Dacher Keltner

Dacher Keltner explores why awe may be the most transformative emotion we experience. He explains how awe quiets the ego, reconnects us to meaning, and reshapes how we understand things like grief, spirituality, music, nature, and even health. From the loss of his brother to the hidden ways awe changes our inner lives, Dacher reveals how moments of wonder can make us feel more fully alive and more deeply connected to something larger than ourselves. Timestamps: 00:00 Why Awe Matters More Than Happiness 02:02 Dacher Being Given This Work On Awe 03:37 What Awe Is & The Process Of Defining It 08:48 Importance Of Stories For Dacher's Work 11:00 Awe & The Individual Self 16:16 Dacher Still Feeling Connected To His Brother After His Death 19:18 Why We Experience Grief & Presence Differently 26:11 How Environment Impacts Awe 29:20 Awe-Like Emotions, But Aren't Fully Awe 31:31 Relationship Between Awe, Wonder, & The Soul 37:00 How Awe Affects Our Health 40:51 Why Suffering Often Leads Us To Awe 46:56 Numb - Contrasting Force To Awe 50:12 Commercialization & Commodification Of Awe 52:52 Working With Pixar & Emotional Power Of Storytelling 57:04 What Gives Dacher Keltner Hope About the Future 59:22 Parting Words Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for listening. I truly appreciate your time and support. Let me know what you thought of the episode and what you would like to see in the future. Any feedback would be awesome. Don't forget to subscribe for more exciting content on YouTube, and leave a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or whatever platform you are listening on. Connect with me below: Instagram: Tim Doyle Youtube: Soulture

