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We shape our world.
It shapes us in return.
How can we live better together? I seek answers to that question at the intersection of human emotions, culture and design.
I conduct research. I collect stories. I run participatory experiments in public spaces. I share my learnings in essays, books and talks. And I work with smart people to help create happier communities and cities around the globe.
My new book, The Trust Experiments, explores how the modern world messes with our relationships, and how we can redesign everything to rebuild the trust that binds us.
My previous book, Happy City, explored how lessons from psychology and design activism can help fix broken cities and improve our lives. (Read the review in the New York Times.)
Thanks for stopping by. Let’s keep learning together.
Books
I write to help me understand the world. Sometimes it takes a whole book to figure stuff out. My latest book, The Trust Experiments, looks for causes and cures to the social trust crisis. My previous book, Happy City, considered how we can redesign our cities to maximize joy. My first book, The Last Heathen, examined how our ancestors use myth and magic to control our behaviour.
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Collaboration
I love working with interdisciplinary teams to solve tricky problems. My favorite collaborators are my colleagues at Happy Cities, who use evidence, design and policy solutions to nurture happier, healthier, more inclusive cities.
Ideas
I write essays and columns to share ideas about modern life, design, psychology, trust and cities.
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