F You Very Much

You're not imagining it. People are getting ruder, and this is a serious problem. The book that inspired the iTunes Top Ten podcast reveals that even one rude comment in a life-and-death situation can decrease a surgeon's performance by as much as 50%. We say we don't want rude politicians, but we vote for them anyway. Rude language can even sway a jury in a criminal case. Bestselling writer and broadcaster Danny Wallace (Yes Man, Awkward Situations for Men) is on a mission to understand where we have gone wrong. He travels the world interviewing neuroscientists, psychologists, NASA scientists, barristers, bin men, and bellboys. He joins a Radical Honesty group in Germany, talks to drivers about road rage in LA, and confronts his own online troll in a pub. In doing so, he uncovers the latest thinking about how we behave and how rudeness, once unleashed, can spread like a virus.