![Aif23 Brooks David](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/2becd200-c016-432f-bee9-a259185df1aa/AIF23_Brooks_David.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=0%2C300%2C2698%2C2699&w=290)
David Brooks
Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times; Chair, Weave: The Social Fabric Project, The Aspen Institute
David Brooks is a columnist at The New York Times, a writer for The Atlantic, and a commentator on the “PBS Newshour.” He also teaches at the University of Chicago. Brooks co-founded and chairs Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute, where he was previously executive director. He has also taught at Yale and Duke universities, was a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, held several posts at The Wall Street Journal, and reported for The Washington Times and the City News Bureau, a wire service in Chicago. Brooks is the author of five books, most recently “The Second Mountain” and “How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.”
Previously
![World On Fire: The Root Causes of Populism, Authoritarianism and The Whole Global Mess](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4700f9bb-c301-465b-8b69-e45f7b40c4c4/53821548735_330bf43d6d_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
Right-wing populism is surging worldwide, in places as diverse as India, the Netherlands, Argentina, France and the United States. What are the cultural and social forces driv...
![Afternoon of Conversation](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/89764a1a-d4bd-4ca0-bb46-b239119226d9/53818667431_6ca5053c6e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C430%2C8256%2C4644&w=400)
Part 1. The Disruptors: Two of Silicon Valley’s most innovative founders also share a tight friendship. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has transformed how people travel, host and ex...
![The Question of Happiness](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/466d2aa3-f782-4de2-8e55-9d035f0d8f07/u.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C339%2C4651%2C2618&w=400)
From the ancients to our forefathers to our modern-day achievement-obsessed culture, the question of what makes us happy continues to perplex. Why are we eternally fascinated...
![Generosity: Revitalizing Democracy Together](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/00af454b-3f7b-4021-b1b4-eca1342379bc/53816511741_3decd3b834_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C165%2C5045%2C2838&w=400)
The engaged citizen is democracy’s greatest asset, but many Americans are disillusioned and disengaged, and feel a loss of agency. In this focus group conversation, next-gener...
![Living Through Revolutionary Times](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/60cff82e-c3c8-4fe2-b494-02e919e39717/53814929313_3bf477bfa9_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
Revolutions in technology, politics and economics bring progress — but they also invite backlash. Fareed Zakaria discusses the rise of the modern republic through the Industri...
![What Does It Mean to Be a Better Person?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/f001a8cd-8d10-403b-8c46-b4dacf6f6a20/53012771048_8f4b956737_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C5919%2C3333&w=400)
In our discussions about people’s and society’s most desirable attributes, we use all these vague abstract words, like morality, virtue, and justice. But what does it actually...
![Word Wars: Wokeism and the Battle Over Language](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/aa0354d7-56a9-4dd7-9e00-f30b565b51dd/53008834432_d3ae84bcb5_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C371%2C5253%2C2958&w=400)
Language — the words we use — plays a vital role in framing and shaping public discourse, influencing our social and cultural perceptions and interactions. A linguist and cult...
![Weaving a New Social Fabric for America](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/e1688521-b01f-44a7-912a-bc02db37444b/53009083530_eea93e0cef_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C180%2C3783%2C2125&w=400)
America has a crisis of trust, but we are not hopelessly divided. David Brooks, founder of the Aspen Institute’s Weave: The Social Fabric Project, and Frederick Riley, its exe...
![All Trust is Local](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/f0df3d94-90f1-4a0e-9431-62df8b50cfb8/52183112755_0043d2afa5_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C412%2C6048%2C3406&w=400)
In America, interpersonal trust is in decline. Less than one-third of Americans agree that most people can be trusted. Events that might have brought people together, like the...
![How to Build Trust in an Age of Distrust](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/e2df547d-74fe-4141-a573-c6ddf196960e/52183567034_5122cf62e1_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=1204%2C78%2C3367%2C1892&w=400)
Join New York Times columnist and conservative political and cultural commentator David Brooks as he reflects on our deeply divided times. To build trusting relationships you...
