Best Revisionist History episodes upvoted by the community

Puzzle Rush

June 20, 2019 • 39m

Malcolm challenges his assistant Camille to the Law School Admissions Test. He gets halfway through, panics, runs out of time, and wonders: why does the legal world want him to rush?

Chutzpah vs. Chutzpah

August 15, 2019 • 43m

You thought that there was only one kind of chutzpah. Wrong. There’s two. Revisionist History tells the story of the Mafia’s showdown with a legendary Hollywood producer, in a battle of competing chutzpahs.

The Big Man Can't Shoot

June 30, 2016

Wilt Chamberlain’s brilliant career was marred by one, deeply inexplicable decision: He chose a shooting technique that made him one of the worst foul shooters in basketball—even though he had tried a better alternative. Why do smart people do dumb things? To learn more about the topics covered in this episode, visit www.RevisionistHistory.comLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Oh Howard, You Idiot!”

August 13, 2020 • 50m

A billionaire turned recluse befriends a minor novelist. Together they seize the public’s imagination. Kind of. The true story behind the greatest autobiography you’ve never read. Get Revisionist History updates first by signing up for our newsletter at pushkin.fm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Revisionist History Presents: The Last Archive

May 21, 2020 • 50m

This week we're featuring the second episode of The Last Archive, a new podcast hosted by Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore. When a young black man is charged with murder under unusual circumstances in 1922, he trusts his fate to a strange new machine: A lie detector. It was invented by the man who went on to create Wonder Woman, and whose whole life was a strange blur of fact and fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Generous Orthodoxy

August 11, 2016

A 98-year-old minister takes on his church over the subject of gay marriage—and teaches the rest of us what it means to stand up in protest. To learn more about the topics covered in this episode, visit www.RevisionistHistory.comLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Analysis, Parapraxis, Elvis

July 19, 2018

The one song The King couldn’t sing.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Miss Buchanan’s Period of Adjustment

June 29, 2017

A landmark Supreme Court case. A civil rights revolution. Why has everyone forgotten what happened next?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Revisionist History Presents: The Happiness Lab

October 01, 2019 • 42m

Malcolm Gladwell presents the newest podcast from Pushkin Industries: The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos. To listen to all episodes of The Happiness Lab, visit https://megaphone.link/CAD5602975937 or www.happinesslab.fm/.

The Tortoise and the Hare

June 27, 2019 • 40m

A weird speech by Antonin Scalia, a visit with the some serious legal tortoises, and a testy exchange with the experts at the Law School Admissions Council prompts Malcolm to formulate his Grand Unified Theory for fixing higher education.

Dave Hill and the Epistemology of Norwegian Black Metal

December 18, 2018 • 39m

Malcolm Gladwell sits down with comedian, guitarist, and legendary metalhead Dave Hill, as he recounts how an email exchange between his alter ego Lance and a Norwegian black metal impresario named Saiitham (pronounced “satan”) led to the formation of the darkest metal band of all time. Dave Hill also performs a mediocre rendition of “Hammer Smashed Face,” plus we debut his single "Are You Ready (to Black Metal)?"Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Burden of Proof

May 24, 2018

“He called to wish me ‘Happy Birthday.’ Then he said, ‘I’m failing everything.’”Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Road to Damascus

June 22, 2017

What happens when a terrorist has a change of heart?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Revisionist History Presents: Deep Background with Noah Feldman

February 12, 2020 • 30m

Could we really fix gridlock in the Senate by creating new states? Malcolm revisits the "Divide and Conquer" episode from Season 3 in an interview on Deep Background with Noah Feldman, the newest podcast from Pushkin Industries.  "Divide and Conquer" covered Texas's right to divide into 5 separate states. What if Washington, D.C. -- a non-state territory -- tried to divide their city into 127 separate states? A recent anonymous note in the Harvard Law Review proposes just that. It's just the kind of bananas idea Malcolm loves to dissect, and Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law Professor and Constitutional law expert is the perfect foil. Noah's podcast, Deep Background with Noah Feldman, is available wherever you get your podcasts.

General Chapman’s Last Stand

June 14, 2018

Good fences make good neighbors. Or maybe not.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen

July 30, 2020 • 43m

How do we remember one of the deadliest nights in human history? We don't. Part four. Get Revisionist History updates first by signing up for our newsletter at pushkin.fm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hamlet Was Wrong

August 06, 2020 • 42m

The delicate science of hiring nihilism, examined in five deeply-personal case studies. Get Revisionist History updates first by signing up for our newsletter at pushkin.fm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May the Best Firebomb Win

July 16, 2020 • 43m

Basement laboratories. Mad scientists. Sticky gels, and a bake-off in the desert. The strange story behind Curtis LeMay’s weapon of choice. Part two. Get Revisionist History updates first by signing up for our newsletter at pushkin.fm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Powerball Revolution

July 02, 2020 • 50m

In Bolivia, a political activist radically reforms the voting process for... student council elections. Who else does he convince? Revisionist History. And maybe a fancy private school in New Jersey. Get Revisionist History updates first by signing up for our newsletter at pushkin.fm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Revisionist History Presents: Into the Zone

September 10, 2020 • 51m

Into the Zone, a new show from Pushkin Industries, is a podcast about opposites, and how borders are never as clear as we think. In the 1920s, a messianic visitor to Hari’s family home unveils the connection between Indian Independence movement and the Astral Plane. Nearly a century later, Hari travels to the orange groves of southern California, where the guru made his home, to examine the globetrotting legacy of New Age spirituality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices