Why are we here? What is our purpose? Are any of our scientific efforts actually adding up to important revelations? Does understanding our cosmic origins really contribute to humanity as a whole?

We know what it’s like to be “street-level,” to understand our cities, our social behaviors, our day-to-day lives — but what happens if we look up? How does our understanding of humanity change when we raise our attention to the space beyond our skylines?

These are the questions that our host Kmele Foster is exploring in this episode of The Well podcast. Helping Kmele along the way is Sean Dougherty, the director of ALMA Observatory in Northern Chile, home of Earth’s darkest skies and 50% of the world’s megatelecopes.

If the answers to humanity’s questions are written in the stars, this observatory might be the one to translate them.