We did it once. An Instagram post, “have a nice day everyone ☀️”, and reading it back the next morning we felt slightly embarrassed. Not because it is untrue. Because it means nothing at all.
“Have a nice day” is the nothing-to-report of politeness. The thing you stamp at the bottom of an email before hitting send, without a second's thought. Nobody has ever had a better day because an Instagram account wished them one between two photos of a latte.
And honestly, the world is already full of people selling you a better version of yourself. Up at 5am, gratitude journaling, “optimise your potential”. We had no desire to add our voice to that particular choir.
So we stopped. We broadcast, and that is more or less all we do. Slow music, two or three words that are not trying to motivate you, and every so often a reminder that humanity, appearances aside, is still roughly standing.
There is a word for that, and we borrowed it from a Stanford researcher who has spent years working on empathy: Jamil Zaki calls it hopeful scepticism.
Cynicism is not proof of intelligence. It is just a protective reflex that ended up taking over the whole room.
Hopeful scepticism, after Jamil Zaki
We try the opposite. Not ignoring that the world makes a lot of noise — just refusing to cut the frequency because of it.
“Everything is going to be fine” and “here is a strange, beautiful track, it might be enough for the next ten minutes” are not the same sentence. The first is a lie you tell to be pleasant. The second is one you can actually keep.
We have no idea whether your day will be good. We do not even know what would count, for you, as a good day — a coffee that tastes right for once, a cancelled meeting, someone holding a door without being asked. But we can put a soundtrack over it. Without asking you to smile while it plays.
So no, we no longer wish you a nice day.
We simply broadcast it. The rest is up to you.
Radio Good News broadcasts what feels good, with no motivational syrup. Listen live →