111: Professor Lord Richard Layard and Humphrey Hawksely - The Goldster magazine Show Podcast

How do we place a value on happiness?  Can we measure our sense of well-being and fulfilment through science? Richard Layard is founder and former director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. He has been editor of the annual World Happiness Report which examines the state of happiness at various stages of life. Richard’s latest co-authored book is Wellbeing: Science and Policy which uses science to establish what matters most to us. The book shows how well-being can be scientifically measured, what creates it and how feeling good it can be made even better throughout the whole span of human life. In 2011, he launched a campaign called Action for Happiness, asking the question: Why can’t we all be more content? And he takes on politicians who consistently argue that people are mainly interested in the economy and their incomes.
 

“It’s not the economy, stupid,” he argues. “It’s people’s wellbeing.”   Richard is campaigning for a shift in how public money is spent, balancing what makes people feel good against what they believe are their material needs. “We can be happier if our individual aim is to make others happy,” he says.  “Let each of us be, as best we can, a creator of happiness.”  Can you measure your own happiness? Does it matter?

To find out join the Goldster Magazine Show with Professor Lord Layard and Humphrey Hawksley