The Empathy Conversation

The Empathy Conversation is our flagship thought leadership event.

Between 2020 and 2022, we held an annual debate about the role of empathy and the part books can play in building young people’s empathy skills.

Each year, we invited a stellar panel of authors, who sit alongside Professor Robin Banerjee, Head of Psychology at the University of Sussex. We've been joined by teachers, librarians, academics, authors and students, as well as members of the general public. Author panelists over the years have included Michael Rosen, Katherine Rundell, Manjeet Mann, David Baddiel, Catherine Johnson and Lemn Sissay.

Our mission is to raise an empathy-educated generation. The Conversation is part of a wider, urgent debate about how we can work together to build a more empathetic society.

The topic of the 2022 Empathy Conversation was "empathy, our human superpower". We were joined by multi-award winning children's author Manjeet Mann, bestselling and award-winning writer Lemn Sissay, million-copy bestselling children's author Katherine Rundell, and Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Sussex, Dr Robin Banerjee. The event was chaired by EmpathyLab founder Miranda McKearney.

You can watch the recording of the 2022 Empathy Conversation below.

The 2021 Empathy Conversation

The 2020 Empathy Conversation