NHPR and The Music Hall in Portsmouth present Writers on a New England Stage with international bestselling author and podcast host Malcolm Gladwell, who sat down with Peter Biello to discuss his new book, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know.
Producer's Note: This is the full, unedited interview. This interview contains language, and a brief graphic description of sexual assault. Click here to listen to an edited version of this interview with this content removed, which aired on The Exchange.
Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers: The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath, as well as being named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People. He also produces the podcasts Revisionist History and Broken Record. Gladwell has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1996.
His latest book, Talking to Strangers, examines interactions between strangers and why they often go awry. Looking at moments in history—Fidel Castro fooling the CIA, the trial of Amanda Knox in Italy, the death of Sandra Bland—Gladwell points out flaws in people’s perceptions of one another and how they draw those conclusions. His thought-provoking prose weaves through the psychology of human tendencies and the consequences of our misguided judgements and inability to understand the strangers around us.
