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Corruptible
- Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us
- Narrated by: Dr Brian Klaas
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
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Corruptible
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Summary
Does power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to power? Are entrepreneurs who embezzle and cops who kill the outgrowths of bad systems, or are they just bad people? Are tyrants made or born? If you were thrust into a position of power, would new temptations to line your pockets or torture your enemies gnaw away at you until you gave in?
To answer these questions, Corruptible draws on more than 500 interviews with some of the world's noblest and dirtiest leaders, from presidents and philanthropists to rebels, cultists and dictators. It also makes use of a wealth of counter-intuitive examples from history and social science: you'll meet the worst bioterrorist in American history, hit the slopes with a ski instructor who once ruled Iraq, have breakfast with the yogurt kingpin of Madagascar, learn what bees and wasps can teach us about corruption, find out why our Stone Age brains cause us to choose bad leaders and learn why the inability of chimpanzees to play baseball is central to the development of human hierarchies.
Corruptible will make you challenge basic assumptions about how you can rise to become a leader and what might happen to your head when you get there. It also provides a road map to avoiding classic temptations, suggesting a series of reforms that would ensure that better people get into power, while ensuring that power purifies rather than corrupts.
Critic reviews
"Illuminating." (Adam Grant, best-selling author of Think Again)
"Passionate, insightful, and occasionally jaw-dropping." (Peter Frankopan, best-selling author of The Silk Roads)
What listeners say about Corruptible
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- Amazon Customer
- 23-02-22
A great read to our times
Excellent, well-informed, and well illustrated dissection of the causes and effects of inappropriate leaders, whether governmental or corporate.
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- Joe W
- 03-01-22
Anything by Brian Klaas is worth listening to
Absolutely loved this and cruised through it in a matter of days. Like his podcast (Power Corrupts), this book is full of brilliant stories and insights, along with practical ideas of how to be better people and create a more just world.
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- Anonymous User
- 21-06-22
Corruption can be dealt with!
A really good book about levels of corruption and novel ways to deal with it.
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- bookworm
- 22-12-21
From the creator of the podcast Power Corrupts
Love his podcast but while it highlights many problems in the world it rarely offers any solutions. So it’s great that this book not only explores the causes of corruption in detail but suggests some solutions!
Strongly recommend.
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- Jack
- 21-02-22
Absolutely fascinating!
This provides a brilliant, in depth but yet very easy to understand review of power and corruption.
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- John Morsostrings
- 25-06-22
Eccellent
This book has been very interesting and very well received. Lots of very interesting stories and everything made perfect sense. Very encouraging to know that there are things that can be done to safeguard against corruption. Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in how the world works
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- Amazon Customer
- 17-10-22
A deeper dive into the how and why of corruption
Big fan of the podcast, so naturally I pre-ordered this. I wasn't disappointed. Where the podcast follows a more case study style, this book really dives into a more evidence based approach of how and why corruption emerges.
Narrated by the author, which is always a plus.
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- Mitch Dean
- 07-09-22
Fascinating and entertaining
I learnt so much from this and found it so interesting. some examples of political evil in history is truly fascinating and offers perspective on everything
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- Shaun Solomon
- 24-01-23
Brilliant!
Excellent book! Balanced and well thought-out concepts. This man needs a consulting gig in the UK government ASAP!
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- Phil Greenland
- 08-02-22
Absolutely Fascinating
Having listened to all of Brian's Podcast series Power Corrupts I couldn't resist his book. He may have mentioned it once or twice in the podcast :-P. A fascinating look at our relationship with power and people in power from different angles. After the disastrous result of the Brexit referendum in the UK, I decided it might be a good idea to start following politics....at least a little. Many of the comparisons and explanations provided by Brian in his book align well with the behaviours seen of some people in the corridors of power in the UK over the last few years. While the UK is still a way off of the examples set by the regimes Brian analyses....every good despot's gotta start somewhere....right?
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