From Revisionist History: The Alabama Murders

Death of an Artist

Pushkin Industries

Society & Culture, Arts, True Crime

4.6 • 877 Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Here's a preview of a podcast we think you'll enjoy. It's from the new season of Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast, The Alabama Murders. Florence, Alabama. 1988. A preacher has an affair. A woman is murdered. One death cascades into more, stretching across decades and leaving no one untouched — victims, bystanders, perpetrators, and those just trying to help. Eventually, the consequences lead to the center of a hot national debate on who should be allowed to live, who should die, and how the state should kill them. On The Alabama Murders, Malcolm asks: why, in our efforts to alleviate suffering, do we so often make it worse?

Find Revisionist History: The Alabama Murders wherever you get podcasts. To get early access to ad-free episodes and extra content, subscribe to Pushkin+ on the Revisionist History show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:06.8	In early 1988, federal agents race to track down the gang they suspect of importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into New York from Asia.
0:16.4	We had 30 agents ready to go with shotguns and rifles and you name it.
0:21.6	But what they find is not what they expected.
0:24.6	Basically, your stay-at-home moms were picking up these large amounts of heroin.
0:28.6	They go, is this your daughter? You may not see her for like 25 years.
0:33.6	Caught between a federal investigation and the violent gang who recruited them, the women must
0:39.9	decide who they're willing to protect and who they dare to betray. Once I saw the gun, I tried to
0:45.9	take his hand and I saw the flash of light. Listen to the Chinatown Sting anywhere you get your
0:50.7	podcasts and binge the entire season now,
0:56.4	ad free, with a Pushkin Plus subscription.
1:11.8	Head to the Chinatown Sting Show page on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.
1:16.2	Malcolm Gladwell here.
1:19.8	Today you'll hear a preview from the latest season of Revisionist History.
1:22.8	My podcast is about The Overlooked and Misunderstood.
1:26.2	This season, the Alabama murders.
1:32.9	We'll look back to 1988 in Northwest Alabama, where a man committed a crime that spiraled out of control. A woman was murdered, and her death cascaded into more tragedies, leaving no one
1:39.6	untouched, victims, bystanders, perpetrators, and even those just trying to help.
1:45.6	The Alabama murders ask the question, why in our efforts to alleviate suffering,
1:50.6	do we so often make it worse?
1:53.1	Here's the preview.
1:55.0	Find Revisionist History, The Alabama Murders, wherever you listen to podcasts.
	...

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