The Happy Pear Podcast

As the first guest of our new season titled Community, we are delighted to give you “Mother Earth” herself – Helena Norberg-Hodge.

To say we were blown away is an understatement – Dave announced at least three times that he was her new biggest fan!

Episode 20 – Helena Norberg-Hodge

Helena is a pioneer of the new economy movement and recipient of the Alternative Nobel prize, the Arthur Morgan Award and the Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.” She is author of the inspirational classic Ancient Futures, and Local is Our Future (2019), and producer of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness. 
The impact of the global market on food and farming has been a focus of Helena’s work for almost 40 years, including two books (From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture and Bringing the Food Economy Home: Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness, as well as a Local Food Toolkit, which won a prestigious UK award for investigative journalism.

She is the founder and director of Local Futures and The International Alliance for Localisation, and a founding member of the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture, the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Ecovillage Network.

Helena speaks with such wisdom and compassion. Her response to the destruction globalisation has had by way of media, food production etc.. and the impact it has had on businesses and individuals, is truly inspiring. 

“I really wish before I die that we wake up to look at the bigger picture, which is the bigger system that has essentially imprisoned us and kept us running faster and faster, and as we are running faster and faster we are becoming more and more disconnected internally. We are becoming more and more disconnected from others and from nature, from the land…”

There is so much we can learn from Helena, one podcast episode isn’t enough! We need to rethink how we have been programmed in order to recognise the flaws and make the necessary changes to save our own health and the health of our planet. 

This episode is the perfect start to kick off our series on Community. It leaves you wanting to learn more, which we aim to help you with, with our line of equally amazing and inspiring guests.

Each speaker has their own unique experience and wisdom to share with us on a variety of topics, from indigenous tribes to the Blue Zones (areas with the most centenarians), building your own community, farming, and local economics. We cover it all!

Stay tuned each Wednesday for the next episode.

Big love,

Dave & Steve