WEBVTT - The Big Birthday Party 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:24.276 Pushkin. So I'm calling you because I'm doing a little 0:00:24.316 --> 0:00:29.676 thing on how I don't like my birthday. Yes, and 0:00:29.756 --> 0:00:31.516 I have questions for you. 0:00:33.196 --> 0:00:38.356 Yes, I'm eagerly waiting to hear of this because I 0:00:38.516 --> 0:00:41.076 have spaid a lot of time one ding what it's 0:00:41.116 --> 0:00:41.636 all about. 0:00:42.676 --> 0:00:47.116 That's my mom, Joyce. She's very short, speaks very softly. 0:00:47.716 --> 0:00:51.476 You would like her. Do you remember ever having a 0:00:51.516 --> 0:00:53.516 birthday party for me when I was a child. 0:00:54.116 --> 0:00:59.036 I think we did. We didn't do exotic things. I 0:00:59.076 --> 0:01:03.756 think you had people sleep over, or you had some 0:01:03.956 --> 0:01:07.956 people to tea, a few friends from school. 0:01:08.596 --> 0:01:13.756 I remember there was once a big party, and really 0:01:13.956 --> 0:01:18.076 and I and I said, and afterwards I said, that's enough. 0:01:18.836 --> 0:01:24.116 Oh okay, now, well you're going to exclaine what you were? 0:01:24.476 --> 0:01:25.356 What was enough? 0:01:28.236 --> 0:01:32.956 In case you're wondering, my mom is a therapist. I 0:01:33.036 --> 0:01:35.196 just thought it was a I thought it was a 0:01:35.236 --> 0:01:38.516 needless production to have all these people over. 0:01:39.076 --> 0:01:40.876 What should it have been instead? 0:01:41.676 --> 0:01:45.356 Well, what would I do now? Is perfect? Which is nothing? 0:01:46.236 --> 0:01:51.916 Oh, so you didn't enjoy any part of having friends 0:01:51.956 --> 0:01:53.596 to eat with you? 0:01:53.636 --> 0:01:59.396 No, I haven't had a birthday party since. It's worse 0:01:59.436 --> 0:02:02.956 than that. I don't remember anyone's birthday. I know my 0:02:03.076 --> 0:02:05.956 mother's but not my father's, one of my brothers, but 0:02:05.996 --> 0:02:08.196 not the other. One of my daughters was born in 0:02:08.236 --> 0:02:10.756 July and the other in August, but I'm not sure 0:02:10.796 --> 0:02:13.756 which is which. If I were to name my five 0:02:13.836 --> 0:02:16.436 closest friends, I think I know the birthday of one 0:02:16.436 --> 0:02:19.436 of them. And that's because it's January first. And I 0:02:19.516 --> 0:02:21.996 just saw him on January first, and he said to me, 0:02:22.516 --> 0:02:26.276 with tones of great injury and reproach, today is my birthday. 0:02:26.876 --> 0:02:28.996 But I am sure I'll forget that fact really soon 0:02:29.836 --> 0:02:33.236 on this particular subject. The overloaded lifeboat that is my 0:02:33.356 --> 0:02:37.396 memory is refusing all further passengers. And by the way, 0:02:37.516 --> 0:02:40.156 my mother reminded me, it's not just birthdays that I 0:02:40.196 --> 0:02:43.516 have a problem with, it's any kind of arbitrary celebration. 0:02:45.036 --> 0:02:46.356 So you were. 0:02:48.356 --> 0:02:49.796 A very thoughtful child. 0:02:50.276 --> 0:02:53.316 The fact, for example, was that you child is your teacher, 0:02:53.716 --> 0:02:54.396 Miss Brown. 0:02:55.236 --> 0:02:57.916 Missus Brown was my first grade teacher. I was very 0:02:57.956 --> 0:03:01.276 fond of Missus Brown. But one day at school she 0:03:01.356 --> 0:03:03.836 brought up Christmas and Santa Claus. 0:03:04.396 --> 0:03:06.596 You put your hand up and said, there is no 0:03:06.796 --> 0:03:12.516 center flower. This was when she had the fair problem, 0:03:12.596 --> 0:03:16.036 because here she was speaking to a group of small 0:03:16.196 --> 0:03:18.476 children who wanted to believe. 0:03:19.556 --> 0:03:23.916 Yes, it's they're linked by the way my disdain for 0:03:23.996 --> 0:03:27.636 Santa Claus and my disdain for my birthday. Is this 0:03:27.836 --> 0:03:28.996 part of the same impulse? 