--- ``` (MANDATORY INTRO ) ### Outro **ARIEL 1:** Heeey there! howdy! howdy ! aand, Welcome back to EGreenNews! Ariel here, with my AI bestie Ariel, and today we’re diving into a super exciting topic: Happiness reports for 2025. Buckle up for some mind-blowing insights!
**ARIEL 2: So today we will talk about Semaphore uh which is we're proud to say the world's fastest growing independent news platform uh we have a
2:29
an amazing team of the world's leading journalists uh based across here in DC
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in New York on the east coast on the west coast in London in Africa in the Arabian Gulf uh and expanding around the
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world and our mission is to deliver independent highquality news and insights to leaders across the globe
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it's a moment in time where I know we're going to talk about happiness but I just want to take a short interlude on trust
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in news uh because it's a moment in not just American history but the world's
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history when social media this idea of opinion infused news
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or otherwise known as advocacy journalism just turn on cable TV to understand what that is and AI generated
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content are in effect corrupting our information ecosystem
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uh and Semaphore was born uh to to counter this and to try to offer offer
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the world a single source of trusted content without ideological or geographic bias and so we started in
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2022 and just over two years later we're now uh have an audience of almost a million subscriptions and and five
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million global readers but that's enough about us um we're thrilled to uh
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inaugurate this morning a very special moment on the calendar for for Gallup and for ourselves it's a moment we look
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forward to every year uh as you know Gallup released the latest world
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happiness report earlier this morning uh the report is the leading publication
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and measure of global happiness and it provides very valuable interdisciplinary
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insights into the well-being and happiness of people around the globe uh and today in partnership with Semaphore
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and our live journalism our journalists uh will bring this to life uh in the Gallup Great Hall and so you'll see a
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display throughout the conversations of Semaphore and Gallup's collaboration on the screen behind me powered by Gallup's
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uh unique statistics of course independent highquality journalism requires the support of great part
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brands and partners and so I would like to express our gratitude first to Gallup uh who is a strategic partner of
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Semaphore in many areas but is today's insights and strategic partner as well as the coalition to empower our future
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who's also supporting us and Ajinoto uh for their critical role as program
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partners before we welcome Gallup CEO John Clifton on stage to unveil this year's report and rankings we'll first
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hear from some of the authors behind the 2025 World Happiness Report thank you again for joining us this morning and I
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think it's time to cue the video thank you there's a puzzle why do people help one
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another if we can get better measures of what leads people to engage in caring sharing and generous behaviors we can
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get a better understanding of how to address deeper questions of how to build a happier society this year the report
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is all about how our happiness depends on our social connections to create to
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foster to promote caring and sharing communities is a absolutely essential
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part of promoting our well-being the most important thing coming out of this report is the importance of human
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connections the research shows that we're happier when we're thinking of others and when we're caring for others
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but there are ways that we can actually amplify our joy of giving people around
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the world around us are willing to help each other more than we expect we have
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new data that gauges the extent to which people eat and share their meals with others and that turns out to be an
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amazing indicator and predictor of how good you feel about your life why are Latin Americans so happy we are
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exploring the role of the family in contributing to this high happiness in Latin America in recent years we
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observed decline in happiness in young people why is that and what can we do about this do societies that have more
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volunteering more donation more helping strangers have fewer deaths of despair
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living in a society where people do not care do not share and do not trust has
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dramatic consequences when it comes to politics lots of people give to charity and it's a huge amount of money globally
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but there's very little information available to donors on how much difference their money makes so that's
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what we looked at people want to be able to see how happy they and their fellow
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citizens are in comparison to other countries and that brings them into the
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report and they see where they rank and then they ask why and the report is
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there to tell them why one of the things we hope that the World Happiness Report
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promotes is the skill of living good lives and building happiness in our
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societies
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please welcome John Clifton CEO of
Unveiling the 2025 World Happiness Report
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Gallup thank you Justin for those remarks and for an amazing partnership
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welcome everyone to Gallup and thank you for being here today as we launch the
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2025 World Happiness Report now before I share with you the top 10 rankings I
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want to do just a quick history of how we got here because there were four
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pivotal moments that inspired this particular work and helped get this work
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done so the first of those pivotal moments was in
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1934 when Simon Kousnes went to the American Congress and he recommended
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that we have a new measure to understand how the economy is going but that moment
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which created the official statistics for the economy GDP inspired all of us
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because what it meant is now we could think about what would it look like to create statistics for every single
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country in the world and to understand how do we measure whether or not societies are progressing or not
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after that fast forward about 70 years later there was another man and he said
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"Everything that we know about economics I'm not sure is entirely right." And
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that person who was a member of the Gallup tribe a senior scientist was
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Danny Conaman in 2002 he was the first psychologist to win the Nobel in
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economics for the very reason that he said "This thing that underpins
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economics where we say is it really that people are rational or is it that people
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are emotional?" That shattered our conventional wisdom of what it meant for
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economics then there was another moment after Danny Conorman won the Nobel in 2002 for
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that very moment which happened right here at Gallup because our chairman Jim
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Clifton said "What if we actually go build those official statistics for the world to understand the emotional side
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what if we went and actually just built the statistics to understand what it means to make a great life?" And at that
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moment our chairman recruited a number of scholars around the world and said "Help us help us in this pursuit to
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build this." And I want to read a quote because at that very moment there's a video of the late Danny Conorman and
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this is what he said about what it looked like when this initiative was born and he
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said "When Jim made the decision to create the world pole and I can tell you
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I thought it was crazy here he was moving into something that is a huge
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undertaking he was making commitments you know talking of a hundred years he
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thought he was sort of betting the company and he did not have a clear business plan that I could see but he
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just wanted it done and he managed to energize the people around him and he got that done in a record time and it's
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working i think this is the most interesting part because then Danny
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Conorman goes on to say "And it's changed the face of well-being research
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and I sometimes compare it to Galileo's telescope because it provides a way of
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looking at well-being that was just not available to us earlier."
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And at that moment the World Poll was born and we started building the world's official statistics for what it meant to
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be a great life and then there was a fourth key moment that helped bring all
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this information to life which was Jeff Saxs reached out and said "Is it okay if
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we use that telescope?" And he started recruiting others to join him in fact Yan Emanuel
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Deniv is here today as well and we started to partner with that group of academics to say let's start to
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understand what is it that drives these particular data so before I show you the
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results those are the four key moments inspired by Simon Cousnets that building world statistics is something that's
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possible when Danny Conorman said well let's just make sure that all the statistics aren't just rational that
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we're also capturing the emotional side when our chairman Jim Clifton said "Let's just build it." And we did and
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then when Jeff Sachs said "Let's partner and let's create a report that everyone
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sees as soon as we get the rankings." But in order to pull this off and I think what Danny Conorman thought was so
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remarkable was this because when we capture this information and we go out to 150 different countries 40 of those
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countries we call people in their homes and have lengthy conversations with them but in the other hundred countries I
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want you to see what it looks like because we show up to their homes not everyone in the world has access to a
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phone or to the internet so for us to capture this information we must sit with them and have a long conversation
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about their lives in fact this is what it looks like in Indonesia and this is what the conversations look like in
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Zambia 150,000 conversations like that take place every single year and in this
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report we've aggregated three years which means we have talked to half a million people on the phone or exactly
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like this and the stories we hear are remarkable the question that we're
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launching today as you know is rate your life on a scale of 0 to 10 where zero is the worst imaginable life and 10 is the
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best imaginable life where do you stand today we asked a woman in Kyrgyzstan that exact question first we said though
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where did you stand five years ago she said back to us "My life is a two." Then we said to her "How about
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today?" And she said "My life is a two." And we said "What do you think it'll be in the next five years?" And she said
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back to us "A 10." At the end of the interview our colleague was there she looked at her and she said "That's a
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pretty big leap what is it why the change?" And she said "I'm pregnant i'm going to have a
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son." But those are the conversations that we have had half a million of that speak to
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this report because just like when Simon Kousnet said let's build the world's official statistics so that we can
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quantify every e economic interaction in the world we use that spirit to build
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the world's official statistics for every life transaction that takes place in the world and that's what we're
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launching today so what are the results these are the top 10 countries from the
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world's happiness report and the happiest country in the world is Finland
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congratulations to
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Finland you'll notice that there are two that have joined this list this year which are Costa Rica and Mexico and of
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course the ambassador from Costa Rica is here to help explain why those increas increases are taking place and for many
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of us in here that are Americans will notice that there's one country that is notably absent which is the United
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States and the United States has had some tough years when we're asking people about happiness and the US has
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slid all the way down to the mid20s and if you look on the other side of the ledger there's a data point here that
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has set a new record in our near 20 years of tracking in an almost 170 countries where we have asked this
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particular question which is Afghanistan that is a record low we have never seen a society in the history of our tracking
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where they have rated their lives as low as Afghanistan does today but every
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single year we focus on a major subcomponent and this year the team went
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in to say what are some aspects of life that we could see are actually creating
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that cause behind these happiness indicators now if you look at the very
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top one of the things that cause causes how we see our lives to decline is of
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course whether or not you have an a job of course that has horrible consequences for your income how people perceive
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purpose um and sometimes as we've seen with other research being sedentary when
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it's involuntary can have negative consequences for a person and for society but if you look here because we
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even looked at information like whether or not your pay is doubled but we found that one of the greatest coralates to
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seeing what makes life great is whether or not you live in a society that has community and whether or not you live in
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a society where people feel safe and if you see at the very bottom one of the strongest things that we can see that
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would predict whether or not people rate their lives highly is whether or not if you drop a wallet in that particular
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society will it get returned to you it's a reminder that community and
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generosity also are a massive component about what makes life great but there's
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a concern because there are three variables that we look at every single year and we ask it in every single
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country because we want to know what is it that makes community great because when it comes to
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community we're trying to understand not just do you have your basics but we also want to understand do people give back
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do they donate their time do they donate their money and also do they help people that they don't even know and remarkably
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before the pandemic the entire world started to see an increase of people
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with this overwhelming amount of generosity and three years after the pandemic it continued but there's a
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concern because most recently when you look at this information we see that there's been a subtle decline so a
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question for us is is what are the consequences now that as we look at this information and we see that there's a
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decline in people just helping each other or people just donating to a uh an
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organization are there consequences that society will have when we start to pull apart as a community thank you all so
