About this episode

Dylan McGarry discusses the creative act of empathy and its connection to the More than Human world.

“I think empathy is a creative act. It’s imaginal, it’s an art-making practice, where even just listening is creating a picture and a lifeworld of the other inside yourself in order to get closer to each other.” - Dylan McGarry Empathy is a magical thing. It lets us do more than just step into another's shoes, it opens the doors for us to step into their heart and soul with the vast generosity of spirit we'd like others to bring to us, wide as the sky, deep as the oceans, so that we can see through their eyes as the best of who they are. Obviously, we can do this with other people, but we can do it too, with whales, with elephants, with horses, and red kites and moles and spiders - and mountains and trees and landscapes… empathy is the spark that connects us to the More than Human world. There are not many people who truly understand this and fewer still who make it their life's work to open the doors in our souls with such subtlety that we only know afterwards that we've stepped beyond the boundaries of who we think we are. Our guest this week, Dr Dylan McGarry, is one of these people. Dyl works across the fields of Education, Sociology, Ecology, and the Arts. An Educational…

People in this episode

Guest: Dylan McGarry

Topics covered

• empathy
• art
• education
• ecology
• human connection
• nature

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Empatheatre

More episodes of Accidental Gods

• Zen and the Age of Celtic Buddhism with Brother Phap Linh from Plum Village Monastery · April 21, 2026 · 1h 47m
• Wise. Just. Courageous. Temperate - Stoicism as a Living Path to Connection with Victoria Hurth · April 14, 2026 · 1h 32m
• Towards the Symbiocene: Building an Eco-Civilisation with thought-leader, Jeremy Lent · March 31, 2026 · 1h 13m
• The Joy of Becoming Lost: Maps, Myths and Navigating the meta-crisis with Sam Crosby of Recalling Fire · March 24, 2026 · 1h 26m
• Pull from the heart, don't push from the head: Spreading Stories that Work with Matt Golding of Antidote · March 17, 2026 · 1h 29m
• Open Mind, Open Heart: Evolving the nature of Eldering with Alain Gauthier of the Regenerative Elder Process · March 10, 2026 · 1h 6m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Accidental Gods podcast page.