You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
thereadhersrecap 's review for:
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know
by Malcolm Gladwell
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I’ll preface this recap by letting y’all know I tried to read this book and lost interest one third of the way through. But, I enjoyed Outliers and was determined to read Talking to Strangers.
Enter audiobooks.
This audiobook reads like a podcast, in the sense that Gladwell features real interviews, audio footage, and re-enactments of real life events.
The synopsis intrigued me, living in today’s world means constantly engaging with strangers (not so much anymore). I was interested to know Gladwell’s thoughts on how wrong we are when it comes to interacting with people we don’t know.
Malcolm Gladwell starts with what happened in Texas when Sandra Bland was pulled over for a simple failure to signal traffic violation. And ends with an explanation of WHY the tragedy ensued. Gladwell attempts to explain that the tools we use to make sense of people we don’t know invites conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our world.
Though he talks about many instances of interactions gone wrong, specific stories stick out to me. The Sandra Bland tragedy, Ana Montes the cuban spy that eluded the CIA for 5 years, the Jerry Sandusky pedophelia scandal, and Chanel Miller’s sexual assult at Standford. Gladwell breaks down specific interactions of these headline stories, and with attention to detail explains the ways in which each encounter goes awry.
Gladwell states that we are inept at thinking we can transform a stranger into someone familiar. That our “default to truth” is something that keeps up sane and assuming the best in people should not be blamed for our deception. We should also accept that we do not have the “ability to decipher strangers”, and instead, to interact with strangers with “restraint and humility” utilizing “care and attention”.
But oh the controversy!!!! Which, btw, is plainly stated in the synopsis.
The controversy surrounding this book is to be expected as Gladwell reduces impactful situations in history to something so simple as how we interact with people we don’t know. Although I enjoyed Gladwell’s storytelling, it was really hard to hear an analysis of rape and police brutality chalked up to miscommunication. I almost couldn’t bare to listen to him talk about pedophilia, sexual assult, and suicide with a scientists’ calculating manner. And for that reason, it is necessary that you look up trigger warnings before reading this book.
Enter audiobooks.
This audiobook reads like a podcast, in the sense that Gladwell features real interviews, audio footage, and re-enactments of real life events.
The synopsis intrigued me, living in today’s world means constantly engaging with strangers (not so much anymore). I was interested to know Gladwell’s thoughts on how wrong we are when it comes to interacting with people we don’t know.
Malcolm Gladwell starts with what happened in Texas when Sandra Bland was pulled over for a simple failure to signal traffic violation. And ends with an explanation of WHY the tragedy ensued. Gladwell attempts to explain that the tools we use to make sense of people we don’t know invites conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our world.
Though he talks about many instances of interactions gone wrong, specific stories stick out to me. The Sandra Bland tragedy, Ana Montes the cuban spy that eluded the CIA for 5 years, the Jerry Sandusky pedophelia scandal, and Chanel Miller’s sexual assult at Standford. Gladwell breaks down specific interactions of these headline stories, and with attention to detail explains the ways in which each encounter goes awry.
Gladwell states that we are inept at thinking we can transform a stranger into someone familiar. That our “default to truth” is something that keeps up sane and assuming the best in people should not be blamed for our deception. We should also accept that we do not have the “ability to decipher strangers”, and instead, to interact with strangers with “restraint and humility” utilizing “care and attention”.
But oh the controversy!!!! Which, btw, is plainly stated in the synopsis.
The controversy surrounding this book is to be expected as Gladwell reduces impactful situations in history to something so simple as how we interact with people we don’t know. Although I enjoyed Gladwell’s storytelling, it was really hard to hear an analysis of rape and police brutality chalked up to miscommunication. I almost couldn’t bare to listen to him talk about pedophilia, sexual assult, and suicide with a scientists’ calculating manner. And for that reason, it is necessary that you look up trigger warnings before reading this book.