We’ve spent the past several weeks talking with a psychologist, a poet, an English professor and a feminist activist about the collective powers of joy and pleasure. It was interesting to hear how each of them broke down the definitions of these feel good emotions. It turns out that defining happiness, joy, delight, and pleasure is slippery and subjective. For some, joy and happiness had no distinctions. Others defined them as being felt in the moment as opposed to a general sense of well-being over time. It’s one thing to try to put joy and pleasure into words, but it’s another thing to experience them.
After working on this week’s episode, I figured there was no better way to experience collective joy and pleasure than going to see Lizzo perform live in concert. In my mind, there is no other artist right now that truly embodies radical self-love and the pursuit of pleasure. Her whole song catalog is an ode to joy and feeling good as hell, no matter your body size, ability, color or creed.
The most joyous moment of the night was when Lizzo invited University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Sami Schalk on stage to twerk with her. Schalk started a week long #twerkwithlizzo campaign on Twitter before the show and it paid off big time. Now, if you look up “joy” in the dictionary, you might find a picture of Schalk shaking her butt with Lizzo as hundreds of people cheer her on.
--Angelo
Editor's Note: Hi TTBOOKlings, We are trying something new this week and sending you our newsletter on Monday morning. I just didn't want you to think we forgot about you. And while we've got your attention, I wanted to ask you to forward this newsletter to a friend you think might like our interviews, sound design, digital art and writing and ideas. There's so much more at ttbook.org. Thanks and, as always, let us know what you think at listen@ttbook.org. --Shannon