On being with Christa Tippett is supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation,

funding research and catalyzing conversations that inspire people with awe and wonder.

Discover the latest findings on neuroscience, cosmology, and the origins of life at Templeton.org.

To me, one of the most fascinating developments of our time is that human qualities we have

understood in terms of virtue. Experiences we've called spiritual

are now being taken seriously by science as intelligence, as elements of human wholeness.

And Dacker Keltner and his greater good science center at Berkeley have been pivotal in this

emergence. From the earliest years of his career, Dacker investigated how emotions are coded in

the muscles of our faces, and how they serve as moral sensory systems. The way of feeling

like sadness or fear or a sense of injustice goes on to infuse how we see everything that's happening.

He was called on as a mojis evolved. He consulted on Pete Doctor's groundbreaking movie

Inside Out. And all of this, as Dacker sees it now, led him deeper and deeper into investigating

the primary experience of awe in human life. Moments when we have a sense of wonder,

an experience of mystery that transcends our understanding. These it turns out are as common

in human life globally as they are measurably health giving and immunity boosting.

They bring us together with others again and again. They bring our nervous system and heartbeat

and breath into sync and even into sync with other bodies around us.

This science is a wildly accessible minute to minute invitation to practice a common human

experience that is literally life giving and nourishing and actively good for this world of pain

and promise that we inhabit. I'm Christa Tippett and this is on being.

I've been in a conversation of friendship and shared curiosity with Dacker Keltner for years

and I'm so happy to bring this conversation to you as he has now translated his studies into a book.

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