Madeline
I am a HUGE Malcolm Gladwell fan. I’ve read every single one of his books, each time thinking “He’s done it again! It’s another amazing Malcolm Gladwell Book!” I subscribe and listen to his Podcast, Revisionist History, regularly. I listen to podcasts he has been on. I saw him speak at a tech conference a few years ago and made sure to get there more than an hour early to make sure I had the best seat in the house. I love everything he does and I just love him.
So when Talking To Strangers came out a few years ago, I knew I was going to read it at some point. But it wasn’t until now I actually got around to it. And once again, I’m not disappointed. It surely is another amazing Malcolm Gladwell book.
The Premise of Another Amazing Malcolm Gladwell Book: Talking To Strangers
The theme of Talking to Strangers is about how we misunderstand people we don’t know. For example, even when a person is giving us every red flag that they are lying, it is in our nature to give them the benefit of the doubt and trust that what they are saying is true.
That is because most of the time, strangers do not lie to us. If you trust everything everyone said, you would be more correct than not. If you get a coffee and the barista tells you that the coffee is $3.77 with tax, you are not going to calculate the actual tax to make sure they are correct. It’s easier to trust what they are saying. It is not a common thing for people to lie to us.
But if we are trained to expect the worse or assume someone is lying when they are not, that can mean trouble. It can cause accusations that are not true and can cause innocent people to appear guilty. And in Talking to Strangers, can lead to death.
A Stranger Who Was Misunderstood: The Sandra Bland Story
On the other hand, there are situations when people expect the worse and overly judge a situation. Gladwell uses the Sandra Bland situation as the main story point in Talking To Strangers. The beginning of the book touches on the story and the end digs in deep. He gives a highlight in the beginning to give the reader a base or something to think about through the rest of the book. Gladwell then runs through various examples of misunderstanding strangers and ends the book again to hit home how poorly the police officer in the Sandra Bland story reacted.
After Gladwell reintroduces the Sandra Bland story, the audio recording is played in the audio book. As the audio plays, Gladwell pauses it periodically to explain where the officer went wrong. How he misread Bland according to his training and caused the situation to escalate.
In the end, Bland was arrested by the officer. Having been going through mental issues of her own, which is absolutely a factor, she ended up killing herself in her jail cell. All because a cop escalated the situation, not the person who was getting arrested.
Final Thoughts
Other stories Gladwell discusses include the red flags of Bernie Madoff, Amanda Knox’s wrongful conviction, an unsuspecting Cuban spy, and much more. Once again he pieces this stories together to explain a point. His main point of this book is very relevant today in the Black Lives Matter movement. He heard the cries and used his power, fame, and notoriety to make a statement. And once again this book truly is another amazing Malcolm Gladwell book.