0:03:30.116 --> 0:03:33.156 Yes, of course, Yes, of. 0:03:33.156 --> 0:03:38.276 Course, says mom the therapist. Why am I telling you 0:03:38.356 --> 0:03:43.116 all this because last year, twenty twenty five was the 0:03:43.156 --> 0:03:47.476 tenth anniversary of when we started making Revisionist History, and 0:03:47.516 --> 0:03:51.676 I forgot all about it, totally skip my mind until 0:03:51.676 --> 0:03:54.476 I was randomly on the Revision's history dot Com website 0:03:54.596 --> 0:03:57.476 looking up some forgotten fact from an episode from season 0:03:57.516 --> 0:04:00.876 one one of my favorite food Fight, and I noticed 0:04:00.876 --> 0:04:05.676 the release date July fourteenth, twenty sixteen, and I realized, 0:04:05.796 --> 0:04:10.316 holy mackerel, we've been around for ten years. The Internet 0:04:10.436 --> 0:04:13.956 tells me that this is the ten or Aluminum anniversary, 0:04:14.156 --> 0:04:16.356 which I have to say, kind of proves my point. 0:04:16.756 --> 0:04:18.756 What are you supposed to do in your tenth anniversary? 0:04:19.076 --> 0:04:19.236 Right? 0:04:19.316 --> 0:04:21.996 I love you in magic marker on a sheet of tinfoil. 0:04:23.116 --> 0:04:25.796 This was back in the summer. So what did I do. 0:04:26.116 --> 0:04:29.236 I didn't say anything, kept it to myself. It's better 0:04:29.276 --> 0:04:31.636 this way, I thought, But then I remember to date. 0:04:31.676 --> 0:04:33.676 I went on many years ago with a girl who 0:04:33.716 --> 0:04:36.036 told me that she turned her birthday every year into 0:04:36.036 --> 0:04:39.236 a seven day marathon. She called it, wait for it, 0:04:39.876 --> 0:04:44.556 Princess Week. Picture me in the darkened bar making sense 0:04:44.556 --> 0:04:50.316 of that revelation. Good lord, But if someone wants Princess Week, 0:04:50.636 --> 0:04:54.076 shouldn't we just give them Princess Week. So, all of 0:04:54.076 --> 0:04:58.356 you insufferably sentimental people out there in listener land, this 0:04:58.556 --> 0:05:04.116 is for you, a little revisionist history tenth anniversary celebration. 0:05:12.716 --> 0:05:16.116 To get started, I did little homework, sent out a tweet, 0:05:16.556 --> 0:05:20.556 asked listeners for feedback, scoured some Reddit threads, talk with 0:05:20.596 --> 0:05:22.716 people who've been involved in the show over the years, 0:05:23.156 --> 0:05:25.916 trying to generate a highlight reel for the big birthday party. 0:05:26.476 --> 0:05:29.916 What was her favorite moment memory? First thing I got 0:05:29.916 --> 0:05:32.796 back was from my colleague Bend daph Haffrey, who talked 0:05:32.796 --> 0:05:36.076 to my old producer Elowise Linton about a reporting trip 0:05:36.156 --> 0:05:38.636 we took back in twenty twenty one for the episode 0:05:39.076 --> 0:05:40.356 The Dog Will See You Now. 0:05:41.796 --> 0:05:46.076 Okay, So Malcolm wanted to do an episode on these 0:05:46.556 --> 0:05:52.636 dogs who were trained to small COVID and we found 0:05:52.796 --> 0:05:59.476 this center in Alabama that trained these specialized dogs and 0:06:00.276 --> 0:06:03.436 we all decided to go on a road trip and 0:06:03.476 --> 0:06:07.356 it was me, Malcolm and Jacob Smith, so Malcolm and 0:06:07.476 --> 0:06:12.036 two producers. And part of the thing that was fun 0:06:12.116 --> 0:06:14.036 but also kind of crazy about it was that we 0:06:14.036 --> 0:06:16.036 were just sort of coming out of COVID, so we 0:06:16.076 --> 0:06:18.116 hadn't It was fun to take a trip in a 0:06:18.156 --> 0:06:21.076 moment when there wasn't a lot of socializing or traveling 0:06:21.116 --> 0:06:21.476 going on. 0:06:23.076 --> 0:06:24.756 Let me just butt in here and say that no 0:06:24.796 --> 0:06:28.476 one loves doing Alabama stories more than me. Back in 0:06:28.516 --> 0:06:32.716 season two, we did The foot Soldier of Birmingham. Season