Audiobooks narrated by David Brooks

How To Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

Brought to you by Penguin. A practical, heartfelt guide to the art of truly knowing another person in order to foster deeper connections at home, at work, and throughout our lives-from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Road to Character and The Second Mountain If you are going to care for someone, you must first understand them. If you're going to hire, marry, or befriend someone, you have to be able to see them. If you are going to work closely with someone, you have to be able to make them feel recognized and valued. As David Brooks observes, 'The older I get, the more I come to the certainty that there is one skill at the center of any healthy family, company, classroom, community or nation: the ability to see each other, to know other people, to make them feel valued, heard and understood.' And yet we humans don't do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us to do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us. If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them? What kind of conversations should you have? What parts of a person's story should you pay attention to? Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience, and from the worlds of theatre, history, and education, to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection. How to Know a Person helps readers become more understanding and considerate towards others; it helps readers find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception. The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is a profoundly creative act: How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves? How to Know a Person is for anyone searching for connection, seeking to understand and yearning to be understood. ©2023 David Brooks (P)2023 Penguin Audio

David Brooks (Author), David Brooks (Narrator)

Audiobook

Morality in the 21st Century: A BBC Radio 4 Philosophy and Ethics Series

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks speaks to the world's leading thinkers about morality today In this fascinating series Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks explores what morality means, speaking with globally renowned thinkers, as well as voices from the next generation. From Steven Pinker and Robert Putnam to Melinda Gates and Jordan Peterson, the guests discuss the free market and the financial crash, selfies and social media, individuals and tribalism, artificial intelligence, role models, and rediscovering politics of the common good. With each topic, Rabbi Sacks also talks with teenagers from Manchester, London and Hertfordshire about how they engage with moral questions, and what they see as the greatest moral struggles that Generation Z will face. Production credits Presented by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Producer: Dan Tierney Series Editor: Christine Morgan First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 3-7 September 2018 Episode 1: Responsibility How can we pursue our own interests without feeling vulnerable and isolated? With Jordan Peterson, Noreena Hertz, and Michael Sandel. Episode 2: Jordan Peterson Rabbi Jonathan Sacks speaks to Jordan Peterson, professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, and discusses how moral codes are formed. Episode 3: Noreena Hertz Noreena Hertz, economist, author and broadcaster, gives her verdict on the current state of capitalism and explores the failure of markets to deliver moral outcomes. Episode 4: The Selfie Generation How does a culture of selfies impact the way we live our lives? With Jean Twenge, Professor of psychology at San Diego State University, and David Brooks, political and social commentator and author. Episode 5: Jean Twenge Rabbi Sacks meets with Jean Twenge to explore why children with higher internet usage seem to have the lowest outcomes for happiness, resilience and tolerance. Episode 6: David Brooks David Brooks, the New York Times columnist, shares with Rabbi Sacks his thoughts on how individualism has gone too far. Episode 7: Is Society a Myth? What happens when we move from 'we're all in this together' to 'I'm free to be myself'? With Jonathan Haidt, Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University, and Robert Putnam, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. Episode 8: Jonathan Haidt Rabbi Sacks talks to Jonathan Haidt, who is concerned about the destructive forms of tribalism in society today. Episode 9: Robert Putnam Why have social bonds collapsed in America, and what does that mean for the rest of the world? Rabbi Sacks and Robert Putnam discuss the importance of social capital. Episode 10: Artificial Intelligence How can humans continue to choose our fate in a world of AI? With Mustafa Suleyman, Co-founder and Head of Applied AI at DeepMind, and Nick Bostrom, Philosophy Professor at the University of Oxford. Episode 11: Mustafa Suleyman Rabbi Jonathan Sacks speaks to Mustafa Suleyman at one of the world's leading innovators in Artificial Intelligence, and explores the biggest moral questions around AI. Episode 12: Nick Bostrom In a further examination of the moral challenges of AI, Rabbi Sacks talks again with Nick Bostrom, who was one of the first to warn of the dangers of 'superintelligence'. Episode 13: Moral Heroes Who are the role models of the next generation, and do they provide hope for a better, more ethical and more responsible world? With Steven Pinker, Melinda Gates, Michael Sandel, and Jordan Peterson. Episode 14: Steven Pinker and Melinda Gates Rabbi Sacks meets with Steven Pinker to hear his reasons for hope for a better world, and with Melinda Gates to explore the motivations for her philanthropy. Episode 15: Michael Sandel In the final episode, Rabbi Sacks and the world-renowned political philosopher Michael Sandel discuss how we can return to a politics of the common good. © 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

Jonathan Sacks (Author), David Brooks, Jonathan Sacks, Jordan Peterson, Melinda Gates, Mustafa Suleyman, Norrena Hertz, Steven Pinker, Various (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Road to Character

