Higher Animals with Michael Specter | Revisionist History | Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm talks with his old friend, the brilliant science writer Michael Specter, about the future of life on Earth. Michael's response to the Covid-19 pandemic was to create a new audiobook on how the mRNA vaccines have sparked a biotechnology revolution: Higher Animals: Vaccines, Synthetic Biology, and the Future of Life. He and Malcolm talk about how this scientific revolution is bigger than many that came before it, about the promise of heritable vaccines for endangered species, and about how a smallpox infection could genuinely have wiped out New York in 1947. Also, we share a portion of Higher Animals' first, thrilling chapter. To purchase your own, complete copy of Michael Specter's Higher Animals, click here: www.pushkin.fm/audiobooks/hig...
ABOUT REVISIONIST HISTORY
Revisionist History is Malcolm Gladwell’s journey through the overlooked and the misunderstood. Every podcast 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. Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance.
ABOUT MALCOLM GLADWELL
Malcolm Gladwell is president and co-founder of Pushkin Industries. He is a journalist, a speaker, and the author of six New York Times bestsellers including The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, David and Goliath, and Talking to Strangers. He has been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1996. He is a trustee of the Surgo Foundation and currently serves on the board of the RAND Corporation.
ABOUT PUSHKIN INDUSTRIES
Pushkin Industries is an audio production company dedicated to creating premium content in a collaborative environment. Co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg in 2018, Pushkin has launched seven new shows into the top 10 on Apple Podcasts (Against the Rules, The Happiness Lab, Solvable, Cautionary Tales, Deep Cover, The Last Archive, and Lost Hills), in addition to producing the hugely successful Revisionist History. Pushkin’s growing audiobook catalogue includes includes the bestselling biography “Fauci,” by Michael Specter, “Hasta La Vista, America,” Kurt Andersen’s parody Trump farewell speech performed by Alec Baldwin, "Takeover" by Noah Feldman, and “Talking to Strangers,” from Pushkin co-founder Malcolm Gladwell. Pushkin is dedicated to producing audio in any format that challenges listeners and inspires curiosity and joy.
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[@Juggler1097]

The best way to find out why someone thinks as they do is to ask them about their concerns. Not with the intention to respond, say they're wrong, mock them, threaten them, change their minds, or anything similar. To understand and have compassion for a fellow human being. Michael sounds like he didn't do that with those who question things from 2020 onward and all the shady stuff that happened during that time.

[@The_Bri_Cli]

Love Malcolm

[@laurence7181]

I was a kid when JFK was shot. Grown men wept. The neighbor dads stood around as if they had been shot but they didn't fall down. Years later the official report was released. it basically said "There's nothing to see here folks. Just move along." To my mind that is the origin of the distrust.

[@manjindersidhu8684]

"Are they vaccine skeptics?" 😂 Great interview

[@horplesmoff]

Never met a Ferret who told me they supported vaccinations

[@larryreilly7]

hahahaha!

[@hcitron]

See-Panic in the Streets 1950 Starring Richard Widmark directed by Elia Kazan

[@naftalibendavid]

Nice work!

[@willmpet]

I have always respected Juan Enriquez!

[@alexhuxley3355]

TY really interesting

[@terfalicious]

I am deaf - is Michael's book only audio?

[@maxheadrom3088]

You'd have to talk to Adam Curtis to call the book "Pandora's Box". The BBC series is about ... guess what! Science and technology and its relation to society and democracy.

[@snakedoktor6020]

He said Pandora's Pox, not box. As in Small Pox.

[@papimimi5469]

Thanks for sharing that info

[@chowder8021]

Before that debate I would have thought Gladwell far more likable than Murray and generally more likable than Taibbi. The debate changed my view. The last 7 minutes of this video help mitigate somewhat, but the first ~37minutes sometimes seemed to be doubling down on the tribalism of moral superiority. Really liked the themes of listening and empathy, MG at his best.

[@EdSuastegui]

Amazing how we can talk about re-writing DNA code while totally bypassing that it is a RE-write, and hence, it was written in the first place. It took an intelligent agent to re-write it, and yet, "random" wrote version 1.0. Talk about ignoring revolutions.

[@ezeewrap66]

This RE-write also proves the viability of time travel. Since we're becoming the authors of life, the only answer to the origin of life is that a future temporal experiment blasted cellular life 4 billion years into the past. Which also proves humanity will not be replaced by AI. You're welcome.

[@LittleTed1000]

Well, make a stupid post get stupid relies. You started it.

[@JM-st1le]

​@@ezeewrap66😂

[@JM-st1le]

Why did it take the great creator 4 billion years to go from single celled organisms to modern humans?

[@zazek84]

199 likes. What a crime.

[@BlueBeeMCMLXI]

Two guys address the "future of life on earth". LOL. Fart.

[@Loty2023]

Why an adult will take the time to comment as you did?