Dacher Keltner and Susan Cain: Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder

In Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, UC Berkeley professor of psychology Dacher Keltner, Ph.D. (FAN ’16) 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, Prof. Keltner shows us how cultivating awe in our everyday life leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. Up until fifteen years ago, there was no science of awe, the feeling we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that transcend our understanding of the world. Scientists were studying emotions like fear and disgust, emotions that seemed essential to human survival. Revolutionary thinking, though, has brought into focus how, through the span of evolution, we’ve met our most basic needs socially. We’ve survived thanks to our capacities to cooperate, form communities, and create culture that strengthens our sense of shared identity—actions that are sparked and spurred by awe.

Keltner is the faculty director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. A renowned expert in the science of human emotion, he 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 co-editor of The Compassionate Instinct. Keltner was also a collaborator in the Pixar film Inside Out. She partners with Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Ph.D. (FAN ’14, ’16), and Dan Pink (FAN ’18, ’22) to curate the Next Big Idea Book Club.

Keltner will be in conversation with Susan Cain (FAN ’13, ’22), author of the #1 New York Times bestselling books Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can’t Stop Talking and Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole.