Stakes | @liseman

The Hard Stuff: Navigating the Physical Realities of the Energy Transition | Mekala Krishnan

Next Nature: Engineering the Biosphere | @ramez

High school students: meet inspiring role models this summer. Like Fred Milgrim—an ER doctor who turns chaos into life-saving care, fast. Fred is a near-peer mentor for Progress in Medicine (PiM), a summer career exploration program. rootsofprogress.org/expert/f…

Bell Labs Xs: Reimagining Corporate Research for the 21st Century | @tsaojef

Don’t Put All Your Labs in One Basket | @calebwatney

How to Prioritize Capabilities for the Intelligence Age | @AGamick

Designing a new agency for progress, not process | @ilangur

PDB 2.0: a metascience experiment in scientific acceleration with AI | @seemaychou

@danwwang in conversation with @kmele

Closing: A Culture of Progress | @jasoncrawford

The role of philanthropy in promoting progress (and safety) | @albrgr

How the System Works | @vpostrel and @CharlesCMann

Building a culture of progress | @JerusalemDemsas

At Progress Conference 2025, @mkratsios47 said that the US government should fund “whoever's best suited” to deliver on its research priorities: “Universities do not and should not have a monopoly on doing basic research funded by the federal government” In conversation with @rSanti97

Help ambitious teens have a great summer: now accepting applications for Progress in Medicine, a new summer career exploration program for high school students They'll join a great community: many talented, ambitious teens have already applied & we're starting interviews soon. Priority deadline: Feb 8th!

Previously shared but related to American Dynamism and worth watching (again): Blake Scholl in conversation with Tyler Cowen | @bscholl & @tylercowen piped.video/rfJUoN7NYRE

Out-Innovating Through Dual Use: The New Blueprint for U.S. Shipbuilding | @sampritibh

Future-Proof: How Regulators Can (And Must) Avoid Overfitting to Today's New Tech | @pronounced_kyle

American Dynamism & the Case for Hardtech | @espricewright

Anti-fragile Regulation and the Infinite Frontier | @isaiah_p_taylor

The grid is the bottleneck to the energy revolution | @JLopas

The art of industrial leapfrogging | @Ben_Reinhardt

Share with parents and high school students in your network! Apply now; priority application deadline is February 8th, 2026: rootsofprogress.org/progress…

Announcing a career exploration summer program for high school students: *Progress in Medicine* Learn from experts and be inspired by heroic work from the past to build an even better future. Now accepting applications

Charter Cities: It’s Happening, an Update on Traction | @MarkLutter

How the Federal Government Can Help Solve the Housing Crisis | @willpoffwebster in conversation with @CSElmendorf and @aarmlovi

Progress In Practice: YIMBY lessons in single-issue advocacy | @SonjaTrauss @NeverSassyLaura

Building Freedom’s Forge 2.0, on 100 SQM an hour north of Silicon Valley | @jansramek

How to Start a Frontier AI Lab | @AnjneyMidha and @humford

AI for Science Bottlenecks | @eric_is_weird with @CorinWagen, @polynoamial , and @Tkaraletsos

The Future of Public Epistemics: Beyond Community Notes | @jaybaxter

AI in the Machinery of Government | @deanwball with @hamandcheese, @sebkrier , and @fiiiiiist

The First Amendment will determine the future of AI | @NicoPerrino