It's 1964.

NBC News Anchorman David Brinkley has come to Boston to meet John Rock.

Dr. Rock, who is 73 years old, lives and works in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Mainly, he works at his clinic or center devoted to the study of human reproduction and the

treatment of problems in an area where when you get bound to it, remarkably little is known.

John Rock, the most famous physician in the United States, co-inventor of one of the most

important drugs in human history, the birth control pill.

He went to the high school of commerce in Boston to Harvard, to Harvard Medical School,

interned at Massachusetts General Hospital, directed for 30 years of fertility clinic at the

Free Hospital for Women, and now goes to Mass every day at Brookline's St. Mary's Church.

My name is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about things

overlooked or misunderstood.

This is the second of three episodes on how to think like a Jesuit.

This one is about John Rock's great dilemma. A man who went to Mass every day at St. Mary's

Catholic Church and then helped create the pill, something his church could not accept.

One of the events that would shape my life to a great degree was an experience I had of

how the clinic was a cured in my arm, bro.

Rock is tall, distinguished, looks like carry grand. His interview with Brinkley was over half a

century ago, so forgive the quality of the tape.

I was just about 14 and I was walking out of Mars one Sunday. When Father Finneck back at me and

asked me if I would like to drive down with him to visit Old Folks Home,

old wee children called a poor farm. Father Finneck was a quiet and unobtrusive man.

...