Happiness Rules: Should Wellbeing Dictate Government Policy? (Lord Richard Layard)

About this episode

Amol Rajan discusses the importance of happiness and wellbeing in government policy with Lord Richard Layard.

This week, Amol sits down with Lord Richard Layard, the author, economist, and Labour peer who has spent decades making the case for happiness and wellbeing. He successfully helped implement talking therapy to the NHS, and was a key figure in persuading the UK government to measure wellbeing. But he wants to go further - in this conversation, Lord Layard outlines why he wants happiness to become the main objective of all government policy, and argues that this radical change would even pay for itself. But what actually are happiness and wellbeing? How can we make ourselves happier? And why are young people less happy than ever before? GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: [email protected] Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Monday and Thursday. Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper. Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray and Oscar Pearson. Technical production was by Jonny Baker. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. The series producer is Rufus Gray.

People in this episode

Host: Amol Rajan

Guest: Lord Richard Layard

Topics covered

• happiness
• wellbeing
• government policy
• mental health
• young people's happiness

Keywords

• happiness
• wellbeing
• government policy
• Lord Richard Layard
• NHS
• mental health
• young people

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NHS, UK government, BBC Radio 4, University Challenge, The Independent

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