Remember the buzz about--and from!-- Brood X cicadas last summer? That  phenomenon prompted On the Record producer Melissa Gerr to explore the powerful feelings associated with awe and wonder, and how they affect us. 

She talked with an astrophysicist, a naturalist, a spirituality researcher and also with David B. Yaden, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine working in ‘The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research’. One of his experiences of awe, he said, came from thinking about vastness:

“That vastness can be perceptual, like looking out on a large expanse like the Grand Canyon, or it can be conceptual, like when you imagine the magnitude of the size of the galaxy.”

Links: The Goethe Institut's Big Ponder listening series.

*Originally produced for the Goethe Institut's The Big Ponder transatlantic listening series.

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472