![The Power of Speech](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/219603d6-1c85-40ba-abce-ff77eface4d8/52181378152_5416a88b0e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=972%2C0%2C3019%2C1704&w=400)
Our country is in the midst of a heated debate about the limits of free speech — and it manifests in a number of contexts. How should the problem of hate speech be resolved, e...
![Life Will Break Your Heart](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null29ebafa8-b092-425d-aa52-a5edf2c5df1d/48153048597_a690fa35c9_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C67%2C4000%2C2252&w=400)
Kate Bowler, a young scholar of Christianity, had just written a book called Blessed, about the Christian idea that good things happen to good people, when she was diagnosed w...
![The ZIP Code Reality: Where You Live Matters](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullaaddf886-4b7b-49e2-96d4-6ecc2ecfdd57/48152934682_722045eacf_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C13%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
Not only is the way we work rapidly changing, the atlas of where we work — from coasts, to states, to counties — is increasingly studied and interpreted. Sixty percent of net...
![Repairing America's Social Fabric, One Community at a Time](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulle4d714b7-9f0e-48a9-acd9-8c88ba7a5469/48145032386_a09f6b88d7_h1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C15%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
Our country’s social fabric is badly frayed by distrust, division and exclusion. But across America, people are quietly working to end loneliness and isolation and weave toget...
![The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulle2ac6c14-0d27-4c6e-a03b-2ca49620f44f/48146445867_da73611009_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1599%2C900&w=400)
During a personal low point of loneliness and pain, David Brooks wanted to write his way to a better life. For five years, he did just that, researching and writing about peop...
![Collective Impact: What Is It and Why Is Everyone (Still) Talking About It?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null9066cfc5-b3ae-4a60-b7c0-603eef9c8915/Collective-Impact-aif19.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C2560%2C1441&w=400)
Complex social problems require solutions that brings together key actors from different sectors working on a common agenda. Collective impact provides an approach for tacklin...
![Weave Your Community: A Workshop](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null275ebbd3-c80f-478c-a7e3-e704db599ba7/48127089583_b889a4c072_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C82%2C1600%2C900&w=400)
“Weavers” are a diverse group of Americans who are making quiet yet extraordinary efforts to strengthen the communities in which they live. Each of these leaders is taking on...
![Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Health Care Human Again](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null27531ee0-45c6-4923-834e-e37462986156/48120959681_9bd479cf56_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C66%2C3553%2C1999&w=400)
In his new book, Deep Medicine, Eric Topol – cardiologist, geneticist, digital medicine researcher – claims that artificial intelligence can put the humanity back into medicin...
![Aspen Ideas: Health Closing Session](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null25bb6b19-352d-44c7-9d47-c05bf458b7d0/48121085872_00774bad63_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C83%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
A conversation with Senator Bill Cassidy (Interviewer: Elizabeth Cohen) A conversation with David Brooks and Marc Freedman (Moderator: Jonathan Capehart) A conversatio...
![Aspen Ideas Festival Opening](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null71f39932-7943-4c8f-ab90-949e1a4c854b/48122154017_d9643013ff_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C166%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
![Can Corporations Take the Lead in Growing Healthy Communities?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null3c1bcec9-1814-4e4e-a0a7-2115f4b12c0a/Lynda_Resnick_AIH19.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1920%2C1080&w=400)
Join Lynda Resnick, vice chair and co-owner of The Wonderful Company, in conversation with New York Times columnist David Brooks to discuss The Wonderful Company’s efforts to...
![Undocumented Citizen: An American Story](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/e60a728a-075c-4b57-acd1-dfde0315779d/42353418434_42b2137196_o1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C125%2C3000%2C1688&w=400)
What does it mean to be American, and how is that story best told and understood? New York Times columnist David Brooks sits down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and un...
