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Joy Beat

Joy Beat

By: GBH News
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About this listen

Joy Beat uncovers the powerful transformations hiding in plain sight. Host Arun Rath takes you beyond headlines to meet dedicated teachers reshaping young lives, quiet volunteers revolutionizing healthcare access, and passionate artists rebuilding social bonds.

Each episode brings intimate conversations with local heroes championing change – individuals who saw something broken and decided to fix it, dreamers who turned their visions into reality, and everyday people whose extraordinary acts create ripples of impact. In a world dominated by doom scrolling and negativity, Joy Beat offers something different: proof that hope isn't just alive – it's actively changing our world, one act of courage at a time.

A production of GBH News and distributed by PRX.

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Credits:

Host: Arun Rath
Producers: Jacklyn Martin and Kana Ruhalter
Editors: Jacklyn Martin and Kana Ruhalter
Editorial Advisor: Devin Maverick Robins
Project Manager: Meiqian He

©2025 WGBH Educational Foundation
Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Joy in Finding Community
    Apr 15 2025

    This week’s Joy Beat is recognizing the important role the community plays in fostering joy. We begin with the Reverend. Dr. Terrlyn Curry-Avery, who embodies this spirit, even in circumstances that are decidedly not joyful. Then, we’ll go to the Cape, where a group of self-proclaimed “Old Ladies” banded together to spend their retirement years cleaning freshwater ponds of decades-old trash. And finally, to Mattapan, where a coalition of change-makers is solving community-specific problems with community-specific solutions.

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    28 mins
  • Joy from Confidence
    Apr 1 2025

    This week, it’s time to feel beautiful. Joy Beat is celebrating those helping others build confidence and show that when you look good, you feel good! First, we go to Milton, Massachusetts, to Sadiddy Lifestyle Beauty Studio, where owner Skye Warren emphasizes the importance of community in confidence; then, to Newbury St., where Wigs for Well-Being helps cancer patients who’ve lost their hair feel a bit more like themselves with luxury wigs; and finally, we’re going back to high school for prom night, where we’ll meet a real-life fairy godmother helping kids from underserved communities get dolled up and attend the prom.

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    24 mins
  • Joy in Movement and Exercise
    Mar 18 2025

    This week, it’s time to get active — Joy Beat is celebrating the joy found in exercising and moving your body. We start with Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to ever run the Boston Marathon, despite women not being allowed to participate yet; then, we go to Brockton to meet Dave and Judy Gorman, who, for 47 years, have hosted Kids Road Races, helping families get outdoors and inspiring a lasting love of running; plus, to the yoga mat, with Susan Lovett, who heads the Hands to Heart Center: Yoga for the People, bringing the grounding practice of yoga to low-income, underserved communities.

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    33 mins

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.