Divide and Conquer | Revisionist History | Malcolm Gladwell

The complete, unabridged history of the world’s most controversial semicolon.
Season 3 (2018)
#podcast #revisionisthistory #malcolmgladwell #texas
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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[@ExkupidsMom]

This is so magnificently nerdy and I am loving every second of it.

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

If this is about the split-Texas-into-four idea, I've been pushing it for years. Most of the first 386 coin laundries in Japan, built by me, have dryers built by Cook Machinery, of Dallas. I visited Texas often in the 1970s... {Later: I came back and listened to the whole thing, and yes, Malcolm's right. Four Texases would be two solidly Democratic and two wild cards -- with the more agricultural parts in danger of going for a yet-to-appear progressive rural one... Yup. Let's do it!}

[@cembach]

I'm a nerd! ❤ this pod;

[@dosesandmimoses]

Gratitude 🙏

[@stevemyers2092]

Amazing work Malcolm. Great content.

[@curtsyster5356]

Listened to all of these enough times to be eye-twichingly bothered by golf courses

[@sandramoorewilliams5384]

There was an article about this in Texas Monthly about 20 years ago. You might want to look at it.

[@Edo9River]

This is my second time through😊

[@paulgar8]

Again, Amazing!

[@maxheadrom3088]

A well defined and regulated Judicial system being fundamental for maintaining the State, the understanding of punctuation, the right to write shall not be restricted, to correctly understand the legal codes.

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

Particularly the well regulated, comma.

[@cherylcarlson3315]

My son has refused to edit for me claiming extreme abuse of comma . Worst part is I homeschooled him.

[@TJayceRace]

The thing I wonder if these content creators understand is just how abusive 18th century was on commas in general lol, I’m a book nerd and I enjoy delving into multiple different types of books from different centuries and geographical locations, it’s fascinating to see linguistics and punctuation, syntax evolution etc. 🙂

[@turtlesilk]

I LOVE Mary Norris!

[@benhunley9215]

This is great! Would kindly quibble over a couple of things: it’s more correct to generalize the handful of counties in WV’s northern panhandle as being apathetic to slavery (ref. May 151861 Pittsburg Dispatch p.3). The end of the Calif Law Review article they wrote on WV says “West Virginia […] is not unconstitutional. Probably.” Finally, WV is not a state because the people didn’t want it. The Confederate wave ruled and lasted there for 25 yrs post proscription.

[@MrTeff999]

If this were to happen, it would surely be gerrymandered.

[@RobertSaxy]

I’m so proud of myself that my initial thought was the same as Mary’s. I’m not sure of were right (I’m not as smart as her with the grammar) but she seems like a great mind

[@bthomson]

"But as you can imagine, I persist". Ha! Ha!🤗. 😍.

[@bthomson]

" This dog is not shaggy!". How much do we love MG!

[@philipbrown881]

😢😮 Harper's magazine Harper's magazine😂

[@magister343]

The statehood of West Virginia is definitely unconstitutional, as Virginia's legislature did not approve it. The Reorganized Government of Virginia was not the legal Virginia legislature.

[@topguntommy22]

He's right in saying that the commas in the Twenty-sixth Amendment are incorrectly used but he's wrong in how he describes that incorrect use. "[C]itizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older," means that all U.S. citizens are eighteen or older. It does not mean that anyone eighteen or older is automatically U.S. citizen. Malcom's interpretation would be akin to saying that "[t]he house, built in 1978," means that anything built in 1978 is that exact house. A square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square.

[@topguntommy22]

Also, the fact that you can't form your own state without approval does not automatically mean that you can form your own state with approval.

[@KennethGuilliams-ec6kx]

Extremely bright, and I can see why the rand foundation had him . And the government used them. Frighting almost because now I am looking back and seeing his and their lives and how the governments played the games . And the agencies inside the government played their own little games which they never bothered to tell the government they are working for... About. And concerning different countries not our own..... Lol , and they were doing things that could be misunderstood as basically an act of war because we were subverting a a nation state

[@behnamashjari3003]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@Redmenace96]

A little confused, here. When he finally got to the 4 states idea, I thought he was saying Rep. dominated state assembly could execute it and gain more Rep. senate seats. Then he got into the 4 regions; ( could picture it pretty well, been to Texas many times) Why does he think they would all be Dem.? Because they would each get a dominant metropolis, and it would dilute the rural vote? I'm not clear on that conclusion without some numbers, and a more serious map. (did I use my semi-colon correctly?)

[@L33PL4Y]

No, you didn't use it correctly.

[@dansacco7907]

Dividing up Texas's 38 electoral college votes so that things were no longer winner-take-all would make it extremely difficult for Republicans to win a presidential election. If Texas's electors were split 19 /19 in the last election, the GOP would have needed to add Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to the states they won to even eke out a 1 elector edge.

[@chilatelover]

Come on y'all! What you waiting for Texas?

[@Edo9River]

So what is happening.?it’s been 3 weeks?

[@hcitron]

Virginia seceded ; that should end the question of legality of West Virginia remaining in the Union .

[@jakejacobs4463]

Luckily, we have a legal grammarian. It’s called the Supreme Court.

[@Pops2]

How do you save a lawyer from drowning?......Get your foot off his head.😅

[@WNH3]

...nor any drop to drink.

[@naftalibendavid]

No! Not 5x Texas!

[@usaturnuranus]

What's the difference between a lawyer and a catfish? ;)

[@sandramoorewilliams5384]

Also, the "Alamo history" is a fiction.