The Social Animal
Post #703
Friday Video: TED 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.
New York Times columnist David Brooks is the author of “Bobos in Paradise,” “On Paradise Drive,” and the narrative of neuroscience, “The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement.”
Why you should listen
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 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 most recent book, The Social Animal, examines new findings in brain science in the context of a story about two successful people whose lives unfold in ways that neurological research is helping us understand more deeply.
Brooks is a frequent analyst on NPR’s All Things Considered and a commentator on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer.
[ted id=1094]
