Award-winning journalist and author Steven Petrow joins Dori Mintzer to explore how to “make” joy, even in some of life’s darkest seasons. Drawing on his new book, The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Lining Even on Your Darkest Days, Steven distinguishes joy from happiness, shares his personal journey through grief and loss, and offers research-informed, highly practical ways to cultivate joy from the inside out. From gratitude practices and community connections to play, reading, and embracing imperfection, this conversation invites listeners to see joy as an inner resource that can coexist with sorrow and uncertainty.
What We Talk About
- How joy differs from happiness, and why joy is more of an enduring inner state than a short-lived “high”
- Steven’s shift from a “Big Bang” fireworks idea of joy to quieter, everyday forms like serene, spiritual, and shared joy
- The core “recipe” for joy, including gratitude and connection/community as foundational ingredients
- Using practices like a 21‑day gratitude journal to retrain attention toward everyday blessings
- How joy and grief can coexist, and what Steven learned about this through the deaths of his parents and sister
- Vulnerability, shedding emotional “armor,” and how being more open deepens relationships and joy
- Creating space to “be” rather than “do,” including the joy of getting lost, the joy of the mundane, and silent retreats
- Joy in aging, being single, play, and intergenerational relationships in later life
About the Guest: Steven Petrow
Steven Petrow is an award-winning journalist and author best known for his essays in The Washington Post and The New York Times on aging, health, and civility, and he is also a regular contributor to NPR and other outlets. His TED Talk, “Three Ways to Practice Civility,” has drawn nearly 2 million views, and he is the former president of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.Steven-Petrow.txt
He has received numerous awards and grants from organizations including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, the Ucross Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the National Press Foundation, and in 2017 he endowed the Steven Petrow LGBTQ Fellowship at VCCA. Steven is the author of several books, including the bestseller Stupid Things I Won’t Do When I Get Old and his latest, The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Lining Even on Your Darkest Days; he serves as North Carolina’s 2024 Piedmont Laureate and lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina.Steven-Petrow.txt
Connect with Steven Petrow
- Website: stevenpetrow.com
- Social: Active on LinkedIn
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