Our society has traded collective awe for isolating screens — and our art is paying the price. Psychologist DR. DACHER KELTNER knows a thing or two about awe as the director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab, author of the book ‘Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life’ , and a key creative consultant on Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’ . Awe is the psychological engine of human creativity, the very origin point of art, music, and the stories we use to make sense of our existence. Yet modern, hyper-individualistic society has systematically built a buffer between us and everyday wonder — making us lonelier, feeding our anxiety, and actively handicapping our imaginations . This conversation dives deep into the biological and cultural necessity of awe, the startling revelations recent studies show about how autistics experience awe , how a deficit of awe or even the manipulation of it can break down social cohesion and lead to the rise of dangerous leaders, and the terrifying ramifications for Hollywood and the arts as we navigate an era defined by the death of shared communal experiences. SCREENPLAY PERFORMANCE STUDIO: Today's episode is brought to you by Screenplay Performance Studio. Check them out and use the code 5AMStoryTalk to get $25 off . ⁠screenplayperformancestudio.com/5AM JOIN THE COMMUNITY! Join the 10,000+ members of the 5AM StoryTalk community at Substack mastering the craft of storytelling (and the art of life) together: https://colehaddon.substack.com/ EXCLUSIVE BONUS EPISODE: JAN STEEN'S PAINTING 'MERRY COMPANY ON A TERRACE' Dacher returns to break down a seminal piece of art from his own life that helped set him on a quest to better understand human emotions. UNLOCK THE BONUS AT SUBSTACK: https://colehaddon.substack.com/p/dacher-keltner-jan-steen-merry-company-on-a-terrace UNLOCK THE BONUS AT APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bonus-dacher-keltner-talks-jan-steens-merry-company/id1807437928?i=1000769462790 ON THE ITINERARY: THE BIAS OF SCIENCE: Why psychology ignored transcendent emotions for a century to focus on fear, impacting Western storytelling. THE CREATIVES' LAB: How artists, writers, and filmmakers can actively trigger states of awe to break through creative blocks and write deeper, more resonant stories. THE NEURODIVERGENT MIND: Breaking down groundbreaking new data from autistic scholar Hari Srinivasan that shatters harmful myths about neurodiversity and awe. THE CRISIS IN HOLLYWOOD: Why modern cinema is struggling to connect, and how a cultural deficit of wonder has sterile algorithms replacing creative risk-taking. THE DEATH OF THE LIVE AUDIENCE: From movie theaters to church pews, why we are collectively suffering from the loss of shared communal experiences. LINKS: Check out Dr. Dacher Keltner's book ‘Awe': https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622175/awe-by-dacher-keltner/ 🎧📺✍️ 5AM StoryTalk's discussion 'Project Hail Mary' Is the Blueprint to Save Hollywood (and Our Future)': https://colehaddon.substack.com/p/project-hail-mary-blueprint-save-hollywood-our-future Hari Srinivasan's autism research blog: https://uniquelyhari.blogspot.com/ TIP JAR: Not up for a paid subscription? You can also “buy me a coffee” ⁠⁠⁠here to help keep me caffeinated (translation: writing)⁠⁠⁠: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/colehaddon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Did you know that experiencing awe can improve your health and your overall well-being? Oprah talks with University of California, Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner to delve into his latest book "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life." During this inspirational conversation Dacher explains how each of us has the potential to experience awe every single day and shares how encountering awe can lead us to greater fulfillment and happiness. Based on his extensive research Dacher outlines and describes what he calls the “Eight Wonders of Life” or the eight experiences that most commonly trigger awe. Throughout the discussion Oprah and Dacher each share their own deeply personal encounters with awe. BUY THE BOOK! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622175/awe-by-dacher-keltner/ 00:00:00 - Welcome Dacher Keltner, author of “Awe” 00:04:30 - Awe decreases depression 00:07:40 - Awe and death 00:10:20 - Finding awe everyday 00:11:05 - 8 awe experiences 00:20:20 - how Awe affects our health 00:21:36 - Awe vs gratitude 00:24:45 - How awe can heal divisions 00:26:50 - Making space for awe and kids 00:28:20 - Develop an awe practice 00:29:50 - Psychedelics and awe 00:36:00 - Everyone can experience awe The Science of Happiness Podcast What does it take to live a happier life? Learn research-tested strategies that you can put into practice today. Hosted by award-winning psychologist Dacher Keltner. Co-produced by PRX and UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/podcasts/series/the_science_of_happiness Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: https://www.instagram.com/oprahpodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/oprahwinfrey/ Listen to the full podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A conversation with singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles and psychologist Dacher Keltner, recorded at the New York Times Well Festival , moderated by Dan. All three of them have dealt with anxiety and continue to work with it, and they discuss the ways they look for joy and sustainable wellness. Related Episodes: Sara Bareilles: Anxiety, Anger, and Art The Evolutionary Case for Kindness | Dacher Keltner This Scientist Says One Emotion May Be the Key to Happiness. Can You Guess What It Is? | Dacher Keltner Get ready for another Meditation Party at Omega Institute! This in-person workshop brings together Dan with his friends and meditation teachers, Sebene Selassie, Jeff Warren, and for the first time, Ofosu Jones-Quartey. The event runs October 24th-26th. Sign up and learn more at eomega.org/workshops/meditation-party-2025 . Join Dan's online community here Follow Dan on social: Instagram , TikTok Subscribe to our YouTube Channel To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- This scientist says that walking is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Here are some ways you can incorporate it into your life. Today we're going to talk about something so obvious, but so incredibly powerful. Walking. This is the third of a three part mini-series we're doing focused on the benefits of spending time outdoors. Dr. Keltner is one of the world's foremost emotion scientists. He is a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the director of the Greater Good Science Center. He has over 200 scientific publications and six books, including Born to Be Good, The Compassionate Instinct, The Power Paradox, and Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. He has written for many popular outlets, from The New York Times to Slate, and has consulted extensively for Google, Apple, and Pinterest, on issues related to emotion and well-being. He also hosts the podcast The Science of Happiness. In this episode we talk about: The practice of "awe walks" The ritualizing of walking How it can help your concentration and anxiety levels Walking meetings And walking meditations Related Episodes: The Science Of How Nature Changes Your Brain—From Sleep To Cognition To Your Nervous System | Dacher Keltner How To Get The Physiological And Psychological Benefits Of Nature If You Don't Live Near Nature | Dacher Keltner #546. This Scientist Says One Emotion Might Be the Key to Happiness. Can You Guess What It Is? | Dacher Keltner We Know Nature Is Good for Us. Here's How To Make Time for It, Scandinavian Style | Linda Åkeson McGurk Sign up for Dan's newsletter here Follow Dan on social: Instagram , TikTok Ten Percent Happier online bookstore Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Our favorite playlists on: Anxiety , Sleep , Relationships , Most Popular Episodes Full Shownotes: https://happierapp.com/podcast/tph/dacher-keltner-bonus-3 Additional Resources: The Science of Happiness Podcast <a href= "https://www.happierapp.com/podcast/tph/jon-kabat-zinn-2024" rel= "noopener

