Ross Gay on inciting joy while dining with sorrow

It's Been a Minute

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🗓️ 2 January 2024

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

Looking for joy? Then it might be worth exploring your sorrow. In his collection of essays, Inciting Joy, poet Ross Gay considers the breadth of joy, arguing that it can be found – and even strengthened – in life's hardest moments. After all, those are the times when we rely on one another. Brittany Luse sits down with the poet to discuss the complexity of joy and creating meaning in life.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from how to be a better human, a podcast from TED.
0:04.4	Even if you're a self-help skeptic, you'll find inspiration to improve your life from fascinating
0:10.1	in-depth conversations with TED speakers. Find how to be a better human wherever you listen.
0:19.0	Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:36.8	Happy New Year, everyone. In honor of the New Year, everyone.
0:39.3	In honor of the new year, I want to invite a little joy into 2024.
0:44.6	And so I'm revisiting a conversation with one guest known for delighting in the little things.
0:50.7	I've been kind of in the sun a little bit, and I've been running into people.
0:55.7	I have to tell you, like, the sort of incidental bumpings into people is a really fortifying experience to me.
1:04.4	That's Ross Gay.
1:06.1	He's a poet and the author of the Book of Delights, and more recently, inciting Joy. According to Ross,
1:12.9	we should all take joy a lot more seriously, because joy is the ember and the fire behind
1:19.4	social movements and survival. And his definition of joy isn't something that you experience alone.
1:26.3	His joy comes from connection and are interlocking
1:29.4	lives, or as he puts it, entanglement. Today on the show, Ross Gay and I talk about the intricacies
1:36.4	of joy and finding delight in the mess. After a quick break.
1:52.0	This message comes from TED Talks Daily, a podcast from TED.
1:57.1	Learn about yourself and the world you live in through daily talks, answering questions like,
1:59.1	Why do I care about what others think?
2:00.6	And do aliens exist? Find Ted Talks Daily wherever you listen.
2:06.9	Ross Gay, welcome to it's been a minute. Thank you. Good to be with you. Oh, we're so happy to have you.
2:12.0	You know, something I've been wondering a lot about is how you would define delight versus joy or joy versus delight.
	...

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