Awe is mysterious. How do we begin to quantify the goose bumps we feel when we see the Grand Canyon, or the utter amazement when we watch a child walk for the first time? How do you put into words the collective effervescence of standing in a crowd and singing in unison, or the wonder you feel while gazing at centuries-old works of art?
In this conversation based on his new book Awe, Dacher Keltner presents a radical investigation and deeply personal inquiry into this elusive emotion. Revealing new research into how awe transforms our brains and bodies, alongside an examination of awe across history, culture, and within his own life during a period of grief, Keltner shows us how cultivating awe in our everyday life leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. And during a moment in which our world feels more divided than ever before, and more imperiled by crises of different kinds, we are greatly in need of awe. If we open our minds, it is awe that sharpens our reasoning and orients us toward big ideas and new insights, that cools our immune system’s inflammation response and strengthens our bodies. It is awe that activates our inclination to share and create strong networks, to take actions that are good for the natural and social world around us. It is awe that transforms who we are, that inspires the creation of art, music, and religion. Aweis also a field guide for how to place awe as a vital force within our lives.
Shermer and Keltner discuss: the death of his brother and how this led to his study of awe • an operational definition of awe • the reliability (or unreliability) of self-report data in social science • how to quantify and measure the experience of awe • What are emotions and how can they be measured? • How has the scientific understanding of emotions changed? • predictors of awe: nature, music, art, dance, movement/exercise, love & friendships • awe in moral beauty • how to train yourself to experience awe • how awe helps heal traumas, grief, and loneliness • mystical experiences, spirituality, and awe restorative justice and awe.
Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the faculty director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. A renowned expert in the science of human emotion, Dr. Keltner studies compassion and awe, how we express emotion, and how emotions guide our moral identities and search for meaning. His research interests also span issues of power, status, inequality, and social class. He is the author of The Power Paradox and the bestselling book Born to Be Good, and the coeditor of The Compassionate Instinct. His new book is Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life.
331. Paul Zak — Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness
330. Jim Davies — How to Be a Better Person
329. Marc Schulz — The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
328. Paul Bloom — Psych: The Story of the Human Mind
327. Rachel Moran on Her Years in Prostitution, How She Got Out of It, and Why She Thinks It Is a Form of Sexual Exploitation
326. Naomi Oreskes — The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
325. Heinrich Päs — The One: How an Ancient Idea Holds the Future of Physics
324. Andrew Gold on Exorcism, Abortion, Pedophilia, Sex & UFOs
323. Elle Hardy — Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over the World
322. Marty Klein — Sex Matters
321. William Magnuson — For Profit: A History of Corporations
320. Massimo Pigliucci — How to Live a Good Life and Create a Just Society
319. Steven Hassan — Combatting Cult Mind Control, Freedom of Mind, and The Cult of Trump
318. Suzie Sheehy — The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World
316. Daniel Akst on the Pacifists of the Greatest Generation Who Revolutionized Resistance
315. David Bernstein — Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America
314. Martin Rees — Can Science Save Us?
313. Matthew Cobb — As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age
312. Louise Perry — The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Sasquatch Chronicles
The Confessionals
Radiolab
Sasquatch Odyssey
DarkHorse Podcast