Making the world better

This week you’ll hear the second part of my conversation with Professor Richard Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE. If you’ve not listened to the first part about his work on the subject of happiness and mental health, check it out after you’ve listened to this – it’s fascinating! Richard is an economist who spent much of his life working on how to reduce unemployment and inequality. In more recent years though he has become one of the world’s leading figures exploring the science of happiness, as well as how better mental health could improve our social and economic life. He is the author of a number of books, including ‘Happiness – lessons from a new science’, 'Thrive – the power of psychological therapy' and his new book ‘Can we be happier?’, which is out now. He is also the founder of Action for Happiness – a not for profit organisation that is inspiring millions of people around the world to live kinder and happier lives. In this second of the 2 episodes I’ve recorded with Richard, I talk to him about Action for Happiness. We discuss what led him to set it up, what it’s achieved and what Richard wants to see it achieving in the future.   These are really fascinating discussions on a topic I’ve also been involved with for over a decade with the not-for-profit organisation I founded, Life Squared. This is the last episode in this first series of Making the World Better but we’ll be back with some more episodes soon. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to listen to the rest of the series and stay informed of new episodes. Take care and see you soon!

 In this episode I talk to Lord Richard Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE. Richard is an economist who spent much of his life working on how to reduce unemployment and inequality. In more recent years though he has become one of the world’s leading figures exploring the science of happiness, as well as how better mental health could improve our social and economic life. He is the author of a number of books, including ‘Happiness – lessons from a new science’, 'Thrive – the power of psychological therapy' and his new book ‘Can we be happier?’, which is out now. He is also the founder of Action for Happiness – a not for profit organisation that is inspiring millions of people around the world to live happier lives. In the first of 2 episodes I’ve recorded with Richard, I talk to him about his work on the subject of happiness and mental health, and how it has become one of the most pressing social issues of the modern world, with an ever-increasing base of scientific evidence behind it. We explore what is being done, and what more can be done, to build happiness more into our lives, politics and economies. In the second episode – out on 11th May 2020 - I talk to him about what led him to set up Action for Happiness, and about the important work the organisation is doing.   These are really fascinating discussions on a topic I’ve also been involved with for over a decade with the not-for-profit organisation I founded, Life Squared. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Please subscribe to the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, check out the others in this series and share them with everyone you know!

My conversation in this episode is with Dr Tilly Collins. Tilly is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London. She runs research projects in a range of environmental areas, but in this episode we talk about her work on how to make global food production more sustainable, and in particular the potential value of insects as a nutritious and sustainable food source for human beings. You may well have seen a few insect food products making their way on to the shelves of supermarkets as snacks and might have felt the idea of eating insect is a bit of a novelty, and nothing more than that. But in our conversation, Tilly explores the important role they could play in the global food system, and the role they are already playing in many countries around the world.  Tilly certainly showed that there are loads of exciting possibilities for the future of food production that could really help to change the world for the better - not just for the environment, but also for local economies and people's lives. I hope you enjoy this episode - thanks for listening. Please follow or subscribe to this podcast, and do share it with anyone you think might like it!

My guest in this episode is Mike Buckley. Mike is a political campaigner who has been seeking social and political change for many years, most recently as head of the ‘Labour for a public vote’ campaign.  I got to know Mike after my social change consultancy Praxis had prepared a report in 2019 to set out the strategy the Remain campaign needed to take if there were a second referendum on Brexit. In the end of course this report wasn’t needed! Our conversation took place at a very interesting point, when the Labour party was recovering from a massive election defeat to the Conservatives, and as a consequence Brexit was going to happen. Mike was taking stock of what had gone well and what hadn’t in the campaign, and gave some very honest and passionate answers. I hope you enjoy this episode - thanks for listening. Please follow or subscribe to this podcast, and do share it with anyone you think might like it!