A Dozen Videos for Teaching Young People About Empathy

Here are a variety of lectures, sketches, and music videos to help you teach youth about empathizing with and supporting their peers and members of other communities. (As always, please preview anything you plan to use with your students or clients, to make sure it’s appropriate for your particular context.)

1. The Audacity of Empathy, TEDx Talk (11 minutes)

Activist and community organizer Chas Moore explains why most of us need to push ourselves much harder to be truly empathetic.

2. 5-Hour Empathy, Saturday Night Live (2 minutes)

In this ad parody from SNL, a middle class white couple are offered a drug that will help them experience systemic racism.

3. Mean Girls, Rachel Crow (3 minutes)

Music video showing how hurtful it can be when so-called friends turn on you or ignore you.

4. My Own Little World, Matthew West (4 minutes)

In this music video, a man begins to notice the struggles of other people and to think about his life’s purpose, rather than living in “My Own Little World. Population: Me.”

5. The Power of Empathy, TEDx Youth Talk (9 minutes)

High school student Audrey Moore explains the difference between empathy and compassion, then shares her experiments trying to understand the world from different points of view.

6. A Reframing of Masculinity, Rooted in Empathy, TED  Talk (13 minutes)

Psychologist and gender equality advocate Gary Barker explains the damage done to both women and men by harmful stereotypes about masculinity.

7. A Sketch for the Women, Saturday Night Live

In this satiric video from SNL, two men talk (and talk and talk and talk) about the importance of empowering women (without letting their women castmates get a word in edgewise).

8. Trying My Best, Anson Seabra (4 minutes)

Music video with a variety of people holding up signs showing their secret struggles.

9. Understanding Empathy, from ‘Tremendousness’ (2 minutes)

Animated video explaining how practicing empathy can help improve our relationships and our society.

10. Walk in My Shoes, Emily King (3 minutes)

Music video asking us not to judge others when we don’t know anything about their circumstances. 

(FYI, :25-:35 shows what appears to be a youth dealing drugs to support his young child. Depending on your context, that might spark a thoughtful debate or it might be more appropriate to use the audio version, featuring rapper Lupe Fiasco.) 

11. What is Empathy? (8 minutes)

Leadership coach Alex Lyon has been thinking about empathy because his father recently died. He gives three ways to become more empathetic, and explains the importance of healthy boundaries.

12. What Not to Do in a Convenience Store (3 minutes)

We can help people with disabilities by trying to understand their perspective, rather than judging them, patronizing them, or assuming we know what they need.

Possible Discussion Questions

Please note: Some of your students or clients may have experienced bullying, discrimination, or abuse. Please respect their boundaries about how much they feel comfortable sharing, especially in a group context.

—Which of these videos did you find the most surprising or thought-provoking? Why?

—Have you had a similar experience to something you saw or heard in one of these videos? What happened?

—Do you disagree with anything shown or stated in any of these videos? Why?

—In your opinion, what’s the difference between sympathy and empathy, and between empathy and compassion?

—In what ways are we all the same, and in what ways are we all different?

—How can you empathize with someone from a very different background or with a very different worldview than yours?

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