New York Tri-State: UCLA / Cal Alumni Book Club: "The War for Kindness," by Jamil Zaki

Wed 1/8/2025 • 4:30PM PST

Zoom

The UCLA Freshman class of 2024-25 is invited to read "The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World" by Jamil Zaki as part of their Common Experience program. This month our book club will join them.

Empathy is in short supply. We struggle to understand people who aren't like us, but find it easy to hate them. Studies show that we are less caring than we were even thirty years ago. In 2006, Barack Obama said that the United States was suffering from an "empathy deficit." Since then, things seem to have only gotten worse.

It doesn't have to be this way. In this groundbreaking book, Jamil Zaki shares cutting-edge research, including experiments from his own lab, showing that empathy is not a fixed trait--something we're born with or not--but rather a skill that can be strengthened through effort. He also tells the stories of people who embody this new perspective, fighting for kindness in the most difficult of circumstances. (From GoodReads)

This month's facilitator is Steven Sirbu. Newcomers are always welcome.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88146818457

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