1 00:00:15,356 --> 00:00:22,236 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hello, there are Pushkin listeners. This is Malcolm Gladwell. 2 00:00:22,596 --> 00:00:26,716 Speaker 1: I'm the president of Pushkin Industries and host of Revisionist History. 3 00:00:27,236 --> 00:00:30,076 Speaker 1: But I'm here today as an author. I've written half 4 00:00:30,076 --> 00:00:33,476 Speaker 1: a dozen books, such as Outliers and Blink, but my 5 00:00:33,636 --> 00:00:37,956 Speaker 1: new book, The Bomber Mafia is something different. First, it's 6 00:00:37,996 --> 00:00:40,476 Speaker 1: a work of history, telling the story of how a 7 00:00:40,516 --> 00:00:45,276 Speaker 1: new technology, air power upended the nature of modern warfare 8 00:00:45,596 --> 00:00:49,316 Speaker 1: during the Second World War. It's also the first book 9 00:00:49,356 --> 00:00:52,636 Speaker 1: I wrote to be heard rather than read. You can 10 00:00:52,676 --> 00:00:55,076 Speaker 1: get the print version of The Bomber Mafia wherever you 11 00:00:55,236 --> 00:00:58,316 Speaker 1: usually get your books. And I love my readers, but 12 00:00:58,436 --> 00:01:02,756 Speaker 1: I urge you to listen. The Bomber Mafia is not 13 00:01:02,916 --> 00:01:06,596 Speaker 1: your typical audio book. I didn't record it in a booth, 14 00:01:06,916 --> 00:01:10,596 Speaker 1: solitary and bedantic. I worked with a whole team of 15 00:01:10,636 --> 00:01:16,756 Speaker 1: sound engineers, researchers, editors, musicians, wizards of every kind. They 16 00:01:16,796 --> 00:01:22,116 Speaker 1: were building the mightiest aircraft in history. I mean, would 17 00:01:22,156 --> 00:01:25,316 Speaker 1: you rather I just read some torpid, ruddily nonsense like 18 00:01:25,796 --> 00:01:28,636 Speaker 1: the B twenty nine bomber droned on through the night sky, 19 00:01:29,556 --> 00:01:33,276 Speaker 1: or would you rather hear it for yourself? And the 20 00:01:33,316 --> 00:01:36,236 Speaker 1: assembled airmen will listen to words that a few years 21 00:01:36,236 --> 00:01:40,916 Speaker 1: ago would have been fantastic, but today rolle casually off 22 00:01:40,956 --> 00:01:48,676 Speaker 1: a briefing officer's lips. The Taga gentleman is Japan. When 23 00:01:48,716 --> 00:01:51,116 Speaker 1: I was researching, I went to Maxwell Air Force Base 24 00:01:51,196 --> 00:01:53,716 Speaker 1: to dig through a mountain of tapes interviews with some 25 00:01:53,756 --> 00:01:56,756 Speaker 1: of the most important military figures of the Second World War. 26 00:01:57,436 --> 00:02:00,196 Speaker 1: These were the voices of people I'd only ever read 27 00:02:00,236 --> 00:02:04,236 Speaker 1: about in history books. Suddenly they all came alive inside 28 00:02:04,236 --> 00:02:07,876 Speaker 1: my head. It was magical, and it reminded me why 29 00:02:07,916 --> 00:02:12,076 Speaker 1: I do what I do. We've devised an easy way 30 00:02:12,116 --> 00:02:14,276 Speaker 1: for you to listen to the Bomber Mafia in the 31 00:02:14,356 --> 00:02:18,516 Speaker 1: same player you're using to hear this podcast. Go to 32 00:02:18,796 --> 00:02:22,996 Speaker 1: Bomber Mafia dot com and enter your email and payment method. 33 00:02:23,516 --> 00:02:26,636 Speaker 1: You'll receive an email shortly after payment. Open it and 34 00:02:26,796 --> 00:02:30,516 Speaker 1: follow the easy instructions to add the Bomber Mafia to 35 00:02:30,636 --> 00:02:34,156 Speaker 1: your podcast app. I'm about to play you a piece 36 00:02:34,196 --> 00:02:37,676 Speaker 1: of the Bomber Mafia audiobo Queer. I think it'll explain 37 00:02:37,716 --> 00:02:41,716 Speaker 1: why I wrote it, and I hope you'll hear the magic. 