Job loss, economic downfall, virus, anxiety, and isolation. We’re all talking about these topics and dealing with them on a daily basis. The sheer amount of news thrown around during the COVID-19 pandemic can be overwhelming and frustrating. To counteract this, people are now searching for ‘good news’ more than ever — according to Google Trends.
Fortunately, they are finding some.
John Krasinski, from the TV show The Office, uses this unusual quarantine situation to give us what we never knew we needed. His YouTube channel, called Some Good News, has gained almost two million subscribers in its short three weeks of existence.
Krasinksi started the project on March 29 and releases a new episode every Sunday night. With the first show attracting 16 million viewers (three of which were at my house, by the way) people clearly are in the mood for humor. The show draws attention to acts of kindness and our nationwide resilience that’s still happening despite the global pandemic.
A sign spelling out SGN made by his daughters and a white spinning globe open each episode. The guests include his wife Emily Blunt, Brad Pitt, Steve Carrell, the Hamilton Broadway cast, a few Boston Red Sox players, the Jonas Brothers, Billie Eilish, Robert De Niro, and many more. The star-studded series shows how much people want to chip in and be there for each other.
People have stolen his idea and he doesn’t seem to care. John Krasinski light-heartedly jokes about the numerous copyright infringements of the shows’ imitators and calls them his co-hosts. They report from places across the United States, Canada, Vietnam, and even from the International Space Station. He encourages us to spread the good news — the further the better.
The audience doesn’t know what to expect, but I’m confident people will leave feeling better after watching. Krasinsiky hosted an online prom for high school students who weren’t able to go to the big dance and the livestream went viral. One student named Maddie Schuetze said in an interview with CNN: “When John hosted this prom it felt like he actually cared about how we felt about missing so much of our senior year which meant a lot to me.”
Krasinski uses his platform to benefit others in many ways. The first episode features a video call to a young girl who just finished chemotherapy. In the second episode, a girl who dreamed of seeing Hamilton on Broadway meets the cast via Zoom. In the third episode, Krasinski provides the nurses in his hometown with a trip to the Red Sox’s Fenway Park Stadium.
His actions seem crazy, but the biggest thing Krasinksi brought into fruition happened to be a partnership with AT&T to provide three free months of wireless services to frontline nurses and physicians. That really is good news.
Some Good News posts additional good news to their Twitter and Instagram accounts. They update followers on the good happening all over the world and on their YouTube channel. Other news sites like CNN offer a free good newsletter to meet the demand.
Krasinski summarized his goal, stating during his second episode: “I am only delivering the good news, and you are the good news.” This posture of both gratitude and sarcasm makes him a household name once more.
My tip for anyone: The simplicity of communicating via social media accounts and using a camera can be a creative and cheap way to meet people’s needs during the crisis.
In the midst of the pandemic and with necessary isolation, the truth becomes increasingly clear: Humans need each other. This paradox (needing each other but avoiding each other) shows the beauty and depth of humanity. We always find a way. In the words of John Krasinski: “No matter how tough life can get, there’s always good in the world.”
