The podcast, originally a discussion between host Brian Reed and a man in the town he calls “S-Town,” is now a genuine phenomenon. But what are the ethics of so many of knowing so much about the life of someone we’ve never met? “None of this is easy. Or ethically clear. But it is moving in a way that I haven’t felt in a long time. One of the things a large and pluralistic society denies us is proximity. And with that denial, the lives of our fellow citizens are harder to imagine, creating a kind of empathetic poverty that erodes our shared life.”