Lisa Napoli–RADIO SHANGRI-LA
Posted in 9a-2011 Reviews, Bhutan, Non-fiction, Social and Political Issues on Apr 3rd, 2011
When Lisa Napoli, a journalist who had worked for public radio and CNN, attends a cookbook party in New York City, her friend Harris introduces her to a singularly attractive man. The handsome friend, Sebastian, is about to accompany him to Bhutan to do research for an article for Gourmet magazine. Napoli soon discovers through conversations with the two men that Bhutan is “the happiest place on earth” a place that keeps a “Gross National Happiness Index.” In the midst of a midlife crisis, Napoli feels she has “been there, done that” for too long in the same job, adrift socially after the breakup of a long-term relationship. Now forty-three and childless, she reluctantly returns to her job at her home base in Los Angeles. Three weeks later, she receives an e-mail, asking her if she’d like to go to Bhutan to help with the start-up of a radio station, Kuzoo FM. With scarcely a second thought, she obtains a six-week leave of absence from her job and takes off for Bhutan, a Himalayan kingdom known as the Land of the Thunder Dragon.
