Toxic Positivity vs. Authentic Emotion

Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with cancer at 22. She made her illness the subject of a New York Times column and a memoir, Between Two Kingdoms. She and Steve talk about what it means to live with a potentially fatal illness, how to talk to people who've gone through a tragedy, and ways to encourage medical donations.

• SOURCES:
  • Suleika Jaouad, author.

• RESOURCES:
  • The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, by Suleika Jaouad (2025).
  • The Alchemy Journal, by Suleika Jaouad (2025).
  • “The Art of Survival,” by Jennifer Senior (The Atlantic, 2024).
  • American Symphony, film by Matthew Heineman (2023).
  • Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, by Suleika Jaouad (2021).
  • “Max Ritvo, Poet Who Chronicled His Cancer Fight, Dies at 25,” by John Schwartz (The New York Times, 2016).
  • “Life, Interrupted,” column by Suleika Jaouad (The New York Times, 2012-2015).
  • The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green (2012).
  • Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America, by Barbara Ehrenreich (2009).
  • The Isolation Journals, newsletter by Suleika Jaouad.

• EXTRAS:
  • “John Green’s Reluctant Rocket Ship Ride,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
  • “Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence?” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).

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