Raffi: The More We Get Together (Altruism Science with Jennifer Stellar)

Recorded live at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto on
October 31, 2025, this episode brings together beloved children’s
musician and advocate Raffi and University of Toronto
psychologist Dr. Jennifer Stellar for a conversation
about how music helps shape our earliest experiences of empathy,
gratitude, and wonder. Raffi reflects on three songs spanning
nearly three decades of his career—“The More We Get Together,”
“Thanks a Lot,”and “Bananaphone”—and how they came to embody
his philosophy of Child Honouring, a vision that places the
well-being of children at the center of community and culture. Dr.
Stellar, director of University of Toronto's HEAL Lab (Health,
Emotions, and Altruism Laboratory), explains how these songs map
onto what psychologists call self-transcendent emotions:
feelings that expand our sense of self and deepen our connections
with others. Together, they explore why compassion tends to emerge
in children around the ages of five to eight, how gratitude can
encourage cooperation and trust, and how awe invites us to
reimagine what is possible. They discuss the science of
co-regulation, the role of music in developing social awareness,
and why playful imagination—like pretending a banana is a phone—can
support a child’s ability to see the world in new ways. The episode
ends with a joyful reflection on the enduring power of communal
singing—reminding us that “the more we get together, the happier
we’ll be,” not just as a lyric, but as a lifelong practice in
belonging.