David Brooks on Youth, Morality, and Loneliness (Live at Mason)

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2018

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For two hours every morning, David Brooks crawls around his living room floor, organizing piles of research. Then, the piles become paragraphs, the paragraphs become columns or chapters, and the process - which he calls "writing" - is complete.

After that he might go out and see some people. A lunch, say, with his friend Tyler. And the two will discuss the things they're thinking, writing, and learning about. And David will feel rejuvenated, for he is a social animal (as are we all).

Then one day David will be asked by Tyler to come on his show, and perform this act publicly. To talk about his love for Bruce Springsteen, being a modern-day Whig, his "religious bisexuality," covenants vs. contracts, today's answer to the "Fallows Question," why failure is overrated, community and loneliness, the upside of being invaded by Canada, and much more.

And though he will be intimidated, David will oblige, and the result is here for you to enjoy.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded May 14th, 2018

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
0:08.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.
0:12.6	Learn more at mercatis.org.
0:15.2	And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit
0:20.4	ConversationsWithT Tyler.com.
0:30.0	Hello, everyone.
0:33.7	Thank you for coming, David.
0:35.1	David is actually part of the Genesis of this series, though he doesn't know it.
0:39.2	So periodically, David and I get together for lunch and just talk about different things.
0:44.0	And it occurred to me that there ought to be some product version of this that would be
0:48.1	free and open for everyone.
0:50.5	And so here we are, and finally, it's David himself in the flesh for me to talk to him.
0:55.3	So I'd like to start with what I call the Eleanor Rigby question.
0:59.0	All the lonely people, where do they all come from?
1:03.9	What's the root cause behind the loneliness epidemic?
1:06.5	Why can't we just bring these people together, use the Internet if need be, and make them
1:10.6	all un-lonely?
1:11.6	What's the actual underlying problem?
1:13.4	Okay, first let me say I would come back from the lunches and my assistant would say,
1:17.6	you're glowing, you have such a man crush.
1:22.3	So here we are.
1:24.3	Glad we can do this in public.
	...

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