Revisionist History Pushkin
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- Society & Culture
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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 are pushkin.fm/pus.
iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.
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Blink with Stephen Gaghan | Development Hell
It’s the mid-2000s, Malcolm and writer/producer Stephen Gaghan (“Traffic”, “Syriana”) are running around Hollywood pitching their scripted adaptation of Blink. This conversation starts with a failed vampire love story, takes a ride in Leonardo DiCaprio’s Prius, before making an unexpectedly heartbreaking turn that leads Stephen to walk away from the project forever.
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The Variable Man with Gary Goldman and Angus Fletcher | Development Hell
Gary Goldman was a writer on “Total Recall”, a Philip K. Dick adaptation directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Arnold Schwarzeneger. It was a big hit. So why do Gary and his writing partner, Angus Fletcher, have so much trouble selling another Philip K. Dick adaptation? They tell Malcolm that it all came down to a roller coaster ride of plot twists that even A-List action actors couldn’t stomach, and an early attempt at AI that was too dumb to pick a smart script.
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Bubbles with Isaac Adamson | Development Hell
This is the story behind a biopic about a chimpanzee named Bubbles, sidekick to the King of Pop. Malcolm talks with the writer, Isaac Adamson, about the project’s rise and fall. Netflix optioned the script, a director was attached, and then… everything fell apart. In the episode, Isaac reads from his 2015 Black List winning script, and he and Malcolm consider whether now is the time for “Bubbles.”
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The Birthday Party with Charles Randolph | Development Hell
Before Charles Randolph won an Oscar for writing “The Big Short,” he adapted a memoir called “The Birthday Party”: the true story of a white man kidnapped by three young Black men. Is there a way to bring a story like that to screen, in a way that's honest and authentic? Randolph gives us a masterclass on a screenwriter's many minefields.
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I Am Superman with Patty Jenkins | Development Hell
Between her big hits, “Monster” and “Wonder Woman”, Patty Jenkins wrote an R-rated fairy tale, starring a dog. She hoped that the dog would deliver such a great performance that the Academy would — for the first time — give the Best Actor award to an animal. The story was about a dog program in a prison, a perfect set-up for a story of both canine and human redemption, right? Wrong. That’s the kind of story Hollywood loves, but not the kind of story Jenkins wanted to tell. Enter development hell.
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Labor of Love with M. Night Shyamalan | Development Hell
Before M. Night Shyamalan became a household name for his mind bending thrillers like “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs”, he was just a young screenwriter in love. And during those blissful early years of marriage he wrote a love story. The screenplay for “Labor of Love” sold right away, and over the next 30 years or so there would be numerous attempts to make it into a movie. There was a major studio, there were A-list directors, Shyamalan even found his perfect star. In this episode, M. Night Shyamalan tells Malcolm about the script that haunts him.
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Customer Reviews
Pushkin Haiku
Meditate they said
Headspace, Mindful, Daily Calm
No, Malcolm Galdwell
Used to be great
Started out as the absolute best pod out there. Over the years, Gladwell’s sole focus and concern is money. A recent 11 minute Pushkin pod had over 6 minutes of commercials. Not a typo… 6+ minutes of ads in an 11 minute pod. That doesn’t count a full episode that was a 30 minute commercial from Gladwell’s “friends at T Mobile.” Gladwell sold whatever integrity he had for a few more dollars. Deplorable
This show clearly has an agenda
I heard about this show from an ad on one of my more regular podcasts and it was about how they were going to do a season and deep dive into the whole “gun thing”. Turns out it was only 6 episodes so that should have been a clue. The first episode on the matter was okay but there were some statements that made me raise an eyebrow but I decided to soldier on. Episode 2 showed the agenda almost immediately. The host targeted Justice Alito for almost direct ridicule claiming that someone from New Jersey couldn’t possible know anything about New York subways, that NYC is a safe city and focused on carrying, not the ownership which was the problem. He later tried to make the TV Show Gunsmoke somehow be factual and Dillon was a horrible sheriff because he “killed so many people” and that actual Dodge didn’t “have these problems because they hired a good lawman to protect the people”. That right there is where he went off the rails enough that I had to stop listening. The 2nd amendment is more than just having firearms for self defense and it is a right in this country to own one if you so choose. The Framers just fought a war for freedom mostly with Minutemen and they weren’t ignorant.
This guy clearly has no trouble being loose with facts. Why would anyone trust his commentary when even the title suggests that things might be wrong. After all he mentions Marie Antionette’s “Let them eat cake” in an ad, when she never actually said that.