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Explain It to Me

Is empathy toxic?

Explain It to Me

Vox Media Podcast Network

Education, Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.47.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Society teaches us empathy is a good thing. But some are now saying the opposite, and science is complicating our assumptions too. This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Megan Cunnane, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch, engineered by Adriene Lilly and hosted by Jonquilyn Hill. Image credit Olga Pankova/Getty Images. If you have a question, give us a call on 1-800-618-8545 or send us a note here. Listen to Explain It to Me ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void?

0:06.0

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0:11.6

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0:17.3

See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

0:30.4

Most AI coding tools generate sloppy code that doesn't understand your setup. Warp is different. Warp understands your machine, stack, and codebase.

0:39.3

It's built for the entire software lifecycle from prompt to production.

0:44.3

With the powers of a terminal and the interactivity of an IDE,

0:47.3

Warp gives you a tight feedback loop with agents so you can prompt,

0:51.3

review, edit, and ship production-ready code.

0:55.1

Trusted by over 600,000 developers, including 56% of the Fortune 500.

1:01.0

Try Warp-free, or unlock Pro for just $5 at warp.dev slash top code.

1:12.9

Active listening and really engaging with others is a form of empathy.

1:20.0

I'm concerned about people who seek to lack empathy.

1:23.2

I feel like I make everything convoluted and confusing.

1:25.7

And empathy, maybe shouldn't be confusing. Sometimes it feels like a very, like a complex math problem.

1:32.6

It's explained to me from Vox. I'm John Gwynne Hill. And I've always thought of empathy as a good thing.

1:40.1

You should be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes and understand their feelings. That's what being compassionate is all about.

1:46.0

But despite all that, it feels like empathy has a weird reputation right now.

1:52.0

It's become a meme.

1:53.0

Eleven unusual things that empaths experience that normal people don't.

2:00.0

There's even a group of people who've been arguing lately that empathy is morally wrong.

2:05.6

If my empathy for them, if my feeling how they feel leads me to affirm lies or to validate delusions or to support sin,

...

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