Amy Cuddy is a sociologist at Harvard Business School who has studied and written about gender issues, such as discrimination in the workplace. She was selected to speak to a group of business leaders and associates at the PopTech summit. There, instead of talking about “the structural power of men,” she speaks about the more benign topic of body language (94). Cuddy’s ability to translate her studies of gender inequality and related issues into ideas palatable to business leaders had made her a highly sought-after thought leader in the MarketWorld circuit. However, intellectuals in her own field have criticized her for speaking and writing on sociological issues in disingenuous ways, and Cuddy herself admits to feeling as though her academic work may be at odds with her lucrative role as a thought leader. Giridharadas reviews similar cases of other thought leaders, including Brene Brown, Charles Duhigg, Simon Sinek, and Malcom Gladwell.

Giridharadas argues that the rise of MarketWorld has brought about a shift from public intellectuals to thought leaders. Public intellectuals debated ideas and responded to each other in books, media, and other public forums.