If you want to listen to something interesting, you can hardly go wrong with Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History. Sure, it’s a bit of an odd name. I mean, aren’t we all supposed to be a little suspicious of those who want to rewrite history?
But it’s an excellent concept. To use the phrasing of the website, “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.” It’s absolutely fascinating. My favorite still remains “McDonald’s Broke my Heart,” episode 9 of season 2.
But there are so many others, and one from last season that I finally got around to listening to last night resonated. It was about Howard Hughes, and anyone who was around in the 70s knows something of the demise of Howard Hughes. He was famous in a big way. I can’t necessarily think of anyone to whom we may compare him. The world today is absolutely filled with super-rich people, some of whom are eccentrics. But Hughes was like, the original rich guy. There was rich, and then there was Howard Hughes rich.
So prepare to be fascinated. And also, when you listen to the end, you understand the title completely:
http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/50-oh-howard-you-idiot
