Toxic empathy?
Some of the most powerful Americans have decided that empathy is bad, toxic, evil, sinful, and unAmerican… which is insane, considering empathy makes a society work. Empathy is how we live together without killing each other. Empathy makes the number one rule of toddlerdom—share!—into policy. And empathy is how we honor one another’s humanity across difference.
So, we on the Christian Left are making empathy great again. (In a fun way).
We’re not neutral: we think empathy is nonnegotiable. Jesus cared about how we treat each other (empathy), and so we care, too. And we also think empathy is the best way to protect American democracy from real-life government Nazis…
(We’re anti-Nazi, by the way, which we’re hoping is still legal to say on the internet? We think Jesus would have also hated Nazis.*)
Empathy Politics is a podcast for the Christian Left & Our Friends.
Every Tuesday, we discuss the news from the past week—one political story and one religious story—and we invite a guest with a unique perspective to join us.
Our guests are authors, activists, comedians, journalists, faith leaders, scholars, and allies of the Christian Left. Whether you’re allergic to Christianity or you’re a Jesus person, you’re welcome here.
Meet the Co-hosts
Jeremy Alder
Jeremy has lived many lives. He has been a pastor. He was once an anti-abortion activist (a role from which he retired long ago). He worked as a paid community organizer in San Antonio, and most recently, he tours as a comedian. He’s also studying to become a social worker in his home state of North Carolina.
In his comedy career, Jeremy has opened for several nationally touring acts, including Demitri Martin, Russell Howard, Tom Papa, Aparna Nancherla, Nicole Byer, and Chad Daniels. He has been a featured performer at numerous comedy festivals, including Laughing Skull Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, Big Sky Comedy Festival (Best of Fest), Asheville Comedy Festival, and Cleveland Comedy Festival (Best of Fest). He recently released his first album.
Jeremy has an MDiv from Duke, and he’s currently pursuing education to become an LSW.
Liz Charlotte Grant
Liz is an award-winning nonfiction author of Knock at the Sky, and she’s a religion journalist based in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado.
Liz’s weekly substack, the Empathy List, has twice been nominated for the Webby Awards.
In 2024, an essay she wrote for NYU’s The Revealer about the abusive third marriage of the queen of purity culture, Elisabeth Elliot, went “evangelical” viral.
Liz has also worked as certified birth doula (CD(DONA)) and, during the pandemic, she coordinated free Community Supported Agriculture shares with a local organic farm for the food-insecure students at a local public elementary school in Denver.
She has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Wheaton College, IL.