tavis: good evening from los angeles. i'm tavis smiley. first up tonight, a conversation with best-selling author david brooks. his latest text sa unique look of what makes us who we are. the new book is called "the social animal." also blair underwood is here. he's backs on nbc right now in the series "the event." david brooks and blair underwood coming up, right now. >> all i know is his name is james and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i'm james. >> yes. >> to everyone taking a difference, you help us all live better.

>> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literally and remove obstacles to literacy. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: david brooks is a widely read columnist from "new york times," he's also a best-selling author which his latest text is called "the social animal: the hidden sources of love, character and achievement." david brooks, it's great to

have you on this show. >> great to be with you. tavis: the book is about this notion about who we are to a great deal determined by these complex workings in our unconscious minds. tell me more. >> we're living in the middle of a scientific revolution an array of spheres peering into the mind and figuring out what's going on in the mind. some of the things are trivial. people that are named dennis are disproportion natly become dentist. laura will become lawyer. some of the things are kind of important, how we relate to people, how we scan the world. one of the things we find in the first 18 monlts how that child is with her mother is how she will deal with her teacher.

they will look at if they're going to graduate. pathways are open up. there's so much happening not only how we shop but who achieve, who doesn't. it really gives us a view of who we are and how we see the world. tavis: a different view of who we are and seeing the world but what does it really mean? what i'm suggesting by that is the fact of who we are is done or created unconsciously now that we know that, that impacts in what ways? >> a couple things, first of all, we see relationships more. we have tean den si to look at individuals when we should be looking at relationships. the second thing is we have this story of how you achieve. and people emphasize getting good grades, getting good

s.a.t. scores. where does character come from. and we're sort of confused sometimes when we talk about emotions. we think emotions are to d distrusted but sometimes your emotions are phenomly smart. most of the process goes under your brain and on the underside of your consciousness. so in a very practical sense if you're having trouble making up you're mind on a subject one of the things you can do is flip a coin and tell yourself you're going to go with whatever the coin flip tells you. don't go with the coin flip, go to the emotional coin flip. are you happy or sad it came that way? because deep down you've made a discovery yourself and you just haven't told your conscious mind about it. another thing is how to judge somebody's temperament. say you're dating someone. one of the things you can do is come up behind them and startle them. the startle response tells you about what that person's

temperament is like. are they angry or do they laugh it off. and that tells you how people are like deep down. i really think in sphere after sphere of life whether it's politics or business, we have an official story of we think we behind. these are forces we're only vaguely aware of. tavis: tell me more about the struggle then between our unconscious and being conscientious because unless you're going to disabuse me of this notion, i'm starting to wonder why i have values? what morals are all about? if it's all consciously then why behave in a conscientious way? >> your unconscious mind has certain strength. my newspaper did a story about this. they could look at a street and they could tell when there was a bomb on the street. they didn't know how they did it. they had instincts.

they felt coal. in some ways it's not perceptive and you have to consciously be aware of your own weaknesses. so for example, mest of us have a tendency to be overconfident, to overestimate what we can do. so 96% of college professors believe they're above average in teaching skills. "time" magazine asked americans are you the top 1% of earners. 19% said we're the top 1%. we tend to exaggerate. men drown 10 times more than women because we think we're really good swimmers. if you're aware of this inner bias -- we all have our own biases. if you're aware of that you can correct yourself, you can approach life with a sense of modesty. peter drucker the great management theorist had a great

modesty device. whenever you make a decision, write it down, seal it on an envelope and open it nine months later, you'll see 1/3 were right. and a 1/3 were wrong, and a 1/3 were in the middle. you go through life protecting for your own ignorance. that's an example of using reason to check up on your intuitions. tavis: i want to ask you how this aficts the research about unconscious how this affects two issues. number one, professor chua kicked up a firestorm with the book "tiger mom." i saw a piece by the way that you wrote about her and her work. what is all of this research say about the way that we parent? >> right. so first of all, i always like to emphasize this, it's not my