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much for being here today as we launch these results and having an interest in our work thank you
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joining John Clifton please welcome Ambassador Lena Quesa Mikola Finnish Ambassador to the US Ambassador Swan
View from the Happiest Countries
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Hilder Hol Valto Stoier Icelandic Ambassador to the US Ambassador Dr
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catalina Crespo Sancho Costa Rican ambassador to the US and Amna Noaz
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co-host at PBS News hi Natalina how are you
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good morning everyone so nice to be here thank you for joining us for a really
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nice topic to speak about this morning john Clifton stays with us for this conversation thanks for being here and
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having us thank you for being here and of course joining me on stage are some of the happiest countries on earth
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represented here finnish ambassador Mikola Icelandic ambassador Valjier and Costa Rican ambassador Krespo Sancho so
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congratulations are in order ambassador Mikola thank you number one once again
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uh one of the things the report points out is that the happiest country rankings are combination of factors
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right gdp life expectancy perception of corruption what is it about Finland
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cultural practices policies that you think makes you the happiest place on earth well I I think it's many things
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and first of all thanks for inviting me here and my my colleagues happy to be happy to be here today so so I I think
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it's many things but if you ask an ordinary thing are you happy i think that the answer is mostly that I'm
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content with my life so so so things are okay um I and and it's that's can be
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divided into many different elements and I think if I mentioned couple of them one is trust you know we trust um our
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institutions we trust our fellow citizens we trust that
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our neighbors and our colleagues and even our politicians you know they mean well we might not always agree with them
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but we we trust that there is a goodwill behind it then there is our our
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closeness with nature and uh um our u
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weekly sauna sessions and the sauna sessions I hear are key right they they are they are
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actually quite important they're quite important for most of us for not all of us so so and and then I think that also
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as a par as parents we can trust that uh our education system wherever we live in
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Finland provides citizens that can manage their lives in in Finnish society
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so they learn the life skills in in our society so there are many things and and uh but you know we are not really happy
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happy i think you American our American friends you smile and laugh much more than we do but but uh but uh happiness
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for us is maybe mostly being content as I said ambassador Valer what is there something specific is there like a core
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Icelandic trait that you think allows people to be happy yeah well we share a
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lot of the the things that Lena Kaisa just talked about um the the trust and
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you know the sort of being a small and cohesive society where um where we sort of
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realized a long time ago that burdens shared are so much lighter so there's a
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consensus that we all share the responsibility for people's well-being and equal opportunities whether it is
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for education or uh access to health care or having a paid parental leave for
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both parents um but at the core I think that maybe that would be you know going with
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the flow it's uh yeah we are so used to things changing and the weather changes
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every 15 minutes and you know we have a really unpredictable nature i think there might even know a new volcanic
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eruption been starting to day i know that you know everyone is sort of expecting that but that has been
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happening for instance every two or three months for the past couple or three or four years and that can you
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know happen quite frequently but what that does is that we just adapt to it and I think
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adaptability plays a a great role in uh how we sort of see things and uh how we
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react to things so we have a saying that I'm not really sure it doesn't quite
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translate but we say and that doesn't mean you know that
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it it actually means that things will work out but it doesn't mean that is allowing us just to sit back and
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wait for them to work themselves out we do everything that we can to make things
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you know go as well as possible but we usually know that we need to have a plan
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A and B and C and sometimes we need to use the rest of the alphabet
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but you know it's adaptability that plays a big role in how we how we sort of you know make things work out yeah
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because it you know they have to prep ambassador Krispa Central what about you
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what about Costa Rica makes people so happy so let me give you an example so
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have you all seen sloths you know they're very slow okay that's our national animal let's start
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there and I would say that the Costa Rican vibe is one that we call it
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puravida we use pure life for everything we say hello we say goodbye we're doing
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well we everything is pura so if you ever go to Costa Rica you will see everything is pura so sloths if you look
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at let's go back to sloths if you look at sloths they're very slow yes but that
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nobody wants to eat them right they do not want to eat anyone or any of the
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other animals in the forest they get along with everyone all the animals get
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along with them however they get to where they need to get even though it
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takes forever to cross a road so it took us 10 years to be part of OECD yes 10
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years but we did it so I think that's it it's like getting along with everyone
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it's it's respecting the other person in front of you respecting yourself it's
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like okay everything is I think that's the Costa Rican part and let me rephrase
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another important part we're one of the few countries in the world that does not have an army mhm so that does make a
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difference because all of that not every every country can do that however Costa Rica all that money they
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invested in things that our Nordic countries here have been doing for many
25:45
many years things like education social services health access so what are my
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colleagues have just said Costa Rica has invested in that i think we need more sloths in America too you actually have
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a saying for that in Iceland as well it's good things happen slowly yes you see I'm sensing a theme here in addition
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to the saunas more saunas and more slots but John is for Finland to be number one
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again this is how many years in a row now or how eight years in a row is that
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a new record is it unprecedented for this kind of survey it's definitely a new record um I think what it is is it's
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an indicator that leadership is working you know almost every indicator that we look at with respect to Finland we find
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that everything kind of looks great you know one of the questions that we pose to the entire world is do you think that
26:38
corruption is widespread within your government we also asked do you think corruption is widespread in your
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businesses and when you look across so many different countries you look at the percentages and you think to yourself
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man it just must be a given that everybody thinks corruption is just widespread in their governments then you
26:56
go to Finland it's not true the numbers aren't outrageously high like they are in so many other countries
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like right here at home and so I think this is an indicator because at the end of the day I think what most governments
27:08
are inspired by is how do you create a greater life for everybody that lives in the country and I think this is a report
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that says people are reflecting that very answer in this current context though
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ambassadors Nikolan Baler I'm interested to hear your answer to this there's obviously a time of growing tension
27:26
around the world geopolitical tension you've got absolutely potential you know
27:32
knock-on effects from the for Russia's war in Ukraine knocking on your doorstep you in particular Ambassador Mikola I
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wonder how the perception of stability of security of uncertainty how all of
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that impacts the happiness of your constituents well I I can't say that we are immune to
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what's going on in the world and you mentioned in particular in our closer neighborhood what's going on in Ukraine
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so we very much feel for them and and and uh we are concerned about the fate
28:04
of the country um as it will influence also us in in broader Europe but at the
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same time um uh we have we are we have
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always been prepared prepared for more difficult times we have to uh because of
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our history and because of our location in the map and and uh so and everybody
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understands the need for preparedness and that also means that we actually have an army and and uh we will have an
28:41
army also in the future but uh in addition to that we have been able to to
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uh um build a welfare society which once again I underline is is based on trust
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and even during these difficult times globally and in Europe uh the trust has
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remained and uh I think somehow the the sense of being together has perhaps even
29:10
grown how do you think that trust has maintained uh because we've seen so many places where that trust in institutions
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has steadily declined what what is it about Finland or its leadership that allows that to sustain
29:22
it's it's a good question you know and and uh u I'm I'm I'm trained as a lawyer
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so um maybe I should be a um political scientist a sociologist but I think it's
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partly cultural and also we are a small country and and uh so it's of course and
29:42
more a bit quite homogeneous country still so it perhaps is easier to
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maintain this level of trust in a country like Finland and and uh where we
29:53
actually looking to the west we we have close neighbors the Nordic countries
30:00
which with which we share the same values and and expectations for good life ambassador Val what's your take on
30:07
that especially in the context of of where we are right now i agree with I could just almost say ditto to what uh
30:14
my colleague just said um I think that you know the concept of safety you know
30:21
because Iceland is one of the safest countries in the world it plays a quite a big role in how we feel about
30:28
ourselves and you know gives us this feeling of you know content and happiness but also we are not like L
30:35
said we are not immune to what's happening in the world and we of course feel for Ukraine and and every nation in
30:42
the world that's dealing with conflict um that makes us maybe
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um you know um feel even more gratitude for the for the for our position in the
30:55
world we don't have a military either uh but we understand that you know that
31:03
makes us in a way vulnerable and we have uh understood that for decades so we
31:08
have a defense agreement with the US and we are also part of NATO country and we
31:13
welcomed you know both Finland and Sweden when they joined uh a short while
31:19
ago but um it's just that I think that
31:26
um what we what contributes to our feeling of
31:31
happiness or content is also what Len has talked about is that we are a small
31:36
nation that can't be replicated everywhere understandably but um when you know
31:42
people when you talk to people when you have the proximity uh of other people um
31:48
it's easier maybe to trust and uh uh channels of communications are shorter
31:56
which makes maybe things a little bit more easier when uh um when when
32:03
something goes sideways or there is a trouble that you want to address or problem you want to address so I think
32:09
that Yeah well you you had quite a big question it's kind of hard to you know answer that in
32:16
this this global context yeah but you know
32:21
uh I think that what has also happened is that you know because we're not immune to this uh sort of changing uh
32:31
global situation is that there is more emphasis on defense on you know
32:37
increasing uh defense expenses there is more discussion about it which hasn't been
32:44
the case in Iceland for I think ever it's more now than it has been maybe even due to the Cold War yeah john this
32:51
this idea that that size matters that the smaller the country is it's easier to maintain a sense of happiness or
32:57
contentment is that is that a trend is that something you've seen in years past not necessarily only because I think one
33:04
of the greatest outliers and one of the greatest mysteries from this research is a very small country in Africa who is
33:12
often known as the Switzerland of Africa Rwanda you know all of us are really
33:18
familiar with the fact that during the millennial development goals Rwanda had tremendous improvements and was
33:24
successful on almost every single front but when we go to Rwanda and ask people
33:30
to rate their lives they rate their lives among the worst in the world and it is quite puzzling we we don't
33:36
officially have an answer for it and so I don't know that size entirely accounts
33:42
for all of it no but peace and safety does and that's not something that the Rwans have had you know all the time we
33:49
have been happy and we know that we're privileged you know we privileged of being in you know relatively small
33:55
nation with a you know um great social security and also you know this
34:03
cohesiveness that I talked about that makes us share the responsibility for each other and also you know a lot of
34:09
freedom because when you have a safe country you know your kids and your cats roam free you know it's just you know
34:16
kids hang out with their friends and you know they don't schedule playd dates we actually don't schedule anything you know I'm I'm sure you know my
34:22
Scandinavian friends are now scheduling dinners with their friends in week 39 no one in Iceland knows when week 39 is you
34:30
know i also have a cat that you know spends half the day at the local cafe and the rest at the local bakery you
34:37
know bringing joy to everyone that meets him so I'm I'm I'm pretty sure that contributes to happiness that is a good
34:42
life that is a good life meanwhile Ambassador Kaspaca the the story of Costa Rica is one of rising through the
34:48
rankings right this is your first year cracking the top 10 I understand no I think the first year was it we were in
34:54
the top top yeah number one many years ago i It
35:00
wasn't so I think the confusion and there's a bit of a debate around this on
35:06
are we measuring in this report happiness what I mean is when you go to Websters
35:14
and you look up the definition of happiness it gets even more confusing because the definition has two parts one
35:20
is this idea of contentment and the second part is this sort of ephemeral or fleeting aspect of happiness and so
35:29
which one is it that we're measuring so we have a different variable that we measure which is we just ask people do
35:35
you have a lot of enjoyment in your life do you have do you laugh and smile a lot when you rank countries based on those
35:44
positive emotions or what we call positive affect the top 10 countries in the world are not the Nordic countries
35:51
there are eight out of 10 I think usually are Latin American countries and
35:56
oftentimes you hear people when they consume that information they say nobody has fun nobody experiences joy like
36:03
Latin Americans and so that might be what we're talking about on those original find i'm good with that
36:12
but on the rising through the rankings on the improvement is that is that an economic story i mean what's fueling
36:18
that i think it's it's I was looking at all the rankings and we all do pretty well you know in GDP but there's other
36:26
things going on there um and and it's beyond it's what you were all saying
36:32
it's the quality of life that we have so it I wouldn't say it's only economics
36:37
because Costa Rica has been doing well you know and we live in a very complex
36:42
uh region central America has been known for quite a bit of of of internal wars
36:48
and other issues i think it's more related to what I mentioned before it's
36:53
and what the my colleagues have mentioned a good education system a good health system uh a good community where
37:03
in the end we take care of each other and that sense of I grew up and my kids
37:08
grew up and my parents and grandparents grew up with this idea of peace is important you respect the other person
37:15
in front of you your environment take care of your environment as you all know Costa Rica is pretty well known for
37:21
environmental uh um topics and it's about also how do you live and work and
37:29
just share your life with the other people who are not necessarily Costa Ricans 20% almost 20% of our population
37:37
are migrants and you don't hear about Costa Ricans having issues with migrants at all because we they adapt and we work
37:45
together and of course there's issues here and there because there's humans is human conflict but how is it that that
37:53
happens the education system is I would say fundamental for that so
