<p>Author and psychologist Michael McCullough of the University of California, San Diego talks about his book <i>The Kindness of Strangers</i> with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. McCullough traces the history of human empathy and tries to explain why we care about the welfare of people we don't even know.</p>

Lamorna Ash on Dark, Salt, Clear

EconTalk: Conversations for the Curious is an award-winning weekly podcast hosted by Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford's Hoover Institution. The eclectic guest list includes authors, doctors, psychologists, historians, philosophers, economists, and more. Learn how the health care system really works, the serenity that comes from humility, the challenge of interpreting data, how potato chips are made, what it's like to run an upscale Manhattan restaurant, what caused the 2008 financial crisis, the nature of consciousness, and more. EconTalk has been taking the Monday out of Mondays since 2006.  All 900+ episodes are available in the archive. Go to EconTalk.org for transcripts, related resources, and comments.