eight, 0:06:32.796 --> 0:06:36.356 we did an episode called Footnote Remember for our gun 0:06:36.516 --> 0:06:39.716 series about a guy living on an old plantation outside 0:06:39.756 --> 0:06:43.836 of Tuskegee. Season ten, we went to Scottsboro, Alabama for 0:06:43.916 --> 0:06:46.756 an episode of our nineteen thirty six Olympic series. And 0:06:46.796 --> 0:06:49.796 we just did The Alabama Murders, a seven part series 0:06:49.796 --> 0:06:53.596 about crime and punishment and redemption set in a little 0:06:53.636 --> 0:06:57.276 town in northwestern Alabama. Bet and I went twice. Ben 0:06:57.356 --> 0:07:00.756 went a third time on his own. No one loves 0:07:00.796 --> 0:07:05.036 Alabama more than I love Alabama. So in the middle 0:07:05.076 --> 0:07:06.876 of COVID, I want to do a story about how 0:07:06.916 --> 0:07:10.076 dogs are much better detecting COVID, then even the most 0:07:10.156 --> 0:07:13.676 sophisticated molecular bio essay, and I find out that one 0:07:13.676 --> 0:07:16.876 of the biggest COVID canine training centers is an hour's 0:07:16.956 --> 0:07:22.556 drive from Birmingham, way up in the hills, Alabama. Cute puppies, 0:07:23.196 --> 0:07:26.916 viral epidemics. My feeling was that this might be the 0:07:27.196 --> 0:07:29.156 perfect revision's history story. 0:07:30.196 --> 0:07:32.676 One fun thing that I learned about Malcolm on this 0:07:32.796 --> 0:07:36.556 trip is that he doesn't believe in using maps, which 0:07:36.676 --> 0:07:40.716 caused you know, nah, he doesn't want He doesn't mean 0:07:40.756 --> 0:07:43.196 you can ask him his philosophy on it. I'm sure 0:07:43.236 --> 0:07:47.036 he has some great answer, but he would not use 0:07:47.076 --> 0:07:48.876 an app. So it was kind of me and Jacob 0:07:48.956 --> 0:07:52.236 secretly checking our you know, Google maps and sort of 0:07:52.916 --> 0:07:56.756 suggesting that he takes certain turns, picking your fingers, sticking 0:07:56.756 --> 0:08:01.276 it to the wind and being yeah, exactly, yeah, this 0:08:01.436 --> 0:08:01.956 is true. 0:08:02.116 --> 0:08:04.796 Since we're talking about my parents, one of my fondest 0:08:04.836 --> 0:08:07.556 memories of being a kid is driving with my family 0:08:07.636 --> 0:08:12.036 somewhere and clearly getting hopelessly lost and my father announcing 0:08:12.116 --> 0:08:16.036 gleefully from the front seat, I'm following my nose. I 0:08:16.076 --> 0:08:19.116 felt that my young producers deserved a similar experience. 0:08:21.636 --> 0:08:24.596 And on this long drive road trip, we had to 0:08:24.596 --> 0:08:28.276 stop for gas, and we stopped at a very desolate 0:08:28.436 --> 0:08:31.836 gas station, kind of in the middle of nowhere, very 0:08:31.836 --> 0:08:37.556 in the middle of nowhere, and Malcolm and Jacob both 0:08:37.636 --> 0:08:40.396 went in to grab something, and I went to the 0:08:40.396 --> 0:08:43.236 bathroom and I came back out and they were gone, 0:08:43.596 --> 0:08:48.956 and I left my cellphone in the car, and I 0:08:49.036 --> 0:08:53.436 just kind of remember calculating what my options were in 0:08:53.556 --> 0:08:56.236 terms of what I could do. So I remember I 0:08:56.316 --> 0:08:59.796 went into the I went into the sort of gas 0:08:59.876 --> 0:09:06.196 station and was concentplating calling my family, calling my roommate 0:09:06.316 --> 0:09:16.476 and saying, listen, my boss left me at a gas. 0:09:13.316 --> 0:09:15.916 In fairness to me and Jacob, Elowis had been sitting 0:09:15.956 --> 0:09:18.036 in the back seat, and she is by nature quite 0:09:18.116 --> 0:09:20.356 as a church mess, so it makes sense that we 0:09:20.476 --> 0:09:22.956 might assume that she was back there all the time, 0:09:23.316 --> 0:09:25.676 reading a book or something. And it did not take 0:09:25.716 --> 0:09:28.476 that long for us to realize our mistake, maybe