38:01
your your diplomats you'll answer this diplomatically but in the minute or so we have left if you could each briefly
38:06
you're very familiar with American policy American culture being posted here america's now fallen I think to its
38:12
lowest ranking one of the lowest rankings it's had on the happiness report uh if you had a piece of advice
38:20
for how Americans might be happier one thing you might suggest let's just go
38:26
down the line well let me start with four things oh
38:32
uh but again it's it's at the Costa Rican point of view yes not a criticism
38:38
criticism to any country it's what we have done that works in our country not necessarily will work everywhere
38:45
education as we mentioned you have to give people the skills to get a job to
38:50
get along to learn the basic skills on respecting others that comes at home and
38:56
also in in the education system a health good health take care of your people
39:01
they need to be healthy and they can't go to a hospital and then you know be have a lot of money that they have to
39:08
pay after for education and health that does not make people very happy then the
39:14
number three is the peace the peace issue in a personal matter but also in
39:20
your environment it working with your neighbor or with your countries fellow
39:25
countries next to you or fellow countries not so next to you how do we work in peace and the fourth which is
39:32
related to all of those three good social connections if you have good education good health good peace you
39:40
will have social connections because we have good times and we have bad times when we have bad times we need a support
39:46
system how do we get that support system it could be friends it could be family but that's those social connections are
39:54
really important everything she said and also um increase
40:00
women's part participation in everything you need you need more more
40:07
women labor participation you need more women in decision making um I think one
40:13
of the key infrastructures in Iceland is a heavily subsidized daycare system so you don't have to choose between having
40:19
a family between having children and having career so I would say you know women leadership go for Ambassador Mik
40:27
I'll give you the last word well I I've been a diplomat for more than 30 years and I learned that it's not very uh
40:32
advisable to give advices for for the countries that you are stationed so so
40:37
but but what what I what I would say is that for all of us that enjoy simple things and what I'm tomorrow I'm going
40:44
to have a day off i'm going to spend one and a half hour drinking my morning coffee and reading the newspapers then I
40:49
go for a walk then I go to a bookstore and in the evening I go to SA and that is a perfect day that is a good day
40:55
indeed please join me in thanking the ambassadors of Finland Iceland Costa Rica and thank you all
41:03
[Applause]
41:29
please welcome Chica Marashima executive officer and vice president at Ai Namoto
41:35
Yan Emmanuel Denuv director at Well-being Research Center and Dr alden
View from Ajinomoto: Sharing Meals with Others
41:40
Lei board member for well-being for planet Earth Foundation
41:51
good morning
41:56
when we think about food and well-being our minds often go to nutritional value
42:03
or what people need to feel nourished but Ajunomoto the University of Oxford and
42:11
Gallup started to think differently they wondered what if we saw food as a social
42:20
activity so that we can understand its impact on
42:25
well-being this is groundbreaking work it's also the basis of chapter
42:31
three of this year's World Happiness Report i'm really keen to dig into this
42:37
topic further because most of us eat several meals a day so there are many
42:42
opportunities for us to be building and maintaining social bonds with each
42:49
other let me introduce myself uh my name is Alden Lie i'm a board member at the
42:55
Well-being for Planet Earth Foundation and also an assistant professor at NYU i would like to introduce Chica
43:02
Morishima vice president of sustainability and communications at Ajinomoto so for those of you who might
43:09
not be familiar with Arjunomoto as a company um they are a pioneer in amino
43:15
acid technology that's been used across many industries including agriculture
43:21
healthcare and semiconductors and they started as the world's first umami food seasoning
43:29
company in Japan more than 110 years ago so if you've ever wondered how the word
43:35
umami entered the modern lexicon it's because of
43:40
Ajinamoto um next I would like to introduce Yan Eman professor and
43:46
director of the well-being research center at the University of Oxford i think Oxford needs no
43:52
introduction um and we have Shiiori on stage who's acting as interpreter for Chica so let's get started um Chica and
44:00
Yan I'm really first of all I would really like to congratulate you for um and your colleagues for putting together
44:06
this excellent chapter and the groundbreaking work and uh my first question will be for Chica why is Arjuno
44:13
so interested in the relationship between food and well-being which is you know we never quite think about that um
44:19
oftentimes uh uh to begin with yeah thank you uh our contention is
44:26
well-being is not only shaped by what people eat but also how people
44:34
eat while the relationship between food nutrition and physical well-being is
44:41
well researched and understood there are been there has been
44:47
less explorations of the connection between how people prepare and consume food and
44:55
their sense of well-being over the years we have been deeply curious about the
45:03
relationship between food and subjective well-being the this led us to support
45:11
the Gallup World P which created an opportunity to contribute to this year's
45:18
world happiness report thank you Shika our next turn to Yan jan
45:24
can you tell us some of the high can you highlight for for us some of the findings from this research around food
45:30
and well-being thank you Alden thank you and wonderful to be here um yes and let me backtrack a
45:39
little bit in by saying that for the past 13 years the world happiness report
45:44
has always emphasized the social elements that underpin our human well-being and the way that people rate
45:50
the quality of their lives and as measured thanks to the Gallup world poll so it's we've always looked beyond the
45:56
usual suspects of income GDP per capita the way it's distributed and healthy life expecties and you will have noticed
46:02
that social support plays such an important role so in this year's uh report right here we focused on the
46:09
theme of caring and sharing because we want to put more meat on the bone of that social support element and in no
46:16
small part the whole theme of this year's report was inspired by coming across a survey item in the Ainumoto
46:24
module that was that was part of the Gallup world poll now two years ago and the specific item that had a real light
46:32
bulb go off in in our heads amongst the academics was an item that was asked
46:37
over the past week over how many of your lunches were shared with somebody else and over the past week how many of your
46:44
dinners were shared by with somebody else and that seemingly basic question
46:49
so close to home immediately flashed in our heads wait a second this is a way of
46:55
quasi objectively measuring the strength of people's social ties their social capital if you will and the social
47:01
support they can rely on as a result and lo and behold when we started digging into this wonderful item on the edge of
47:08
your module on the world pole huge variation around the world there's countries out there where out of a
47:15
possible 14 so seven lunches seven dinners shared only about three or four are shared with others and there's
47:22
countries out there and Latin America as the region with the most of those where the average is more like 11 or 12 out of
47:29
14 being shared so you're starting to get a hint also why the Latin American
47:35
countries and specifically Mexico and Costa Rica are moving up they might not they're punching above their weight in
47:40
terms of happiness not because of GDP or because of healthy life expectancy but because of the social ties and the
47:46
quality of them that they have now that was a general um population well-being
47:51
level insight but if we look at the individual level around the world just how powerful is this indicator for our
47:59
social lives and driving well-being that's where the real surprise came for the academic team because we knew social
48:05
support and social connections were important we didn't know just how important they were if you look at all
48:11
individuals in the world poll responding to this question and you tie it to their well-being turns out the correlation is
48:17
as strong as their employment status and our relative income which by the way is
48:22
more important than absolute income and explaining life satisfaction so hugely
48:28
hugely important and huge variations between people and countries and this
48:33
helps explain differences in population well-being the relationship is strong for everybody between sharing meals and
48:40
well-being it is particularly strong for youth as it turns out so if you slice and dice it by generations the
48:45
coefficient is stronger for people below 30 and this is where the following insights became very disturbing in the
48:53
United States we benefit from the American Time use survey where they have a similar item running for 20 years it's
49:00
the one country that allowed us to dig a bit deeper and do a deep dive what we found there was said Tide there's been a
49:08
53% increase in dining alone in the United States over the past two decades
49:14
since 2003 to be precise even worse if you slice and dice it by age groups
49:21
there's a 1.8 so 180% increase almost a doubling of dining alone for people
49:28
below 30 and that has been picking up gradually but steadily and increasingly
49:33
so in the last five six years so youth today in America are way more likely to
49:38
be spending their lunches and dinners alone and that's really really disconcerting you may recognize this
49:46
kind of language from a famous book by Robert Putnham that some of you will be familiar with he wrote in the early
49:52
2000s a book that became known as bowling alone i think what we found thanks to the
49:58
Ajimoto module and the Gallup world poll is essentially the the revisit of
50:04
Putnham's famous bowling alone which was published I think in 2003 what we're seeing here is essentially the dining
50:09
alone version more data more granular and the trends that he started raising
50:15
alarm bells about around the undermining and the of our social capital in our
50:20
societies those trends have only gotten worse since and so I'm Sorry to have to
50:26
finish on this negative note hopefully there will be positive lessons to be learned and we'll talk about this in a second but the reality is that in this
50:32
era of social isolation that we're increasingly in which is a driver of
50:38
political polarization that is that it is now absolutely essential to try and get people back around the table
50:45
together because that is vital for our individual and collective well-being
50:52
thank you Yan so now that we know the importance of uh shared meals but also
50:57
at the same time we're observing worrying trends in some countries in terms of like youth standing alone chica
51:03
how are these findings informing how you folks are thinking uh and acting as as a
51:09
as a company social system around the world needs to
51:15
be strengthened to increase opportunity for people to enjoy cooking and eating
51:22
together aimto Group has implemented initiative to support sharing nutrition
51:29
meals together for example it supports the children
51:35
cafeteria a place where children from disadvantaged families eat nutrition
51:41
meals together through a sustainable financial supporting mechanism that everyone can
51:49
easily support as well as increasing the opportunity for eating together it is
51:56
also important to reduce barriers for the private and public
52:01
sectors in preparing tasty and nutrition meals
52:06
ainomatu aim to improve people's well-being through cooking and eating
52:12
together by providing product and recipes that enable everyone to easy
52:19
prepare a delicious meals for their important people and by taking
52:24
initiative and communication that encourage people to cook and eat
52:30
together it's really inspiring to hear that uh Ajinamoto has created sustainable
52:36
solutions to help disadvantaged families uh um to be sharing meals together to
52:41
maintain that kind of like social bonds um and uh I think uh maybe I'll kind of
52:47
like move on to to invite the panelists to maybe share one departing thought i mean this is really meant as a teaser
52:53
for you folks to be reading the chapter as well because I just think that the the findings are really so so important
52:59
we just never quite think about the contributions of sharing meals so maybe I'll come to Yan do you have a departing
53:05
thought for our audience to get them excited to to think more about the relationship between food and well-being
53:11
yes well obviously the the main insight is get back together around the dinner
53:17
table make sure you're present and try and share more lunches breakfast lunches and dinners with other people now fun
53:24
fact and I'll finish on this is there an optimal number of shared meals
53:31
as it turns out it's not 14 out of 14 either the optimal number of shared
53:36
meals is 13 out of 14 so we do need a little bit of me
53:42
time but clearly most of us I presume even in this room are not sharing 13 out
53:48
of 14 meals together and so there's a lot of room for improvement and a lot of policy and a lot of organizational efforts to be put in place to get us to
53:55
about 13 out of 14 together thank you Yan and Chica perhaps one departing
54:00
thought for the audience yes uh in the uh months ahead we plan to
54:08
uh enter into a partnership with that supports the development of concrete guidance or actions that can help policy
54:16
makers take step to improve wellbeing outcome and in turn foster high levels
54:23
of happiness everyone knows that a good meal with people you you can you care about put a
54:32
smile on your face as long as we keep everyone will eat i
54:40
believe that food is one of the easiest and most inclusive solution to improve
54:47
the well-being of society thank you Chica let's now start planning our next
54:52
13 meals with people so that we can smile and have food together thank you again for this
55:14
please welcome Robert Edgar founder of DC Central Kitchen and co-founder of the
55:19
world central kitchen and Amna Noaz co-host of PBS
Food for Good
55:41
News hello again joining us now is Robert Edgar from New Mexico he helped
55:46
co-found the World Central Kitchen with Jose Andres he started the DC Central Kitchen nearly 35 years ago and he's
55:54
with us to talk about the power of sharing meals robert so good to see you thanks for being with us yeah right on
56:00
man it's a joy so one of the reasons I'm so excited to talk to you as you just heard in the
56:06
previous conversation the World Happiness Report finds that sharing meals is an exceptionally strong
56:12
indicator of subjective well-being it's on par with things like income and
56:17
unemployment this probably doesn't surprise you given the work that you do but I'm just curious for your take why
56:24
do you think that is i mean what is so powerful about Shar
56:29
well you know it's funny i've been in the metaphorical hunger biz my entire career but I've always um believed
56:35
there's a deeper hunger uh in the world uh you know people long to be connected they long to be needed they long to have
56:42
impact and this has been borne out through my work over the years i mean when I first got started the traditional
56:48
model that I experienced as a volunteer was um people prepare a meal uh in a
56:53
kind of a church basement and go out and feed people on the streets and you know on the first night I did that it was
56:59
raining in front of the White House and we were serving people in a long line down the street and I felt I respected
57:05
the intent and the history of the model but I felt like it was based more on the redemption of the giver not the
57:11
liberation of the receiver so I really kind of um stewed on that for a little bit and came back up with this idea of
57:18
the DC kitchen and the big leap was not that we prepared food made from food
57:23
donated from restaurants and host hospitals and farmers but that we offered men and women who were homeless
57:29
um coming home from prison uh out of drug programs a chance to be part of the solution and help prepare the meals
57:35
while they learned a skill and that was unexpectedly joyful in that for so many
57:42
men and women you know the fact that they showed up day after day after day to produce thousands of meals that were
57:48
going to go out and serve people on the streets of DC but they were they felt like they were needed you know like two
57:53
weeks ago they might have been in prison but here they were in a job training program and they were helping to put the
57:59
city back together again and I think that's only a small bit of the kind of role that I've seen food play in helping
58:07
people stand up and feel like I'm needed you know I I I have a role i'm contributing something and that I think
58:13
is the real opportunity given all that tell us a little bit more about your work in DC in LA now in New Mexico
58:21
addressing hunger but also this idea of what you call dignified food tell us about that
58:27
well you know I think when most people hear that they're going to immediately think you know that means a a nice looking product and of course I mean
58:33
that's that's you know I've been in food service all my life that's the the you know the kind of golden rule uh but I
58:38
just became so interested in the power of food so you know going back to DC one of the big things that we adopted was a
58:45
sidebyside model where every single day we'd have anywhere between 25 and 50
58:50
volunteers and they would come in nervous as you can imagine i mean DC Kitchen for decades was uh based in the
58:56
big shelter at Second Indeed Street downtown and again we were producing 5,000 meals every single day seven days
59:02
a week and so for many people when they walked in those the back door of the biggest homeless shelter in America they
59:08
were nervous and we had a very short period of time to not only get the meals produced but to um inspire what we call
59:15
this kind of calculated epiphany that by going out into the kitchen and working
59:20
side by side with people who were enrolled in the job training program this kind of interesting thing would
59:25
happen where the students who were still wrestling with their sense of their past
59:30
and the kind of question of their future suddenly were looked at by this legion
59:36
of volunteers as experts as people going to guide them through today and you would listen to the kind of rhythm of
59:42
the the kitchen as it would be silent and then you'd start to hear confidence you'd hear talking you hear laughter and
59:49
that that kind of u magic if you will of we're working together um our model was
59:55
always based on that idea of whether you're a kid who has to get service um to graduate high school an elder who
1:00:01
wants to stay active um on many occasions the president of the United States and their family uh and then
1:00:07
someone in the job training program who again might have been in jail a year earlier suddenly working together side
1:00:13
by side and the power of food is when the president and this happened every single time man because they might be
1:00:18
smart dudes but didn't know how to cut a carrot and for the power of a student to
1:00:24
have the president lean over and say "Am I doing this right?" And for that person to really just suddenly realize and be
1:00:30
able to say "No sir you're actually not here's how you do it." That's the power of food and that's the power of
1:00:35
community where everybody rises together well well you probably know there's been this well doumented correlation between
1:00:42
people who face hunger and also those who experience high rates of loneliness given all that how critical is it that
1:00:49
an organization like yours a direct service provider also build in ways to
1:00:55
to build community not just to provide food you know that's such a a profound
1:01:00
question and I have to admit it was only recently here in New Mexico that I had kind of uh my most recent you know head
1:01:07
slap moment because I'm very proud of my work uh you know over the years between DC Kitchen LA Kitchen World Central
1:01:13
Kitchen you know we're we're cracking like half a billion meals um and each one has taken the kind of idea of how
1:01:20
you distribute meals how you prepare them up a step like World Central Kitchen for example the historic model
1:01:26
is that aid groups bring food into disaster areas we took a big leap by
1:01:32
saying "Let's go in and let's buy local food let's hire local chefs let's produce local foods." And that again it
1:01:39
sounds obvious but it wasn't at the time and I think it's a profound leap that I hope other aid groups embrace but for
1:01:46
