Week after week in his New York Times column, David Brooks offers readers his unique take on our political and social challenges.
But in his books, Brooks goes beyond standard op-ed fare with calls for social and spiritual renewal, donning the hats of a sociologist, a would-be sage and a self-help guru. In his #1 New York Times bestseller The Second Mountain, he defended the often-derided virtues of self-restraint, self-erasure and self-suspicion. In Road to Character — also a #1 New York Times bestseller — he urged us to rethink our priorities by focusing less on external success and more on moral depth and humility.
In his latest book, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, Brooks argues that if you want to be a good colleague, parent, friend or citizen, you have to be good at understanding other people, seeing things from their vantage point and making them feel known and understood. In very practical ways he shows how we can all become more perceptive, generous and wise.
Brooks joins us to discuss how to start paying more attention to one another by asking better questions, learning to listen and looking beyond the obvious — and how doing so can help us heal a society riven by fragmentation, hostility and misperception.
An op-ed columnist for The New York Times, David Brooks is also founder of The Aspen Institute’s Weave: A Social Fabric Project. He is the author of six previous works of nonfiction.