After cataloguing the many ways the world has improved — from declining poverty to advances in medicine and civil rights — Remnick pivoted sharply. He acknowledged that progress is full of holes and horrifying exceptions: racism persists, sexism endures in corporate boardrooms and pay inequality, and homophobia still goes unchallenged by political cowards. He then posed this direct, urgent question to graduates, asking them to identify which conditions they find intolerable and to commit to acting on that moral discomfort rather than simply enjoying private comfort.