“Humanity Isn’t Dead”: Creating Small, Everyday Moments of Goodness

By: Laura Bennett

When actor and writer Dan Widdowson saw a newspaper article declaring “humanity was dead” he rebelled against the idea that goodness had become extinct, embarking on a mission to reinvigorate kindness one small act at a time.

In Humanity Isn’t Dead: How to Change the World in 40 Days, Dan celebrates good in the world and details 40 ways we can create more if it.

“[After seeing that headline] I got really angry,” Dan said.

“How can a news agency promote that as their number one story?”.

The claim struck him as not only untrue, but harmful.

What followed was months of reflection about “why I don’t believe humanity is dead [and] I do believe goodness still exists.

Dan kept returning to one simple conviction: “all of us have the capacity to change someone’s life”.

“If you do a small gesture for one other person that day, you’ve positively impacted their world,” Dan said.

Rather than offering a challenge, Dan describes the book as “40 opportunities laid ahead of you,” each one a chance to practise kindness in tangible, grounded ways.

Day One?

“Write a letter to someone,” Dan said.

“Not to get anything in return [just] a pleasant hard-copy letter. Someone opens it, reads it, keeps it. Nothing bad can come of that.”

Other days invite readers to care for another living thing or simply notice small opportunities to step toward compassion.

“I’m turning a corner [and] I’m choosing optimism,” Dan said.

Life experience may rub off the innocence of youth, but Dan’s learning that there’s evidence of good “all around us if we choose to see it”.

Humanity Isn’t Dead also invites readers to track their experiences and see how simple kindness can be.

“There’s space to write your journey down,” Dan said.

“You can look back and see what landed, how people responded, and how it made you feel.”

Humanity Isn’t Dead is out now.