Don't Let The Loudest Voices Win: Frank Bruni on the Fine Art of The Subtle Point

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.7 • 855 Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2021

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Frank Bruni spent more than 25 years at The New York Times, the last ten of them as a columnist on the opinion page. In June, he left the column to become a professor of public policy and journalism at Duke University. Frank spoke with Meghan about the difficulties — maybe the impossibility— of writing a weekly opinion column while also maintaining intellectual humility and engaging with your own uncertainty. The author of many books, including a book about higher education, Frank explained how "campus craziness" tropes have been distorted by the media even though students continue to disagree about free speech and administrators continue to pander to a small minority of loud extremists. He also talked about an ongoing medical issue that threatens his eyesight and about which he writes in a forthcoming book. Guest Bio: Frank Bruni was a New York Times opinion columnist from 2011 to 2021. He has also served as a White House correspondent, Rome bureau chief and chief restaurant critic for the Times. He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers and his newest book, The Beauty of Dusk, about affliction, aging and his brush with blindness, will be published early next year. He ended his op-ed column in June 2021 and moved from New York to North Carolina to become a professor of public policy and journalism at Duke University, but continues to write a popular weekly newsletter (www.nytimes.com/BruniLetter) for the Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Unspeakable podcast with Megan Daume.
0:04.8	Now on Podcast One.
0:07.8	Hi, I'm Frank.
0:09.1	I don't like change.
0:10.2	And I just saw a billboard for this new BJ's wholesale club talking about how you could pay as little as two cents a gallon for gas.
0:16.7	Look, when gas prices are this low, we can't complain about gas prices being too high.
0:21.4	No, sir. I wouldn't join BJ's Wholesale Club.
0:24.2	Hey, thanks, Frank. But if you do want to sign up now to get a $40 BJ's digital gift card,
0:28.9	join the new BJ's Wholesale Club, opening soon in Ross Township. Visit bjays.com slash
0:33.5	Ross Township or the BJ's membership center at the Block Northway. Offer valid for limited time.
0:38.2	Are you in excruciating pain brought on by your son, daughter, or spouse suffering from addiction?
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0:51.4	At Recovery Centers of America at Monroeville, your loved one will be treated with care by expert addiction professionals, while family
0:57.8	programming will give you support and healing so that you can recover as well.
1:01.9	RCA accepts insurance, provides transportation, and offers intervention services.
1:06.6	Call 1-888-Rcovery now.
1:14.1	People who wear a very clear kind of name tag or ideological tag.
1:20.6	People who have a very specifically defined set of issues or hobby horse.
1:27.3	I mean, those are the people who
1:28.6	everyone knows how to slop them in and use them. And people end up getting rewarded for a very
1:34.4	particular kind of reaction or perspective that they muster over and over and over again.
1:41.3	And it's the seat they're supposed to occupy on the TV panel.
	...

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