The Empathy Museum has a new podcast!

Big news from the Empathy Museum – we’ve made a podcast!

You might know that a couple of years ago I was involved in founding the Empathy Museum, an international travelling arts project that has so far appeared in Brazil, Australia, the UK, the US, Belgium and even Siberia (watch our intro video here).

Now, for the first time, the Empathy Museum is coming directly to you! Every week over the next year we’ll be releasing one of the stories we’ve gathered for our hit exhibit A Mile in My Shoes. So far we’ve heard from Bilal – a top amateur boxer seeking asylum in the UK, Sian – a lifesaver on the Thames, Saige – a sexual healer from Melbourne, and Gary – a prisoner-turned-artist from London.

You can listen and subscribe to A Mile in My Shoes on Acast and iTunes.

We recommend downloading to your phone, slipping on some headphones and taking a stroll while listening. If you like what you hear, please do share the podcast with others, or leave a quick review on iTunes – it really helps us get noticed by their (not very empathic) algorithms.

Huge thanks are due to the Empathy Museum’s brilliant director Clare Patey and her team. Thanks also to Loftus Media for producing the podcast, The Space for funding it, and all our fabulous audio producers who’ve taken such care collecting the stories.

Where we’ve been recently

Last month we set up shop for ten days in Worcester city centre, in collaboration with the locally based Company of Others. We traded shoes with nearly a thousand visitors and collected seventeen new stories from the people of Worcestershire. Here we are on the local news!

We also joined in with Arrival – the Mayor of London’s celebration of the Windrush generation at City Hall. We were particularly delighted to share the story and shoes of Allan Wilmot – a Jamaican who came to England after fighting in WWII and was giving a talk at the event.

And elsewhere, we brought our collection of NHS stories to the NHS Confederation annual conference and exhibition in Manchester and Glasgow – part of our ongoing collaboration with The Health Foundation.

The Mayor of Worcester, Jabba Riaz, walking a mile in the shoes of Tristan, a local dairy farmer whose story we collected during our time in the city. Photo: Andy Burton.

Where to find us next

In September we’re travelling to Cumbria for Lakes Alive – a free festival of art, performance, sculpture and workshops. Come and find some new shoes and walk a mile up and down the Lake District hills (we’ll be sure to bring our collection of walking boots!)
7 – 9 September, Lake District, Kendal
Find out more

Later in September we’re bringing a sprinkling of empathy to freshers’ week at the University of Sussex, when our shoebox lands at the university’s Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. If you’re a student there or not, come say hello!
14 – 23 September, University of Sussex, BN1 9RA
Find out more

Then this autumn we’re part of National Theatre of Scotland’s Futureproof festival, celebrating the country’s Year of Young People. We’ve been collecting new stories and shoes from young people around Moray, and we’ll be sharing them from our shoebox in Forres and Elgin.
29 September – 10 October, Scotland
Find out more

…And finally, in October we’ll be shipping our shoes across the Atlantic for the Future of Storytelling summit in New York, to explore how storytelling is changing in the digital age.
3 – 4 October, Snug Harbour Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, NYC
Find out more

If you’d like to keep up with all the Empathy Museum news, please subscribe here for occasional updates.

I hope you have a wonderful summer. I’ll be busy working on a new book on the art of long-term thinking, trying to walk in the shoes of future generations (let me know below if you’ve got any good book, film or other recommendations…).

Posted on 27 July 2018 by Roman Krznaric 0

There’s a big problem that the advocates of mindfulness rarely talk about

I’ve been a fan of mindfulness for years, and have done a good deal of sitting in Buddhist meditation classes and also tried some of the new secular mindfulness courses too. As with many people, mindfulness has helped me when I’m stressed, been a source of spiritual solace, and acted as a ballast in my life. It’s offered me the gift of present moment awareness, rescuing me from the modern curse of digital distraction.

But when I began looking into it more deeply when researching my new book Carpe Diem Regained: The Vanishing Art of Seizing the Day, I started having creeping doubts about it. One of the most confronting moments was when I asked renowned Buddhist thinker Matthieu Ricard (best known, to his playful annoyance, as the happiest man in the world) what he thought about the modern secular versions of mindfulness, such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. His response surprised me. This is what he said:

There are a lot of people speaking about mindfulness, but the risk is that it’s taken too literally – to just ‘be mindful’. Well, you could have a very mindful sniper and a mindful psychopath. It’s true! A sniper needs to be so focused, never distracted, very calm, always bringing back his attention to the present moment. And non-judgemental – just kill people and no judgement. That could happen!

Ricard was only half-joking, because he knows that secular mindfulness courses have become popular in military training and amongst Wall Street bankers, who hope it will keep them calm and give them the edge when the financial stakes are high. He then told me about a study at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig showing that taking a mindfulness course can help you deal with stress but has no discernible impact on pro-social behaviour.

