More Wow

What is awe, and where do we find it? Exploring how the elusive emotion of awe can be a vital force in our lives.

Episode one: Jo discovers how astronaut Ron Garan's experience of looking back on earth shifted his perspective forever. And she takes some of these lessons to help cultivate an astronaut's eye-view on life while on a London walk.

Featuring: Ron Garan, former NASA astronaut and author of The Orbital Perspective.

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

Episode one: Jo discovers how astronaut Ron Garan's experience of looking back on earth shifted his perspective forever. She takes some of these lessons to cultivate an astronaut's eye-view on life while on a London walk.

Featuring: Ron Garan, former NASA astronaut and ispace-U.S. CEO;

Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder;

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What is awe, and where do we find it? Exploring how the elusive emotion of awe can be a vital force in our lives.

Episode two: Jo joins diver Phil Short into the depths of Wookey Hole caves, to hear how exploring the unknown fuels his love of cave-diving.

Featuring: Phil Short, professional diver.

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

Episode two: Jo is in the depths of Wookey Hole caves with one of the most experienced divers in the world, Phil Short, who calls them his spiritual home. Phil has discovered one of the world's deepest caves in Mexico, has recovered ancient artefacts from shipwrecks and reunited the sunken remains of veterans from crashed World War II aircraft with their families. Yet he reflects on how a life of awe has led him to appreciate wonder in the smallest of things.

Featuring: Phil Short, cave diver and underwater training lead at DEEP research labs;

Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder;

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What is awe, and where do we find it? Exploring how the elusive emotion of awe can be a vital force in our lives.

Episode three: Jo heads to a shed-workshop in the garden of Michael Wright.

Featuring: Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder.

And Helen de Cruz, Professor of Philosophy at St Louis University, Missouri and author of Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think.

Episode three: Jo heads to Michael Wright's shed-workshop. Michael has spent decades reconstructing an ancient Greek model of the cosmos, known as the Antikythera mechanism. Jo and Michael discuss how the emotion of awe compels him in his work, and how making things with his hands connects him to those from ancient history. And Jo learns how big leaps forward in science have been driven by an awe in the strange anomalies which don't fit prevailing theories.

Featuring: Michael Wright, retired Science Museum curator and mechanical engineer by training;

Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder;

[LISTEN NOW]

What is awe, and where do we find it? Exploring how the elusive emotion of awe can be a vital force in our lives.

Episode four: Jo talks to Emily Baughan, historian at the University of Sheffield, about her experience of losing her mother and having her first child, with four months between them.

And she goes for a walk with Alex Penn, evolutionary biologist.

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 four.

First, Jo talks to Emily Baughan, a historian and writer living in Sheffield, about her experience of losing her mother and having her first child, with four months between them.

Then, she goes on a walk with a friend, evolutionary ecologist Alex Penn, to talk about how our sense of self can be framed within a much bigger picture of interconnected ecosystems.

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What is awe, and where do we find it?

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

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.

[LISTEN NOW]

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

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, Gavin Gabriel. And she hears from South African cosmologist and mathematician, George Ellis, about watching acts of moral virtue in the civil rights movement of his country.

Featuring: Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder.

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.