Malcolm Gladwell

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use Canadian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Malcolm Timothy Gladwell Template:Post-nominals (born 3 September 1963) is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has published eight books. He is also the host of the podcast Revisionist History and co-founder of the podcast company Pushkin Industries.

Gladwell's writings often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences, such as sociology and psychology, and make frequent and extended use of academic work. Gladwell was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2011.<ref name=":0">"Governor General Announces 50 New Appointments to the Order of Canada", The Governor General of Canada, 30 June 2011.</ref>

Early life and education

Gladwell was born in Fareham, Hampshire, in England. His mother Joyce (née Nation) Gladwell, is a Jamaican psychotherapist. His father, Graham Gladwell, was a mathematics professor from Kent, England.<ref name=guardiantheman>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> When he was six his family moved from Southampton to the Mennonite community of Elmira, Ontario, Canada.<ref name=guardiantheman/> He has two brothers.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Throughout his childhood, Malcolm lived in rural Ontario Mennonite country, where he attended a Mennonite church.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Author Malcolm Gladwell finds his faith again">Template:Cite news</ref> Research done by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed that one of Gladwell's maternal ancestors was a Jamaican free woman of colour (mixed black and white) who was a slaveowner.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His great-great-great-grandmother was of Igbo ethnicity from Nigeria. In the epilogue of his 2008 book Outliers he describes many lucky circumstances that came to his family over the course of several generations, contributing to his path towards success.<ref>Outliers p. 270</ref> Gladwell has said that his mother is his role model as a writer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Gladwell's father noted that Malcolm was an unusually single-minded and ambitious boy.<ref name=telegraph>Preston, John (26 October 2009). Malcolm Gladwell Interview. The Telegraph.</ref> When Malcolm was 11, his father, a professor of mathematics and engineering at the University of Waterloo,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> allowed his son to wander around the offices at his university, which developed Malcolm's interest in reading and libraries.<ref name=timeoutliers>Grossman, Lev (13 November 2008). "Outliers: Malcolm Gladwell's Success Story", Time.</ref> In the spring of 1982, Gladwell interned with the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He graduated with a bachelor's degree in history from Trinity College at the University of Toronto in 1984.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

Gladwell decided to pursue advertising as a career after college.<ref name=timeoutliers/><ref name=nyt>Template:Cite news</ref> After being rejected by every advertising agency he applied to, he accepted a journalism position at conservative magazine The American Spectator and moved to Indiana.<ref name="IanSample"/> He subsequently wrote for Insight on the News, a conservative magazine owned by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.<ref name="Shafer">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 1987, Gladwell began covering business and science for The Washington Post, where he worked until 1996.<ref name=cooper>Malcolm Gladwell will be The Cooper Union's 152nd Commencement Speaker. The Cooper Union. 22 March 2011. Template:Webarchive</ref> In a personal elucidation of the 10,000-hour rule he popularized in Outliers, Gladwell notes, "I was a basket case at the beginning, and I felt like an expert at the end. It took 10 years—exactly that long."<ref name=timeoutliers/>

When Gladwell started at The New Yorker in 1996, he wanted to "mine current academic research for insights, theories, direction, or inspiration".<ref name=telegraph/> His first assignment was to write a piece about fashion. Instead of writing about high-class fashion, Gladwell opted to write a piece about a man who manufactured T-shirts, saying: "[I]t was much more interesting to write a piece about someone who made a T-shirt for $8 than it was to write about a dress that costs $100,000. I mean, you or I could make a dress for $100,000, but to make a T-shirt for $8—that's much tougher."<ref name=telegraph/>

Gladwell gained popularity with two New Yorker articles, both written in 1996: "The Tipping Point" and "The Coolhunt".<ref>"The Coolhunt" Template:Webarchive, gladwell.com; accessed 17 January 2016.</ref><ref name=Salon/> These two pieces would become the basis for Gladwell's first book, The Tipping Point, for which he received a $1 million advance.<ref name=nyt/><ref name=Salon>Template:Cite news</ref> He continues to write for The New Yorker. Gladwell also was a contributing editor for Grantland, a sports journalism website founded by former ESPN columnist Bill Simmons.

