Author Archives: Roman Krznaric

Why George Orwell is my empathy hero

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 12 February 2012

I was recently interviewed by The Browser – a fabulous site which compiles quality writing from around the web - about my five top books on the art of living. In the following extract I discuss George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, a book which has been a major inspiration for all my work [...]

Posted in background, conversation, empathy, empathy through conversation, empathy through experience, ethics, history, interviews, literature, politics | Comments closed

The lost history of the househusband

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 21 January 2012

The following article originally appeared in The Guardian. The great tragedy of modern parenting is that we’ve forgotten its history – and mothers are paying the price. Contrary to popular belief, the superdad who takes on a serious share of childcare and housework is not a new invention. Before the industrial revolution – a mere couple of [...]

Posted in belief, ethics, family, history, love, work | Comments closed

Five dead people to follow in 2012

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 7 January 2012

Browse the self-help shelves of your local book store and you’ll spot that most titles draw on psychology, philosophy and religion for their wisdom. But there is one realm where few of them have sought inspiration: history. When asking the big questions about life, love, work and death, we sometimes forget that people have been [...]

Posted in belief, conversation, creativity, empathy, empathy through conversation, money, politics, senses, simple living, time, travel, work | Comments closed

Is social media killing the art of conversation?

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 2 January 2012

Ready for a digital diet in 2012? In this article just published in the Independent on Sunday – and based on my new book The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live – I argue why we need less electro-chatter and more thoughtful, face-to-face conversation. (You’ll also find out why Dr Samuel Johnson is the most disastrous conversationalist [...]

Posted in conversation, empathy through conversation, ethics, history | Comments closed

New Book! THE WONDERBOX by Roman Krznaric

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 16 December 2011

My new book, THE WONDERBOX: CURIOUS HISTORIES OF HOW TO LIVE (Profile Books), will be in bookshops from December 22 –  just in time for a last-minute Christmas stocking filler. It’s about what the last three thousand years of human history can tell us about better living, and explores twelve universal topics, from work and love to [...]

Posted in climate change, empathy through collaboration, empathy through conversation, empathy through education, empathy through experience, ethics, general, history, nature, philosophy, religion, travel | Comments closed

The radical origins of compassion

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 3 November 2011

So you think compassion means being nice to people? Sure, its Latin root literally means ‘to suffer with another’, which is pretty close to the psychological concept of ‘affective empathy’, where you share in or mirror someone else’s emotional state. When I feel your pain or suffering, I may well do something to help you [...]

Posted in art, empathy through experience, ethics, film, history, religion | Comments closed

To smack or not to smack? An interview with Christopher Wakling

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 13 October 2011

Christopher Wakling’s new novel, What I Did, is a brilliant, dark and often excruciatingly funny journey into a family nightmare. Narrated by a six-year-old boy obsessed with the animal kingdom, it has been the recipient of scintillating reviews, was nominated for the Booker Prize and is fast becoming a book club favourite. I talked to the author [...]

Posted in ethics, interviews, literature, public policy, reviews | Comments closed

How to be a Muslim, a Hindu, a Christian and a Jew

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 5 October 2011

There is an intriguing thesis at the heart of Steven Pinker’s new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature. The Harvard psychologist argues – contrary to popular opinion – that humankind has become progressively less violent over the past few thousand years. We might feel surrounded by terrorism, civil wars and gun crime today, but [...]

Posted in empathy through conversation, empathy through experience, ethics, history, peace building, philosophy, politics, religion | Comments closed

Dissecting the empathic brain: An interview with Christian Keysers

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 21 July 2011

Why do we shudder when we watch a tarantula crawling across James Bond’s chest in a 007 movie? And what can looking into a monkey’s brain tell us about our capacity to share in the emotional experiences of other people? Answers to these questions appear in The Empathic Brain: How the Discovery of Mirror Neurons [...]

Posted in ethics, interviews, measuring empathy, nature, psychology, reviews, science | Comments closed

Empathy with the enemy

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 16 June 2011

In the spring of 472 BC the people of Athens queued up to see the latest play written by Aeschylus, the founder of Greek tragedy. The Persians was an unusual production, and not only because it was based on an historical event rather than the usual legends of the gods. What must have really shocked [...]

Posted in art, empathy through education, ethics, film, history, literature, peace building, politics | Comments closed

  • Welcome to OUTROSPECTION, my blog on empathy and the art of living. You'll find articles, interviews and news on the fundamental questions of how to live, with an emphasis on outrospection, which is about discovering who we are by stepping outside ourselves and exploring the lives of other people and cultures.

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