In this special bonus episode of the Empathy Table Podcast, Ideos’ Amar Peterman sits down with Dave Blanchard, CEO of Praxis Labs, to discuss the mission of Praxis and how Dave understands the role empathy plays in the work of moving from exploitation to redemption.

This week on the Empathy Table, Ideos’ Amar Peterman is joined by Lauren Daniels on the first ever CECPL Instagram LIVE.

Lauren, a teacher and community gardener based in downtown Chicago, speaks to the interconnectedness of cultivating land and faith formation. Lauren speaks to how creation is dependent upon relationships at the intersection of life, death, and rebirth. Amar and Lauren also talk about how access to food and land has been distributed unequally, as marginalized neighborhoods become food deserts and first-nations folk are removed from the land of their ancestors. Their conversation concludes with a discussion on a resurrected imagination of land—a recognition of how the earth responds to the actions of creation, both in Scripture and today.

This week on the Empathy Table, Ideos’ Amar Peterman is joined by Dr. Vincent Bacote, Professor of Theology at Wheaton College. 

Vince and Amar talk about the theological grounding for empathy in Christian and public life. They also discuss the work of “Reckoning with Race and Performing the Good News” and the importance of Jesus’ call to love our neighbors.

At the conclusion this episode, Vince offers a robust understanding of empathy that goes beyond merely “feeling with.” By way of story and theory, he and Amar argue that empathy requires both a physical and cognitive move towards another that is both emotional and intellectual. In other words, it requires us to not only bear one another’s’ burdens emotionally, but also understand the complex realities behind the burden itself.

This week on the Empathy Table, Ideos’ Amar Peterman is joined by David Katibah, Program Assistant at Telos Group.

David shares about his work atTelos which intersects with his story of growing up in a post-9/11 world as a person of mixed Middle Eastern heritage. Amar and David talk about the conflicts in Israel-Palestine and the reflexive defensiveness of Christians in support of Israel that contributes to a polarized imagination of winners and losers, rather than mutual flourishing. Amar encourages us to embrace an intellectual and empathic humility when engaging in these complex issues.

Finally, David reminds us that our aim is for mutual liberation—the marginalized from oppression and oppressors from the lies of colonization and power that inhibit their own true flourishing. True, mutual flourishing only exists when both oppressor and oppressed are released from the bondage of this binary imagination. Amar and David also discuss the need for repentance and transformation within the church, and our call to build, with Christ, a kingdom of Shalom.

Ideos’ Amar Peterman is joined this week by Andrew Hanauer, President and CEO of the One America Movement. Andrew and Amar talk about the unprecedented toxicity of the polarization we see in our zero-sum world today, the aspirational title of “One America,” and the role of leaders and communities of faith in healing our nation. Andrew emphasizes the need for relationships of trust across lines of difference in this work of redemptive change, the misapplication and detrimental distribution of empathy, and where the work of depolarization is located socially. Amar also shares his thoughts on Saint Augustine’s understanding of vulnerability being at the heart of empathy, compassion, and mercy.

This week, Ideos’ Amar Peterman is joined by Eric Brown and Taylor Jones, co-founders of Whiteboard, a creative agency dedicated to helping visionaries leverage the internet for good by creating digital experiences that advance their vision for a brighter future. . They talk about the complex digital landscape of the internet and wonder together how we might redeem the exploitative tendencies of social media in order to foster hospitable spaces of constructive change. Taylor observes an overemphasis on infinite scaling that only concerns “value capture” rather than “value creation,” and how the internet was created to be a space of human connection and collaboration.

Eric talks about the necessary work of naming and embracing tension in the in-between, gray spaces of life, how we need to teach the next generation to not only interact face-to-face, but screen-to-screen. They discuss the hard work of restoration, redemption, and anti-racism, as well as the need to ask “why” and take part in the work of change, rather than placing the burden of change on someone else.

This week, Amar is joined by Kevin Singer, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Neighborly Faith. Amar and Kevin talk about the felt need that Neighborly Faith is addressing, intersection of empathy and multi-faith work, the hospitable and invitational nature of both Christian and Islamic faith, and Gospel proclamation through faithful presence. Kevin speaks to some of the disingenuous ways that Christians have approached these inter-religious relationships—like valuing Christian conversion over genuine friendship—and how Christians might re-frame these relationships in a way that deeply humanizing and glorifying to God.

This week on the Empathy Table, Ideos’ Amar Peterman is joined by Danté Stewart. Amar and Dante talk about the way that white evangelicalism has shaped them both for better or worse and how they’ve moved out of these spaces. Danté shares his thoughts on the diversity of Black thought in America, the process of writing his new book “Shoutin’ in the Fire” as a living epistle, the revolutionary act of storytelling, and how he sees empathy playing a prophetic role in our world today.

This week, Ideos’ Amar Peterman is joined by Emanuel “Ricky” Padilla, President of World Outspoken, a ministry dedicated to training, consulting, and equipping the Mestizo church for culture-making.. Amar and Ricky talk about the mixed, multi-ethnic reality of the church—when congregations are filled with Christians who are “ni aquí, ni allá” (“not from here or from there”).

Ricky speaks to the complex, multi-generational, multi-racial context of the Latin-X church and how World Outspoken is preparing the Mestizo church for cultural change. Amar and Ricky also frame the work of empathy as translation, not only between languages but between worlds; and they discuss what it means to bring our “non-innocent” history into this translation work.

This week at the Empathy Table, Ideos’ Amar Peterman is joined by Dr. Michelle Ami Reyes. Michelle and Amar speak from their shared Indian American identity about the importance of naming, articulating, and embracing our cultural narrative, the role of empathy in faithful Christian practice, moving our churches towards true, multi-cultural worshiping communities, and how Paul’s claim to “become all things to all people” helps us in all these tasks.

Michelle is Vice President of the Asian American Christian Collaborative and Co-Executive Director at Pax. She is also the author of Becoming All Things: How Small Changes Lead to Lasting Connections Across Cultures (Zondervan, 2021), and Scholar in Residence at Hope Community Church in East Austin, Texas.