Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod Special: The Happiest Country in the World

Episode Date: June 15, 2024

This week's edition comes from Finland, the country repeatedly crowned the happiest in the world, and the Helsinki Happiness Hacks event introduced people - selected from thousands of applicants across the globe - to Finns willing to share the secrets of their contentment. These include skateboarding, dancing with friends, messy art, walking barefoot, ice cream for breakfast, and of course, a sauna. And we explore how happiness is measured and why a dose of pessimism doesn’t preclude happiness.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. Hello, we're in the capital of the happiest country in the world, a fount of world happiness, if you will. Where better to record the happy pod for the BBC World Service.

I'm Jackie Leonard, and in this edition, uploaded on Saturday the 15th of June... Helsinki Happiness Days! Finland has been crowned the happiest country in the world for the seventh year running, and a lot of people want to share in that. So Finland has invited people from around the world to take part in a five-day masterclass in happiness. The hack is there is no hack. Happiness is all around you, and all you have to do is look because it's right in front of you. Surprise, it's there.

We've been following the happiness hackers across Helsinki and its islands as they share their ideas and tips. In Hels City, we don't have to play anything. We are just allowed to be as we are. When you make people sit around one table, people get along much better. We have nature everywhere. It's even in the most urban places when you open your eyes for it.

Also, why a dose of pessimism doesn't preclude happiness. So, quite a lot to get through. Let's start by meeting Lena. Lena Salmi is a skateboarder, a graffiti artist, a very stylish woman who graces the streets of Helsinki, her home city, in her own inimitable style. You're a social media influencer as well and you're also 70. It's very nice to meet you, Leena. Do tell us what happiness means for you. What makes me happy? To be just yourself in Helsinki. We don't have to play anything. young, we had to eat porridge every day. That's not bad.

But someday I wasn't at so good mood. Then I decided when I move on my own, I will eat ice cream every day. That's the best advice ever. And you took up the skateboard. Why the skateboard? Why do I not? I feel the freedom. I can move and use my body.

And when I skate along the streets, people watch at me, but they don't laugh at me. That's the point. And you are one of the people who is going to be imparting your happiness wisdom. What is your happiness hack? What will you be telling the participants? Just release your inner thinking. Just let it go. Let it go. I used to think that people will laugh at me, but never mind.

Let them laugh at you. Hey, just be yourself. Okay, so what would you say to someone who is a complete novice who wants to learn how to skateboard? Ask your friends. If you don't have any skateboarding friends, never mind. Ask just somebody who takes your hands, and they will help doing that. And listener, wide, wide. Wide.

So, look forward. This is much harder than you made it look. Lean forward. You made it. You did it. You did it. I'm a natural. Well, of course, Lena is one of the happiness hackers.

And it wasn't just me that got a lesson. Those heels, those heels. And what are with your shoulders? How old were you when you started? I was 65. OK, so you have some body. That's so cool. So let's go.

Ah, it's almost all of Lena. Yes. And don't worry, no podcasters were injured in the making of that report. So, clearly, Lena has a firm grasp on what brings her joy. But let's take a little harder look at the very concept of what we mean by happy. Finland's title is the result of the World Happiness Report, asking people in more than 140 countries about their lives, including questions about things like social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, and the prevalence or otherwise of corruption. But surely there's

more to it than that. I'm with Finnish psychologist Frank Marttala, who specialises in wellbeing and happiness. We are in a sunny park in Helsinki. Very nice to meet you, Frank. What does happy mean? Two main things that it can mean. One of them is positive emotions, like joyfulness, cheerfulness, smiling, laughing,

stuff like that. Then the other meaning is usually about this more contentment with life, like life satisfaction. And actually what this World Happiness Report is measuring is the latter one. So they're measuring, like, think about your life on a scale from 0 to 10, and then they calculate averages for every country. So how much is happiness about choices that are made, things that we don't have any control over, and how much is it about choices that are made, things that we don't have any control over,

and how much is it about choice? How you feel about your own life is quite much influenced by the external factors. It's easier to be happy in a country like Finland where the basic security is quite good. You don't have to worry about getting food on the table and stuff like that. So in that sense, the external factors play a key role. Do you think that Finland is the happiest country in the world? I think it's a country where there's most people who are satisfied with their lives. And it's more about the fact that there's less extremely unsatisfied people in Finland

