Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know
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Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Malcolm Gladwell (Author, Narrator), Hachette Audio (Publisher)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 23,334 ratings
Editors' pick Best Nonfiction
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Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the number-one New York Times best seller Outliers, reinvents the audiobook in this immersive production of Talking to Strangers, a powerful examination of our interactions with people we don’t know.

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 each other that isn't true?

While tackling these questions, Malcolm Gladwell was not solely writing a book for the page. He was also producing for the ear. In the audiobook version of Talking to Strangers, you’ll hear the voices of people he interviewed - scientists, criminologists, military psychologists. Court transcripts are brought to life with re-enactments. You actually hear the contentious arrest of Sandra Bland by the side of the road in Texas. As Gladwell revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, and the suicide of Sylvia Plath, you hear directly from many of the players in these real-life tragedies. There’s even a theme song - Janelle Monae’s “Hell You Talmbout”.

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.

The audiobook edition of Talking to Strangers was an instant number-one best seller, and was one of the most pre-ordered audiobooks in history. It seamlessly marries audiobooks and podcasts, creating a completely new and real listening experience.

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  1. Listening Length
    8 hours and 42 minutes
  2. Author
    Malcolm Gladwell
  3. Narrator
    Malcolm Gladwell
  4. Audible release date
    September 10, 2019
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Hachette Audio
  7. ASIN
    B07NJCG1XS
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 8 hours and 42 minutes
Author Malcolm Gladwell
Narrator Malcolm Gladwell
Audible.com Release Date September 10, 2019
Publisher Hachette Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B07NJCG1XS
Best Sellers Rank #475 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#5 in Medical Social Psychology & Interactions
#6 in Social Psychology
#7 in Social Sciences (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
23,334 global ratings
Why can’t we tell when the stranger in front of us is lying to our face?
4 Stars
Why can’t we tell when the stranger in front of us is lying to our face?
Malcolm Gladwell is a cross between a storyteller and a journalist. He digs up stories to support his theories. Each book he has written has multiple themes and theories. This one is a bit different. It focuses on how difficult it is to talk to strangers and get a true understanding of the person’s thinking, morals and philosophies. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have advice on how to get better at it.He tells the stories of how judges grant bale who probably should have remained in jail, about Hitler’s intentions; how Bernie Madoff deceived smart individuals who thought he was a genius and Knox served prison time for a murder that she did not commit.Gladwell tells us that we are poor judges of when bad people are putting on an act, yet we believe we are good at sizing up a person.Gladwell fans will like this book. Those who have never been exposed to his work, and even some of his regular readers, might wonder, “Is that all there is?” I wanted a bit more.
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Top reviews from the United States