Penguin presents the unabridged downloadable, audiobook edition of The Road to Character by David Brooks, read by Arthur Morey and David Brooks. #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In The Road to Character David Brooks, best-selling author of The Social Animal and New York Times columnist, explains why selflessness leads to greater success We all possess two natures. One focuses on external success: wealth, fame, status and a great career. The other aims for internal goodness, driven by a spiritual urge not only to do good but to be good - honest, loving and steadfast. The inner self doesn't seek happiness superficially defined; it seeks emotional commitments without counting the cost, and a deeper moral joy. Individuals and societies thrive when a general balance is struck between these two imperatives, but we live in a culture that encourages us to think about the external side of our natures rather than the inner self. We hanker for praise instead of following our hearts, and we self-promote rather than confront our weaknesses. In this urgent and eye-opening book, David Brooks asks us to confront the meaning of true fulfilment. A famous columnist for The New York Times and best-selling author, Brooks found himself living in a shallow mode. For years, he remained focused on getting ahead and reaping the rewards for his efforts, placing his career before his character. Finding himself at a crossroads, Brooks sought out men and women who embodied the moral courage he longed to experience. Citing an array of history's greatest thinkers and leaders - from St. Augustine and George Eliot to Dwight Eisenhower and Samuel Johnson - he traces how they were able to face their weaknesses and transcend their flaws. Each one of them chose to embrace one simple but counterintuitive truth: in order to fulfil yourself, you must learn how to forget yourself. An elegant interweaving of politics, spirituality and psychology, The Road to Character proves that it is how we want to be remembered - and not what we put on our CVs - that truly matters.

David Brooks (Author), Arthur Morey, David Brooks (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Road to Character

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST • I wrote this book not sure I could follow the road to character, but I wanted at least to know what the road looks like and how other people have trodden it.David Brooks With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous bestsellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In The Social Animal, he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in The Road to Character, he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives. Responding to what he calls the culture of the Big Me, which emphasizes external success, Brooks challenges us, and himself, to rebalance the scales between our résumé virtuesachieving wealth, fame, and status and our eulogy virtues,those that exist at the core of our being: kindness, bravery, honesty, or faithfulness, focusing on what kind of relationships we have formed. Looking to some of the world's greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so that she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender. Civil rights pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust oneself even while waging a noble crusade. Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, The Road to Character provides an opportunity for us to rethink our priorities, and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth. Joy,David Brooks writes, is a byproduct experienced by people who are aiming for something else. But it comes."Praise for The Road to CharacterA hyper-readable, lucid, often richly detailed human story.The New York Times Book Review David Brooks the New York Times columnist and PBS commentator whose measured calm gives punditry a good name offers the building blocks of a meaningful life.Washingtonian This profound and eloquent book is written with moral urgency and philosophical elegance.Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon The voice of the book is calm, fair and humane. The highlight of the material is the quality of the author's moral and spiritual judgments.The Washington Post A powerful, haunting book that works its way beneath your skin.The Guardian (U.K.) This learned and engaging book brims with pleasures.NewsdayOriginal and eye-opening . . . At his best, Brooks is a normative version of Malcolm Gladwell, culling from a wide array of scientists and thinkers to weave an idea bigger than the sum of its parts.USA TodayThere is something affecting in the diligence with which Brooks seeks a cure for his self-diagnosed shallowness by plumbing the depths of others.Rebecca Mead, The New YorkerFrom the Hardcover edition.

David Brooks (Author), Arthur Morey, David Brooks (Narrator)

Audiobook

Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There

It used to be pretty easy to distinguish between the bourgeois world of capitalism and the bohemian counterculture. The bourgeois worked for corporations, wore gray, and went to church. The bohemians were artists and intellectuals. Bohemians championed the values of the liberated 1960s; the bourgeois were the enterprising yuppies of the 1980s. But now the bohemian and the bourgeois are all mixed up, as David Brooks explains in this brilliant description of upscale culture in America. It is hard to tell an espresso-sipping professor from a cappuccino-gulping banker. Laugh and sob as you read about the information age economy's new dominant class. Marvel at their attitudes toward morality, sex, work, and lifestyle, and at how the members of this new elite have combined the values of the countercultural sixties with those of the achieving eighties. These are the people who set the tone for society today, for you. They are bourgeois bohemians: Bobos. Are you a Bobo? - Do you believe that spending $15,000 on a media center is vulgar, but that spending $15,000 on a slate shower stall is a sign that you are at one with the Zenlike rhythms of nature? - Does your newly renovated kitchen look like an aircraft hangar with plumbing? Did you select your new refrigerator on the grounds that mere freezing isn't cold enough? - Would you spend a little more for socially conscious toothpaste -- the kind that doesn't actually kill germs, it just asks them to leave? - Do you work for one of those hip, visionary software companies where everybody comes to work in hiking boots and glacier glasses, as if a 400-foot wall of ice were about to come sliding through the parking lot? - Do you think your educational credentials are just as good as those of the shimmering couples on the New York Times weddings page? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you are probably a member of today's new upper class. Even if you didn't, you'd still better pay attention, because these Bobos define our age. Their hybrid culture is the atmosphere we breathe. Their status codes govern social life, and their moral codes govern ethics and influence our politics. Bobos in Paradise is a witty and serious look at the cultural consequences of the information age and a penetrating description of how we live now.

David Brooks (Author), David Brooks (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by David Brooks