Pushkin.

It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here?

Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn.

In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examined an unmistakable turning point in American politics,

the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most controversial

rulings in Supreme Court history. So if you're trying to make sense at the present moment,

check out Fiasco, Bush v. Gore. Listen on the Iart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

From Pushkin Industries, this is deep background, the show where we explore the stories behind the stories in the news.

I'm Noah Feldman. Today's episode is a little different than usual. It's a conversation between me and one of my podcasting gods, Malcolm Gladwell.

Malcolm is the host of revisionist history, which is produced by the same company that produces

this show.

About a year ago, Malcolm reported a story for revisionist history about a constitutional law

professor named Michael Stokes Paulson, who has this totally crazy theory

that Texas has the right to break into five states if it wants. All because the authors of the United

States Constitution used a semicolon in a certain way. Here's a clip from that episode of Malcolm

talking to Michael Paulson. If you want to find the full thing, by the way, you can find it in the revisionist history

feed.

It's called Divide and Conquer.

Imagine a governor of Texas reads your Law Review article and said...

Well, that's a funny enough premise as it is.

And says, okay, I want to trigger it.

Okay.

...