To build a culture of empathy, we need to dramatically transform the justice system and place empathy at the center of it. Part of that system is the prison system. I talk with Fred Sly & Vika Miller from the Oregon Prison Project about how to transform the prison system.
Fred Sly, Program Director & Vika Miller, Executive Director, The Oregon Prison Project. Working with Compassionate Communications to transform prisons and make them cultures of empathy.
Fred says empathy is like a puppy dog pile that no-one is embarrassed to play in and all are included versus coldness and mechanical robots. Vika says it's like a compassionate room where we can be everything that we are. There is room for all that we are as human beings. The opposite of empathy would be like a closed fist of disconnection, resistance and closed heartedness.
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Gad Saad breaks down his framework of "suicidal empathy." He argues that empathy, like any other human instinct, is only a virtue when operating within its optimal range. Too little and you're a psychopath. Too much, aimed at the wrong targets, and you get a civilization that serves the interests of its enemies.
Gad explains why the wealthiest societies in human history are also the most vulnerable to parasitic ideas, how the human mind gets hijacked by ideologies the way a parasite hijacks its host, and why communism, wokeness, and every other "bad idea that won't die" keeps returning generation after generation.
Some people are good at putting themselves in another person’s shoes. Others may struggle to relate. But psychologist Jamil Zaki argues that empathy isn’t a fixed trait. This week, we revisit a favorite episode about how to exercise our empathy muscles. Then, Leslie John answers listener questions about the benefits of opening up to others, in our latest installment of Your Questions Answered.
This webinar focuses on the potential for reading to support young people’s empathy
There is growing interest in the relationship between reading and empathy, specifically understanding whether, how, and for whom, book reading fosters empathy. This webinar explores the potentially enriching effects of books, and other texts, to support empathy. The speakers will provide examples of contemporary research studies to exemplify the relationship between fiction book reading and empathy, and provide book recommendations for secondary school pupils, to nurture empathy among adolescent readers.
Author Gad Saad presents his new book, "Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind," arguing that misguided kindness leads to catastrophic policy decisions. Saad connects this to the controversy surrounding Fairfax County, Virginia's sanctuary policies, where dangerous illegal migrants were released despite prior offenses.
Empathy is an emotion that stems from understanding what another person might be feeling, and then feeling that same thing (or something similar). The first requirement—the ability to understand what another person might be thinking or feeling—is something that develops slowly; it starts in infancy and continues into the preschool years. First, babies gain the ability to understand that people have intentions that typically guide their actions. We see evidence that infants can act based on inferring another’s intention by about 14 to 18 months.
Empathy is more than a feeling; it’s a discipline that allows us to humanize those who disagree with us.
Empathy is an ancient moral instinct that is relatively new to the English language. From the Greek word Empatheia (meaning passion or emotion) and the Greek Pathos (meaning suffering and profound feeling), the German language produced the term Einfühlung somewhere in the late 19th century — a term describing the projection of one’s own feelings onto other human beings and even onto objects.
As language evolved, the English term “empathy” came to signify the capacity to understand the feelings of another person as if they were one’s own. Yet this new term reflected a very ancient bit of moral wisdom. It is strange that in today’s polarized discourse we sometimes discard empathy as if it were the product of experimental social science and not something that in substance echoes all the way back to the gospels and beyond.
“Research shows that when physicians engage with the arts—as observers or as artists or performers—empathy increases. According to the National Institutes of Health, ‘empathy is a fundamental driver of high-quality clinical care, acting as a crucial component of clinical competence that directly correlates with better patient outcomes, increased satisfaction, and lower litigation rates.
It bridges the gap between technical expertise and human connection, enhancing patient compliance and diagnostic accuracy, often acting as a key component of effective care.’ Ultimately, if we want to be successful in clinical care, we should consider the arts as a tool for cultivating empathy. I encourage everyone to explore art, music, theatre, dance, poetry, or prose as a way to connect with their own sense of empathy.”
Rhamell Burke, a repeat criminal, attacked and later stalked two women on the New York City subway last April.
Though police stopped Burke from harassing the women any further, the victims ultimately decided not to cooperate with prosecutors, with one woman telling the New York Post later, “maybe a part of me was just like, I don’t want to put another black man in jail.” It was a decision she ultimately regretted after Burke, about one month later, allegedly pushed a retired school teacher onto the subway tracks, leading to the 76-year-old’s death.
“ Well, I mean, it's toxic empathy, isn't it—that it gets people killed. It serves the ego of the so-called enlightened, but the consequences fall on people that can't defend themselves,” argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.