research, the scientists and the neuro scientists are the real heroes. i'm just sort of reporting on what they're doing. my reaction to the book was that she thinks she's really -- being really demanding of her kids when she makes them do her homework, makes them do the violin lessons. if you want something cognitive really demanding, send your daughter to a sleepover with a bunch of over 14-year-old girls, the social relationships and the politics of that are very complicated very hard to navigate. most of what our brains are built for is relating to each other. when i made this line about the sleepover with 14-year-old girls, steven cobear put my head on top of a 14-year-old. i imagine and i know about social relationships and

they're really difficult, take a lot of brain power to figure it out. tavis: how can this or how should this -- you tell me -- but how can or how should this research impact the way we go about social policy in this country? >> it really grew out of that for me. i'm not naturally doing this but i found it so important. we senta economists into russia, but we were oblivious that the russians lack social trust. in iraq we sent the military and our leaders were oblivious do the social and psychological complexities. most jermaine we spent 30 or -- germ jer -- germane i found a lot of the things that cribbed

to that decision happen in the first few years in live and happen to the emotional relationship. does a kid know how to relate to the teach sner does a kid feel an emotional attachment to school? does a kid have an emotional connection to their future? it was that issue that took me into this whole area. a lot of it is focusing on what's happening in the first few years of life. tavis: it's not the first or last time you'll be squd ask out of -- question asked out of left field. >> i interview president obama. i think he's complicated person. i would say i think he's

conducting himself with an honor and integrity that is inspiring and they have open debates in the white house. i would say i see many, many different sides to president obama. he's a very complicated. he's always self-regarding and looking at himself. that's one of the first reasons his book was so brilliant because he has this ability. the good side of that is he's able to self-correct and form opinions on himself. i would say the down side than often it's hard and one doesn't see this administration committing totally saying we want that and we're totally committed to that. i think in some cases once you see him leading from the back, i sometimes think there's a little less passion than there could be, a little less simple drive to get something done. tavis: sounds to me a tweaking a bit of this notion "erge to

merge." >> yeah, well, we have all this desire to get closer than others. bill clinton had it pretty openly. president obama had a little less openly. but he's a good people person. tavis: david brooks is a good person too. his new book is called "social animal: the hidden source of love, character and achievement." of course we read him every day on the "new york times." thanks for being with us. >> it's good to be here. tavis: blair underwood next. stay with us. always pleased to welcome blair underwood in addition to his role in the nbc primtime drama "the event." he stars in "i will follow" from the african-american film festival releasing movement. here's a scene from the show than airs on nbc monday nights at 9:00 called "the event."

>> unfortunately senator, all i can tell you is it's a matter of national security. >> those two words are so overused. and your government has been able to rid them of any meaning. and in the process this made the country less secure. >> senator, you've held public office for all of two weeks. you weren't even elected. you want to be outraged, your state has the highest unemployment in the country, the highest obesity. why don't you have the next 90 days to relieve those people and leave national security with those with actual credentials. the next time you question my authority i will eviscerate yours. tavis: what's up with all these negros playing a president? >> you know what, i was doing an interview the other day -- that's how they look at america -- y'all always have black

presidents on tv. yeah, 400 years later. that's how that works. defensive what did you make of the fact that here we are 400 years late we are an african-american president and now all these television roles have opened up where you can play president? >> it's great. i did a film called "deep impact" where morgan freeman played the president -- tavis: it was on cable the other night. >> so many questions were, do you think we will ever see a black president? it's a fantasy. to see that, and it opens up a whole other world for actors to play and we've seen the portrayal but now that it is a reality, it's not a leap at all. tavis: i don't know how much fun the actual president is. how much fun are you having playing one? >> i get all the love. you couldn't pay me enough. tavis: the back story is to the series --