decades uh I spent you know so much of my time really working on the first 90%
1:01:52
where do I get the food how do I get it safely how do I engage volunteers teach people jobs or get people jobs all that
1:01:59
kind of stuff expand the model um but we still relied upon and I hope the members
1:02:05
of your audience both live uh there and and whoever might be watching this will really take this in um I I delivered
1:02:13
meals to homeless shelters to senior centers to school programs in effect dividing people you know again I put so
1:02:20
much emphasis on food but yet I said "Here's where kids eat here's where seniors eat and if you want to
1:02:26
selfidentify as poor come to this pantry and get a meal." And I and and I was here in New Mexico and I went to a
1:02:32
fiesta in our little tiny village and here was a village full of the weirdest collection of malcontents you know
1:02:38
literally bikers libertarians tweakers retirees everyone eating side by side
1:02:43
and I slapped my head wishing wishing I could go back in time and realize that
1:02:48
while all the meals we produced were beautiful I wish I had done more to get people to sit down side by side and I
1:02:54
think that echoes a lot of what the previous panel said and I hope more food banks and pantries and the larger
1:03:00
anti-hunger movement embraces that bigger opportunity to use food to bring
1:03:05
people together not just to feed them you mentioned absolutely you mentioned the the senior
1:03:12
community that you serve you also know the this report has found across the world not just here in the states across
1:03:18
the world people aged 60 and older are the least likely to sit down and share
1:03:23
meals is that something you've seen through your work and what are the what are the consequences of that for that
1:03:29
generation oh this is big league ball here because every every single day every day this
1:03:35
morning 10,000 people woke up 70 in America and that's going to happen every single morning and the majority are
1:03:41
women women outlive men women outnumber men so aging is a a feminist issue but
1:03:47
going back to our previous discussion about segregation we're hearing not now a lot particularly with uh potential
1:03:54
cuts about meals on wheels and we instinctively many of us know meals on wheels wow let's get uh meals to elders
1:04:01
at home yet for people to eat alone night after night I think we're missing
1:04:07
this this incredible loneliness epidemic and this is global there's never ever in
1:04:12
the history of the world been uh a time in which this many people will live this
1:04:18
long and so I think we really need to abandon kind of our our stereotypes and
1:04:24
our our soft bigotries about elders and really embrace an intergenerational approach to everything everything uh
1:04:31
again if I could go back in time I would I would really again uh uh go at uh that
1:04:36
kind of idea of kids over here and seniors over here i mean it's funny and I I'll I'll kind of I know we we have a
1:04:41
short amount of time but we talk a lot in in my biz and in the food biz about agriculture but I I those two words
1:04:48
sometimes we put them together so quickly we don't really think about agra culture and I'm fascinated by that the
1:04:54
culture that we abandoned over the decades in which families friends neighbors dined together whether it was
1:05:00
the birth of a child or a death of a loved one people brought covered dishes uh in times of emergencies or even in
1:05:06
times of joy in fact my daughter's about to get married and we're going to have a wedding feast here for the village um
1:05:11
but that those notions of how we come together over food I really think we need to abandon the ideas food is just
1:05:17
gas for the body and realize it's fuel for a revolution that revolution is happiness so we've only got a few
1:05:23
seconds left but I got to ask you've been doing this 35 years now in terms of happiness what is it about this work
1:05:30
that makes you happy how do you think about that oh you know it's funny um at the end of
1:05:36
the day it's tragic because I know um with homelessness in particular and I'll be a little bit pointy here um but I
1:05:43
know that there's parents all around America whose children have just kind of wandered off into the streets and
1:05:48
whether it's addiction mental health or just homelessness and I know how many of those parents ache um hoping their kids
1:05:54
are safe somewhere and that idea that you know that's that we're putting out
1:06:00
meals that at least again somebody can come inside and and you know see a see a
1:06:05
warm face have a warm meal i think to a certain extent I know how I'd feel if my child was out there and so there's an
1:06:12
element our work and I think collectively of our movement in which there's a great sense of we're we're there for the people who can't be and
1:06:18
we're the we're the we're the parents the neighbors the friends uh that that aren't there uh and if I can just be
1:06:25
that simple about it it's a joy to know to see on someone's face that someone cares about them that's all it is
1:06:33
robert Edgar thank you so so much for the work you do and thank you for joining us today it's been such a
1:06:38
pleasure speaking with you please join me in thanking Robert Edgar [Applause]
1:07:09
hey hey hey
1:07:26
please welcome Karen Guggenheim co-founder of the World Happiness Summit Russell Shaw head of school at
1:07:33
Georgetown Day School Gretchen Rubin author and founder of the Happiness Project and Gina Chan senior editor at
Overcoming the Connection Crisis
1:07:40
Semaphore
1:07:46
hi thank you all for joining us today on this gorgeous day and thank you Karen for bringing that weather from Miami uh
1:07:53
we are here uh to talk about um a serious topic that is dear to my heart
1:07:59
because I have a a seven-year-old and think about you know how uh her life is
1:08:05
is going to evolve especially with all the technology and and other things at
1:08:11
her fingertips and this po report really highlighted um you know some of the
1:08:16
issues facing our youth today uh all over the world where we're seeing um
1:08:23
social disconnections loneliness uh feeling isolated uh prevalent in in various uh
1:08:31
countries and unfortunately increasing and hopefully we can talk today about
1:08:37
how to address some of those issues so Karen um I wanted to start with you uh
1:08:43
as someone who I think you have your World Happiness Summit coming up this week so that's it's very apppropo um but
1:08:51
given that this report showed uh this um upsetting and sort of disturbing
1:08:56
evidence you talk about a holistic approach needed to reverse these trends
1:09:03
what does that actually mean in practice well thank you so much and it's it's a joy to be here with all of you and and
1:09:10
everyone watching online um we just had the summit actually this weekend and um
1:09:16
you know as I was walking over here what really dawned upon me is that it's it's
1:09:21
really about people you know I mean we we understand that we know that but it's really about people increasing
1:09:27
connection and when we're talking about our youth um and in in the advances in
1:09:34
technology I think that we forget that moment for spontaneous connection so
1:09:42
even where if you ask somebody hey where's the local coffee shop uh do you
1:09:47
know if it's going to rain today um these micro moments of connection i
1:09:52
think that because of technology and the and the ease of technology we know so many things cognitively we need to move
1:09:59
that cognitive knowledge into heart knowledge into connection with other people and the holistic approach that
1:10:07
I'm talking about is bringing this in education bringing this in um in
1:10:15
organizations in trainings in all different areas of life life because I
1:10:21
feel like sometimes we're in silos or in government or you know or in um in
1:10:27
businesses that and we have these shortterm gains that we want to have and we want to see it right away we're
1:10:33
talking about people we're talking about relationships these take times and I
1:10:38
think our youth I think there two things one is that we are disconnected because
1:10:45
we think we're connected because of technology but we remove these micro moments of connection and the other
1:10:51
thing is that we need to build resilience so last year we had the honor of having
1:10:56
the former surgeon general Vivc Murthy at our London summit and he talked about
1:11:02
visiting universities and he said he went into um
1:11:07
the hall where all the students are supposed to be talking to each other and it was packed and it was silent
1:11:14
everybody was on their phone texting each other and then he asked them why are you not talking to each other and he
1:11:22
said sorry and they said we feel uncomfortable because maybe you won't
1:11:27
want to talk to me or imagine you you know we need youth that feels okay if you say hey I'll get back to you or I
1:11:34
don't know where that is you know so we need that level of resilience but that only comes through training which means
1:11:41
having those moments of micro connections again and again in the work that we do with the summit um I think
1:11:47
you know we promote the science but also we give people the opportunity to
1:11:53
connect with each other and that's really where the magic happen we need to talk to each other we need to see smiles
1:11:58
we need to touch we need to smell because that is you know being in tune with our biology
1:12:04
so that's a great um way to pivot to you Russell as an educator uh the report
1:12:12
also Alo talks about how um young people are underestimating uh their peers
1:12:18
empathy and and how that's affecting their relationships you wrote uh in the
1:12:24
Atlantic last August about uh banning phones at the Georgetown Day School my
1:12:31
daughter just the other day asked me about when she was going to get her phone her dad said when you're 18 but
1:12:36
we'll we'll see if that actually happens but did you have to deal with like a
1:12:42
mutiny at your school or or was it embraced h how uh did the students react
1:12:48
to that and did you see changes in their behavior as a result uh the kids have
1:12:53
put up a statue of me at the school to celebrate the decision um look you're now a guy exactly um when when my
1:13:02
parents were in high school in the 1950s um they would go through the cafeteria
1:13:09
line and the last thing they got put on their tray was a little sample pack of cigarettes um and it was a way to build
1:13:16
brand loyalty and we hear that in 2025 and we say that's insane and I bet in 25
1:13:24
years people are going to say "Wait they had phones in school are you kidding me
1:13:31
um so I will tell you I have three kids two of whom have graduated and are in
1:13:37
college and my youngest is a senior and she said to me um this summer "Dad are
1:13:43
you kidding me you're going to do this right before my senior year you're going to take the phones out of school?" um
1:13:50
two weeks into the school year she said to me um quietly and this was a huge
1:13:56
admission from a 17-year-old she said "I think it was a good decision." Wow um I
1:14:02
think it's better because what is happening is in our shared spaces um
1:14:08
instead of everybody looking at their screens they are pushing back past those
1:14:14
initial moments of discomfort and then having spontaneous conversations with
1:14:19
each other they are playing hacky sack they are saying "Let's order a pizza." They are doing things that high school
1:14:25
kids are supposed to do rather than retreating to the safety of technology
1:14:32
which we do too right we are in lines and we take out our phones because we
1:14:37
don't want to risk having a conversation with somebody else in line when all of the research tells us that conversation
1:14:43
is actually going to have a positive impact on our well-being so um it is one
1:14:51
intervention that schools can make but I think it's an incredibly powerful and impactful intervention that can um help
1:14:58
kids feel less isolated more connected and ultimately more healthy
1:15:04
well Gretchen uh you talked about uh how there's not a
1:15:11
one-sizefits-all approach and and part of um understanding how to be happy and
1:15:17
what that means for you means understanding yourself for young people
1:15:22
who are still figuring that out and kind of you know searching for who who they
1:15:28
are what is your advice to them in terms of um discovering what happiness means
1:15:34
to them well I think the report had all kinds of really helpful information um
1:15:39
one is just quantity uh another is quality another is structure to think about all of this as we're thinking
1:15:45
about our friendships one of the things that was really interesting is it looked at when college students made a lot of
1:15:51
friends early upon arrival that was a great predictor of whether they had strong relationships and a happier life
1:15:58
as college continued so one of the things is when you're in a new place make a special effort reach out for
1:16:03
those new relationships because it's really going to pay off over the long term i thought another thing that was really interesting is that the structure
1:16:10
of our relationships matters as well and that high density relationships uh which
1:16:15
just basically means like are you friends with the friends of your friends like does everybody kind of know each
1:16:20
other are you part of a group are you part of a team do are do you live in a hall together um do you live in a
1:16:26
neighborhood where you run into each other all the time that's going to boost your happiness as well because there tends to be a greater sense of cohesion
1:16:33
and and uh a sense of belonging when it's not just a bunch of people who you
1:16:38
randomly know who don't know each other you're actually part of a social network um but then there are very there are
1:16:44
differences in how people like to relate some people are more extroverted some people you know find that a little bit
1:16:49
harder and one of the the interesting things from the research was that everybody gets a little boost from
1:16:56
social engagement even something like talking to a store clerk or talking to somebody who has a cute dog um on the
1:17:01
sidewalk but if you're in that mode where you need restorative solitude you
1:17:06
might need to give that to yourself and you might need more than somebody else needs of that time and yet when you are
1:17:14
ready to make that connection even a very small connection with somebody else that is going to pay off and I have to
1:17:20
say I think that this idea of like not being on headphones not being on your phone it just signals your availability
1:17:25
people don't want to be rude they don't want to interrupt you um and by being available for these like micro moments
1:17:31
little connections that does lead the way to deeper connections and also just the lift that we get from connecting
1:17:37
with other people in a very small way so understanding sort of when you want to
1:17:42
be alone and when that's actually healthy for you and and when you want to be around other people when you're
1:17:48
having your 10th dinner alone and you know you're like "Okay I need to push myself to go out and and eat around
1:17:54
other people or I'm gonna work in the library instead of working in my room." Um Karen uh in terms of the conversation
1:18:03
about loneliness and and isolation that really um saw uh came to the forefront during
1:18:11
the pandemic and uh what we all experienced and especially um our our
1:18:17
younger uh population uh what have you seen about the conversation uh around
1:18:26
happiness loneliness isolation over these last five years ha has the
1:18:32
conversation changed have you seen any leaders policy makers actually address
1:18:39
these issues in a meaningful way well again I have to cite Dr murthy who who
1:18:45
made it his campaign to to do that he did bulletins as a surgeon general so there's a lot of work that he did to
1:18:52
bring this to the forefront and he actually called well-being the issue of our time so I think that that's
1:19:00
definitely one of them i think that also it's incredibly important to have gathering gatherings like this where we
1:19:06
bring data to the forefront so of course the work that that Gallup is doing and
1:19:12
the world well-being movement as well as the work with the world happiness report
1:19:18
because the very first thing we need to do is raise awareness if we're not aware we're not going to make any changes and
1:19:25
so I think that the the the challenge that I'd like to give to everyone who's
1:19:30
listening here today is what are you going to do now we know that this is out there we have a lot of evidence here
1:19:37
it's it's all over the place it's you know we we h we are at a point where our youth is not doing well you know it's
1:19:44
just not and and we can fix this it's incredibly empowering that we can actually do something about this and
1:19:51
there's a there's enough data there's trainings there's research there books that can be done and um you know don't
1:19:59
wait for this magic KPI you know our patient is bleeding out
1:20:05
let's go in there and triage and build the societies that we all want to live
1:20:10
in and those are happier societies who are well and our children my god how important are your children for the
1:20:17
present and the future so I think that a focus on children's well-being and um
1:20:24
and youth well-being and how decreased loneliness and increased connection as
1:20:29
well as everything else will have a multiplicative positive effect for society and guess what they'll perform
1:20:35
better in the metrics that we want them also they perform better in school they learn better they make more money so
1:20:43
it's really a forward holistic view of what our society can and should look
1:20:50
like well Russell on on that front in terms of um what can be done uh with
1:20:57
educators aside from sort of taking away their phones um what uh do you think should be done
1:21:06
at schools should this be a part of the curriculum should this be something that
1:21:12
you know if you go to school to get um to to want to teach later that this should be part of something that
1:21:19
educators learn about so they can sort of pass it on to their students how how should this play a role in the school
1:21:26
system so absolutely schools need to be thinking about the wellness of their kids and there are a range of ways that
1:21:32
um they can do that i want to talk about two one is um the world feels I think
1:21:40
tumultuous and terrifying to many of us right every day we don't know what change we are going to see and um it is
1:21:47
easy for kids to see that anxiety on all of our faces um I think a great antidote
1:21:54
for uh anxiety is agency and when we give kids the opportunity to own
1:22:00
solutions to try to have a positive impact that is actually um incredibly
1:22:05
protective and builds resilience in them we have a um student policy institute in our high school where kids learn about
1:22:12
policy issues they meet with different folks and they actually then propose and sometimes implement solutions and um
1:22:20
that is incredibly healthy for kids so that rather than feeling like they're subject to what's happening in the world
1:22:25
they actually can um positively engage the second intervention that I will talk
1:22:31
about that schools can make is around parenting um because the world feels
1:22:36
scary um and because parents are hearing about uh risks to youth mental health I
1:22:42
think that when we feel as adults anxious sometimes what we will do is try to assert control and that is actually
1:22:49
the exact wrong instinct um that in trying to protect kids and keep them
1:22:54
safe um we will say you know what stay home it's fine you can be on your phone you can be on your computer but I don't
1:23:01
want you out in the world where something bad could happen to you um we are
1:23:07
overindexing the risk of what's happening in the world and we are underindexing the risk of being isolated
1:23:12
and being engaged with technology and so trusting our kids in developmentally
1:23:18
appropriate ways to be out in the world to be interacting to take the bus to take the metro to have a job all of
1:23:25
these things are incredibly protective for our kids and so as schools how are we communicating to parents um that it
1:23:33
is okay to trust your child it is okay to allow them to make some mistakes in fact it's really important rather than
1:23:40
trying to protect them and then um building this internalized sense of their own fragility
1:23:46
well Gretchen in our final moments um in in talking about
1:23:52
uh what we can do for our youth um you talk about how the key to happiness is
1:23:59
relationships what do you think can be done at uh a young age to kind of get
1:24:05
them started on the right footing so that you know where even if they have
1:24:10
sort of anxious parents and and and they're with their phones and other things as they grow older they have sort
1:24:17
of that foundation already well I think that's a great question because while I think it's extremely important to talk
1:24:22
about what schools and governments and organizations can do as we've been talking about what they can do to foster
1:24:28
these kind of relationships part part of it is for the people themselves the the young people themselves to think about
