Finding Your Third Place

Overview

An exciting new look at the essential gathering spaces in our society where friendships are formed, relationships are nurtured, and the tapestry of community is woven.
 
Do you have a third place? Your first place is home, your second place is work, and your third place is where you go to socialize and build friendships. Yet, for several reasons, many people today find themselves without a third place of their own. At a time when our nation is facing an epidemic of loneliness and communities are suffering from a loss of trust, low levels of engagement, despair, and political polarization, what if the answer to many of our problems lies in a simple idea? What if we just need to pay attention to the places where we find ourselves?
 
Rick Kyte combines storytelling, social science, and philosophy to explore:

• What makes a third place
• Factors that create and support vibrant communities
• The role of hospitality in creating belonging and social connection
• How third places foster friendships and bind us to others in our community
• What it takes to find and create a third place of your own

 
 
“Rick Kyte's insight into the vital human experience of connection and friendship is both scholarly and inspiring. The next time I visit my favorite coffee shop, I'm leaving my laptop at home. It's time to look outward and engage more fully with others in our third places.” —Amy Dickinson, “Ask Amy” advice columnist and author of The Mighty Queens of Freeville
 
 
 

Reviews

“Rick Kyte's insight into the vital human experience of connection and friendship is both scholarly and inspiring. The next time I visit my favorite coffee shop, I'm leaving my laptop at home. It's time to look outward and engage more fully with others in our third places.”
—Amy Dickinson, “Ask Amy” advice columnist and author of The Mighty Queens of Freeville
 
“Wise, informative, helpful. Finding Your Third Place offers an amazing blend of science, art, and philosophy that at the same time educates, uplifts, and inspires you to reach out and help someone who may be feeling lonely today. During the present times when our ‘society is meeting all our needs except that of friendships,’ Rick Kyte’s work and insights are timeless and much needed, both at work and in personal life.”
—Dr. Amit Sood, author of Mindfulness Redesigned and The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living
 
“Rick Kyte’s plea to find a place in our lives for friendship could not be more timely. He weaves together storytelling, literature, and empirical evidence in a book that reminds us that simple fellowship is the first step to solving many of the problems facing our communities and our world.”
—Dr. Stephanie A. Urchick, Rotary International President, 2024–2025
 
“As Rick Kyte observes, ‘It is in conversation that we find belonging.’ Read this lovely, thoughtful book and then go out and engage. With someone, anyone—whether it’s a cherished old friend who needs you at a dire moment, or a complete stranger who is searching for a light in life—wherever it is that you connect. It will help you. It will help them. And that help will cascade in crucial ways that will fill you with joy and purpose.”
—Lisa Napoli, Author of Ray and Joan and Radio Shangri-La
 
“In Finding Your Third Place, Rick Kyte rekindles ‘the feelings that make the town’ of which Socrates spoke so long ago. Kyte’s symposium is a modern homage to friendship and love. In this wonderful book, he sees our modern world through the eyes of ancient classical wisdom, and that helps us see ourselves anew, giving us new understanding of who we are and what we need for abundant human life. Kyte interweaves stories of everyday life with ancient wisdom to bring home powerful timeless truths about the importance of love, friendship, and community that will change us and the way we see the world forever.”
—Jim Bailey, MD, Benjamin Franklin Award–winning author of The End of Healing
 
“Kyte shows us the essential role of third places, like an underground aquifer that allows the flourishing of all. Finding Your Third Place is about finding ourselves, finding the taproot of a common life, finding the very foundations of being human, together.”
—Dr. Amy Oden, Adjunct Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality, St. Paul School of Theology; author of Right Here, Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness
 
“Rick Kyte offers a timely call for the kind of institutions we most need to create solidarity in a time of growing polarization and loneliness. Third places are where ‘strangers can become acquaintances.’ They are essential institutions for Tocquevillian democracy. Very fitting for a book that began in a coffeehouse called Common Grounds.”
—Beau Weston, Van Winkle Professor of Sociology, Centre College
 
“‘Only connect!’ the British writer E. M. Forster implored more than a century ago in his novel Howard’s End. ‘Live in fragments no longer.’ In Finding Your Third Place, ethicist Rick Kyte follows Forster’s instruction, exploring the roots and consequences of our modern crisis of loneliness. Kyte invites us to see through our superficial hyper-connectivity, and to reclaim the real spaces in our lives and landscapes where affection may again create coherence, meaning, and shared values.”
— Curt Meine, Author of Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work
 
“This book will challenge readers to rethink how our lives and communities have been arranged for efficiency and the impact that has had on not only our individual social and emotional well-being, but also the health of our communities. Third places are the antidote for isolation.”
—Beth Hartung, Owner of Pearl Street Books
 
 

"[Rick Kyte] weaves together storytelling, literature, and empirical evidence in a book that reminds us that simple fellowship is the first step to solving many of the problems facing our communities and our world.” —Dr. Stephanie A. Urchick, Rotary International President, 2024–2025

"Wise, informative, helpful. Finding Your Third Place offers an amazing blend of science, art, and philosophy that at the same time educates, uplifts, and inspires you to reach out and help someone who may be feeling lonely today."—Dr. Amit Sood, Author of Mindfulness Redesigned and The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living

"Kyte interweaves stories of everyday life with ancient wisdom to bring home powerful timeless truths about the importance of love, friendship, and community that will change us and the way we see the world forever.”—Jim Bailey, MD, Benjamin Franklin Award–winning author of The End of Healing

"Finding Your Third Place is about finding ourselves, finding the taproot of a common life, finding the very foundations of being human, together.” —Dr. Amy Oden, Adjunct Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality, St. Paul School of Theology; author of Right Here, Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness

“Rick Kyte offers a timely call for the kind of institutions we most need to create solidarity in a time of growing polarization and loneliness." —Beau Weston, Van Winkle Professor of Sociology, Centre College ​

“As Rick Kyte observes, ‘It is in conversation that we find belonging.’ Read this lovely, thoughtful book and then go out and engage."—Lisa Napoli, Author of Ray and Joan and Radio Shangri-La

"Kyte invites us to see through our superficial hyper-connectivity, and to reclaim the real spaces in our lives and landscapes where affection may again create coherence, meaning, and shared values.” —Curt Meine, Author of Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work

"This book will challenge readers to rethink how our lives and communities have been arranged for efficiency and the impact that has had on not only our individual social and emotional well-being, but also the health of our communities."—Beth Hartung, Owner of Pearl Street Books

“Rick Kyte's insight into the vital human experience of connection and friendship is both scholarly and inspiring. . . It's time to look outward and engage more fully with others in our third places.” —“Ask Amy” advice columnist and author of The Mighty Queens of Freeville

Author Biography

Richard Kyte is Director of the D. B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership and Endowed Professor of Ethics at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin where he teaches a variety of courses dealing with ethical issues in business, health care, law, politics, and the environment. He has published and lectured widely on topics related to justice, forgiveness, virtue, and the meaning of life.Richard attended Hamline University where he earned a B.A. in philosophy. He then went on to graduate school, obtaining a Ph.D. in philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University in 1994.