What the Dog Saw

And Other Adventures

By: Malcolm Gladwell

Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell

Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

The best-selling author of The Bomber Mafia focuses on "minor geniuses" and idiosyncratic behavior to illuminate the ways all of us organize experience in this "delightful" (Bloomberg News) collection of writings from The New Yorker.

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?

In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period.

Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.

"Good writing", Gladwell says in his preface, "does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head". What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary.

©2009 Malcolm Gladwell (P)2009 Hachette Audio

Gladwell in New Fun-Size!

What made the experience of listening to What the Dog Saw the most enjoyable?

Covering a broad range of topics, from dog whisperers to the Veg-o-Matic, NASA to mustard, and such awesome-sounding topics like risk homeostasis and creeping determinism - Gladwell delivers once again with his series of essays from the New Yorker. He meanders pleasantly from theme to theme, so you're not stuck with any overarching idea for too long, and yet he still manages to put together some incredible comparisons and conclusions. What is the difference between choking in a sport/skill vs panicking, and why would that matter? Why do we have issues connecting dots that lead up to terrorist attacks? What does breast cancer have to do with birth control and third world countries? On top of all that, Gladwell is such a master storyteller that he can make the evolution of condiments fascinating. My only minor complaint is that the Ron Popeil story in the beginning was a bit long and probably a decent story for the middle somewhere, but a bit weak for an opener. The cherry on top is how brilliantly he reads his own stuff. Well played, Sir.

Very interesting, but a slow start

Some very interesting articles, and I really like his observations. Unfortunately (in my opinion) he starts the book with a couple really long pieces that are less interesting, and he almost lost me. Happily I made it through to the shorter, more engaging articles beyond.

Excellent insight!

What did you love best about What the Dog Saw?

Incredibly interesting stories of human nature

What did you like best about this story?

Great coverage, contrast and prose

Which character – as performed by Malcolm Gladwell – was your favorite?

The Clairol advertising woman

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

ThR teaching module

Any additional comments?

Gladwell's is a spectacular narrator!

Great listen

I would agree that this is not the best of Gladwell's books. However, it is very interesting and a great listen told by the author.

Thought Provoking

Too much data leads to over confidence. Experts aren't really experts. Process trumps gut. I encourage you to read if you enjoyed Gladwells other books.

Classic Gladwell

Good stories. Great storytelling. Not cohesive like his other books, awesome for short trips or informative trips to the gym.

One of Malcolm Gladwell's finest presentations.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely. A journey through - that which we did not have to personally experience yet receive the benefits of.

Any additional comments?

Mr. Gladwell has 5 masterpieces at Audible. Hope you will enjoy and benefit from all.

Bill Ellington
Alexandria, LA

Great read

Amazing book. interesting all the way through. lots of different stories. All of his books are good.

Perspective

The book provides a view of different situations from less popular perspectives. The view he provides may be your own, but is still discusses in a way that it is different from what society’s actions support. This book is a stepping stone towards his other books. I see small elements of “Blink” and “Outliers”, both books that I love, within the views presented. This book, however, falls slightly short of their sustained brilliance.

Another Malcolm Gladwell success

Another Malcolm Gladwell success. Loved it. Gladwell takes multiple concepts and, as usual, turns them inside out and makes you think about what you thought you knew. Andy Brown, Director of Education and Training, The Climer School of Real Estate www.climerrealestateschool.com