Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
In Conversation with David Brooks
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, editor, and TV host Jonathan Capehart on growing up, coming out, finding his voice, battles lost and won, and the path to a meaningful life
Before meeting with success as a journalist, Jonathan Capehart struggled with his identity. Capehart grew up without his father and, as a child, lived with his mother in New Jersey and spent his summers living with relatives in North Carolina. Whether in the North or the South, Capehart had to contend with being told he was too smart or not smart enough, too black or not black enough. His was a struggle to identify and become.
Yet Here I Am takes us along Capehart’s journey, from his years at Carleton College, where he learns to embrace his identity as a gay, black man surrounded by a likeminded community; to his decision to come out to his family, risking rejection; and finally, his move to New York City and where he landed his first break in television news. Capehart, gaining confidence, eventually found his singular voice – as a writer, editor, and broadcaster – and used it to propel himself and the causes of others. Indeed, it was his voice that helped him find his place in the world, contemplating the complexities of race, place, reporting, and home. Honest and endearing, Yet Here I Am is an inspirational memoir of identity, opportunity, and purpose.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart is anchor of The Saturday Show and The Sunday Show on MSNBC. In the spring, he will become a co-host of the morning edition of The Weekend on MSNBC. Capehart is Associate Editor at the Washington Post, where he is also an opinion writer. He is also an analyst on The PBS News Hour. Capehart was deputy editorial page editor of the New York Daily News (2002-2004) and served on its editorial board (1993-2000). His editorial campaign in 1999 to save the Apollo Theater earned the board the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing.
David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times and a contributor to The Atlantic. He is a commentator on “The PBS Newshour." His latest book is “How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.” His previous three books were “The Second Mountain,” “The Road to Character,” and “The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement,” all #1 New York Times bestsellers.
The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast.
Recorded May 22, 2025
Facebook: facebook.com/authorevents
Instagram: instagram.com/flpauthorevents
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The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees.
In Conversation with David Brooks
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, editor, and TV host Jonathan Capehart on growing up, coming out, finding his voice, battles lost and won, and the path to a meaningful life
Before meeting with success as a journalist, Jonathan Capehart struggled with his identity. Capehart grew up without his father and, as a child, lived with his mother in New Jersey and spent his summers living with relatives in North Carolina. Whether in the North or the South, Capehart had to contend with being told he was too smart or not smart enough, too black or not black enough. His was a struggle to identify and become.
Yet Here I Am takes us along Capehart’s journey, from his years at Carleton College, where he learns to embrace his identity as a gay, black man surrounded by a likeminded community; to his decision to come out to his family, risking rejection; and finally, his move to New York City and where he landed his first break in television news. Capehart, gaining confidence, eventually found his singular voice – as a writer, editor, and broadcaster – and used it to propel himself and the causes of others. Indeed, it was his voice that helped him find his place in the world, contemplating the complexities of race, place, reporting, and home. Honest and endearing, Yet Here I Am is an inspirational memoir of identity, opportunity, and purpose.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart is anchor of The Saturday Show and The Sunday Show on MSNBC. In the spring, he will become a co-host of the morning edition of The Weekend on MSNBC. Capehart is Associate Editor at the Washington Post, where he is also an opinion writer. He is also an analyst on The PBS News Hour. Capehart was deputy editorial page editor of the New York Daily News (2002-2004) and served on its editorial board (1993-2000). His editorial campaign in 1999 to save the Apollo Theater earned the board the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing.
David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times and a contributor to The Atlantic. He is a commentator on “The PBS Newshour." His latest book is “How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.” His previous three books were “The Second Mountain,” “The Road to Character,” and “The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement,” all #1 New York Times bestsellers.
The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast.
Recorded May 22, 2025
Facebook: facebook.com/authorevents
Instagram: instagram.com/flpauthorevents
Twitter/X: https://x.com/authorevents
The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees.
