More Wow (5-part series) BBC Radio 4

Broadcast September 2024. Listen here.

Featured in the Daily Telegraph and Pick of The Week.

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 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;
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.