It was shocking to hear, especially from a guy who has spent four decades doing mindfulness meditation in the foothills of the Himalayas. For Ricard, the Buddhist approach to mindfulness – unlike its secular counterpart – doesn’t have this problem of being ‘mindfulness without morals’, as it emphasises concepts such as compassion, caring, empathy and altruism.

So if you happen to be someone who has benefited from mindfulness, and made it part of your life, I think it’s worth challenging yourself and exploring some of its somewhat darker sides.

I do so in detail in my new book, dedicating a whole chapter to mindfulness as a form of ‘seizing the day’ and living in the moment – and subjecting it to scrutiny. To give you a taster, have a look at this free, shareable, ‘click essay’ extract from the book, which you can read in just 3 minutes: Beware the Mindful Sniper.

Posted on 19 April 2017 by Roman Krznaric 2

Empathy an an Age of Extremism

These feel like turbulent times. From mass shootings in the US to the rise of far-right parties and terrorist attacks in Europe, we seem to be entering a new age of extremism.

If there is any solution to this, I think empathy has to be part of it.

In this new five-minute video for Aeon Magazine, I argue that tackling extremism, and creating a more moral world, requires shifting our focus from empathy as an individual emotional response to empathy on the collective level.

Posted on 28 July 2016 by Roman Krznaric 0

Will you join my campaign against Facebook’s ‘EMPATHY’ button?

Mark Zuckerberg has just announced Facebook’s plan to introduce an ’empathy’ button alongside the familiar ‘like’ icon which is used 4.5 billion times per day.

In this article in the Guardian, I argue that it’s a big mistake. It would represent the triumph of slacktivism over activism, and leave us emotionally inarticulate and illiterate.

Please join my campaign against the ’empathy’ button by sharing this article, especially on Facebook.

Roman Krznaric is the author of Empathy (Penguin Random House), and founder of the Empathy Museum.

Image: 2paragraphs

Posted on 17 September 201517 September 2015 by Roman Krznaric 2

Welcome to the Empathy Wars (or Why Peter Singer is Wrong)

The empathy critics are on the rampage. Led by the Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, the anti-empathy brigade claim that empathy is a weak or even distorting force in moral life and public affairs. The most recent convert is Peter Singer, perhaps the world’s most influential moral philosopher and author of classic texts such as Animal Liberation. In a recent public conversation I had with him as part of the Empathy Festival at Blackwell’s Bookshop Oxford (see photo), he argued that ethics should be led by rational thinking rather than empathy (of course, I didn’t agree).

In response to Singer’s claims, I have written an article at Open Democracy, called Welcome to the Empathy Wars. It makes the case that critics like Bloom and Singer are fundamentally mistaken, particularly because they fail to recognise the crucial role that cognitive empathy plays in establishing human rights and social justice.

Do have a look at the article, which is based on my book Empathy, and make up your own mind. Whose side are you in the Empathy Wars?

Posted on 9 July 2015 by Roman Krznaric 0

Ever Been to an Empathy Shoe Shop?

It’s official: the Empathy Museum will be opening its doors in September 2015, as part of Totally Thames, the huge and vibrant annual festival taking place along London’s waterfront.

Personally, this is a big day for me. I’ve been dreaming about the Empathy Museum for years, and wrote about it in my book Empathy. I’m thrilled that it’s now becoming a reality.

As discussed in this feature article in today’s Independent newspaper, one of the main exhibits will be ‘A Mile in My Shoes’, which takes the form of a unique empathy shoe shop. One of the shop assistants will fit you out with a pair of shoes belonging to someone from a different background – maybe a Syrian refugee or an Old Etonian investment banker – and you will be able to literally walk a mile in their shoes while listening to a recording of them talking about their life, so you really get to see the world from their perspective.

We’ll also be running events such as Human Libraries, where instead of borrowing a book you borrow a person for conversation.

The Empathy Museum will later travel to other London venues then around the country in a bespoke eco bus, visiting schools and galleries, town centres and supermarket car parks, cliff tops and office blocks.

It will also launch online and be touring internationally. In February 2016, the Empathy Museum is going to Australia, appearing as a centrepiece of the Perth International Arts Festival.

The museum is being masterminded by its Director, the internationally renowned artist and curator Clare Patey.

To keep up with the Empathy Museum’s development and tour programme, sign up here. And please spread the word!

Posted on 25 June 2015 by Roman Krznaric 0

What does it take to leave the Ku Klux Klan?

It’s probably the most extraordinary story of the power of empathy I’ve ever come across.

In 1971, the former Ku Klux Klan leader C.P. Ellis had an experience that blew away his prejudices and assumptions about African Americans. In this new 4-minute video produced by Renegade Inc, I reveal how and why it happened.

