Welcome to Socrates in the studio, which falls under the rubric and perhaps also the egos of Socrates in the city.

We are in the city of New York City, and I am today going to be speaking with Arthur C. Brooks, not to be confused with the other Arthur Brooks's. He has a book out now,

another book called The Happiness Files, Insights on Work and Life. Arthur Brooks is the Parker

Gilbert Montgomery professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and a professor of management practice

at Harvard Business School. He's also a columnist

at the Atlantic, where he writes the weekly How to Build a Life column. He's the number one New York

Times bestselling author of 14 books, including Build the Life You Want, co-authored with Oprah Winfrey.

Not making that up. And here is Arthur Brooks Arthur welcome great to see you you too so normally I would make that up that would be the

my kind of a joke co-offered with Oprah Winfrey and it would get a big laugh yeah in fact that's true

that turns out to be true, yes indeed.

I don't know a lot of people who've co-authored books with Oprah Winfrey.

That's extraordinary.

I have to ask you before we get into the brand new book, how did that come about?

It was her idea, actually.

So it turns out that during the coronavirus epidemic, when everybody was, well,

in most places around the United States, where we're all deeply locked down. She was at her place

in California, and she was reading my column every week. She walks around her place, and she would

read my column every Thursday morning in the Atlantic, kind of a light. And she really liked it.

And when a book came out during that period called From

Strength to Strength, Finding Happiness, Purpose in the Second Half of Life, she read it on the

first day and called and asked me to be on her podcast. She has a podcast. She's a voracious reader,

and she's a very discerning reader too. And she had me on to talk about my book from Strength to strength. And we kind of hit it off. She's a voracious reader, and she's a very discerning reader, too. And she had me on to talk about my book from Strength to Strength, and we kind of hit it off. She's a very interesting person. She's very smart. She's very Ariadite person. And we were, you know, getting along like a house on fire. And what do you know? Not a few weeks later, she called my cell phone and said, you know, I've been thinking about it. If I still had my show, I'd have you on 30 times. I said, huh, that would have been great. She said, but I don't have a show, so how about if I host you in a book? I said, what do you mean? And the result was that book, where she's kind of the host of the book. And I'm the guest. I'm, you know, the guy talking

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