Shannon Hale is the author of more than 50 books for all ages, including the Princess Academy series and her graphic novel memoirs. In this episode, Adam and his daughter Joanna (a longtime fan of Shannon’s books) talk to Shannon about the powerful lessons books teach us about empathy, and take a closer look at how stories can either reinforce or dismantle the gender stereotypes kids learn early on. The three lament the decline in leisure reading, and brainstorm ways to nurture new readers and keep students interested in books.
Host & Guest
Adam Grant (Instagram: @adamgrant | LinkedIn: @adammgrant | Website: https://adamgrant.net/)
Shannon Hale (Instagram: @squeetus | Website: https://shannonhale.com/)
Join us in person at a TED conference: https://tedtalks.social/events
Become a TED Member to support our mission: https://ted.com/membership
Subscribe to a TED newsletter: https://ted.com/newsletters
Follow TED!
X: https://www.twitter.com/TEDTalks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ted
Facebook: https://facebook.com/TED
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ted-conferences
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tedtoks
Podcasts: https://www.ted.com/podcasts
The TED Audio Collective is a collection of podcasts for the curious.
The TED Audio Collective videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organiz...). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com.
Why books spark challenges: empathy as a “powerful tool”
SHShannon Hale
What is it about books? And I, I personally believe that it's because they are such pow- powerful tools of empathy. And what I see quite often is the majority of books that are challenged and banned are written by women and about female characters, are written and about LGBTQ characters, and are written by and about authors and characters of color. So there is a movement by some people to try to limit who
0:30 – 0:49
Patterns in bans: women authors and marginalized protagonists disproportionately targeted
SHShannon Hale
their kids learn to empathize with. There is a power dynamic at play. When you can control the narrative, when you can control who gets to have stories told about them, who gets to be the hero, that has a real effect in our actual society and how things are governed and what people are gonna put up with and what they're not gonna put up with
Episode duration: 0:49
Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript
Transcript of episode zBheB3be580
Get more out of YouTube videos.
High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.
