Once we said 'hi' to Malcolm Gladwell at a party, but then Julia Allison came up and was all "blahblahblahbla." That ruined our chance to ask if Colin Powell was really his cousin.

While discussing his ancestral background, he interjects that Colin Powell is his cousin. Or at least, they're from the same "privileged Jamaican class," he tells Charlie Rose with his trademark nerdy enthusiasim.

Well, close enough to his cousin. As the New York Times noted in 2006, "Gladwell believes [Powell] may be a distant cousin on his mother's side."

Oh, Malcolm. You're such a Connector!

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