compassion – Iona Grant

On the Cape, a Boy is Fishing

In 1978, Japanese singer Momoe Yamaguchi released the song ii hi tabidachi as part of a campaign by the Japanese National Railways. I love this whimsical and nostalgic song, and when I sat down on the shinkansen bullet train almost 40 years after its release, I heard an instrumental version as a departure jingle. The train lurched forwards, theContinueContinue reading “On the Cape, a Boy is Fishing”

What’s the difference between sympathy, empathy, and compassion, and why does it matter?

Simon Baron-Cohen (yes, related to Sacha) is a British researcher who developed the idea that Autism is caused by an ‘extreme male brain’. This is a very controversial hypothesis. It’s the idea that Autistic people, regardless of gender process the world ‘through a male lens’, have typically male interests, and struggle with tasks that womenContinueContinue reading “What’s the difference between sympathy, empathy, and compassion, and why does it matter?”