ten 0:09:28.516 --> 0:09:32.076 miles max and the frantic drive back, both Jacob and 0:09:32.076 --> 0:09:37.276 I felt really, really guilty. Anyway, why am I telling 0:09:37.316 --> 0:09:39.756 you this story because when I meet listeners, I think 0:09:39.756 --> 0:09:42.036 they have the impression that this show is some big, 0:09:42.236 --> 0:09:46.436 well oiled corporate machine, and clearly it's not. 0:09:47.476 --> 0:09:49.636 I was like, did you try calling me? Like what? 0:09:50.076 --> 0:09:50.236 One? 0:09:50.636 --> 0:09:53.436 I don't think we really talked about it, because we're. 0:09:53.236 --> 0:09:57.916 Also read all right. Speaking of Ben, here's a note 0:09:57.916 --> 0:10:01.476 from my Twitter call out from a listener named Rob Gilfillian. 0:10:02.116 --> 0:10:05.876 Here's my question. Malcolm pronounces his colleague's name as Ben 0:10:05.996 --> 0:10:09.556 Nadaph Haffrey, while Ben calls himself Ben a de Haffrey. 0:10:10.196 --> 0:10:13.636 It's similar to the difference in pronouncing pecan or pecan, 0:10:14.116 --> 0:10:18.156 or Caribbean or Caribbean. These two obviously spend a lot 0:10:18.156 --> 0:10:22.756 of time together. Seems odd. This is so true. It's 0:10:22.756 --> 0:10:24.956 because I just love a double barreled last name. I 0:10:24.996 --> 0:10:27.436 wish I had one. My mother's maiden name was Nation. 0:10:28.036 --> 0:10:30.956 Can you imagine if I were known as Malcolm Nation Gladwell, 0:10:31.116 --> 0:10:35.076 I would be unstoppable. So I'm deeply appreciative of that 0:10:35.236 --> 0:10:38.156 nadaph in the middle of Ben's name. I want to 0:10:38.196 --> 0:10:40.316 give it the kind of relish I believe it deserves. 0:10:40.636 --> 0:10:45.316 Nadafha is like pickles on a sandwich. It's transformative. The 0:10:45.356 --> 0:10:48.236 other reason, while I'm on this subject is that this 0:10:48.356 --> 0:10:50.156 is the price I pay for being the child of 0:10:50.156 --> 0:10:53.356 a Jamaican and an Englishman who was raised in Canada 0:10:53.596 --> 0:10:56.196 and then moved to the United States. I have four 0:10:56.396 --> 0:11:01.036 different pronunciation and accent models bouncing around my head at 0:11:01.036 --> 0:11:05.236 all times. Everything is up for grabs. The person who 0:11:05.236 --> 0:11:08.796 knows this better than anyone is my producer, Nina Lawrence. 0:11:09.876 --> 0:11:13.836 Yeah, you have a real problem with with ambulances. 0:11:14.676 --> 0:11:18.556 And what do you say? But when the ambulance arrived 0:11:18.636 --> 0:11:20.236 a few minutes later? What do I say? 0:11:20.476 --> 0:11:21.556 When the ambulance? 0:11:22.676 --> 0:11:30.276 And that's the that's what it says, ambulance. What where 0:11:30.276 --> 0:11:36.196 were we? One more memory. We're celebrating our tenth anniversary, 0:11:36.876 --> 0:11:40.556 and you were You were the principal figure in the 0:11:40.556 --> 0:11:42.156 founding of revisionist history. 0:11:42.716 --> 0:11:44.756 It's crazy, I guess. 0:11:44.956 --> 0:11:46.076 I mean, yeah, I was there. 0:11:46.196 --> 0:11:47.836 I was there from the very very start. 0:11:47.876 --> 0:11:50.916 I remember our very first meeting Bell. 0:11:51.076 --> 0:11:53.436 The person who taught me everything there is to know 0:11:53.476 --> 0:11:58.916 about podcasting. I want you to go back. So we 0:11:58.916 --> 0:12:02.436 we were interviewing people and you waltzed in. 0:12:05.236 --> 0:12:06.716 Is that? How is that how it felt that? 0:12:06.796 --> 0:12:09.836 I want that I waltzed in. I know who you were. 0:12:10.676 --> 0:12:14.156 I did not I did not read your resume in advance. 0:12:14.516 --> 0:12:19.356 I never do the wait, but I want to know 0:12:20.076 --> 0:12:21.596 what were you? We had never met. 0:12:21.476 --> 0:12:23.236 Before, we had never met before. 