![With Honor: Can Veterans Help Bridge Our Political Divides?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a0f45597-b6ca-47f9-ab7a-3a78d73a4bb4/43022841142_88f02e8587_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=406%2C323%2C6314%2C3553&w=400)
America is at a critical and potentially existential moment. Tribal polarization is at an all-time high. Yet veteran representation in Congress is at an all-time low. Veterans...
![Afternoon of Conversation](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/87b70fad-0d96-4044-af48-c1587494a31a/29200985798_8a4509f12e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C229%2C6720%2C3782&w=400)
For our annual signature event in the Benedict Music Tent, the 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival hosts former secretary of state John Kerry in a candid conversation about geopolitics...
![Shared Language: Arts in the Public Square](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/3892038a-9c1f-457c-8aa2-092e65cdccdb/42304751634_5320935820_o1.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C8256%2C4646&w=400)
How do the arts of poetry, painting, journalism, fashion, architecture, television foster social justice?
![The Cultural Revolution We Need: How America Will Turn Itself Around](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/07bd6f75-3fbd-4c7f-b639-03a1ba02a4db/28157276287_7812e75775_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=469%2C531%2C5782%2C3251&w=400)
The forces of division have been tearing America's social fabric for decades. But a new coalition of community builders with a new set of beliefs is rising to turn things arou...
![Something Important Is Dying: Reclaiming the Democratic Virtues of Moderation, Civility, and Compromise](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null10e44a42-e18f-47f1-b6a7-bf45043aed42/35562510281_797828dc5f_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
Beneath the tumble of day-to-day politics — the anger and crude attacks, the polarization and zero-sum thinking — vital democratic legacies are being squandered. To rebuild th...
![2017 Closing Session](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/065132fa-aba0-4158-9115-a0531648dfff/35307448340_ea206ce65d_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C140%2C6720%2C3780&w=400)
![The Second Mountain: The Next Big Challenge in Your Life](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a6764bce-b848-468d-b8c3-345ad388f9da/34808903784_ea9a16bf11_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C6720%2C3782&w=400)
After you've achieved success, what comes next?
![How to Live a Moral Life](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/28f7d9a7-ad81-4163-a03b-40d80ab61b83/35554143146_511e1e21d3_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=376%2C0%2C3613%2C2030&w=400)
Ideas about living a moral life can be found in all cultures across time. In previous eras, education was meant to inculcate personal virtue and shape character. In centuries...
![Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/7950be16-c580-4d58-b037-d6e3c92079ab/35422886262_a669349979_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C251%2C4006%2C2251&w=400)
The Rev. Adam Hamilton, who ministers to nearly 20,000 Methodists in and around Kansas City, is determined to mollify the deep divisions that he observes in his congregation a...
![The Four Commitments: The Choices That Create Your Life](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/c8e10d10-31e9-42b9-bf37-cdda40b0f9aa/27427314114_59a9008901_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C7360%2C4135&w=400)
A successful life usually depends on making four major commitments: to a spouse or family, a faith or philosophy, a community, and a vocation. But how do we choose what we wil...
![Job as Vocation: Finding Meaning in Our Work](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null4b5ef0a1-1dc7-47d4-beb6-53b9747b2443/27943320481_995c694d8e_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C169%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
The average American will spend a third of his or her life working. What is the secret to achieving happiness because of our work and not in spite of it? How can we make a job...
![Nudging: How Behavioral Science Conquered the World](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null160506aa-5339-48f1-8b7f-85579bbba930/29514488366_de0b252e08_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C94%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
Those who study human behavior have learned that simply by encouraging—or “nudging”—individuals toward the right decisions for themselves, dramatic improvements can be made. C...
![A City as Start-Up: Zappos and Downtown Project](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/ed6a79ca-8512-44c2-ad77-b16c917cc830/9173267253_2e749d2766_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C31%2C4928%2C2769&w=400)
Culture is to a company as community is to a city: it's about values, innovation, serendipity, participation, upward mobility, and attraction of smart startups and the creativ...
Resources
The Road to Character
With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous bestsellers...