Is joy always good for us?
What's Up Docs?
BBC
4.4 • 659 Ratings
🗓️ 30 December 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken try to get to the bottom of the ideas shaping our health and wellbeing.
In this festive episode, they turn their attention to joy. What actually is joy, and how is it different from happiness or pleasure? Why do some people seem to feel it more intensely, and does that make them more vulnerable to the emotional lows that can follow? They also ask whether we should really be striving for joy all the time, and whether its very fleeting nature is part of what makes it valuable.
To help them untangle the science, psychology and meaning of joy, they’re joined by Professor Sophie Scott CBE, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London.
If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08000 665 123.
Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Professor Sophie Scott Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar Editor: Jo Rowntree Researcher: Grace Revill Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Social Media: Leon Gower Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Ruth Rainey
At the BBC: Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds |
| 0:02.2 | Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.6 | I like when a manager wears a suit and tides, you know what I mean? |
| 0:09.7 | In 2025, we were here for the football. |
| 0:13.0 | The Wayne Rooney Show |
| 0:14.0 | As a manager, you're making decisions on what you're seeing on the pitch. |
| 0:16.9 | Sometimes it doesn't always pay off. |
| 0:18.3 | Football daily. |
| 0:19.4 | Loyalty in football. Does it it still exist there is no loyalty in football |
| 0:23.2 | and tunie and russo do you feel like the pressure actually helps you play the best football |
| 0:28.2 | we've prepared ourselves to step out onto the pitch at the end of the day get the best of |
| 0:32.3 | 2025 with podcasts on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:39.6 | Hello, welcome to WhatsApp Docs. |
| 0:40.5 | I'm Dr. Chris. |
| 0:41.4 | I'm Dr. Zand. |
| 0:42.7 | And for BBC Radio 4, |
| 0:47.5 | we are strapping ourselves into the sturdy sleds of knowledge and we're hiking up the hill of wellness |
| 0:50.4 | and we're going to descend into the valley |
| 0:52.7 | of sorting out our health and well-being. We're doing something joyful. Today we are covering joy. This is the partner, the twin episode of last week's episode on comfort. Comfort and joy. Are you feeling joyous? I think, Chris, we're feeling joyful in our household. We're waiting for a baby, which we've been waiting for for a while. But I think we're about to be joyful. You're a bit less joyful than me? |
| 1:12.3 | I think joy is a bit fleeting like a sleigh ride. |
| 1:14.9 | Then you have to drag your sled back up the hill again. All right, Chris, we get it. You're a bit of a scrooge. I will acknowledge the tendency. But I'm here for the joy. Okay, Chris, let's stay with the idea of joy for a moment in this episode. |
| 1:28.5 | I think you have an odd relationship to joy. Okay, Chris, let's stay with the idea of joy for a moment in this episode. |
... |
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