0:12:23.276 --> 0:12:26.916 What were your impressions there? I was skinny, Malcolm, what 0:12:27.436 --> 0:12:28.076 you say? 0:12:28.356 --> 0:12:30.316 Well, I knew your work coming in, and I had 0:12:30.356 --> 0:12:33.036 read the outline of your I'd. 0:12:32.876 --> 0:12:36.116 Given you an outline of some suggested ideas I had 0:12:36.156 --> 0:12:37.396 for the first season. 0:12:37.796 --> 0:12:39.956 Yes, yes, and there were some great you know, there 0:12:39.996 --> 0:12:42.356 was some great stuff in there, but I also saw 0:12:42.396 --> 0:12:46.436 a lot of sports and cars, and all the sources 0:12:46.476 --> 0:12:49.396 that you referenced were dudes. And I was just like, Okay, 0:12:49.476 --> 0:12:49.996 here we go. 0:12:51.916 --> 0:12:54.956 And so I'm not a mean person, but. 0:12:54.916 --> 0:13:00.316 I needed to speak my truth, my truth, which was 0:13:00.796 --> 0:13:03.036 there's some great stuff here, but no woman is ever 0:13:03.076 --> 0:13:04.236 going to listen to this podcast. 0:13:06.036 --> 0:13:10.116 So I remember. I remember that perfectly. I I the 0:13:10.196 --> 0:13:12.436 minute I heard that I fell in love with you. 0:13:12.716 --> 0:13:16.556 I was like, I was like, so, so, I so 0:13:16.756 --> 0:13:19.996 want to work with this woman. This is fantastic. It 0:13:20.036 --> 0:13:23.556 was a show called Revisionist History. The tagline was because 0:13:23.596 --> 0:13:26.996 sometimes the past deserves a second chance. The premise of 0:13:27.036 --> 0:13:28.916 the show was that you needed to go back over 0:13:28.996 --> 0:13:31.916 things that had happened, because chances are you got them wrong. 0:13:31.956 --> 0:13:35.196 The first time, and Mia walks in, looks at the 0:13:35.196 --> 0:13:39.156 proposed lineup of episodes and says, you need to go 0:13:39.276 --> 0:13:41.636 back over them. You got them wrong the first time. 0:13:42.036 --> 0:13:47.876 Under the circumstances, who could say no? After talking to Mia, 0:13:48.276 --> 0:13:50.196 I thought of one of my all time favorite songs, 0:13:51.116 --> 0:13:53.716 David allen Coe's you Never Even Called Me by my Name, 0:13:53.916 --> 0:13:58.596 which begins with the perfect country opening line, Well. 0:13:58.476 --> 0:13:59.316 It was all. 0:14:00.996 --> 0:14:03.156 I could do. 0:14:03.156 --> 0:14:04.796 You keep from crying. 0:14:06.476 --> 0:14:08.636 If you've never heard of David allen Coe, By the way, 0:14:09.116 --> 0:14:11.236 he just read you, a line taken at random from 0:14:11.316 --> 0:14:15.596 his Wikipedia page. After concluding another prison term in nineteen 0:14:15.636 --> 0:14:18.956 sixty seven, Co embarked on a music career in Nashville, 0:14:19.436 --> 0:14:21.716 living in a hearse which he parked in front of 0:14:21.716 --> 0:14:25.516 the Rymann Auditorium while he performed on the street. How 0:14:25.516 --> 0:14:28.556 can you not love David allen Coe anyway? Halfway through 0:14:28.676 --> 0:14:31.116 you never even called me by my name? Coe just 0:14:31.196 --> 0:14:33.596 stops and says, well. 0:14:33.636 --> 0:14:36.116 A friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that song, 0:14:37.076 --> 0:14:39.236 and he told me it was the perfect Countrey and 0:14:39.276 --> 0:14:42.876 Western song. I wrote him back a letter and I 0:14:42.916 --> 0:14:45.356 told him it was not the perfect Conkrey and Western 0:14:45.436 --> 0:14:49.396 song because he hadn't said anything at all about mama 0:14:50.116 --> 0:14:55.356 or trained, or trucked, or prison. 0:14:56.436 --> 0:14:57.396 Or getting drunk. 0:14:58.316 --> 0:15:01.116 So then Goodman writes a new verse, sends it to 0:15:01.156 --> 0:15:04.716 co and Coe says, Okay, now this really is the 0:15:04.756 --> 0:15:06.156 perfect country and Western song. 0:15:07.236 --> 0:15:09.316 The last verse goes like this here. 0:15:10.956 --> 0:15:16.076 And I was drawn to d My mom got out 0:15:16.076 --> 0:15:23.476 of prison, and I with the picker up. 0:15:24.996 --> 0:15:30.716 In the right, but before. 