than that there will be more extremely satisfied people in Finland. So the average goes up because the government is able to take care of the citizen quite well. So it's not about extreme happiness, but it's more about, you know, less extremely miserable people. Is there anything, though, about the Finnish psyche that lends itself to contentment? One factor about Finland and other Nordic countries is that people tend to trust each other quite much. People trust the institutions, they trust each other. And that has been shown that, you know, those countries where people trust each other tend to be countries where people are happier than other countries. A lot of people talk about the idea of pursuing happiness can we pursue it? We can pursue it but like usually we pursue it

from the wrong places and usually actually that doesn't make us happier so it's a good goal for the nations to try to make citizens happy but the individual should be rather concentrating on you know expressing themselves caring about their loved ones, you know, doing good things to other people. And when they do things like that, then the happiness comes kind of like as a side product. But like focusing too much on your own happiness usually is a recipe for misery and less happiness, actually. Do you have any advice for a global audience on how they can discover their inner Finn, the sort of person who can find contentment in the smaller things? It starts with not caring too much about other people's opinions or too much about this materialistic success,

because those kind of things usually are not something that make us happy. So the more you compare yourself with the neighbor, the harder it is to become happy, considering the things that you are interested in and you value, and don't care about how you appear in the eyes of others. Thank you, Professor Frank Martela. And now from the heart of Helsinki to somewhere altogether more tranquil. I'm here on the island of Vartyasari, southeast of Helsinki,

looking out over the water and listening to the birds and the breeze in the trees. And in the dappled sunshine, on the forest floor around us, lots and lots of tiny little white flowers, lily of the valley, growing abundantly. I'm here to meet happiness hacker Adela Pajanen. She's a true champion of the natural world. She's a biologist, a writer, and she's an advocate of well-being through nature. Let's meet her.

We took a ferry here. So after crossing this short water, it's already the feeling here is like you would be somewhere very far in the countryside and we have a sound of aspen tree shivering in a small wind and the birds are singing and nature is somehow at its full. Why is it that this sort of environment is so good for our happiness well this is a natural place for us to be it's kind of like a sign for our system that everything is all right and this kind of modern way of living in squared boxes and being 90 at least time inside, it's not natural for us. So stepping outside is for our being and mind and body like a signal of rest. You can see how people could relax and feel happy here. As you said, the world is becoming increasingly urbanised.

A lot of people live in very concrete, rich environments, shall we say. What would you offer to them to help them stay connected with nature? Well, we have nature everywhere. It's even in the most urban places when you open your eyes for it. For me personally, I have an audio of my forest brook near to a place where I live and I like to go to listen to this brook live very much, but in the wintertime when it's under the ice cover and also when I'm not able to get there,

I have a recording of it. And I have found that it's actually surprisingly real because I feel right away refreshed. You can also bring natural elements to your home and inside. And this is the case for many people who actually cannot for the moment go out. For instance, once I had a student who told me a story of her long illness, long period that she just had to lay on her bed for many months. And she had a piece of pine tree bark beside her bed. And she was touching it and just keeping it in her hand.

And with this little piece of nature, she had remembering of hope. Like, she will manage. And she did. Now, you are one of the happiness hackers. How would you describe your hack what are you doing we experience nature in different ways but one of the hacks is just getting out not doing anything very special just getting out and this is very Finnish thing and we don't often do like very complicated things and this is one of my hacks that's just to get out and be there and feel the

connection and now we are some of the things what we do well adela is sharing some of that expertise and wisdom now on a nature walk with happiness seekers from around the world i'm from manhattan and i find the in Central Park, but it's not quite the same. They're breathing in the clean air, learning about how Finns are outside people all year round. And right now, everyone has just taken off their sensible walking shoes and socks and they're connecting with the bedrock by the water. It's not cold at all. shoes and socks and they're connecting with the bedrock by the water.

Still to come in this podcast. I think I'll smile more, stop to say hello to people, tell people how great they are and not just keep everything in your own heart. What the participants are getting out of a masterclass in happiness. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story,

plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. Now, we came to Finland to bask in its happiness, but that doesn't mean all Finns spend all day, every day in joyful celebration. Indeed, in the interests of balance, we have been talking to Harry Peltola,

the mayor of Puolanka, a place that rejoices, if that's the right term, in its reputation as Finland's most pessimistic place. The city is pessimistic because it's Finnish characteristic. But I think pessimism appears as a basic character trait. But instead of despair, the emphasis is on preparing for everything, including adversity. It's quite good for us, but not for everyone, I think so. That old Finnish saying that the pessimist will never be disappointed reflects a copying strategy that some Finns used to deal with adversity and uncertainty. By lowering their expectations and preparing for the worst, they avoid being frustrated or are prepared for

negative outcomes. To be prepared for everything doesn't exclude happiness. I think I can be happy even I think sometimes pessimistic way. I hope they are not pessimistic at all. They are prepared for everything. Now, are you hungry? Luca Balac is a man who believes that happiness is food and food is happiness. The gathering of ingredients, the cooking, the sharing and the eating of it. He is a culinary trailblazer who came to prominence with three restaurants, including Elm, the one we're in now, committed to sustainability and cutting waste. He invited the Happy Pods, Siobhan and Anna, to join him in the Hakia Nemi food hall,

where he told them about spreading joy with food and his inspiration as a little boy in Serbia. I think I was like three or four years old when I realised what am I eating and how much I enjoy, and I learned to cook next to my grandma. As a family, we had this Sunday lunch concept that was sacred, and my grandma would cook for the whole family. Making people happy around one table, we have a huge power in our hands. We're in charge of people's happiness for two hours or three hours. When you make people sit around one table, people get along much better.

And what did your grandma make of your career and your success? She was very proud of me, whatever I would do. When she was in her 90s, I made her right by hand all her recipes, so I have her kind of with me still. And they're like stories, they're not recipes. Is there a particular meal from your grandmother or from your childhood that you still make now? Definitely one dish that I inherited. It's called sarma, sour cabbage filled with mince meat and rice it's cooked slowly with

a lot of smoked meat on the top but i need to make it i cannot give anyone else to make it because i don't have a recipe the recipe is in the touch in the field what about those of us that are just sitting around the table and just eating the food what hacks do you have for us be present around and spend time with your loved ones. I think happiness for me is something that's radiant, so you get it from other people. So enjoying the moments. You never know what happens next. Life is there, so we should live it.

What's just one Finnish dish or pastry that makes you happy? It's Karelian pie, so it's a very special thing here. It's a pastry that has a rye pie crust filled with a rice filling. And then the best serve is warm. And then there's a kind of cooked egg and butter topping on the top. And the most amazing part is it's one of the most affordable and most used foods around. All the kids grew up on this and I think it can be made super nice. And it makes you happy.

Yeah, the egg butter on the top is making me very happy. And that was Luca Balac at Restaurant Elm. Now you can't come to Finland without talking about saunas and Tapio Hakkinen loves a sauna. He's also though known as DJ Okadea. An innovator in the Finnish DJ and club culture, he has a decades-long career that's taken him across six continents playing to huge crowds, but his happiness hack at this event is a little bit different and we will get on to that in just a minute. But first of all, what do you think that club culture does for people's happiness? I believe that dancing in itself it connects you with the moment. When you're dancing you're not thinking about your worries so kind of you're locked into

that moment so dancing itself is great and then doing it together like in raves when you kind of you feed energy into other people and you get the energy and then you create a moment it does great things for people's happiness just dance and dance with other people dance music is all about tension and release sometimes the tension there's a breakdown and the build-up takes half a minute or a minute and everyone knows that there's a breakdown and the build up takes half a minute or a minute and everyone knows that there's a moment coming and the excitement is raising and then

the moment when people are throwing their hands in the air and start whistling and shouting and then when the beat finally drops and the euphoria takes everyone up and together and then it just goes like, wow! You're not just a DJ, of course, you are a Finnish DJ, and Finnish people love a sauna.

Tell us about your hack. Yes, my hack contains a couple of my favourite things. So I love sauna. Sauna is a Finnish form of meditation. It can be a moment just with yourself and your thoughts, or it can be with your closest friends. Dancing is another thing. And nature, Finnish people have a special connection with nature. And my hack today combines all of these. So we go to a floating sauna.

So there's a big sauna floating on the Baltic Sea, and we have DJs set up there, and people enjoy the sauna and the sea. Also, special thing for Finns, the water is usually quite cold. And back to the sauna, and back there, and back to the sauna, and the euphoric feeling leaves you in that moment, and afterwards, the relaxed feeling is just out of this world. So basically, my hack today combines sauna, dancing, nature, friends, music. Thank you very much, DJ Orkidea,

and we will have more of your music before the end of the podcast. In a world dominated by screens, designer Tarek Kuyatunen is on a mission to champion hands-on creation. His own designs are an invitation to engage our sense of touch and feel the world around you. He is one of the happiness hackers and we have come to meet him in a bright, sunny, airy, artistic space just outside the city of Helsinki. So, Tari, thanks for talking to us. Why is it that hands-on, messy creativity is so important to happiness? I think definitely, for me at least, has been always so important.

Because I love to do things with my hands and be creative. And I was raised in a bakery, so I was always decorating donuts and so forth. And I think definitely in the modern days, it's so important because we are with the phone all the time. We are with the screens. And I think because our hands are tools, they are built to make things originally. So I think there is a need for us

to actually do things with our hands and be creative and I think in the modern days it has been lost in some point. And where does your inspiration come from? You mentioned your parents and their bakery. Yeah, that's definitely one inspiration but I think I'm all about joy in the works so my aim is to bring joy to the people so if I can make somebody smile with my kind of smiling sausages that is kind of my most popular thing. There are people around the world listening, we've got a global audience what would you say to people who have not done anything messily creative since they left school?

Oh, you have to do it. The creative part that you're actually producing something and you have an idea what you want to do and then you do it the creative part that you you're actually producing something and you have an idea what you want to do and then you do it and i think that's so fulfilling yeah a lot of people think oh well i'm not that artistic i can't no that's wrong that's that we have to forget the creative part that you you're actually producing something and you have an idea what you want to do and then you do it and i think that's so fulfilling that then you will have the kind of final thing it can be like loaf of bread or a pair of socks or then ceramics so that's i think the main idea be creative in some way and don't be afraid of doing it wrong because there's no wrong way to do it you have a class of people coming to seek happiness with you

any minute now what will you be doing with them? So we're actually doing these kind of ceramic plates that we are going to then decorate with this kind of scraffito technique. So the point is just to do something fun and be creative. Well, we're in the workspace now, Yeah, yeah. It looks so much easier than it actually is. Well, we're in the workspace now, and the participants' creativity is in full flow. They are crafting plates, and they are concentrating, they are focused. They're also laughing quite a lot, and they seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. That noise you can hear, by the way, that's a hairdryer.

Someone's using a hairdryer to dry their plate. You know that's how we make Indian breads? Yeah, that's true. It's always very much like baking. I know. Well, since this is the last day, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to ask some of the participants what they have thought of their experience here in Finland. The one thing that they did all say was how much they like breakfast in Finland. Finland does excellent breakfast.

Anyway, having established that, let's let them tell you the rest. My name is Joplin James Sell and I am from North Bergen, New Jersey in the United States. The hack is there is no hack. Happiness just is all around you. And all you have to do is look and you can find it in your food, in your home, in nature. That's where happiness is. It's right in front of you. Surprise, it's there. My name is Henrique. I go by Rick and I'm from Sao Paulo, Brazil. When I saw in the news that Finland was the happiest country in the world, I got so curious about it that I have to apply for that. Especially, I know that Brazil is known for being an outgoing country,

but at the same time, I wanted to learn what we were missing there. I think, for example, when we arrived, I wasn't expecting to do so many simple activities that I could actually do it back home. A moment that got me really emotional was the one when we went to an island and we walked barefoot on a rock. And you can see the simplicity of it. And knowing that I can take it back home and also teach people to do so. My name is Ginny Bartolone. I'm from New York City. We live in Manhattan. I think I was hoping

to get a better idea of what they meant by the happiest country in the world, because you always hear that. And in the United States, we have such an interesting view of the word happy, that it's always energetic, and it's extroverted, and it's always bubbly. And that's actually not who I am at all. I tend to be pretty introverted. You know, they talk so much about how people in Finland don't like small talk, but the conversations I have had have actually been very, very warm. So allowing myself maybe to be quieter and calmer, even in New York City, maybe I'll be able to adopt some of the Finnish happy energy because of that. I'm Dani. I come from Spain.

We were learning how to skateboard or doing graffiti, and we were like, why are we not doing this every week? I come from Spain. We were learning how to skateboard or doing graffiti. And we were like, why are we not doing this every week? It's so much fun. Let's gather some friends, go to some walls that we can paint. Walls that we are allowed to paint. And buy only two colors and make a graffiti. It's going to be fun.

So we are going to remember this forever. This experience has a spot in our hearts. My name is Shruti and I'm originally from India, but I'm living in London. I think I'll stop a little bit more to enjoy the nature, not just to take photos, but just to stand in the sun look at the leaves yeah and smile more stop to say hello to people compliment people tell people how great they are and not just keep everything in your own heart the voices of some happiness seekers who seem to have found what they were looking for now are you ready for some more DJ Orchidea? That's it from this Happy Pod road trip to Helsinki. Normal Happy Pod service will be resumed next week. This edition was mixed by Anna Murphy. The producers were Siobhan Leahy,

Anna Murphy and Holly Gibbs. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jackie Leonard. And as they say in Finland, Kiitos ja moi moi. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story,

plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.