Journalist, best-selling author and host of the popular podcast Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell will appear in Arlington this weekend for a “wide-ranging” talk with Tyler Cowen.
A staff writer for The New Yorker for 20 years, Gladwell’s work often probes under-explored issues and challenges popular thinking in history, pop culture, science, economics, psychology and beyond. The Canadian journalist has seven books to his name, including 2000’s The Tipping Point, 2005’s Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, 2008’s Outliers, 2009’s What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures and 2013’s David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. His most recent release used the titular Biblical story as an entry point to how we consider power and those without it, employing all facets of history—war, education, social issues—as the evidence for his argument.
Similarly, Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast, which had a lock on the top iTunes charts during its run in summer 2016, did a multi-episode jag on the shortcomings of the U.S. education system, along with episodes on the songwriting and creative processes of artists like Elvis Costello and Leonard Cohen, the efficacy of Stephen Colbert’s political satire and the psychology behind NBA free throws. That’s all to say that when George Mason University describes Gladwell and Cowen’s forthcoming discussion as “wide-ranging,” it will probably prove true.
Gladwell and Cowen’s discussion will take place Feb. 27 from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Westin in Arlington as part of George Mason’s ongoing Conversations With Tyler series and podcast, where Cowen speaks one-on-one with the world’s top thinkers. Cowen is GMU’s chair of economics and general director of the Mercatus Center, and his past guests have included Nate Silver, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Camille Paglia.
If you weren’t lucky enough to snag a spot at the Westin talk before registration reached capacity, you can live-stream the event online.
