Malcolm Gladwell | Talking to Strangers - What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know

In this short keynote from How To Academy's How to Change the World 2019 conference, internationally bestselling author, podcaster and New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual adventure into the darker side of human nature. Featuring Barack Obama, evolutionary theory, Cuban spies, codenames and CIA hijinks, this witty talk explores why humans are so bad at detecting lies - and the consequences this has for our society.

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Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five international bestsellers: The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He is the host of the podcast Revisionist History and is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He was named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine and one of the Foreign Policy's Top Global Thinkers. Previously, he was a reporter with the Washington Post, where he covered business and science, and then served as the newspaper's New York City bureau chief. He graduated from the University of Toronto, Trinity College, with a degree in history. Gladwell was born in England and grew up in rural Ontario. He lives in New York.

[lisaschomer]

You are brilliant ! The gift of connecting with others is likeability and having others trust you. It is having an open heart to be a good listener to a complete stranger.

[aaronseet]

"It is easier to fool people than to convince them they've been fooled."

[janetpattison]

Conned, or lied to so many times over the years, by all kinds of people; housemates, the car dealership, inept handymen, corrupt mechanics, so called “friends”, even family, and many many more people from a wide variety of disciplines, that I conclude I am an extremely naive scammer magnet. So I greatly appreciate this talk.

[greatmcluhansghost]

love or fear: choose one. one leads to disease and ill health, alienation, stress, etc.; the other makes the world go 'round and is the source of great stories, poems, songs, and true progress. African proverb: "the child who isn't loved by the village will burn it down."

[janhavi]

I love this as the basis for Talking to Strangers. If you're the type to not trust people by default, it's inevitably hard to open up to them and have any kind of meaningful conversation.

[anniskarpenko]

I'm at 10:34 still wondering if anyone let Marta out of the trunk of the car.

[yashchaturvedi]

This video popped up! I am a big fan of Malcom and over decades, probably have ready whatever came my way.... Have recommended his books and even gifted to friends too. What he speaks has been my philosophy too! People caution me for being too trusting etc... but my point is.. even if my success rate is 30%, the gain to my life is phenomenal! I have been an entrepreneur for about 3 decades and can't tell you how this belief has worked for me! I have got cheated big time, but the others who did but cheat me, have made my life!

[jsaulson]

One things for certain. Mr Gladwell can make a short story long winded.

[tezzo]

No flash, no wham bam, no graphics, and no props, just a great story teller with a great story to tell. Riveting.

[gwenrobinson]

Thank you for sharing your gifts!
MG is his own genius. He sees the stuff right in front of you and so interesting you just do not see it until he packages it in a way we can understand. What a gift he has for seeing the world.

[RussellChapman]

A few days ago in Canary Wharf, a financial district of London. Took a break from a bike ride, sat on a bench, there was another person sat there too. Had my sandwich, then asked him, what's interesting in business today? Had an interesting half hour conversation about global economics.

[slowpainful]

Although I sometimes think, with Gladwell, it's like "well, I could have thought of that myself" the fact is I didn't. This talk has huge implications for "truth decay", our current inability to know what information to trust and what media to listen to, which wasn't a problem before - we all read from the same playbook. I think we can grow if we learn to apportion our trust more appropriately. "Trust" has different meanings depending on whether I'm trusting the person who is my partner to be faithful or trusting someone in a YouTube video to tell the truth. Doubting someone is not always paranoia, it can be healthy skepticism. Interesting talk which seemed annoyingly simplistic at first, but it certainly got me thinking.

[Ira]

Trust your instincts when doing the right thing.

[jayk]

I live life trusting all people implicitly and completely! I trust that each person will act in their own best interests - full stop. It’s always dependable and predictable. The only trick then becomes finding out if those interests align with mine, yours, societies. Etc.

[markgatenby]

Good talk and even greater 'enhanced' audio book. Talking to Strangers is riveting, varied, current, helping to explain the behaviour of people who get caught up in society.
I can't recommend Talking to Strangers enough.

[donnjb]

*listening to Malcom gladwell talking about talking to strangers, doing everything in my power avoiding talking with strangers 😕

[jacknusanporter]

His talk explains a lot--especially relations with people--we trust yet we are going to be fooled. I know people close to me who got fooled several times because they are so trusting.

[johnwest]

Famous for having an opinion and insight into everyday things - astonishing!

[DavidShantzwildoutwest]

Classic Gladwell talk: half hour rambling anecdote to tangentially support a simple point. Get the cliff notes if you don’t have a lot of extra time. Master Class in how to sell little books.

[JonnM]

This is a fascinating and provocative book that speaks to both self evident and not so obvious truths. Having read the book I immediately wanted to reread but instead I purchased the Audio edition and it brought his tales to even greater level of insight and awareness. Well worth the double purchase.