364) Helena Norberg-Hodge: Reorienting towards economics of happiness

“There’s a lot of awareness about the direct lobbying of big money in politics. But that doesn’t take into account the much more dangerous way that big money is shaping the narrative through the media, even through funding in science and academia. That has led to this narrow fixation on carbon and an embrace of robots and satellites as the way to deal with climate change.” In this episode, we revisit our past conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, a pioneer of the new economy movement and a leading proponent of “localization” (or decentralization). As the author of Ancient Futures and Local is Our Future, she also founded The International Alliance for Localization and Local Futures, which works to renew ecological, social and spiritual wellbeing by guiding communities towards a sustainable future of interconnected, localized economies. Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include the limitations of using economic wealth as the indicator of a community’s quality of life, the false promises of “progress” and “development”, how economic globalization has been driving an erosion of relationships, and more. (The musical offering featured in this episode is Tear Down the Wall by Forest Veil.) Support our in(ter)dependent show: GreenDreamer.com/support