Get Your Free Audiobook
-
Talking to Strangers
- What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
Add to cart failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for ₹1,093.00
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
People who bought this also bought...
-
David and Goliath
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David and Goliath is the dazzling and provocative new book from Malcolm Gladwell, best-selling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw. Why do underdogs succeed so much more than we expect? How do the weak outsmart the strong? In David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell takes us on a scintillating and surprising journey through the hidden dynamics that shape the balance of power between the small and the mighty.
-
-
Worth listening
- By Nithesh on 12-04-20
-
Blink
- The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his landmark best seller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant, in the blink of an eye, that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept?
-
-
Deliver insights into how we think & make decision
- By CA Ram Pavan Kumar on 26-01-23
-
Outliers
- The Story of Success
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this stunning audiobook, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" - the best and the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful. He asks the question: What makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: That is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.
-
-
Luck by chance?
- By Suraj Chakraborty on 29-04-19
-
The Bomber Mafia
- A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times best sellers including Talking to Strangers and host of the podcast Revisionist History, uses original interviews, archival footage, and his trademark insight to weave together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in Central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard. As listeners hear these stories unfurl, Gladwell examines one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.
-
-
Gladwell magic
- By Rahul on 08-07-21
-
Get S--t Done
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity, Procrastination, & Profitability
- Written by: Jeffrey Gitomer
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Gitomer
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written for those who finds it hard to get s--t done, this audiobook is designed to have a profound, life-changing effect on anyone who wants to adopt and implement the elements of greater productivity. New York Times best-selling author Jeffrey Gitomer explains why we are so often stymied by procrastination and reveals the strategies to achieve and profit more.
-
-
An okayish book
- By Sharad Chauhan on 10-05-21
-
Think Again
- The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
- Written by: Adam Grant
- Narrated by: Adam Grant
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn. In recent months, the pandemic has forced us all to reevaluate our assumptions about health and safety and multiple acts of police brutality have challenged most of us to reconsider our responsibility for fighting racism. Yet in our daily lives, too many of us still favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt.
-
-
A book that grows on you and makes you rethink
- By Sourav Nayyar on 24-02-21
-
David and Goliath
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David and Goliath is the dazzling and provocative new book from Malcolm Gladwell, best-selling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw. Why do underdogs succeed so much more than we expect? How do the weak outsmart the strong? In David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell takes us on a scintillating and surprising journey through the hidden dynamics that shape the balance of power between the small and the mighty.
-
-
Worth listening
- By Nithesh on 12-04-20
-
Blink
- The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his landmark best seller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant, in the blink of an eye, that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept?
-
-
Deliver insights into how we think & make decision
- By CA Ram Pavan Kumar on 26-01-23
-
Outliers
- The Story of Success
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this stunning audiobook, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" - the best and the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful. He asks the question: What makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: That is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.
-
-
Luck by chance?
- By Suraj Chakraborty on 29-04-19
-
The Bomber Mafia
- A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times best sellers including Talking to Strangers and host of the podcast Revisionist History, uses original interviews, archival footage, and his trademark insight to weave together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in Central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard. As listeners hear these stories unfurl, Gladwell examines one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.
-
-
Gladwell magic
- By Rahul on 08-07-21
-
Get S--t Done
- The Ultimate Guide to Productivity, Procrastination, & Profitability
- Written by: Jeffrey Gitomer
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Gitomer
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written for those who finds it hard to get s--t done, this audiobook is designed to have a profound, life-changing effect on anyone who wants to adopt and implement the elements of greater productivity. New York Times best-selling author Jeffrey Gitomer explains why we are so often stymied by procrastination and reveals the strategies to achieve and profit more.
-
-
An okayish book
- By Sharad Chauhan on 10-05-21
-
Think Again
- The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
- Written by: Adam Grant
- Narrated by: Adam Grant
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn. In recent months, the pandemic has forced us all to reevaluate our assumptions about health and safety and multiple acts of police brutality have challenged most of us to reconsider our responsibility for fighting racism. Yet in our daily lives, too many of us still favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt.
-
-
A book that grows on you and makes you rethink
- By Sourav Nayyar on 24-02-21
Publisher's Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
The highly anticipated new book from Malcom Gladwell, host of the chart-topping podcast Revisionist History.
With original archival interviews and musical scoring, this enhanced audiobook edition of Talking to Strangers brings Gladwell’s renowned storytelling to life in his unparalleled narrating style.
