happiness

What makes a country "happy"?

What makes a country "happy"?

In case you missed it, March 20 was the annual International Day of Happiness. This little-publicized event was established by the UN in 2006, but the first International Day of happiness was first celebrated in 2013. It coincides with the World Happiness report…and guess which country came out on top…again.

The Happiest Nation on Earth

World to the Wise Podcast

The country of Denmark has topped the World Happiness Report every year except one since 2012. While we could debate about what kinds of definitions and metrics are used to measure something as intangible as happiness, it is nonetheless a noteworthy distinction. So what makes Danes so happy? This is one of several questions we put to this week's guest, Jens DuPont, an independent business consultant who takes great joy in helping companies learn to think more creatively. It turns out that creativity is apparently in his genes; as you'll hear, Denmark has gone to great lengths to encourage and foster creativity in just about every sphere of life.

We also talked about an important word in the Danish vocabulary: hygge (pron. hu-geh). You'll have to listen to find out what it means and why it is so important in Danish culture.

You'll hear a book mentioned: The Year of Living Danishly, which you can check out here:

I hope you enjoy meeting Jens!