How Ideas Spread, Hide Cruelty & Shape Policy — Modern Wisdom (Malcolm Gladwell)
Update: 2025-12-06
Description
Hook: A few hidden nodes — and a good story — can reshape public policy, markets, and moral outrage.
In this 4-minute summary (original: 1 hour), host Chris Williamson and guest Malcolm Gladwell unpack how systems mask cruelty, why small groups drive epidemics of ideas and harm, and how storytelling outperforms raw data in persuasion. They begin with the unsettling history of capital punishment and lethal injection, then map Gladwell’s contagion framework onto the opioid crisis (Purdue and OxyContin) to show how targeted influence—not mass persuasion—creates catastrophic outcomes.
What you’ll learn: the asymmetry of influence, why ~5% of carriers spread most ideas, how technology amplifies super-spreaders, and why precise, small interventions beat broad fixes. Topics covered include health, education reform, politics, society, science, and psychology.
Hosts: Chris Williamson; Guest: Malcolm Gladwell. Listen now to get the key ideas in minutes.
In this 4-minute summary (original: 1 hour), host Chris Williamson and guest Malcolm Gladwell unpack how systems mask cruelty, why small groups drive epidemics of ideas and harm, and how storytelling outperforms raw data in persuasion. They begin with the unsettling history of capital punishment and lethal injection, then map Gladwell’s contagion framework onto the opioid crisis (Purdue and OxyContin) to show how targeted influence—not mass persuasion—creates catastrophic outcomes.
What you’ll learn: the asymmetry of influence, why ~5% of carriers spread most ideas, how technology amplifies super-spreaders, and why precise, small interventions beat broad fixes. Topics covered include health, education reform, politics, society, science, and psychology.
Hosts: Chris Williamson; Guest: Malcolm Gladwell. Listen now to get the key ideas in minutes.
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