The Ode To Joy Podcast

Send us Fan Mail You can feel it when your old life still “works” but your body has already started to leave. Beth Clayton joins us to talk about threshold moments, the ones that don’t respond to hustle or optimization because they’re asking for an identity death. We trace Beth’s path from acting to coaching, somatic mentorship, and ceremonialist work, including the tender grief of putting down a...

Send us Fan Mail Something wild happens when your life hits a season you can’t “power through.” I’m sharing a personal update I’ve been living inside of lately: pregnancy, the humbling first trimester, and what it forces me to release when my usual productivity stories stop working. If you’re a mom, a caregiver, a go-getter, or anyone moving through change, this is for the days when success looks...

Send us Fan Mail Death is the one certainty we all share, yet most of us are trained to avoid it until it forces a reckoning. We want a different relationship with mortality, one that doesn’t glamorize darkness but uses death awareness to sharpen what’s real, tender, and worth living for. We’re joined by Korona, founder of Omnia Mirari and an end-of-life doula, to talk about “remembering home,” th...

Send us Fan Mail Grief can feel like you’ve been dropped into an alien landscape where the smallest routines no longer make sense and the future stops looking familiar. I sit down with applied philosopher and grief studies pioneer Thomas Attig to talk about why that disorientation is not a malfunction. It’s what love does to a life, and it’s why grieving is less about “getting over it” and more ab...

Send us Fan Mail You can feel “fine” on the outside and still be white-knuckling your way through life. That’s the quiet tension Elena Box is unpacking as Ode to Joy shifts into a new season on the art of letting go, a practice she also calls “practicing death while fully alive.” We talk about why resilience isn’t only about staying strong. Sometimes strength is releasing what was never yours to c...

Send us Fan Mail You can be disciplined, capable, and doing “all the right things” and still feel wrung out. That’s the tell. I’m pulling apart the illusion of control and the sneaky way it turns love into pressure, ambition into tension, and responsibility into burnout. I’m coming to you raw: a sick week, a house full of termites, financial stress, and a long hospital day supporting my mom throug...

Send us Fan Mail Resilience isn’t a personality trait. It’s a return path, and you can practice it in the middle of real life. I’m Elena Box, shamanic practitioner and death doula, and I’m pulling the thread that runs through everything I teach about joy: preparing to meet death well. That may sound heavy, but it’s strangely freeing. When I stop treating resilience like “pushing through” and start...

Send us Fan Mail Resilience doesn’t always look like powering through. Sometimes it looks like turning the lights down, telling the truth about what your body is doing, and letting yourself be held long enough to finally let go. We sit down with Andonia Fthenakis, a multidisciplinary artist and integrative healing arts practitioner specializing in sound and vibrational therapy. Together, we unpack...

Send us Fan Mail We explore resilience as private devotion, how to stay loyal to art and truth without external validation, and why choosing expression over silence protects aliveness. Death work, theater, motherhood, and the athlete-of-joy mindset shape a practical path back to self-trust and creative fire. • resilience as the unseen training for joy • death, annihilation and the cost of silence...

Send us Fan Mail We map a path from overwhelm to ethical action by treating joy as a trainable practice and the nervous system as our guide. We name the moment, metabolize rage into clarity, choose one sustainable lane, and pace for the marathon with somatic tools and information hygiene. • grounding in the ethos of moving through difficulty to reach durable joy • regulation, recovery, and return...

Send us Fan Mail Feeling spun out by the headlines and the heat online? We name the collective dysregulation many of us are sensing and offer a humane path back to steadiness: grief literacy, nervous system care, and joyful integrity that doesn’t require disengaging from what matters. I share why doomscrolling is a trauma response, how the body interprets constant input as threat, and what conscio...

Send us Fan Mail We unpack the lie that joy is a feeling you earn and reclaim it as a daily practice that builds resilience. We explore how joy coexists with grief, why breakthroughs without integration burn us out, and how small rituals train the nervous system to return to center. • dismantling myths of joy as reward, feeling, or circumstance • the spiral nature of healing and identity • practic...