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Scientific evidence that spending time in nature has profound impacts on your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. We've got something special planned for you today. We're talking about the massive psychological and physiological benefits of being in nature. Nature impacts your mood. It has a whole long list of positive benefits for your nervous system, and even changes how you are with other people. In fact, as you'll hear today's guest say, "nature is healthcare". Dr. Dacher Keltner is one of the world's foremost emotion scientists. He is a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the director of the Greater Good Science Center. He has over 200 scientific publications and six books, including Born to Be Good, The Compassionate Instinct, The Power Paradox, and Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. He has written for many popular outlets, from The New York Times to Slate, and has consulted extensively for Google, Apple, and Pinterest, on issues related to emotion and well-being. He also hosts the podcast The Science of Happiness. This is the first of a three-part series we're doing focused on the benefits of spending time outside. Today we talk about how it impacts sleep, cognition, memory, your nervous system, and your relationships. Next week, we address the 80% of Americans who live in urban areas—how do you derive these benefits? And in week three, we take a deep dive on the science of walking. Related Episodes: #546. This Scientist Says One Emotion Might Be the Key to Happiness. Can You Guess What It Is? | Dacher Keltner We Know Nature Is Good for Us. Here's How To Make Time for It, Scandinavian Style | Linda Åkeson McGurk Sign up for Dan's newsletter here Follow Dan on social: Instagram , TikTok Ten Percent Happier online bookstore Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Our favorite playlists on: Anxiety , Sleep , Relationships , Most Popular Episodes Full Shownotes: https://happierapp.com/podcast/tph/dacher-keltner-bonus-1 Additional Resources: Download the Happier app today: <a href= "https://my.happierapp.com/link/download" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank

This is our unabridged interview with Dacher Keltner. “Brief doses…help your heart, your immune system, your stress, your reasoning, your relationships,” says psychologist and bestselling author Dacher Keltner. And believe it or not, he’s not describing some new miracle drug or medical treatment. He’s talking about the experience of awe. He defines awe as “the feeling we have when we encounter vast, mysterious things.” It’s something we all have experienced, but often talk about rather sheepishly. Dacher has spent considerable time seeking it out and studying it, and the results are in. In this episode, he shares his findings, and offers all the ways in which awe is a necessary component to a happy, healthy, flourishing life. Show Notes: Similar episodes Jennifer Wiseman: How Science Produces Wonder David Desteno: Can Religion Make You Happier? Judith Moskowitz: How to Flourish Amidst Stress Resources mentioned this episode Awe by Dacher Keltner AlanCowan.com Ming Kuo’s 21 pathways by which nature is good for one’s health Brian Sutton and Tammy Rogers performing “Nachstucke” PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes Transcript for Abridged Episode JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this enlightening episode of the Teacher Fan Club we welcome Dr. Dacher Keltner, one of the world’s foremost emotion scientists and the founding Director of the Greater Good Science Center . Dr. Keltner is a distinguished psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley and has consulted for Google, Apple, and Pinterest on emotion and wellbeing. He was also the scientific advisor behind Pixar’s Inside Out . With an inspiring career that spans over 200 scientific publications and six books, including his lastest, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life, Dr. Keltner has revolutionized our understanding of emotions and their impact on wellbeing and social connection. In this episode, we dive into Dr. Keltner's latest work on awe and explore the eight wonders of life and their transformative effects on our everyday lives, relationships, and even our educational approaches. Learn opportunities to trigger awe in your daily life and classroom, and reflect on your own transformative awe experiences. Whether you're an educator looking to inspire your students, a parent seeking to cultivate awe in your child's life, or someone eager to embrace the beauty in every day, this conversation with renowned expert (and super teacher fan!) Dr. Dacher Keltner is bound to leave you awe-inspired and ready to explore the world with renewed wonder and appreciation. **FYI - this episode has a sound distortion, off and on, until about 13:00. We did our best to fix it and minimize the distraction! Thanks in advance for your patience - and please know it doesn't last :). Full show notes are available at: https://teacherfanclub.com/?p=106

Basic Goodness and Awe: A conversation between Tara Brach and Dacher Keltner - Our conversation covers the biological, evolutionary and cultural bases of human goodness and the centrality of awe in the human experience. We explore the blocks to experiencing our full potential, and ways we can cultivate our innate capacity for finding wonder, love, creativity and beauty in our daily lives. Dacher Keltner, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, a scientist and the co-director of the Greater Good Science Center. He has authored a number of books, including bestselling "Born to be Good" and most recently "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life". Learn more about Dacher's latest book at: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622175/awe-by-dacher-keltner/

