EP 462: Decoding the Language of Empathy

Today, we peel back the layers of a term that's become ubiquitous in the business world and beyond: empathy.

In this episode, empathy's origin story. Er, stories. We'll explore its philosophical roots deep in the 19th century, through my personal trials and errors with empathy, to some of the challenges we face in empathizing with people we have less in common with. Ultimately, I want to explore the ways empathy invites curiosity, leverages imagination, and recognizes our differences.

This is the first in a 5-part series in which I'm decoding empathy. We'll talk brand strategy, non-violent communication, disability, and copywriting. And all throughout the series, we'll look for ways to recognize difference instead of assuming sameness.

Footnotes:

• "Build Your Creative Confidence: Empathy Maps" via IDEO
• Bewilderment by Richard Powers
• "Double empathy, explained" by Rachel Zamzow
•  "On the Ontological Status of Autism: the 'double empathy' problem" by Damian Milton
• "Don't Mourn for Us" by Jim Sinclair
• Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives by Amy Coplan and Peter Goldie
• Waiting for God by Simone Weil

Not Mentioned:

• Anderson, Ellie , and David Peña-Guzmán. 2020. “Episode 07: What’s the Deal with Empathy?” Overthink Podcast. December 1, 2020. 
• Ganczarek, J., Hünefeldt, T., & Olivetti Belardinelli, M. (2018). From "Einfühlung" to empathy: exploring the relationship between aesthetic and interpersonal experience. Cognitive processing, 19(2), 141–145. 

Every episode of What Works is also published in essay form at whatworks.fyi

If you love deep dives like this series, please consider becoming a premium subscriber. You get access to my premium columns, quarterly live workshops, and discussion thread. Visit: whatworks.fyi/subscribe

★ Support this podcast ★

What is What Works?

"Work" is broken. We're overcommitted, underutilized, and out of whack. But it doesn't have to be this way. What Works is a podcast about rethinking work, business, and leadership as we navigate the 21st-century economy. When you're an entrepreneur, independent worker, or employee who doesn't want to lose yourself to the whims of late-stage capitalism, this show is for you. Host Tara McMullin covers money, management, culture, media, philosophy, and more to figure out what's working (and what's not) today. Tara offers a distinctly interdisciplinary approach to deep-dive analysis of how we work and how work shapes us.