David Brooks Interview: How To Live A Meaningful Life — S1 E1

2022-07-14

David Brooks opens up about the importance of vulnerability, attempting to lose ego, commitment, and reliability as a writer. He explores how American culture has changed over the past 60 years and why trust's been lost in our institutions and each other. David Brooks is a journalist, author, and cultural and political commentator. He began his media career as a police reporter for the City News Bureau in Chicago before he joined The Washington Times in 1984. In 1986 he joined The Wall Street Journal, initially editing the paper’s book reviews and briefly serving as a film critic. He then worked from the paper’s Brussels office as an editor and foreign correspondent. By the end of his tenure at the Journal in 1994, he had become an editor of the paper’s opinion page. He became a senior editor at The Weekly Standard magazine at its inception in 1995. He was also a contributing editor of Newsweek magazine. In 2003 Brooks began writing an op-ed column for The New York Times. The following year he became a commentator on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Subscribe for access to interviews, series, films, and educational materials that address issues of social justice, history, politics, the arts, and culture by spotlighting relatable human stories of purpose and meaning. Learn about our work and how to support our mission here: https://www.lifestories.org/. For extended versions of these interviews and more, visit: https://www.youtube.com/@lifestoriesinterviewarchive Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifestoriesinterviews/ David Brooks, Columnist, The New York Times Interviewed By: Teddy Kunhardt Interview Date: October 17, 2019 Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:17 American social fabric 04:09 Cultural changes 10:27 Looking inward 13:44 Losing ego 16:59 Family 18:44 Being a writer 23:20 Childhood 27:40 Summer camp 30:38 Grandfather 34:35 The American dream 35:54 College 41:47 Bill Buckley 45:15 Starting a career in journalism 50:49 The Weekly Standard 52:32 The New York Times 55:36 Jim Lehrer 59:45 Life