9 Minutes of Wonder
Hi, I’m Betsy Hedberg. This podcast helps you find wonder in this captivating world and its inhabitants — taking you out of the daily-life grind for at least a few minutes. We explore real-life examples of how things we often take for granted, or never even think about at all, are actually fascinating if we pay attention to them. Each episode is around 9 minutes or less, but I hope these few minutes will affect how you experience the other minutes and hours of your day. A sense of wonder and awe is good for us, as we already intuitively know and as science is increasingly demonstrating — so please join me!
Episodes
Wow, pink and purple skies! I hope you've had a chance to see it this week, or at least sometime in the past or future. Let's talk about these magnificent lights.
A few resources:
What causes the northern lights?
Northern lights: what they are and how to see them
10 awesome aurora facts (from the Australian government)
Fire in the sky: the southern lights in Indigenous oral traditions
What's something you often yearn for but then sometimes wish would leave you alone? That could be the sun. But our friendly closest star is much more than that bright circle in the sky we mainly think about when it's not visible and we're cold. It's one of the few things that are absolutely vital to life on Earth. So let's focus on the sun, without looking directly at it, of course.
A few resources:
Sun (Wikipedia)
You probably use a fork every day, yet you never think much about this multi-pronged utensil, do you? That may change after you hear this, and you might find yourself getting curious about other everyday things in your home as well. Why not? Everything has interesting stories, and connecting to things like forks helps us feel more connected to this complex and seemingly disjointed world. A few resources: How the simple fork almos...
Butterflies are incredible in so many ways! Their beauty alone is good enough reason to admire them, but there's so much more. Reacquaint yourself with their magic.
Butterflies: masters of disguise
Migration and overwintering (monarchs)
What happens inside a chrysalis? (sorry, I can only find this on one Facebook)
Monarch butterfly metamorphosis time-lapse (YouTube)
Monarch butterfly life cycle (YouTube)
Butterfly Conservation (UK-...
Almost everyone loves hearing birds sing! Even if you rarely pay attention to the birds singing around you, you'd miss them if they stopped and might even feel more depressed. So start listening for the birds in your area, and listen here to learn some of the wonders of how and why they sing.
A few resources:
...One of my favorite childhood summertime memories is watching fireflies in the evenings. After many firefly-free years, I got to see them again last weekend. Discover why they're so cool and how they do what they do.
A few resources for your enjoyment:
Fireflies: how and why they light up
Insider Science: what's behind the firefly's glow? (YouTube)
Do you know any pigeon-haters, or pigeon-phobes? Pigeons are actually such interesting birds, and they mean us no harm at all. Bring some wonder into your next city or suburban outing, and maybe you'll see pigeons in a new light.
(Not my best-quality audio, I'm afraid, but this will have to do because I've already recorded it twice!)
A few resources:
What chance encounters have shaped your life? Don't you look back on them with a sense of wonder — what were the odds?! I'll talk about this phenomenon and also put in a good word for its social cousin, small talk with strangers, even if you're an introvert like me.
Small talk doesn't need to be meaningless: the benefits of talking to strangers
Even with the internet's endless magic, libraries remain fascinating and important places. Come to the library with me in this episode, where I'll share three reasons I love libraries and think everyone else should too!
A few resources:
Great Library of Alexandria: New and improved
The world's most extraordinary libraries
'A cultural masterpiece': the world's best new public libraries — in pictures
If you haven't heard it from me enough, I'll say it again: cultivating wonder is good for us all! I'm going to share some things you might try today or this week if you're seeking more wonder, awe, and joy.
Why now?
While I always hope this podcast is uplifting, I can't produce it in a vacuum as if I feel all is well in the world. And since I don't feel that way now (and you may not either), I've recorded this episode about how cul...
Few natural phenomena are as magical and mysterious as bird migrations. I wish I had more than nine minutes, but I'll give you just a taste of why migrating birds are so cool.
"Marshland Elegy" by Aldo Leopold (PDF from A Sand County Almanac, 1949)
These 5 birds are all winners in the migrations Olympics (National Audubon Society)
Bird migration is one of nature's great wonders. Here's how they do it. (National Geographic)
How much attention do you pay to ice? Maybe you're sick and tired of all the ice around you this time of year, but what about taking a closer look — even if it's just in your freezer? Ice is a menace on the road or sidewalk and can damage our beloved trees, but have you ever considered ice as an art form? Listen to find out more about this simple form of water that we usually either take for granted or curse. (Bonus topic: why do A...
The world is so noisy! Even if we live in relatively quiet places, we are bombarded by noise thanks to all the pinging and dinging on our phones, the din of terrible news, demands from annoying coworkers...the list can seem endless. So let's focus on the more quiet side of life — quiet places we can visit or imagine. If quiet creeps you out, not to worry — this episode only lasts 9 minutes, and I talk through most it!
A few resour...
If you need to be uplifted, how about listening to some beautiful music and learning why it's awe-inspiring? Awe scientist Dacher Keltner lists music as one of the “eight wonders of life," and there's no question that music is an essential and universal part of being human. So spend nine minutes here, and then spend some more time with your favorite music today.
See also:
Beethoven Ode to Joy flash mob (YouTube)
What comes to mind when you think about the upcoming year? What about the "upcoming" 10 million years? Big difference, obviously, not just in the amount of time but also in how we envision these time spans. In this episode, I share a few fun metaphors for deep time — ways of visualizing (and maybe understanding) the unimaginable.
For more info:
The winter solstice is special from various perspectives. Even if you don't get into the spiritual magic of the day, you can still be impressed at what our planet's tilt makes happen as we go around the sun. And you can watch the livestream of this special day from Stonehenge (link below). Happy solstice! (And happy summer solstice to my southern-hemisphere friends!)
Some links:
Winter solstice at Mission San Juan Bautista (source ...
It's National Poinsettia Day in the US! Make it a good one by learning more about these ubiquitous "flowers." Or listen after the fact to prepare for next year.
A few resources:
8 fun facts to know about poinsettias
How to keep a poinsettia alive
Cuetlaxochitl: a cultural history of the poinsettia
The checkered history of the poinsettia’s namesake and the flower’s origins get new attention
Why am I doing this podcast anyway? Peek behind the curtain of my motivations in this short episode. Hint: because it's fun, and because awe and wonder are good for us and for society.
Dacher Keltner's website, with info about his book Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder
Music: Jens East — Daybreak (ft. Henk) www.soundcloud.com/jenseast Licence: Creative Commons Attribution V4.0
I can hardly begin to describe how cool this place was, in an industrial sort of way. I'll tell you about it here, but please visit the link to see what the place looks like. This is a fantastic engineering marvel, although in a way it's so simple — harnessing the sun to heat things up. By the way, I mention 3000 degrees, and that's Celsius. In degrees Fahrenheit it would be 5432 degrees. Burnt by the sun: Uzbekistan's spectacula...
Samarkand is a city of gorgeous tiled architecture, but in a way the most interesting site is the observatory of Ulugh Beg. You can only see the remaining sextant now, although a small bit of the observatory building has been reconstructed to help visitors imagine its earlier splendor. The astronomical discoveries made here are awe-inspiring enough, but the architecture must have been dazzling even to people who had no idea what th...
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