"Small-area variation has subsequently become something of an obsession for medical researchers. Books are written about it. Scholars spend their days studying it. But what's fascinating is how the same inexplicable patterns of variation turn up outside the world of medical care."

Section: 1, Chapter: 1

"Social engineering takes on a very different face, however, when the engineers go about their business in secret. There is far too much of this second, hidden kind of manipulation going on. If we are to protect the integrity of our institutions, we need to be made aware of the games being played below the surface."

Section: 2, Chapter: 5

Scholar Larry Gross argues that television's impact comes not from overt messaging but from the assumptions baked into entertainment:

"It's not the media pushing this button to get that effect. It's the media creating the cultural consciousness about how the world works... and what the rules are."

Gross found that heavy TV viewership narrowed the gap between liberals and conservatives on hot-button social issues. Exposure to the same set of stories week after week, year after year "brings them together."

Gross says, "I always like to quote this line from a Scottish writer, Andrew Fletcher, 'If I can write the songs of a nation, I don't care who writes their laws.'"

Section: 3, Chapter: 7

"Epidemics have rules. They have boundaries. They are subject to overstories - and we are the ones who create overstories. They change in size and shape when they reach a tipping point - and it is possible to know when and where those tipping points are. They are driven by a number of people, and those people can be identified. The tools necessary to control an epidemic are sitting on the table, right in front of us. We can let the unscrupulous take them. Or we can pick them up ourselves, and use them to build a better world."

Section: 3, Chapter: 9