The Slow Reweaving - Trust, Presence, and the Unfinished Work of Belonging - The Deeper Thinking Podcast

The Slow Reweaving: On Trust, Presence, and the Future of Belonging

The Deeper Thinking Podcast

What if the most urgent repairs a society needs are not material or political, but relational? This episode listens to the quiet unraveling of civic life through the twin lenses of Robert D. Putnam’s analysis of social capital and Andy Haldane’s reflections on collective economic fragility. We trace how the erosion of trust, mutual regard, and the civic imagination signals not just institutional weakness—but a crisis of relation itself.

Presence cannot be legislated back into being. It must be risked—through small, unseen acts of recognition, vulnerability, and time. This episode is not a proposal. It is a meditation on how societies slowly reweave themselves through the fibre of attention, patience, and encounter. Drawing from Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, and Sara Ahmed, we ask how belonging can be rebuilt without spectacle—through presence, not performance.

From civic decline to ethical intimacy, we follow the subtle architecture of shared life. What emerges is not a theory, but a plea: that we return to the daily, vulnerable work of relation as the foundation of freedom itself.

Why Listen?

• Understand how the erosion of social trust imperils democracy and shared life
• Explore the relational foundations beneath visible political and economic structures
• Reflect on how belonging is rebuilt not through design, but through daily acts of presence
• Engage with thinkers like Putnam, Haldane, Arendt, Weil, and Ahmed on freedom, relation, and civic repair

Listen On:

• YouTube
• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts

Bibliography

• Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Simon & Schuster, 2000.
• Haldane, Andy. “Counting the Cost of Bowling Alone.” RSA Lecture, 2025.
• Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. University of Chicago Press, 1998.
• Ahmed, Sara. Living a Feminist Life. Duke University Press, 2017.
• Weil, Simone. Gravity and Grace. Routledge, 2002.

Bibliography Relevance

• Robert D. Putnam: Frames the decline of civic participation as the erosion of shared social capital
• Andy Haldane: Explores the economic costs and implications of declining social trust
• Hannah Arendt: Anchors the political stakes of presence, attention, and public space
• Simone Weil: Brings ethical gravity to the act of attention and the moral weight of presence
• Sara Ahmed: Highlights how belonging is shaped through lived, felt, and contested experiences

What if freedom begins not with rights, but with recognition?

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