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Revisionist History
Pushkin Industries · Culture
Revisionist History is Malcolm Gladwell's journey through the overlooked and the misunderstood. Every episode re-examines something from the past—an event, a person, an idea, even a song—and asks whether we got it right the first time. From Pushkin Industries. Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance. To get early access to ad-free episodes and extra content, subscribe to Pushkin+ in…
More from this show
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Brian Lehrer and Malcolm Gladwell Talk Policing and Guns
A dispatch from the book tour – Malcolm recently joined WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show for a conversation about his new book, The American Way of Killing. We’re sharing it here today, including listener phone calls about their own experiences and questions about the epidemic of gun violence in America. You can pre-order…
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The Invention of an Epidemic
In Malcolm’s new book, The American Way of Killing , he investigates why gun violence in the United States is so much worse than every other country in the West. Today, we’re sharing a chapter from the audiobook and over the next four weeks we’ll air episodes about the gun violence epidemic in America. Later in the…
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President Barack Obama & Malcolm Gladwell: How Reconstruction Still Defines America
Malcolm sat down with President Barack Obama while making Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise for a conversation about history, progress, and why democracy is never a finished project . What makes Reconstruction one of the most misunderstood eras in American history, and why does it still have so much relevance…
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A Dollop Crossover | Ben Naddaff-Hafrey on Staten Island and the Revolutionary War
After Ben's Staten Island summer, he sat down with The Dollop hosts, comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds, to examine Staten Island during the Revolutionary War. Ben, Dave, and Gareth dive into an extremely niche topic in history. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Fines
How did some remains of those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks end up in what was once the world's largest landfill? In this episode: the battle that continues to this day over what some see as a pile of dust, and what others see as the remains of the dead. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Merciless Indian Savages | First America
There's a sentence in the Declaration of Independence that almost no one talks about. It's the last grievance: “He has excited the merciless Indian Savages”, it reads, "whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions." We’ve all been told the American Revolution was…
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The Staten Island Problem - Part 5: Revenge of the Forgotten Borough
Election night 1993 meets election night 2016. The fate of the island and the country converge in the figure of one man: Rudy Giuliani. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Staten Island Problem - Part 4: Wu-Tang vs. Shaolin
At the height of the secession movement, the Wu-Tang Clan forms on Staten Island. We take a tour of early 1990s hip-hop and reveal the hidden history of the group. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Staten Island Problem - Part 3: The Tuvalu Effect
A group on Staten Island tries to stop secession, squaring off against the secessionists in a heated set of debates and meetings recorded on never-before-seen archival tapes. A set of debates best understood via a detour into the history of a remote Polynesian island. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy…
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The Staten Island Problem - Part 2: A New Map
After the Supreme Court takes a close look at New York City government, Staten Island comes out the loser. A local artist begins organizing for secession. We take a deep dive into the psychology of the island, which has a lot to do with the largest garbage dump in the world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy…
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The Staten Island Problem - Part 1: The Mayor vs. the Borough President
A riot, a voyage at sea, and a movement to break up the greatest city in the country. The first Black mayor of New York City faces off with the borough president of Staten Island and tries to hold his city together. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Revenge of "A Good Walk Spoiled"
Ten years ago, Malcolm inveighed against the exclusive country clubs of Los Angeles in an episode of Revisionist History called "A Good Walk Spoiled." This November, thanks to a Los Angeles City Council member who heard the episode, Los Angeles voters will have the opportunity to take up Malcolm's cause. Today…
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Coming Soon: The Staten Island Problem
On the 250th anniversary of the United States, Revisionist History investigates the overlooked story of New York City almost breaking apart as Staten Island threatened to secede. Over the course of five episodes, The Staten Island Problem reconstructs the battle for New York City amidst the turbulent early 1990s — the…
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Frankenfood | The Mistakes Series
Would a tomato by any other name taste as sweet? What about a steak? Malcolm sends Ben on a mission to investigate the cutting edge of food technology and two mistakes: one from the 1990s and one that’s unfolding as we speak. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise
Sharing Malcolm’s latest project, a podcast called Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise. Imagine a time when the United States was split in two. And then had to put itself back together. It was a time of chaos and sometimes violence as millions of people fought for the right to become citizens. Americans struggled…
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Revisited: Ms. Buchanan’s Period of Adjustment
Revisionist History revisits an episode from season two and Malcolm tells the story of a phone call that set in motion a collaboration with President Barack Obama, which we'll preview next week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Introducing The News from Scene on Radio
Scene on Radio is a two-time Peabody-nominated podcast that dares to ask big, hard questions about who we are—really—and how we got this way. Their new season, The News, asks: what’s really wrong with the news? Some have called the news media the oxygen of a functioning democracy. But if that’s true, America’s lungs…
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The Great American Elevator Tragedy | The Mistakes Series
A single line of a building code proposal filled out by a fire inspector in Glendale, Arizona has had a devastating impact on the way housing is built across the entire United States. Malcolm enlists Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Building in North America, to investigate. See…
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The Trust Diagnosis
The episode centers on the dilemma of a man with an advanced, metastatic case of prostate cancer. His name is Dan. Every doctor he spoke to had a different opinion on what he should do — or whether it was even worth doing anything at all. His question was: which of these many opinions should I trust? The episode…
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The BlackBerry Problem | The Mistakes Series
Jim Balsillie, the one time co-CEO of Research in Motion, reflects on the mistake that led to the downfall of BlackBerry, once named the fastest growing company in the world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Worst Poet in the World | From Cautionary Tales
In light of our current series on mistakes, we're sharing an episode from Cautionary Tales —a podcast that’s all about mistakes and what we can learn from them. This story is about a poet—some say the worst poet in the world–William McGonagall. McGonagall's works were full of jarring meter, banal imagery, and awkward…
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Why Would I Do That to Jennifer Lopez? | The Mistakes Series
Years ago a music producer named Irv Gotti–a hitmaker for Jay-Z, Ja Rule, and Ashanti–was tapped by Sony Music to make a record with Jennifer Lopez. They wanted a big hit. And Irv delivered. But then he made the biggest mistake of his career. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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A Tragedy in Texas | The Mistakes Series
General David Goldfein, former Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, and Dr. Heather Wilson, former Secretary of the Air Force, tell the story of the worst day in their professional careers and what it taught them about leadership. You can find their book, Get Back up: Lessons in Servant Leadership , here. See…
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The Sony Hack | The Mistakes Series
The former head of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Michael Lynton, tells Malcolm about a time he made a really big mistake: greenlighting a film that would lead to an international incident. You can learn more about Michael Lynton and Josh Steiner’s book, From Mistakes to Meaning , here . See omnystudio.com/listener for…
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Behind the Scenes with Andrew Jarecki
Since Andrew Jarecki’s latest documentary The Alabama Solution debuted on HBO, it has stunned viewers with a story about a group of men seeking justice. The film shows the egregious abuse and systemic failure of Alabama’s prison system, largely through footage shot by incarcerated men on contraband cellphones. In this…
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Zootopia Exposed! (Part Two)
Did Disney make an anti-Disney movie? Ben and Malcolm engage in a bit of literary sleuthing to find out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Zootopia Exposed! (Part One)
Screenwriter Gary Goldman claimed the creators of the Disney franchise Zootopia stole his story. Malcolm investigates. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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From Valley of Shadows: The Devil's Punchbowl
Valley of Shadows is a new Pushkin true crime podcast that digs into a nearly 30-year old secret buried in the California desert. On June 11, 1998, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy Jon Aujay went for a run in California’s Devil’s Punchbowl park...and never came back. Nearly 30 years later, the mystery…
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The Big Birthday Party
Despite his disdain for birthdays, Malcolm finds himself celebrating ten years of Revisionist History by looking back on the making of the show with producers past and present. And, of course, his mother. Referenced Episodes: Season 1, Episode 5: Food Fight Season 6, Episode 10: The Dog Will See You Now Season 2…
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Invisible Infrastructure with T-Mobile for Business
A journalist reporting from some far-flung remote location. A massive blackout. Ticketless entry to a huge sporting event. Behind some of the most technologically complex scenarios is a network making it possible to connect. Malcolm sits down with Mo Katibeh, the Chief Marketing Officer for T-Mobile for Business, Guy…
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