The routine traffic stop that ends in tragedy. The spy who spends years undetected at the highest levels of the Pentagon. The false conviction of Amanda Knox. Why do we so often get other people wrong? Why is it so hard to detect a lie, read a face or judge a stranger's motives?
Through a series of encounters and misunderstandings - from history, psychology and infamous legal cases - Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual adventure into the darker side of human nature, where strangers are never simple and misreading them can have disastrous consequences.
No one challenges our shared assumptions like Malcolm Gladwell. Here he uses stories of deceit and fatal errors to cast doubt on our strategies for dealing with the unknown, inviting us to rethink our thinking in these troubled times.
Critic Reviews
"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)
More from the same
Author
Narrator
What listeners say about Talking to Strangers
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Raggi Chakraborty
- 27-10-19
True to it's word
very well narrated. have been a fan girl of Mr. Gladwell.
very often we don't know how to talk to strangers and often take them for granted which created a ripple of effects.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mano
- 21-09-19
One of the best audio books
Very thought provoking. MG is awesome as always. His own voice makes this audio book a perfect one.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tathagat Varma
- 04-01-20
Great storyline, nice narration...
Malcolm Gladwell's book "Talking to Strangers" is an interesting book (in addition to it being an author-narrated audiobook with real audio clippings wherever possible). He brings out some very interesting perspectives from diverse fields to emphasize that we don't really understand #strangers. And in those situations, we tend to what he calls as "default to truth" which could be based on one's prior social grooming or professional training, and unfortunately land ourselves in a mess.
While the book follows a central common theme and presents multiple eye-opening datapoints in its support, in my view it falls short of presenting a cohesive set of first principles, if you will, that could be the contribution to the field and some sort of theory to the practitioners. Notwithstanding this last point, it does a very good job of making us aware that despite all the advances in #crosscultural learning and #behavioral grooming, we still continue to be blissfully ignorant of how to deal with strangers, and conduct ourselves in uncharted waters? I think this is extremely important for success at work, and a key requirement for all, most definitely for #leaders.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ravi
- 02-12-19
More insights about understanding others
Started this booking thinking it has some tips and tricks about how to talk with strangers. But, then I realised that it is about more basic aspects about how we judge people, how we form our perception etc. Overall, it was a worth reading as it gives deeper insights in understanding others. Use of voices of actual characters made it feel close to reality. But I think it mainly revolves in U S. For outsiders sometimes difficult to connect. Overall, I would say a Good Read.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vikram
- 08-12-19
Wonderful
By far the best audio book I have heard. Loved the content, but also loved how the audio book was made- with the excerpts of the actual interviews of the people in the story.
The content itself is thought provoking. Dealing with strangers is an inescapable part of life, yet so few of us give it any real thought. We think we are pretty good at summing people up. Malcolm Gladwell shows us how how wrong we often are.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ashwini Bhatt
- 03-01-20
Absolute brilliance
The whole experience of listening to this book is extraordinary. The content itself is intriguing while narration and associating the realistic background narrative makes it all the more interesting and captivating
Malcom has always been brilliant while this audio book takes the journey to a different level
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Krishna NS
- 30-12-19
A Podcast Quality Audiobook
Malcolm Gladwell brings the charm of his podcast, Revisionist History, to this wonderful book by letting us listen to audio clips of interviews, speeches and talks he has with the people that appear in this book. As a fan of his podcast, it was like listening to a 9 hour episode.
Observe as Gladwell giddily dives deep into the thing he does best - be a student of people. His keen observations, backed up with science are a fantastic way to gain insights into why humans are the wonderfully complex creatures we are.
A must listen
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gaurav Gwalia
- 13-01-21
The content does not match the Title of the book
The book is deceptive. It does rarely talk about the title of the book which is disappointing
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Shyamaprasad
- 09-12-19
Nice experience
Excellent explanation about human behavior towards stranger.More insight into human tendency towards truth to default
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- digish
- 26-11-19
not something which I expected
it is about police and civilians communication.
i should have read the description before buying it.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Nick
- 03-10-19
Not the most compelling MG book Ive read
I am a huge Malcolm Gladwell content fan. However, I have to say that I enjoyed this book the least out of all of the MG books I have read/listened to.
Positives:
I always appreciate Malcom narrating his own audio books - first class.
I was hugely excited by the novelty of including actual recordings in the book i.e. hearing quotes from the very sources themselves and making it into a kind of podcast on steriods. I think this was novel and a front runner of how future audio books of this nature will evolve. Full marks here.
I enjoyed the high pace and reporting style which the book follows, which aligns to previous MG book formula.
Thought provoking.
Negatives:
The subject and the stories while interesting did not make a convincing argument for me. In comparison to how compelling the subjects, theories and arguments in the stories of Blink, David and Goliath and Tipping Point were, this is not in the same league.
I found the argument tenuous at best. I think the stories were compelling because of their emotive and moral shock value, but the arguments put forward as to why these happened were not convincing ... they almost had a 'conspiracy theory' quality to them. I was hoping for more sources, better examples, less repetition on for example 'default to truth theory' and a clearer and more compelling link and argument. It was however, thought provoking which is I would imagine always an author's objective.
I still remain a fan, and continue to look forward to all of Malcolm Gladwell's content - one to mention, is that I am well into season 4 of Revisionist History and love the subject matter and format of these episodes.
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 17-09-19
Disappointing
The book delivers none of Gladwell's usual magic of describing a handful of unexamined historical events, and rendering their connection visible in a way that brilliantly supports his thesis. Instead, he recites a string of anecdotes, only to give the most obvious of pronouncements with a self-congratulary smirk. We often get people wrong. We assume people tell the trust most of the time.
It is politically problematic to the point of needing a trigger warning. Brock Turner is said to have raped an unconscious girl due to inebriation. The catalyst for Sandra Bland's death was not police brutality, but a miscommunication.
I enjoyed a few of his other books far too much to be able to finish this one.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Ronin
- 29-11-19
"dangerous bullshit"
One online reviewer wrote that whilst Gladwell's premise is compelling, his rambling and digressing zig-zagging between cases contains a lot of "dangerous bullshit". I would agree.
The opening passages about how Cuban spies rode roughshod with the CIA are entertaining, the message that not everyone functions according to the same parameters is useful, and the observation that our brain is a bit lazy and defaults to the easiest option follows. The latter two points have been made more thoroughly, comprehensively, and knowledgeably by Daniel Kahneman in 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' and Lisa Feldman Barret in 'How Emotions Are Made' - both excellent listens on Audible.
Gladwell then goes on to say that to tackle sexual abuse on campuses, the excessive consumption of alcohol should be problematised, because it could lead to misreadings in highly sexualised environments such as frat parties. He off-handedly notes that respect for women could form part of that conversation, but that alcohol importantly inhibits our ability to read strangers. It is almost akin to opening a category of 'accidental sexual assault' because of intoxication. It is not like an orange juice could be spiked by someone who is sober and intentional...
He also concludes that Sandra Bland's arrest was in part due to her behaviour being 'mismatched' or 'intransparent' - an innocent person's annoyance misinterpreted to be a sign of guilt by a cop trained to do his job and be suspicious. He mentions briefly that the case formed part of what gave rise to Balck Lives Matter, but eschews institutional racism entirely.
In short, this is a book of a charlatan. He somewhat copies what serious scientists like Kahneman and Feldman Barrett have stated, and supports it with a meandering number of ill-fitting anecdotes that only work by selectively choosing perspectives or suspending better judgement, not to speak of any scientific rigour. And en passant, they undermine attempts to engage with institutional or engrained sexism, racism, and abuses of power. Dangerous bullshit.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 30-09-19
Book version of Ira Glass's This American
Loved the way Mr. Gladwell brought relevant facts and stories pertaining to the Sandra Bland tragedy. He builds and pulls from Friends, Amanda Knox, and other bits to remind us of the danger of societal stereotypes and acceptance of simple explanations without digging deeper to understand people not like us. This is my favorite of all his books I have read to date.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Premjit Williams
- 27-12-22
Great listen!
Malcolm Gladwell does a great job narrating. Great production value. I found this to be the best of his audiobooks.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 02-12-22
Easy to listen. Difficult to digest.
and I enjoyed the way it is performed (this mixture of author and real peeople from his stories)
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Dr RE Hodgson
- 15-09-22
Not for listeners outside USA
Interesting cases for the first 2-3. After that a lot of skipping for non - US (= this South African) reader. Only redeeming feature is being able to finish quickly
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Leida Schuman
- 04-05-22
Background music a total distraction
The content was mostly enjoyable and interesting, but I found the poor sound quality of some of the interviews unnecessary. The repetitive background music (almost like the bell of a lift), totally ruined the narration for me.
