The Compassionate Achiever Podcast

Tracy and Chris sign off for the summer. Have a great break and we'll see you next semester. Thanks for listening and please reach out if you have any topics you'd like to hear the show cover when we come back in a few weeks.

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Is Mr. Beast (YouTube sensation) a compassionate achiever? Does doing some good outweigh doing some bad or does the bad automatically negate the good? Does it matter why you do something nice, such as donating to charity, or should we not question a person’s motives for doing something nice? From Mr. Beast's giant cereal bowl stunt to his buying an entire store’s stock of products, his viral videos have TCAP asking a lot of questions about what compassion is and isn’t in this episode.

Is donating always a good thing? The crew of TCAP discuss the Notre Dame Cathedral controversy and place it in a broader societal context. Tracy and Chris cover everything from taxes to the relatively new concept of “social entrepreneurship” in trying to understand how compassion and capitalism interact with each other.

Dogs, humans and compassion. Claire Boettcher, an expert in training dogs, helps us to strengthen our LUCA (listen, understand, connect and act) skill set specifically in regard to our canine friends. Claire walks us through “leash anxiety,” provides several pointers/tips for all types of dog owners and explains how helping dogs has helped her better understand people. After listening to Claire, you’ll understand why whomever said it’s a “dog-eat-dog” world had it all wrong!

Thanks to Claire for this weeks Compassionate Achiever of the Week:

Canine Companions for Independence - http://www.cci.org

A deep dive into the connection between compassion and success across different aspects of life with Matt Bodnar, the host of “The Science of Success.” Matt not only helps us explore the definition of success but guides us through the “Zone of Discomfort.” We also learn about fear’s role in attaining our goals and compare end-results of the ‘exercise of power’ with and without compassion. If you’re interested on walking the path of success, Matt offers a few ’steps’ on how to get there.

The college admission scandal. Our guest for this episode, Jay Murray (Assistant V.P. for Enrollment Services at WCSU), helps us to understand the broader lessons of the college admission scandal by addressing questions such as: 'What should and can we as a society do about the problem?' and 'Is the scandal a symptom of more wide-ranging and deeper concerns?' We discuss not only the culture of cheating but also what compassion is and is not when thinking of ‘helping’ someone (i.e., the parents were not being compassionate in ‘helping’ their children get into the colleges under investigation). It appears that we've moved beyond the “Varsity Blues” into the “Varsity Black & Blues”!

It shouldn't be extraordinary but it is - S4 E10 by WCSUMedia

From Lassie to Flipper to our pets, many of us have experienced or seen compassion from the animals in our personal lives and/or on our television screens. The crew of TCAP takes a ‘trot' down the path of compassion using animals as our guides to explore the question: Are human-beings animals of compassion? Are we born to live the life of Thomas Hobbes (“short, nasty and brutish”) or Calvin & Hobbes or something in between? We cover some neuroscience of emotion and we go ‘old school’ on the compassionate achiever of the week. Whether you’re into barks or meows, this episode has a lot to tweet about! (NOTE: The episode was inspired by Frans de Waal’s new book “Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves.”

New York Times book review: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/books/review/frans-de-waal-mamas-last-hug.html)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tarra-and-bella-elephant-loses-mans-best-friend/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INa-oOAexno

Journalism and compassion. The crew of TCAP explore the issues of vanishing local papers, controlling publishers and propaganda in journalism and how all of that affects our levels of compassion. Pete, Tracy & Chris specifically discuss the difference between “empathy fatigue” and “compassion fatigue” and help you to understand the meaning of “compassion fade.” Is there such a thing as the “arithmetic of compassion”? Also, find out why ProPublica is our compassionate achiever of the week.

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2012/compassion-is-not-journalisms-downfall-its-journalisms-salvation/

https://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/2008/06/16/practicing-compassion-in-an-unbiased-journalism/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion_fatigue_in_journalism

Cultural insensitivity in the world of fashion. From Burberry to Gucci to Prada, major brands have recently been marketing products that are demeaning to many people. TCAP discusses whether the companies are doing it out of ignorance or as part of strategic marketing plans. How anyone could believe that “Blackface” or a “noose” would be ‘good ideas’ for marketing any product is mind-boggling and should never be considered ‘in fashion.'