Explore the power of the underdog in Malcolm Gladwell's dazzling examination of success, motivation, and the role of adversity in shaping our lives, from the best-selling author of The Bomber Mafia.
Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David's victory was improbable and miraculous. He shouldn't have won. Or should he have? Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times best sellers including Talking to Strangers and host of the podcast Revisionist History , uses original interviews, archival footage, and his trademark insight to weave together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in Central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard.
As listeners hear these stories unfurl, Gladwell examines one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.
The best-selling author of The Bomber Mafia focuses on "minor geniuses" and idiosyncratic behavior to illuminate the ways all of us organize experience in this "delightful" Bloomberg News collection of writings from The New Yorker. What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup?
What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century? No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day.
James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you.
The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. By: James Clear. Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn.
In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt. We listen to opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. We see disagreement as a threat to our egos, rather than an opportunity to learn. By: Adam Grant.
After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a hostage negotiator brought him face-to-face with a range of criminals, including bank robbers and terrorists.
Reaching the pinnacle of his profession, he became the FBI's lead international kidnapping negotiator. Never Split the Difference takes you inside the world of high-stakes negotiations and into Voss' head. By: Chris Voss. What is that magic quality that makes some people instantly loved and respected? Everyone wants to be their friend or, if single, their lover! In business, they rise swiftly to the top of the corporate ladder.
What is their "Midas touch? By: Leil Lowndes. The guru to the gurus at last shares his knowledge with the rest of us. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell.
In Thinking, Fast and Slow , Kahneman at last offers his own, first book for the general public. It is a lucid and enlightening summary of his life's work. It will change the way you think about thinking. Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains By: Daniel Kahneman.
What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research.
Humorous, surprising, and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street. By: Jordan B. Peterson , and others. She found that leaders in organizations ranging from small entrepreneurial startups and family-owned businesses to nonprofits, civic organizations, and Fortune 50 companies all ask the same question: How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture?
This audiobook answers this question. Do you shudder at the very thought of approaching someone and starting a conversation, because you know it'll be very awkward and unpleasant and you will appear uninteresting and boring? Do you have no idea how to break the ice effectively and actually present yourself in the manner you want to? This book will solve all of these problems with it's easy to understand tips and tricks on how to start a conversation with a complete stranger!
By: Dean Mack. For decades we've been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. He tells it like it is - a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today.
By: Mark Manson. You can go after the job you want You can take the job you have You can take any situation you're in By: Dale Carnegie. If you are, Gary John Bishop has the answer. In this straightforward handbook, he gives you the tools and advice you need to demolish the slag weighing you down and become the truly unf--ked version of yourself. It's yourself and the negative self-talk you keep telling yourself.
By: Gary John Bishop. Stephen R. Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , has been a top seller for the simple reason that it ignores trends and pop psychology for proven principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity.
Celebrating its 15th year of helping people solve personal and professional problems, this special anniversary edition includes a new foreword and afterword written by Covey that explore whether the 7 Habits are still relevant and answer some of the most common questions he has received over the past 15 years.
By: Stephen R. 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 each other that isn't true? While tackling these questions, Malcolm Gladwell was not solely writing a book for the page. He was also producing for the ear. Court transcripts are brought to life with re-enactments. You actually hear the contentious arrest of Sandra Bland by the side of the road in Texas. As Gladwell revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, and the suicide of Sylvia Plath, you hear directly from many of the players in these real-life tragedies.
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. The audiobook edition of Talking to Strangers was an instant number-one best seller, and was one of the most pre-ordered audiobooks in history.
It seamlessly marries audiobooks and podcasts, creating a completely new and real listening experience. His pleasing tone, phrasing palette, and exceptional skill with dramatic pauses all sound natural, yet add sparkling energy to his writing. I love this book Reading it will actually change not just how you see strangers, but how you look at yourself, the news - the world Reading this book changed me. At a time when the world feels intractably polarized, a book examining the varying ways we misinterpret or fail to communicate with one another could not feel more necessary With a mix of reporting, research and a deft narrative hand, Gladwell illuminates these examples with the page-turning urgency of a paperback thriller.
Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian journalist, author, and podcaster. He is the host of the podcasts Revisionist History and Broken Record and co-founder of the audio production company Pushkin Industries. For his sixth audiobook, the 1 New York Times audio best-seller Talking to Strangers, he drew on real-life audio—including archival footage and clips from his own interviews—to incorporate the production techniques of a podcast into the audiobook format.
It has been praised by Audible listeners as "a new era in audiobooks…and maybe in relating to others. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since He lives in New York. Photographed by Celeste Sloman.
