Category Archives: interviews

What it feels like to drop an atomic bomb

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 14 May 2010
Earlier this week I went to an entertaining talk by the writer Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink and other bestsellers. Midway through he made a throwaway comment about the bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945. ‘Imagine how it felt to be the pilot who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima – how do we feel about that kind of moral responsibility?’ The implication of this rhetorical question was that the pilot must have been desperately wrestling with the ethical consequences and dilemmas of releasing the world’s first atomic weapon on the unsuspecting city. Malcolm Gladwell is mistaken. In actual fact, the US Air Force pilot, Paul Tibbets, experienced no profound moral quandaries about his actions, either before or after dropping the bomb that killed an estimated 140,000 people. In a revealing interview with the oral historian Studs Terkel in 2002, when aged 87, Tibbets described exactly what happened on the historic mission in the Enola Gay.
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Podcast: Radical Art of Living interview

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 5 May 2010
This week I was the guest on Elese Coit’s ‘A New Way to Handle Absolutely Everything’ radio show in Seattle. We spoke together on the subject of ‘Empathy, the Radical Art of Living’. // Share|
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How to empathise with a hedgehog

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 10 April 2010
Although you may not have spent much time contemplating the character of hedgehogs and our relationship with them, I know a man who has. Ecologist Hugh Warwick is the author of a brilliantly funny and engaging book called A Prickly Affair: The Charm of the Hedgehog, which has just come out in paperback, receiving rave reviews in The Guardian and elsewhere. I spoke with him about his mania for hedgehogs and what his researches around the world (he tracked down a hedgehog in China named Hugh and attended the International Hedgehog Olympic Games in the Rocky Mountains) reveal about our understanding of human empathy with animals.
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Should you empathise with your father’s killer?

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 16 January 2010
One of the greatest challenges of leading an empathetic life is trying to step into the shoes of people who we consider to be ‘enemies’ or whose views and values are very different from our own. If you’re on the receiving end of a racist comment from someone at the pub or a torrent of unfair verbal abuse from your boss, the idea of trying to empathise with them would probably be the last thing on your mind. If you came face to face with the person who had recently burgled your house, could you overcome your anger to see the crime from their perspective, and understand the circumstances that may have driven them to it? Empathising in such instances might seem like wishful thinking. But consider the case of Jo Berry. In 1984 her father, Conservative MP Sir Anthony Berry, was killed by an IRA bomb at the Party Conference in Brighton. In 1999, one of the IRA members responsible, Pat Magee, was released from prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Jo’s response was a desire to meet him.
Also posted in empathy through conversation, peace building, politics, public policy, religion | 4 Comments

Inside Obama’s Brain: In Conversation with Sasha Abramsky

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 13 December 2009
Sasha Abramsky is one of the most original and politically insightful investigative journalists writing in the US today. He is best known for books such as Hard Times Blues, a penetrating critique of the US prison system, and Breadline USA, which reveals the hidden scandal of everyday hunger and poverty faced by American families. He [...]
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Podcast: Sally on Sunday interview

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 24 November 2009
On November 15 I spoke about empathy and the Outrospection blog on BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Sally on Sunday’ programme hosted by Sally Magnusson. // Share|
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In search of our inner ape: An interview with Frans de Waal

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 14 November 2009
In an exclusive interview for OUTROSPECTION, I speak to the renowned Dutch primatologist Frans de Waal about his new book, The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society. De Waal, voted by Time Magazine as one of the 100 World’s Most Influential People Today, is Professor of Primate Behaviour at Emory University in the US. [...]
Also posted in science | 3 Comments