Design Economics Podcast (Episode 14)
Join host Vinny Tafuro for a conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder of Local Futures and pioneer of the new economy movement. Helena traces the economic forces that transformed Ladakh, a self-sufficient Himalayan culture untouched by the global economy until the 1970s, and what that experience revealed about the relationship between economic design and human happiness. From the destruction of local economies by deliberate policy to the structural case for localization, this episode explores what GDP cannot measure and what it will take to build the public understanding that real change requires.
Events:
- World Localization Day (June 21)
About Helena Norberg-Hodge
Helena Norberg-Hodge, linguist, author, filmmaker and pioneer of the new economy movement, is the founder and director of Local Futures, and the convenor of World Localization Day and the Planet Local Summit. She is author of the inspirational classic Ancient Futures, and Local is Our Future and producer of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness, of Planet Local and Closer to Home. With 50 years’ experience in Ladakh and work in more than twenty countries, Helena has been raising awareness about restoring ecological and spiritual wellbeing by strengthening community and local economies. With a central focus on food and farming, she has helped to build a worldwide local food movement. Helena is the founder of the International Alliance for Localisation, and a cofounder of the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Ecovillage Network. She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Alternative Nobel prize, the Arthur Morgan Award and the Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”