How Empathy Is Destroying Western Civilization (with Gad Saad)

Reasonably Happy with Paul Ollinger · Jul 23, 2026 · 1h 10m

In this episode of Reasonably Happy, I sit down with Dr. Gad Saad, an evolutionary behavioral scientist, longtime professor, and author of the New York Times bestseller Suicidal Empathy: Dying to be Kind. Gad lays out why empathy, when it hyper-fires at the wrong targets, becomes a form of civilizational self-disembowelment. We cover open-border immigration, cultural relativism, the UK grooming gang scandal, DEI and the anti-meritocracy push, his move to Ole Miss, and what a real prescription for the West actually looks like.

Timestamps

00:00:00 Trailer

00:01:28 Intro

00:01:40 From marketing…