Thank You to the Raising Joy Podcast
After hours and hours behind the microphone recording incredible stories of hope and resilience, Cook Children’s Raising Joy Podcast is posting its final episode. And it is ending right where it got started: with a conversation with our very first guest, a Cook Children’s pediatrician with a finger on the pulse of DFW parents and kids.
Since the first episode aired in February 2022, Raising Joy Podcast has provided an avenue for stories about mental health from parents and experts, and offered a source for community resources, pediatric research, and professional advice for the North Texas community and beyond.
Over six seasons more than 100 guests have opened up their hearts and shared their lives and experiences to help other families learn and grow.
“Raising Joy started as a way to open the conversation around youth mental health issues,” said Wini King, Cook Children’s Senior Vice President and Chief of Marketing and Communications. “Over the years, we talked to so many people who not only helped reduce the stigma of those topics, but also inspired us and our listeners. It’s been a privilege to hear and share these stories of resilience, grief and, more than anything, of joy.”
Meeting the need
Raising Joy and its mission were born out of the mental health crisis of 2020. That year, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cook Children’s recorded seven patient suicide deaths. Leaders at Cook Children’s created a campaign to raise awareness about mental health and help people who were struggling to find trusted resources or support for the issues their families were facing.
The JOY campaign began in 2021 as six articles focused on mental health issues, published on Cook Children’s website, the Checkup Newsroom. The campaign, which stands for “Just breathe, Open up, You matter,” grew to more than 30 articles that year alone, but it was clear that more work in this area was needed.
“We had so many requests from the community because of our work,” said Kim Brown, former Cook Children’s public relations director who served as executive producer of the podcast for seasons 1-5. “People did not have enough resources.”
Finding the JOY
The communications team brainstormed how to further open up a conversation around depression, anxiety and other issues. The result was the Raising Joy podcast, hosted by King and Kristen Pyrc, M.D., Co-Director of Psychiatry.
For the first interview, the hosts sat down with M. Kathleen Powderly, M.D., a Cook Children’s pediatrician who, along with others, had sounded the alarm about the spike in youth suicide attempts in the Fort Worth area. Dr. Powderly talked about her experiences treating children and teens with mental health concerns and shared her own struggles with mental health issues. The earnest authenticity of that episode, along with Dr. Powderly’s vulnerability, set the tone for the episodes to come, Brown said.
For three years, King and Dr. Pyrc welcomed guests with empathy and without judgement. In one powerful episode, Brad Hunstable shared the story of his 12-year-old son, who died by suicide. He and other guests’ willingness to share their stories helped remove barriers for others to have important conversations about difficult topics.
Conversations with Hunstable, and other parents who had lost a child to suicide, were some of the most memorable guests for King. She says she aimed at creating a space where parents could talk about their child – not just what happened to them, but who they were.
“I want people to understand that there is joy in some of this,” she told the Fort Worth Report in a 2022 feature of the podcast. “They want to talk about those children, they want to talk about their child and still remember them and still remember their life and still feel the joy of having that child and having had that child and what joy was brought to them.”
For her part, Dr. Pyrc has always loved exploring kids’ stories and encouraging them to explore their own emotions. At home with her family and in the clinic with her patients, she provides a space where all feelings are welcomed and worth digging into. The podcast gave her another opportunity to demystify and destigmatize emotions.
The frank, and often emotional, episodes helped shed light on topics some people tend to shy away from.
“I’m overjoyed that this podcast – through the vulnerability and expertise of our guests – opened up conversations around mental health and other difficult issues,” Dr. Pyrc said. “For so long, we’ve been ashamed to talk about these things.”
Thank you!
While no new episodes are planned for the Raising Joy Podcast, Cook Children’s remains committed to the mental well-being of children and teens in our community, and those efforts will continue. Episodes will remain for any who need them. Find them on the Cook Children’s website.
"Today, seeing The Joy Campaign evolve into this multi-year, vital, large-scale initiative—with dozens of articles and 125 Raising Joy podcast episodes —is an honor for our team,” said Laura Van Hoosier, Vice President of Marketing. “It is our deepest hope that this wealth of resources will remain an enduring and valuable source for every parent, school counselor, and family in our community for years to come."
We want to thank our listeners and our contributors for their time and support during the show’s six seasons.
We encourage our listeners to stay connected with us online and on social media @cookchildrens. For more stories that showcase the latest pediatric health information, please follow our Cook Children's Checkup Newsroom.
Always remember: “Just breathe, Open up, You matter!”