Pope Leo XIV said today that for Christians and Muslims, “human compassion and empathy are not something additional or optional, but are a call from God to reflect his goodness in our daily lives.”
The Pontiff made his remarks to participants in a colloquium organized by the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and Jordan’s Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies. The theme of the colloquium is “Human Compassion and Empathy in Modern Times.”
And for more on suicidal empathy, be sure to catch Rafaela Siewert’s conversation with the man who coined the phrase, Gad Saad. He explains to Rafaela why he thinks the West is on a suicide mission.
There is something unique about the West’s feverish desire to commit collective suicide by misguided empathy. Interestingly, in his mammoth twelve-volume A Study of History, the British historian Arnold J. Toynbee explained why civilizations die. This has since been summarized by the following maxim: “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.”
The general argument is that societies decay because of the self-inflicted failures of their elites in a myriad of ways. The American philosopher James Burnham echoed that sentiment in his 1964 book Suicide of the West, wherein he proclaimed: “It may be added that suicide is probably more frequent than murder as the end phase of a civilization” and added that “[L]iberalism is the ideology of Western suicide.”
I posit that in the current zeitgeist, the collective suicide of the West is occurring via the orgiastic misfiring of one of our most noble virtues, empathy, which of course is deeply anchored within the ethos of progressive liberals.
In this clip from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, director Steven Spielberg discuss how empathy is used as a core concept—and a literal "superpower"—in his film Disclosure Day.
Here is what the video says about it
Empathy as a Superpower: Spielberg explains that the characters in his film develop incredible abilities after being exposed to extraterrestrial secrets. Instead of classic comic book abilities like flying or super strength, these are powers rooted in deep human connection and empathy [04:57].
Changing Other People: Stephen Colbert notes that when Emily Blunt's character expresses this deep empathy toward others, it doesn't just get her out of difficult situations—it actually transforms the people she is connecting with [06:04].
Becoming Someone Else: Spielberg describes the peak of this power as the ability to completely "become" the person you are talking to for just five seconds. In that brief moment, you completely and deeply understand everything that person has been through in their entire life [06:24].
A Lesson for Humanity: Spielberg concludes by saying that if humans actually possessed this kind of instant, deep empathetic understanding of one another, "there would be a lot more cooperation between our own species on this planet." [06:37]
Is there such a thing as having too much empathy? That's a theory gaining the support of some of the world’s richest people following the release of a new book by Gad Saad, a Canadian marketing professor and frequent critic of liberal policies.
"A society dies when it cares more about exhibiting infinite tolerance and empathy than invoking its survival instinct," Saad argues in his book, Suicidal Empathy: Dying To Be Kind. Saad’s ideas have drawn frequent praise from prominent billionaires Bill Ackman and Elon Musk, who said suicidal empathy will "end civilization
Join national leaders as they showcase breakthrough research, programs, and ideas shaping a more compassionate world.
Experience three inspiring days with leaders advancing empathy and compassion as drivers of better care, learning, and culture. Attendees will:
Explore emerging empathy and compassion research that translates into real, measurable impact Reimagine the future of medical education to prepare the next generation of compassionate clinicians Build more sustainable care environments that support healthcare workforce well-
Dr. Gad Saad: "Too little empathy or no empathy makes you a psychopath. Too much empathy when it's hyper fires in the wrong situations towards the wrong targets — you end up with a malady that can destroy the West."
I sat down with Gad Saad, author of "Suicidal Empathy," to discuss the evolutionary psychology behind why the West is self-destructing in the name of tolerance.
Empathy is a perfectly adaptive human trait, but like any biological mechanism, it can misfire. When ideological parasites like gender ideology and critical race theory are the basis for empathy, it stops being a virtue and becomes a civilizational death wish.
We also get into why intelligent people are paradoxically the most vulnerable to bad ideas, why communism keeps coming back no matter how many times history buries it, and what it will actually take for the West to rediscover its survival instinct.
Outline: [0:00] A Canadian trying to save America [2:17] What happens when empathy misfires? [8:29] Even victims of crimes feel guilty now [17:18] The evolution of the parasitic mind [31:51] Christian ethics and self-sacrifice [36:14] Can we trust evolutionary psychology? [46:29] There are different kinds of truth [54:36] Why don’t bad ideals die out? [1:05:16] Is comfort driving us crazy? [1:08:45] How to protect your kids from the mind virus
The $180 Billion Business Case for Empathy Empathy pays—and companies that don’t recognize its value are paying the price.
