Summit Schedule
Full list of topics and sessions below!
The Global Joy Summit airs Nov 13th-16th!
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The summit airs November 13th – 16th:Add to Calendar
Schedule at a Glance
Nov 13
Mission: JOY Movie Community Watch Party
(Replays available for 48 hours)
The summit will kick-off with a special 48-hour FREE community screening of the new Mission: JOY movie, featuring the Dalai Lama & Archbishop Desmond Tutu!
Nov 14-16
Inspiring & Practical Sessions, Live Workshops and Musical Performances
with 30+ Renowned Joy Scientists, Spiritual Teachers, Changemakers & Artists.
New sessions will be emailed to you each day. Some sessions are live & interactive, while others are pre-recorded. See the full list of sessions below!
Replays Available!
48-Hour Replays Available.
(Join us from any time-zone!)
After initial airing, all sessions will remain available for free streaming for 48 hours.
Watch from any time-zone when it’s convenient for you.
Join for just 1 session, or all 30+!
Full Summit Schedule
Scroll down to see full list of all sessions. Replays available for 48 hours!
Day 1:
Summit Kick Off!
November 13th
Live 12:00PM EST
Global Community Watch Party
Mission: JOY Movie
LIVE 12:00p EST | 90 min (Replays available for 48 hours)
Join us as we are brought inside the poignant and laughter-filled friendship of the two self-described ‘mischievous brothers,’ who have faced oppression, exile, death threats, cancer, and more, yet came out the other side as two of the most joyful human beings on the planet.
Their life stories and practical wisdom remind us that Joy is an inside job, that Joy and sorrow are inseparable, and that one of Joy’s secrets is deep connection with others.
Produced by an Academy Award winning team, invite your friends or make some new ones – you won’t want to miss it!
Day 2:
The Inseparability of Joy and Sorrow
November 14th
Live Interactive Workshop (60 min)
Live 12:00PM EST
Creating a Joy Song
Explore the magic of creativity as we spontaneously create a JOY Song together on Zoom. Facilitated by musician extraordinaire Luc Reynaud, join us as we bend the boundaries of distance and connect as a live global community. Soul centered, light-hearted and fun — no musical talent required. Just bring your joyful, sorrowful, open human heart.
Luc Reynaud
Day 2 Kick Off (20min)
Released 6:00PM EST
Community Gathering & Music!
Join us for an inspiring, poignant and joy filled program, as we watch highlights from our community video submissions, meet brave Ukrainian refugees alchemizing violence into resilience, beauty, and joy, and watch the premier of the crowd sourced THAT JOY SONG music video, featuring goodness and starring you.
We come from different 150+ different countries from around the globe, and yet the inseparability of joy and sorrow is the eternal rhythm of the beating heart, of our common humanity.
Event Sessions (40 – 60 min each)
Released 6:00PM EST
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry
Claiming the Light in the Midst of Darkness: Joy, Community, and Inspiration for Living in These Times
- Hear powerful inspiration to connect with the “source of love and light” that is always present—giving us strength in adversity and the ability to love one another across differences
- Explore the importance of “healthy, loving, liberating, and life-giving” communities — and why we need to rebuild them after the pandemic
- Hear how Bishop Curry has personally walked through experiences of darkness and how his inspiration for living a life of service brings him joy.
Emiliana Simon-Thomas, PhD
Dacher Keltner, PhD
The Science of Emodiversity: Making Friends with All of Our Emotions as the Foundation of Joy
- Explore the beautiful aspects of sadness, and understand why joy and sadness are one system — if you turn down sadness, you also turn down joy
- Learn about science-based strategies for working with difficult emotions and “stoking” joy, including: “name it to tame it,” breathing practices, recognizing emotions as impermanent, connecting with others, gratitude, and more.