I'm a fan of Malcolm Gladwell and was very disappointed by this book. I found it to be a string of disconnected stories awkwardly pieced together around a weak theme: talking to strangers. The book is about misjudging people and deception. It tries to demonstrate that defaulting to trust is a better option for human relationships than systematic suspicion.
Where it really fails is in bringing in the theme of "strangers. I found the research interesting but incomplete and the analysis superficial. The author reads his own book and does an OK job at it. I prefer professional narrators. The book also includes audio clips and acted narration, like in a podcast.
The execution is OK but not great. All in all, a less than average performance. This is by far the worst book I read from the author. I guess this his attempt to try something new, but failed miserably. His theories and observations are far fetched from reality. This book is a political statement more than an anything else. Deadspin was right.
I gave this book a chance and found it was highly opinionated. I can accept this, but in chapter 2 about 27 minutes where Chamberline signs an agreement with Hitler made an unlikely claim. It states that Chamberline wrote a vulgar statement in place of what historical data claims.
How do I know if the statements in this book are truth or fiction? What you hear on the review is the first chapter and then it has nothing todo with the devil cops killing. If you like to year history from way back on all kinds of strangers meeting each other and fighting then this is the book you will enjoy.
There are TONS of professional editors available through this site, at incredibly affordable fees. There are no shortcuts, and while there are the occasional debut books that achieve phenomenal success right out of the gate, the vast, vast majority that are successful are the result of an incredible amount of elbow grease.
Look froward to learning from you—and sharing back in return. Do you know how is it possible to upload an audiobook in audible India?
Thanks a lot for your excellent article! Especially for children who dont get read to at night any help would be greatly appreciated. And as you go through the process, feel free to email me a question. Thanks for the video. Very helpful. Thanks Luis. Would you ever do an audio for me? But I wish you the best of luck with yours! ACX Narrators. There are TONS of narrators available through this site, at incredibly affordable fees. Hi Rob, thanks for all that you do for us novice audiobook authors.
Under the category AMS dB which is greek to me, it has a red What do you think I did wrong? Everything else in the ACX report is okay. Hi ReShaun, Lots of folks have recommended Audacity. You will have to re-upload that one file again when you want to send it into production. Assuming you already have an ACX account, call them at Great Article!
Can you advise on the following. I have a lot of books that I have kept from childhood. I would love to record to an audio book and share them with the world. What would you suggest? I would appreciate your suggestions and insight.
Thank you! Hi, RociMar. Thanks Rob for the info about recording audio books. I just released my first novel and starting two more. I have a background in radio and radio production and have Pro Tools on the Mac Tower with lots of toys and a killer Sony C48 mic. Appreciate the time and effort you putting into sharing this video and information!
Assuming you already have an ACX account if not create one , call them at Hi Rob, Thanks for your time and information. Weirdly as an Australian author ACX is not available? I find this sadly disempowering and it leaves a hollow feeling.
Hi Marie, Fear not! Hi Rob, I love your kindness. I appreciate your reply. I am not convinced about findawayvoices. I wonder if anyone uses this pathway? As a trained Ireland stage actor I feel that I would be the best person to record my own titles as I understand the emotions etc.
I am looking into Google Play to see if I can work this out. I have another book since Covid19 came along to destroy the universe. I hope you have another title too. It is a sweetner for the trying times. Love you heaps. Marie xx. Best blog post by you I really like that I am inspired by these product. Took forever and kept crashing during install. Now, desperately trying to uninstall as my paltop keeps freezing.
No good. Why do these people always think our laptops have no security? Hi Rob This is the first time I have ever replied on a blog.
The reason is simple, it is very good. Hum, noise floor, compressions etc… I was using Audacity until reading this and will now download GarageBand for W I have thirteen books on Amazon and love reading, as I do it voluntarily for my local Blind Newspaper.
Hope GB works as Audacity, though free, has sorely tested my patience. Thank you rob. Thanks for your sharing! Your method can solve the issue of recording audiobooks instead of converting formats. That one can remove DRM from audible.
So interesting, thank you. Now I need to rethink the whole project—thanks for your productive, informative, and inspiring post. I know many people who use Audacity, which is free and you can use it on either Mac or PC.
As far as length, I usually put each chapter on its own track in a multi-track file, and each track can be 45 minutes long I think, it might be even longer. My son and I co-authored a non fiction real estate investing book. We have it on Amazon and would like to distribute on Audible. The tone of the book contrast my 35 years of self taught experience with my sons economics degree and millenial views.
I think it would require two seperate voices to effectively narrate. We have done lots of video and have recoeding equipment, however we stay very busy and would like to get someone else to narrate. Do you have any idea how much we should budget for pages? Hi Joe, First, congrats on your book!
