Sebastian Boo on Kindness

What is kindness and why does it matter? One of my New Year's resolutions for 2022 is to be kinder to others. So, in this episode, I'm learning more about what being kind means — spoiler alert, it doesn't mean always being nice — and why that matters.

My guest Sebastian Boo is a trainer, tutor and researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the founder of Kindness Advantage Ltd, a company that brings kindness training to the workplace. So he knows what he's talking about when it comes to kindness. During our discussion, we explore what kindness is — in particular why it might not mean what we tend to think it means — why it matters and what we can practically do to be kinder.

Aside from having a fascinating conversation with Sebastian, the other reason for getting him onto the show is to publicise my resolution so there's hopefully more chance of me sticking to it. Let's see...

During our discussion we talk about:

Kindness Advantage https://kindness-advantage.com/

Kindness: A Pocket Guide https://kindness-advantage.com/the-book

Professor David Canter’s ( ) research on measuring kindness entitled ‘Development of a measure of kindness’ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351889065_Development_of_a_measure_of_kindness

An interview with Professor Paul Bloom on his book Against Empathy: https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/1/19/14266230/empathy-morality-ethics-psychology-compassion-paul-bloom


Against Empathy - https://www.google.com/books/edition/Against_Empathy/op67CwAAQBAJ?hl=en

The study undertaken at Coca Cola Span on acts of kindness called Everyday Prosociality in the Workplace: The Reinforcing Benefits of Giving, Getting and Glimpsing - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317355148_Everyday_Prosociality_in_the_Workplace_The_Reinforcing_Benefits_of_Giving_Getting_and_Glimpsing


The Isle of Skye - https://www.isleofskye.com/