大象传媒

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 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;
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