Episode
The pleasure we take in others' misfortune and what it says about us
- Podcast
- God Forbid
- Published
- Jun 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3276
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
You heard that someone had come unstuck. A rival. A bully. Someone overconfident, or two-faced, or just a bit too pleased with themselves. And something in you was glad. You won't say it out loud. You might barely admit it to yourself. But the Germans have a word for it. And it turns out, so did the ancient Greeks. Schadenfreude. The pleasure we take in others' misfortune. Is it a moral failing? A sign of deficient character? Or is it a window into what we actually believe about justice, equality — and each other? GUESTS: Tiffany Watt-Smith is a cultural historian and author of Schadenfreude: The Joy of Another's Misfortune . She joins us from London. Nick Haslam is Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne, and the man who's been thinking hard about Australia's national variant — tall poppy syndrome .