Conversations with People Who Hate Me

By: Dylan Marron

Narrated by: Dylan Marron

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

“Dylan Marron is the internet’s Love Warrior. His work is fresh, deeply honest, wildly creative, and right on time.” - Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Dylan Marron is like a modern Mister Rogers for the digital age.” - Jason Sudeikis

​​From the host of the award-winning, critically acclaimed podcast Conversations with People Who Hate Me comes a thought-provoking, witty, and inspirational exploration of difficult conversations and how to navigate them.

Dylan Marron’s work has racked up millions of views and worldwide support. From his acclaimed Every Single Word video series highlighting the lack of diversity in Hollywood to his web series Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People, Marron has explored some of today’s biggest social issues.

Yet, according to some strangers on the internet, Marron is a “moron,” a “beta male,” and a “talentless hack.” Rather than running from this online vitriol, Marron began a social experiment in which he invited his detractors to chat with him on the phone - and those conversations revealed surprising and fascinating insights.

Now, Marron retraces his journey through a project that connects adversarial strangers in a time of unprecedented division. After years of production and dozens of phone calls, he shares what he’s learned about having difficult conversations and how having them can help close the ever-growing distance between us.

Charmingly candid and refreshingly hopeful, Conversations with People Who Hate Me will serve as both a guide to anyone partaking in dif­ficult conversations and a permission slip for those who dare to believe that connection is possible.

©2022 Dylan Marron. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tens across the board

I would recommend this book to everyone. We can all learn about communicating more effectively and understanding each other with compassion in the way Dylan Marron explores this. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from reading. Great performance as well.

Dylan Marron is my HERO.

I am a middle aged progressive white woman living in the rural south and couldn't be more different than Dylan in background and temperament. But this amazing human being
has pushed me outside my comfort zone and brought me home again many times since I started listening to his podcast back in 2017.
When I saw his book dropped, I was all in.
The introspection and eloquence that he employs to tell his story is both fascinating and emotional for me. I finished the book with a giant lump in my throat.
Thanks Dylan.

A book for everyone who has ever interacted online

Beautiful, touching, funny, relatable, and sobering all at once. A must-read for internet humans.

So Much To Learn

I’d expected mostly podcast transcriptions. Instead, I got a beautiful and personal behind-the-scenes and innermost-thoughts story of the creation of the podcast and what Dylan learned from it. In return, he passes lessons on to the the reader/listener about how to better communicate with people, online and off.

Racing through these dark times

I've been a fan of the show since it began, and I've been a fan of Dylan Marron since Nightvale. Some books that provide backstory on something, and someone, you've been a fan of can shatter the glass. But if you like Dylan's work I can promise this is more of the same. It even humanized him more to me as we get to see what's going on under that calm and emotionally intelligent exterior during these difficult conversations.

Precision

Dylan writes with exact, careful thoughtfulness. I’m going to purchase the paper copy so I can reread the many metaphors and observations that thrilled me to hear. I am a snowflake and I cherished hearing how he reviewed and examined feelings to get to their source. Dylan, I am so grateful you wrote this book.

Insightful, moving, and loving

Empathy is not endorsement. Vulnerability is not weakness. And Conversations With People Who Hate Me is the most insightful and moving piece of non-fiction that I have read in a very long time.

Dylan Marron remains an inspiration.

I like this unique experience

The author takes us on a personal tour of lessons learned from unexpected sources. It's rare to experience such original thoughts and feelings.

I’d never heard of Dylan Marron

When it was suggested to me to read this book I’d never heard of Dylan Marron. As I started listening I quickly realized why-we are, shall we say, opponents. I am a 53 yo white female Trump supporter with unconventional conservative views. At the start of the book I wondered how long I would listen because although I love snarky, I wasn’t connecting and thought it might be another bash fest of everyone on the right. At one point, I actually said aloud, “There has to be a reason I’m listening to this.” I’m glad I continued to listen. Dylan’s openness cracked open my curiosity to learn. I think sometimes we are looking for a cure when we really should be more focused on preventing the infection. Thank you, Dylan Marron!

beautiful, funny, thoughtful read

i absolutely loved this book!!! it is candid, funny, honest, and kind. i find myself referencing dylan’s ideas often (my new “i heard in a podcast recently..”). i also thought the author’s conversational style and tone made it feel like he was just telling me a story.

this book is part memoir, part creative process behind-the-scenes, part guide for having difficult conversations. throughout, marron beautifully weaves personal narrative with lessons he’s learned from his guests, and so much of it is relatable even to those of us who are not in the creative/podcast world. social media brings more “strangers” into contact in more ways than we could’ve ever imagined before the 2000s, and as marron explains, it is easy to forget that there are humans on the other side of the screen. this is a powerful reminder of the value of nuance and of listening.

there are so many books and think pieces about online polarization, siloing, and negativity. but i haven’t seen many that offer ideas on things we can do about it. everyone with a social media account has witnessed or participated in some of the detrimental aspects of the wild-west-anything-goes nature of the digital public square. in this context, marron offers hope, humor, and gentle encouragement. his writing about his own experiences invited me to reflect on when and how i might be able to practice less reactivity and more validation and empathy, both on and offline.