Malcolm Gladwell’s “Revisionist History” is a podcast he says is “about things overlooked and misunderstood,” and through a seemingly meandering, but incredibly astute style of investigative journalism, Gladwell reinterprets various historical events.
From why American satire often fails to why football coaches always call a punt on a fourth down, Gladwell takes a handful of case studies each episode and interrogates a historical phenomenon to push past what people think they already understand. In doing so, he uncovers truths that seem clear up close, but give the wrong impression from a distance.
It’s hard to fully describe what Gladwell does in this podcast without giving away the magic andthe prestige of the show. Gladwell can sometimes come across as a bit full of himself, and takes endless delight in “burying the lede” — offering small details early on to set up for a big reveal later — and providing a sometimes dramatic moment where all of the seemingly unconnected details of his argument coalesce into the climax of his narrative. Most of the time this moment is satisfying and earned, but occasionally it feels forced and a bit silly.
I don’t always agree with the conclusions Gladwell draws, but I always feel better for having heard his unique perspective on a given issue. As a former investigative journalist, an author, and a talented speaker, he knows how to tell a compelling story and really dig deep to find the cause for any given effect. That’s really what Revisionist History is about: for every effect, there is a cause, and if we want to avoid the mistakes of history, then those causes are well worth understanding. It isn’t enough to just know that something happened, or make a brief and simple assumption as to why it happened. To avoid repeating history, we need to know the cause of the problem.
Malcolm Gladwell is already well known for offering readers different perspectives on everyday concepts they think they understand in his New York Times bestselling books, and his podcast is an informative extension of these previous works. Though the show only runs in the summer, there have been three seasons so far, which provides an ample backlog for those who would be interested in fascinating takes on often surprising and incredibly varied subjects and unique insights into aspects of history that may be taken for granted.