Featured Podcast – Where Joy Hides (TED Radio Hour)

 

In an ongoing effort to highlight great podcasts that I have been listening and finding useful, I present to you one that really resonated with me.

It is all about finding joy.

The link is below:

https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/668359164/where-joy-hides?t=1544172180543

It talks through four TED talks:

Simone Giertz

Some of you may know Simone as the brilliant inventor of useless robots. Simone talks about how growing up she had a lot of performance anxiety, something I suffered with (and still do) a lot. We all get issues like anxiety, the ‘are we good enough’ or simply, Imposter Syndrome. In making ‘useless robots’, Simone was able to get rid of the pressure to make them work. These robots were, by design, useless. They didn’t need to work. They definitely did not need to work well. In doing so, Simone took the pressure off, and found real joy. Now, through her YouTube channel, she spreads this joy to millions of people!

Ingrid Fetell Lee

This is really interesting. Ingrid focused on the neuroscience of our surroundings and how they affect our moods. Why do kids like round toys? Why do we like rainbows? Why do we like ice cream? What is it about certain shapes? Ingrid looks at what brings joy to us from a scientific point of view, and then how it can be introduced into our surroundings.

I love a bit of mix of science and psychology, so this was really good for me.

David Baron

David’s talk is about something really random, or at least so it sounds. He finds joy in experiencing total Solar Eclipses. What it really says to me is that sometimes, there is something the universe gives us which resonates with all of us. A solar eclipse is a hard thing to experience and find, but we can always find joys in things like rainbows, blue skies, butterflies, a song, a concert, a play, or a meteor shower.

The lesson here is that as humans, more brings us together than we realise, and more gives us joy in this togetherness than we realise.

Meklit Hadero

The show ends with a singer who is all about finding joy in everyday sounds. Who talks about how the act of singing or indulging in melodies gives us joy. There is a whole industry around it, called Karaoke, and of course, with games like Sing Star, people even have it in their homes. Singing, singing with others, or just dancing and singing to a rhythm helps us, and Meklit talks all about that.

So yeah, if you heard this or read this, let me know, what gives you joy? Is it music? Is it art? Is it cooking? Is it playing a  particular sport? Is it something you do by yourself? Is it something you do as a group? Let me know and I would love to write about it in a follow up article! 

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