Talk To Strangers

Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers and why they often go wrong—now with a new afterword by the author. A Best Book of the Year: The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press 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 one another that isn’t true? Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland—throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. 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. In his first book since his #1 bestseller David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell has written a gripping guidebook for troubled times.

If you are hanging from a trapeze And up sneaks a camel with bony knees, Remember this rule, if you please— Never talk to strangers. This book brilliantly highlights situations that children will find themselves in—whether they’re at home and the doorbell rings, or playing in the park, or mailing a letter on their street—and tells them what to do if a stranger (always portrayed as a large animal, such as a rhino) approaches. Colorful, ’60s-style “psychedelic” artwork and witty, lively rhyme clearly spell out a message about safety that empowers kids, and that has never been more relevant. Irma Joyce wrote many Golden Books during the 1960s. George Buckett was a popular children’s book illustrator during the 1960s.

For anyone who needs a little help finding love, this book is the ultimate dating makeover kit! The line at Starbucks. The movies. The Internet. Even the dry cleaners... there are dozens of opportunites to seize the date, but millions of lonely singles pass them by! David Wygant shows readers just how easy it can be to overcome fear and meet new people in their daily routines. David explains the three simple steps to getting a date with ease: being prepared, being aware, and making contact. Always Talk to Strangers breaks away from pop psychology, gimmicks, and rules to offer concrete information on how single people actually meet--and successfully date--other singles. No mind games, cheap tricks, or corny pickup lines here. Just common sense, and specific information on: - Where to go to meet people, and when - Why bars and clubs are the worst places to get a date - Overcoming fear and negative thinking - Using props to start a natural conversation - Making a great first impression - Spotting opportunity--and going for it!

A “meticulously researched and buoyantly written” (Esquire) look at what happens when we talk to strangers, and why it affects everything from our own health and well-being to the rise and fall of nations in the tradition of Susan Cain’s Quiet and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens “This lively, searching work makes the case that welcoming ‘others’ isn’t just the bedrock of civilization, it’s the surest path to the best of what life has to offer.”—Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Homeland Elegies In our cities, we stand in silence at the pharmacy and in check-out lines at the grocery store, distracted by our phones, barely acknowledging one another, even as rates of loneliness skyrocket. Online, we retreat into ideological silos reinforced by algorithms designed to serve us only familiar ideas and like-minded users. In our politics, we are increasingly consumed by a fear of people we’ve never met. But what if strangers—so often blamed for our most pressing political, social, and personal problems—are actually the solution? In The Power of Strangers, Joe Keohane sets out on a journey to discover what happens when we bridge the distance between us and people we don’t know. He learns that while we’re wired to sometimes fear, distrust, and even hate strangers, people and societies that have learned to connect with strangers benefit immensely. Digging into a growing body of cutting-edge research on the surprising social and psychological benefits that come from talking to strangers, Keohane finds that even passing interactions can enhance empathy, happiness, and cognitive development, ease loneliness and isolation, and root us in the world, deepening our sense of belonging. And all the while, Keohane gathers practical tips from experts on how to talk to strangers, and tries them out himself in the wild, to awkward, entertaining, and frequently poignant effect. Warm, witty, erudite, and profound, equal parts sweeping history and self-help journey, this deeply researched book will inspire readers to see everything—from major geopolitical shifts to trips to the corner store—in an entirely new light, showing them that talking to strangers isn’t just a way to live; it’s a way to survive.

Connect to the world around you and realize the enormous potential in talking to strangers Everyday, random encounters really can change lives, when you make them happen the right way and leverage the connection at the other end. Talk to Strangers explains how to stand out and tap the potential of others by taking notice of who is standing alongside you on the bank line, the latte pickup point, or the ticket counter at the airport. David Topus' life-changing message is that we should "always connect," which means going beyond online relationships and engaging in the random, real-life interactions that have unlimited potential to supercharge businesses, accelerate careers, and enrich your life. Why there is opportunity through the people you meet wherever you go The four key beliefs of successful random connectors Techniques for creating comfort and trust quickly with complete strangers How to optimize and monetize your newly-established contacts When you connect to those in your everyday world, you'll discover the life-expanding potential of random encounters and unlimited opportunities.

They were strangers in a seductive game of hide-and-seek. One by one, the women were disappearing. Each had been young, vulnerable...and each had been spending time on the Internet "chatting" with a mysterious stranger. It was Carrie Blue's job to track down that stranger, to put herself on the Internet in the guise of a lonely young student, and to smoke out a cunningly seductive killer. But soon Carrie is drawn inexorably into a world where truth is indistinguishable from fiction, where fantasy and reality collide. It proves far more difficult than she ever could have imagined to resist the lure of a twisted mind--one that may already have figured out who Carrie is, and marked her as his next kill.

"Don't talk to strangers" is the advice long given to children by parents of all classes and races. Today it has blossomed into a fundamental precept of civic education, reflecting interracial distrust, personal and political alienation, and a profound suspicion of others. In this powerful and eloquent essay, Danielle Allen, a 2002 MacArthur Fellow, takes this maxim back to Little Rock, rooting out the seeds of distrust to replace them with "a citizenship of political friendship." Returning to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954 and to the famous photograph of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, being cursed by fellow "citizen" Hazel Bryan, Allen argues that we have yet to complete the transition to political friendship that this moment offered. By combining brief readings of philosophers and political theorists with personal reflections on race politics in Chicago, Allen proposes strikingly practical techniques of citizenship. These tools of political friendship, Allen contends, can help us become more trustworthy to others and overcome the fossilized distrust among us. Sacrifice is the key concept that bridges citizenship and trust, according to Allen. She uncovers the ordinary, daily sacrifices citizens make to keep democracy working—and offers methods for recognizing and reciprocating those sacrifices. Trenchant, incisive, and ultimately hopeful, Talking to Strangers is nothing less than a manifesto for a revitalized democratic citizenry.

Readers learn from a young age not to talk to strangers they encounter in the “real world,” but they may not understand the danger of talking to strangers online. Accessible text explains why this is unsafe and informs readers of what they should do if someone online says things that make them uncomfortable. The awareness raised in students will help them become confident and safe Internet users.