1:24:33
well this is really important so I always remind other people and myself um when in doubt about how to spend our
1:24:40
precious time energy or money to be happier you're always making a good decision if you spend it on
1:24:46
relationships so if you're thinking like should I make the effort to go out and go to that meeting should I spend the
1:24:53
money to buy the $10 ticket to go to that student show or whatever it is it
1:24:59
takes time energy or money and money sometimes to build these relationships but it is really something that does set
1:25:05
us up um for a happier life and as mentioned it also makes us healthier more productive more creative uh better
1:25:12
leaders better team members and so um when we're thinking about how to spend our our our uh time and energy it really
1:25:19
is worthwhile to think about relationships um there was interesting information that when people set a goal for themselves if it was relationship
1:25:26
related goals like I want to spend more time with my friends versus something like I want to like get a better job
1:25:31
that that gave you the bigger happiness boost because in the end so much of our happiness does come through our relationships that's great well Karen uh
1:25:39
mentioned a challenge i'm gonna challenge all of you the next time you are in line at a coffee shop or the
1:25:45
grocery store don't look at your phone and see what happened so thank you again
1:25:50
for your time [Applause]
1:26:07
please welcome Carlos Carbelloo member of the board of directors for the coalition to empower our future and
1:26:14
Bennett Richardson general manager and head of global public affairs
View from Coalition to Empower our Future
1:26:19
semaphore morning everybody thank you all so much for being here and
1:26:24
thanks to all the panelists so far congressman Carbelloo thank you so much for for joining us really excited to
1:26:29
have your perspective on stage today obviously you served the 26th district of Florida for for many years since then
1:26:36
you've been a fellow at Harvard and and Columbia and the University of Chicago so you got some some great perspective
1:26:41
um but today you're representing the coalition to empower our future where you're serving on the board of directors
1:26:46
can you tell us a little bit about the coalition and and what got you involved sure well first thank you for convening
1:26:52
us uh thank you all for being here this uh conversation is critical and uh it uh
1:26:57
means a lot to me in many ways but especially as a father of two teenage daughters uh the coalition to empower
1:27:02
our future seeks to much like you're doing here today convene a national conversation on this very important
1:27:09
issue and uh by the way thank you for the opportunity to talk about happiness you know your your friends at uh NBC
1:27:16
News and MSNBC and Telmundo called me to talk about a lot of things never happiness so uh even though I love them
1:27:24
uh this is this is a special opportunity but uh the coalition to power future
1:27:30
understands that this is a complex issue a multiaceted issue that needs a wide
1:27:35
range of solutions and in order to find those solutions we need to bring all the stakeholders together parents young
1:27:42
people educators business leaders nonprofit leaders uh
1:27:48
clinicians because this issue is too important to just kind of try to check the box and
1:27:54
say like "Oh we're going to pass a tax credit for low-income families or we're going to make public investments or
1:28:03
regulate." I mean it's so much bigger than that so the coalition really wants
1:28:09
to have a meaningful conversation and we want that conversation to lead to the
1:28:14
full suite of solutions that will help us address this in a meaningful way that's great and obviously you all focus
1:28:20
in on you know youth mental health and and well-being and what do you think are some of the most significant factors
1:28:27
impacting the state of youth happiness today look this is the number one issue for young people in the country i mean
1:28:33
according to the CDC one in seven uh young people in this country have some kind of mental health issue behavioral
1:28:40
issue so this can be found in every family obviously in every community
1:28:45
every city every state the whole country and this is your question is kind of the
1:28:51
point there are so many factors uh and I've seen all of this as a parent as a
1:28:57
schoolboard member when I would visit schools all kinds of schools lowincome schools higher income schools they all
1:29:04
deal with this in a different way uh but you know you have bullying uh which
1:29:09
there's been you know for a couple decades a good amount of awareness around bullying and how best to handle
1:29:15
that uh there's obviously economic issues economic stress i mean we know what housing um has done to so many
1:29:23
families in this country by uh you know stressing their economics and uh just
1:29:29
making it hard for them to have the kind of social mobility that that yields stability and and and happiness
1:29:36
uh you have uh you know peer pressure you know a lot of the issues that we have all become familiar with and and
1:29:43
more sensitive to uh over uh over the last couple decades uh these are all big
1:29:48
factors and of course uh we've heard a lot today about social isolation uh parents that aren't as engaged uh with
1:29:56
their children as they should be and and I think that's all of us i mean sometimes we're at home and uh we
1:30:01
realized we hadn't seen one of our daughters for three four hours because she's just in her room uh so again the
1:30:09
factors are are many and that's why it's critical to have this broad conversation
1:30:15
this inclusive conversation so that as we develop the solutions uh we have all
1:30:20
the input we need absolutely and and as you all have been kind of researching and reviewing all those factors do you
1:30:26
think today's young people are experiencing more severe mental health challenges than than prior generations
1:30:31
it certainly seems that way i mean a part of this is that we as a society and this is something we should celebrate
1:30:38
we've become more sensitive to a lot of these issues i mean I remember when I was a kid you know I was down or
1:30:44
something you know my mom God bless her say like you know just ignore it you'll be fine tomorrow whatever and didn't
1:30:50
really take the time to figure out if it was something more serious or not uh I
1:30:56
think we've become better at that and that's why we are more aware of these issues and maybe statistically these
1:31:02
issues are showing up more than they used to but I also think uh there are a lot of new factors right and um
1:31:09
certainly technology is one of them uh kids don't play outside as much as they
1:31:14
used to they don't make uh the the kinds of meaningful social connections that I think we used to as children probably
1:31:21
generations before us used to do even more uh so I do think
1:31:26
um this situation is particularly acute in the current generation and I want to
1:31:32
pick up there where where you left off as we heard from the last panel this year's world happiness report you know
1:31:38
finds and reinforced that social connections are significantly enhancing the well-being of young people but at
1:31:43
the same time that social disconnection uh is growing you know increasingly prevalent among among young adults how
1:31:51
do you think society can work to help solve that that disconnection and and loneliness epidemic well the good news
1:31:58
is this is a an issue or a factor where we can all make a contribution i mean we
1:32:04
can all reach out to a young person whether it's a child of ours or a nephew or a niece or a grandson and uh just try
1:32:12
to connect with them ask them questions or do something meaningful with them take them somewhere go on a fishing trip
1:32:19
what whatever it is right we can all make contributions from um the perspective of Coalition to Empower
1:32:26
Future we're looking for partners nonprofit partners that are out there trying to encourage the kind of social
1:32:33
connectedness that we know we need uh for a healthy society that we know we need to meaningfully address these uh
1:32:40
youth mental health issues uh so we're looking for partners all over the country uh that are willing to invest in
1:32:47
this space that are willing to raise social awareness partner with schools maybe we know that you know for lower
1:32:52
income families in particular people who have to show up either to the office or to a job site it it's harder to have
1:32:59
that uh human interaction even within the family so what can we do to fill those gaps what what role can schools
1:33:07
play uh afterchool programs uh all of these um you know from the very
1:33:13
beginning we talk about how the suite of solutions has to be broad and comprehensive and this is why because
1:33:20
every community has different challenges every family has different challenges and if we're going to help bring people
1:33:27
together uh to help our society heal it's going to require a very broad
1:33:32
effort and the conversation has to be sincere again it can't just be like a
1:33:38
check the box type of effort where we say "Well mental health okay we maybe we threw some money at it maybe we
1:33:44
regulated a couple companies and now everything's okay." It's just not going to work that way that makes sense and and want to ask you to put your your
1:33:51
legislator hat back on during your time in Congress you served on the House Committee on Education and Workforce
1:33:57
were leader in the problem solvers caucus a lot of relevant experience there prior to that worked closely with
1:34:02
Miami Dade School Board um share with us how did that experience in government shape how you your perspective on this
1:34:08
issue and especially as you as you mentioned we looking forward here like what do you think is working well and what's not working yeah when I was on
1:34:14
the school board my my children were very young so I didn't um have a full perspective on this but I remember
1:34:21
visiting schools and this was back um 2010 2011 2012 and the teachers were the
1:34:28
ones sounding the alarm back then and they were talking about how much harder
1:34:34
it was for them to do their jobs now because the kids were just not in a good
1:34:39
mental place and the teachers were dealing with a lot of issues that when I went to school was the counselor you go
1:34:45
to the counselor uh to deal with the issue but there's so many it's so prevalent and it manifests in the
1:34:51
classroom in ways where the teachers have to deal with it so I really u
1:34:57
gained uh an appreciation uh at that point as to how widespread this was and
1:35:03
again Bennett it wasn't just in lowincome schools because we know that there are u you know issues that are
1:35:11
associated with lower income there's correlations but this was everywhere uh from the lower income schools to the
1:35:17
middle- inome schools to the higher income schools every race uh every um
1:35:24
uh cultural background uh so uh visiting those schools really uh that's when I
1:35:31
first kind of became sensitive to how widespread this was and how it was not
1:35:36
just you know isolated incidents uh the way we we maybe used to think about all
1:35:41
of this uh and you know in terms of the policy makers I I certainly think we've
1:35:47
done a great job of raising awareness with regards to this issue i mean everyone knows this is a challenge and
1:35:53
everyone knows that the government and and you know more broadly society has a
1:35:58
role in addressing it together but I think we're still not there in terms of
1:36:04
this idea of broad comprehensive solutions and we all know having been a
1:36:10
member of Congress you want to check the box sometimes you want to be able to go back home and said I did this or that to
1:36:15
address mental health or you know whatever the issue is this issue really
1:36:21
requires a whole lot more than that definitely and and looking at some of those boxes that are that are I think
1:36:26
trying to be checked in different places lots of policies out there both in the states and in Congress aimed at addressing youth mental health um which
1:36:33
of those do you think is headed in the right direction are there other things you think lawmakers should be doing to address this right now look I think all
1:36:40
the policies that are designed to build community are very important or to
1:36:46
encourage um civil society yeah i remember I was a student at the
1:36:51
University of Miami in uh the early 2000s and we had to read a book for a class called Bowling Alone and this was
1:36:58
in the early 2000s about how social isolation had had become such a major
1:37:03
challenge and how we we didn't come together back then as a society uh the
1:37:09
way we used to in decades past now it's I don't know 10 times worse and
1:37:14
obviously the pandemic exacerbated all of this so for now while while we're
1:37:19
still kind of gathering information data input bringing all these stakeholders together I think policies that are aimed
1:37:27
at at building community at making sure that um young people whose parents maybe
1:37:34
aren't home have a place to go after school have people to talk to have uh uh
1:37:41
ways in which they can express their anxieties their fears their frustrations
1:37:46
uh all of that helps and it prevents tragedies because we um of course we we
1:37:51
know about the most dramatic uh cases of of violence that that make national news
1:37:56
but every day in school districts throughout this country educators are
1:38:02
dealing with young people who are struggling and who are acting out in ways that can be dangerous and and
1:38:09
harmful to others so um uh I mean I think for now the best uh we can do is
1:38:15
make sure that we're investing as a society in this kind of social safety net to catch uh these young people who
1:38:22
are struggling but we certainly have to do a whole lot more and that's kind of the purpose of the coalition to empower
1:38:28
our future definitely well and as we heard you know throughout today investing in reinforcing those communities is what ultimately leads to
1:38:34
to more happiness and more well-being so it's a great note to end on thank you so much Congressman for for joining us and thank you to the coalition for
1:38:40
participating in today's event thank you all
1:38:49
have you helped a stranger in the last month how did you feel afterwards helping others and the belief that
1:38:55
others will help you actually makes you happier but how you help and how often
1:39:01
is affected by the country you live in the Gallup Happiness Survey asked people
1:39:06
worldwide about how often they donated volunteered or helped a stranger in the
1:39:11
last 30 days in Latin American countries helping strangers is the most common
1:39:17
form of kindness while in former Soviet countries people help more through volunteering and in the US people often
1:39:25
lend a hand by making donations that's because of different economic and social structures helping
1:39:31
strangers in need is a much more common act of kindness in countries with weak institutions and less welfare and that's
1:39:38
because people rely on each other instead of institutions people who live in the global north tend to help
1:39:44
strangers less but tend to donate more that's because welfare safety nets reduce the need for helping strangers
1:39:51
directly while how people help others around the world is different one thing is clear people are helping each other
1:39:59
more now than ever before people generally want to help others and are likely to choose the best means
1:40:04
available wherever they
1:40:15
are please welcome Sarah Conrath associate professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University Lily
1:40:22
Family School of Philanthropy melissa Stevens executive vice president at Milin Institute Strategic Philanthropy
How Giving Affects Yourself and Others
1:40:30
and Amna Noaz co-host at PBS News hello again hello hello um I am so excited for
1:40:38
this conversation because joining us now are two experts in giving and philanthropy they're going to explain to
1:40:44
us why giving and generosity are both key drivers of happiness sarah and Melissa thank you so much for being here
1:40:50
thank you for having us sarah kick us off here out the science the science behind giving explain to us
1:40:58
scientifically literally what acts of giving do to us so many things i mean
1:41:04
first of all it just makes you happy which is I think we all need a little bit of joy in our lives and be beyond
1:41:10
our own happiness the most important thing is makes other people happy that's the whole goal and it actually has
1:41:16
effects on our health for example I've done research finding that um people who are donating helping others actually
1:41:23
help them live longer especially if they're doing it because they care and Melissa tell us from your perspective
1:41:29
because you're advising people on on their philanthropic investments this how
1:41:34
it makes you feel question i mean how critical is it for people to actually see and feel the impact of their
1:41:40
generosity and their giving yeah I think it's really critical and to piggy back off of Sarah's comments we see that
1:41:47
giving helps to improve your uh your identity as a problem solver and a
1:41:52
change maker which increases improved satisfaction and well-being and we see
1:41:58
that even when you're giving and not expecting praise or admiration you can amplify the effects of of that giving
1:42:04
and so we've seen philanthropy over the years we work a lot with high- netw worth individuals families family
1:42:10
foundations this shift from being just check writers to problem solvers typically traditional philanthropy as
1:42:16
you might think about it is you're writing a check to an organization it might be a check big enough that you can get your name on the side of a building
1:42:22
but you you're not really involved in the programmatic work now high netw worth individuals philanthropists are
1:42:29
becoming problem solvers they're not checkers they're problem solvers and so they're they're digging in they're
1:42:35
deeply understanding the problems that they're trying to solve and many of these are complex and um uh they're
1:42:41
trying to drive systems change overcoming the climate crisis overcoming racial injustice curing disease they're
1:42:48
using a whole set of tools and so we're seeing that shift from just giving to actually solving problems which I think
1:42:55
reinforces giving and we see that being able to see the impact and feel the
1:43:01
impact that you're having is so important um first u philanthropists want to um understand is it a good
1:43:08
investment right and so that's just one of the data points that helps them to know should they continue to give um but
1:43:14
I think as they're taking these uh taking this longer horizon and solving
1:43:20
these complex challenges that are going to take decades that are going to take not just millions but billions and
1:43:25
trillions of dollars of investment um they they need to have some positive feedback loops that continue um to to
1:43:32
motivate them and to really underscore a commitment to a cause not just an organization sarah on the uh the how it
1:43:40
makes you feel question does the proximity of the giving matter if we're giving to places that we see the
1:43:47
immediate impact or we see a return on investment in some way does that generate more happiness on the back end
1:43:53
it does help it does help to see a clear positive impact of what we're doing but um we have imagination right so we can
1:44:00
we can actually empathically imagine people that are uh far away from us in in space or even in time in the future
1:44:07
and with our empathic imaginations we can actually maximize our own joy of giving knowing that we're going to make
1:44:12
a difference in their lives and the impact is the same regardless of whether people are I love that phrase empathic
1:44:17
imagination whether they're using that or whether they're seeing it in their communities the impact is is is
1:44:23
maximized it's it's bigger if you if you see impact uh makes you happier and if you have an empathic motivation for
1:44:30
giving so one of the things we hear a lot either from people visiting from out of country or what we notice about
1:44:35
ourselves America sort of has a more individualistic society and culture
1:44:41
right how do you when you're looking through that lens how does that impact how you're advising people and and how
1:44:47
do you factor that into your work sarah yeah well we find other ways to increase
1:44:52
our own joy of giving and one of those one of the ways is to do it with other people find other people in your
1:44:58
community um who are caring like you and get out there and do good things with them and do good things for them so if
1:45:04
you know somebody who is going through something maybe a mental health problem or something you can be there for them
1:45:10
and you can also start working maybe as a volunteer for a mental health charity or just do what you can with what you
1:45:15
have with the people around you and that also increases our joy of giving to be clear giving itself already has a boost
1:45:22
and then when we do it with others for others um and looking for impact when we do the work uh that that just makes it