Works

With the release of Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering in 2024, Gladwell has had eight books published.

When asked for the process behind his writing, he said: "I have two parallel things I'm interested in. One is, I'm interested in collecting interesting stories, and the other is I'm interested in collecting interesting research. What I'm looking for is cases where they overlap".<ref name=aps>Jaffe, Eric. "Malcolm in the Middle" Template:Webarchive, psychologicalscience.org, March 2006.</ref>

The Tipping Point

Template:Main

The initial inspiration for his first book, The Tipping Point, which was published in 2000, came from the sudden drop of crime in New York City. He wanted the book to have a broader appeal than just crime, however, and sought to explain similar phenomena through the lens of epidemiology. While Gladwell was a reporter for The Washington Post, he covered the AIDS epidemic. He began to take note of "how strange epidemics were", saying epidemiologists have a "strikingly different way of looking at the world". The term "tipping point" comes from the moment in an epidemic when the virus reaches critical mass and begins to spread at a much higher rate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Gladwell's theories of crime were heavily influenced by the "broken windows theory" of policing, and Gladwell is credited for packaging and popularizing the theory in a way that was implementable in New York City. Gladwell's theoretical implementation bears a striking resemblance to the "stop-and-frisk" policies of the NYPD.<ref name="Smithsonian">Template:Cite web</ref> However, in the decade and a half since its publication, The Tipping Point and Gladwell have both come under fire for the tenuous link between "broken windows" and New York City's drop in violent crime. During a 2013 interview with BBC journalist Jon Ronson for The Culture Show, Gladwell admitted that he was "too in love with the broken-windows notion". He went on to say that he was "so enamored by the metaphorical simplicity of that idea that I overstated its importance".<ref name="PubliclyShamed">Template:Cite book</ref>

The Sunday Times described the book as one of the 12 most influential books since World War II.<ref name="STimes">Template:Webarchive</ref>

Template:Main

After The Tipping Point, Gladwell published Blink in 2005. The book attempts to explain how the human unconscious interprets events or cues as well as how past experiences can lead people to make informed decisions very rapidly. Gladwell uses examples like the Getty kouros and psychologist John Gottman's research on the likelihood of divorce in married couples. Gladwell's hair was the inspiration for Blink. He stated that once he allowed his hair to get longer, he started to get speeding tickets all the time, an oddity considering that he had never gotten one before and that he started getting pulled out of airport security lines for special attention.<ref name=Independent>Template:Cite news</ref> In a particular incident, he was apprehended by three police officers while walking in downtown Manhattan because his curly hair matched the profile of a rapist, despite the fact the suspect looked nothing like him otherwise.<ref name=Independent />

Gladwell's The Tipping Point (2000) and Blink (2005) were international bestsellers. The Tipping Point sold more than two million copies in the United States. Blink sold equally well.<ref name=nyt/><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Subscription required</ref> As of November 2008, the two books had sold a combined 4.5 million copies.<ref name=timeoutliers/>

Outliers

Template:Main

Gladwell's third book, Outliers, published in 2008, examines how a person's environment, in conjunction with personal drive and motivation, affects his or her possibility and opportunity for success. Gladwell's original question revolved around lawyers: "We take it for granted that there's this guy in New York who's the corporate lawyer, right? I just was curious: Why is it all the same guy?", referring to the fact that "a surprising number of the most powerful and successful corporate lawyers in New York City have almost the exact same biography".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=timeoutliers/> In another example given in the book, Gladwell noticed that people ascribe Bill Gates's success to being "really smart" or "really ambitious". He noted that he knew a lot of people who are really smart and really ambitious, but not worth $60 billion. "It struck me that our understanding of success was really crude—and there was an opportunity to dig down and come up with a better set of explanations."

