A neuroscientist's guide to managing our emotions

March 27, 2026·50 min·4 clips

A mother's quick EpiPen save turns into a spiral of anxiety as she imagines every possible future disaster.

The episode begins with a violin. That small, specific sound gives Manoush Zomorodi a way into a bigger question: how do people work with emotions before emotions start running the room? The tools are pretty ordinary, which is part of the appeal. The guest talks about music, sound, scent, vision, art, and beauty as ways to move feelings up or down. The point is to use them on purpose, not just let them sit in the background. Then awe takes over the conversation. The guest points to research from Berkeley that followed military veterans and first responders while they paddled Utah's Green River. Stress and PTSD were measured before and after the rafting trip. Most participants felt better by the end, and awe turned out to be the surprise predictor of those drops. Awe is described as the feeling that shows up around something vast and hard to put into words. The examples stay easy to picture. An amazing sunset can do it. The guest finds it in outer space, interplanetary travel, and footage from Mars. That sense of scale can make the self feel smaller, and the episode connects that shift to the stress and PTSD changes in the rafting study. The science stays close to real life. Zomorodi also asks about Managing Emotions in Everyday Life, a study of the tools thousands of people used during the COVID pandemic to manage anxiety. Different moments need different kinds of support, so the toolbox matters.

As heard by us

A measured case for awe, music, scent, and art as tools for managing emotion.

TED Radio Hour starts its episode on managing emotions at a Stradivarius auction at Sotheby's in New York, where bidding opens at $8 million and climbs fast. The detour works.

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Why you'd press play

You're already being steered by music, scent, art, and sunsets. This hour is about doing it on purpose.

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