What the heck is the Trolley Car Dilemma (TCD) - and how does it relate to Radical Empathy? The TCD is a thought experiment - an intuition pump (to use Daniel Dennet's incisive term) - to generate insights about agency and empathy. You are the agent on a runaway Trolley Car faced with a couple of bad choices - faced with choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea - in a double-bind - now choose! The short version of the TCD: You are the ticket agent on a runaway trolley car with broken brakes, which will run over five people unless you throw the switch to change the track, which, however, will result in running over one person. So far, everyone, including you, is innocent, but not for long. Standard empathy breaks down in empathy distress. Find out how standard empathy gives way to radical empathy to get across the abyss of empathic distress in this engaging podcast!

art image: ink drawing Luca Cambiaso (1527–1585) - promethesus chained to the rock - note the eagle gnawing on his liver - ouch!