Collective Joy - Barbara Ehrenreich

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It's really hard to put this into words, much less turn it into a radio programme. But you know it when you feel it. It's the goosebumps you get when you and 18,000 people are singing the same song at a concert. When you're at a big rally and a chant moves through the crowd. Or in a choir - your voice blending with everyone else singing their hearts out.

You're at a hockey game - playoffs maybe - and your team wins in a shootout. The cheer that erupts is echoed across the street - across the city.

Collective joy. The writer Barbara Ehrenreich tells Tapestry host Mary Hynes that we are starved for, in her words, "the largely ignored and incommunicable thrill of the group united ... in joy and exaltation."

And, she says, we are suffering very severe consequences as a result.

Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of 15 books - including Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy.

We also hear from Tapestry listeners about their experiences of collective joy; from answering a call to rescue whales stranded on a beach in Australia, to go-go dancing at a rock concert on Denman Island, to singing a Zulu anthem in a 200-voice choir - listeners from across the country talk with Mary Hynes about the moments they'll always remember.

Music heard on the program:

Jerusalem, by Hubert Parry, from the CD Rule Britannia and other music from the Last Night of the Proms, with the English Northern Philarmonia and the Leeds Festival Chorus, conducted by Paul Daniel on the Naxos label.

Move Yer Feet by Roots Roundup, from the cassette tape of the same name, Groundup Music, 1987/88.

Rock 'N' Roll Part 2 by Gary Glitter, from the soundtrack to D2, The Might Ducks, distributed in Canada by Warner Music.

Innocenti, from the CD The Shutov Assembly, by Brian Eno. Opal Records.

Senzenina, from the CD The Power of One, the soundtrack to the film. Hans Zimmer and Johnny Clegg. Elektra.

Hallelujah from Handel - Messiah, with the Monteverdi Choir conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. Philips.

Layla from the CD Layla, by Eric Clapton. Polydor Records.