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  • Published: 5 October 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241979860
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download

Who Can You Trust?

How Technology Brought Us Together – and Why It Could Drive Us Apart




A ground-breaking exploration of how the digital era is revolutionizing human trust

If you can't trust those in charge, who can you trust?

From government to business, banks to media, trust in institutions is at an all-time low. Widespread corruption, elitism and economic disparity have led to a worldwide upsurge of anti-establishment movements. But this isn't the age of distrust - far from it.

In this revolutionary book, world-renowned trust expert Rachel Botsman reveals that we are at the tipping point of one of the biggest social transformations in human history. A new world order is emerging: we have lost faith in brands, leaders and systems, but millions of people every day rent their home to total strangers on AirBnB, exchange cryptocurrency online, or get in the car of an unknown Uber driver. This is the age of distributed trust; a paradigm shift driven by new technologies that are rewriting the rules of an all-too-human relationship.

If we are to benefit from this radical transformation, it is vital that we understand the new mechanics of how trust is built, managed, lost and repaired. In Who Can You Trust?, Botsman provides a detailed map of this uncharted landscape - and explores what's next for humanity.

  • Published: 5 October 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241979860
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download

About the author

Rachel Botsman

Rachel Botsman is a world-renowned expert on an explosive new era of trust and technology, whose TED talks on the topic have been viewed over 4 million times. She is an award-winning author, speaker and lecturer at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. Rachel writes and comments regularly for The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, AFR, The Guardian, and more.

She is also the co-author of, What’s Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption is Changing the Way We Live (HarperCollins, 2010), which predicted the rise of platforms such as Airbnb, TaskRabbit and Uber, long before they became popular and was named one of TIME's "Ten Ideas That'll Change the World".

Rachel was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business and one of the 50 most influential management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50.

Praise for Who Can You Trust?

This is that admirable and all too rare book that gives you "an idea to think with" that helps to put new things in place: from Brexit, Donald Trump, and Blockchain to Facebook and your discontents. Who Can You Trust is a primer for a new world that sets you up to be a better citizen, consumer, and parent. In the new world of decentralized trust you need to think about who you trust, why you trust, and what that really means for what kind of new society we are building. A beautifully written, clear eyed book...I learned so much. About so many things I wanted to know. So quickly

Sherry Turkle, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology, MIT, and author of Alone Together

Trust affects everything - from neighbourliness and shopping to democracy. This fascinating and well-researched study of the shifting tides of trust shows both the power of new technological solutions and the often surprising problems they bring in their wake. Every reader will gain new insights into one of the great issues of our time

Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive, NESTA

Beautifully-written . . . the thesis is completely compelling. This is an important book

Andy Haldane, Chief Economist, Bank of England

Profound . . . will cause you to think deeply about your business, your relationships and your life

Don Tapscott, bestselling author of 16 books, including 'Blockchain Revolution'

Extremely thought-provoking . . . a must-read for anyone interested in how the world works - and will work in the future

Will Dean, co-founder and CEO of Tough Mudder

Some people can educate and others can entertain; in Who Can You Trust, Rachel Botsman does both. Read it for insight or escape as it takes you on both journeys

John Eales, most successful captain in the history of Australian rugby

Thrilling. Brilliantly exposes the central paradox of the IT revolution - that it connects us while keeping us apart. Rachel Botsman encourages us to take responsibility for the kind of world we want to live in, and to preserve society's most fragile asset: trust

Hugh Mackay, Social Scientist and best-selling author of sixteen books

Timely, lucid and beautifully written. This is one of the most important books you'll read this year

Richard Glover, Columnist, Sydney Morning Herald, ABC Radio Broadcaster

This book perfectly walks the reader through the past, present, and future of trust as we know it. Rachel Botsman's expertise on this topic is unmatched. It's an absolute must-read for business leaders and everyday consumers alike

Nick Shapiro, Global Head of Trust & Risk Management, Airbnb and former Deputy CIA Deputy Chief of Staff

Botsman rightly challenges us in this new era to ask the compelling questions about who, why and how we trust. Highly recommended

Tim Costello, CEO World Vision Australia

In Rachel Botsman's capable hands, the concept of 'trust' - and its changing shape over the ages - becomes clear and accessible. Utterly compelling

Dr Simon Longstaff, Executive Director of the Ethics Centre

Sharp, penetrating, and obsessively researched, this book will open your eyes to a phenomenon that is as important as it is impossible to ignore.

Leigh Gallagher, Senior Editor, Fortune

An absorbing, story-filled narrative that will leave readers with a new understanding of the phenomenon that drives life in our digital age

Kirkus Reviews

A sharp, thoughtful, sometimes-surprising account of how we build trust with strangers now.

Kirkus Reviews

A timely and accessible framework for understanding what trust is, how it works, why it matters and how it is evolving. It is an important primer to the obstacles and opportunities we face as a society if we are to repair and redefine trust across socioeconomic, political and cultural divides. The stakes are high.

Rebecca MacKinnon, Washington Post

In a time when people are doubting experts, suspicious of the media, and losing faith in government and business, Rachel Botsman is here with a lucid analysis of what it takes to build and rebuild trust. Trust me: this is a book you need to read

Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of GIVE AND TAKE, ORIGINALS, and OPTION B with Sheryl Sandberg

Rachel Botsman's eye-opening, timely book delves into the unfolding crisis of trust spreading throughout the world. She brilliantly describes how the established trust framework is undergoing a radical transformation as digital technologies take root in every facet of our lives. Read this book and you'll be ready for a revolution in trust that rewrites the rules of human interaction

Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO, Salesforce

Book of the Month

October, Financial Times

This is a book that every adult reader should pick up to gain some perspective on how reliant we have become on technology, and how we can afford to approach it with more skepticism

The Literary Journal Review

Botsman has found a rich theme here and a fascinating way of interpreting the technological change

Wall Street Journal

Top 10 Business Bestseller

800 CEO Read

Top 5 Tech Book of the Year

WIRED

In her witty new book technology author and TED celebrity Rachel Botsman tells us why it did not work. Who Can You Trust? reveals some deep truths

Spectator

Botsman guides the reader on an enjoyable accessible, but cautiously skeptical, tour through this hugely transformative, but barely recognized, shift in our sometimes-irrational approach to trust

Winnipeg Free Press

As Botsman drives deeper and darker, she sheds more and more light, her book [is] rapidly becoming brilliant

Dialogue