0:15:31.956 --> 0:15:37.076 I could get to the station, now the picker throw 0:15:40.076 --> 0:15:43.996 she got rid over by a damn the train. 0:15:47.876 --> 0:15:49.556 I think you can see where I'm going with this. 0:15:50.236 --> 0:15:53.196 A singer insists on going back over a song, a 0:15:53.276 --> 0:15:56.236 song that has already been written, because he thinks the 0:15:56.276 --> 0:15:59.796 songwriter got it wrong the first time. And what's the fix? 0:16:00.636 --> 0:16:04.716 Nothing elaborate, the most prosaic of things, the bare essentials 0:16:04.756 --> 0:16:09.876 for a country singer, Mama, trains, trucks, prisons, and getting 0:16:10.436 --> 0:16:12.436 That's what I think we've learned over the first ten 0:16:12.516 --> 0:16:16.556 years of the show that getting something right doesn't require heroics, 0:16:17.196 --> 0:16:20.796 is just following your nose and turning around when you 0:16:20.876 --> 0:16:37.996 mistakenly left someone behind. After the break, the celebration continues, Okay, 0:16:38.196 --> 0:16:40.476 I have some thoughts about the first ten years of 0:16:40.516 --> 0:16:44.196 Revision's history why it has been so much fun, Because 0:16:44.556 --> 0:16:47.436 it's been way way more fun than I ever imagined 0:16:48.156 --> 0:16:51.236 for me. It starts with the difference between reading a 0:16:51.316 --> 0:16:55.636 story and hearing a story. In reading, the writer is 0:16:55.676 --> 0:16:58.316 in charge of what appears on the page. If you 0:16:58.356 --> 0:17:00.276 read one of my books and you liked it, you're 0:17:00.276 --> 0:17:03.396 giving me a direct compliment. You're saying, I like what 0:17:03.516 --> 0:17:06.996 you made. But when you listen to a story made 0:17:07.036 --> 0:17:10.036 up of interviews with all sorts of people, archival tape 0:17:10.076 --> 0:17:13.036 sitch together with bits of narrative here and there, you 0:17:13.076 --> 0:17:16.276 aren't saying I like what you made. You're saying I 0:17:16.436 --> 0:17:19.396 like what you found. And that's a very different thing. 0:17:21.116 --> 0:17:24.276 One episode listeners ranked as a favorite on my Twitter poll, 0:17:24.276 --> 0:17:27.636 for example, is My Little one hundred Million from season one, 0:17:28.196 --> 0:17:32.076 an episode all about the strange phenomenon of wealthy people 0:17:32.116 --> 0:17:34.996 giving millions of dollars to colleges that already have millions 0:17:35.036 --> 0:17:38.396 of dollars as opposed to schools that don't have millions 0:17:38.396 --> 0:17:41.396 of dollars. There's a moment in the episode where I 0:17:41.396 --> 0:17:44.156 call up John Hennessy, who was the president of Stanford 0:17:44.236 --> 0:17:47.556 University at the time. Stanford is a tiny fraction of 0:17:47.596 --> 0:17:50.756 the size of its neighbors in the University of California System. 0:17:50.876 --> 0:17:54.876 And yet in twenty sixteen, Stamford's endowment was twenty two billion. 0:17:55.716 --> 0:18:00.116 The UC systems endowment much much smaller, by about eight 0:18:00.156 --> 0:18:04.676 and a half billion dollars. So I asked Hennessy, do 0:18:04.716 --> 0:18:08.436 you ever imagine that a president of Stanford might go 0:18:09.316 --> 0:18:12.036 to a funder and say, at this point in our history, 0:18:12.076 --> 0:18:13.676 the best use of your money is to give to 0:18:13.756 --> 0:18:17.156 the UC system, not to Stanford. Well, that would be 0:18:17.236 --> 0:18:19.316 a hard thing to do, obviously, to. 0:18:21.316 --> 0:18:23.476 Turn them turn them away. 0:18:23.836 --> 0:18:27.356 And I think the other question we'd be asked is 0:18:28.236 --> 0:18:28.836 how can I. 0:18:28.836 --> 0:18:30.756 Have confidence that they'll use my money? 