The Gist
For thirty minutes each day, Pesca challenges himself and his audience, in a responsibly provocative style, and gets beyond the rigidity and dogma. The Gist is surprising, reasonable, and willing to critique the left, the right, either party, or any idea.
Episodes
Professor Joan C. Williams joins the show to discuss her book Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back. She explains how the decline of unions, elite cultural codes, and a failure to value stability over novelty have fueled resentment. Mike also examines Pixar’s box office collapse, the rise of “bean mouth” animation, and whether John Lasseter’s departure was Me To...
The episode kicks off with a withering look at the “Big Beautiful Bill,” a deficit-busting tax cut that showers the rich while hacking away at Medicaid for the poorest Americans. Then, a trip to Minnesota’s Iron Range, where Bethany McLean discusses the bitter fight over Nippon Steel’s bid to buy U.S. Steel—and the awkward dance between union leadership and the workers they claim to represent. It’s a story about how economic realit...
Daniel Kehlmann joins to discuss The Director, his novel reimagining the life of G.W. Pabst—a brilliant German filmmaker who escaped the Nazis, only to voluntarily return. Kehlmann grapples with how much human suffering we’re willing to accept as the cost of art. Later, Ben Wittes of Lawfare weighs in on the often exasperating logic behind international laws governing conflict. Plus, Republicans...
Today on The Gist, we go back into the vaults to our 2023 interview with Melissa DeRosa about her book on working with Andrew Cuomo, What's Left Unsaid: My Life at the Center of Power, Politics & Crisis. Then we play a Spiel from earlier in the week about Andrew Cuomo failing to get the Democratic nomination for mayor.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinat...
Jim O’Grady and Thomas Brennan discuss Reveal’s episode on the Marines who fought in Fallujah, exploring how the battle’s brutality and moral injuries still haunt them 20 years later. In the Spiel, Haiti’s use of drones against gangs runs up against the oddity of international law experts declaring such violence not technically an “armed conflict.” Plus, a SCOTUS decision that pits lower courts a...
David Zweig, author of An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions
Zohran Mamdani is likely the next mayor of New York, and progressive enthusiasm is peaking—along with demands that you pronounce his name correctly. Andrew Cuomo, a man of few smiles and even fewer surrogates, concedes with the warmth of a trooper lawsuit. Mike considers whether this is Mamdani’s political high-water mark, as voters begin to discover the costs, the quotes, and the Disney press junkets. Also on the show: journalist ...
Jerusalem Post military correspondent Yonah Jeremy Bob, co-author of Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination—and Secret Diplomacy—to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East, explains how Israel coordinated hundreds of strikes and infiltrations across Iran, what the U.S. MOP strike on Fordow actually accomplished, and why Netanyahu’s longtime caution gave way to a high-stakes gamble. He also...
The United States has bombed Iranian nuclear facilities—an extraordinary military action authorized by a President who campaigned against prolonged wars. In today’s interview, national security expert Michael Allen, host of NatSec Matters, offers insight into the Israeli strikes, Iran’s capacity to respond, and what Trump’s decision means for the region and the world. Plus, we weigh the risks of a quagmire against the reactions fro...
Mike's Recent appearance on Chuck Todds Podcast "The Chuck ToddCast"
Want to hear more from Chuck Todd? Check out his YouTube page: www.youtube.com/@TheChuckToddCast Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
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Rosebud Baker joins Funny You Should Mention with the rare gift of making life’s toughest moments hilarious, and a point of view that’s inseparable from the punchline. Her Netflix special Motherlode delivers pregnancy, parenting, and political edge in one biting package. We talk about her SNL writing process and how to satirize breastfeeding pressure without becoming a parenting brand. Plus: how riding a dolphin convinced her husba...
Today on The Gist, we are sharing a Pesca Plus episode on this Holiday to give you a taste of what you can get by being a Pesca Plus Member. Weekly longer episodes, Ad Free listening and more. Click the links below to subscribe.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
To advertise on the show, contact ad-sales@libsyn.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com...
Veteran diplomat Stuart Eizenstat joins The Gist to discuss The Art of Diplomacy: How American Negotiators Reached Historic Agreements That Changed the World, drawing on his work from Camp David to Holocaust reparations. He shares what it means to practice “unsympathetic empathy,” how German officials came to see moral obligation in restitution, and why negotiations fail when mutual interest is absent. Eizenstat contrasts the coura...
Helen Lewis discusses The Genius Myth: A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea, her critique of how society defines—and distorts—the concept of genius. From Hans Eysenck’s wildly specific formula (preferably Jewish, born in February, lose a parent before age 10) to Picasso denying his granddaughter a paper animal because “this is the work of Picasso,” Lewis explores how mythmaking inflates flawed men into icons. Plus, negotiations ar...
Zachary Karabell of The Progress Network and the What Could Go Right podcast lays out a case for “edgy optimism,” highlighting under-covered wins in medicine, education, and public policy. From New Mexico’s universal childcare to gene therapies for sickle cell disease, he argues the problem isn’t a lack of progress—it’s our inability to notice. Plus, a new U.S. ad from Benjamin Netanyahu adapts the famous Talmudic credo “Rise and K...
Replay of the interview Mike Pesca did with Kat Rosenfield on The Gist List. Click the link below to subscribe for free to The Gist List.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
To advertise on the show, contact ad-sales@libsyn.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist
Subscribe to The Gist: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/...
In another edition of Is That BS? Sadie Dingfelder joins to ask: is chatting with your ficus legit, or just verbal compost? The science of sound and strawberries might surprise you. Then in The Spiel, Mike breaks down Israel’s sweeping strike on Iran—targeting nuclear sites, scientists, and generals—in what may be a turning point for the region and for Ukraine. Also, New York Democrats choose between a grocery-store socialist and a...
Economist Allison Schraeger and Slow Boring’s Matt Yglesias join Mike to discuss the unrest in Los Angeles — and how to protest without giving Donald Trump a win. Then, the trio surveys the NYC mayoral mess — or, if not a mess, whatever government-run grocery stores are. Plus, the Big Beautiful Bill is only one of those things, and it’s the worse one. Goat Grinders: summer smells, promiscuous earbuds, and that final month of school...
New York Times reporter Jonah Bromwich joins to discuss Dragon on Centre Street: New York v. Donald J. Trump, his journalist account of the only Trump trial that resulted in a verdict. They explore how Alvin Bragg revived a politically fraught case using a little-known state election statute, and how, despite prosecutors’ storytelling edge in court, Trump’s narrative skills ultimately resonated more strongly with voters. Bromwich d...
Author Matt Hongoltz-Hetling returns with The Ghost Lab, a rollicking deep dive into New Hampshire’s paranormal subculture, where Bigfoot lurks behind every maple tree and alien abductees fill out grant forms. He profiles a ghost-hunting crew that includes a psychic medium, a paranormal paralegal, and a Bigfoot believer who swears the aliens took him more than once. What starts as a tour of fringe science becomes a sharp look at Am...
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