麻豆社

What is awe, and where do we find it?

Exploring how the elusive emotion of awe can be a vital force in our lives.

As something usually associated with intense experiences and extreme environments, for many of us awe can often seem difficult to attain. Science journalist Jo Marchant tracks down individuals who live awe-filled lives, uncovering where we might find it ourselves and how it can alter body and mind.

Episode five: Jo heads to her local outdoor gym, Steel Warriors, to learn how watching extraordinary physical acts inspires us to achieve better. She meets one of the star competitors, Garvin Gabriel. And she hears from South African cosmologist, mathematician and activist George Ellis, about how watching acts of moral virtue in the civil rights movement of his country inspired him to be better.

Featuring: Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder;
Helen de Cruz, Professor of Philosophy at St Louis University, Missouri and author of Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think.

Presented by Jo Marchant, author of Cure, The Human Cosmos and Decoding the Heavens.

Producer: Eliza Lomas
Editor: Chris Ledgard