It’s especially relevant in the wake of the recent racially-motivated church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.

If anybody ever tells you that empathy is a touchy-feely ‘soft skill’ that has little chance of changing society, just tell them about C.P. Ellis.

This video is based on ideas in my book Empathy, which has just been released in paperback by Penguin Random House.

CP Ellis Ann Atwater 1971 edit — Ku Klux Klansman CP Ellis working alongside his great adversary, the civil rights activist Ann Atwater, in 1971.

Posted on 23 June 201524 June 2015 by Roman Krznaric 0

Are you coming to the Empathy Festival?

Hello Friends of Empathy! I’ve got a few dates for your diary…

June 4: Empathy paperback launch

The UK paperback of my book Empathy is out this week, and comes with a snappy new subtitle (Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It). Get yourself a copy on Amazon or at your local independent store.

I’m delighted about the book’s impact so far. Organisations like Friends of the Earth have picked up on it, and I’ve been taking the ideas abroad having done book tours in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and most recently Croatia.

It would be great if you could spend two minutes today helping spread word about the paperback release on Twitter, Facebook and face to face. For your convenience, here’s a sample tweet: Want to start an Empathy Revolution? Find the inspiration you need in @romankrznaric’s new book Empathy http://ow.ly/NDSBH

June 5-11: Empathy Festival at Blackwell’s Bookshop Oxford
I’m curating the world’s first Empathy Festival with the wonderful Blackwell’s Bookshop. I’ll be launching it with a talk on Empathy and Family Life on June 5. Other speakers include philosopher Peter Singer, historian Theodore Zeldin, and radical geographer Danny Dorling. Get your tickets here.

September: Launch of the Empathy Museum
I’m also pleased to announce that my Empathy Museum project will be launching in September, masterminded by its brilliant director, the world-renowned artist and curator Clare Patey. It will start in a mobile eco bus containing an Empathy Shoe Shop, which will travel around the country and host events such as Human Libraries. We’ll then be taking the Empathy Museum to the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia in February. Watch the video, check out the website, and sign up for updates.

I hope to see you somewhere on the empathy trail, and thanks for helping to spread the word.

Roman

Posted on 2 June 20151 June 2015 by Roman Krznaric 0

Is Empathy the Cure for Our Consumer Addictions?

How can we harness the power of empathy to tackle the really big global problems like wealth inequality, ecological crisis and our addiction to consumer culture? You’ll find the answers in my new report for Friends of the Earth called The Empathy Effect: How Empathy Drives Common Values, Social Justice and Environmental Action.

The report, which builds on my book Empathy (but goes far beyond it) is part of Friends of the Earth’s exciting Big Ideas project that is drawing together the key ideas and insights we need to create a sustainable future for humankind. It challenges the belief that empathy is a fuzzy feel-good emotion and argues that with a bit of smart thinking it can be transformed into an innovative and powerful campaigning tool.

Here are four fascinating facts from the report, just to give you a taster:

The wealthier you are the less empathic you are likely to be, and people with psychopathic tendencies who lack empathy are four times more commonly found amongst senior executives than in the ordinary workforce.

Teaching empathy skills to school kids (yes, it can be done) not only makes them value relationships more, but increases their motivation to take action on environmental issues and immunises them against the lure of consumer culture.

A review of more than 500 studies showed that in 96% of cases, face-to-face contact between people of different ethnic and religious groups reduced prejudices and social divisions, and built community solidarity.

Over 7 million people have visited the empathy-based exhibit Dialogue in the Dark, which challenges assumptions and stereotypes around disability.

Overall, the report argues that building a world where we care more about the issues that matter to all of us – from grinding poverty to environmental collapse – requires using empathy to create a cultural shift from buying to belonging, where we jettison the hyperindividualism of the twentieth century and start to take collective values seriously. But there are no quick-fix solutions. We need to embark on a generational project of ‘deep lobbying’ that overhauls our education systems and sets us on course for a more empathic civilisation.

You can download the full report here.

Roman Krznaric is the author of Empathy, and founder of the Empathy Museum and Empathy Library.

Posted on 30 March 201525 January 2017 by Roman Krznaric 0

3 Tips for Practising Empathy With Your Kids

My six-year-old daughter said something interesting the other day. ‘Dad, why do you shout at me when really you’re upset with your work?’ She’s perceptive, and probably far more perceptive than I realise. It made me think about how large the gulf of understanding between parents and children can be. And that gulf sometimes takes the form of an empathy gap – a failure to be able to step into their shoes. So I’ve written an article about it, which you’ll find at the Huffington Post, called 3 Tips for Practising Empathy With Your Kids.

The ideas in the article draw on a new series of over twenty microvideos I’ve just done with Kids in the House on empathy and parenting. Check them out here.

Posted on 10 March 20159 March 2015 by Roman Krznaric 0