Arthur C Brooks Audiobooks

The Meaning of Your Life: a think tank president turned scholar of the good life

1 audiobook reviewed

Who is Arthur C Brooks?

Arthur C. Brooks, born in 1964, is an American author and academic with an unusual double career behind him: he ran one of Washington’s most prominent think tanks before turning to the study of the good life. He served as the eleventh president of the American Enterprise Institute, then moved to Harvard in 2019, where he holds professorships of practice at both the Kennedy School and the Business School.

He has written thirteen books, and the recent titles map his territory precisely: From Strength to Strength, on finding success, happiness and deep purpose in the second half of life, and Build the Life You Want, on the art and science of getting happier, co-written with Oprah Winfrey. He is also a columnist for The Free Press, a CBS News contributor and host of the podcast Office Hours with Arthur Brooks.

Arthur C Brooks in audiobooks

The Meaning of Your Life is the Brooks title in our catalogue, and the name places it squarely in the territory he has made his own: happiness, purpose and what a life is actually for. Brooks writes as an academic who has chosen to be useful, which is rarer than it sounds, and the material sits naturally in audio – these are ideas meant to be turned over on a walk rather than annotated at a desk.

He is a podcast host as well as a professor, so the register of spoken argument comes naturally to the material. For UK listeners working through the big questions in the margins of a busy week, this is a sane and substantial place to start.