Happiness Machines • episode "S1E1" • The Century of the Self

54:45

Thursday, October 24: the Wall Street Stock Exchange crashes, the greatest economic crisis of the 20th century suddenly breaks out. The crash, fueled by frenetic speculation, and by the idea that everyone could get rich without limits, put a final stop to the euphoria of the 1920s.

S1E1 • 1929 • 2009 • Economics

59:01

Part I of this three-part documentary series explores the determinants of behavior to dispel the myth of “human nature” demonstrating that environment shapes behavior. Part II illustrates how our social structures impose our values and behaviors demonstrating that our global monetary system is obsolete and increasingly insufficient to meet the needs of most people. Part III, to be released January 2016, will depict the vision of The Venus Project to build an entirely new world from the ground up, a “redesign of the culture” where all enjoy a high standard of living, free of servitude and debt, while also protecting the environment.

2015 • Economics

54:52

Watch part two of The Power of Big Oil, a three-episode FRONTLINE docuseries investigating the fossil fuel industry’s history of casting doubt and delaying action on climate change. This part chronicles how, as scientific evidence of human-caused climate change mounted in the 2000s, the industry continued to question the science, and went to new lengths to shape American politics and stall climate policy.

S1E2 • The Power of Big Oil • 2022 • Economics

58:35

In the second of this three-part series, Jacques reveals how fear remains one of the most powerful drivers of our spending. Visiting a neuroscience lab, Jacques hears from a consumer psychologist about how our brains are much more responsive to negative than to positive stimuli. He also meets some experts who have turned this knowledge into an art form, helping manufacturers make billions from our anxieties and insecurities. At the remote chateau of French anthropologist Clotaire Rapaille, Jacques learns how our sense of fear drives us in ways many of us do not understand - and how Rapaille's insights have helped companies sell us everything from SUVs to cigarettes. At the Beverley Hills pad of multimillionaire marketer Rohan Oza, he hears how Oza's connections to celebrities helped propel VitaminWater into the soft drink stratosphere, despite the fact that the product's health claims have been called into question. Jacques also confronts the men who say they are combating our most deep-seated fear - of age and decline. In Las Vegas, he mingles with the doctors and businessmen attending a global conference aimed at selling us ways to stay young and healthy, challenging them to justify their claims for the anti-aging business that has made them rich.

S1E2 • The Men Who Made Us Spend • 2014 • Economics

53:37

As the build-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar nears its climax, this documentary investigates the human cost that the host nation has put into it. Allegations of foreign labour abuse and unexplained deaths have dogged the organisers of the massive construction projects necessary for the event - at the same time, Qatar has also been accused of putting LGBT football fans and players at risk.

2022 • Economics

58:54

Once upon a time there was a large Finnish company that manufactured the world's best and most innovative mobile phones. Nokia's annual budget was larger than that of the government of Finland and everyone who worked there shared in the windfall. But global domination cost the company its pioneering spirit and quantity gradually took over from quality, with new phone models being churned out by the dozen. Market share eroded, until in 2016, mobile phone production in Finland ceased. The Rise and Fall of Nokia is a wry morality tale for our times, told by those that lived and worked through the rollercoaster years in a company that dominated a nation.

2018 • Economics