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Talking to Strangers

What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know

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Talking to Strangers

Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
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Summary

 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.

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 classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, 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 because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world. In his first book since his #1 bestseller David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell has written a gripping guidebook for troubled times.

A Best Book of the Year: The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press Communication & Social Skills Personal Development Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships Sociology Thought-Provoking Inspiring Alcohol Law School Customer Success

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What the critics say

"Talking to Strangers is a must-read...I love this book... Reading it will actually change not just how you see strangers, but how you look at yourself, the news--the world...Reading this book changed me."—Oprah Winfrey, O, The Oprah Magazine
"Powerful advice on truly getting to know others...Gladwell brilliantly argues that we should stop assuming, realize no one's transparent and understand that behavior is tied to unseen circumstances."—People, Book of the Week
"Gladwell has again delivered a compelling, conversation-starting read...At a time when the world feels intractably polarized, a book examining the varying ways we misinterpret or fail to communicate with one another could not feel more necessary...With a mix of reporting, research and a deft narrative hand, Gladwell illuminates these examples with the page-turning urgency of a paperback thriller."—Chris Barton, Los Angeles Times
"Mr. Gladwell's towering success rests on the moment when the skeptic starts to think that maybe we're wrong about everything and maybe, just maybe, this Gladwell guy is onto something...Talking to Strangers is weightier than his previous titles."—Amy Chozick, New York Times
"Gladwell uses compelling real-world examples to show the how and why behind our interactions with folks we're trying to understand."
—Rhett Power, Forbes
"Gladwell's case studies are thrilling...Chock-full of gripping anecdotes from the recent and forgotten past. He uses these riveting stories to offer up bite-size observations about how we engage with strangers."—Maggie Taft, Booklist
"Another Gladwell tour de force...intellectually stimulating...Readers expecting another everything-you-think-you-know-is-wrong page-turner will not be disappointed."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Both fascinating and topical...A thoughtful treatise...Gladwell writes in his signature colorful, fluid, and accessible prose."—Publishers Weekly
"Gladwell interviews brilliant people, generates powerful insights, writes like an angel, and has earned a massive and admiring audience. He has a keen eye and a witty flair and he's one of the best observationalists of a generation. Gladwell is a big-picture thinker who helps us make sense of the human condition."—Bob Brisco, WebMD Magazine
"As always, with his narrative gift and eye for the telling detail, Gladwell peppers his work with unforgettable facts... He has immense gifts--a probing, original, questioning mind, an ability to dig up information others haven't considered and tie it to a broader point. He has a narrative skill nonpareil."—Stephen Galloway, Hollywood Reporter



Our favourite moments from Talking to Strangers

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About the Creator and Performer

Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian journalist, author, and podcaster. He is the host of the podcasts Revisionist History and Broken Record and co-founder of the audio production company Pushkin Industries. For his sixth audiobook, the #1 New York Times audio best-seller Talking to Strangers, he drew on real-life audio–including archival footage and clips from his own interviews—to incorporate the production techniques of a podcast into the audiobook format. It has been praised by Audible listeners as "a new era in audiobooks…and maybe in relating to others." He has also written and narrated The Tipping Point (2000); Blink (2005); Outliers (2008); and David and Goliath (2013), all of which are New York Times best-sellers. Gladwell’s books and articles often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences, particularly sociology, psychology, and social psychology. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2011 and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He lives in New York.

Photographed by Celeste Sloman

Editorial Review

In his Audible audiobook Talking to Strangers, best-selling writer Malcolm Gladwell turns his keen eye on our relationship with strangers. Why do we so often fail to communicate? Why are we so bad at detecting when someone is deceiving us? Why did people trust Bernie Madoff with their money?

Narrated by Malcolm Gladwell himself, the Audible audiobook edition of Talking to Strangers draws on a cast of characters to create an immersive listening experience. Gladwell, who grew up in Ontario and is half Jamaican, is gifted with a clear and precise tone and dramatic pacing. You’ll revisit infamous deceptions, such as Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, and hear the voices of many of the players in real-life tragedies riddled with misunderstandings, such as the trial of Amanda Knox. There are interviews with scientists, criminologists, and psychologists as well as reenactments of court transcripts. The audio footage of Sandra Bland’s contentious arrest for failing to signal at an intersection in Texas is a visceral example of an exchange gone wrong. The protest song “Hell You Talmbout” by singer Janelle Monae is aptly used as the soundtrack.

Inspired by the number of high profile cases in the news about what he thought of as “strangers misunderstanding each other”, Gladwell challenges our false assumptions when encountering people we don’t know and how these can have dangerous repercussions not only for us but society at large.

Talking to Strangers is Malcolm Gladwell’s sixth title. It was one of the bestselling Canadian titles in 2019 and its Audible audiobook edition is one of the most pre-ordered in history. In addition to finding success on both sides of the border, it won a 2019 AudioFile Magazine Earphone Award. Gladwell is also the host of the popular podcast, Revisionist History.

" The extra effects in this book go a long way: from the use of music and sound effects, to the recreation of conversations with actors, Gladwell was able to bring to life his subject matter in a way that never fails to engage."

—Sean M., Audible Listener
All stars
Most Relevant
The research behind the stories is interesting. Gladwell really opens your eyes to the differences between people and their experiences.
I'll probably have to listen again!

Very interesting, well researched and compelling

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Although I loved the audiobook, I can understand why people have given mixed reviews.

Don't expect to learn an enormous amount of learning the various intricacies and nuances associated with talking to strangers, however, take what you can from the fascinating case studies which are detailed to perfection by Mr. Gladwell. The music and different voices I really enjoyed.

Great Book with a Different Angle

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Interesting view on conflicts and strangers misinterpretation that lead to conflict and crimes. I was confused by the title and sometimes did not quite understand the author point of view. But overall I liked the book

True crime analysis

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I think that this book has altered my entire thoughts about who we are as human beings.

We are full of suspicion and fears with tremendous potential for compassion and action.

Couple this book with what we now know and continue to learn scientifically and spiritually—both as individuals and in communities—about embodied survival instinct, epigenetics, and intergenerational, trauma.

The methods of healing being used now are based in compassion and understanding first and foremost…stories and sharing in safe spaces and rippling out into broader communities. We must keep learning and changing attitudes and policies AND we must respect and protect those we cannot do that in one lifetime. There really are places to feel hopeful, and it is the path through the individual and collective shadows and the uncomfortable truths they reveal. I’m so grateful to have encountered Malcolm Gladwell!!

Mandatory reading for humans

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Malcolm Gladwell’s study of meeting with strangers is fascinating, shocking, and alarming in its implications for everything from meeting some one at a party to massive national policy implications for judges and policing and many other topics. It pulls back the curtains on how often Police, governments, teachers, and other bodies, experiment or are essentially in the dark as they try different strategies to meet their ends. How many people are affected in sometimes fatal ways because of misunderstandings sometimes from the most innocent interaction.
It made me question and examine numerous things in my life from basic assumptions to training I’ve received.
I highly recommend this book.
Mr Gladwell’s reading is engaging and enlightening, and the format of having the real voices of people he’s discussing, with the soundtrack
Makes for a really well produced book.
I may just Re listen to it and I also bought the book to study it in more depth.

Fascinating and a wake up call.

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