From Revisionist History: The Alabama Murders

Deep Background with Noah Feldman

Pushkin Industries

News Commentary, Government, News

4.4 • 848 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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.

Get early, ad-free access to the full season of The Alabama Murders by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:04.5	I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of heavyweight,
0:08.4	I help a centenarian mend a broken heart.
0:11.0	How can a 101-year-old woman fall in love again?
0:18.5	And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old.
0:24.0	And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke.
0:29.2	And he got down, and I remember feeling kind of a surge of like, okay, this is power.
0:33.9	Plus, my old friend Gregor and his brother try to solve my problems through hypnotism.
0:39.6	We could give you a whole brand new thing where you're like super charming all the time.
0:43.0	Being more able to look people in the eyes.
0:44.9	Not always hide behind a microphone.
0:47.5	Listen to heavyweight wherever you get your podcasts.
0:50.1	Music Hello.
1:03.0	Hello, Malcolm here. Before we get to the episode, I want to let you know you can get this entire season now, ad-free, by subscribing to revisionist history on Pushkin Plus.
1:17.5	Sign up on the show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm.fm slash plus.
1:23.8	Pushkin Plus subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows.
1:33.4	A little while ago, a friend of mine told me, you have to meet this person I know.
1:39.4	Kate Porterfield. She's got the strangest job in America. So I did.
1:44.9	We got together, Porterfield and I, in a little conference room in Manhattan.
1:49.5	I just want to understand how you ended up where you are.
1:55.6	So your kind of viewing is we're just talking.
1:57.6	You're thinking about whether there's something here that will, that'll
	...

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