Send us Fan Mail We explore resilience as the act of returning to self when triggers, change, and grief surface, using a candid story from our multigenerational home and practical tools to recenter. Joy and grief travel together; small embodied steps create space, clarity, and repair. • taking the result as the path as a daily practice • balancing motherhood and work while rejecting perfection • m...

Send us Fan Mail What if the destination could walk beside you today? We dive into a living, breathing practice of becoming—one that honors grief, invites your future self into the room, and remembers what your inner child always knew. Set against winter’s slow rhythm and a tender anniversary of loss, we explore how to “take the result as the path,” a tantric insight that transforms identity work...

Send us Fan Mail Forget the sprint. The first days of 2026 don’t demand a reinvention; they invite a softer landing. We open the year by easing the pressure of “new year, new me” and leaning into winter’s honest rhythm—quiet, composting, and the courage to let what’s done be done. Instead of chasing goals at full tilt, we practice resilience as repair and resourcing: small rituals, steady breath,...

Send us Fan Mail We explore resilience and gratitude during a heavy holiday season, naming the small, unphotogenic practices that keep us steady. Gratitude shifts from performance to nervous system relief, helping us notice what held us while we endured. • reframing gratitude as support orientation, not a moral duty • winter as endurance and resourcing the body with warmth and rest • noticing inte...

Send us Fan Mail Grief can feel louder when the world turns up the volume on cheer. We’re naming that truth and offering a different path through the season: not forced positivity, but resilient presence. As a shamanic practitioner and grief doula, I share how resilience in grief isn’t about “being strong.” It’s about staying soft enough to feel and steady enough to come back to yourself, again an...

Send us Fan Mail A conversation unlike any other unfolds as Elena Box invites her alter-ego Tabitha Crain—a former NPR correspondent with a BA in performance art and global economics—to interview her about resilience. The result is a profound, often humorous exploration of how we build strength through life's initiations. The dialogue begins with Elena's earliest memory of resilience: a...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the veil between worlds grows thin? Both birth and death represent profound thresholds where we're asked to surrender while somehow maintaining our power. After returning from maternity leave, host Elena Box welcomes her birth doula Alexandra Monahan for a raw, intimate conversation about resilience during life's most challenging transitions. Alexandra...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when childhood dreams and a love for glittery My Little Pony watches collide with the world of professional music? This week on the Ode to Joy podcast, Sammi Garett, my dear friend and an exceptionally talented musician, joins us for a heartwarming and hilarious chat. From our shared memories in Port Washington to her captivating journey from a high school drummer to...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever witnessed the transformative magic of movement, or felt the intricate connection between your creative spirit and the ancient practice of yoga? Sondra Loring, our esteemed guest, embodies this synergy as a queer witch, interdisciplinary artist, and the Director of Sadhana Center for Yoga and Meditation. Her life's work weaves a stunning narrative that connects t...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever felt the stirrings of an untapped creativity, a wild muse whispering secrets of transformation and connection? Brittney Bliss, Asheville's own somatic intimacy coach and wilderness witch, joins us to weave tales of awakening this inner magic. From the whispers of childhood to the roar of an authentic life, Brittney's insights into nurturing the magic within...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever wondered if the stars could be your guide through life's tumultuous journey? Evolutionary astrologer Ben Kibby joins us to shed light on how combining astrology with aromatherapy and shamanic practices can illuminate the path to personal mythology and joy. Our conversation veers into the unexpected as we draw parallels between celestial movements and the peculia...

Send us Fan Mail Ever felt like an inner critic is stifling your creativity? Want to unlock your inner genius and find joy in the process? Tag along with us as we welcome visionary artist, Jake Kobrin, whose insights on the Ode to Joy Podcast are going to turn your world around. Discover how a unique kambo ceremony in Bali helped Jake purge emotional toxins and faced his grief head-on, reinforcing...

Send us Fan Mail Do you ever feel disconnected, 'othered', or not quite fitting into the societal norms? We've all been there. In fact, our guest today, the incredible Chelsea Camin, a past life witch, once felt the same. She took us on an incredible journey of spiritual awakening, self-discovery, and authenticity, inspiring us with her courage to break free from an oppressive educa...