David Brooks: Columnist

About this talk

Tapping into the findings of his latest book, NYTimes columnist David Brooks unpacks new insights into human nature from the cognitive sciences -- insights with massive implications for economics and politics as well as our own self-knowledge. In a talk full of humor, he shows how you can't hope to understand humans as separate individuals making choices based on their conscious awareness.


Why you should listen to him:

Writer and thinker David Brooks has covered business, crime and politics (as well as subbing in as the Wall Street Journal's movie critic) over a long career in journalism. He's now an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times in a legendary run that started in September 2003.

His column looks deeply into the social currents that underpin American life. He's the author of Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense. His newest book, The Social Animal, examines new findings in brain science in the context of a story about two succesful people whose lives unfold in ways that neurological research is helping us understand more deeply.

Brroks is a frequent analyst on NPR’s All Things Considered and a commentator on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer.