Learning to Be Joyful, Anyway: A Big Announcement

Learning to Be Joyful, Anyway: A Big Announcement

Joy won't cure you, but it will carry you.

After surviving a stage-four cancer diagnosis, Kate Bowler knew she was supposed to be grateful. Alive. Blessed. But she still ached—for more connection, more surprise, less resentment on an ordinary day.

So she went looking for joy. Not the toxic positivity kind. Not a 5-step plan. But the type that sneaks in unexpectedly, seemingly out of nowhere. A lemur sunbathing. A belly laugh at a funeral. A dive into the Atlantic with a shark wrangler.

In Joyful, Anyway, Bowler takes us on a hilarious and tender journey through big questions and small delights. With wry wit and deep honesty, she explores how joy can surprise us even in the middle of pain, boredom, and longing.

This is not a book about fixing your life. It is about how we can all find more—feel more—by making room for small extraordinary moments. For anyone who has ever felt stuck, who is achy for meaning, who feels undone by loss, who feels that joy is just out of reach, who wants, simply, to have more fun, Joyful Anyway is a delicious, insightful tour through the questions that sit in the deepest part of our souls. It proves that for every time we ask: Is this it? Joy will answer: there is more.

Joyful, Anyway releases on April 7, 2026, but you can pre-order now from all of your favorite retailers.

Check out that gorgeous cover!

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Episoder(282)

How to Love the World Anyway with Nadia Bolz-Weber and Sarah Bessey

How to Love the World Anyway with Nadia Bolz-Weber and Sarah Bessey

Kate Bowler is joined by Nadia Bolz-Weber and Sarah Bessey for an honest, funny, and deeply tender conversation about what it means to be people of faith right now. When the world feels overwhelming—p...

21 Apr 51min

Joy, Absurdity, and the Weird Ways We Survive with Rhett McLaughlin and Jenny Lawson

Joy, Absurdity, and the Weird Ways We Survive with Rhett McLaughlin and Jenny Lawson

What if humor isn’t just a personality trait—but a survival strategy? Kate Bowler sits down with writer Jenny Lawson and entertaining YouTuber Rhett McLaughlin to talk about the strange, often dark ro...

14 Apr 53min

Joyful Anyway (Yes, Even Now)

Joyful Anyway (Yes, Even Now)

On the day her new book Joyful Anyway releases, Kate pauses before the interviews and travel to reflect on a harder question: what does it mean to talk about joy in a world that feels fractured, exhau...

7 Apr 9min

The Strange Gift of Joy with Rowan Williams

The Strange Gift of Joy with Rowan Williams

As Holy Week arrives, Kate talks with theologian, poet, and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams about joy that doesn’t erase sorrow. Together they explore longing, grief, music, gratitude, ...

31 Mar 50min

Living the Questions (Without Fixing Yourself) with Suleika Jaouad

Living the Questions (Without Fixing Yourself) with Suleika Jaouad

There’s a particular kind of pressure that creeps in when we start measuring our lives—where we thought we’d be by now, who we imagined we’d become, how things were supposed to feel. The instinct is t...

24 Mar 35min

What If Prayer Isn’t What You Think It Is? with Malcolm Guite

What If Prayer Isn’t What You Think It Is? with Malcolm Guite

What if Lent isn’t about giving something up, but about learning how to sit with what’s already gone? In this episode, Kate talks with poet, priest, and theologian Malcolm Guite about the kind of fait...

17 Mar 36min

The Randomness of Everything with Mark Rank

The Randomness of Everything with Mark Rank

We live in a world that wants life to be fair. Work hard, make good choices, believe the right things—and things should turn out okay. But what happens when they don’t? In this live conversation, Kate...

10 Mar 46min

The New Shape of American Religion with Ross Douthat and Molly Worthen

The New Shape of American Religion with Ross Douthat and Molly Worthen

Kate Bowler invites two of her sharpest friends—Ross Douthat and Molly Worthen—to help her make sense of the current American religious landscape: why the long “decline” story may be shifting, why rel...

3 Mar 50min

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