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Political Empathy Lab

Political Empathy Lab

Written by: SNF Paideia Program
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Introducing a special series of The PARK podcast called “Political Empathy Lab Summer 2024: 10 weeks, 5 trips, 1 election.


For 10 weeks this summer, Dr. Lia Howard and seven Penn undergraduates will travel throughout the state, across at least 57 counties conversing with Pennsylvanians, putting skills and dispositions of political empathy into direct practice.

They will be doing so connecting with people not by polling or canvasing, but simply engaging in face to face conversations listening to people from different parts of the state -rural, suburban, urban -who hold different values and demographic and political identities. They will be engaging in participant observation, interviews and other ethnographic methodologies to guide their travels.

In short, Political Empathy Lab endeavors to better understand our fellow Pennsylvanians through better conversations with them. Perhaps there are larger lessons to be learned that can be applied to other conversations throughout the nation.

We invite you to travel with us and follow the project. Six episodes of the podcast will drop over the course of the summer with tools that you can try when you encounter folks you don’t know at the grocery store or at a public park.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SNF Paideia Program
Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Political Empathy Lab Podcast
    May 3 2026

    Welcome to Season 2 of the Political Empathy Podcast hosted by Noah Kocher, PEL research team member and undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. In this series of interviews Noah sits down with students who joined the lab for its second phase, a one-week research trip around Pennsylvania last summer (2025), to talk about their experiences of listening deeply to people across the state. We hope our conversations will give you a sense of what we heard from our fellow Pennsylvanians, how we practice our empathetic listening, and what you can learn from our experience.


    The Political Empathy Lab is directed by Dr. Lia Howard, a political scientist and Fellows Director, SNF Paideia Program. Season 2 has been recorded in the Wexler Recording Studio at Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania. Our producers are Jill Katz, Communications Director, SNF Paideia Program, and Noah Kocher, PEL Research Team Member Phase I + II, and SNF Paideia Fellow. Political Empathy Lab gratefully acknowledges our funding from the Office of the Provost at the University of Pennsylvania and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program at Penn.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show More Show Less
    28 mins
  • Political Empathy Lab Phase II
    Mar 28 2026

    Welcome to Season 2 of the Political Empathy Podcast hosted by Noah Kocher, PEL research team member and undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. In this series of interviews Noah sits down with students who joined the lab for its second phase, a one-week research trip around Pennsylvania last summer (2025), to talk about their experiences of listening deeply to people across the state. We hope our conversations will give you a sense of what we heard from our fellow Pennsylvanians, how we practice our empathetic listening, and what you can learn from our experience.


    The Political Empathy Lab is directed by Dr. Lia Howard, a political scientist and Fellows Director, SNF Paideia Program. Season 2 has been recorded in the Wexler Recording Studio at Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania. Our producers are Jill Katz, Communications Director, SNF Paideia Program, and Noah Kocher, PEL Research Team Member Phase I + II, and SNF Paideia Fellow. Political Empathy Lab gratefully acknowledges our funding from the Office of the Provost at the University of Pennsylvania and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program at Penn.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show More Show Less
    16 mins
  • Political Empathy Lab Phase II
    Feb 25 2026

    Welcome to Season 2 of the Political Empathy Podcast hosted by Noah Kocher, PEL research team member and undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. In this series of interviews Noah sits down with students who joined the lab for its second phase, a one-week research trip around Pennsylvania last summer (2025), to talk about their experiences of listening deeply to people across the state. We hope our conversations will give you a sense of what we heard from our fellow Pennsylvanians, how we practice our empathetic listening, and what you can learn from our experience.


    The Political Empathy Lab is directed by Dr. Lia Howard, a political scientist and Fellows Director, SNF Paideia Program. Season 2 has been recorded in the Wexler Recording Studio at Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania. Our producers are Jill Katz, Communications Director, SNF Paideia Program, and Noah Kocher, PEL Research Team Member Phase I + II, and SNF Paideia Fellow. Political Empathy Lab gratefully acknowledges our funding from the Office of the Provost at the University of Pennsylvania and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program at Penn.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show More Show Less
    18 mins
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