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Gladwell On Life At The Post

By Patrick on March 13, 2008 10:57 AM

It’s taken us a while to get around to this, but it’s still worth it…

Malcolm Gladwell recently appeared on “This American Life” and had some interesting things to say about the Washington Post (he used to work there), including his own “Jayson Blair” moments.

He tells a long and funny story, which you should listen to in full, but here are some other random side notes:

  • “I still don’t know how I got hired, because I didn’t have any newspaper experience. I didn’t even work at my high school paper.”

  • “They put me at the business desk which is where you put people at the Washington Post who don’t know anything about journalism.”

  • “I just sat there for the first six weeks and didn’t do a thing.”

  • “I got moved to the health and science desk which is where they put you at the Washington Post when you know even less than business.”

    >UPDATE: Gladwell says to take his story with a grain of salt. Sure, we doubt he pulled off all those pranks that he said he did. But is his assessment of the Business, Health and Science desks still fairly spot-on?

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