The Empathy Academy & Engineering Morality: Can We Genetically Edit Evil Out of Humans?
In 2022, I joined The Anthony Thomas Podcast to discuss my sci-fi thriller, The Empathy Academy, a novel that explores this exact question. The story follows Montgomery Hughes, a teenager who infiltrates a controversial academy designed to genetically “correct” unethical behavior in young people. What he discovers inside reveals the dark side of using science to engineer morality.
The conversation with Anthony was supposed to be a typical author interview—talk about the book, share some behind-the-scenes insights, answer questions. But halfway through, something unexpected happened: I flipped the script and started interviewing him. At the time, I hadn’t seriously considered launching my own podcast, but that moment planted the seed. Turns out, I couldn’t help myself. Curiosity took over.
In this episode, Anthony and I discuss what inspired The Empathy Academy, how I develop fictional characters and worlds, and the ethical questions at the heart of the novel: Can empathy be taught, or does it have to be innate? If we could genetically remove traits like cruelty or selfishness, would we be creating better humans or just more compliant ones? And who gets to decide what “ethical” even means?
In this episode, we discuss:
• The premise of The Empathy Academy and what inspired the novel
• Whether empathy can be genetically engineered, and whether it should be
• The ethical dangers of using science to “correct” human behavior
• How I develop fictional characters and build speculative worlds
• What happens when schools become tools for behavioral control
• The dark side of ethics interventions and who decides what’s “right”
• Anthony’s insights into his craft as an actor, model, and coach
• How curiosity fuels both writing and podcasting
💡 Read The Empathy Academy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1639882200
💡 Learn more about Anthony Thomas
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthonythomas33/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU0vIzQAzQqpQpMKRLy3efQ
Website: https://www.anthonyjthomas.com/
💡 About Curiously: https://www.podpage.com/curiously/about/