- Understand the scientific concept of “proportionality” in the context of emotions and how this can help us distinguish sadness from depression
Mingyur Rinpoche
Joyful Wisdom: An Approach to Transforming Difficulty into Opportunity
- Hear Rinpoche describe his early life experiences with anxiety and panic attacks, and how he learned to transform these difficulties through meditation
- Be led in a guided practice to transform “poison into medicine” and transform our most painful emotions by accessing the 3 fundamental qualities of mind: awareness, love and compassion, and wisdom
- Explore how we can find meaning in our suffering and use it as a bridge to develop compassion and connection with others
Rainn Wilson
Cloudd Donavan
Joy, Humor, Spirituality and Purpose
In this hilarious and profound conversation, we get inside actor Rainn Wilson’s head as he is interviewed by Cloudd Donovan.
Rainn opens up and shares what he himself struggles with, and how spirituality has helped him discover deeper purpose and a calling to serve others.
Intimate, generous, practical. Be prepared to laugh and cry!
Kristin Neff, PhD
The Power of Holding Difficulty with Self-Compassion
- Discover how the loving connected presence of self compassion can be a more reliable source of joy than the external conditions of our lives
- Learn about the three main components of self-compassion: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness; and hear about the research behind how these help you to be stronger, more resilient, and more effective
- Experience a guided practice to help you work with difficulty or overwhelm, and get tips for integrating self-compassion into your daily life
Ross Gay
Inciting Joy: A Poet’s Perspective
- Discover how holding each other in our common experience of sorrow as human beings can be a profound gateway to a full experience of joy
- Reflect on why joy matters and is essential to prioritize in our modern world — especially in the face of the suffering, injustice, and hardships that surround us.
- Explore how to practice interconnectedness, joy, and gratitude, and hear Ross read from his new collection of essays — Inciting Joy.
Day 3:
Joy is an Inside (Out) Job
November 15th
Day 3 Kick Off (20min)
Released 6:00PM EST
Community Gathering and Music!
Join us for an inspiring, poignant and joy-filled program, as we watch highlights from our community video submissions, continue our journey with brave Ukrainians alchemizing violence into resilience, beauty, and joy, and share a soulful and energizing rendition of “Glory, Glory Hallelujah! Since I Laid My Burdens Down,” performed by Rickie Byars and the Wop Dat Be Doo! group at the B-hood.
We come from different 150+ different countries from around the globe, and yet each in our own unique way we can live Joy from the inside out.
Event Sessions (40 – 60 min each)
Released 6:00PM EST
Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Eve Ekman, PhD, MSW
Experiencing Unconditional Joy: A Meditative Approach
- Discover “essence love” — an inexhaustible source of joy that is within every one of us, and can be accessed at any time
- Learn how to move through blockages to joy by examining negative beliefs about ourselves with insightful kindness.
- Be led in a guided practice of welcoming unconditional joy, and explore how tapping into this joy allows us to more compassionately show up for others.
Elissa Epel, PhD
Darwin Guevarra, PhD
Demond Hill
Peggy Callahan
The Science of Joy and Happiness
- Understand the latest science of happiness and why happy people on average live longer, have stronger immune systems, are more resilient to stress and trauma, are more likely to marry and less likely to divorce, and more.
- Hear about the Big Joy Science Project and how daily micro acts of Joy can increase your happiness and wellbeing
- Be led in a gratitude practice that you can try at home
Zainab Salbi
Healing Self, Healing the World: Joy & Freedom from the Inside-out
- Be inspired by Zainab’s incredible life journey and how her misfortunes have led to her fortunes, including becoming an advocate and support for thousands of women impacted by war around the world.
- Understand how fighting for a cause doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice our well-being; rather cultivating joy and beauty can be acts of resistance.
- Explore how women tend to lead differently—through collaboration and love
Valerie June
Black Joy
- Hear Valerie’s vision of Black Joy and the power of a rooted and imaginative positivity on the long road of racial healing
- Reflect on what it means to wield a wand, rather than a weapon
- Understand the role of vulnerability in creativity, and the relationship between vulnerability and joy
Kelly McGonigal, PhD
The Joy of Movement
- Understand the differences between self-focused joy, collective joy, and empathic joy — and how these differ from “happiness”
- Explore how joy is an essential resource for sustainable social change
- Be led in Kelly’s “Joy Moves,” a series of easy to do researched-based physical movements designed to activate joy in your nervous system, emotions and mind.
