A Rumor of Empathy with Lou Agosta

Lou Agosta, PhD
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Dedicated to expanding empathy in the individual and the community. The empathy lessons extend from a light-hearted look to a deep dive into critical issues and controversies on empathy in authentic human relations. This podcast dedicated to the commitment that empathy be less of a rumor and more of a reality in the community!

  1. The empathic dozen: Top twelve (12) empathy lessons

    07/15/2025

    The empathic dozen: Top twelve (12) empathy lessons

    Start with the one minute empathy trainin:g Drive out aggression, hostility, bullying, prejudice of all kinds, dignity violations, hypocrisy, making excuses, finger pointing, cynicism, resignation, bad language, manipulation, injuries to self-esteem, competing to be the biggest victim, and politics in the pejorative sense of the term, and empathy naturally comes forth. Most people are naturally empathic and, if given half a chance, they will spontaneously and willingly speak and act empathically. The training can be spoken in one minute. However, actually implementing it is going to take some work. Engage here with the top twelve (12) tips and techniques for training and expanding your empathy.

    59 min
  2. Suicidal empathy

    05/23/2025

    Suicidal empathy

    Does empathy make you so kind that you do suicidally foolish things? From the perspective of empathy, one has to advance from standard empathy to radical empathy to deal with the thought experiment of lifeboat ethics and suicidal empathy. The short version of suicidal empathy is as follows. We are in a lifeboat which is filled to the maximum after our ship sank. In the water, treading water, surrounding the lifeboat are additional survivors and other leaky lifeboats about to sink, leaving the survivors treading water. If the survivors in the lifeboat are empathic and take in the other survivors, then the lifeboat still afloat will be swamped and we will all drown. The conclusion is that in such extreme situations, which are more common than one might imagine, then empathy needs to be turned off – or at least dialed down significantly – lest we all perish.  This podcast engages with a strong version of the lifeboat dilemma - not a straw man. It debates and shows the weakness of the argument for lifeboat ethics - even while being fair to what it is trying to say. This is relevant as someone named Elon Musk has asserted (Q2 2025) that "empathy is a weakness of western civilization." Find out who is talking out of their hat in this engaging podcast!

    43 min
  3. Radical Empathy and the Trolley Car Dilemma - between a rock and a hard place (Part Two: Concluded)

    05/10/2025

    Radical Empathy and the Trolley Car Dilemma - between a rock and a hard place (Part Two: Concluded)

    Standard empathy gets stretched to its LIMIT in the face of confronting physical and moral trauma, succumbing to compassion fatigue, burn out, and empathic distress. Standard empathy is challenged to deal with empathic distress, and standard empathy sometimes does not succeed in getting across the abyss of empathic distress to reestablish wholeness, emotional equilibrium, and integriy. To get across this abyss, Radical Empathy is required. Radical empathy deploys the same four aspects of receptivity, understanding, interpretation, and responsiveness that standard empathy uses but with this difference: radical empathy has the additional feature that it is committed to empathizing in the face of empathic distress. This commitment of radical emapthy shows up as empathic responsiveness - finding a form of words that recognizes the survivor's humanity. This encounter between radical empathy and the survivor enables the survivor to gain back her or his power form the overwhelming circumstances that have diminished the survivor's agencu. Radical empathy enables agency, choice, and decision making in the face of overwhelming circumstances. The chances of success are expanded by telling a story, providing a powerful narrative, that expresses the humanity of the other person. Find out how radical empathy makes a profound difference in building a bridge across the abyss of empathic distress in this engaging episode! [image art credit: Prometheus by Gustave Moreau (wikimedia commons)]

    24 min
  4. Radical empathy and the Trolley Car Dilemma - between a rock and a hard place!/

