Revisionist History - Introducing Revisionist History

Episode Date: June 3, 2016

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I think we're bad historians. Something happens, we see it, watch it, remember it, file it away. But then if you look back at what you filed away closely, you discover it's all wrong. I was offended when the leader of the opposition went outside in the front of Parliament and stood next to a sign that said, Ditch the Witch.

Misogyny, sexism, every day from this leader of the opposition. He came to see me and asked if I might make a donation to the scholarship fund of $1,500. I said, Phil, what would you do with $100 million? I'm Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, David and Goliath, and now host of Revisionist History from Panoply Media. This show is my

attempt to correct the record. I shot the free throw, guy in the stands yells out, hey Barry, you big sissy, shooting like that. Over the course of 10 episodes, I'll take you back to something that happened 100 years ago, last year, an event, a person, an idea, something we all missed, something we all remembered, but misunderstood. And the guy next to him,

and I heard it very clearly, he said, what are you making fun of him for? He doesn't miss. I'll revisit a mysterious car crash outside of San Diego. We are passing, where are we passing? We're at 120. We're going to 120 Mission Gorge. We're in trouble.

We can't, there's no brakes. Okay. Mission Gorge, end three-way, half mile. Okay, and you don't have the ability to, like, turn the vehicle off or anything? We're approaching the intersection. I'll explore why Wilt Chamberlain made a choice he knew would diminish his greatness as a basketball player. Wilt's got the ball.

He's gone up. He shoots. It's good. I'll examine a song, a song that nobody realized was brilliant, not even the guy who wrote it and sang it. Until much, much later. When we did the playback of Punch the Clock we got quite drunk and played

it back really loud and he kind of freaked out and said it's all rubbish. It's terrible, it's terrible. We're fine with the future. The future is in our imagination and we can be as upbeat or excited or delusional as we want about it. But the past is where the truth lies.

And so I left with more questions than answers. Revisionist history. Sometimes the past deserves a second chance.