Podcast

When was the last time you experienced a sense of awe in nature? Feeling awe is something many outdoor users chase. But can you even define the experience of awe? Or is it one of things where you just know it when you see it? Where can you best find it? And what are the benefits of spending time outside purposefully chasing the feeling?

Professor Dr. Dacher Keltner joins us in this episode to tackle those questions and more. Leaning on research and advice included in his new book “Awe: the new science of wonder and how it can transform your life,” Dacher guides us into an understanding of the what, how and why of chasing awe outside. Listen now.

Connect with this episode:

Read “Awe: the new science of wonder and how it can transform your life” (affiliate link)

Visit Dr. Dacher Keltner’s website

Learn about the Greater Good Science Center

Join the Humans Outside Challenge
Follow Humans Outside on Instagram
Follow Humans Outside on Facebook

Some of the good stuff:

[2:52] Dacher Keltner’s favorite outdoor space

[3:35] How Dacher became someone who likes to go outside

[6:47] Can we define awe?
[9:12] How to experience awe in ways that are not specific to going outside

[11:52] How the “eight wonders of life” are all tied to nature anyway

[13:34] Do humans have a need for wild awe?

[15:36] Why don’t we talk about the importance of awe?

[20:01] Can you create an awe habit?

[21:26] Is there such a thing as an awe muscle?

[23:34] What does noticing have to do with it?

[26:28] The difference between “awe” and “wonder”

[28:04] Tips for finding and keeping an awe habit

[30:18] Dacher’s favorite moment of outdoor awe

The deep, cold, dark winter of the north is a unique experience that both challenges and inspires. On the one hand, it shows you things about nature and about yourself you’d never see in the long hours of warmer daylight. On the other, it carried a depth that at times feels insurmountable.

Among the winter enthusiasts and survivors are cyclists, people out there riding their bikes through, on and over the ice. They are part of a rich history of people not just exploring the Arctic under their own power, but leaning into the experience despite all the odds. In today’s episode writer and editor Jessica Cherry talks about the experience of cycling through Alaska’s winter. Listen now.

Life is full of opportunities for problem solving, for looking at challenges in a fresh way, for reshaping the landscape to peel out an unexpected solution. And what does it take to get there? Creativity.

You might be thinking about creativity as it relates to art, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Instead I mean the creativity found in how you approach the world. And heading outside? It has a measurable impact on boosting creativity if you take the right steps — often literally.

In this episode we dive into boosting creativity by heading outside in a conversation with Garry Pratt, a business coach, author and innovator around what he calls “outside thinking.” Listen now.

Ever seen that meme that asks “why do I live some in a place where the air hurts my face?” Heading outside in harsh conditions can feel like a personal attack that has your whole body and mind screaming “noooooooooo!” You want to want to do it, but you don’t. You know there’s no actual danger, but if feels like there is. You want to be someone who goes outside and does cool stuff, but you can’t figure out how to calm down that internal “nope” monologue.

So what can you do about it? In this episode Alaska-based mental health informed adventure fitness trainer Sarah Histand tackles the big question of dealing being kind to your nervous system while teaching it that, hey, heading outside for challenges big and small is a safe and even fun idea. Listen now.