David Brooks: How to bridge America’s divide

David Brooks, bestselling author of How to Know a Person, explores how to bridge America's political and cultural divide, and why listening, empathy, judgment, and understanding people we disagree with may matter more than persuasion. Brooks, host of the new podcast The Permanent Questions and author of The Second Mountain, argues that many of the institutions shaping young people have become better at preparing them for careers than preparing them for life. We explore what universities should be teaching that they often are not: judgment, empathy, moral reasoning, curiosity, listening, and the ability to understand people whose beliefs differ from our own. David explains why intelligence and good judgment are not the same thing, why asking better questions can transform our relationships, and why understanding another person should come before trying to persuade them. The conversation ranges from America's political and cultural divisions to AI and education, meaning and faith, marriage and parenting, loneliness and friendship, and what David learned about suffering and character. At the heart of the conversation is an idea from How to Know a Person: in an increasingly divided culture, learning how to truly see and understand another human being may be one of the most important things we can learn to do. This is ultimately a hopeful conversation about becoming better listeners, better thinkers, better parents and partners, and better at living with people who see the world differently. BOOKS AND RESOURCES David Brooks How to Know a Personhttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/652822/how-to-know-a-person-by-david-brooks/ The Second Mountainhttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/3375/david-brooks/ DAVID BROOKS'S NEW PODCAST The Permanent Questions with David Brookshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-permanent-questions-with-david-brooks/id6803240325 BOOKS DISCUSSED AND RECOMMENDED The Sense of Reality by Isaiah Berlinhttps://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+Sense+of+Reality+Isaiah+Berlin Community by Peter Blockhttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/815995/community-third-edition-by-peter-block/ The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller and Kathy Kellerhttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/309809/the-meaning-of-marriage-by-timothy-keller-with-kathy-keller/ Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Franklhttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/206272/mans-search-for-meaning-by-viktor-e-frankl/ Morality by Jonathan Sackshttps://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jonathan-sacks/morality/9781541675322/ The Tyranny of Merit by Michael J. Sandelhttps://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770028/thetyrannyofmerit/ Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegnerhttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/172500/crossing-to-safety-by-wallace-stegner/ Juvenescence by Robert Pogue Harrisonhttps://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/J/bo18596462.html