Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know

By Malcolm Gladwell

Book Overview

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.

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316299227
• ISBN13: 9780316299220
• Release Date: September 2021
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Meh...

A sprinkling of insight buried in hundreds of pages of stuff that isn't new. If you must read this look for it at the library.

This starts out with a story that will make your blood boil. Then ends with another true revelation.

The book is really good. I loved it. We prejudge people too quickly and after reading this and listening to Jordan Peterson I am determined to listen more and to be more gracious to others. I think every police department should read this book.

Great Book, Better Audio Book

This book was thought-provoking yet easy to follow. The content is very relevant and well worth the read. The audio book was produced well, and is voiced by the author, so its quality matches that of his podcast.