Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell will speak at the State Theatre Wednesday, January 29.

The event, titled “An Evening with Malcolm Gladwell” and presented by The Centre Daily Times and The Daily Collegian, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are free, but according to the State Theatre’s website, the event is already sold out.

Gladwell is a prolific writer with a list of bestselling titles that include “Outliers,” “Blink,” and “The Tipping Point.” He has been included in TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People List and was named one of Foreign Policy’s top global thinkers. Gladwell has also contributed to the New Yorker since 1996.

“Talking to Strangers,” Gladwell’s most recent book and the current No. 2 New York Times nonfiction bestseller, examines Penn State leaders’ decision–making in response to the Sandusky sex-abuse scandal. He posits that in trusting Sandusky, Penn State leaders “default(ed) to truth,” a phenomenon that the book describes as an automatic assumption of an individual’s honesty.

“In those rare instances where trust ends in betrayal, those victimized by default to truth deserve our sympathy, not our censure,” he writes.

Gladwell also claimed that “the leadership at Penn State was totally, outrageously attacked over this. I think they’re blameless,” while discussing the book on the Bill Simmons Podcast.

About the Author

Jim Davidson

Jim is a junior English and history major and the features editor for Onward State. He, like most of the Penn State undergraduate population, is from 'just outside Philadelphia,' and grew up in Spring City, Pennsylvania. He covers a variety of Penn State topics, but spends nine months of every year waiting for the start of soccer season. You can reach him via email at jim@onwardstate.com or follow him on twitter @messijim.

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