brandon

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stewart

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brandon

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stewart

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brandon

stewart

brandon

stewart

A Night of Awe and Wonder

About the project

A Night of Awe and Wonder brought together scientists, artists, explorers, and thinkers in Los Angeles for an evening of live, multimedia storytelling. Guests journeyed from the mysteries of the cosmos to the depths of the human mind, with big ideas made vivid through cutting-edge research, personal stories, and creative performance. The result was an extraordinary night that left the audience inspired, curious, and connected.

Client

John Templeton Foundation

Services

Storytelling Event — Los Angeles

Year

2025

Some events you attend. Others you experience. Our recent Big Think gathering—A Night of Awe and Wonder—was decidedly the latter.

The room buzzed with possibility even before the first speaker took the stage. Professors and researchers from top universities mingled with executives from leading tech, media, and philanthropic sectors. Filmmakers, directors, screenwriters, and producers behind projects as diverse as Star Trek to Chef’s Table wove into conversations with innovators and cultural leaders—creating precisely the kind of cross-pollination we’d hoped for, and more.

But what made the evening truly special wasn't just who showed up. It was how they showed up. The energy was palpable: open, curious, genuinely warm. People weren't just excited to be there—they were ready to be transformed.

Dacher Keltner opened the evening by grounding us in what we came for: awe itself. Not as mystical abstraction, but as universal emotion backed by rigorous science. He framed why awe matters—how it rewires our brains for resilience, dissolves ego boundaries, and makes us more generous, creative, and fully alive.

Janna Levin then carried us beyond Earth into the cosmos, where black holes bend reality and the universe reveals its poetic mysteries. Her talk reminded us that wonder is not merely earthbound—it is woven into the very fabric of existence.

Victor Vescovo brought us back to our own planet, but to its most extreme edges. Through stories of scaling the world's highest mountains, diving to its deepest ocean trenches, and venturing into space, he showed how pushing into Earth's extremes sparks transcendence and reveals what we're truly capable of.

David Gruber offered something entirely new: a first look at Project CETI’s groundbreaking efforts to decode whale communication, complete with unreleased recordings. Watching the room lean forward in unison as these ancient, intelligent voices filled the space was in itself a moment of awe.

Musician Robot Koch — whose music was described by the BBC as "artificial intelligence discovering religion" — then enveloped us in a performance that felt nearly extraterrestrial. These soundscapes did more than accompany the evening’s themes—they embodied them.

Dacher Keltner, Professor, UC Berkeley

Janna Levin, Professor, Columbia University

David. S. Goyer, acclaimed screenwriter, director & producer

David Gruber, Founder, Project CETI & National Geographic Explorer

Victor Vescovo, legendary explorer and adventurer

Rainn Wilson, Actor, author & activist

Kelly Corrigan, bestselling author and podcast host

David S. Goyer, the acclaimed screenwriter, director & producer, explored how moral imagination and wonder fuel the stories that shape culture, drawing from decades of work that's helped define modern mythology on screen.

Rainn Wilson went deep and philosophical, connecting awe to meaning, spirituality, and our longing for something larger than ourselves. His reflections felt both profound and refreshingly honest.

And finally, Kelly Corrigan closed the evening by bringing us home. Her story of losing her mother reminded us that awe does not simply reside in black holes or in mysterious ocean depths. Sometimes it dwells in the small, ordinary moments that quietly shape a meaningful life. It was moving, grounding, and the perfect conclusion.

We've built a world that too often strips wonder away. We're buried in screens and schedules, living smaller, more fearful, more disconnected lives than our biology intended. Awe isn't just a nice feeling—it's a biological imperative, an antidote to our age of anxiety and isolation.

This evening reminded everyone in that room why we can't afford to forget how to be amazed. The conversations that continued long after the last speaker left the stage, the connections being made between people from wildly different worlds, the ideas sparked—that's what happens when you put awe back where it belongs: at the center of everything.

And most importantly for me was to hear so many awesome testimonials from our guests — filmmakers, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, philanthropic leaders — who said they left feeling inspired and excited for the next event.

"My wife and I attended Saturday night's event, and I just wanted to say how incredibly special it was. We were remarking about how smart the programming was, with the speakers in the first half discussing awe through science, and the speakers in the second half through art. They were in a beautiful, deep conversation with each other.

I'm writing a script about the first humans to gain consciousness, so this came into my life at the perfect time. I sincerely hope you do more events like this in LA." — Evan, screenwriter

This event was a reminder of what becomes possible when we gather with intention, show up with curiosity, and allow ourselves to be transformed by wonder.

Come curious. Leave transformed. That was the invitation. And from everything I witnessed, that's exactly what happened.

A special thank you to the amazing humans who made it possible

A big thank you to our generous sponsor, the John Templeton Foundation, and the support and generosity of their whole team, especially David Nassar, Ben Carlson, and John Cunningham.

A heartfelt thank you to our speakers who gave generously of their time to share their work and their insights with our very appreciative audience.

Thank you to our amazing vendors who helped bring my scribbled floor plans to life — John Clark and his team at JCJ Productions, Gregory Waits from Crateful Catering, Shea Lewis from Mixology Flaired, Edwin and Caren from MTB Event Rentals, and Madison Ziegler and Troy Pierce from SV Studios.

Thank you to members of the Big Think team who pitched in at various stages throughout the process including Kmele Foster, Mike Dennis, Ana Kova, Illana Haubold, and Quinn Berkman.

And a final thank you to the talented coterie of artists from around the world who helped me bring these incredible talks to life with their beautiful animations — Brittnie Diamant, Drew Christie, Nancy Liang, Leonardo Santamaria, Vicky Chao, Jordan Bruner, and Daniel Liévano.