Hi there, I'm Jason Gots, and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

I want to read you something.

These are song lyrics by Lucinda Williams, adapted from a poem by her father, Miller Williams.

And I urge you to go listen to the tune sometime.

Lucinda does it way more

beautifully than I can have compassion for everyone you meet even if they don't want it

what seems conceit is always a sign for those you encounter have compassion

even if they don't want it what seems bad manners is always a sign of things no ears ears have heard, of things no eyes have seen, you do not know what wars are going on,

down there where the spirit meets the bone, down there where the spirit meets the bone.

Empathy is the basic stuff of human connection.

It's how we hear and are heard by one another. It's

how we deal with one another as people rather than objects, but with massive, relentless

trouble in the world, the 24-hour news cycle, the pressure to choose political and social sides,

and the struggles of our everyday lives, empathy is sometimes in short supply. My guest today is

the psychiatrist and research

scientist Helen Reese. She's an associate clinical professor at Harvard and runs the relational

science program at Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as the company Empathetics, Inc.

Her work is all about empathy, where it comes from, what its effects effects are and how we can develop more of it.

And I'm so glad that she's able to be with me today. Welcome, Helen. Thank you. The reason that I

invited you on the show, your book is wonderful. And also, I care very much about empathy and about

whatever real possibilities may exist for helping people to connect in a world

that seems like it's ever more fragmented. Your research has shown very promising effects here,

...