In the debut episode of The Permanent Questions With David Brooks, David speaks with the philosopher Meghan Sullivan about perhaps the most important question of them all: How should we live our lives? Sullivan is a co-author of The Good Life Method, based on a popular course she teaches at Notre Dame. Leading a good life, she argues, means not just maximizing our positive impact in the world, but cultivating virtue within our own souls. Along the way, David and Sullivan discuss Iris Murdoch, finding bliss at CVS, and exercising our philosophical muscles before life slaps us in the face.

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