David Brooks Leaves Times for Yale Fellowship
After 22 years at the New York Times, the columnist will become a Presidential Senior Fellow at Yale Jackson School, launching public conversations and a new podcast.
David Brooks, the New York Times columnist who spent 22 years as the paper’s resident interpreter of American culture and politics, is coming to Connecticut.
Brooks has accepted a five-year appointment as a Presidential Senior Fellow at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, the university announced Wednesday. His tenure begins February 1.
The role marks a return to New Haven for Brooks, who previously served as a Senior Fellow at Jackson from 2012 to 2018 and again from 2021 to 2022. This time, the position carries expanded responsibilities and a higher profile.
As part of Yale’s new Presidential Senior Fellowship program, Brooks will convene campus conversations and develop public-facing programming. The university said his work will focus on fostering respectful debate, engaging diverse perspectives, and connecting Yale scholarship to broader public conversations.
Brooks will also join The Atlantic as a staff writer, making the magazine the home for all his future writing. He plans to host a new weekly video podcast launching this spring. The podcast, supported by Yale, will feature academics and experts discussing fundamental questions in the humanist tradition, from the meaning of life to the nature of democracy.
His final day at the Times will be in mid-February, though he has promised to continue contributing to the Opinion section occasionally.
In announcing his departure, the Times described Brooks as someone who occupied “a singular role” as “our resident cartographer of the American soul.” His commentary often blended sociology and moral philosophy with political analysis.
The appointment represents a significant addition to Yale’s public intellectual presence in Connecticut. While Brooks will maintain his national platform through The Atlantic, his day-to-day work will center on the New Haven campus.
For Connecticut readers who follow national media and academic discourse, Brooks becomes one of the state’s most prominent public voices on questions of culture, politics, and democratic renewal.