Comedian Turns Snarky Reply into Generosity

As a veteran comedian and improv actor, Patton Oswalt is known to have a ready retort for anyone heckling or giving him grief. But one particular time, ...

Matt Damon Regrets Talking More than Listening

During a January taping of NBC's The Today Show , Matt Damon expressed regret for some of the comments he made in response to the furor over sexual harassment ...

Anton Chekhov's Story about a Man Looking for Comfort

Someone told me the other night about an Anton Chekhov story called "The Lament." It is a simple story about an old man who drives a horse and ...

Teens Volunteer to Serve Those Who Die Alone

In January of 2016 NPR reported on a man named Mike Pojman, the assistant headmaster and senior adviser of Roxbury Latin Boys' School. Pojman was inspired ...

Police Share Tea After Lonely Couple's Call

Year ago Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline performed a song together entitled, "Have You Ever Been Lonely?" It appears someone has.

"What else could we do but ...

What Happened to Face-to-Face Conversations?

In a recent (2015) article in The New York Times, communications expert Sherry Turkle asks, "What has happened to face-to-face conversation in a world ...

NYPD's Hostage Negotiator on Empathy

Lt. Jack Cambria has spent more than a decade talking people down from the ledge. Until his retirement in 2015, he was the commanding officer of the NYPD's ...

Uber for Breakups

As this article explains, "You can now pay a stranger to end things with your significant other." The Atlantic explains The Breakup Shop's ...

Special Suit Helps Students Empathize with Elderly

How do you train a 20-something medical school student to feel genuine empathy for senior citizens? Enter "The Age Man Suit." Consisting of ear-protectors ...

MS Patients Helped Most by Helping Others

In a study of 132 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers formed two groups, one of people who met weekly to learn coping skills and another ...