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Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know
Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers, and why they often go wrong--now with a new afterword by the author. A Best Book of the Year: The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to one another that isn't true? Talking to Strangers is a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. In it, Malcolm Gladwell revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, and the death of Sandra Bland--throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don't know, and the resulting conflict and misunderstanding have a profound effect on our lives and our world. Now, with Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell brings us a gripping guidebook for troubled times.
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This book was not at all what I was expecting, but found it to be an interesting read with important information. I listened to the audiobook and recommend it. It was produced like a podcast with the author narrating, and clips from interviews, other audiobooks, etc. mixed in. It made for a unique "reading" experience.
0 stars. Least favorite Gladwellâs book. I always âloveâ how white people (like the author here) completely ignore the most severe tragedy, injustice and least acknowledge in the US History past or present... is that most Americans are inherently racist (most without even knowing it). Ask any brown, black, indigenous, non-white person who grew up or ever lived in the US and each one of them can tell you bucket of stories how racist white people treat us and NEVER just ONCE. Itâs amazing how Gladwell could use the injustice dead of Sandra Bland a black student who was wrongfully arrested by a white cop, treated so horribly that she killed herself 3 days later in her cell... as an example of âhow terrible we are with talking to strangersâ. The only one time he even mentioned race in the book, was when the judge asked the cop: âWould you have treated her differently if she was white?â White cop responded: âno sirâ Gladwell ends his case there. BECAUSE of course the white cop on trial was 100% telling the truth here (he walked free btw). Some parts of the book were interesting but Iâm just sick and tired of white author writing all these fancy theories without EVER acknowledging that RACE plays the biggest factor in America History and Americans Psyche! (White Trash is another garbage book that does the same thing if you want to avoid)
JFC itâs 2020 WAKE UP, stop lying to yourself that Americans arenât racist!
JFC itâs 2020 WAKE UP, stop lying to yourself that Americans arenât racist!
Such an interesting and well-written read. The vignettes, case studies, and thesis Gladwell presents are thought-provoking and cover a myriad of scenarios - spies, torture, suicidal poets, sexual abuse, police brutality and critical race theory. You won't believe how quickly you'll go through this book, and how quickly you'll start seeing the parallels in what you learn with scenarios in your own life.
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