In an increasingly paranoid and isolating age, empathy seems in short supply.
Even when we say we empathize, how much do we actually listen to the nuance of someone else’s experience, especially if it jars with our own? Are we even capable of truly listening to others when we so often seem entirely incapable of listening to ourselves?
These challenging questions are at the heart of the fascinating yet relatively unknown novel, Empathy, which is the focus for this episode of the show.
Thankfully, given my own skills in the active listening department have in the past been found severely lacking, I’m joined by the brilliant Ellie O’Neill to guide me somewhere towards a greater understanding of such things.
Indeed, welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
As you may know by now, in each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books and culture to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
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In this episode, as I say, my very special guest is the musician, Ellie O’Niell, whose debut album, Time of Fallow, is released on St.Itch Records. We discuss her pick for the library, the 1992 novel Empathy by Sarah Schulman.
About Ellie O’Neill
Ellie O’Neill is an artist from Co. Meath, Ireland, whose music weaves a rich, diverse and tender landscape traversing raw, intuitive explorations of intimacy and loss, friendship and queer identity. Her debut record, Time of Fallow, is released on St.Itch Records.
About Sarah Schulman
Sarah Schulman is an acclaimed American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, and AIDS historian. Based in New York City, she is a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the College of Staten Island. Known for her decades of LGBTQ+ activism, she co-directed the ACT UP Oral History Project and has authored over 20 books, including The Gentrification of the Mind and Let the Record Show.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order Empathy by Sarah Schulman from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* Listen to Ellie’s great new record on Spotify here and pick up a physical copy of the record here.
* Find Ellie O’Neill on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
* Find The Library of Lazy Thinking on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. If you’d like to support the library and get access to everything here, you can become a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge). All support goes back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn Fisher
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I write about books and interview other writers and artists here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands. Meanwhile, I am currently working on my debut novel, The Invention of Memory, and on the eternal, soul-destroying task of finding an agent.
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