>> well, to the series, it's called "the event." it deals with a couple of hundred people who have been in prison for 66 years. when he comes to be president, he wants to release them. we found out they're nonhuman. they lived here before. they're not taking over. they're taking it back. that's the biggest quandary right now because as leader of the free world, people are trying to take over the country, you know what i'm saying? tavis: you've had a long -- my word not yours, long standing. you've come back a few times to nbc. how does that work? how do you -- how does a network fall in love with you so much so that over the course of your career literally you keep finding these projects where you end up on that network? blair's done so many things for nbc. >> i don't know, man, every time i came back it was a different regime. but you're right, the cosby show and l.a. law.

and now "the event." i don't know, i think it's almost coincidence if you believe in coincidence. i don't necessarily believe that, fate, destiny but i'm just glad to be working. of course, i'm glad to be working -- i'm glad to have a job. i'm glad to have a job in doing something i love and i'm excited about. the great thing about playing the president is any time that character comes on screen the takes are high. actors love that. tavis: yeah. we've known each other for many years. >> 28. tavis: 25, 28 years we've known each other. does the struggle get any easier? when you said "you're glad to be working." there are moments you've been working, other times where you weren't seeing as much. does the struggle get easier? is it worth going through the up and down to do what you're doing? >> always going through the up and down. i'll say it gets easier, never simple to do but it gets easier

only because what i've learned throughout the year is to diverse fy. daryl miller, my attorney said years ago to me that he done this unofficial on the wealthiest people on america and he realized that they have at least seven revenue streams. once that clicked on my head, i realized that acting was one thing that i love, it's a passion. but it's just one thing i did. i started diversifying, directing, books, speaking engagements, as long as not that stressed. i have family and other responsibilities. there are other ways to make sure they're taking care of. it alleviates a lot of that stress. tavis: speaking of diversify, i've been anxious to talk about this project called "i will follow." i want you to tell me all about this. i want to play a clip. it so happens where we've been

on the week that we've been on the news. and i've had this conversation with another black actor anthony macie about some comments that were a bit controversial. i happened to be next in line to talk to him. i asked him about this issue of blacks in hollywood on this program. and his comments came on the heels of the "new york times" piece about the lack of black folks at the academy awards. forest whitaker had a comment. i want to get your take on why it's important to get this project "i will follow." here's what macie had to say to me. >> we have more black people graduating from college. we have a black president. so who are we and what are the storys that we're going to tell to represent ourselfs? because we're no longer gang banging drug deerls and we're not socialites but what are we? if we don't tell those stories then we can't expect someone

else to tell that for us. tavis: tell us about the wonderful project "i will follow." >> the bigger journey for us as people has become much more challenging. listen, when i started in this game in 1985, the biggest show on television was "the cosby show" in 1985. where is that? we don't see that anymore. to his point it's so important that we create some directing, producin create our own opportunities. say what you may, i think the last time i was hear we were talking about tyler perry's film. say what you will about tyler perry but that brother puts people to work. so we can tell our story. tavis: before we get to the project about the entity, the organization that was created to birth this project --

>> this was a dear friend of ours. eva duvonay. she created this entity -- it's a firm. african-americans film festival releasing movement. you got it. tavis: ding, ding, ding, ding! >> she directed this film. it's call "i will follow," four markets, five markets, california, los angeles, new york, philadelphia, seattle. but basically she created opportunities for films to be seen. and she's coupled with black film festivals and a.m.c. theaters to be able to bring these films to our community. it's really as simple as that because if other people aren't doing it we have to do it for ourselves. and she's that person doing it for us, for now. tavis: she's not here on the set but since you have been working with her about the difficulty or the ease of

getting black folk to understand what the mission of a firm is and to sign up to be a part of these projects because back to what mackie and i were talking about this can be done. this just means we're not going to make top dollar. and we can't spent $2 million. are people buying into that? >> i think by and large because people realize if you're a creative entity and you want to work. we all want to work but especially if you're creative and theatrical, you have to express that. you have to have that conversation with yourself. it can't be about the money. it can't be about fame and fortune. really this film "i will follow" my character is almost a cameo film. this is sally richardson's film. it's about sally dealing with the death of her aunt and coming to grips with pain and grief and i play her boyfriend who's not as empthetic.

