Strength to Strength

As we start to approach middle age (or beyond), how do we think about our vocation and purpose? Should our sense of mission change? What should we do to equip ourselves for a joyful, purposeful, and meaningful second half?

Arthur Brooks joined us to discuss ideas in his latest book Strength to Strength, which weaves together philosophy and research on human flourishing to illuminate the inescapable fact of change as we grow older — and to offer practical guidance on flourishing in new stages of life:

“I can tell you that if you boil the ocean of 10,000 research articles, you’ll find the happiest people, they pursue four things every day. Faith, family, friendship, and work that serves others. In other words, love, love, love. And more love.”

Friendship, crystalized intelligence, and the beatific vision

This conversation is rich in reflections on achievement, the way our intelligence changes as we age, the importance of making and sustaining real friendships, and how pondering our own mortality can lead to greater joy.

Our podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation from February, 2022. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.

Learn more about Arthur Brooks.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Love Your Enemies, by Arthur Brooks
From Strength to Strength, by Arthur Brooks
Summa Theologica, by Thomas Aquinas
The Nicomachean Ethics, by Aristotle
The Dalai Lama
The Apostle Paul
St. Augustine
David Foster Wallace
Abraham Maslow

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

On Happiness, by Thomas Aquinas
On Friendship, by Cicero
Two Old men, by Leo Tolstoy
How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Leo Tolstoy
Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl

Related Conversations:

Strength in the Second Half with Arthur Brooks
Cultivating a Life of Learning with Zena Hitz
Being, Living, and Dying Well with Lydia Dugdale
Hope, Heartbreak, and Meaning with Kate Bowler
The Burden of Living and the and the Goodness of God with Alan Noble
All the Lonely People with Ryan Streeter and Francie Broghammer

To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.