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The cover of Revenge of the Tipping Point

Revenge of the Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell, 2024

Discover how hidden social boundaries, group proportions, and a powerful few shape epidemics, and why recognizing human agency is essential to preventing harm.

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8 parts, about 19 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Revisits social epidemics as things people design and exploit, and asks who is responsible when they cause harm
  • Gives you three lenses, local overstories, group proportions and the dangerous few, for seeing why behavior spreads where it does
  • Builds its case from bank robberies, school suicide clusters, fraud and the opioid crisis, restoring the actor to passive accounts

Who it is for

  • Public health and policy professionals
  • Leaders shaping the culture of a school, town or firm
  • Readers of the author who want the darker sequel

What the summary covers

  1. From contagion to responsibility2 min
  2. Epidemics have boundaries2 min
  3. Miami and the local overstory2 min
  4. When sameness becomes vulnerability2 min
  5. The Magic Third and engineered proportions3 min
  6. The dangerous few2 min
  7. Overstories can change3 min
  8. The opioid epidemic as a forensic test3 min

About the author

  • Malcolm GladwellBritish Canadian journalist and New Yorker staff writer
    • Born 3 September 1963 in Fareham, Hampshire, England
    • History degree from Trinity College, University of Toronto, 1984
    • Covered business and science for The Washington Post 1987 to 1996
    • Member of the Order of Canada, 2011

Read it alongside

  • Goes deeperEmpire of Pain

    Malcolm Gladwell, citing an econometric analysis, says the 2010 OxyContin reformulation shifted many dependent users toward heroin; Patrick Radden Keefe reports staff told the Sacklers that swallowing pills whole, the leading abuse route, was something the new version could not prevent.

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