The art of empathy

The art of empathy

Gain insights from experts and survivors on how empathy shapes the way societies function, fracture and heal. This episode of All In The Mind brings together host Lynne Malcolm and British television executive Sir Peter Bazalgette for a wide-ranging chat about why "the empathy deficit" may be just as troubling as any budget deficit.

Drawing on Barack Obama’s 2006 warning about "the ability to put ourselves in somebody else's shoes", Bazalgette talks about meeting Holocaust survivors while chairing the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation and how those encounters made him ask what happens to a society when empathy breaks down entirely. He argues that we’re naturally tribal, and warns that empathy can fuel racism when it’s limited to "our own group". The challenge, he says, is to stretch empathy beyond those tribal boundaries.

You’ll hear how neuroscience has begun mapping more than 90 areas of the brain involved in social connection, from mirror neurons to differences seen in autism and psychopathy. Bazalgette explains the split between cognitive empathy — understanding others — and emotional empathy — feeling with them, noting that psychopaths can be brilliant at the former while missing the latter.

The conversation keeps things grounded in everyday life: early childhood care, social media’s cruelty, rising self-harm among teenagers, and the way hospitals, prisons and schools either support or stunt empathetic behaviour. Bazalgette champions arts and popular culture as a way to "exercise our empathetic muscles", sharing the story of the play Red Velvet and how its portrayal of black actor Ira Aldridge opened his eyes to the lived experience of racism.

Despite harsh politics and toxic online behaviour, Bazalgette ends on a hopeful note: "I'm fundamentally optimistic we can do this, we can be better humans, we can be more empathetic." It might leave you asking where your own empathy stretches — and where it stops.