The Big Idea: Malcolm Gladwell looks to the past
NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - The top-selling author of some of the most groundbreaking books in a generation has launched a new podcast called "Revisionist History." Fox 5 goes inside the mind of Malcolm Gladwell in this month's Big Idea.
Gladwell told Fox 5 that the way into complicated ideas is through people and their stories. He said he has always been interested in people having been unusual in some sort of way: "unusual good, unusual bad, strange, eccentric." He believes that we learn most from people at "the fringes." He said that his book "Outliers" was about that.
Gladwell said that "Revisionist History" is a podcast about revisiting the past. He said that humans are often too quick to dismiss the past and reluctant to go back and figure out if they were right.
Gladwell said that when he started writing books he didn't think anyone would read them other than his mother. He said that most people have important jobs that keep them in the office, but he gets to run around in the world and "bring things back for everybody else."