Meet Bill Burke

Founder of The Optimism Institute and Blue Sky Podcast

Bill Burke founded The Optimism Institute in 2022 after an extensive media and sports career as an executive, writer, and producer. Bill served as CEO of The Weather Channel Companies after several years at Time Warner/Turner Broadcasting System, where he was the founding general manager of Turner Classic Movies before going on to become president of TBS Superstation. Additionally, for fifteen years he was the co-owner and chairman of the Portland Sea Dogs, the double-A Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

As a writer, Bill co-authored Ted Turner’s top-10 New York Times Best-Selling autobiography Call Me Ted and later co-wrote/produced/directed “Live Another Day,” an award winning feature-length documentary on the bailout of the U.S. auto industry.

Bill is a lifelong optimist (he has to be - he’s a Detroit Lions fan) and launched The Optimism Institute with a mission to inspire people with an optimistic, hopeful vision of the world and its future.

Let’s connect.

We would love to hear from you. If you are interested in hearing about a specific topic, or would like to be considered as a guest on the Blue Sky podcast, send us your info by submitting it through our form. General inquiries also welcome.

info@theoptimisminstitute.com

  • “Optimism number one is not just a state of mind, or an emotion, it’s a creative force.”

    David Gardner, Co-Founder of The Motley Fool

  • “Hope can make us feel better overall, it can make us more creative problem solvers, and it can inspire us to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges.”

    Marcy Franck, Sr. Communications Strategist for Harvard Chan C-CHANGE and author of Harvard’s The Climate Optimist newsletter

  • “For us, optimism is always, first and foremost a choice, and once you make that choice, the world suddenly starts looking a whole lot different.”

    Dr. Angus Hervey, Future Crunch Co-Founder

  • “As the great statistician, Hans Rosling said, you have to hold two good ideas in your head at once; the world is getting better, and the world is not yet good enough.”

    Tané,Hunter, Future Crunch Co-Founder

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