FRANK BRUNI IN CONVERSATION WITH KATIE COURIC THE OPPRESSION OLYMPICS

The din of complaint has become America’s new anthem, the blame game our national sport. We’re in thrall to our grievances — political, linguistic, social and cultural — and have lost the ability to distinguish between the greater and lesser ones, the authentic and the invented.

The world doesn’t hew precisely to your liking? An injustice must have been committed, or a conspiracy lurks in the shadows. Politicians appeal not to our better angels but to our worst impulses. Off-hand comments become micro-aggressions or anti-American screeds. No matter how minor the disappointment or frustration, outrage ensues!

In his latest book, The Age of Grievance, bestselling author and longtime New York Times columnist Frank Bruni holds a mirror up to the Oppression Olympics in which we’ve trapped ourselves — and limns the consequent erosion of civility, common ground and compromise essential to national cohesion and our very democracy.

For the launch of this searing new volume, Bruni returns to The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center to discuss how we got here, what it says about us and how we can move forward in a nation growing tired of outrage.

Frank Bruni spent more than 25 years at The New York Times as an op-ed columnist, White House correspondent, Rome bureau chief and chief restaurant critic, appearing frequently as a television commentator. Author of four New York Timesbestsellers, he is currently a professor at Duke University but continues writing his popular weekly newsletter for the Times and produces additional essays as a contributing opinion writer.

Bruni will be in conversation with Katie Couric. She was the cohost of Today, anchor of the CBS Evening News and a correspondent for 60 Minutes. She is a New York Times bestselling author of The Best Advice I Ever Got and Going There.