Five Burning Travel Questions with Malcolm Gladwell

SPEAKER_02: I live out in the countryside and I have a little guest cottage next to my house, surrounded by apple trees. And after coming back from a trip to California, where I had a wonderful experience in an Airbnb in the Hollywood Hills, I thought to myself, should I Airbnb my cottage? Maybe you stayed in an Airbnb before and had the same thought. This actually seems pretty doable. It could be as simple as starting with a spare room or your whole place when you're away. You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. Whether you could use extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun, your home may be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. Bushkin. SPEAKER_02: Airbnb is all about travel. And as you may or may not know, I do a lot of travel. I am well over a million frequent flyer miles on United at this point. I've been to Manila, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Washington DC, Detroit, and Grand Rapids in just the last month. And if you're wondering, my favorite of all those places, not even close, Grand Rapids. Love Grand Rapids. Why doesn't everyone live in Grand Rapids? I don't get it. Anyway, Airbnb, travel, me, it all seemed like a natural fit. But before we hit the road, about the gun series. Your responses so far have been phenomenal. Please keep sending in your thoughts. There's a contact form at revisionisthistory.com and next month Maria Konnikova and I will talk about some of the feedback. But for now, a little side trip. A Revisionist History Getaway. SPEAKER_02: Five burning travel questions with Malcolm Gladwell. First question, which I've been asking myself for at least 30 years. Given the choice, should you ever go to Las Vegas? I'm asking this question because I'm in Las Vegas right now. Not by choice, for work. And instead of trying to answer this question rationally, with the benefit of reasoned argument and academic scholarship, as is our standard practice on Revisionist History, I'm just going to play you some short clips of the music that has been played for my enjoyment, as I sit by the hotel pool. Oh my god, my brain is killing me right now. It's nuts. Everywhere you go in Las Vegas, this is what you hear everywhere. SPEAKER_02: First question, who would willingly listen to this music? Do you know anyone who does? Have you ever been over to someone's house for dinner or just to hang out and they say, oh let me put on a little house music while we chat? No, you haven't. But clearly, at some point early in the history of Las Vegas, all the city fathers must have gotten together in a room. I'm guessing it was convened by Bugsy Siegel, the mobster who founded Las Vegas. And Bugsy was like, gentlemen, we're going to create a great city in the desert. People from all over the world of every creed and religion, of every shape and size, rich and poor, great and small, will come here to this glamorous oasis to gamble away their life savings. What music shall we play them? And all the guys said. And then the little old guy who wanted to open a high-end jewelry store, maybe it was Mr. Harry Winston, raises his hand and said, but Mr. Bugsy, I'm trying to attract a sophisticated clientele. Is it okay if I play Schubert? And Bugsy gets all scary and angry and bangs his fist on the table and says, no Harry, you schmuck. That goes against everything I'm trying to do with this oasis in the desert. You must play. I mean, this is like the craziest thing ever. Maybe there are some 16-year-olds out there who like music like this, but I'm looking around the pool. There are no 16-year-olds here. It's all cranky old people like me. You know how in hostage situations sometimes they try and force the bad guy to give up by playing like heavy metal really loudly all night long? I should be so lucky to be a hostage taker hearing heavy metal right now. So, short answer to question number one. No! Don't do it. Don't go to Las Vegas ever unless you absolutely have to. All right, question number two. What was the greatest road trip of my life? I think it was my first road trip. Summer, I believe, of 1982. My friend Terry and I were at that moment obsessed with Alger Hiss, the State Department official who in 1948 was famously accused of being a Soviet spy. Biggest story of the day. Huge drama ensues. It goes on for years with one side saying he's innocent and the other side saying he's guilty. Were you ever a communist spy, Mr. Hiss? No, I was not. Neither a communist nor a spy. That's him. And Terry and I were firmly of the he's guilty camp. So early one August morning before dawn we wake up. Terry won't tell me beforehand what time we're leaving because he says he doesn't want, and this is his exact phrase, to pierce the cloud of unknowing. We get into his mom's Pontiac. We drive from our little town in rural southern Ontario straight to Washington DC. 10 hours. And we visit every house Alger Hiss lived in during his long career of treachery up to and including the famous townhouse in Georgetown on Pease Street where so much of his skullduggery allegedly went down. We pull up. We knock in the door. Two scruffy teenagers from rural Canada who haven't shaved or showered or slept or really even eaten for several days because we had no money. All we had was our youthful moxie and enthusiasm. So the door opens and we say, are you aware that you're living in the house of the notorious American Cold War trader Alger Hiss? They look at us blankly and we're off. Our job is done. Then afterwards we write up findings in little essay called The Many Houses of Alger Hiss which opened with a long florid damning summary of the facts of the case. Ending with a line. All of which leads to the one overwhelming question. Who was this man they called Alger Hiss? And where did he live? I mean how do you top that? Later Terry and I did a modified ballpark tour. Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, Yankee Stadium. But everyone does one of those. Who does The Many Houses of Alger Hiss? Now you might think this was just some youthful fancy. A teenage lark. But take out your phone. Google George F Baker III Harvard University. You'll see a picture of a handsome guy right around my age. First name? Terry. Professor of what? SPEAKER_02: Russian studies, baby! How many road trips set in motion a lifetime of scholarship? Okay, question number three. Do some parts of the United States pose particular problems for travelers? Are there states the novice traveler should avoid? Answer, yes. Absolutely. North Carolina. No one talks about this but it's a long-standing pet peeve of mine. I was actually chatting with my friends Michael Spector and Dai Zok recently about my travel theories and it came up. Anecdotally there's I did a talk at Wake Forest University and which is not weirdly in Wake Forest. Which I would point out because I nearly went to Wake Forest. Which is like 200 miles away. And when I told my hosts that I got, so I finally, I self-corrected like half an hour in go to Winston-Salem which is where Wake Forest is. And then I was sort of outraged because like what kind of trick is North Carolina playing on people where they put Wake Forest University hundreds of miles from Wake Forest. And then when I told my hosts oh I nearly went to Wake Forest they're like oh yeah people do that all the time. It's like that is weird. Fix the problem. Change the name. How hard is this? It's like it's been going on for hundreds of years people have been going to Wake Forest in search of Wake Forest University. Like I said no one talks about this but SPEAKER_00: SPEAKER_02: it's kind of nuts. You land in Charlotte and you punch in Wake Forest on Waze and Waze says two hours 42 minutes and you say huh that's weird. That's the other side of the state right outside Raleigh. Why didn't I just fly to Raleigh? And you get halfway there and you think oh maybe I should double check and you realize that North Carolina has devised a nefarious scheme to frustrate unsuspecting carpetbaggers arriving from the north. A hundred percent this has something to do with the Civil War. Robert E. Lee says let's let it leak out that we're setting up for a last stand at Wake Forest and the Union Army spies hear this and say aha and they muster everyone and they march up what is now I-85. Only Lee that old trickster means Wake Forest a school not Wake Forest a town and somewhere around Lexington he pounces surprising the unsuspecting Union Army. I mean that's the only explanation that makes sense. Wait there's more. Do I have some travel faux pas stories like when I went to the wrong Columbia? SPEAKER_00: The wrong the country? No no. The university? Should I tell us? Yes. When I was at the Washington Post SPEAKER_02: Washington Post was obsessed with covering hurricanes. Columbia Maryland? And I was told there was a hurricane fast approaching the outer banks of North Carolina and I was dispatched to Columbia to cover the hurricane. I landed Columbia North Carolina and there was no hurricane and SPEAKER_02: I called it and said there's no hurricane. What are you guys talking about? There's no hurricane. So no no I'm here I'm here and there's no hurricane. Like no you can't be in Columbia North Carolina because there's a hurricane going on right now and I looked around I was like oh I'm in Columbia South Carolina. They're two Columbias in in adjoining Carolinas. This is another this is like this is like the this is like the Wake Forest thing all over again. This country is set up to fool the unsuspecting outsider. What kind of colossal failure of imagination is this? Someone in one of the Carolinas goes first and says oh I have a good idea let's call our town Columbia and then someone else a few years later says oh I have an even better idea let's call our town Columbia as well because one of these days some dumb Yankee is not going to realize that Columbia is like a generic southern term for a medium-sized city with big city aspirations and he's going to go to one Columbia while meaning to go to the other Columbia and so for hundreds of years thereafter countless well-meaning people from the north go to the wrong Columbia. I mean what SPEAKER_02: happens if I have been a legendary brain surgeon flying down from a prestigious hospital in the northeast to save the life of an adorable southern toddler and I go to the wrong Columbia? Did they think about that? No they didn't. They were too busy chortling over their stupid little practical joke. Stay away from North Carolina and while you're at it stay away from reporting on the weather. Well no the horror story was there was remember that terrible hurricane that hit Miami in the 90s. I forgot which one. Yeah the one that flattened southern Florida. SPEAKER_00: Yeah Bill my colleague Bill Booth we didn't realize it was as serious as SPEAKER_02: it was he went down there to cover it and he returned home like two months later and when I saw that I realized the