Brooks is a columnist at the New York Times and a political pundit with NPR, Meet the Press, and the PBS NewsHour. He specializes in political and cultural criticism and has written for a variety of magazines and newspapers including The Wall Street Journal. Brooks is also the author of several books on morality and socio-cultural norms, including The Road to Character, which is a “first mountain” predecessor to The Second Mountain. Other books include The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement, and Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. Brooks is also the founder of Weave, a project for enhancing social well-being. He has also served as a film reviewer with the Washington Times. He has taught occasional courses at Yale and Duke Universities and is on the Board of Trustees at the University of Chicago.

Brooks has several social and political views that make him difficult to classify, and lately, he describes himself as being politically “homeless.” For instance, he was an early conservative advocate of marriage equality, a staunch defender of the War in Iraq, a supporter of John McCain but a critic of Sarah Palin, and holds a rare moderate view on abortion.