Revisionist History: The Alabama Murders

Overview

Episodes

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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 Gladwell asks: why, in our efforts to alleviate suffering, do we so often make it worse?

Revisionist History is Malcolm Gladwell's journey through the overlooked and the misunderstood. Every episode re-examines something from the past—an event, a person, an idea, even a song—and asks whether we got it right the first time. From Pushkin Industries. Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance.

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Recent Episodes

OCT 30, 2025

The Alabama Murders - Part 6: The Porterfield Sessions

Manhattan, NY December. 2022. What do you do, after the state has tried to execute you, but failed? Kenny Smith’s legal team calls Kate Porterfield. A psychologist who specializes in trauma.

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32 MIN

OCT 23, 2025

The Alabama Murders - Part 5: Cruel and Unusual

Holman Correctional Facility. November 2022. The State of Alabama tries to execute Kenneth Smith.

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34 MIN

OCT 16, 2025

The Alabama Murders - Part 4: The Protocol

Holman Correctional Facility. June 2010. John Forrest Parker is put to death by lethal injection. He didn’t appear to suffer. But did he?

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37 MIN

OCT 9, 2025

The Alabama Murders - Part 3: A Peculiar Institution

Colbert County. May 1989. One of the men charged with Elizabeth Sennett’s murder stands trial. But the prosecution’s case has problematic inconsistencies. His fate comes down to the jury’s decision –– at least at first.

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46 MIN

OCT 2, 2025

The Alabama Murders - Part 2: Coon Dog Cemetery Road

Florence, Alabama. 1988. After a horrifying murder takes place, an anonymous caller names three young men as suspects. But speculation swirls about the victim’s husband.

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33 MIN