    05/08/2025

    Radical empathy and the Trolley Car Dilemma - between a rock and a hard place!/

    What the heck is the Trolley Car Dilemma (TCD) - and how does it relate to Radical Empathy? The TCD is a thought experiment - an intuition pump (to use Daniel Dennet's incisive term) - to generate insights about agency and empathy. You are the agent on a runaway Trolley Car faced with a couple of bad choices - faced with choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea - in a double-bind - now choose! The short version of the TCD: You are the ticket agent on a runaway trolley car with broken brakes, which will run over five people unless you throw the switch to change the track, which, however, will result in running over one person. So far, everyone, including you, is innocent, but not for long. Standard empathy breaks down in empathy distress. Find out how standard empathy gives way to radical empathy to get across the abyss of empathic distress in this engaging podcast! art image: ink drawing Luca Cambiaso (1527–1585) - promethesus chained to the rock - note the eagle gnawing on his liver - ouch!

    16 min
  5. Radical empathy: a short talk on trauma and radical empathy

    05/02/2025

    Radical empathy: a short talk on trauma and radical empathy

    When standard empathy breaks down in the face of extreme situations such as trauma, conformity to the faceless unempathic bureaucracy, compassion fatigue, burnout, or empathic distress, then radical empathy comes forth as the commitment to continue empathizing int he face of the breakdown of empathy. Radical emapthy navigates the rupture, the abyss, of empathic distress, restoring empathy as radical empathy. This talk provides an example of how radical empathy comes forth from empathic distress in the face of trauma. Don't miss this engaging talk on how to expand your power over trauma with radical empathy.

    23 min
  6. Radical Empathy in Extreme Situations

    05/02/2025

    Radical Empathy in Extreme Situations

    This podcast engages with radical empathy in extreme situations. Extreme situations are traumatic ones. Radical empathy challenges standard empathy to take empathizing to the next level in confronting experiences that cause empathic distress. Radical empathy comes forth when standard empathy honors the commitment to empathize in the fact of empathy distress. This is empathy "the hard way." However, no other way exists of getting to radical empathy than through starting with empathy pure-and-simple. The repairing of the breakdowns of standard emapthy lead the way to radical empathy. Don't miss this engaging episode: Find out how to get across the abyss of empathic distress from standard to radical empathy.

    11 min
  7. Radical empathy - what it is, an example of radical empathy, and how radical empathy differs from standard empathy

    04/25/2025

    Radical empathy - what it is, an example of radical empathy, and how radical empathy differs from standard empathy

    The podcast engages the difference between standard empathy and radical empathy. When standard empathy breaks down, fails, goes off the rails, in the face of confronting experiences such as trauma, compassion fatigue, soul murder, and empathic distress, then radical empathy is born and comes forth. Radical empathy bridges the abyss of empathic distress to commitment to empathizing even in the face of empathic distress. The first in a series - find out how to take your standard empathy to the next level with radical empathy.

    13 min

  8. 06/25/2022

    Interview with Rob Volpe about his empathy book: Tell Me More About That: Solving the Empathy Crisis One Conversation at a Time

    Lou Agosta in conversation with Rob Volpe, CEO and Chief Catalyst, Ignite 360, about Rob's book on empathy: Tell Me More About That: Solving the Empathy Crisis One Conversation at a Time - in this conversation Rob shares what he had to survive and what he learned in the college of hard knocks when the intolerant kids in 5th grade decided to make Rob's sexual orientation a matter of bullying; how he survived these challenges; and brought what he learned to become an empathic story teller, calling forth insights about business, consumer products and services and, most importantly, human nature, the empathic ties that bind us together as fellow travelers in business and life. This is more - much more - than a business book, though its relevant to empathy in the context of business is powerful  - as I like to say "empathy: capitalist tool"! Not to be missed!

    54 min
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Dedicated to expanding empathy in the individual and the community. The empathy lessons extend from a light-hearted look to a deep dive into critical issues and controversies on empathy in authentic human relations. This podcast dedicated to the commitment that empathy be less of a rumor and more of a reality in the community!

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