38 00:02:47,356 --> 00:02:50,436 Speaker 1: As a little boy lying in his bed, my father 39 00:02:50,476 --> 00:02:53,996 Speaker 1: would hear the plains overhead on their way in then 40 00:02:54,476 --> 00:02:57,556 Speaker 1: in the small hours of the morning, heading back to Germany. 41 00:03:00,196 --> 00:03:03,196 Speaker 1: This was in England, in Kent, a few miles south 42 00:03:03,236 --> 00:03:06,156 Speaker 1: and east of London. My father was born in nineteen 43 00:03:06,196 --> 00:03:08,516 Speaker 1: thirty four, which meant he was five when the Second 44 00:03:08,516 --> 00:03:12,596 Speaker 1: World War broke out. Kent was called bomb Alley by 45 00:03:12,596 --> 00:03:15,796 Speaker 1: the British because it was the English county that German 46 00:03:15,836 --> 00:03:20,476 Speaker 1: warplanes would fly over on their way to London. It 47 00:03:20,556 --> 00:03:23,596 Speaker 1: was not uncommon in those years that if a bomber 48 00:03:23,676 --> 00:03:26,676 Speaker 1: missed its target or had bombs left over, it would 49 00:03:26,716 --> 00:03:38,316 Speaker 1: simply drop them anywhere on the return trip. One day, 50 00:03:38,716 --> 00:03:42,956 Speaker 1: a stray bomb landed in my grandparents back garden. It 51 00:03:43,036 --> 00:03:47,036 Speaker 1: didn't explode, It just sat there, half buried in the ground. 52 00:03:47,236 --> 00:03:49,156 Speaker 1: And I think it's fair to say that if you 53 00:03:49,196 --> 00:03:51,396 Speaker 1: were a five year old boy with an interest in 54 00:03:51,476 --> 00:03:56,316 Speaker 1: things mechanical, a German bomb sitting unexploded in your backyard 55 00:03:56,516 --> 00:04:01,476 Speaker 1: would have been just about the most extraordinary experience imaginable, 56 00:04:05,796 --> 00:04:08,756 Speaker 1: Not that my father described it that way. My dad 57 00:04:08,796 --> 00:04:11,876 Speaker 1: was a mathematician and an Englishman, which is to say 58 00:04:11,916 --> 00:04:16,196 Speaker 1: that the language of emotion was not his first language. Rather, 59 00:04:16,396 --> 00:04:19,436 Speaker 1: it was like Latin or French, something which one could 60 00:04:19,476 --> 00:04:25,756 Speaker 1: study and understand but never fully master. Now that an 61 00:04:25,836 --> 00:04:29,636 Speaker 1: unexploded German bomb in your backyard would be the most 62 00:04:29,756 --> 00:04:33,996 Speaker 1: extraordinary experience imaginable for a five year old was my 63 00:04:34,196 --> 00:04:37,116 Speaker 1: interpretation when my father told me that story of the 64 00:04:37,156 --> 00:04:40,676 Speaker 1: bomb when I was five years old. That was in 65 00:04:40,716 --> 00:04:43,596 Speaker 1: the late nineteen sixties. We were living in England then 66 00:04:43,916 --> 00:04:47,556 Speaker 1: in Southampton. Reminders of what the country had gone through 67 00:04:47,756 --> 00:04:51,116 Speaker 1: were still everywhere. If you went to London you could 68 00:04:51,116 --> 00:04:54,516 Speaker 1: still tell where the bombs had landed, wherever a hideous 69 00:04:54,556 --> 00:04:58,316 Speaker 1: brutalius building had sprouted up on some sentries old block. 70 00:04:59,756 --> 00:05:01,676 Speaker 1: Here they come, they come an absolute steep dive and 71 00:05:01,716 --> 00:05:03,836 Speaker 1: you can see that bombs actually leave the machine and 72 00:05:04,116 --> 00:05:06,356 Speaker 1: coming to Walter. You can hear our own guns going 73 00:05:06,396 --> 00:05:10,476 Speaker 1: like anything now. BBC Radio was always on in our house, 74 00:05:10,756 --> 00:05:13,956 Speaker 1: and in those days it seemed like every second interview 75 00:05:14,276 --> 00:05:17,476 Speaker 1: was with an old general or power trooper, a prisoner 76 00:05:17,476 --> 00:05:22,436 Speaker 1: of war. We shall prove out he once like any 77 00:05:24,076 --> 00:05:31,076 Speaker 1: and our island home ride out on the war. The 78 00:05:31,116 --> 00:05:33,796 Speaker 1: first short story I wrote as a kid was about 79 00:05:33,836 --> 00:05:37,356 Speaker 1: how Hitler was actually still alive and coming for England again. 