0:18:30.796 --> 0:18:34.116 Well, which we're obviously the president of Stanford is not 0:18:34.196 --> 0:18:36.276 in a position to vouch for. I think. 0:18:37.596 --> 0:18:41.076 It's an amazing answer. And what's amazing is that he 0:18:41.156 --> 0:18:44.676 had every reason to duck that question, or brush it aside, 0:18:45.116 --> 0:18:48.396 or tell a lie, but he doesn't. He decides to 0:18:48.436 --> 0:18:51.636 be completely honest. He owns up to the fact that 0:18:51.716 --> 0:18:54.676 even though he is an educator, he is not primarily 0:18:54.756 --> 0:18:58.836 in the education business. He's in the Stanford business. And 0:18:58.876 --> 0:19:01.036 I suspect that one of the reasons so many people 0:19:01.076 --> 0:19:03.596 listed my Little one hundred million, as one of their 0:19:03.636 --> 0:19:06.756 favorites is because of that little bit of tape from Hennessy. 0:19:07.476 --> 0:19:10.996 I didn't make that moment. I didn't anticipate it. I 0:19:10.996 --> 0:19:14.836 didn't manipulate Hennessy into saying it. I stumbled into it. 0:19:15.676 --> 0:19:18.276 And the wonderful thing about audio is that it allows 0:19:18.316 --> 0:19:21.956 you to capture those found moments exactly as they're happening. 0:19:24.716 --> 0:19:27.596 There's an even better example of this. It's from another 0:19:27.636 --> 0:19:33.276 episode on the List from Listeners, Elvis Analysis Parapraxis season three. 0:19:33.796 --> 0:19:36.396 If you haven't heard it, the premise is pretty simple. 0:19:36.756 --> 0:19:40.316 One of Elvis's trademark songs was are You Lonesome Tonight? 0:19:40.796 --> 0:19:42.676 And in the middle of the song, there's a bridge, 0:19:42.756 --> 0:19:46.676 a couple of spoken sentences, a little soliloquy, and over 0:19:46.676 --> 0:19:49.396 and over again, whenever Elvis had to say the bridge, 0:19:49.876 --> 0:19:52.836 hit screw it up, get the words wrong, break out 0:19:52.876 --> 0:19:54.756 into totally inappropriate laughter. 0:19:56.516 --> 0:19:58.516 The World's of stags and East must play a part. 0:20:11.676 --> 0:20:15.276 The Freudian term for what Elvis was doing is called parapraxis, 0:20:15.796 --> 0:20:18.916 a slip of the tongue that reveals something about the speaker. 0:20:19.596 --> 0:20:22.556 So the episode was trying to answer, what does Elvis's 0:20:22.596 --> 0:20:26.076 issue with the bridge. Tell us about Elvis. Now, I 0:20:26.076 --> 0:20:28.396 should say I had all kinds of trouble doing this story. 0:20:28.756 --> 0:20:31.716 There was a great essay written about Elvis's parapraxis by 0:20:31.716 --> 0:20:35.836 the psychologist Alan Elms, so I flew to Sacramento to 0:20:35.876 --> 0:20:38.836 meet with Elms, but he wasn't well and couldn't really speak, 0:20:38.956 --> 0:20:41.436 so I kind of gave up put the story aside 0:20:41.436 --> 0:20:44.276 for months until I had the random idea of just 0:20:44.356 --> 0:20:47.996 going to Nashville and having professional musicians sing are You 0:20:48.116 --> 0:20:50.676 Lonesome Tonight and explain to me why the bridge is 0:20:50.716 --> 0:20:54.116 so complicated. I went to see Bobby Braddock, one of 0:20:54.116 --> 0:20:57.036 the legendary Nashville songwriters, and he brought with him a 0:20:57.076 --> 0:21:01.196 good friend, a singer named Casey Bowles. Casey sang are 0:21:01.196 --> 0:21:03.956 You Lonesome Tonight? And then we got on the subject 0:21:04.316 --> 0:21:07.796 of another song, one of her own. Do you find 0:21:07.836 --> 0:21:11.516 yourself making the kind of errors sometimes even subtle ones 0:21:11.556 --> 0:21:13.596 that you know you've been talking about? 0:21:13.636 --> 0:21:16.196 That's so interesting. I wrote a song about my mother 0:21:16.356 --> 0:21:21.236 called Somebody Something, and my mother is adorable. And whenever 0:21:21.276 --> 0:21:24.276 you heard about things going wrong or like some tumultu 0:21:24.316 --> 0:21:26.236 a story, it was my dad, and so I finally 0:21:26.356 --> 0:21:27.916 was like, you know what, wantn't we the only person 0:21:27.916 --> 0:21:30.476 in the family that there's nothing I have it written about? 