Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is one of the most influential nonfiction writers and speakers of the past quarter century — a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1996 and the author of eight New York Times bestsellers, including The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, David and Goliath, Talking to Strangers, The Bomber Mafia, and, in 2024, Revenge of the Tipping Point. His work has a rare reach: ideas he introduced — the "tipping point," "thin-slicing," and the "10,000-hour rule" — have entered everyday business and cultural vocabulary. Time named him one of its 100 Most Influential People, and Foreign Policy has listed him among its Top Global Thinkers.

Born in Fareham, England, in 1963 and raised in Elmira, Ontario, Malcolm earned a history degree from Trinity College at the University of Toronto. He began in journalism at The American Spectator, spent nearly a decade as a reporter at The Washington Post covering business and science, and joined The New Yorker in 1996 — where two early articles, "The Tipping Point" and "The Coolhunt," set the stage for the book that made his name. In 2011 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada, whose citation calls him "an internationally renowned journalist, author and public intellectual" with a gift for making complex ideas accessible.

In 2018 Malcolm co-founded Pushkin Industries, an audio-content company, and he has become one of the most important voices in podcasting. His flagship show, Revisionist History — launched in 2016, and running into its second decade — re-examines something overlooked or misunderstood from the past and asks whether we got it right the first time; he also co-hosts the music show Broken Record with producer Rick Rubin. In 2024 he received On Air Fest's Audio Vanguard Award for his impact on the art form.

What makes Malcolm exceptional on stage is the same thing that makes his books unputdownable: he starts with a surprising story, follows the evidence somewhere unexpected, and leaves an audience seeing a familiar subject — success, decision-making, influence, leadership, the future of work — in a completely new way. He is, by wide agreement, both entertaining and genuinely challenging, and audiences leave with ideas they keep arguing about long after the room empties.