Maria Popova, the Bulgarian-born essayist and founder of the influential Brain Pickings blog, delivered the commencement address at Penn's Annenberg School in 2016. Her speech was a philosophical meditation on the soul and its greatest enemy: cynicism. She argued that cynicism is a toxic byproduct of helpless resignation — when we constantly feel that something is available to those with advantages but out of reach for us, we grow embittered about what's possible. The antidote, she insisted, is not blind optimism but vigorous, intelligent, sincere hope — hope bolstered by critical thinking that identifies what is lacking and then envisions ways to create it.