80 00:05:37,916 --> 00:05:40,316 Speaker 1: I sent it to my grandmother, the one in Kent 81 00:05:40,636 --> 00:05:44,036 Speaker 1: who'd had the unexploded bomb in the back garden. When 82 00:05:44,036 --> 00:05:48,156 Speaker 1: my mother heard about my story, she admonished me someone 83 00:05:48,196 --> 00:05:50,916 Speaker 1: who lived through the war might not enjoy a plot 84 00:05:50,916 --> 00:06:07,276 Speaker 1: line about Hitler's return. She reminded me. My father once 85 00:06:07,316 --> 00:06:09,716 Speaker 1: took me and my brothers to a beach overlooking the 86 00:06:09,756 --> 00:06:13,156 Speaker 1: English Channel. We crawled together through the remnants of an 87 00:06:13,196 --> 00:06:16,916 Speaker 1: old world word too fortification. I still remember the thrill 88 00:06:16,956 --> 00:06:20,036 Speaker 1: of wondering if we would come across some old bullets, 89 00:06:20,156 --> 00:06:23,076 Speaker 1: or a shell casing, or even the skeleton of some 90 00:06:23,196 --> 00:06:28,876 Speaker 1: long lost German spy who'd washed up on shore. I 91 00:06:28,916 --> 00:06:32,196 Speaker 1: don't think we lose our childhood fascinations. I know I didn't. 92 00:06:32,676 --> 00:06:35,156 Speaker 1: One day a few years back, I was looking at 93 00:06:35,196 --> 00:06:38,676 Speaker 1: my book shelves and realized, to my surprise, just how 94 00:06:38,676 --> 00:06:42,116 Speaker 1: many non fiction books about war I had accumulated. The 95 00:06:42,196 --> 00:06:47,676 Speaker 1: big history bestsellers, but also the specialty histories, out of print, memoirs, 96 00:06:47,796 --> 00:06:51,316 Speaker 1: academic texts, and what part of the war were most 97 00:06:51,356 --> 00:06:56,396 Speaker 1: of these books about bombing air Power by Stephen Boudiansky, 98 00:06:56,796 --> 00:07:00,796 Speaker 1: Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare by Tammy Biddell, Decision 99 00:07:00,916 --> 00:07:05,636 Speaker 1: over Schweinfurt by Thomas Coffee whole shelves of these histories. 100 00:07:06,516 --> 00:07:09,836 Speaker 1: Usually when I start accumulating books like that, it's because 101 00:07:09,876 --> 00:07:12,516 Speaker 1: I want to write something about the subject. I have 102 00:07:12,636 --> 00:07:15,756 Speaker 1: shelves of books on social psychology because I've made my 103 00:07:15,836 --> 00:07:19,556 Speaker 1: living writing about social psychology. But I never really wrote 104 00:07:19,636 --> 00:07:23,676 Speaker 1: much about war, especially not the Second Wold War, or 105 00:07:23,796 --> 00:07:29,276 Speaker 1: more specifically air power. Just bits and pieces here and there. Why. 106 00:07:29,996 --> 00:07:32,716 Speaker 1: I don't know. I imagine that a Freudian would have 107 00:07:32,756 --> 00:07:36,036 Speaker 1: fun with that question. But maybe the simpler answer is 108 00:07:36,036 --> 00:07:38,916 Speaker 1: that the more a subject matters to you, the harder 109 00:07:38,956 --> 00:07:40,836 Speaker 1: it is to find a story you want to tell 110 00:07:40,876 --> 00:07:45,196 Speaker 1: about it. The bar is higher, which brings us to 111 00:07:45,236 --> 00:07:48,996 Speaker 1: The Bomber Mafia, the audio book you are listening to now. 112 00:07:49,836 --> 00:07:52,876 Speaker 1: I'm happy to say that with The Bomber Mafia, I've 113 00:07:52,956 --> 00:07:58,556 Speaker 1: found a story worthy of my obsession. One