This Episode is Awesome!
On any list of done-to-death words, this one is near the top: "AWESOME!"
And it's funny - because true feelings of awe resist being put into words; they often transcend language.
In this episode, Tapestry reclaims 'awesome' and investigates the role of awe in human life.
This state of mind can encompass feelings of religion, of terror, of being a minuscule speck in a vast universe. It can also bring about a sense of the communal, connecting people with something beyond - and bigger than - themselves.
Dr. Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, has been wondering why human beings get this awestruck feeling. He shares his research and thoughts on the matter.
Plus, we bring you a documentary about how life at Na-Me-Res, an aboriginal men's shelter in Toronto, was changed by a homeless cat named Smudgey.
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