Aug 17, 2026 · 44 min · 27 segments
“He had so much energy and constantly wanted to make us laugh, and it was like he had a gravitational pull. And then when he passed, it was like, wait, how does the world keep spinning without this…
Jason RitterGuest
Hoda KotbHost
So I had such an interesting conversation a few days ago with someone who asked me this question.
She said, "What turns you on? Like, what is the thing that lights you up, you know?" And I was like, "Well, um, sunrises turn me on.
That's great." And I said, um, "Jumping on the trampoline with my kids makes me feel amazing." And then she said, "What turns you off? What depletes you? What makes you feel kinda meh?" And I thought, "Well, okay.
When someone's rude randomly, like, that just depletes me." And, um, so she said, "Okay.
And what you like about the sunrise is there's peace and solitude, and it's the beginning of something." Ah.
"What you liked about jumping on the trampoline with your kids is you aren't telling them what to do.
When there's music, maybe you can't get to a concert, but you can certainly crank the music up in your house and feel the vibes." Like, there are accessible ways to find that stuff, the stuff that you think, "Well, I have to wait for a trip, and I can't do it yet, and we have to go to the beach to see a sunrise." No, we don't.
Like, if you feel empty when you are spread thin, you know that now, so you're gonna take some of your time back little by little, piece by piece." So her point was, like, the road to joy is in baby steps.
It's not like I gotta go to Tahiti and be on some great vacation, and then I'll have it.
He is a joyful, exciting, sensitive, vulnerable human being who feels all the feels, the highest of the highs, the lowest of the lows, and he goes back up again.
So this is such an insightful and beautiful conversation with a young man who is finding his way to joy.
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