Post #698
Friday Video: TED Talk – Within each of us are two selves, suggests David Brooks in this meditative short talk: the self who craves success, who builds a résumé, and the self who seeks connection, community, love — the values that make for a great eulogy. (Joseph Soloveitchik has called these selves “Adam I” and “Adam II.”) Brooks asks: Can we balance these two selves?

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. 

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

[ted id=1973]