There was an assumption in some of the cases that the listener had followed the story and was familiar with the specific case.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Isaac Ndung'u
- 03-04-22
A true eye-opener, mind-blowing audio experience
Loved how well ideas are explored and expounded on.
How everything is all tied together in the end greatly enhances the intended impact/message of the book.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jacinta
- 06-12-21
Incredible..
Thought-provoking and at times challenging, this is such an incredible book. I’ll be listening to it again..
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 17-01-20
people aren't transparent. (done)
Here's a summary of the book:
Human personal interaction is fraught with (systematic) misunderstandings, misjudgements and deciet - it's not 100% transparent or reliable.
That's the whole f'in book! And a bunch of meandering (sometimes moralising) stories to illustrate that point. If you want stories buy the book, if you want to learn or think about something, don't buy the book. That's it. I shall be returning it.
64 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- steve farmer
- 11-09-19
Classic Gladwell please do not leave it another 6 years
So what can I say. Within the first few minutes I’m driving along with my jaw on the floor- oh my god! All my commutes have been reduced to minutes whilst Malcom takes me on a journey of enlightenment and discovery. Forget counting down the miles, I arrive home and sit on the drive not wanting to turn this off! I have waited so long for your new book and still you fail to disappoint. Simply brilliant !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
57 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 27-11-19
Utter Bollocks
I was starting to wonder if I was missing something, or was it just a load of vaguely interesting stories along with stating the obvious- people aren’t as they seem. And apparently this makes things really really hard for ignorant men who rape women and cops that arrest black women for near existing. I wasted an audible credit on this crap and I stopped listening immediately after Brock Turner section. Malcolm Gladwell should do something better with his time than overanalyse meaningless drivel and find excuses for people being idiots. Maybe judges should be a better representation of the population rather than just white upper class men and then they might get some bail hearings closer to the mark. I hope I am not the only person feeling disheartened and confused as to how this is even a book....
1 star for performance for the real life audio elements
42 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Philip O Mahoney
- 11-10-19
Extra Long Revisionist History...
... but not in a bad way. Gladwell borrows heavily from his podcast in both production and story telling; breaking up the chapters into episodes that could stand alone. The thinking behind the piece, as usual, is extremely interesting and the individual stories are brilliantly fleshed out with actual audio which can break up the rare monotony in the narration.
The theme of the book is a worrying look at how we interact with strangers and our human shortcomings. The only issue I have with Gladwell highlighting each of our fallacies is that knowing about them doesn't seem to help navigate around them (see Kahneman on that).
29 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jawad
- 24-11-19
Promising start but failed to deliver
Promising start but failed to deliver on expectation as it was a montage of separate case studies but didnt see how they all merged to make up the story. Just different cases of talking to strangers with no real methods on really improving on this as such.
26 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Serban Dragne
- 19-11-19
Meanders into nowhere
It starts off with a very interesting premise and chapter 3 is quite excellent but then i fee it goes off a full tangent and doesn’t ever recover where it was meant to be going. It’s as if he has all this material from the podcast and trying to string it together into a book but it’s so disjointed I lost all interest finishing it
22 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Olga Iljuscenko
- 11-12-19
absolutely depressing
absolutely depressing and poor narration of a book.
I just waited my credit for this book.
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- Mmmmmm
- 01-11-19
annoying
I usually like gladwell books and theories but this just annoyed me. it was doom mongering and lacked focus. his editor should have been stricter with him on his premise and thoughts on how he would portray them. seems to be more about bias than talking to strangers. it all felt a bit of a stretch. could it be he was desperate to release another book? I dont know but it didnt quite hit the right note for me.
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Olaf H
- 29-09-19
Thought provoking in content, modern in form
Finally the audio book responds to the podcast format. Gladwell is in typically original form, applying overlooked historical research to contemporary ideas and issues. The book's main treatise, that a we live is a series of systems that are designed to function based on flawed ideas of human behaviour and interaction is well argued. It is the audio book's format, however, that makes this work easy to recommend over so many others. Presented more as an extended radio documentary or podcast, with recordings of interviews and a musical score, rather than adopting the dryer more typical style of audiobooks, the content of the book is offered in a form that allows it to be more engaging than any other audiobook in its category.
