David Brooks and the moral response to 'a national valley of distrust and disconnection’

David Brooks is a busy man. At a personal crisis point in his life, he realized he was pouring himself into work to distract from his problems.

Then, a moment of grace pointed him toward the values that really matter to him. He has been contemplating and writing about character, morality and “what it takes to lead a meaningful life in a self-centered world” ever since.

Brooks is a columnist for the New York Times; a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs; a frequent commentator on NPR’s "All Things Considered," NBC’s "Meet the Press" and the "PBS NewsHour;" and the director of Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute. In his spare time, he writes best-selling books. His latest is “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life.”

The Elliott Bay Book Company presented David Brooks at Seattle’s Temple De Hirsch Sinai on April 29. KUOW’s Sonya Harris recorded the event.