A page book might be around 40, words? So very generous of you to take the time sharing this amazing and valuable guidance, Rob, thanks! I notice you appear to be standing in your video. Do you recommend standing while recording? Hey there Rob! Your blog is well detailed, you summarize it carefully to make it more understandable. Sounds great! Thank you so much for the information. I help a blind man write books and would like to create his books in Audible and also my little poem book.
I recorded my own novel in mp3 on a CD. I finally figured out how to create a front cover and label on the CD. My question is, how can I make the CD autorun in order to let listeners listen as soon as they put their CDs in their players? Thanks ahead of time for your response. Hi Rob, thanks for your great articles! Or do I need to start with a new fresh new project and copy all that you have done?
Want to be polite and ask permission. Also, if you say that I can use your file, if I add additional tracks that I need will they automatically be set to go and connected to what you have already done. Probably silly questions but just not sure. Hi Marilyn, Absolutely! Just delete everything in the file, I only included it so you could hear how my recordings sound. Use it as you wish, no attribution required. So if chapter 19 is 28 minutes long, all exported tracks chapters export also as 28 minutes each.
Hi Taylor, First, congrats on recording your own audiobook! I briefly used a programme called Loopback, exceptionally easy to use, which removed the hissing immediately but the free trial only lasted about 15 minutes. I have the same issue as Damian. I got a reply from them just now saying my noise floor is too high.
Hi Chartreuse! Also try moving your setup into a closet or some very small space temporarily, with blankets hanging or whatever you can do to limit the ambient room sound to an absolute minimum, and moving your computer as far away from the microphone as possible.
Thank you, Rob. I will follow all of your advice through. I actually made a sort of tent with throws and a parasol. The more I enclosed myself the worse the echo got. Could you shed some light on the reason for this? In the end, the best place was a corner of a corner sofa with lots of soft furnishings packed around Yet still …the hiss. And something else no one states clearly anywhere — what should you read your book from?
I read from an iPad. I connected the mic to my laptop which I put on the floor about 3 feet away the lenght of the cable on edge so it kept cool and the fan stayed off. I had the heating off so no boiler noise, desktop off so no fan noise, no household appliances on.
I recorded when the neighbours were out or quiet. Hi Chartreuse — Not sure about the echo, but if it is a hiss, you might have interference as Damien did. As for reading, I read from an ipad for longer work, but for shorter stuff like podcast episodes I read right from my laptop with Garageband or now Logic Pro recording in the background. Hi again, Chartreuse. Hi Damian! Please comment back here or email me via the contact page to let me know how this works out, so other folks can benefit from your learning.
Hi Damien — I also put a call into Rode and spoke with a guy named Victor. Good luck, and again let me know how it turns out. Thanks again for your help on this, you went above and beyond. Thank you, Damien! You have just solved my noise-floor issue. I called Apple and their Garageband department gave me an elimination list to work through.
But which one? After much searching I came across a link to your post. The result: a blissful hush. Many thanks to both of you. Many thanks for sharing — I feel much more enlightened and less terrified! Thanks very much for your helpful advice. Is that correct? Is there any other form of international audio recording of existing, published books you would recommend?
Hi Hazel! Comment back and let me know what they tell you. What about room tone? ACX calls for. Also in your video you show yourself cutting out extraneous sounds but not replacing them with room tone. I would have surmised, prior to watching your video, that each chapter would consist of two tracks: a vocal track and a room tone track.
Hi Hawes! Hi there. I use GarageBand on my iMac. I have a question. Also, sometimes, when listening to the stream, I think of a better way to describe something I was a trader in the currency markets so some of the things that I did were a bit complicated so needed an explanation.
Do you have any advice on how to cut a part-track into the main stream of a chapter? Hi David — I know this might seem too simple, but all I do is draw a selection rectangle around all the clips to the right of my insertion point and move them right with plenty of room to spare.
Then I either record or copy a clip into the resulting space… reselect the clips to the right, and drag them back where I want them. Is that what you were asking? Hello Mr. Any suggestions re: how to record a song for a framed picture? Want to frame special collage for a lifelong friend. NOT selling it, it a surprise bday gift. FYI my spouse is a computer engineer, so I am fortunate to have good in-house technical support if I need it.
Any gentle push in the right direction is greatly appreciated. Then copy the MP3 file to a flash drive, insert the flash drive into the frame, and copy the song over. Great article.. Hi Katrina! That said, personally, for longer works like novels, the more I get into sound effects, music, etc. I should mention the author is no longer living and the book had limited printing and has been out of print for years. You might want to reach out to them and see if your project fits in with them. Hi Rob, This is a fantastic post.