-- impathetic. yeah, these films, stories have to be told but we as an audience have to support these films. we have to show up, and give a couple of dollars to come see and we will support these films. tavis: i love the choices that you made over the course you've made for the kinds of characters that you want to play. there is also stuff you turn down that i'm aware of. in those instances where you have played a character that was not so -- i'm trying to find the right word here so kind, so gentle so upstanding in the community, was that like a conscious choice on your part? you play these characters that everybody loves all the time? how important is to get out of that and to play somebody that we hate. >> to play the nonnoble negro.

tavis: i was trying to be charitable about it. and you went right at it. >> wow, man, for me it was critical. i had done seven years of "l.a. law" which was my biggest great. i went into a film called "just cause" where the character was a serial killer and a peed -- pedophile. that opened up the doors for me to play other characters. for me it's the big picture. one of those characters i played was in "madea's family reunion." critics said, why are you doing a tyler perry movie? i did a series called " entreatment" on hbo. it was interesting to see a

black man in treatment. specifically the producer and creater of "entreatment" he said when i saw you in tyler perry's movie, i knew you could play that role. so it really set into the next big level. tavis: so bag to "the event" before my time runs out in five seconds. for those who have not seen it, what is it about the series that pulling people in? >> it's intrigue but it's high bred -- 24 and lost. political thriller, and sign fiction. tavis: and the brother is president. >> afree throw-cuban. it was conceived to -- >> afro-cuban. it was conceived to be latin. come on, you're black, how are

you going to be black? tavis: how can you be black and latin? >> brother, you'd be amazed. tavis: the show is called "the event" on nbc. blair, it's always good to have you on the show. good to see you. congratulation. that's our show for tonight. until next time, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show visit it was a smiley on pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiler. join me next time with anthony hopkins on his latest project "the rite." that's next time. we'll see you nen. -- then. >> all i know is his name is james and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i'm james. >> yes. >> to everyone making a difference -- >> thank you. >> you help us all live better.

>> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and answer, nationwide insurance is working to improve financial literacy and removing obstacles for economic empowerment one at a time. nationwide is on your sifmente >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. d

i took it into a shop once and they said-- they thought it was probably worth perhaps £100 but i ought to get it looked at by such as yourself to get a value on it. so you really would like to know the value? well, i think it is for me something that really appeals. this reminds me of when i wake up in the morning, i have a big fig tree in my garden full of birds. but of course i don't see little things like these parakeets which are absolutely, beautifully done, with their little pink cheeks. and what's so nice about this is you've got all the shading in the leaf, which is extraordinary when you think this is actually made of bronze.

it's bronze, bronze birds, bronze leaf, - cold painted. - yeah. and there's one factory that really comes to mind when you look at something like this, which is the bergman factory. now normally things like this you'd expect it to be marked. if you turn it upside down, there is a mark. and many people fall into the trap here. and all this says is "patent applied for." - oh, right. - so that's not the mark. and bergman things are very collectible. - yes. - this is-- has got all that appeal, it's got real sex appeal in my view. well, i think there are many people who would like something like this-- the vibrancy, the sheer delight of it. and a conservative estimate for this would be somewhere in the region of £1,200 to 1,500. really? gosh. that's a bit more than £100, isn't it? yes. my husband thought it was the top of a walking stick. - what do you think it's made of? - i don't know. horn, a horn of some kind.

you're right. it is a horn. that's absolutely spot-on. it looks a bit like plastic, doesn't it? but it is horn. this is actually inlaid in ivory, those pieces and stained. and it's in the form of a cicada, i think. and it's japanese. and it dates from probably the middle of the 19th century. and those two holes are the clue as to what it is. it's actually a netsuke. it's worn at the waistband like that. i think it's a very unusual and rare object. i think you wouldn't have much trouble getting around £1,000 for it. good heavens. - bit of a shock? - good heavens. well, it is a big shock. good. - thank you. - i'll look at it with different eyes. well done.