Revisionist History

A historically Black university in New Orleans is beloved by everyone – except the US News best colleges rankings. We hack our way back into the algorithm and show how Dillard University can rise to the top. Part two of a two-part series.

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For 30 years, US News & World Report has been using a secret formula to rank the best colleges and universities in the United States. As a public service to our listeners, we hack the algorithm and discover the dirty little secret of the rankings game.

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Revisionist History travels to Phoenix, Arizona to learn about the future of the automobile. It’s not what you think. It’s much better.

Warning: Some of the actions depicted in this episode are dangerous. Do not imitate Malcolm! 

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The sixth season of Revisionist History is underway, and Malcolm’s finally out of the house. We play chicken with cars, war games with wonks, and travel deep under the sea. Season six of Revisionist History launches June 24th from Pushkin Industries.  

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Whenever Malcolm and Adam Grant cross paths on the book tour circuit, it's always a good time. Here are pieces of two conversations from Clubhouse: one about Malcolm's The Bomber Mafia and another about Adam's Think Again.

Find out more at bombermafia.com and adamgrant.net.

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We're back in Atlanta - this week with jaunts to Jamaica, Kenya, court-side NBA games, and a deep dive into fine art forgery. Plus, Malcolm finally gets his big break in the advertising industry. LISTENER NOTE: No editors were involved with the writing of this episode of Revisionist History. Proceed at your own risk. Happy Holidays, everyone! 

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Revisionist History takes a trip to Malcolm's favorite city and gets a tour of Emory University, meets 3000 non-human primates and 8000 rodents, and dusts off an old TV pilot for a dramatic reenactment. Oh, and a season three guest returns, but you'll just have to listen to find out who. 

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This episode features “Dare To Be Me” by Kaci Bolls feat. The Happy Racers

© 2020 SpinBoxClub / Clashing Plaids (ASCAP) / Plaid Pajamas Music (BMI) / Drunk On A Binge (BMI) – Administered by Bluewater Music Services Corp. Used By Permission. All Rights Reserved.

This bonus episode is sponsored by Emory University.

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Lessons from the world’s most perfect memorial.

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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.

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Credits:

BBC Motion Gallery / Getty Images

Footage supplied by CBS News

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

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The delicate science of hiring nihilism, examined in five deeply-personal case studies.

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How do we remember one of the deadliest nights in human history? We don't. Part four.

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The arguments, accidents, cold-blooded logic and sheer serendipity that led to the longest night of the Second World War. Part three.

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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.

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On the eve of the Second World War, a band of visionaries at Maxwell Air Force Base tried to reimagine modern warfare. They failed. Part one on the extraordinary life of the Air Force General Curtis LeMay.

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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.

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An escape from war-torn Germany. Lavish dinners with Hollywood royalty. A Swedish baron and a dime-store heiress: we explore the long journey of a Van Gogh still life — and what it says about the real value of the things we treasure.

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Dragons hoard treasure, deep in their lairs. They don’t show it off to their neighbors. Revisionist History applies dragon psychology to the strange world of art museums, with help from Andy Warhol, J.R.R. Tolkien, a handful of accountants and the world’s leading hoarding expert. 

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Andy Warhol. War. Smaug the Dragon. And, as always, digressions of great importance.

Launching June 18 from Pushkin Industries.

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Malcolm has been writing about race and policing for a very long time, going back to the killing of Amadou Diallo in 1999. Sometimes, it is useful to take a step back and consider policing in a broader context. Here we present a chapter from Malcolm's book David and Goliath, which includes an analysis of a riot in Northern Ireland in 1970. Many miles and many years away. About divisions of religion and class and not divisions of race. But the core questions to be asked in 1970 and 1999 and today are the same: if you have power, what does it mean to use it, and use it wisely? And what are the consequences if you don't?

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants was published in 2013 by Little, Brown and Company. Audiobook production by Hachette Audio.

