"Ever since I was an undergraduate two decades ago, I’ve been inspired by political thinker and activist Helena Norberg-Hodge’s books and films. Serendipitously, I met Norberg-Hodge in person in England recently. She knows, perhaps better than anyone I’ve encountered, how to connect re-localization, the reclaiming of the Commons, and the importance of direct participation in community with the transformation of big corporate dominance. She also spent decades working and living with Indigenous people in Ladakh, India, and is a pioneer in integrating traditional and Indigenous worldviews into a coherent critique of techno-industrial society, politics, and finance. Norberg-Hodge speaks eight languages and was educated in Sweden, Germany, Austria, England, and the United States. She specialized in linguistics, including doctoral studies at the University of London, and at MIT with close mentor Noam Chomsky. She founded and directs the groundbreaking nonprofit Local Futures, and is now on an international tour leading conferences on the penetrating documentary she produced, The Economics of Happiness."