John de Graaf

John de Graaf is an author, speaker, activist and documentary filmmaker.  15 of his films have been broadcast nationally on the US PBS system, including the hit special Affluenza.  He is the recipient of more than 100 regional, national and international filmmaking awards.  He is the co-author of Affluenza, Take Back Your Time and What's the Economy for, Anyway?  He is currently writing a new book, A Backpacker's Theory of Life.  He has spoken about happiness issues in the US, Canada, Australia, Italy, Hungary, Austria, the United Arab Emirates and Brazil, and was a member of the International Expert Working Group advising the government of Bhutan for its UN GNH report in 2013.  He is a co-founder of Take Back Your Time (www.takebackyourtime.org), the Happiness Alliance (www.happycounts.org) and And Beauty for All (www.andbeautyforall.org).  He lives in Seattle, Washington

John's ideas for the Happiness Movement concern two issues: the danger of commercializing the happiness movement; and, the importance of recognizing the impact of conditions of life on happiness.  He sees why commercialization and personalization of happiness are potentially troublesome trends in the Happiness Movement. He also believes we should consider the effect of natural beauty and human design on life satisfaction.