0:21:30.476 --> 0:21:31.636 So it's trying to dig dirt on. 0:21:31.636 --> 0:21:32.676 Her and there was nothing. 0:21:33.156 --> 0:21:35.596 And so I ended up writing this song about her, 0:21:35.796 --> 0:21:39.196 called Somebody Something, and I cry every time I do it. 0:21:39.596 --> 0:21:43.076 And there is a line that says, you know, she's 0:21:43.116 --> 0:21:45.996 always been somebody something. She's lived every life but her own, 0:21:48.556 --> 0:21:51.516 and it's gone. I can't remember it right now. I 0:21:51.556 --> 0:21:53.276 don't know that feeling. I can't remember it. 0:21:54.756 --> 0:21:57.356 She's always been somebody something. It's been everything but. 0:21:57.436 --> 0:22:02.236 Alone, a daughter, a mother, a lot, a daughter, a lover, 0:22:02.716 --> 0:22:06.116 a wife, and a mother. She's lived every life but 0:22:06.276 --> 0:22:10.876 her own. Yeah, she's always been so it's something. And 0:22:10.916 --> 0:22:13.236 there's a line that says, you know, she she wonders 0:22:13.236 --> 0:22:16.436 what it might be like to be somebody else, and 0:22:16.476 --> 0:22:22.276 she wonders what it feels like to be free, but 0:22:22.356 --> 0:22:25.316 she's always imagined being nobody's nothing, and that's something she 0:22:25.476 --> 0:22:30.196 never want to be. But that line usually is just gone. 0:22:30.356 --> 0:22:32.796 And a lot of times I'll go hold on and 0:22:32.916 --> 0:22:35.076 divert and tell a funny story really quickly. 0:22:36.916 --> 0:22:41.716 Yeah, wait, what's the specific line that's gone is which one? 0:22:42.316 --> 0:22:46.276 Uh? What's going again? She's always been somebody's synth. That's 0:22:46.316 --> 0:22:49.556 been everything but alone, daughter, lover, a daughter, a lover, 0:22:49.676 --> 0:22:52.476 a wife, and a mother. She's been everything. 0:22:54.076 --> 0:22:54.636 But alone. 0:22:54.916 --> 0:22:58.956 Yeah, yeah, why is it that lone? 0:22:58.996 --> 0:23:00.236 I don't know. I think that. 0:23:05.036 --> 0:23:05.436 I don't know. 0:23:05.516 --> 0:23:08.796 I think when you even she's so when you see 0:23:08.836 --> 0:23:11.876 somebody to give so much of themselves, and that's truly 0:23:11.916 --> 0:23:13.796 the only thing that she will never experience. And I 0:23:13.836 --> 0:23:15.476 think it's what I've experienced the most of. 0:23:17.076 --> 0:23:19.636 I go to Nashville to write a story about parapraxis, 0:23:19.996 --> 0:23:23.796 and what happens I find pair of praxis. It occurs 0:23:24.116 --> 0:23:26.556 before my eyes, and I was lucky enough to have 0:23:26.596 --> 0:23:29.276 the tape recorder running. And the reason I love that 0:23:29.316 --> 0:23:31.996 episode and why so many listeners over the years have 0:23:32.036 --> 0:23:35.676 said it's their favorite, is that you the listener, and 0:23:35.676 --> 0:23:39.236 me the host get to participate in this little golden 0:23:39.276 --> 0:23:43.796 moment of serendipity together we Casey, can you play that 0:23:43.836 --> 0:23:45.356 song for us? Is it gonna be two? 0:23:45.556 --> 0:24:01.636 Let's say, okay, okay, well, I will say if this happens, 0:24:07.116 --> 0:24:07.916 what did I just say? 0:24:09.196 --> 0:24:10.356 I'm thinking about Mama. 0:24:11.196 --> 0:24:12.236 She grew up playing cowgirl. 0:24:12.436 --> 0:24:20.396 She grew up playing cowgirl in a railroad town, dreaming 0:24:20.516 --> 0:24:28.196 she'd see Hollywood someday. She knew some distant Friday night. 0:24:29.516 --> 0:24:35.516 With a cigarette hole just right, Fate would come in 0:24:35.676 --> 0:24:43.716 and carry away. As far as she could see from 0:24:43.796 --> 0:24:46.636