Episode
Understanding Joy and Pain with KJ Ramsey
- Podcast
- Three Percent
- Published
- Jun 8, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3670
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://traffic.megaphone.fm/AMPH3732595586.mp3
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Summary
What if joy isn't waiting on the other side of your pain — but is actually woven through the middle of it? In this episode, Jamie and Blake sit down with KJ Ramsey — trauma-informed licensed professional counselor, author, and self-described "increasingly feral mystic utterly devoted to the joy of being alive." KJ's newest book, The Place Between Our Pains: A Memoir of What Joy Can Survive, grew out of a personal dare: to discover that joy is more trustworthy than trauma. What followed was a cross-country adventure to revisit the national parks of her childhood, a near-death health crisis, and one of the most honest accounts of living with chronic illness, complex trauma, and radical joy you'll ever encounter. KJ reframes everything about how we think about hope and joy — not as light, aspirational feelings, but as heavy things we were never meant to carry alone. She argues that joy isn't on the other side of grief, it emerges from within it, like mycelium threading silently beneath a forest floor, sustaining everything above it without anyone seeing. This conversation will move you. It may also wreck you in the best possible way. TAKEAWAYS Why hope and joy are too heavy to hold alone — and why that's actually good news How joy emerges from grief rather than existing on the other side of it What it means to "welcome grief expecting joy" Why stories are both sustenance and bridges — and why KJ wrote a memoir instead of a self-help book What tenderness toward your own pain actually looks like in practice Why people who suffer with chronic illness or trauma may be uniquely positioned to experience more joy How avoidance is a privilege — and why that doesn't make it useful CHAPTERS (00:00) Cold open: those who struggle are positioned for more joy(03:00) Introducing KJ Rams…