What makes a group of strangers become the kind of people who visit one another in the hospital, check on an elderly neighbor, or come together when their community is in crisis?

In this episode of Reimagining Us, Dr. Nichole Argo and Scott Hutcheson explore what makes civic life feel not merely obligatory, but meaningful—even sacred. Drawing on stories from communities across the country and insights from Sam Pressler, john a. powell, Seth Kaplan, and Dan Gutekanst, they examine what happens when people repeatedly experience being seen, valued, and needed by one another.

The answer is about more than participation. It is about relationship.

From an arts class where strangers became a community of care, to the Zulu concept of Sawubona—“I see you”—Nichole and Scott explore how recognition and shared experience can transform the way we understand our responsibility to one another. Relationships can widen our “circle of concern,” turning people who once seemed distant or abstract into people whose lives and well-being matter to us.

But belonging also has a shadow side. History shows that tightly connected communities can still exclude, segregate, and reinforce inequality. The challenge, then, is not simply to create more belonging, but to intentionally build opportunities for people across race, class, age, identity, and experience to encounter one another, develop relationships, and shape community life together.

The episode ultimately asks us to reconsider what civic infrastructure is for. It isn’t simply about meetings, programs, or institutions. At its best, civic life creates repeated opportunities for people to show up, be seen, contribute, experience joy, and build the reserve of relationships and trust that communities can draw upon when times get hard.

The takeaway? Civic life becomes powerful when people experience themselves as part of something larger—and when we intentionally design that sense of belonging to include everyone.

Key Discussion Points

• Why Joy Matters in Civic Life: Sam Pressler challenges the idea that civic participation should feel like “eating your spinach.” If we want people to participate, community life has to offer meaning, connection, fun, and a genuine sense that showing up is worthwhile.

• The Power of Being Seen: john a. powell introduces Sawubona, a Zulu expression meaning “I see you.” Recognition, dignity, and compassionate presence are not small gestures; they are fundamental human needs and building blocks of belonging.

• Expanding the Circle of Concern: Relationships with people whose identities, experiences, or beliefs differ from our own can change who we consider part of “us.” We may still disagree, but we begin to account for one another’s humanity when we make decisions.

• The Double Edge of Belonging: America’s history of local civic associations demonstrates the tremendous power of community institutions—but also their capacity to exclude. Civic renewal without attention to equity can strengthen belonging for some while leaving others outside the circle.

• Designing a Bigger “Us”: Strong civic infrastructure creates repeated opportunities for people across differences to build relationships, work together, and have a meaningful voice in shaping their community. The goal is not simply participation, but belonging that crosses social and economic lines.

• Relationships as Community Resilience: The relationships communities build during ordinary times become especially valuable during moments of conflict or crisis. The experience of Needham, Massachusetts, shows why trust and relationships are far easier to draw upon in an emergency when they have already been built beforehand.

Practical Takeaways

1. Make participation worth showing up for. Joy, meaning, relationships, and shared purpose are not extras; they are part of what keeps people engaged.

2. Practice seeing people fully. Move beyond roles, labels, and demographics toward genuine recognition and curiosity about another person’s experience.

3. Ask who is missing. A connected community is not necessarily an inclusive one. Pay attention to whose voices, relationships, and experiences are absent.

4. Create repeated contact across differences. One-off encounters matter, but belonging grows through recurring opportunities to work, create, celebrate, and solve problems together.

5. Build relationships before you need them. Trust is infrastructure. Communities are more resilient when people and institutions already know how to reach one another before conflict or crisis arrives.

Hosts:

Nichole Argo is the Founder and Executive Director of⁠ TogetherUp Institute⁠

Scott Hutcheson is the Executive Director of⁠ E Pluribus Unum⁠

Produced by⁠ Next Chapter Podcasts⁠

Sources cited in the episode

• Pressler, Sam. Founder, Armed Services Arts Partnership; author of Connective Tissue (newsletter and policy framework). (the arts class; “eating your spinach”; embedding connection in housing)

• Cox, Daniel A., and Sam Pressler. Disconnected: The Growing Class Divide in American Civic Life. Survey Center on American Life, American Enterprise Institute, August 22, 2024; survey of 6,597 adults. (the education divide in civic life)

• powell, john a. Director, Othering and Belonging Institute, UC Berkeley. (Sawubona; being seen; the circle of concern)

• Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Random House, 1952. (named by powell)

• Brooks, Arthur C. Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt.Broadside Books, 2019. (powell’s friendship with Brooks)

• Kaplan, Seth D. Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time. Little, Brown Spark, 2023. (the woman at 903; the Great Quieting)

• National Women’s History Museum. “National Association of Colored Women.” (founded 1896; Mary Church Terrell)

• National Park Service. “Maggie L. Walker.” (St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, Richmond)

• Center for Inclusion and Belonging, American Immigration Council. Understanding Belonging Where It Is Lived.2026 research brief on the 2025 Belonging Mixed Methods Study, using the Belonging Barometer developed with Over Zero. (older adults report stronger local belonging)

• TogetherUp Institute. CivicWorks, Needham, MA; with Dan Gutekanst, Needham Superintendent of Schools (Season 1, Episode 8). (relationships built before a crisis)

Background research

• Crimston, Daniel, Paul G. Bain, Matthew J. Hornsey, and Brock Bastian. “Moral Expansiveness: Examining Variability in the Extension of the Moral World.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 111, no. 4 (2016): 636–653. (the circle of moral concern)

• Singer, Peter. The Expanding Circle: Ethics and Sociobiology. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981. (origin of the expanding-circle idea)

• Holt-Lunstad, Julianne, et al. Social Connection in America. Barnes Family Foundation, 2025. (community ties, health and wellbeing)

• Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation. 2023. (connection and community health, cohesion and resilience)

• Skocpol, Theda, Marshall Ganz, and Ziad Munson. “A Nation of Organizers: The Institutional Origins of Civic Voluntarism in the United States.” American Political Science Review 94, no. 3 (2000): 527–546. (late-19th-century boom in chapter-based associations)

• Putnam, Robert D., with Shaylyn Romney Garrett. The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. Simon & Schuster, 2020. (Gilded Age to Progressive Era civic revival)

• Skocpol, Theda, Ariane Liazos, and Marshall Ganz. What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality. Princeton University Press, 2006. (Black Americans building their own institutions)

• Cox, Karen L. Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture. University Press of Florida, 2003. (Scott on the Daughters of the Confederacy and the Lost Cause)

• Aldrich, Daniel P. Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery. University of Chicago Press, 2012. (relationships as crisis infrastructure)

• TogetherUp Institute. Pleasanton Community Connection Survey. 2025. (belonging accumulates with time and tenure)