This podcast episode explores the idea of strategic empathy without naivete as a practical cognitive defense skill. It explains how anger, fear, disgust, and contempt can turn adversaries into caricatures, leading to enemy-image bias, fundamental attribution error, and poor judgment. The episode distinguishes strategic empathy from sympathy, emphasizing that understanding an adversary’s logic does not mean excusing their actions. It also walks listeners through a six-step drill for slowing emotional reactions, testing assumptions, and seeing the “game board” from the other side before forming conclusions.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jonnelson55.substack.com