Skip to content

Joy is a Risk Worth Taking (#324)

October 20, 2026 · 19 min

Show notes

What if joy isn’t a reward for when life goes well, but the thing that helps us survive when it doesn’t?

Psychologist and Stanford lecturer Kelly McGonigal reveals that joy is not the same as happiness, and that many of us quietly push it away without realizing it.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why happiness needs everything to be good, while joy needs just one thing
  • Why so many of us protect ourselves from joy, and why anxiety can feel safer
  • How power and success can make connection, and joy, harder to reach
  • Why people in war zones, hospitals and hospice understand joy best
  • How to follow the news without being consumed by outrage and fear
  • The simple practice of “meeting joy with joy”

Joy is not something you wait for.

It is something you can create for yourself and for others.

Kelly McGonigal is the author of Joy Is a Risk Worth Taking.

All episodes of 3 Takeaways™

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.