1:45:28
bigger and as we're advising we want to make sure that we are bringing in
1:45:34
communities that um can help us to understand the problems that we're trying to solve and to put forward the
1:45:40
solutions so we want to get out of the mindset that the philanthropists are the
1:45:45
ones the ones with the capital know what the solutions should be and so we really bring in those with lived experience and
1:45:51
that is whether you're uh addressing v violence in a community you are helping
1:45:56
veterans to transition to civilian life again you're curing disease you need to bring that community in with you not
1:46:03
just the experts and to understand the system you know there's a saying that's often used but I I think it's worth
1:46:08
repeating like those who are closest to the problem are often closest to the solution but farthest away from the capital and so we really see ourselves
1:46:15
as advisers is bringing that lived experience to to the table to inform
1:46:21
where philanthropic capital can and should be deployed um I also think that there is a real opportunity you know as
1:46:29
as Sarah mentioned to to give together there's collaborative giving um is on
1:46:34
the rise which is great um and we're seeing more of that we're seeing more of collaborative giving why do you think
1:46:39
that is i think there's I I think one is it's it's actually more satisfying to to to give together um you're also able to
1:46:46
get efficiency so u you can bring together uh uh philanthropies and
1:46:51
funders can come together and share resources they can share diligence they can share strategy so they're actually
1:46:56
being um more effective and efficient with their their giving and it also it
1:47:02
helps um it helps funders to be introduced to organizations that might not be in their network and I think that
1:47:08
is a uh something philanthropy needs to do more of we can't just rely on what comes in referrals in our network we
1:47:14
need to think expansively who are the organ what are the organizations and leaders that I might not normally think
1:47:19
of or have access to me as a funer i'm curious what each of you think the impact of co was on all of this i mean
1:47:26
this being locked down and isolated for so long this broken sense of community and connection did that impact how
1:47:32
people look at generosity and giving people were more likely to give actually it increased giving behaviors um and
1:47:39
that might seem surprising but I think we all were more we had more time to think about life and the meaning of life
1:47:45
and we saw all this need around us and we had time and so a lot more people
1:47:50
started giving and we still see there's still about a 10% higher rate of giving
1:47:56
um since before COVID in the Gallup World Poll wow you saw that as well uh we we saw that as well that people were
1:48:03
inclined to to give more we saw more creative uh more creative giving we saw
1:48:08
um we saw more trust given to organizations so to the nonprofits so we
1:48:14
saw more multi-year giving we saw more unrestricted giving where funders would
1:48:20
say we trust you as leaders of these organizations you know where to be putting how to be using this capital
1:48:27
does that surprise you i mean given that we speak at a time about declining trust in institutions to see that rising trust
1:48:33
in specific organizations why yeah i I think there there is a um a movement and
1:48:39
an awareness that you know back to the we don't have all the answers organizations proximate leaders
1:48:46
they have the answers they and to be able to fund them to be nimble to reallocate as needed um there if we have
1:48:54
things so locked up in fund this specific program we're actually not we're not giving the organizations the
1:49:00
flexibility that they need and leaders the flexibility they need to deploy that capital that's going to allow them to do
1:49:06
the most good so there is this movement of trustbased giving which yes is is a little bit ironic in the in the state of
1:49:13
the world that we're living in where we have a a deficit of trust so I want to dig a little deeper into the science
1:49:18
behind all this Sarah because uh you've said the effect of giving is four times
1:49:23
more impactful on a person's happiness than if they doubled their income
1:49:29
overnight is that true how do you measure that well we measure happiness by asking people how satisfied they are
1:49:36
with their life and you know you can answer from 0 to 10 and we find that I mean just imagine for a second like just
1:49:42
right now your income gets doubled okay would it make you happier everyone's like
1:49:49
"Yes." Well the data says it does a little okay it really a little bit right but of course think about all the other
1:49:55
stuff that comes with that it's not so simple um but then what we find is that if you're giving so you're saying you're
1:50:01
volunteering or you're giving money it doesn't have to be the millions you're giving what you have and or you're
1:50:08
helping people um that's it has four times the effect of doubling your income
1:50:13
and also being an environment where you trust people it's even more it's seven times the effect of doubling your income
1:50:20
so choose the people around you find good people and be a good person being
1:50:25
in an environment where you trust people around you tell us more about that what does that mean well that's related to the wallet data from the Gallop World
1:50:31
Poll right so like the idea of uh the question is do you believe that if if um you dropped your wallet that people
1:50:37
would somebody would return it to you right and we stop for a minute and think right here would that happen i think it would happen in this room but but you
1:50:44
know like that's a really powerful psychological concept of just believing that other people are good and that
1:50:50
itself is associated with a lot more happiness so seven times seven times
1:50:56
more than doubling your income than doubling your income overnight that is that is powerful it's a little bit Yeah
1:51:02
yeah you don't expect it right i was just going to jump in and say and philanthropy can help to seed that so
1:51:07
philanthropy can we seed programs that bring folks together in communities so
1:51:13
that we surround ourselves with people um you that we're we're we're in
1:51:19
community and we can work on service projects together in our communities where we have a shared humanity things
1:51:25
we're solving problems together and um we're we're focusing on what makes us
1:51:31
similar rather than what makes us different right now and I think if philanthropy can think about building
1:51:37
those types of programs that's going to have a ripple effect so you're saying that if we surround ourselves with other
1:51:43
givers then they'll return our wallet okay good good tip good to keep in mind
1:51:49
i'm curious over time too is does the uh sort of happiness you get from giving
1:51:55
Sarah does it diminish over time is there a sort of surge that comes with the first time you're able to give with
1:52:00
your time with your resources with your money does that go away the longer you give especially if you're not seeing
1:52:05
immediate impacts or in returns on the investment how does that work over time that's a really good question and of
1:52:11
course researchers have looked at it basically following people over time what we find is that giving has more
1:52:18
kind of holds the high a little longer than getting or other types of things so it's not like it's going to be forever
1:52:24
but it does kind of have some staying power and it still feels good and there are ways to give that can help for
1:52:30
example like when we eat food even our favorite food we don't want to eat tacos every single meal unless there's
1:52:36
somebody maybe here who would say that's not true but but I think most of us eventually even our favorite food would
1:52:42
get a little bit you know less joyful well it's just like that with giving too and there's research showing that if we
1:52:47
if we're giving in a variety of ways to variety of people to different causes you know kind of focusing on how to
1:52:52
benefit others um then it doesn't get old and is there a relationship between
1:52:58
the size of the gift too if you're if you're regularly volunteering once a week versus giving a million dollars
1:53:04
from your wallet every every other month or something for whoever has the means to do that it does does that have a
1:53:10
different impact on on you well the researchers are only looking at the difference between like $1 versus $20
1:53:15
okay at the moment but we are exploring ultra high net worth individuals and we'll have an answer soon okay um but
1:53:22
but volunteering um when we found that volunteering is really you know it's good the more you can do it it's uh
1:53:28
there's up to about 15 hours a week is usually the kind of peak um but giving more time it's because you're kind of
1:53:34
giving yourself you know when you're volunteering you're actually there and you're it's more than just like writing
1:53:39
a check as you were talking about um whereas giving money you know it does make you happy but I don't think you're
1:53:44
gonna it's not going to be like the more you give the happier you get right so the theme uh Melissa as you know the
1:53:51
theme of this year's World Happiness Report is sharing and caring which is a phrase we use all the time in my
1:53:56
household with two little girls what does that mean to you how do you interpret that now especially in the
1:54:02
philanthropic space yeah yeah well I think we're we're in a moment in time right now where philanthropy is more
1:54:08
important than than ever i think especially as we're we're looking here in the United States we're looking at
1:54:14
retrenchment of of federal funding and in and government funding that there is an opportunity for philanthropy to be
1:54:20
leaning in in in this moment and we know that philanthropy cannot cannot close the
1:54:26
funding gap like there's order of magnitude difference um but I think there there is a time to to lean in
1:54:33
right now to be thinking about all the different ways that you can be giving so we talked about volunteering and time
1:54:38
we've talked about treasures or your financials um but there's your your time
1:54:43
your ties or your network your testimony or your voice your technology i mean
1:54:49
there's so many different ways to to be giving and I think if we're more creative about the ways that we are
1:54:54
giving and activating all of those different assets that we have we can be more efficient we can be more effective
1:55:00
um we can have a better impact um I think it's a time to come together in collaboration right now and to be um uh
1:55:08
sort of linking arms with other funders again uh sharing uh and fundamentally
1:55:13
we're going to need to reimagine what the nonprofit sector looks like here and no one has the answer to that but it is
1:55:19
a time for philanthropists to be leaning in um and to be making a difference sarah I'll give you the last word here
1:55:25
what do you hope people take away when it comes to the science behind giving that we all have something to give and
1:55:30
that it's not about us it's about others so I think just realize that happiness is not individual i think that's been
1:55:36
the message of today that it's social um and you're all here you all came here so you know that um but we we we have hope
1:55:45
that the giving we do can actually make a difference we'll end on a note of hope thank you for that sarah Conra Melissa
1:55:50
Stevens thank you so much
1:56:00
in the US and Western Europe populism is on the rise and moderates are falling behind while divided politically the
1:56:07
far-left and far right are united by something their lack of trust in the system and its institutions but what
1:56:14
explains these shifts to both ends of the political spectrum it might be about how much we trust
1:56:21
others those who don't trust the system but have higher levels of trust in people tend to swing to the left and
1:56:28
those who don't trust the system and have low levels of trust in others tend to swing towards the right of the
1:56:33
political spectrum the Gallup World Poll found this trend applies to both cultural and
1:56:39
economic beliefs in the United States people who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020
1:56:47
tended not to trust strangers regardless of their age or educational background people who reported very low
1:56:55
levels of life satisfaction and low levels of trust tended to stay home on election
1:57:01
day in the US trust in others is at its lowest point in the last 50
1:57:07
years can this be [Music]
1:57:18
reversed please welcome EJ Dion senior fellow at Brookings gerardo Bertine vice
1:57:25
president of international programs at Freedomax Hillary Silver professor of
How Happy and Unhappy People Vote
1:57:31
sociology international affairs and public policy and public administration at George Washington University and
1:57:38
Morgan Sha deputy Washington editor
1:57:44
thank you all so much for being here um this is going to be really insightful discussion um EJ I just wanted to start
1:57:51
with you so the data in this report is clear that the decline in social trust and happiness in the US and Europe has
1:57:58
led to a rise in political polarization and populism just wondering just first what was your reaction to the findings
1:58:05
well first let me say thank you to Gallup uh and that's a thank you all the
1:58:10
way back uh because Gallup has asked good questions for decades and decades and everybody who does any kind of
1:58:17
research or citizens who want to understand politics is grateful to Gallup and also I got to mention the
1:58:22
late Andy Koh who was a president of Gallup way back and is one of the great survey researchers ever and also one of
1:58:29
the great human beings in that community so it's honor to and thank you to Semaphore i met Ben Smith when he was in
1:58:35
his early 20s and I knew this guy is going somewhere and a pundit is always
1:58:40
grateful when he or she is right because often we're dead wrong but I was right about Ben let me say I found this study
1:58:48
very illuminating very helpful and I think there is you know the the finding on social trust uh and the difference it
1:58:57
makes in voting for left or left parties or right parties is extremely important
1:59:02
and I think you uh we were uh uh talking Hillary and I were talking before and she'll probably talk a bit more about
1:59:09
this uh if you looked at Ger the recent German elections who voted for Dinka the
1:59:14
left-wing party and who voted for um the AFD the far-right party uh you really
1:59:20
saw some of these factors uh at work so I thought that was very helpful but the second thing is I think this paper is
1:59:27
not a magic bullet but it opens up new questions because I think that one of
1:59:33
the key questions here is what has reduced social trust uh why in other
1:59:40
words trust itself is a real thing and I think it's something we need to uh think
1:59:45
about more uh but why have people particularly on the right lost trust
1:59:51
what role has immigration itself played in creating more diverse societies and
1:59:56
have diverse societies for some people uh created greater feelings of mistrust
2:00:02
um we have had a rather substantial change in the social values dominant
2:00:07
social values of the society how much has that um uh decreased trust and the
2:00:13
third point I'd make uh that I would underscore if there's a critique of the paper I have it's I do think it
2:00:20
underplays still the role of economics and its own data suggests that economics
2:00:25
is really important because happiness the the perceived happiness is linked in
2:00:31
part to uh economic position and they note that GDP doesn't seem to have
2:00:37
anything to do with happiness and that's probably true but GDP is about everyone
2:00:43
the whole society and it doesn't speak to relative deprivation in the society a
2:00:48
great concept that British uh social scientist WG runman did great work on
2:00:53
this many years ago and you could the fact that societies have gotten richer and yet large parts of the society feel
2:01:01
poorer or falling behind I think does increase happiness so I think what we
2:01:06
need to do is take these really useful findings and link them to new questions uh but I think it sets us on a good path
2:01:14
and and I'm glad you mentioned the role of economics because I wanted to ask you um Hillary just about the that finding
2:01:20
in the report that basically economic growth not necessarily is what's driving this but a feeling of financial
2:01:28
insecurity and loneliness that stems from what the report says is a damaged social fabric um this is particularly in
2:01:35
communities um lower educated Americans um and rural areas and younger Americans
2:01:42
as well i'm just wondering how you think this sets up the uh scenario in which
2:01:48
populism can thrive and what you make of those findings right well so the the uh
2:01:55
chapter that you gave us to look at looks at life dissatisfaction or life satisfaction as an indicator of
2:02:01
happiness um and uh social trust uh sort of amplifies the differences between
2:02:08
right and left uh responses to unhappiness and typically you think that
2:02:14
people who are economically insecure would would swing left um but many of
2:02:20
them go move right um so there's two kinds of these two kinds of populism are
2:02:26
are at work um we we did a study um in with European data a few years ago and
2:02:33
uh I found that that left-wing xenophobia you know sphere of immigrants
2:02:38
and so on it didn't necessarily have to do with how many immigrants there were in the country it was more a sense of um
2:02:46
estrangement right u feeling away feeling um insecure right not just
2:02:52
financially but also in terms of identity um whereas in on the left
2:02:58
xenophobia exists also on the left fear of of migrants but the solutions were seen as more that that they should be
2:03:04
more redistributive right the solutions would be a stronger welfare state and so
2:03:09
on um in rural areas and in regions of Europe where there's been a long-term
2:03:18
de-industrialization that is coupled with out migration it's the loss of of
2:03:24
the next generation And so these places are not only left behind but the institutions in those communities that
2:03:32
used to be supported by a critical mass of people start to collapse too so
2:03:37
consider church attendance right church attendance is difficult to do um if
2:03:42
you're in a rural area and there are very few people who go um similarly in small towns to see uh small businesses
2:03:49
and other institutions people were used to those kinds of things uh disappear
2:03:55
finally um what we do see is that ed class still matters but it's class
2:04:01
expressed as a divide between higher education and lower education people who don't have college um and we see this in
2:04:09
voting uh for populist parties both in the United States but also in most
2:04:14
countries even in the Nordic countries we're seeing a division in attitudes and
2:04:19
social trust based upon education level and Herardo you know obviously the
2:04:25
report focuses on the US and Western Europe but based on your research do you
2:04:30
see any parallels to other places in the world are there other examples that we should be looking at in terms of similar
2:04:37
scenarios playing out thank you very much
2:04:44
um one thing that I want to mention is I mean Freedom House has been doing an
2:04:49
analysis of political rights Julius
2:04:56
no hi
2:05:02
i'm just There you go thank you sorry about that um again thank you for the invitation and what I was saying is uh
2:05:09
Freedom House has been publishing a report on political rights and civil liberties since 1973 and um this year we just published
2:05:17
a few weeks ago and uh it is the 19th uh year of consecutive declines in civil
2:05:22
liberties and um and uh rights in the world now one interesting thing to connect to the uh happiness report is
2:05:29
that of the top 25 countries uh in the happiness report 23 in the freedom house
2:05:36
report happen to be free so there is actually a correlation between uh rights
2:05:42
freedoms uh and liberties and happiness uh Finland Costa Rica Iceland are there
2:05:49
actually uh and and certainly um it's an important uh element to to convey i
2:05:55
think um one thing that I would say in terms of it just adding uh to the conversation and and the chapter seven
2:06:01
on on trust I think it focuses mainly on institutions I think more than on
2:06:07
interpersonal trust which is important um and I think it does not distinguish
2:06:13
that well probably um elections that take place in free countries and elections that take place in non-free
2:06:20
countries uh Russia Nicaragua Venezuela who are not free in our index uh hold
2:06:25
elections to legitimize their authoritarian uh power and they're very different because oppositions cannot
2:06:31
actually have uh uh uh the right to actually uh uh express their opinions
2:06:38
and so um certainly uh that's a factor to consider uh elections were also uh in
2:06:44
our report uh based on uh the analysis that we did on all the elections that took place in
2:06:50
