Tech billionaires spend fortunes trying to beat death. The rest of us try to optimise our way through burnout, hand our thinking to AI, and scroll to switch off. So what actually makes a human life a happy one?

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In the Happiness Lecture, Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson argues that we’re running from the very things that make us happy: our limited time, the effort things take, and our need for each other. The evening will also launch his new book, How to Be a Happy Human, and you can be among the first to get a copy.

Humanists UK President Janet Ellis will open the evening before handing over to Andrew to take us through the book’s seven foundations. Dan Snow calls the book ‘for the pub not the pulpit’, and the lecture will be in the same spirit: funny, practical, and full of ideas you can try straight away. Andrew will explain why throwing a surprise party for an introvert isn’t the kindness it looks like, why we sit through bad films because we’ve already watched half, and why the best response to being wrong is a cheer. And he’ll make the bigger case too: that accepting this is the one life we have makes it more precious, not less, and that meaning isn’t buried treasure waiting to be found – we make it as we go.

Drawing on a range of humanist thought from John Stuart Mill and Margaret Knight, to Isaac Asimov and Zadie Smith – and on his own life as a humanist – Andrew will set out how to stop optimising your life and start living it.

A limited number of copies will be available to buy on the night. All author royalties go to Humanists UK, supporting our work for a tolerant society where rational thinking and kindness prevail.

Speakers

Andrew Copson OBE is Chief Executive of Humanists UK and one of the UK’s leading voices on religion, belief, and society. He is a regular on BBC, ITV, and Sky, and co-author, with Alice Roberts, of the Sunday Times bestseller The Little Book of Humanism. In 2025 he became the first person to receive an OBE for services to the non-religious community.

Janet Ellis is a writer and broadcaster, and President of Humanists UK.