Revisionist History

The Alabama Murders

Published 22 September 2025Duration: 4m 38s
🎙Solo episodeMalcolm Gladwell is the only speaker. Stats reflect host monologue only; guest figures are not meaningful.

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 execute them. On The Alabama Murders , Malcolm Gladwell asks: why, in our efforts to alleviate suffering, do we so often make it worse? Pushkin+ subscribers can binge the entire season of Revisionist History: The Alabama Murders early and ad-free. Sign up on the Revisionist History show page or at  pushkin.fm/plus . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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