Can We Close the Empathy Gap?

Sixth Annual Zócalo Book Prize Winner Sherry Turkle Thinks We Can Learn How to Talk—and Connect—Again as Humans

Zócalo Publisher Gregory Rodriguez said he was terrified as he opened a discussion onstage at MOCA Grand Avenue with MIT’s Sherry Turkle.

It wasn’t, however, because he was moderating in front of a full house, or because Turkle is an esteemed sociologist and psychologist who was there to accept the sixth annual Zócalo Book Prize for Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. It was because Turkle’s book argues “that our fixation on technology is making us less empathetic,” and that an “empathy gap” has opened up between …

By Sarah Rothbard | May 12, 2016

To Start Talking, Stop Texting

Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age

By Sherry Turkle | May 10, 2016

Text messages can make us feel constantly connected to the people we care about. But texting, and the ubiquitous presence of our phones, can also have the opposite effect. Who …

A Mass Murderer Is Testing the Limits of Scandinavian Goodwill

Norway’s Most Dangerous Man Is Back in the Spotlight, Leading Many to Wonder How Much Compassion He Deserves

By Bruno Kaufmann | March 24, 2016

For four days in March, I watched Norway’s national devil return to public view, in another installment of the courtroom drama familiarly titled Breivik v. State. Andres Behring Breivik, now …

Have a Tab, Barbie

The Curious Evolution of Women in Advertising

by T.A. Frank | May 10, 2011

As a socially-conscious editor of Zócalo – not to mention devoted husband to a professionally accomplished woman – I should warn readers that some of the videos you’ll see in …

society