“The evolution of our species built into our brains and bodies an emotion, our species-defining passion, that enables us to wonder together about the great questions of living.” That’s just one of many illuminating conclusions that researcher Dr. Dacher Keltner discovered in his scientific studies of awe. In this conversation, you’ll learn about the eight wonders of life, how to experience more everyday awe (and take yourself on awe walks), and what’s behind our current crisis of meaning. As Dacher writes, “Our experiences of awe hint at faint answers to these perennial questions and move us to wander toward the mysteries and wonders of life.” More About Dacher : Dr. Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and the faculty director of the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center. A renowned expert in the biological and evolutionary origins of human emotion, Dr. Keltner studies the science of compassion, awe, love, and beauty, and how emotions shape our moral intuition. His research interests also span issues of power, status, inequality, and social class. He is the author of the best-selling book Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life and of The Compassionate Instinct , and today we are talking about his most recent book, AWE: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life . Dacher is also the host of the award-winning podcast, The Science of Happiness . 🌟 3 Key Takeaways 8 wonders of life: moral beauty (the strength, courage, overcoming, and kindness of others); collective effervescence; nature; music; visual design; mysticism (spiritual and religious); stories of life and death; and epiphanies. Everyday awe: In our daily lives, we most frequently feel awe in encounters with moral beauty, and secondarily in nature and in experiences with music, art, and film. The big idea of awe: We are part of systems larger than the self. “Awe is about knowing, sensing, seeing and understanding fundamental truths, and leads to epiphanies across the eight wonders of life—transforming how we see the essential nature of the world.” ✅ Try This Next— Go on an Awe Walk: Tap into your childlike sense of wonder. Try to approach what you see with fresh eyes, imagining that you're seeing it for the first time. Take a moment in each walk to take in the vastness of things, for example in looking at a panoramic view or up close at the detail of a leaf or flower. Go somewhere new. Each week, try to choose a new location. You're more likely to feel awe in a novel environment where the sights and sounds are unexpected and unfamiliar to you. That said, some places never seem to get old, so there's nothing wrong with revisiting your favorite spots if you find that they consistently fill you with awe. The key is to recognize new features of the same old place. What’s mysterious around me? What’s the deeper story of what I’m perceiving? 🔗 Resources Mentioned Dacher on the web and LinkedIn (No Twitter and IG accounts) Video : The Diary of

Have we overlooked a major source of awe, right under our collective noses? Dacher Keltner returns to the On Wisdom studio to discuss his new book "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life", the power of moral beauty, the desire for connection, and the importance of wandering. Igor suggest that awe can also entail feelings of terror, Dacher reflects on the perils of awe being used against us, and Charles shares his experience of an awe walk-around-the-bloc. Welcome to Episode 56. Special Guest: Dacher Keltner. Links: Dacher Keltner | UC Psych Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory Dacher Keltner: Why Awe Is Such an Important Emotion - YouTube The Science of Happiness Podcast | Greater Good Awe as a scientific emotion - Gottlieb, Keltner, Lombrozo (2018) Self-Transcendent Awe as a Moral Grounding of Wisdom - Dacher Keltner, Paul K. Piff (2020) Awe and humility. - PubMed - NCBI - Stellar, gordon, Anderson, Piff, McNeil, Keltner (2018) Why Do We Feel Awe? | Greater Good Why Does Awe Have Prosocial Effects? New Perspectives on Awe and the Small Self - Joshua D. Perlin, Leon Li (2020) Awe Motivates Authentic-Self Pursuit via Self-Transcendence: Implications for Prosociality - Tonglin Jiang, Constantine Sedikides (2021)

How can the science behind a specific human emotion, change our lives for the better? Dacher Keltner is Professor of Psychology at Berkeley University, California and is the founder of the Greater Good Science Center. You may have heard his podcast, the Science of Happiness. Dacher and his students have been studying the transformative power of a single emotion. Keep listening to hear a brief history of our understanding of awe , its age-old purpose in the pursuit of knowledge… and how the humbling effect of a walk in the woods might just change the way we approach things. Disclaimer: This Spark has been created using material recorded online during the pandemic - so the sound quality varies in places, but this shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying the material. Presentation by: Dacher Keltner Dacher’s Research Hub: Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life (berkeley.edu) Produced by: Unboxed - a UK-wide festival of creativity that brought together Arts, Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEAM). Brought to you by: The RSA - the royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce. Where world-leading ideas become world-changing actions. Subscribe for new episodes weekly and visit our website to find out more about our Design for Life mission and our global changemaker community - the RSA Fellowship: theRSA.org