last thing 114 00:07:58,876 --> 00:08:02,876 Speaker 1: about the use of that last word, obsession. This book 115 00:08:03,156 --> 00:08:05,796 Speaker 1: is a service to my obsessions, but it's also a 116 00:08:05,836 --> 00:08:09,876 Speaker 1: story about other people's obsessions, about one of the grandest 117 00:08:09,916 --> 00:08:13,756 Speaker 1: obsessions of the twentieth century. I realize when I look 118 00:08:13,756 --> 00:08:15,956 Speaker 1: at the things I've written about or explored over the 119 00:08:16,036 --> 00:08:19,596 Speaker 1: years that I'm drawn again and again to obsessives. I 120 00:08:19,716 --> 00:08:22,636 Speaker 1: like them. I liked the idea that someone could push 121 00:08:22,676 --> 00:08:26,276 Speaker 1: away all the concerns and details that make up everyday 122 00:08:26,316 --> 00:08:29,956 Speaker 1: life and just zero in on one thing, the thing 123 00:08:30,036 --> 00:08:34,516 Speaker 1: that fits the contours of their imagination. Obsessives lead us astray, 124 00:08:34,636 --> 00:08:38,636 Speaker 1: sometimes lack the bigger picture, serve not just the worlds 125 00:08:38,796 --> 00:08:42,516 Speaker 1: but their own narrow interests. But I also don't think 126 00:08:42,516 --> 00:08:48,276 Speaker 1: we get progress, or innovation, or joy or beauty without obsessives. 127 00:08:56,156 --> 00:08:58,516 Speaker 1: When I was reporting this book, I had dinner with 128 00:08:58,556 --> 00:09:00,796 Speaker 1: the then Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, 129 00:09:01,156 --> 00:09:04,076 Speaker 1: David Goldfein. It was at the air House on the 130 00:09:04,076 --> 00:09:07,156 Speaker 1: grounds of Fort Myer in northern Virginia, just across the 131 00:09:07,196 --> 00:09:11,276 Speaker 1: Potomac River from Washington, d C. A Grand Victorian on 132 00:09:11,316 --> 00:09:14,356 Speaker 1: a street of Grand Victorians where many of the country's 133 00:09:14,396 --> 00:09:19,276 Speaker 1: top military brass all live. After dinner, General Golfing invited 134 00:09:19,276 --> 00:09:22,236 Speaker 1: over a group of his friends and colleagues, other senior 135 00:09:22,276 --> 00:09:25,556 Speaker 1: Air Force officials. We sat in the general's back yard, 136 00:09:26,116 --> 00:09:28,996 Speaker 1: five of us in total. They were almost all former 137 00:09:29,076 --> 00:09:32,876 Speaker 1: military pilots. Many of their fathers had been military pilots. 138 00:09:33,596 --> 00:09:36,116 Speaker 1: They were the modern day equivalents of the people you're 139 00:09:36,116 --> 00:09:39,356 Speaker 1: going to hear about in this book. And as the 140 00:09:39,436 --> 00:09:43,716 Speaker 1: evening wore on, I began to notice something. Air House 141 00:09:43,876 --> 00:09:46,636 Speaker 1: is just down the road from Reagan National Airport, and 142 00:09:46,716 --> 00:09:49,356 Speaker 1: every ten minutes or so, a plane would take off 143 00:09:49,396 --> 00:09:54,036 Speaker 1: just over our heads. Nothing fancy, just standard commercial passenger 144 00:09:54,076 --> 00:09:58,556 Speaker 1: planes flying to Chicago or Tampa or Charlotte. And every 145 00:09:58,596 --> 00:10:01,716 Speaker 1: time one of those planes flew overhead, the General and 146 00:10:01,876 --> 00:10:05,716 Speaker 1: his comrades would all glance upwards just to take a look. 147 00:10:06,836 --> 00:10:26,356 Speaker 1: They couldn't help themselves. Obsessives, my kind of people. Thanks 148 00:10:26,676 --> 00:10:29,956 Speaker 1: for listening to that. Excerpt from my new book, Discover 149 00:10:30,036 --> 00:10:32,876 Speaker 1: the Rest of the Story of the Bomber Mafia, available 150 00:10:33,156 --> 00:10:37,396 Speaker 1: at Bomber Mafia dot com.