All About The Joy: A New Year’s Message

Joy gets treated like a soft word online, but we use it like a backbone. We open with gratitude for the people who made this community real, then map how our small show grew into four connected formats that serve different needs without losing the thread. Friday Night Live brings the weekly neighborhood energy - unscripted, a little messy, and always welcoming. The Private Lounge offers deeper, slower conversations that let real stories breathe. Carmen Talk is where I think out loud, teach when it fits, and process what’s on my mind. And Culture and Consequence with Andrea explores media literacy, politics, culture, and compassion with rigor and warmth, from the Constitution to trans rights to the everyday choices that shape public life.

We also pull back the curtain on the growth playbook we refuse to follow. The algorithm rewards outrage and spectacle, but we’re not interested in manufacturing conflict. Joy here is not denial. Joy is fuel, practice, and a way to show up for each other even when we disagree. That means we hold boundaries around intolerance while making room for curiosity and correction. It also means we track our claims, revisit topics, and leave space for humor—yes, even the running Hallmark homework that keeps us honest about how culture works on us.

If you’re looking for a kinder corner of the internet, you’ll find it across these four shows—one community, many doors. Come for the live hangout, stay for the deeper interviews, pop into a reflective monologue, and challenge your media diet with a thoughtful breakdown. Your presence matters more than you know. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so the algorithm learns to surface compassion alongside critique. What conversation should we host next?

Thank you for stopping by. Please visit our website: All About The Joy and add, like and share. You can also support us by shopping at our STORE - We'd appreciate that greatly. Also, if you want to find us anywhere on social media, please check out the link in bio page.

Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth


DISCLAIMER: As always, please do your own research and understand that the opinions in this podcast and livestream are meant for entertainment purposes only. States and other areas may have different rules and regulations governing certain aspects discussed in this podcast. Nothing in our podcast or livestream is meant to be medical or legal advice. Please use common sense, and when in doubt, ask a professional for advice, assistance, help and guidance.

Chapters

• 0:00 Gratitude And Community Roots
• 0:46 Defining The All About The Joy Ecosystem
• 1:00 Friday Night Live: Weekly Hangout
• 1:31 The Private Lounge: Deeper Stories
• 1:57 Carmen Talk: Unfiltered Reflections
• 2:25 Culture And Consequence With Andrea
• 3:38 Joy As Practice, Not Escapism
• 4:21 Against Outrage Algorithms
• 5:05 Invitation To Subscribe And Support
• 6:07 Global Shoutouts And New Year Close

Transcript

Carmen Lezeth: 0:00

Hi, welcome to All About the Joy. I am Carmen Lezeth, your host. Before we jump into anything else, I want to start with a very real, very heartfelt thank you. Thank you for showing up for us this past year. Thank you for your support, your feedback, your emails, your comments, your corrections, your laughter, and yes, your joy. You've made this community what it is. And I don't take that lightly. When I started All About the Joy, I had no idea it would grow into this little ecosystem of shows, conversations, and connections. And I definitely didn't know it would become a place where so many of you would show up week after week, ready to learn, ready to laugh, and ready to push for something better. So as we step into 2026 together, I want to remind everyone what All About the Joy actually is. Because it's bigger than one show. It really is all about you, our audience. All About the Joy Friday Night Live, this is our weekly live stream. It's the neighborhood hangout. It's unscripted, it's messy in the best way, it's community, clarity, and a little bit of chaos. It's every Friday at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern. We show up as ourselves after work, and you show up as yourself from wherever you are. And somehow it just all works out brilliantly. All about the joy, the private lounge, this is where the deeper conversations live. Intimate interviews, real stories about real people, the kind of conversations that just, you know, have a moment to breathe. We learn something, we laugh a little, and we get to feel good about who we just met. This is every Sunday at 12 p.m. Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern. All about the Joy Carmen talk. This might be my personal favorite. This one is just me, unfiltered, reflective, sometimes teaching, sometimes storytelling, sometimes simply just trying to make sense of the world. It's the place where I get to share what's on my mind and in my heart. This show doesn't have a fixed schedule at all. It happens when I feel the need to speak, and it usually takes the place of one of our regularly scheduled episodes. All about the joy culture and consequence, I started this because misinformation is running wild, even in our own backyards. What began as quote unquote, we need to correct some things turned into just sharing my weekly conversations with my dear friend Andrea about media literacy, politics, culture, and compassion. We've talked about the Constitution, about trans rights, about snap benefits, about Honduras, Australia, about masculinity and male loneliness, about social media, about faith, about power. And yes, the Trump administration. But we've talked about a lot of other stuff too. That's just off the top of my head. And somehow, because this is us, this is me and Andrea, we now end every episode with Andrea's new obsession with wait for it, Hallmark movies. And because accountability matters so much to me in all seriousness, we will continue to track her Warren Christie movie homework, because I know that's very important to everyone who watches our show. This whole project, All Four Shows, exists because of you, our audience, because you show up, because you care, because you're willing to learn, unlearn, and grow with us. So as we step into 2026, I just want to say we're grateful for you. We're excited for what's coming next, and we're committed to bringing you conversations that matter, conversations that challenge, uplift, and remind us that joy is not frivolous. Joy is fuel, joy is resistance, joy is community. But before I close, I want to say one more thing. I want to share something that is very vulnerable, but very honest. I know how the algorithms work. Whether it's YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Substack, all social media, the content that gets pushed is the accident. It's the fire, right? It's the fight, it's the tragedy, it's the outrage, it's the spectacle. And we've been told more than once that if we want to grow, we need more controversy, more conflict, more drama. But that's not who we are. There are already enough places online where people can go to watch the world burn. All about the joy was built on something different. Joy is not naive, joy is not frivolous, joy is not denial, joy is a choice, and joy is most definitely a practice. Joy is a way of showing up for each other even when we disagree, even when the world feels heavy. We don't tolerate hate or intolerance here, but we do make room for curiosity, compassion, and community. We want everyone who finds us to feel welcome, grounded, and reminded that joy is still possible. So if you believe in what we're building, if you want more of this kind of space online, please consider subscribing, sharing, and supporting the work that we do. It doesn't cost anything unless you choose to support us financially. But your presence, your engagement, your voice, that's what helps the algorithm notice us so more people can join this community and so that we can start filtering into our lives on a regular basis more joy and less hate. Look, it thanks for being part of our community. I feel so blessed and so grateful to know so many of you and to have gotten to know so many of you throughout this entire project of ours, especially those of you overseas, especially in London and Australia, who have joined us at various different times, to my surprise. And Canada, shout out to Canada. So we hope to see you again in the future. We're so excited about what's coming up, and happy new year. We'll see you in 2026. Thanks for stopping by, all about the joy. Be better and stay beautiful, folks. Have a sweet day.