Chude Jideonwo
Joy From the Inside-Out: Cultivating Personal Joy as the Basis of Social, Economic, and Cultural Transformation
- Hear how Chude’s depression became an opportunity for him to connect with deeper joy and learn about the latest research on human flourishing, happiness and belonging.
- Reflect on the ideal of the beloved community what it would be like if love were the driving force behind government policies relating to things like healthcare
- Explore the pitfalls of materialism as a source for happiness and understand why people are happier in countries that value social cohesion and belonging
Day 4:
Community, Interconnection & Ubuntu
November 16th
Live Interactive Workshop (60 min)
Live 12:00PM EST
Ten Rhythms of Joy
Rachel Bagby
Day 4 Kick Off (20min)
Released 6:00PM EST
Community Gathering and Performances!
Join us for an inspiring, poignant and joy filled program, as we share an energizing and moving performance of “This Little Light of Mine” by the internationally acclaimed Soweto Gospel Choir and come to the culmination of our journey with brave Ukrainians alchemizing violence into resilience, beauty, and joy.
Today’s theme is Ubuntu and Interconnection. As we tap into the reservoir of unconditional joy, it cannot help but be expressed in our relationships and connections with each other.
Event Sessions (40 – 60 min each)
Released 6:00PM EST
Keynote Address
Altruism as a Source of Inner Strength
Featuring:
Jamil Zaki, PhD
Jim Coan, PhD
The Science of Empathy, Interconnection, and Ubuntu
- Dig in to the science and practice of empathy, interconnection and vulnerability and why healthy social connection is essential to our well being
- Explore the obstacles to pro-sociality at the individual and collective levels, and how we can move beyond these toward a more just and sustainable world
- Consider that if clinical psychology is going to make new strides in health and well being, it must look more deeply at the group and societal levels, beyond only the individual
adrienne maree brown
Pleasure Activism
- Understand the importance of acknowledging our ancestors and lineage as we do our work in the world, and how this can give us hope
- Discover the power of realizing that you are the protagonist of your own story, and how to treat this as a practice
- Reflect on the relationship between pleasure and joy, and how these qualities can uplift ourselves and others even in times of difficulty
Michelle C. Johnson
Joy, Collective Grief, and Healing Toxic Cultures of Supremacy and Dominance
- Explore how we can prioritize wholeness while living in cultures based on capitalism and other systems of supremacy and dominance
- Discover how rest can be an antidote to the toxic culture of speed, and why it’s important to pause and recognize the collective grief experience that we’re in
- Experience a guided visualization to access the wisdom of the natural world, which can lead us through grief and towards joy
Mamphela Ramphele, MD
Reverend Mpho Tutu van Furth
Ubuntu: A Essential Key to Healing Our Planet In Crises
- Explore the African philosophy of Ubuntu, and how it can deepen our relationships with one another and our planet
- Reflect on how we can use the current planetary crises that we face as a wakeup call to relearn what it really means to be human
- Discover the relationship between joy and forgiveness, what forgiveness means in the language of ubuntu, and how this differs from forgiveness in western terms
- Hear how ancient wisdom teaches us that interconnectedness is an existential need, not only a spiritual idea
Pamela Ayo Yetunde, JD, ThD
Bill Vendley, PhD
Resilience and Joy in Our Individual and Shared Stories
- Learn how the stories we tell ourselves, personally and collectively, impact our lives, the world we live in, and the joy we experience
- Understand the importance of self-forgiveness and self-compassion in transcending limiting beliefs we hold about ourselves
- Discover how coming together to build shared sacred stories can help us see our common humanity beyond “us/them” divisions