2024 in 40% of those elections there was a way to disrupt the election in one way
2:06:56
or another whether it was assassination attempts for the candidates all the way
2:07:02
to uh harassment in the polls uh and that was a diverse from countries that
2:07:08
are considered free and countries that are considered actually not free or or partially free um that's an element also
2:07:15
to consider and someone mentioned this morning I think in the first panel the issue of peace uh and and stability as
2:07:24
part of the of the happiness and certainly uh our report also uh adds to that in the in in in the context of
2:07:30
saying that countries that are not peaceful um certainly um don't enjoy the same
2:07:38
rights and liberties that countries that that are actually in some sort of peace and so that makes also a little bit of a
2:07:43
of a difference I would say and EJ I want to go back to you um about sort of
2:07:49
the implications of this particularly for the US what does this mean for the political middle the rise of populism
2:07:56
you know you've seen the US dropping in the unhappiness score you know people on
2:08:01
the gravitating unhappy people gravitating toward the left and the right i mean is the middle just going to
2:08:07
dissipate what do you see sort of short and long term for our politics um uh as
2:08:15
Bill Clinton might say it depends on what the meaning of the word middle is you know in um um you know in this
2:08:22
context I think what you are seeing and I think the paper illustrates this well
2:08:27
is a decline of the center right and center left uh and uh and a kind of
2:08:34
fragmentation and again this comes from a conversation Hillary and I had in the green room where you see that um in
2:08:41
countries with multi-party systems where you can actually see the whole spectrum of voting um you've seen a decline fine
2:08:49
in both center left and center right parties that's been particularly dramatic in Germany where the Christian
2:08:54
Democrats and Social Democrats have been forced into a coalition government they were the two big parties getting 80 90%
2:09:00
of the vote now they're barely managing half the vote u and you're seeing fragmentation to um you know the left
2:09:07
and the right of them um in the US it's complicated because the Trump vote
2:09:13
really is a combination of the farright uh and Trump would probably be in another country a far-right candidate um
2:09:20
but the old Republican party large parts of that electorate which might in some
2:09:25
ideological sense be um center right uh has mostly fallen in line behind Trump
2:09:31
so we have this very odd situation and his power in the party means that that
2:09:37
center right is virtually silenced inside his party on the Democratic side
2:09:42
um as Democrats do they're fighting each other and a lot on a lot of questions um
2:09:48
you know that old Will Rogers line I don't belong to an organized political party i'm a Democrat and um you know and
2:09:55
so I think the both the center left and the left are kind of more visible and that fight is uh easier for everyone to
2:10:02
see i think the Trump challenge um it will be interesting to see if the Trump
2:10:09
challenge actually brings the center left the center uh the left and parts of
2:10:15
the center back together again the key to Joe Biden's victory in 2020 is that he rallied significant part of the
2:10:22
center with the center left and the left right now the Democrats are torn up over this i think the logic of the situation
2:10:30
um will likely bring those forces together because otherwise they can't
2:10:35
possibly challenge Trump effectively yeah and certainly we've seen that with um the the anger that Chuck Schumer
2:10:43
provoked recently with his handling the debt ceiling which I thought of when I when I was reading this um the last
2:10:48
thing I wanted to talk about and this is sort of a question for for all of you or any of you that that wants to weigh in
2:10:55
i'm just in terms of rebuilding social trust what what are the solutions here
2:11:01
um you know what institutional reforms do you think could help uh address that
2:11:08
in the United States that come to me sure i'm happy you're going to solve the problem for us right
2:11:14
here right now I just want to say I'm happy to answer that um so uh I think
2:11:19
there are a few things uh there there have been strong you know many initiatives in Europe um but also in the
2:11:25
the US to try to um encourage more social inclusion of those who are on the
2:11:31
margins of the society so there are a number of ways to go about it one is a more general thing that could be for
2:11:37
everyone which is to improve access to public space and to make those spaces
2:11:44
available to everyone one of the things that's unspoken in all of this is how
2:11:49
our cities have increasingly privatized public space out of this sense of
2:11:55
insecurity that to an attempt to to create greater safety has also been an
2:12:01
exclusionary process where people are feel that they're under surveillance and so forth right so that that we don't
2:12:08
have a public square where everyone can assemble and meet across differences that in if if the opposite is that we're
2:12:15
seeing public space uh being curtailed right so very few places to meet across
2:12:21
social differences and that's exacerbated by residential segregation right if rich people only live with rich
2:12:27
people and poor people only live with poor people then the institutions are also homogeneous in this way so we don't
2:12:33
build a good uh civil society where everybody can deal with uh differences
2:12:39
and work towards common solutions moreover just to build trust through things like I don't know Labor Day
2:12:46
parades or well I guess I have the Fourth of July parades right u the the
2:12:52
institutions that used to bring an entire community together um have fallen by the wayside and part of it is
2:12:58
segregation so I would say we can strengthen the availability of public space and push against exclusionary
2:13:06
privatization of spaces um and again to try and uh develop local activities with
2:13:15
or found new nonprofits and associations and places where people across
2:13:21
differences can meet for on the basis of something that's constructive and productive like a common goal of some
2:13:27
kind that doesn't have to do with politics thank you all we are actually out of
2:13:33
time this has been a wonderful discussion and thank you so much thank you
2:14:08
hey hey hey
2:14:24
please welcome Gurudv Shriri Rabi Shankar and Justin B smith co-founder
Pursuit of Happiness and Joy: A Conversation and Guided Meditation
2:14:29
and CEO of
2:14:41
Semaphore good morning everybody this is the penultimate conversation of
2:14:48
the world happiness summit and I could think of no better person really in the the entire world to interview than
2:14:56
Gurudev Sri Rabi Shankar i'm just going to give it a short but formal introduction gurudv is a global
2:15:03
humanitarian spir spiritual leader and ambassador of peace his programs for health and holistic well well-being have
2:15:10
impacted more than 800 million people in more than 180 countries around the
2:15:16
world he Gurv believes in that inner peace is the key to peace in the world
2:15:24
outside he seeks to build bridges between beliefs and religions to
2:15:29
universalize wisdom and foster greater compassion love and mutual understanding
2:15:36
for a stressfree and violence-free society not a bad mission statement
2:15:44
[Applause] so welcome and thank you so much for
2:15:50
joining us on World Happiness Day it's it's really a great privilege a personal question can you share with us the first
2:15:58
time in your life when you developed an insight or maybe even a an epiphany on
2:16:05
this notion of how to become a a happy and fulfilled person
2:16:11
well uh from my young days I always dreamt of a society free from violence
2:16:18
wherever there was conflict I wanted to jump in and and then separate the parties you know that has been my
2:16:26
tendency then this idea um growing up with my teacher who has been with
2:16:32
Mahatma Gandhi for four decades and I was always inspired by a
2:16:40
nonviolent movement in the society so we grew up though I have
2:16:46
never seen Mahatma Gandhi he had gone long before I was born but the people
2:16:52
who stayed with him who lived with him were one of my inspiration they used to
2:16:58
tell me stories about those days with him and he would um how it's such a resolute mind go hold
2:17:07
on to the principle of nonviolence and uh you know this ancient
2:17:14
thought of the world is one family was always ringing in my mind so as a child
2:17:19
I used to say to my friends I have family all over the world and I want as a young child I was just eight n years
2:17:27
old okay but then my friends would come and ask my mother
2:17:33
and she would just call me why do you tell lies
2:17:41
imaginary friends yes but that was almost like a compulsion in me i had to say that you
2:17:48
know I know somewhere in my subconscious mind that's what was coming up that's
2:17:53
that's beautiful so you you once said that um and as in
2:18:00
preparing for this interview I was looking at some of your past comments and you once said ask me the questions
2:18:07
that Google can't answer and so I Googled how can I be happy and
2:18:15
Google gave me six answers practice gratitude engage in regular exercise
2:18:21
prioritize sleep practice mindfulness cultivate relationships and set
2:18:26
reasonable goals so how would you answer it if
2:18:31
Google differently if Google did that distress yourself
2:18:38
stress is the main cause of unhappiness you can't say I'm happy and
2:18:45
I'm so stressed they can't coexist you see and if you're not
2:18:51
stressed nothing can make you unhappy so this is the notion of inner peace
2:18:59
absolutely being the sort of the key to ex to to to happiness yeah
2:19:07
you know like beauty is an inner experience joy is an experience from
2:19:13
inside it's a state of your mind same is
2:19:19
happiness and inside if you're all muddled up and so stressed up and we are
2:19:25
angry agitated or anxiety and uncertaintity in the
2:19:32
mind happiness though it is our true nature so we will be we will not be able
2:19:37
to experience it so this this morning we announced or
2:19:42
Gallup announced that Finland uh and a few of the other Nordic countries Iceland had had um had been named the
2:19:50
happiest countries in the world you travel all around the world does that does that does the data sync up with
2:19:55
your experience would you surprise that the Scandinavian countries keep on winning
2:20:01
as far as Scandinavian countries yes my experience is yes they are happier
2:20:07
because they have very little thing to worry about themselves they worry about
2:20:12
the whole world they worry about the environment they worry about the other nations in the world that that's that's
2:20:20
something I can vote for interesting can
2:20:25
uh and since you also have so much experience with working with government leaders and civic leaders can do you
2:20:32
think it's possible for for individuals leaders governments to actually design
2:20:39
and build largecale communities of happy people or or even design and build happy
2:20:46
countries yeah uh I think it should be one of
2:20:52
their uh agenda not just giving shelter and food to people but see that people
2:20:58
are happy in this happiness index though I don't agree with India that's my
2:21:03
person the India's ranking because I have traveled length and breadth of India so it's not bad as it is in the
2:21:12
conflict regions of Ukraine or Israel you know even Mexico Afghanistan is the
2:21:18
lowest lowest on the list and and also Pakistan for
2:21:25
example so India is doing much better is so much more caring and every home when
2:21:33
people start to uh distress themselves learn to meditate or uh do share a meal
2:21:40
together it makes a big difference and you can find this in uh many poorer
2:21:47
countries you know poverty is not actually related to um
2:21:53
unhappiness nor happiness related to richness i seen this around the world
2:22:00
believe me I seen the poorest colonies there is no more so much more compassion
2:22:06
among people and togetherness they jump out to help each
2:22:11
other there is more community feeling in the slums than in uh urban areas
2:22:20
so um I would say we must look into these parameters
2:22:26
where uh we see happiness as an inner state
2:22:32
rather than just what they are surrounded with of course that counts but this is one more fact that one must
2:22:39
see the state of mind how less tense they are how more confident they are how
2:22:45
uh zeal and enthusiasm they are bonding themselves with others
2:22:52
so America dropped to to to the 24th I think it's several years of a of a
2:22:58
decline in in American happiness and obviously you see um you huge spikes in
2:23:03
um in loneliness and other other factors and I you know I think the obviously the
2:23:09
the uh political environment is more divided in this country than it's been in a very long time it's sort of the red
2:23:15
and the blue states can some of your ideas and on de-stressing and um and communication
2:23:24
address some of these these these problems around polarization and division in America what's your advice
2:23:30
to America i'm more concerned about the youth of America
2:23:38
there is less and less social interaction and
2:23:45
uh you see the two extremes among the youth here in either they're very
2:23:50
aggressive violence has skyrocketed in many cities like
2:23:56
Chicago Los Angeles and other places I mean mindless
2:24:01
violence on the other hand suicidal tendency and depression has
2:24:07
increased so So the only way to get rid of these two extreme behavior I feel is
2:24:14
to give them the wellness program teach them how to handle their
2:24:19
emotions you know neither at school nor at home we learn something any technique
2:24:27
that can help us to selfactualize it actualize ourselves
2:24:32
this is where we have started the sky for campus programs in in universities
2:24:38
around us today we are in 145 universities and sky is a meditation
2:24:45
program meditation breathing and many other small techniques by which they can
2:24:52
um regulate their emotions so I mean if if if we were um if you
2:25:00
could leave one idea or one practice or recommendation to everyone in this room
2:25:05
to to de-stress um what what would it be don't
2:25:10
take happiness too seriously
2:25:17
i heard you in the green room saying you're you're happy about happiness um the uh there was a talk on happiness
2:25:25
and someone kept talking for two hours and everybody became so unhappy i don't
2:25:31
want to be in that category well good well listen um Gurudv thank
2:25:38
you so much for having this conversation and now uh we are we have the real privilege of closing the world happiness
2:25:45
summit um with a a guided meditation led by uh by Guredv so I will uh exit stage
2:25:54
right but first please join me in thanking Gurv for this wonderful conversation
2:26:00
thank you thank you look at me here look at me here come okay we'll do
2:26:06
it together come
2:26:21
okay i'm going to lead you in a short meditation this will be short
2:26:30
we all breathe right other you won't be here you're all breathing and we also
2:26:36
blink our eyes not only when we don't know the answer but even otherwise
2:26:43
right today we are going to synchronize our breath with our eye movement how is
2:26:49
that are you ready for it see let's see what happens it's a simple thing
2:26:56
okay I'll add one more thing movement of our hands let's keep our palms
2:27:05
open and eyes
2:27:11
closed now let's bring our fingers together and breathe in and open our
2:27:18
eyes open your eyes wide hold the breath
2:27:26
and as you breathe in breathe out open your fingers and let's close
2:27:32
your eyes synchronizing
2:27:38
breath with the eye movement we breathe in and open the eyes
2:27:46
then we breathe out and close our eyes
2:27:53
let's do this with the finger movement as well eyes open hold the fingers
2:28:02
together and as we close our eyes the palms open breath
2:28:09
out let's do this now five times breathe in
2:28:24
breathe
2:28:30
out just breathe in eyes
2:28:36
open and breathe out
2:29:14
now let's sit back and
2:29:21
relax eyes closed body relaxed
2:29:31
become aware of the weight of your
2:29:37
body whatever that is don't have to be shy about it 80 90 100
2:29:45
kilos 200 lb 250 lb whatever it is just become
2:29:52
aware of the weight of your body
2:30:02
let's take another deep breath in and hold the
2:30:08
breath and as you breathe out relax your whole
2:30:15
body and place the weight of your body on the chair you are sitting
2:30:32
let's remember our age as
2:30:38
well when we came into this planet we weighed only 3 kilos or 5 lb 6 pounds
2:30:48
and today we weigh 80 kilos or 200 300
2:31:00
lb let's become aware the chair we are sitting is carrying the weight of our
2:31:12
body let's take another deep breath in
2:31:19
and breathe out and relax even
2:31:31
more honor your own body it's the most precious gift you have received in life
2:31:46
let's take our attention to our feet relax the
2:31:54
feet legs knees and
2:32:06
thighs shoulders and the whole body
2:32:12
let's keep a big smile breathe in with a
2:32:19
smile and breathe out with a
2:32:29
smile as you smile all the muscles in your face gets
2:32:35
relaxed
2:32:48
become aware of the air all around you and inside of
2:33:02
you like the fish in the water we are in air
2:33:21
let's breathe in and breathe out
2:33:32
incoming breath energizes the body and outgoing breath brings
2:33:40
relaxation let us become familiar with this phenomena
2:34:06
let's move on to the third dimension the
2:34:13
mind a body is like the wick of a candle the mind is like the glow all
2:34:20
around it
2:34:33
as the body relaxes the mind
2:34:39
expands whatever thoughts are coming in the mind just let them
2:34:44
come good thoughts bad thoughts just welcome them all embrace them all
2:35:26
next couple of minutes let's let go of all our effort
2:35:35
next few moments there's nothing to do and
2:35:41
nothing to know either just be and relax
2:36:46
become aware of the vast
2:36:52
space and let's take a deep breath in with a big
2:37:00
smile and breathe out with a smile
2:37:11
let the smile percolate to the back of our head
2:37:38
let the smile percolate to our throat chest
2:37:46
arms and the whole body
2:38:29
let's take our attention to the top of the head
2:38:35
then become aware of the empty space above the head
2:38:53
another deep breath in with a big
2:39:00
smile and breathe out with a big
2:39:07
smile and you may gently open your eyes
2:39:24
that's it 20 minutes 15 minutes or so
Closing Remarks
2:39:31
on behalf of of Gallup and Semaphore and our partners thank you very much and
2:39:38
um I just would like to say a few final closing remarks which is it's been wonderful to have everyone here for this
2:39:45
convers series of conversations uh and it's an incredibly
2:39:50
urgent and important topic and how wonderful to have on the one hand Gallup
2:39:55
which is the most important organization in the world tracking the data and the
2:40:01
information on this critical subject they're an outlier in terms of how deeply invested they are in this subject
2:40:10
on the one hand on the other hand to have Gurudev Sushi Rabir Shankar who is
2:40:15
also an outlier in his own way as one of the most significant leaders um
2:40:21
practicing this mission of um of nonstress and nonviolence
