You're listening to a podcast from Meaning of Life TV.

Hi, this is Robert Wright, and I wanted to alert you to the fact that this is a kind of unusual

edition of The Wright Show. For one thing, the conversation you'll hear was originally

a live stream on YouTube,

and I had never hosted a live stream before, so that was kind of strange.

But more important is that I had this conversation in memory of my friend Michael Brooks,

a very successful journalist and podcaster who died suddenly at the age of 36 a few weeks ago.

Now, the first part of this podcast is a dialogue with Josh Summers, a friend and co-author of Michael's.

Josh and I discuss something called cognitive empathy, which I consider one of the most important

resources in the world, and which I know Michael also considered very important.

In fact, I had been scheduled to have a conversation with Michael about cognitive empathy on

his show, the Michael Brooks Show, on July 30th. But then, only 10 days before that, he suddenly

developed a blood clot and passed away. The second part of this podcast is a

conversation with Michael's mother, Donna. I had never met Donna and I really enjoyed getting her

perspective on Michael's development and his worldview, and I really appreciate her coming on and

talking about him on the day that, as it happens, would have been his 37th birthday.

So I hope you'll give the whole thing a listen. And by the way, if you find the cognitive empathy part

interesting, you should know that I'll be doing another YouTube live stream with Josh on cognitive

empathy this Thursday, August 20th, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

If you want to tune in, just check my Twitter feed at Robert Writer on Thursday for the link you'll need to click in order to join us live.

Okay, so here's the podcast in Michael's memory. I hope you

enjoy it. Okay, so I think we're streaming Josh, which is success. Progress. Um, how you doing?

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