Revisionist History
Revisionist History
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.Social links:
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Guns Part 5: The Footnote
At the end of a forgotten study of convicted murderers, the author left a devastating footnote. We travel to an old plantation house outside Montgomery Alabama to hear his story — and what it tells us about American gun violence.
38:45
Guns Part 4: Moral Hazard
Robert Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullet in 1968, ending his presidential run. Had he been shot today, would he have lived? A what-if story about homicides and medical care and the moral consequences of a world where trauma surgeons have gotten really, really good at what they do.
43:45
Guns Part 3: A Shooting Lesson
Malcolm goes to a shooting range in the woods of North Carolina to get a tutorial on the AR-15. It’s scary. It’s ugly. It’s at the center of the gun control debate. But what exactly makes it worse than other guns?
40:27
Guns Part 2: Getting out of Dodge
The longest running television series of the 20th century was Gunsmoke, a western set in the notorious Dodge City, Kansas. Malcolm sweeps away mountains of legal scholarship to make a bold claim: The simplest explanation for the Supreme’s Court’s puzzling run of gun rights decisions may be that the…
43:57
Guns Part 1: The Sudden Celebrity of Sir John Knight
In the battles over gun rights, a shadowy English nobleman from the 17th century has unexpectedly taken center stage. Who was he? What did he do that has — 300 years later — endeared him to a generation of legal scholars? Revisionist History explores the cult of personality around the mysterious Si…
47:17
Doctors, Guns, and Money
Coming soon – a six-part series from Revisionist History about everything Americans get wrong about guns. The series will air weekly, starting Thursday, August 31st. You can binge listen to all six episodes early and ad-free by subscribing to Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcasts, or by visiting: pushki…
11:07
Taxonomy of the Modern Mystery Story
Today, another episode from the Revisionist History Live universe. It's an old fashioned lecture, recorded at the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University. Malcolm talks about a totally real thing he made up—a taxonomy of the modern mystery story—with a focus on murder mysteries and police pr…
46:35
Acting Out
Malcolm talks with Ben Naddaff-Hafrey, host of The Last Archive, about the forgotten origins of a major social science, the missing chapter in Ella Fitzgerald’s life, and what it all has to do with the prison just down the street from Malcolm’s office. Listen, and check out the brand new season fro…
36:33
A Good Circle
This season, Malcolm's covered a lot of the problems in higher education. Today on the show: A solution. A big idea being tested at a little school on the shores of Lake Michigan. A school called Hope College, believe it or not, with an idea so crazy it just might work.
39:35
Feeling A Bit Attacked with Maria Konnikova
Maria Konnikova, Revisionist History’s ombudsman—who's also an author, psychologist and professional poker player—is back for another round. This time she reads letters from the audience on the power of debate, and whether or not certain four letter words belong in Pushkin’s podcasts. Maria and Mal…
42:51Explicit