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On February 24, 1996, Cuban fighter jets shot down two small planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, an organization in Florida that tried to spot refugees fleeing Cuba in boats. A strange chain of events preceded the shoot-down, and people in the intelligence business turned to a rising star in the Defense Intelligence Agency, Ana Montes. Montes was known around Washington as the “Queen of Cuba” for her insights into the Castro regime. But what Montes’ colleagues eventually found out about her shook their sense of trust to the core. (In this excerpt from Malcolm Gladwell’s forthcoming audiobook Talking to Strangers, we hear why spy mysteries do not unfold in real life like they do in the movies.)

To preorder a copy of Talking to Strangers and check out Malcolm Gladwell's book tour, visit www.gladwellbooks.com.

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Throughout the 1960s, a biologist named Howard Temin became convinced that something wasn’t right in science’s understanding of viruses. His colleagues dismissed him as a heretic. He turned out to be right — and you're alive today as a result.  Season Four ends with a bedtime story about how we should be freed by our doubts, not imprisoned by them.

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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.

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Two seasons after its investigation of the decline of McDonalds french fries, Revisionist History returns to fast-food’s high-tech test kitchens. This time the subject is cultural appropriation. The case study is Taco Bell. Oh, and Pat Boone is involved.

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An unarmed man is shot to death by police. How does the Jesuitical idea of “disordered attachments” help us make sense of what happened? Part three of three.

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John Rock was the co-inventor of the birth control pill — and a committed Catholic. He wanted his church to approve of his invention. What happens when a layman takes on the Vatican? Part two of three.

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Revisionist History tries to make sense of the conundrum of PED use in baseball, using the 500-year-old philosophical techniques of St. Ignatius. Part one of a three-part series on the moral reasoning of the Jesuit order.

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If you disagree with someone — if you find what they think appalling — is there any value in talking to them? In the early 1970s, the talk show host Dick Cavett, the governor of Georgia Lester Maddox, and the singer Randy Newman tried to answer this question.

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Bohea, the aroma of tire fire, Mob Wives, smugglers, “bro” tea, and what it all means to the backstory of the American Revolution. Malcolm tells the real story on what happened in Boston on the night of December 16, 1773.

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A weird speech by Antonin Scalia, a visit with 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.

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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?

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Jesuits. Chess masters. Mafiosi. Lawyers. And a little bit of tire fire. 

Launching June 20th from Pushkin Industries. 

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The one song The King couldn’t sing. 

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“She was Joan of Arc, Madame Curie, and Florence Nightingale—all wrapped up in one.”

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Epidemics of fear repeat themselves. The first time as tragedy. The second time as farce. Margit Hamosh? Definitely farce. 

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Crucial life lessons from the end of hockey games, Idris Elba, and some Wall Street guys with a lot of time on their hands.

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Q: Was there a period where you felt you had something to prove? A: The first 45 years of my life. 

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Good fences make good neighbors. Or maybe not.

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"Sorry dude, I don't remember you being on my aircraft."

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An early morning raid, a house-full of Nazis, the world’s greatest harmonica player, and a dashingly handsome undercover spy. What could possibly go wrong?

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“He called to wish me ‘Happy Birthday.’ Then he said, ‘I’m failing everything.’”

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The complete, unabridged history of the world’s most controversial semicolon. 

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In a special live taping at the 92nd Street Y in New York, Malcolm talks with WorkLife’s Adam Grant about how to avoid doing highly undesirable tasks, what makes an idea interesting, and why Malcolm thinks we shouldn't root for the underdog.

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Malcolm Gladwell is back with season three of Revisionist History: harmonica players, mass delusion, semicolons, and a constitutional crisis. Launching May 17th on Panoply.

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What is a son’s obligation to his father?

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They made the world’s greatest French Fry. Then they threw it away.

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Arrested, arraigned, indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced to die in the electric chair in 24 hours.

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“Nobody was interested in justice.”

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Why country music makes you cry, and rock and roll doesn’t: A musical interpretation of divided America.

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The friendship that changed the course of World War II.

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“Oh, Mac. What did you do?”

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