Listening to sad songs is a weird, counterintuitive thing to do. Why listen to something that moves you to tears?

As someone who’s sensitivity to sad songs sometimes means pulling over until the tears clear, Dessa mulls major versus minor, explores what melody has in common with the sound of human crying, and quizzes a fellow songwriter about the power of screaming. Do sad songs reveal some secrets about empathy?

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.