Empathy isn’t just good in theory. Our 10th annual report reveals how U.S. organizations viewed as unempathetic are risking billions through employee turnover, mental health issues, workplace toxicity, and more—yet nearly 60% of CEOs still say empathy is a perk.
Join Monica Harris, John Wood, Jr. and Ilana Redstone as we discuss the need to develop emotional intelligence and perspective-taking skills and how deep listening strengthens democratic participation and community bonds. This theme also supports FAIR's commitment to respectful civil discourse, which is a foundational element of our Many Stories, One Nation curriculum: https://manystoriesonenation.com/
When researchers asked people whether they’d rather get an empathetic response from a human or from AI, human responses won by a wide margin. When the same researchers actually showed them the responses, AI won by a wider one. People who said they preferred human responses rated the AI replies as more empathetic, more validating, and even better at making them feel heard.
That gap between what customers say they want and what actually satisfies them is nothing new for marketers. But it's now showing up in two of the most important domains a CMO oversees: service and support.
In the strange case of Gad Saad, we have a public intellectual and cultural firebrand whose most intelligent haters tend to half-agree with him. Saad is a Canadian professor of marketing with a background in evolutionary psychology, originally of Lebanese Jewish origin, whose new book Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind, was Amazon’s no. 16 best-seller in books on its May 12 debut. This book, like Saad’s 2021 best-seller, The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense, promotes a big, catchy idea that seems to explain a broad cultural problem.
The Parasitic Mind purported to explain why so many people were able to believe obviously bonkers stuff during peak woke. Suicidal Empathy addresses how “misguided” concern for certain categories of people — criminals, victims, Muslims, the homeless, immigrants, trans athletes — has prompted Western elites to act against their own self-interest and endanger Western civilization.
This idea is so apropos that it has grabbed very well-timed headlines, thanks to a New York Post story on a young woman who declined to prosecute a man who attacked her on the subway — because of empathy; she didn’t want to send another black man to jail — only to regret it after her attacker allegedly killed an elderly man.
Is modern empathy actually a form of social suicide? Dr. Gad Saad joins Tyrus to expose how "Luxury Beliefs" and parasitic ideas are dismantling Western civilization.Evolutionary psychologist Dr. Gad Saad breaks down the core thesis of his new book, "Suicidal Empathy."
Tyrus and Gad explore the "GoverneMeHarder" mindset comparing the empathy-based appeals of historical tyrants to modern moral busybodies. They discuss the biological necessity of reciprocity, why the "Blank Slate" theory is dangerous, and how the West’s magnanimity is often mistaken for weakness.
Homeowner Jane invites the homeless James to live with her. “I’d hate to be homeless,” she tells herself. James starts to exploit and abuse her. She accepts it. “I would not exploit and abuse someone unless something truly terrible had happened to me,” she thinks. This is what Gad Saad would call “suicidal empathy.” In his book of the same name, the Canadian commentator rails against “the orgiastic misfiring of one of our most noble virtues, empathy.”
“Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change.” – Max Carver
We think Max Carver got it right and that if we truly care about community building and making positive changes in the world, we have to invest in learning about how to become even more empathic as empathy is at the heart of true understanding. We asked some deeply empathic leaders to share their perspectives below.
Professor and bestselling author Dr. Gad Saad joins the Chicks on the Right podcast to discuss his explosive new book, Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind. From the rise of anti-Semitism and open borders to equity, taxation, DEI, political correctness, and the collapse of Western values, Gad Saad delivers an unfiltered conversation packed with satire, sharp analysis, and controversial takes.
The discussion dives into Islam and Western freedoms, Canada’s crushing tax system, Kamala Harris’ focus on equity, Mark Cuban drama, woke language manipulation, and whether the West still has the courage to defend its foundational principles.
If you’re interested in politics, culture wars, free speech, anti-woke commentary, and fearless debates, this episode is for you!
00:00 Intro 01:05 Gad Saad’s legendary sarcasm and satire 02:50 “Suicidal Empathy” explained 03:00 Islam and compatibility with Western values 05:45 Rise of anti-Semitism in the West 08:20 Moderate Muslims & reforming Islam debate 12:00 Canada’s extreme taxation system 18:10 Kamala Harris, equity vs equality 22:00 Mark Cuban unfollows Gad Saad 24:00 Pronouns, performative politics & “phonies” 25:15 Woke language manipulation explained 27:30 “Minor attracted person” & linguistic empathy 30:00 How “Suicidal Empathy” hijacks thinking 33:00 Trump, women’s sports & cultural battles 33:50 “The West lacks testicular fortitude”
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