What the Dog Saw

Template:Main

Gladwell's fourth book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, was published in 2009. What the Dog Saw bundles together Gladwell's favourites of his articles from The New Yorker since he joined the magazine as a staff writer in 1996.<ref name="IanSample">Template:Cite news</ref> The stories share a common theme, namely that Gladwell tries to show us the world through the eyes of others, even if that other happens to be a dog.<ref name=nytimes>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=latimes>Reynolds, Susan Salter (22 November 2009), "'What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures' by Malcolm Gladwell – The New Yorker writer's sense of curiosity burns bright in this collection of essays", Los Angeles Times.</ref>

David and Goliath

Template:Main

Gladwell's fifth book, David and Goliath, was released in October 2013, and examines the struggle of underdogs versus favourites. The book is partially inspired by an article Gladwell wrote for The New Yorker in 2009 titled "How David Beats Goliath".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The book was a bestseller but received mixed reviews.<ref>Maslin, Janet (4 October 2013). "Finding Talking Points Among the Underdogs", The New York Times.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web Template:Subscription required</ref><ref>Junod, Tom (25 November 2013). "Malcolm Gladwell Runs Out of Tricks", Esquire.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web Template:Subscription required</ref>

Talking to Strangers

Template:Main

Gladwell's sixth book, Talking to Strangers, was released September 2019. The book examines interactions with strangers, covers examples that include the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia case at Penn State, and the death of Sandra Bland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Gladwell explained what inspired him to write the book as being "struck by how many high profile cases in the news were about the same thing—strangers misunderstanding each other."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It challenges the assumptions we are programmed to make when encountering strangers, and the potentially dangerous consequences of misreading people we do not know.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Bomber Mafia

Template:Main

Gladwell's seventh book, The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War, was released in April 2021.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Revenge of the Tipping Point

Template:Main

Gladwell's eighth book, Revenge of the Tipping Point was released in October 2024. The book is a sequel commemorating the 25 year history of best selling first book, The Tipping Point, which was released in 2000. The book discusses social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> While a bestseller, it received mixed reviews.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Reception

The Tipping Point was named as one of the best books of the decade by The A.V. Club, The Guardian, and The Times.<ref>"The best books of the '00s", The A.V. Club, 25 November 2009.</ref><ref>"What we were reading", The Guardian, 5 December 2009.</ref><ref>The 100 Best Books of the Decade. The Times, 14 November 2009.</ref> It was also Barnes & Noble's fifth-best-selling non-fiction book of the decade.<ref>Bestsellers of the Decade – Nonfiction. Barnes & Noble.</ref> Blink was named to Fast CompanyTemplate:'s list of the best business books of 2005.<ref>Fast Company's Best Books of 2005. Fast Company. 5 January 2008.</ref> It was also number 5 on Amazon customers' favourite books of 2005, named to The Christian Science MonitorTemplate:'s best non-fiction books of 2005, and in the top 50 of Amazon customers' favourite books of the decade.<ref name=amazonbest>Best of the Decade... So Far: Top 50 Customers' Favorites. Amazon.com.</ref><ref>"Best nonfiction 2005". The Christian Science Monitor. 29 November 2005.</ref><ref>Best Books of 2005. Amazon.com.</ref> Outliers was a number 1 New York Times bestseller for 11 straight weeks and was Time's number 10 non-fiction book of 2008 as well as named to the San Francisco ChronicleTemplate:'s list of the 50 best non-fiction books of 2008.<ref>Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers, The New York Times, 15 February 2009.</ref><ref>Grossman, Lev. "The Top 10 of Everything 2008". Time, 3 November 2008.</ref><ref>The 50 best nonfiction books of 2008. San Francisco Chronicle. 21 December 2008.</ref>