mistake he made was doing a good job of covering so that was when I decided that I mean actually the Columbia thing happened just after that I realized that there was no upside to being a good hurricane reporter because the worst the hurricane is the longer you'll be away from home. You got to screw up early and often so they turn elsewhere so then I followed that up with a um uh with uh there was a hurricane in New Orleans and uh I suggested that the best way to cover it was to approach it from the west. So I flew I flew did I fly to Dallas? The whole thing was soap apostrophe. I spent like a day and a half in the car before I even got there and then just said I don't see it I don't see it I don't see it finally they gave up and let someone else take over but there are there are certain tricks of self-preservation in the journalism business and one of them is to always do a bad job of something you don't want to do. SPEAKER_02: Okay coming up the big question what do you do about traveling when you have a dog? I was in Los Angeles recently I needed to stay for a good 10 days so I got an Airbnb up in the Hollywood Hills a gorgeous little cottage with an amazing view of the city and I thought to myself why doesn't everyone do this? I got to stay somewhere authentic and the people whose house it was got to make a little extra income. I mean why don't I do it? I've got a little cottage next to my house surrounded by apple trees. Maybe you've stayed in an Airbnb before and had the same thought this actually seems pretty doable. Maybe my place could be an Airbnb it could be as simple as starting with a spare room or your whole place when you're away. You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it or maybe you have an extra bedroom or an in-law unit where friends and family come to stay with you. You could Airbnb it and make some extra cash while it sits empty. Whether you could use extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com host. So here's the big question why I gathered my friends Michael Spector and Dazok for counsel. There's a lot of pressure right now in the Gladwell household for us to get a dog. If you do like an internet history search on any laptop in the Gladwell household it's just dogs. You type in B and Google auto completes Burmese Labrador mix. That's where we're at right now. Now I love dogs but like I said I travel a lot and it's hard enough without having to factor in another needy living creature. So I wanted to ask Michael and Di how they deal with the have dog will travel problem. SPEAKER_02: And I would like to start out just by having each of you please give us the name and type of dog you own and also a brief word about your dog's temperament. SPEAKER_00: My dog's name is Linus. He's five years old. He's a Woodle which is a cross between a Wheaton Terrier and a Poodle. And his temperament is he is by far the mellowest person in the history of the Spector family. SPEAKER_02: And Di? I have a black lab named Junebug. She's my third SPEAKER_01: lab. She's like all my other labs ambassador of love. She is. When I had to choose between two labs in a litter they said okay we have two girls. One is ball obsessed and one is the SPEAKER_01: snugler. Which one do you want? And I was like no-brainer. You go with the snugler. So the obvious travel question can you SPEAKER_02: just put the dog on a plane? I have flown dogs before and I have SPEAKER_01: found it slightly traumatizing. Just that thousand yard stare when they get off the plane. I just felt so bad. I mean the dog just wants to be SPEAKER_02: with you. Linus really didn't care. He just is SPEAKER_00: fairly mellow. I was traumatized. In fact I flew Air Alaska that time because they're said to have the best dog flying program. When I got to my seat there was a stewardess standing there with a piece of paper which said relax Linus is already on board. Which was really nice. Of course I knew that because I put a tracker on his collar because I was freaking out. So flying is problematic. SPEAKER_02: But both Michael and I have driven cross-country with their dog. How does that work? I started with Michael. Where does Linus sit? Is he in the front seat or the back seat? Back seat. He tries to go in the front. In fact he tried it again last week. But the SPEAKER_00: the problem is like if you have some sort of accident and your airbag goes your dog goes too. Oh yeah yeah. So I've made a little shelf out of the back seat for him. My best, this is a good time for me to interject with my favorite SPEAKER_02: dog or animal in the front seat story. I was talking to a wildlife veterinarian recently and she had raised two cheetahs from when they were kittens. They adored her and she would they stayed at her house. She worked at this kind of wildlife sanctuary and every morning she would drive them to work. It was the 70s and she had one of those bench seats in the front. The two cheetahs would sit on the seat in front and she said because they only have really long necks. So you would just see her and then these two adorable cheetahs. She said the looks she got from other people on the freeway were priceless. I think is the word she used. Anyway I was curious about where. Where did you put Junebug? Thunderbat. She was in the back too. I have one of those slings. SPEAKER_01: So she would hang out in the back with her giant carrot stuffed animal and giant frog stuffed animal. When you say a giant, I've seen this SPEAKER_02: carrot. It's a good four