James Rickardson

speaker

278 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2019 last heard Jul 2019

James Rickardson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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All In The Mind · On happiness—notes from prison · 21 Jul 2019 podcast

I mean it'd be very difficult to run a consumer society if everybody was happy, 'cause who'd buy the new latest new iPhone?

Yes.

I think all that somebody like myself who's had this experience can do is as honestly as possible and without guilding the lily and without making it seem as if it was all kind of wonderful fun being in jail, is just to talk to people, to young people in particular, about how strong they are and how much stronger they probably are than they think they are.

Even though I'm a bit leery of the words happy and happiness, 'cause I think they're a bit shop worn, basically, 'cause there are all sorts of other experiences that we have, like joy, contentment, pleasure, satisfaction.

There's a whole range of different experiences we have.

And happiness is not, I think, the best of them all.

But still it's a it's a word that everybody understands.

I think the questions are

What is it that makes us happy?

Is our happiness contingent on the circumstances of our lives, like if we live in a nice house, if we have a nice car, if we have plenty of possessions or anything?

Or is it something that kind of bubbles up from within us?

Is it something that some of us are born with, with a certain potential to be happy?

I mean, I think I was born lucky in many ways, but I think I was lucky to be born with a kind of an optimistic

outlook on life.

And I've got very good friends who were not born with an optimistic outlook but with a pessimistic outlook.

And I don't think that that's something that they are responsible for.

I think it's just something that happens.

I'm curious to know

And this is a subject I don't know nearly enough about at the moment.

But I'm curious to know about what role hormones play in our happiness because clearly they they rule our lives in all sorts of ways.

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