Podbit · The Mel Robbins Podcast
Adding a simple awe-orientation to your regular walk — noticing small and vast details, seeking childlike wonder — reduced physical pain in adults aged 75+ and is linked to greater brain health six years later. You can start today, anywhere, for free.
Where this was said
At 1:02:40 · chapter starts 56:42
With a bouquet of flowers set up in the studio — tree peonies, anemones, garden roses, snapdragons, Queen Anne's lace, and lisianthus — Dr. Keltner turns the podcast into a live lab. He guides Mel through a three-stage sensory awe practice. First, vision: she moves her gaze from fine petal details to the full explosion of the bouquet, marveling at the improbability of something so intricate growing from a bulb. Second, scent: one rose transports her to weddings; another to her grandmother's hugs; a lisianthus to cut grass and her father mowing the lawn. Third, touch: the texture of petals returns her to childhood summers in western Michigan, lying in the grass and staring at the sky. Dr. Keltner frames the result beautifully — in just a few minutes, the bouquet became a doorway into Mel's bigger life story, connecting her to parents, husband, grandmother, and self. That's what awe always does: it reveals what was already there.
In a rare live experiment, Dr. Keltner guided Mel Robbins through a multi-sensory awe experience with a bouquet of flowers — sight, smell, touch — triggering memories of her grandmother, father, and husband. This is exactly what awe does: it connects you to your bigger story.
Dr. Keltner cited research indicating humans have approximately 12 million scent receptors in the nose that help us navigate and interpret the world.
AI nailed Andrew Huberman's vertigo-vs-low-blood-pressure diagnosis because that pattern has been reported millions of times. But every patient's liver is different and data on liver surgeries is scarce worldwide — making solo robot surgery dangerous. The rule is simple: data abundance means AI can help; data scarcity means keep the human in the loop.
Fei-Fei Li's father had liver surgery performed by a da Vinci robot guided by a surgeon. The result: 10 times less blood loss than a typical procedure. This isn't replacement — it's the gold standard of human-machine collaboration, where the human's judgment and the robot's precision combine.
US drug overdose deaths fell from 110,000 to roughly 70,000 — the biggest CDC-recorded single-year drop ever. Men's rates fell 27% in one year, and the steepest decline of all was among 15–24-year-olds, down 37%. The crisis narrative around young men needs to make room for signs of genuine progress.
Kessler thought his grief expertise would protect him. It didn't. When his son David died unexpectedly, he found himself on the floor — and eventually realized that acceptance alone wasn't enough. That unmet need became the sixth stage: finding meaning.
Grief isn't just death — it's any unwanted change. Kessler lectured at Coca-Cola and General Mills not because they had lots of funerals, but because change management is grief management. People who grieve well live well.
Witnessing someone's grief isn't just emotional support — it's an essential act of healing. Kessler argues grief is a severance and connection heals it. But real witnessing has two steps: seeing the pain AND affirming the person's capacity to recover.
Avoiding grief isn't free — it's exhausting. Kessler's beach ball metaphor nails it: pushing a small balloon down is easy, but holding a massive beach ball underwater takes constant, draining energy. Unattended feelings don't disappear; they just consume you.
Most people try to control their environment to avoid triggers. Kessler flips this entirely: triggers aren't problems to manage around — they're a detailed map to your pain and your healing. Every trigger points directly to what needs attention.
Running from pain doesn't leave it behind — it accelerates the chase. Whatever we run from pursues us, and whatever we face transforms us. Both Kessler and Lewis Howes testify to knowing both roads firsthand.
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