Fortune described The Tipping Point as "a fascinating book that makes you see the world in a different way".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Daily Telegraph called it "a wonderfully offbeat study of that little-understood phenomenon, the social epidemic".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Reviewing Blink, The Baltimore Sun dubbed Gladwell "the most original American journalist since the young Tom Wolfe."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Farhad Manjoo at Salon described the book as "a real pleasure. As in the best of Gladwell's work, Blink brims with surprising insights about our world and ourselves."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Economist called Outliers "a compelling read with an important message".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> David Leonhardt wrote in The New York Times Book Review: "In the vast world of nonfiction writing, Malcolm Gladwell is as close to a singular talent as exists today" and Outliers "leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Ian Sample wrote in The Guardian: "Brought together, the pieces form a dazzling record of Gladwell's art. There is depth to his research and clarity in his arguments, but it is the breadth of subjects he applies himself to that is truly impressive."<ref name="IanSample"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Gladwell's critics have described him as prone to oversimplification. The New Republic called the final chapter of Outliers, "impervious to all forms of critical thinking" and said Gladwell believes "a perfect anecdote proves a fatuous rule".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Gladwell has also been criticized for his emphasis on anecdotal evidence over research to support his conclusions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Maureen Tkacik and Steven Pinker have challenged the integrity of Gladwell's approach.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=nyblog>Template:Cite news</ref> Even while praising Gladwell's writing style and content, Pinker summed up Gladwell as "a minor genius who unwittingly demonstrates the hazards of statistical reasoning", while accusing him of "cherry-picked anecdotes, post-hoc sophistry and false dichotomies" in his book Outliers. Referencing a Gladwell reporting mistake in which Gladwell refers to "eigenvalue" as "Igon Value", Pinker criticizes his lack of expertise: "I will call this the Igon Value Problem: when a writer's education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong."<ref name=nyblog/> A writer in The Independent accused Gladwell of posing "obvious" insights.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The British website The Register has accused Gladwell of making arguments by weak analogy and commented Gladwell has an "aversion for fact", adding: "Gladwell has made a career out of handing simple, vacuous truths to people and dressing them up with flowery language and an impressionistic take on the scientific method."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In that regard, The New Republic has called him "America's Best-Paid Fairy-Tale Writer".<ref>Gray, John (22 November 2013), "Malcolm Gladwell Is America's Best-Paid Fairy-Tale Writer", New Republic. Retrieved 17 January 2016.</ref> His approach was satirized by the online site "The Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2005, Gladwell commanded a $45,000 speaking fee.<ref>Paul Wilner (30 January 2005), "In the 'Blink' of an eye: Malcolm Gladwell on the power of first impression", San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 10 June 2012.</ref> In 2008, he was making "about 30 speeches a year—most for tens of thousands of dollars, some for free", according to a profile in New York magazine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2011, he gave three talks to groups of small businessmen as part of a three-city speaking tour put on by Bank of America. The program was titled "Bank of America Small Business Speaker Series: A Conversation with Malcolm Gladwell".<ref>"Bank of America Features Malcolm Gladwell in Speaker Series for Local Small Business OwnersTemplate:Dead link", Bank of America, 16 November 2011; accessed 3 July 2012.</ref> Paul Starobin, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, said the engagement's "entire point seemed to be to forge a public link between a tarnished brand (the bank), and a winning one (a journalist often described in profiles as the epitome of cool)".<ref>Paul Starobin (March/April 2012), "Money Talks: If you cover Wall Street, should you take Wall Street speaking fees?", Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 10 June 2012.</ref> An article by Melissa Bell of The Washington Post posed the question: "Malcolm Gladwell: Bank of America's new spokesman?"<ref>Bell, Melissa (16 November 2011), "Malcolm Gladwell: Bank of America's new spokesman?", The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 June 2012.</ref> Mother Jones editor Clara Jeffery said Gladwell's job for Bank of America had "terrible ethical optics". However, Gladwell says he was unaware that Bank of America was "bragging about his speaking engagements" until the Atlantic Wire emailed him. Gladwell explained: Template:Blockquote

In 2012, CBS's 60 Minutes attributed the trend of American parents "redshirting" their five-year-olds (postponing entrance into kindergarten to give them an advantage) to a section in Gladwell's Outliers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Sociology professor Shayne Lee referenced Outliers in a CNN editorial commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Lee discussed the strategic timing of King's ascent from a "Gladwellian perspective".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Gladwell gives credit to Richard Nisbett and Lee Ross for inventing the Gladwellian genre.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Gladwell has provided blurbs for "scores of book covers", leading The New York Times to ask, "Is it possible that Mr. Gladwell has been spreading the love a bit too thinly?" Gladwell, who said he did not know how many blurbs he had written, acknowledged, "The more blurbs you give, the lower the value of the blurb. It's the tragedy of the commons."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Podcast

Gladwell is host of the podcast Revisionist History, initially produced through Panoply Media and now through Gladwell's own podcast company. It began in 2016 and has aired seven 10-episode seasons. Each episode begins with an inquiry about a person, event, or idea, and proceeds to question the received wisdom about the subject. Gladwell was recruited to create a podcast by Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of The Slate Group, which also includes the podcast network Panoply Media. In September 2018, Gladwell announced he was co-founding a podcast company, later named Pushkin Industries,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with Weisberg.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> About this decision, Gladwell told the Los Angeles Times: "There is a certain kind of whimsy and emotionality that can only be captured on audio."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He also has a music podcast with Bruce Headlam and Rick Rubin, titled Broken Record where they interview musicians.<ref>Woods, Sean (25 November 2018). "Malcolm Gladwell on 'Broken Record' Podcast, Hanging Out With Musicians", Rolling Stone.</ref> It has two seasons, 2018–2019 and 2020 with a total of 49 episodes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Unusual Suspects with Kenya Barris and Malcom Gladwell, premiered January 30, 2025. The podcast features candid interviews with influential figures across a spectrum of disciplines. A common thread throughout these interviews are discussions about each subject's path to success. Interview subjects have ranged from trailblazing Fortune 500 CEO Ursula Burns to hip hop recording artist and producer Dr. Dre.<ref name='Deadline-Suspects'>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Gladwell is a Christian.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His family attended Above Bar Church in Southampton, U.K., and later Gale Presbyterian in Elmira when they moved to Canada. His parents and siblings are part of the Mennonite community in Southwestern Ontario.<ref name="Author Malcolm Gladwell finds his faith again" /> Gladwell wandered away from his Christian roots when he moved to New York, only to rediscover his faith during the writing of David and Goliath and his encounter with Wilma Derksen regarding the death of her child.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Gladwell was a national class runner and an Ontario High School (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations – OFSAA) champion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was among Canada's fastest teenagers at 1500 metres, running 4:14 at the age of 13 and 4:05 when aged 14. At university, Gladwell ran 1500 metres in 3:55. In 2014, at the age of 51, he ran a 4:54 at the Fifth Avenue Mile.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At 57 he ran a 5:15 mile.<ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

His first child, a daughter, was born in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2024 it was reported that "In a span of five years, he got engaged, had two children, turned 61, and moved from Manhattan to the small town of Hudson, New York."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Awards and honours

{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B=Template:AmboxTemplate:Main other }}

In 2005, Time named Gladwell one of its 100 most influential people.<ref name="The 2005 TIME 100">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2007, he received the American Sociological Association's first Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The same year, he received an honorary degree from the University of Waterloo.

In 2011, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada, the fifth highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada.<ref name=":0" />

He has received honorary degrees from the University of Waterloo (2007)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the University of Toronto (2011).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

His is a recipient of the 2024 Audio Vanguard Award presented by On Air Fest.<ref name='Audio-Vanguard'>Template:Cite web</ref>

Bibliography

Books

Audiobooks

  • Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon
  • I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Essays and reporting

Podcasts

Book reviews

Date Review article Work(s) reviewed
2015 Template:Cite journal Template:Cite book
2015 Template:Cite journal Template:Cite book

Filmography

Other appearances

Gladwell was a featured storyteller for the Moth podcast. He told a story about a well-intentioned wedding toast for a young man and his friends that went wrong.<ref>Malcolm Gladwell, TheMoth.org; accessed 17 January 2016.</ref> Gladwell was featured in General Motors "EVerybody in." campaign.<ref>[1], twitter.com;</ref>

Gladwell is the only guest to have been featured as a headliner at every OZY Fest festival<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>—an annual music and ideas festival produced by OZY Media—other than OZY co-founder and CEO Carlos Watson. Gladwell has also appeared on several television shows for OZY Media, including the Carlos Watson Show (YouTube)<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:CbignoreTemplate:Dead YouTube link</ref> and Third Rail With OZY (PBS).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Gladwell has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss's book Tools of Titans.

Gladwell was voiced by Colton Dunn in Solar Opposites S3.E1 The Extremity Triangulator.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Sister project links

Template:Malcolm Gladwell Template:Authority control