Revisionist History

Richard Pryor redefined comedy by telling the truth, even when it scorched him. And today, we’re sharing a preview of a new podcast, Big Lives, and a special episode about Pryor. Every week on Big Lives, hosts Kai Wright and Emmanuel Dzotsi dig into the BBC archive to explore the story behind the icons who shape our culture—trailblazers like David Bowie, George Michael, Muhammed Ali, and Tina Turner—and better understand how each legend set the stage for our contemporary cultural landscape. In this preview, Kai and Emmanuel look at how Richard Pryor rose from a Peoria, Illinois brothel to become a comedic great, only to then wrestle with racism, fame, desire, and self‑destruction.
If you like what you hear, find more episodes of Big Lives wherever you get podcasts.
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Since Andrew Jarecki’s latest documentary The Alabama Solution debuted on HBO, it has stunned viewers with a story about a group of men seeking justice. The film shows the egregious abuse and systemic failure of Alabama’s prison system, largely through footage shot by incarcerated men on contraband cellphones.
In this conversation, Malcolm sits down with Andrew Jarecki to discuss the making of the Oscar-nominated film and how it resonates with The Alabama Murders, the seven episode series Revisionist History released last year.
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Did Disney make an anti-Disney movie? Ben and Malcolm engage in a bit of literary sleuthing to find out.
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Screenwriter Gary Goldman claimed the creators of the Disney franchise Zootopia stole his story. Malcolm investigates.
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Valley of Shadows is a new Pushkin true crime podcast that digs into a nearly 30-year old secret buried in the California desert. On June 11, 1998, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy Jon Aujay went for a run in California’s Devil’s Punchbowl park...and never came back. Nearly 30 years later, the mystery surrounding his disappearance has only deepened. Some say Aujay is just another missing hiker, claimed by the inhospitable landscape of the Southern California desert. Some say he took his own life out there. But there’s another theory that many of Aujay’s friends and LASD colleagues are convinced is true—that he was the victim of foul play, and that his own department is covering it up. Through exclusive interviews, revealing wiretaps, and buried police files, investigative reporters Hayley Fox and Betsy Shepherd uncover vestiges of the Wild West in a small California town, where outlaw biker gangs crank out methamphetamine and local cops operate on both sides of the law.
Find Valley of Shadows wherever you get podcasts.
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