A Lesson in Civility

Living in the Meantime with Stephen Bauman · Nov 4, 2025 · 3m

In today’s episode, Stephen reflects on why Living in the Meantime exists in the first place — to cultivate a modest but meaningful space for the simple, perennial values that actually build human flourishing: integrity, compassion, respect, civility, and the common good. He names the very ordinary, very daily places where those values show up — not in big speeches or sweeping national movements — but in the small interactions between strangers on a subway car at rush hour. Through a wonderfully New-York vignette involving a crowded train, a pregnant passenger, a stubborn commuter, and a…