Abba
5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2023
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The introduction is an incident simply narrated and we forget about it, until we are reminded of it in chapter 12 where the whole book was slowly preparing us to learn absorb and understand why it was mentioned and why it happened at same time. This is the genius of Gladwell!
I have read many of Malcolm Gladwell books, (The tipping Point, Blink, Outliers) luckily, he has maintained the same level in all his books to date. They are always page turners, revealing, interesting, captivating, and compel the reader to want to learn more about the topic and never boring informative.
An amazing technique used by the author is the short stories that are the bait that clings you to the book and makes the scientific theories, tables, graphs and facts that lie in the coming page exciting and fun to read as they come in with the moral, and science DEDUCED from the story.
The theories don’t come in boring jargon but in real life events with real people, names, places, and events that end with a scientific conclusion that is a piece of the puzzle to get to the final conclusion. Such as giving the famous show FRIENDS as an example, or his father reading Charles Dickens to him as a kid.
The style is BRILLIANT! going about with short chapters telling us an amazing story with the science on the margin.
No matter how much you can benefit from the book, and the load of information, high or low, the bottom line is that you will enjoy it. I encourage reading, it will open your eyes on the old prevailing beliefs that have led us to wrongly judge people and how bad we are at detecting lies.
Malcolm Gladwell’s books are 3 in 1: they are Biographic, Scientific Novels!
On the conundrum of talking to strangers:
“To assume the best about another is the trait that has created modern society. Those occasions when our trusting nature gets violated are tragic. But the alternative—to abandon trust as a defense against predation and deception—is worse.”
11 people found this helpful
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4.0 out of 5 stars No earth-shattering insight, but entertaining with caveats
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2019
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First, I'm an avid Gladwell fan. I love his work. I've read every book, can't wait for each Revisionist History episode (his podcast), and read his works in various publications. I love his ability to convey a story, delve into data and nuance while maintaining interest, and perfectly make a sharp and often novel point by the end. I purchased the audiobook at the recommendation of his podcast after listening to the sample he posted and was not disappointed in the production quality. I'm an Audible member and always buy audiobooks. This one set a new standard for the format. It was captivating to listen to - masterfully done in the same style as his podcast. However, (SPOILERS - stop now) that sharp point so notorious in his work was missing in this book. The storytelling was great, but the premise (that we cannot understand others, discern their intentions, or understand their context as well as we think we can or at all) was not the profound perspective shift I've grown to love about Gladwell. Yes, there were some interesting points made, like that overly paranoid behavior with strangers is counterproductive as an alternative to a "default of truth" and that we tend to judge others as transparent 1-dimensional people we can read clearly, but do not believe the same judgement should be applied to ourselves. The stories were told brilliantly and I enjoyed listening to all of them, but they were told in service of a thesis that did not, in my opinion, justify such arduous dissection. All of that, to be honest, still would have gotten this book 5 stars from me - but, I was left with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth in the way some stories were portrayed, especially when it comes to Brock Turner and Sandra Bland. For example, with Brock Turner, Gladwell uses this to make the point that there's a fine line of consent. Men and women see things differently. Under the influence we see things differently. A lot is left up to interpretation. However, in this case, there was no "miscommunication" and a mismatch of signals interpreted as what was consent or not... the victim was literally unconscious. There are millions of stories that could be used to show the nuance of communication and interpretation in consent - some involving celebrities... this was not one. I get the points these stories were designed to illustrate, but I felt they were used for their notoriety, not their ability to underscore the point. Gladwell's podcast episode on a police-involved shooting illustrated this book's point better than the somewhat clumsy and also disconcerting analysis of the Sandra Bland case. I still say this book is entertaining and extremely well done (of course it is; it's Gladwell). It's still worth the time. The point is a good one to learn, but not Gladwell at his best.
48 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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carlos garza
5.0 out of 5 stars Libro Hablandoa extraños
Reviewed in Mexico on April 21, 2024
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Buenisimo como todos los libros del autor. una introspeccion en el arte de escudriñar a la gente y porque no sabemos si dicen la verdad o no entre otras cosas. muy recomendable
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Viviane
5.0 out of 5 stars I was great
Reviewed in Brazil on December 23, 2022
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Kids should read and discuss this type of book in class, that would change the next generation for better. Necessary read.
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FP
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking
Reviewed in Canada on August 9, 2022
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Thought provoking like all of Malcolm Gladwell's books. The main takeaway I got from the book is most people assume that strangers are truthful/good and as a result we're terrible at detecting liars/traitors/cheats. However, while presuming strangers are cheating you does allow you to find fraudsters on rare occasions, it can have serious downsides- cops treating innocent people who are nervous at a traffic stop like criminals and arresting them, leading to suicide in the case of Sandra Bland. I will say that I did not think the book would be about this at all based on the title. The book also spends time discussing prisoner interrogation techniques and university campus drinking culture and rape culture, which I didn't expect and thought was a bit out of place perhaps.
2 people found this helpful
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Nila
5.0 out of 5 stars Ein ausgezeichnetes Buch
Reviewed in Germany on April 6, 2024
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Kann ich wärmstens empfehlen
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Pranav
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book to read, paper quality need improvement
Reviewed in India on March 30, 2024
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Excellent book , a must read
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