Current favourite book
I read three or four books on the go, mainly biographies, as research for the podcast, so I mostly read for work. But I recently picked up Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers and it’s the most timely book I’ve ever come across. It’s about how we interpret the behaviour of strangers, and believe the idea that you don’t have anything in common. He begins with the story of a young black woman in America who was stopped by the cops for making a lane change and put in jail, where she eventually killed herself – that’s the jumping-off point. The audio experience is unbelievable; Janelle Monáe composed a song for the book, and instead of it reading out quotes, he uses the actual audio or recreated conversations. It was probably more engaging than the written experience. I’m working on my own book, and that was a big takeaway for me.
<p…