26 November 2025 · 00:55:07
From Global to Local: Redefining Progress with Helena Norberg-Hodge
Guest: Helena Norberg-Hodge
Episode 38 · 00:55:07
From Global to Local: Redefining Progress with Helena Norberg-Hodge
Show notes
In this episode of We Need to Act, host Sara Rego speaks with Helena Norberg-Hodge—one of the world’s most influential voices on localization and the new economy movement.
Helena Norberg-Hodge, linguist, author, filmmaker, and pioneer of the global localization movement, is the founder and director of Local Futures and the convenor of World Localization Day and the Planet Local Summit. She is the author of the classic Ancient Futures and Local Is Our Future, and producer of the award-winning documentaries The Economics of Happiness, Planet Local, and Closer to Home. She also founded the International Alliance for Localization and co-founded both the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Ecovillage Network. Her work has been recognized with the Alternative Nobel Prize, the Arthur Morgan Award, and the Goi Peace Prize for her contributions to cultural and biological diversity and the strengthening of local communities worldwide.
Together, Sara and Helena explore how globalization undermines well-being, why local economies create happier and healthier societies, and what we can do to restore community, meaning, and democratic power. They discuss the importance of feminine values in healing our fractured world, the dangers of centralized technological systems, and the joy that comes from rebuilding relationships—with each other and with nature.
A hopeful, human-centered conversation about reclaiming our future through localization and the economics of happiness.
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