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- #carylreads
- 13-11-19
Enraging background music
This book is interesting, if too America- centric for my tastes. MG takes a long time to make a couple of simple points- the argument is heavily padded and I was relieved when I got to the end of it. However the worst aspect of this recording is the tinkly- winky music that can be heard faintly in the background while MG is reading- it drove me up the wall. Please don’t do this on other audiobooks or you’ll lose a large chunk of your audience I’m sure!
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 23-10-19
A book with no ending...
Interesting enough stories, drawing together similar issues in differing situations... but almost 9 hours of audio book later, and you are left wondering what the point of it all was? I got to the end, hoping there was one more chapter of greater things to take away, but there was not.
'People are bad at judging others by how they outwardly display emotion. Please be careful when you interact with others as things are not always as you assume' seems the be the moral of the story, with a further 8 hours of book to prove this point. I just wish that there was more to take away than that simple statement.
38 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Kate
- 20-09-19
A good writer, but thin arguments
Gladwell usually boils things down really well but I think he's oversimplified some complex issues in his quest to make it all easy. I think he's straying into rape apologist territory at times; and was it really just misunderstanding that led an intensely corrupt and incompetent police investigation into Amanda Knox? Too easy I think.
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- A Post
- 25-11-19
Lacks focus
I love Malcolm Gladwell – especially his revisionist history podcasts. However I wonder why he didn’t make this book’s chapters into separate podcasts because as a one book volume - this lacks focus and in the end, a general supposition of opinion. His book the tipping point for example allowed us to understand the very premise however talking to strangers doesn’t really inform us of anything that we don’t really know in fact this book simply contains chapters of various misaligned and maligned people and incidents that he, I think wrongly, puts down to some sort of “strangers” connection. Call me a cynic but I think Malcolm just wanted to make some money here and he should have done it as a series of podcasts if at all. This book makes very little headway into culture and society
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Ethan Collins
- 19-09-19
Always glad for more Gladwell, but...
Gladwell never fails to entertain, and this audiobook stands out in incorporating original and re-enacted source material, but the thesis falls a little flat. No regrets, but no revelations either. Time to shake up the method?
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Simbah142
- 20-09-19
What a production
Thanks for sharing your insights.
I throughly enjoyed the listen and I highly recommend everyone do the same.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Rebecca Henry
- 13-09-19
Love the enhanced audio book format
Really loved the audio clips, music backing tracks and interview material which interspersed the narration. This is Gladwell at his best, confronting and insightful.
This book should challenge and change you.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Davidb
- 01-11-19
Best Audio book in a long, long time!!
Malcolm's story, delivery, voice, content, facts and production values made this my favourite audio book... ever!! Some other author/narrators should take a lead from Malcolm.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Rhom Whitten
- 19-05-20
Interesting but unfulfilling
This was the first book of Malcolm Gladwell's I've listened to/read and it would have put me off delving any further into his work had I not heard high praise for him and now having read reviews stating this was not his best work (after sitting through the whole eight and a half hours). Like many reviewers, I had difficulty getting myself to resume the book, particularly in chapters discussing Amanda Knox and the Standford 2015 case. He drew conclusions which attempted to simplify situations and ignore bigotry in order to support his theory around talking to strangers, which, while it may have played a part, is erasing the reality that racism and misogyny are deeply ingrained in our culture and likely contributed heavily to the way these events played out.
I enjoyed hearing his theories, but the examples he used to support them seemed to be round pegs being forced into square holes. The data that he relied on often struck me as feeling cherry-picked, and I would have preferred to hear about situations I could relate to my daily life. I didn't feel this book provided me with ways to rectify how I interact with strangers, I felt like it pointed out incorrect assumptions and poor interactions I could make, and then told me far-out and often well-known stories about where they may apply, while offering no solution.
Somehow though I was still hooked and did enjoy it while I was listening to it, but thinking further about what I was hearing I became less enraptured. The experience of listening to this book was enjoyable and I felt that it was well done. I enjoyed that Malcolm Gladwell narrated it, the 'theme' with the use of the song "Hell You Talmbout", and the insertion of interviews he had recorded.
I have already purchased Blink by Malcolm Gladwell so I will give him another chance if I don't enjoy that I will have to seriously do more research on his books before committing myself to spending more time and money listening to him.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- JACQUES LE ROUX
- 29-11-19
Best audio book I have listened to
Superb production & immensely thought provoking. The level of research and analysis presented is magnificent.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amy Benger
- 28-10-19
lose the background music!
Great content but the music and sound effects playing in the background behind the narrative (especially the electronic bells) was really really annoying and distracting!
3 people found this helpful