Berrick Abramson and his wife Carrie have been watching ashow called The Last Ship — a series produced before COVID about a virus thatdecimates the population and the long fight to rebuild a nation. Carrie watchesit analytically. Berrick's the one on the couch next to her, quietly crying.

Not because it's sad fiction. Because it keeps hitting tooclose to something real.

In Episode 11 of Living All In, Berrick talks aboutsomething he's been carrying for a while — not a framework, not a philosophy,but a question about what kind of people we are to each other.

He goes back to September 11th, 2001. To a nation thatstopped everything and stood together — Jews in mosques, Muslims denouncing theattack, neighbors of every stripe checking on neighbors. To the proof that wehave been capable of choosing each other. And then to what we've let ourselvesbecome since.

But this episode isn't about politics. It's about a grocerystore manager in suburban Denver who didn't hesitate, didn't make a speech, andsent a woman home with a full cart and four words: pay it forward when you can.

It's about the shirt on his back. A woman crying in anairport security line. Trash on a beach. Middle school. A question he's beenanswering for forty years: if not me, then who?

We have been that country. The question is whether you'llanswer it when it's your turn.

Living All In is a podcast about building a lifeby design — not by default. Newepisodes drop Mondays