109: The Umbrella Hour with Dr. An Goldbauer & Zander Keig LCSW and guest Kevin Waldman109: The Umbrella Hour with Dr. An Goldbauer & Zander Keig LCSW and guest Kevin Waldman
UK Health Radio Podcast
Host Zander Keig talks with psychologist-in-training Kevin Waldman about toxic empathy, campus orthodoxy and the research behind his lab psychFORM. Their conversation questions performance culture in universities and how it affects resilience, identity and mental health.
43:11•25 May 2026
Toxic Empathy, Campus Chaos and the Birth of psychFORM
Episode Overview
- Kevin distinguishes "toxic" or "radical" empathy from genuine empathy, describing it as guilt-based pressure used to push ideological extremes.
- Both Kevin and Zander recall shame-based tactics in activism and question their impact when used against people who simply hold different beliefs.
- Kevin criticises an affirmation-only approach in psychology education, arguing it discourages open challenge and weakens students’ resilience.
- psychFORM’s early data suggest many students (and some professors) feel compelled to perform exaggerated liberal views to fit academic expectations.
- The conversation stresses helping young people develop their own perspectives and internal coping skills instead of being handed rigid identity narratives.
“"Toxic or radical empathy is not empathy. It's a weaponized version of society's way of using guilt to get people to get on board with ideological extremism."”
How do people find hope in the darkest times? This conversation between host Zander Keig LCSW and guest Kevin Waldman offers a sharp look at how ideas around empathy, harm and identity can drift into something far less healthy.
Kevin, founder of the psychological research lab psychFORM and a clinical psychology graduate student, talks about what he calls "toxic" or "radical" empathy – a buzzword he says is "a weaponized version of society's way of using guilt to get people to get on board with ideological extremism." He shares how, as a gay man returning to university in his 30s, he began noticing curricula built on strict oppression narratives and victimhood, especially for LGBT students.
Zander joins in with his own history from 1990s activism and reflects on how shame tactics and "weaponized compassion" can slide from confronting abuse into policing beliefs. Together they question an "affirmation-only" model in psychology training where challenging any identity claim is treated as harm, and how that might weaken resilience in younger students. A big chunk of the hour centres on psychFORM’s research.
Kevin describes surveys where students admit they are "performing liberal views" in class to secure grades, while some professors quietly confess to doing the same. He argues this performance culture, combined with social media and fear of cancel culture, leaves students confused about what they really believe and ramps up anxiety around differing viewpoints.
There’s sober humour too – jokes about "oppression Olympics" and "luxury beliefs" – but the mood stays focused on mental health: internal versus external control, building resilience, and giving young people room to form their own identities instead of being handed a script. Anyone interested in how emotional language can be misused, and what that does to real human wellbeing, may come away asking themselves: where’s the line between care and control?
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