feet. It's a four foot long carrot. SPEAKER_01: It's a pillow and a security blanket. SPEAKER_00: Yeah I always gave him his bed, his pillow and security blanket. He would curl up in the back. The best part of it was going to dog parks. I mean I went to some crazy dog parks. I went to one in Amarillo where this guy had an Australian shepherd and he was so into the dog. I said wow what do you do? Are you a dog trainer? He said no I just got out of a federal penitentiary for dealing meth. I said oh okay. He said but now I'm totally focused on my dog. We talked dogs and then he told me where to eat in Amarillo and you know you can't get that kind of experience if you don't have a dog. Dogs are the great leveling... dog parks SPEAKER_02: the great leveling ground. Yeah it's a great icebreaker having SPEAKER_01: a dog anywhere. So to recap the reason to have a dog SPEAKER_02: with you on a road trip is that you get to acquire giant fluffy carrots. It allows you to explore one of the great undiscovered American treasures, the dog park, and it greatly expands your social circle to include meth dealers. These are not compelling arguments. Yeah well when I was SPEAKER_01: ready to head home back to Los Angeles from the Hudson Valley, Junebug maybe from drinking pond water got some kind of bacterial infection and basically an explosive digestive track and it was like three days before I had to head across country and so that was very clearly something that I did not want is to drive across country with a dog who has explosive diarrhea. You see my point. My life isn't complicated enough already. I've SPEAKER_02: never traveled with a dog but I had traveled with a cat and I had the experience recently of... well it was just from here to New York City but there was bad traffic so we were out for about four hours in total. In hour four I had one child, the six month six week old who was just over it and just crying non-stop. I had Edie who sang without stopping for three hours so she's singing the top of her lungs and then the cat decided to start serenading us at the same time. So I had these singing, yowling, crying combination which has never happened to me before. I have to say quite something. I don't know whether I... because you know if you were to go cross country that could seem to go on for hours. Luckily we had an end point but the more people you... the more strange creatures you put in your car the greater the upside risk of being or something. SPEAKER_00: SPEAKER_02: I repeat the more strange creatures you put in your car the greater the upside risk. Are you nuts? Don't do it. Don't go to Vegas. Don't cover the weather. Don't set foot in North Carolina. Don't buy a house in Georgetown without checking to see if the previous owner betrayed crucial American secrets. Don't travel with a dog unless absolutely necessary and do not ever please listen to music that sounds like this. All right everyone that's travel advice from Revisionist History. We'll be back on Thursday with the conclusion to our six-part gun series on Revisionist History. You won't want to miss the final episode. SPEAKER_02: This episode was produced by Nina Lawrence, Ben Nadaf Halfrey and Jacob Smith. It was edited by Sarah Nix, engineering by Nina Lawrence. Special thanks to my guests and old friends Michael Spector and Dai Zog. I'm Mountain Glogman. Oh you're still waiting for question number five aren't you? Here it is. What about treats? Do we have agreement on treats? You gotta have particular, this is a dog SPEAKER_00: owner term, high value treats. Like not just like the kind of food he eats but cheese and smelly fish and things that you may find repulsive but that that dog will do anything for because there are times when you want to reward him and there are also times when you want him to pay attention and if you produce the right kind of cheese he'll walk through fire for it. There's also those SPEAKER_01: keep them busy for a long time treats like there's those Himalayan cheese sticks that will take forever and I think that's kind of good. Actually my big thing on that these days are collagen chews. SPEAKER_00: You can get these long collagen chews and they last a pretty long time and they're not terribly unhealthy as opposed to some say a long time you mean hours? It can be a couple hours of SPEAKER_00: hardcore chewing yeah. You could get a collagen chew could get SPEAKER_02: you across the state of Kansas? Yeah totally. The thing is my dog you know I SPEAKER_00: have spent five years trying to buy things for my dog that say under no circumstance can your dog rip this toy apart it's impossible. He's never lasted 24 hours with those without taking it down. This is like Alcatraz you know SPEAKER_02: when they say you'll no no no can ever get oh someone else gets out of Alcatraz. I live out in the countryside and I have a little guest cottage next to my house surrounded by apple trees and after coming back from a trip to California where I had a wonderful experience in an Airbnb in the Hollywood Hills I thought to myself should I Airbnb my cottage? Maybe you've stayed in an Airbnb before and had the same thought. This actually seems pretty doable. It could be as simple as starting with a spare room or your whole place when you're away. You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. Whether you could use extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun your home may be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com host SPEAKER_00: