From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Human rights violations are not just legal failures - they're public health crises. When we deny people their basic dignity, we create conditions that harm entire communities for generations.
Unfortunately, it tends to be females who are the most affected by these conditions- influenced by external factors, they will check their weight very regularly, and do everything they can to lose weight- but then will lose the motivation, willpower and focus to control it.
Globally, we have neglected this topic [agriculture] for decades. We have, worldwide, over a billion undernourished people. Food prices have risen over the past few years, with our own research showing these should accelerate up from 2010.
What really characterises the experience of poverty is emotional stress. Stress is a natural human response to emotional strain, and whilst it can be useful in short doses as a catalyst, a motivator, a wake-up call, in the long term it can impact development, damage relationships and lead to self-defeating compulsive, addictive behaviours.
We have become the only species with chronically crooked teeth. Consequently, a smaller mouth leads to a smaller airway and various obstruction issues. We have become dysfunctional breathers due to our environment.
If you know what's inside your head and you understand its structures, rules, and functions, it avoids glitches. You can almost think of it like three sock puppets! You, this little chimp, and a computer, trying to run your life.
When those inputs are removed, it starts to prune function and structure, because those functions aren't needed anymore. It's still that same process — we just call it ageing. And it happens because we've removed physical activity, cognitive stimulus, and social connection. The brain responds accordingly.
Performance is a mental construction. You have to be present in your own body and mind, and when you achieve that presence, you can transcend physical and mental limitations.
You need to know the reason you're there at that surgical table with a knife in your hand. You have to be clear that you are using these sophisticated tools (tools which can cause a lot of harm) to fundamentally and primarily help that entity, that child in front of you.
The most important versions of love and compassion are the ones we show to ourselves. We have to start there. It's not selfish or ignorant. If you don't make space for yourself to feel loved by you, the rest is impossible… you'll always end up burned-out or in a state of resentment.
All these prongs matter for happiness, and they're all interventions we can try, regardless of our circumstances or genetic background. They're simple changes that can really improve our well-being.
Our number one instinct is survival, followed by reproduction. People started to realise that if they took care of themselves, they would live longer, have better sex and have healthier children.