I'm Alan Olga and this is Clear In Vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

If you are a regular listener to Clear In Vivid or even an irregular one, you probably

know I've got a thing for empathy.

To me it's the indispensable foundation for good communication, but exactly what empathy

is isn't always obvious and it isn't always obvious that it's a good thing all the time

either.

So I thought we could look back over the four day odd conversations we've had on Clear

In Vivid so far.

And see where and how empathy plays a role in our lives.

Empathy came up pretty dramatically and our very first podcast was a conversation with

comedian Sarah Silverman.

And I wanted to talk with her because of something she'd experienced that I thought was kind

of amazing.

A Twitter troll had called her a very rude word, but instead of ignoring him or firing

back, instead of that she realized that she could engage with him over Twitter which

led to her discovering that he needed help and she actually helped arrange for him to

get that help.

What she showed was determination to engage with people she had nothing in common with.

And in fact that was the basis of her television show.

I love you America.

Exactly.

You will that that's why you say I go, you know, I'd rather I'd rather bond about anything

...