A Rumor of Empathy with Lou Agosta

About A Rumor of Empathy with Lou Agosta

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!

Publisher

Lou Agosta, PhD

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

5 Apr 2021

Latest episode

15 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

47 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Oct 2026

   Empathy: Spa Treatment for the Soul (Part 3)

   This podcast wraps up the series on empathy as a spa treatment for the soul by connecting the dots between stress and inflammation - and the inflammation reducing properties of empathy. A small set of practices such as receiving empathy,meditation (mindfulness), yogic meditation, and Tai Chi, promote well-being by reducing inflammation. These practices are not reducible to empathy (orvice versa), but they all share that one single, common factor: reduced inflammation. These anti-inflammatory interventions have been shown to make a profound difference in controlled experiments, evidence-based research, and peer-reviewed publications (discussed in detail in this podcast). Empathy is at the top of my list, but is not the only item on it. Empathy along with mindfulness (a form ofmeditation), Yoga, Tai Chi, spending time in a sensory deprivation tank, and certain naturally occurring steroids, need to be better known as interventions that reduce inflammation and restore homeostatic equilibrium to the body according to evidence based researchPeer reviewed research demonstrate that interventions such as empathy reduce biological markers of inflammation and restore equilibrium. This is also a metaphor, though not merely that. When an angry—“inflamed”—person is listened to empathically—is given a “good listening” as I like to say—the person frequently calms down and regains his equilibrium. Empathy migrates ontothe short list of inflammation reducing interventions. The compelling conclusion is that empathy is good for your well-being.

2. 

   3 Oct 2026

   Empathy: Spa Treatment for the Soul (Part 1)

   A small set of practices such as receiving empathy, meditation (mindfulness), Yoga, and Tai Chi Chuan, promote recovery and well-being in reducing inflammation. The solution then is a hot bath? Aspa treatment? Don’t laugh. There are many less useful interventions available. The limitation of a spa treatment is that it provides symptom relief, not a long-term solution. After the benefits of the spa treatment wear off in a couple of weeks, the person is right back where she or he started. Thedifference between empathy and a hot bath granted that both are relaxing—is that empathy provides for structural change to the person’s personality, expanding resilience, emotional stability, and relatedness. Advantage empathy: empathy is superior to a spa treatment for the soul. How is this so? Engage with this dynamic short series on empathy as a spa treatment for the soul and find out why! Image Credit: Group Tai Chi practice in a Shanghai park led by Grandmaster Xie Bingcan in 2011. Author: Seattletaijiquan (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Seattletaijiquan&action=edit&redlink=1) This file is licensed under the Creative Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons) Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en) license

3. 

   24 Jul 2026

   Take the other person as your empathy trainer (Empathy Lesson)

   As an exercise, consider that the other person is one’s empathy trainer. The other individual calls forth one’s empathy. If the Other behaves in a challenging way, the challenge is to one’s empathy. A surprising powerful technique for practicing and expanding one's empathy: take each person you encounter as your empathy trainer and coach. See what a profound difference it makes! If the other person is in an emotional meltdown, the challenge is to one’s empathicreceptivity. If the other person is a conformist, the challenge is to one’s empathic understanding. This may sound backward and paradoxical. By standing things on their head—the customer trains the business person in empathy, the student trains the teacher in empathy, the infant trains the parent in empathy and so on—we get a surprisingly refreshing view of how addressing the survivor’s temporary loss of humanity as a suffering lump of battered flesh. The baby, the student, the patient, the customer, the neighbor, are the individuals who bring empathy into existence for the parent, the teacher, the business person, the neighbor, respectively. In each case, the empathy lesson is a challenge tothe would-be parent, teacher, sales person, consultant, therapist, nurse, attorney, taxi driver, neighbor, and so on, to expand one’s receptivity,enhance one’s grasp of the possibilities, appreciative different points of view, and practice rapid empathic response. If each of these persons—parent, teacher, business person, neighbor, and so on—begin in any other way than with empathy, they areheaded for trouble. The challenge is straightforward: expand one’s listening to include the other individual in the empathic community or fall back into empathic distress; relate from possibility or get mired in stuckness; work on building community or wander aimlessly in the emotional wilderness. A surprising powerful technique for practicing and expanding one's empathy: take each person you encounter as your empathy trainer and coach. See what a profound difference it makes! Episode art photo credit: David Axelrod confronts Senator Tom Cotton June 2, 2017 in a photo taken by Lou Agosta at the University of Chicago public debate. As one of the architect of Barack Obama's presidential program, Ax (as he is affectionately known) would be likely to disagree with many of Senator Cotton's more-or-less MAGA-oriented views. Take the other person as your empathy trainer! I believe both did!

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 15 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

30

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

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