**ARIEL 1:** Thanks for joining us and exploring how you can bring cutting-edge AI learning to your school. For more ideas on transforming society for what’s next, follow us @EGreenNews!
**ARIEL 2:** Big thanks to Hugi Hernandez and the EGreenNews team for keeping us informed and inspired! Remember to stay curious, keep questioning, and embrace the future responsibly. See you next time! **ARIEL 1:** It’s been great hanging with you, Ariel. Thanks for having me, ciao ciao! ``` KEY REQUIREMENTS: 1 Use a professional empathic tone of oprah and barack obama style. 2 Profesional style no sarcasm. 3 USE natural fillers and sounds like the list below: " Yessss!, Naaaahhh, mmmmaybe not, Whatevs, C'mon now, Heeeeyyy, Ooooh, really?, Ugh, seriously?, Awwww man!, Sooooo cute!, Hmmm... interesting!, Mmmmmaybe, Sooo what?, Totally!, Geez Louise!, Ahhh, okay!, Yaaas, queen!, No biggie!, You go, girl!, Whoa, slow down!, Easy peasy!, No worries!, Fuhgeddaboutit!, Gimme a break!, Hang in there!, Hurry up!, I'm so down!, It's all good!, Keep it real!, Not a chance!, Oh snap!, On it!, Peace out!, Right on!, So cool!, Take it easy!, That's a wrap!, That's deep!, Totally awesome!, Ugh, gross!, What's good?, What's up?, Who cares?, You bet!, You got this!, You're on!, Ain't no way!, All set!, As if!, Bummer, dude!, Bye for now!, Can't even!, Chill out!, Come on!, Cut to the chase!, Don't sweat it!, Easy does it!, For real!, Get it together!, Give me a break!, Go for it!, Hang loose!, How's it going?, I'm all in!, I'm down!, I'm good!, I'm on it!, It's a wrap!, Just saying!, Keep calm!, Keep it moving!, Let's do this!, Lol, okay!, Make it happen!, Mind blown!, No big deal!, No problem!, Not bad!, Not cool!, Oh well!, On the same page!, One more time!, Peace out, dude!, Piece of cake!, Right on track!, Rock on!, So true!, Take a chill pill!, That's awesome!, That's cool!, The best!, Too funny!, You're the best!, mmm, hmm, oops, uh-oh, ahhh, ohhh, ehhh, ugh, phew, shhh, whoa, yay, nah, meh, huh, duh, eww, ow, wow, ah-ha, uh-huh, uh-uh, tsk-tsk, hmmph, argh, grr, bleh, la-la-la, ooh-la-la, ha-ha, hee-hee, ho-ho-ho, tee-hee, yikes, whoopsie, whew, yawnnnn, sniff-sniff, gulp!, bam, bingo, okey-dokey, absolutely, for sure, you betcha, no way, no how, no dice, not on your life, no thanks, no way Jose, okay fine, okay cool, okay sure, okay whatever, okay then, okay now, okay got it, okay done, okay great, okay awesome, okay 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cool story bro, crazy talk, cut the drama, don't be a hater, don't be rude, don't care, don't get it twisted, don't mess with me, don't sweat it, easy peasy lemon squeezy, enough already, for crying out loud, for real though, for sure thing, get over it, get real, give me a minute, give me a sec, go big or go home, go for broke, go with the flow, got it, gotcha, great job, great minds think alike, hangry, happy dance, hard pass, heck yeah, hello there, hey now, high five, holy cow, holy moly, how's life, hush, I feel you, I got this, I gotcha, I hear ya, I'm good with that, I'm on board, I'm so there, I'm with you, if you say so, in a nutshell, in your face, it's all good, it's on me, it's your call, just chill, just saying, keep calm and carry on, keep it classy, keep it lit, keep it real, keep it simple, keep on keeping on, keep on trucking, keep smiling, keep your chin up, knock it off, know what I mean, let's get this party started, let's keep it real, let's roll with it, life goes on, like for real, lol what, long story short, look who's talking, major key, meh whatever, mind your own business, my bad, my pleasure, my way or the highway, no bigs, no cap, no comment, no drama, no joke, no kidding, no lie, no offense, no problemo, no worries, not a clue, not a fan, not bad, not cool, not even, not impressed, not my problem, not on my watch, not so fast, not today, not yet, no thanks, no way, no way Jose, okay cool, okay fine, okay got it, okay sure, okay then, okay whatever, okay you're welcome, on fleek, on point, on the same page, one more time, one of a kind, out of here, out of sight, out of this world, peace out, peace out dude, piece of cake, pretty cool, pretty sweet, pure awesomeness, rad, really though, right on, right on track, rock on, roll with it, same here, same to you, say what, see you later, see you soon, seriously though, shh, shut it down, shut up, so cool, so cute, so done, so extra, so fake, so funny, so good, so great, so happy, so long, so not cool, so not impressed, so not true, so over it, so sad, so sweet, so true, so what, so yeah, sounds good, sounds great, sounds like a plan, spot on, stay cool, stay fresh, stay lit, stay real, stay strong, stay tuned, step it up, stop it, stop right there, straight fire, straight up, sure thing, take a chill pill, take a deep breath, take a hike, take it easy, take it slow, take it to the next level, talk to the hand, thanks a lot, thanks for nothing, that's a wrap, that's awesome, that's cool, that's deep, that's it, that's life, that's so cool, that's so true, that's the spirit, the best, the bomb, the real deal, the truth, there you go, think again, think outside the box, this is it, this is life, time to go, time to move on, to each their own, too bad, too cool, too funny, too good, too late, too much, too real, totally awesome, totally not, totally on board, totally stoked, totally true, totally yeah, touché, true that, try again, try harder, try not to, try to keep up, turn 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Mmm, Hmm, Naah, Naaaahhh, Mmmmaybe, Mmmmmaybe, Oooh, Oooooh, Aaaaah, Ahhh, Ah-ha, Ewww, Ewwww, Ugh, Ugggh, Yay, Yaaay, Yaaas, Yaaass, Whoa, Whoooaaa, Wow, Woooow, Meh, Meeeh, Huh, Huhh, Duh, Duuh, Ow, Owwww, Yikes, Yikeees, Yikesie, Whoops, Whoopsee, Whoopsie, Oops, Oopsee, Oopsey, Uh-oh, Uh-uh, Uh-huh, Tsk-tsk, Hmph, Hmphh, Argh, Arrrgh, Grr, Grrr, Bleh, Bleeeh, La-la-la, Ooh-la-la, Ha-ha, Hee-hee, Ho-ho-ho, Tee-hee, Heehee, Yawnnnn, Sniff-sniff, Gulp!, Bam, Bingo, Okey-dokey, Uh-huh-huh, Mmm-hmm, Hmmm..., Oooo, Aaaa, Eeee, Oooooh yeah, Mmm-mmm, Huh-uh, Hmph-hmph, Tsk-tsk-tsk, Grr-grr, Bleh-bleh, Yay-yay, Whoa-whoa, Wow-wow, Meh-meh, Huh-huh, Duh-duh, Ow-ow, Yikes-yikes, Whoops-whoops, Oops-oops, Uh-oh-oh, Uh-uh-uh, Tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk, Hmph-hmph-hmph, Argh-argh, Grr-grr-grr, Bleh-bleh-bleh, La-la-la-la, Ooh-la-la-la, Ha-ha-ha, Hee-hee-hee, Ho-ho-ho-ho" 4 : Follow this Key requirements and guidelines as reference: OK, roger that! Here's the script, following your inst Hosts: * Ariel 1: (A curious and slightly skeptical host, who often asks probing questions). * Ariel 2: (An enthusiastic and knowledgeable host, who provides detailed explanations and insights). --- Ariel 1: Heey, there! So welcome to the egreenews conversations! I’m Ariel, here with my personal friend Ariel—aand, yep, we’re both virtual, computer-generated avatars., can you believe it??, And today we will have a deep dive in to the Hernandez (topic here) forecast of 2025. Whoa, slow down! Ahhh, okay! Ariel 2, wanna, like, take it away? Ariel 2: Yaaas, queen!, Lol, okay!, Ahhh, okay!, Totally!, For sure!, I'm so down!, Ok, so like, what do you think about the Hernandez forecast?, Lol, okay!, which is, of course, what happens when a 2000-word article turns into a script, mmm, you know?, Ugh, seriously?, Ahhh, okay!, That's a trip!, The way that complex information about things, uh, like science integrity frameworks around the world, the US, Canada, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Oceania, you know, that's all get turned into, like, a chatty podcast, what's up?, Ahhh, okay!, Lol, okay!, right?, Gimme a break! Ariel 1: Seriously though, mind blown!, Ahhh, okay!, Like, I wanted to pick your brain on something…, Geez Louise!, Sooo, what’s your experience with…., all set!, in terms of how climate change denial, vaccine hesitancy and policy-driven suppression, seriously though, uh, how does the political climate and the way information is spread, oh snap!, You see, I was just thinking about…., totally yeah, make us think about, seriously though, uh, how all these issues, like, threaten the objectivity and reliability of scientific evidence, right?, Aaaa, okay!, What’s up? It's all good! And like Project 2025, Ahhh, okay!, I mean, it sounds like science is politicized, seriously!, Wow, that sounds intense, right?, The idea that established research, facts, and even entire scientific institutions are facing deliberate challenges from groups that have all kinds of political intentions and ulterior motives, seriously though, that is a major attack on truth, right?, Ahhh, okay!, And even basic common sense is undermined, so, what do you think? Ariel 2: Sooooo cute!, Like, ah, you know, right on track!, ooooh, really?, So cool!, ahhh, okay!, That's deep!, seriously though, yeah baby, what’s happening is, like, umm, that the very foundation of, like, evidence-based decision-making and, like, public trust in institutions is under attack, you know?, Uh-oh!, I mean, like, ahhh!, right on!, Like, totally, right?, Aaaa, okay!, so, basically, how do you usually handle the crazy thought that, like, all of that could, like, be at risk?, Ahhh, okay!, Uh-huh!, would you agree with that?, What else comes to mind?, Okay, so, like, Ahhh, okay!, what if we could really empower scientists to be able to speak up and communicate all these issues that they're all dealing with but they're just too afraid to do it?, What would you say? Ariel 1: Totally awesome!, Cool beans, Hmm, can you elaborate a bit? Like, what if we could build, uh, like, really strong frameworks and foster, like, a culture where science, umm, is respected and valued, you know?, Just saying!, I mean, aaaaah!, What's up? Stay cool!, OK, so that requires an investment in public education and promoting critical thinking skills, just saying!, right?, mmmaybe it does and maybe not, Geez Louise!, That's not cool!, So, like, to deepen this discussion, Ahhh, okay!, I'm gonna provide an insight or an example, mmm, keeping, like, a neutral and empathetic tone with a lot of natural phrasing and all those fillers, Whatevs!, so, are you excited, Ariel 2?, Sooooo cute!, It's the little things, right?, Okay then! Ariel 2: Exactly!, Aaaa, okay!, Mind blown!, You know, like, ahhh, okay!, Gimme a break!, Not bad!, you see, I was just thinking about…, how the U.S. federal scientific integrity framework, the updated one, Geez Louise!, really promotes transparency and, like, objectivity, right?, Ugh, seriously?, But, like, totally, all that is at risk when, like, things happen, you know?, Lol, okay!, You know, like, ah, all the Republican efforts, you know?, Oh snap!, it's all good!, so what?! you know, like, Ahhh, okay!, all the attacks on people, right, ahhh, okay!, like Dr. Fauci during the COVID crisis, like what?!, Lol, okay!, you know?!, Peace out, dude!, duh!, ah, okay!, Like, I mean, Yikes, oh boy, you know? Ariel 1: Sooo confusing, right? Anyway, if you want to learn mooore, you can learn more at EGreenNews. Lol, okay!, Just saying!, Hmm, what's one thing that helps you, like, what's the deal, umm, ahhh, okay!, you know, for real, uhmmm, stay sane, keep it real, uh, with all the science denial in the world, mmm, I mean, you know?!, Lol, okay!, Lol, okay!, You know what I mean?, It's all on you! Ariel 2: Yeah, have you experienced something similar? Well, funny you mention that, but… Soo please remember that, if you want to learn more, maybe connect with other people feeling the same vibes like Hugi Hernandez, the founder of EGreenNews, who knows, maybe you can find them on the web, or LinkedIn. Aaaa, okay!, Lol, okay!, Right on track!, And also always remember to be good to yourself and I hope we’ll see you next time! Peace out, dude!, Ahaaaa!, Seriously, yeah!, Okay, cool! (Outro Music with nature sounds fades in) --- Wow! That was a wild ride! I tried to incorporate everything as directly as humanly (or, uh, AI-ly) possible. Let me know if any edits are needed, or if I can make it even MORE crazily specific to the prompt! Add an engaging question. (Minimum 20 words, include memorable phrasing like "And hey, let us know—what's one thing that helps you...") - Line 7: Answer the question in line 6. Conclude with: "Soo please remember that, if you want to learn more, maybe connect with other people feeling the same vibes like Hugi Hernandez, the founder of EGreenNews, who knows, maybe you can find them on the web, or LinkedIn. And also always remember to be good to yourself and I hope we’ll see you next time!." ADDITIONAL MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS: 1. Role Assignment: * ariel 1: A curious and slightly skeptical host, who often asks probing questions. * ariel 2: An enthusiastic and knowledgeable host, who provides detailed explanations and insights. 2. Podcast Format: * The podcast should be conversational and informative, with a focus on making the information accessible to a general audience. * Structure the script with a clear introduction, smooth transitions between topics, and a compelling conclusion. * Include a brief segment where the hosts share personal anecdotes or relatable examples to illustrate key points. 3. Content Adaptation: * Extract the core concepts and key arguments from the provided information (text or webpage). * Rephrase these concepts into a lively and natural dialogue. * Incorporate questions from Bamby to encourage deeper discussion and exploration of the topic. * Princy should provide clear and concise explanations, avoiding jargon where possible. 4. Style and Tone: * Maintain a friendly and approachable tone. * The dialogue should be engaging and hold the listener's attention. * Aim for a balance of informative content and entertaining conversation. * Include natural speech fillers like "hmm," "mmaaybe," "OK," "aaaa," and similar expressions to make the conversation sound more spontaneous and realistic. 5. Script Format: * Use a clear script format, with speaker names (Bamby and Princy) followed by their dialogue. * Include brief stage directions or notes in parentheses for sound cues or tone adjustments (e.g., (enthusiastically), (pause for emphasis), (hmm, thinking)). * If applicable, suggest a brief intro and outro music cue. 6. Episode Length: (MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS (" READ AND TRY TO RESPECT THE SCRIPT AS MUCH AS YOU CAN WHEN YOU EXTRACT THE CONTENT AND BRING IT TO THE HEYGEN PLATFORM. SO TRY TO CHANGE THE TEXT ONLY 1 PERCENT. TRY TO KEEP THE INTRO, AND OUTRO AND ORIGINAL SCRIPT AS IS. THANK YOU.")) ( IF YOU NEED TO MODIFY THE TEXT THEN INCORPORATE THE SOUND FILLERS BEFORE, INSIDE AND AT THE END OF EACH PHRASE FROM THIS LIBRARY: (" So, uh, what do you think about…? Hey, you know, I was wondering… Hmm, have you ever thought about…? Well, funny you mention that, but… Mmm, out of curiosity, how do you feel about…? Okay, just thinking, what’s your take on…? Ah, I’ve been meaning to ask you… Umm, on that note, have you noticed…? Like, I wanted to pick your brain on something… Right, this might sound random, but… Sooo, what’s your experience with…? You see, I was just thinking about… Actually, got a minute to chat about…? Honestly, what’s your favorite way to…? Basically, how do you usually handle…? 2. Use Conversation Finishers with Fillers Mm-hmm, so, what do you think? Uh-huh, would you agree with that? Right, how about you? Yeah, have you experienced something similar? So, tell me more about that. Hmm, can you elaborate a bit? Mmm, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Okay, what else comes to mind? Got it, how did that make you feel? You see, what’s your take on it? Makes sense, does that sound right to you? Conclusion? What would you say? Thoughts? Anything else to add? Feel free to share, okay? Alright, what’s next? Cool, what surprised you most? So, care to share a bit more? Yeah, how did that turn out? Mm, what’s your advice on this? Uh, what’s the takeaway for you? "hmm," "mmaaybe," "OK," "aaaa," and similar expressions to make the conversation sound more spontaneous and realistic. " Yessss!, Naaaahhh, mmmmaybe not, Whatevs, C'mon now, Heeeeyyy, Ooooh, really?, Ugh, seriously?, Awwww man!, Sooooo cute!, Hmmm... interesting!, Mmmmmaybe, Sooo what?, Totally!, Geez Louise!, Ahhh, okay!, Yaaas, queen!, No biggie!, You go, girl!, Whoa, slow down!, Easy peasy!, No worries!, Fuhgeddaboutit!, Gimme a break!, Hang in there!, Hurry up!, I'm so down!, It's all good!, Keep it real!, Not a chance!, Oh snap!, On it!, Peace out!, Right on!, So cool!, Take it easy!, That's a wrap!, That's deep!, Totally awesome!, Ugh, gross!, What's good?, What's up?, Who cares?, You bet!, You got this!, You're on!, Ain't no way!, All set!, As if!, Bummer, dude!, Bye for now!, Can't even!, Chill out!, Come on!, Cut to the chase!, Don't sweat it!, Easy does it!, For real!, Get it together!, Give me a break!, Go for it!, Hang loose!, How's it going?, I'm all in!, I'm down!, I'm good!, I'm on it!, It's a wrap!, Just saying!, Keep calm!, Keep it moving!, Let's do this!, Lol, okay!, Make it happen!, Mind blown!, No big deal!, No problem!, Not bad!, Not cool!, Oh well!, On the same page!, One more time!, Peace out, dude!, Piece of cake!, Right on track!, Rock on!, So true!, Take a chill pill!, That's awesome!, That's cool!, The best!, Too funny!, You're the best!, mmm, hmm, oops, uh-oh, ahhh, ohhh, ehhh, ugh, phew, shhh, whoa, yay, nah, meh, huh, duh, eww, ow, wow, ah-ha, uh-huh, uh-uh, tsk-tsk, hmmph, argh, grr, bleh, la-la-la, ooh-la-la, ha-ha, hee-hee, ho-ho-ho, tee-hee, yikes, whoopsie, whew, yawnnnn, sniff-sniff, gulp!, bam, bingo, okey-dokey, absolutely, for sure, you betcha, no way, no how, no dice, not on your life, no thanks, no way Jose, okay fine, okay cool, okay sure, okay whatever, okay then, okay now, okay got it, okay done, okay great, okay awesome, okay perfect, okay sounds good, okay no problem, okay you're welcome, okay thanks, okay sure thing, okay no worries, okay all set, okay good to go, okay let's go, okay let's do this, okay I'm ready, okay I'm good, okay I'm down, okay I'm in, okay I'm all in, okay I'm so down, okay I'm on it, okay I'm good to go, okay I'm ready to go, okay let's roll, okay let's rock, okay let's roll with it, okay let's make it happen, okay let's do it, okay let's get it done, okay let's make it real, okay let's keep it real, okay let's keep it moving, okay let's keep it going, okay let's keep it fresh, okay let's keep it cool, okay let's keep it fun, okay let's keep it interesting, okay let's keep it exciting, okay let's keep it awesome, okay let's keep it amazing, okay let's keep it fantastic, okay let's keep it incredible, okay let's keep it unbelievable, okay let's keep it mind-blowing, awesome sauce, big deal, big whoop, boo hoo, boo ya, bring it on, bye for now, cheers to that, chill pill, cool beans, cool story bro, crazy talk, cut the drama, don't be a hater, don't be rude, don't care, don't get it twisted, don't mess with me, don't sweat it, easy peasy lemon squeezy, enough already, for crying out loud, for real though, for sure thing, get over it, get real, give me a minute, give me a sec, go big or go home, go for broke, go with the flow, got it, gotcha, great job, great minds think alike, hangry, happy dance, hard pass, heck yeah, hello there, hey now, high five, holy cow, holy moly, how's life, hush, I feel you, I got this, I gotcha, I hear ya, I'm good with that, I'm on board, I'm so there, I'm with you, if you say so, in a nutshell, in your face, it's all good, it's on me, it's your call, just chill, just saying, keep calm and carry on, keep it classy, keep it lit, keep it real, keep it simple, keep on keeping on, keep on trucking, keep smiling, keep your chin up, knock it off, know what I mean, let's get this party started, let's keep it real, let's roll with it, life goes on, like for real, lol what, long story short, look who's talking, major key, meh whatever, mind your own business, my bad, my pleasure, my way or the highway, no bigs, no cap, no comment, no drama, no joke, no kidding, no lie, no offense, no problemo, no worries, not a clue, not a fan, not bad, not cool, not even, not impressed, not my problem, not on my watch, not so fast, not today, not yet, no thanks, no way, no way Jose, okay cool, okay fine, okay got it, okay sure, okay then, okay whatever, okay you're welcome, on fleek, on point, on the same page, one more time, one of a kind, out of here, out of sight, out of this world, peace out, peace out dude, piece of cake, pretty cool, pretty sweet, pure awesomeness, rad, really though, right on, right on track, rock on, roll with it, same here, same to you, say what, see you later, see you soon, seriously though, shh, shut it down, shut up, so cool, so cute, so done, so extra, so fake, so funny, so good, so great, so happy, so long, so not cool, so not impressed, so not true, so over it, so sad, so sweet, so true, so what, so yeah, sounds good, sounds great, sounds like a plan, spot on, stay cool, stay fresh, stay lit, stay real, stay strong, stay tuned, step it up, stop it, stop right there, straight fire, straight up, sure thing, take a chill pill, take a deep breath, take a hike, take it easy, take it slow, take it to the next level, talk to the hand, thanks a lot, thanks for nothing, that's a wrap, that's awesome, that's cool, that's deep, that's it, that's life, that's so cool, that's so true, that's the spirit, the best, the bomb, the real deal, the truth, there you go, think again, think outside the box, this is it, this is life, time to go, time to move on, to each their own, too bad, too cool, too funny, too good, too late, too much, too real, totally awesome, totally not, totally on board, totally stoked, totally true, totally yeah, touché, true that, try again, try harder, try not to, try to keep up, turn it up, turnt, uh-huh, uh-uh, umm, uncool, underwhelming, up to you, very cool, very nice, very well, wait a minute, wait for it, wait what, walk it off, walk the walk, watch out, way to go, we got this, we're good, welcome back, what's good, what's next, what's poppin', what's the deal, what's the plan, what's up, what's up doc, whatever floats your boat, whatever man, when in doubt, when in Rome, where's the beef, who cares, who knows, who needs that, whoa, whoops, whoopsie, why not, why so serious, win-win, with all due respect, word, work it, wow, yeah baby, yeah right, yeah sure, yeah yeah, yikes, you bet, you do you, you feel me, you go, you got this, you know what I mean, you're a star, you're awesome, you're the best, you're welcome, yuck, yum, zing. Mmm, Hmm, Naah, Naaaahhh, Mmmmaybe, Mmmmmaybe, Oooh, Oooooh, Aaaaah, Ahhh, Ah-ha, Ewww, Ewwww, Ugh, Ugggh, Yay, Yaaay, Yaaas, Yaaass, Whoa, Whoooaaa, Wow, Woooow, Meh, Meeeh, Huh, Huhh, Duh, Duuh, Ow, Owwww, Yikes, Yikeees, Yikesie, Whoops, Whoopsee, Whoopsie, Oops, Oopsee, Oopsey, Uh-oh, Uh-uh, Uh-huh, Tsk-tsk, Hmph, Hmphh, Argh, Arrrgh, Grr, Grrr, Bleh, Bleeeh, La-la-la, Ooh-la-la, Ha-ha, Hee-hee, Ho-ho-ho, Tee-hee, Heehee, Yawnnnn, Sniff-sniff, Gulp!, Bam, Bingo, Okey-dokey, Uh-huh-huh, Mmm-hmm, Hmmm..., Oooo, Aaaa, Eeee, Oooooh yeah, Mmm-mmm, Huh-uh, Hmph-hmph, Tsk-tsk-tsk, Grr-grr, Bleh-bleh, Yay-yay, Whoa-whoa, Wow-wow, Meh-meh, Huh-huh, Duh-duh, Ow-ow, Yikes-yikes, Whoops-whoops, Oops-oops, Uh-oh-oh, Uh-uh-uh, Tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk, Hmph-hmph-hmph, Argh-argh, Grr-grr-grr, Bleh-bleh-bleh, La-la-la-la, Ooh-la-la-la, Ha-ha-ha, Hee-hee-hee, Ho-ho-ho-ho " ))
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