Cultivating Awe & Emotional Connection in Daily Life | Dr. Dacher Keltner

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Life Sciences, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 30.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2026

⏱️ 140 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Dacher Keltner, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a leading expert on the science of emotions and human connection. We discuss the science of awe—what evokes it and how to access it. Dr. Keltner explains how awe helps us frame our experience of life and who we are both as individuals and collectively. We also discuss the role of humor in social bonding, dispel common myths about the biology of emotions and review the lesser-known factors that strengthen or inhibit relationships and communities. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Joovv: https://joovv.com/huberman Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Our Place: https://fromourplace.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Dr Dachner Keltner (00:01:55) Emotions, Awe; Facial Expressions & Culture (00:08:11) Sponsors: Joovv & Helix Sleep (00:11:05) Emotion, Motor Movement & Language (00:15:36) Measuring Emotion; Studying Awe (00:24:10) Horizons, Small to Vast, Shifting Perspective (00:29:27) Tool: Awe Walk (00:33:53) Time Perception, Tool: Space-Time Bridging Meditation; Chimps, Vastness (00:42:13) Sponsor: AG1 (00:43:37) Consciousness, Collective Experiences & Brain Synchronization (00:50:04) Music, Concerts & Awe; Sparring, Transcendence (01:01:28) Joe Strummer (01:06:04) Inhibitors of Awe, Self-Focus & Narcissism (01:12:41) Sponsor: Function (01:13:52) Sports, Collective Effervescence (01:19:03) Social Media & Online Life, Social Community (01:29:51) Designing Cities & Places for Awe (01:34:29) Sponsor: Our Place (01:35:44) Embarrassment, Teasing; Collective Values (01:43:05) Male Friendship, Teasing (01:47:50) Isolation, Loneliness, Reemergence of Community (01:54:33) Psychedelics, Awe, Treating Trauma; Microdosing (02:01:18) Looking Forward, Awe Design (02:08:36) Campfires, Connection, Red Light (02:13:34) Life After Death; Acknowledgments (02:17:19) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Aw is good for reduced inflammation, elevated vagal tone, reduced long COVID symptoms.
0:07.6	We have people with long COVID, just a minute of awe a day, reduce long COVID symptoms.
0:14.1	It's good news, right?
0:15.2	And there's so much science on it that I just, now I think medical doctors are starting to think like I'm going to
0:22.1	prescribe nature I'll prescribe music through all right as a mechanism welcome to the Huberman lab podcast
0:29.4	where we discuss science and science based tools for everyday life I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School
0:41.6	of Medicine.
0:42.7	My guest today is Dr. Dacker Keltner.
0:45.5	Dr. Dacker Keltner is a professor of psychology and the co-director of the Greater Good
0:49.7	Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.
0:53.2	Dacker is an expert in the science of emotions and their role in social dynamics and bonding.
0:58.0	Today we discuss his fascinating work on the science of emotions, including the role of teasing
1:03.0	in social bonding, the role of embarrassment in social bonding, and his fascinating work on awe
1:08.0	and the things that lead to awe.
1:10.0	As he describes, awe is not elusive.
1:12.9	It happens when we shift our perception from a very small scale to a very large scale or back
1:18.0	again, such as when we suddenly reach a new horizon or visual vista. Today, you'll understand
1:23.1	what all of that really means, and more importantly, how you can create this incredible thing
1:27.3	that we
1:27.6	call awe in everyday life. We also talk about the critical aspect of human bonding in groups
1:32.6	and the things that both establish and inhibit deep human bonds. So today is a very practical,
1:38.2	as well as conceptual conversation, that no doubt will change the way that you think about
	...

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