BEAU IS A GUEST ON THE MODERN WISDOM PODCAST

Lab of Misfits’ Dr Beau Lotto joins Chris Williamson, former contestant of ITV’s Love Island and now club promoter, podcaster and YouTuber, to discuss the neuroscience of awe, distraction and anxiety.

Dr Beau Lotto was Chris Williamson’s guest on the popular ‘Modern Wisdom’ podcast, where Williamson aims to learn about a broad range of topics from some of the ‘most interesting people on the planet’. 

The discussion is an hour long deep dive into the neuroscience of why awe makes us feel so connected to the world around us, why unanswered questions cause so much anxiety, how distraction occurs in our brains and the Lab of Misfits’ role in helping people realise their perceptual intelligence.

The focus of much of the conversation was about the subject of awe and why Lotto has devoted so much of his time to understanding its effect on the brain. Lotto explains that awe is possibly one of our most powerful perceptions. When Williamson asks “What does it do?”, Lotto states that people who experience awe not only increase their pro-social behaviour and tolerance for risk, but their need for certainty decreases. They also feel a greater connectivity to those around them, including nature. Lotto goes on to say that awe can shift your attention away from oneself, which is where anxiety and depression lives. In doing so, the experience of awe can make a person feel higher levels of wellbeing.

Williamson is interested in what Lotto’s work aims to achieve in the world. Lotto explains how the world is essentially a lab and that Lotto, and the Lab of Misfits, is trying to enable people to embody their perceptions through immersive experiences. These experiences are not just for the Lab to understand the mind, but for people to understand themselves. He says “You don’t know that you have a choice unless you have an awareness”. Hence the Lab of Misfits aims to offer people perceptual awareness, or what Lotto describes as ‘perceptual intelligence’, which means that you have agency and the ability to question and act or not act on what you thought you knew before. 

To enjoy the podcast, Modern Wisdom: The Neuroscience of Awe, Distraction and Anxiety, click here or listen below.

Written by: Hannah Marshallsay

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