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. To get early access to ad-free episodes and extra content, subscribe to Pushkin+ in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus. iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.
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Society & Culture
Native people have been written out of the American story, but without us you don’t know what happened. This summer the United States will celebrate the 250-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. When you read the Declaration, you realize it is a list of complaints. The last entry, the climax in our founders’ reasons for rebellion against the Crown, is this: “He has excited… the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” We have been told the Revolution was fought over taxation and representation. But what the founders were most angry about in our country’s most famous document was Indian affairs. How did generations of Americans miss this? The first armed rebellion against the Crown was an attack on British forts that traded with tribes. When colonists threw tea into the Boston harbor, they dressed up like members of the Mohawk tribe—not for disguise, but because pretending to be Indian symbolized freedom and rebellion. The founding fathers’ first government failed because Indigenous nations were too powerful; war and diplomacy with Native people is why we have a central federal government. Hosted and reported by Rebecca Nagle and featuring leading Native historians, First America unveils how the founders’ treatment of Indigenous nations—and their resistance—shaped US democracy. The show does not simply add another blemish to the image of the founding fathers, it reveals the real story of why the colonists rebelled, what kind of government they created, and, crucially, how our current political moment was 250 years in the making.
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History
The Happiness Lab is serving up scientifically-backed takes this summer that are so hot, even your SPF 50 won’t protect you. With the help of behavioral scientists, historians, and cultural critics, Yale psychologist Dr. Laurie Santos challenges some of our biggest assumptions about what it takes to live a good life. Dr. Laurie explores topics like why we should forget about TMI and lean into oversharing, how dumping small talk makes for better conversations, why the kids these days are actually doing just fine, and how men can establish strong bromances. Each episode unpacks a bold, counterintuitive claim — using research, data, and expert insight to question the conventional wisdom around happiness and wellbeing.
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Society & Culture
About Examined: Overlooked cases that never got the real investigation they deserved. Each season features deeply reported stories about crime, punishment, and the people inside the criminal legal system. Nearly 40 years ago, in the parking lot of a community college in Port Huron, Michigan, a 20-year-old student named Scott Macklem was shot dead in broad daylight. His murder shocked the community. It made no sense. The police quickly found their suspect. There was only one problem: the man said he was nowhere near the scene of the crime. And he could prove it. In Examined: The Backfire Effect, journalist Josie Duffy Rice talks with eyewitnesses, investigators and local reporters to unravel a shocking story of judicial apathy and expedience — a story that leaves no one off the hook.
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True Crime
In 2020, the Financial Times exposed a €2 billion fraud at Wirecard, a high-flying German fintech. Many thought that was the end of the story. But for reporter Sam Jones, it was just the beginning. This season on Hot Money: Agent of Chaos, Jones investigates Wirecard’s chief operating officer, who vanished just as Wirecard collapsed. And turned out to also be a Russian spy. From an Ibizan sting operation to an attempted takeover of the Austrian intelligence service, his reporting spirals into a world of warlords, espionage, and disinformation. All in an attempt to answer one question: Who is the real Jan Marsalek? And what does his secret life reveal about the powerful forces he serves?
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Business
Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister, a special limited series from RTÉ. The story of Elizabeth Plunkett—a 23 year old woman from Dublin who was murdered by Ireland’s first serial killers. On the last weekend of summer in 1976 Elizabeth Plunkett went on a night away with friends, to Brittas Bay in county Wicklow before she was abducted by John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans. Now, almost 50 years later, Elizabeth’s family are finally trying to get their sister some justice. Binge all episodes of Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister early and ad-free with a Pushkin+ subscription. Sign up at pushkin.fm/plus or on the Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister show page on Apple Podcasts. Bad Women: The Blackout Ripper: The streets of wartime London are pitch black and the darkness offers cover to a murderer every bit as terrible as Jack the Ripper. During one awful week in February 1942 he viciously attacked women night after night. But the victims of the so-called Blackout Ripper are now all but forgotten. Historian Hallie Rubenhold and criminologist Alice Fiennes share new details from the archives to tell the extraordinary and moving stories of the women who died and why their deaths were swept from view. Bad Women: The Ripper Retold: In the fall of 1888, five women were brutally murdered in the slums of London. But everything you think you know about Jack the Ripper and those murdered women is wrong. Hallie reconstructs the lives of the five victims - revealing the appalling treatment they faced as women in the 1880s, and completely overturning the accepted Ripper story.
There’s a world class thinker behind every show with Pushkin Industries, an award-winning audio network producing work that challenges listeners, encourages their curiosity and inspires joy. In other words: Good, Smart, Fun.
Our podcasts range across many genres, including history, true crime, and music, and include founder Malcolm Gladwell’s hugely successful Revisionist History, Jonathan Goldstein's Heavyweight, Against the Rules from Michael Lewis, The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos, Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford, Broken Record, Deep Cover, Paul McCartney’s A Life in Lyrics, and Apple’s 2021 Show of the Year, A Slight Change of Plans with Dr. Maya Shankar.
Pushkin also produces audiobooks, including Steve Martin’s So Many Steves, Inside Voice by Lake Bell, the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen, Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis, Heartbreak by Florence Williams, and Malcolm Gladwell’s Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon, The Bomber Mafia, and Talking to Strangers.
Pushkin+ subscribers receive full series binges, bonus episodes, audiobooks, ad-free listening, and more. For more information visit pushkin.fm or follow us on social @pushkinpods.