Thank you very much. Just about to get my first book up on Amazon as an independent author. One of my best friends, whose daughter has been left blind due to cancer, asked me if I can get an audio copy so she could listen to it. But your post makes it crystal clear. Thanks again. Off now to buy a mic and get recording and then mine your site for other really useful publishing information! Hi Rob, thank you for taking the time to put together this wonderful tutorial!
Looking over the suggested hardware list on ACX — two questions. Do we need an external high drive? Or what are the advantages if any of using either? Thank you, Jean. Just plug the mic into the laptop and go. Garageband has plugins for compression, EQ, limiting, etc that help shape your sound. Planning on a Christmas gift for a friend who loves audio books and this genre. I want to keep it simple as possible but also user friendly.
Not optimal, but will work. You can give this to them on a burned CD, or on a flash drive that they can just copy to their iTunes library. Or even just copy the MP3s to a folder on their desktop and click on them to listen. Very informative article. My father is a writer from India with many books to his credit. He writes in Nepali language, a language which uses Devnagiri script. I am planning to re-sell some of his titles in Amazon and then get an audiobook of the same, and may use ACX.
I was wondering if ACX provides services for audiobooks in languages other than English. Any idea on that? I think your best bet would be to give ACX a call at , their customer service reps are really great.
They always get back to you with real answers. Maybe not the answers you want, but always answers! Hi I want to record a chapter of a book for a friend who is Dyslexic. It is a old book Can I do so? Great information, Rob. This will help tremendously! Hi Rob! Do you know of any small companies that can do the recordings? We have books we want to turn into audiobooks.
Btw thanks for sharing! First, you choose a narrator, who is also in most cases their own producer, and you contract with them, and they handle everything. They get either a lump sum dollar amount per finished hour, or a royalty cut your choice. Very helpful and straightforward. Really appreciate the time you took to put this together. Thanks for taking the time Rob to present your experience..
I leaned heaps from your video.. Awesome article and questions from the community. Thanks to all. I have a few books on Kindle that need audiobooks. I will look into ACX. In my example: Beowulf. ACX seems to want a traditional version of the book credited to me already available on Amazon.
This was a fantastic overview and makes it so much easier for me NOT to be freaked out about recording my own audiobook to go along with my new book.
Purchased the mic and anti-pop thingie. Next is the mic. Rob, I stumbled across this via a Google Search. Thanks so much, Damien. Great video Rob — I am about to publish my first novel, and if that goes OK, then I was thinking how the hell to go about an audiobook…. Thanks from the UK! Thanks very much for this, Rob. I was absolutely lost until I found your explanation. I do have one question: do you ever have any problem with computer noise? It works fine although it might be noisy sometimes.
About your ancient Mac, yes, noise can be an issue. In any case, you can send a sample to ACX for them to review, so if you think your internal recorder sounds good, they can confirm it for you. But the problem is that it comes in as either a single giant file, or many chapter files.
All of the Audiobooks from Audible come in as a single file that has a dropdown menu showing the chapters and allows you to jump around by chapters. Is there any software that allows creation of books like that that do not require use of Audible?
Stand alone? Basically Audible is doing the same exact thing — I upload separate tracks for each chapter, and the software is showing it to you as one big file — basically a playlist.
Does that help? Hi Richard! Check it out! They have excellent support, even for non-customers. Nice stuff!
After some research I found some online services that provide audiobook productions. Has anyone had any experience with such services?
Thank you SO much for taking the time to do this video walk though — I now feel much more confident I can do this myself :o. Hey Rob, great post and video, thank you. I have a book in paperback and ebook but its not for sale on Amazon.
Hi Andrew! There are other channels for audiobook sales, but really? My friend wrote a book. He gave me permission to record it as an audiobook and then we plan to split the proceeds. Can we do that in the manner described above? Or does the reader and the author need to be the same? Hi Wayne — You can do this no problem. Helpful article. Curious if a USB headset would be good enough to record audio?
I use them for many video projects and find they keep my audio levels more consistent and minimize if placed properly breathing and lip smack sounds. This is great! Thanks so much! Hi Felicia! Good luck!!! Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.
Learn how your comment data is processed. Facebook Twitter Instagram. Before we get started: You should already have your book done and published.
If not, take care of that first and return to this post later. You should have access to a computer or an iPad. This is meant to be an overview, not a tutorial. Okay, ready? Basically, know this: You have to include separate opening credits, chapter files, closing credits, and a minute sample.
Garageband is the name of the app that comes free with a Mac. For more complicated projects at our studio, we use ProTools, but for a single voice, Garageband is perfect. Easy to use, even for beginners. And it comes free with iPads, too. A microphone. From my experience, basic headphones should be fine.
A quiet space. Any extra room noise can ruin a recording, so choose a space with very little ambient noise. Also, open spaces with nothing on the walls can bounce the sound all over.
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