The Gist

E. Jean Carroll joins to talk about the lawsuit she won, the president she sued, and the dressing room encounter that changed everything. The author of Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President opens up about the attack by Donald Trump, how she fought to be heard, and what it took—mentally and emotionally to face him in court. They talk trial prep, media backlash, mock juries, and what it means to be...

Jonathan D. Cohen, author of Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling , joins to explain why our national rush into online sports betting might be a bigger mess than we realize. They talk sketchy app rollouts, bad state deals, and how betting lines went from shady corners to college campus. Plus, why Malaysian women's doubles badminton at 3 a.m. says more about America than we'd like...

The NCAA's $2.8 billion settlement doesn't just change the rules—it rewrites the entire playbook. Mike talks with Gabe Feldman, director of Tulane's Sports Law Program, about what happens now that schools can pay athletes directly. They get into how the money will be split, why Olympic sports are suddenly on the chopping block, and whether this new system can survive Title IX scrutiny. Produced by...

Today on The Gist we air Mikes appearence on The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs. 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/⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to The Gist Youtube Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠h...

Former NIH director Elias Zerhouni reflects on the agency's triumphs and shortcomings in light of his new memoir, Disease Knows No Politics . He defends the NIH's legacy while addressing critiques from figures like current NIH head Jay Bhattacharya, and warns that proposed funding cuts could severely undermine scientific progress. Also: the decline of late-night TV amid political sameness, the com...

Carl Zimmer joins to discuss Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe , a book that excavates the forgotten science of airborne disease transmission—from Louis Pasteur's broth experiments to why COVID's airborne nature was dismissed by health authorities. Also : praise for the New York Times ' recent front-page study that honestly asses the failure of a cash transfer program to aid in c...

Criminologist Nick Cowen joins to explore how drunk driving transformed from a tolerated norm to a societal taboo, and how deterrence works best when paired with norm-shaping—catching people before tragedy and using lighter sanctions to nudge behavior. He argues that even violent crime clusters could be tackled through community-level norm shifts. Plus, after the worst mass shooting in New York Ci...

Filmmaker Justine Bateman argues that Hollywood's creative spark has been smothered by fear, corporate consolidation, and algorithmic decision-making. In her view, true artistry requires fearlessness—and God, or something like it—but today's studios follow data, not inspiration. Also in the episode: Trump's presidential library fund keeps growing thanks to defamation settlements and nearly launche...

Marc Raimondi discusses Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Professional Wrestling's New World Order Changed America , his new book on Hulk Hogan's heel turn and how WCW's edgy branding reflected a broader cultural shift. We learn how steroid scandals, media savvy, and black t-shirts reshaped wrestling—and maybe U.S. politics. In the Spiel, Russell Vought's viral soundbites about cocaine beagles and go...

Today on The Gist. We play back Mikes appearance on the 21st Show where they discuss NPR and its funding. It originally aired on Monday July 28th. 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:...

Former Senator Phil Gramm joins to defend capitalism's record, arguing that the Industrial Revolution improved lives, the New Deal prolonged the Depression, and modern welfare undermines work. He supports Keynesian stimulus in theory—but only if governments also run surpluses, which he says they never do. Plus, Gaza aid failures, Macron's recognition of Palestine, and why peace requires clear-eyed...

Unf**k America Tour founder Z Cohen-Sanchez and Washington Examiner contributor Jesse Adams join for a tour through Trump's waning immigration support, the public broadcasting defunding that will hurt the next generation of Jesse Adamses, and why even Epstein truthers may be losing the thread. They debate whether GOP border hawks want actual deportations or just spicy cable-news optics, and whethe...

Editor-in-Chief, co-founder of Semafor, and host of the Mixed Signals podcast Ben Smith assesses how the media lost its footing during the Trump years—not through lies, but through disproportion. He critiques the rise of "disinformation" as a catch-all beat and notes that Substack surprised him by housing everything from bug-eating conspiracies to teen memoirists. Plus the structural distrust in m...

Psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman explains how a rare genetic mutation affecting the enzyme FAAH, and a ubiquitous neurotransmitter called Anandamide may account for unusually low anxiety, reduced drug cravings, and an innate buoyancy, the type of which you might find in a daily podcast host. Plus, Louisville reverses its immigration detainer policy under federal pressure, reigniting the debate ove...

Historian Daniel Immerwahr eviscerates RFK Jr. as a master of glib misinformation—"profoundly informed," yet wielding that knowledge in bad faith to undermine truth and public trust. Kennedy is the conductor of an orchestra of error. Also discussed: how science became political dogma during COVID, how Fauci's certainty helped fuel backlash, and why a provocateur like Kennedy thrives in epistemolog...

On this Saturday we play some of Mikes conversation on the podcast Live From America Hatem Gabr, one of the cohosts talks to Mike about NPR and the media landscape. 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 Th...

The self-proclaimed "Trash Daddy" riffs on meat-in-a-can cuisine, possum PR, and how his accent disarms blue-state crowds, Plus: white supremacist losers, Fruit Loop vape rights, and how cheap heat works in comedy and pro wrestling. Trae takes us through his upbringing, in Celina Tennessee, and discusses his travails with child support bureaucracy , plus he discusses his interpersonal interactions...

Jake Tapper returns to dissect his book Original Sin and the failures of mainstream media to report on Joe Biden's decline. He traces how social pressures, cultural taboos, and partisan incentive structures are ongoing threats to the type of journalism he practices and associates with the best forms of truth-telling. Tapper says CNN still strives to flesh out the full story, but acknowledges the s...

Sadie Dingfelder returns to assess the national stomp-fest against lantern flies and asks: did it do anything, or was it all buggage and bluster? Then, a deep dive into the Supreme Court's CASA ruling on nationwide injunctions, and how a seemingly dramatic limitation on judicial power proved to be less than world-shifting in practice. Finally, Trump disavows Epstein file disclosure demands, settin...

Times of Israel analyst Haviv Rettig Gur discusses the next phase of the war in Gaza and Israel's many enemies. Also discussed are the ideological roots of Hamas's mission to destroy Israel, settler violence in the West Bank, and the difficulty of safely getting food to the citizens of Gaza. Produced by Corey Wara Production Coordinator Ashley Khan Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ To adve...

Murderbot showrunners Chris and Paul Weitz join to discuss their sci-fi series' blend of chamber thriller, workplace satire, and reluctant hero tale—all orbiting a security unit who just wants to be left alone to binge it's stories. They talk robot servitude, world-building exhaustion ("every chair must be a space chair"), and how Alexander Skarsgård's performance brings Scandinavian placidity to...

The TSA is finally starting to phase out its decades-old shoe removal policy. We take a look back at the post-9/11 panic that made bare feet in airport security lines a national ritual—and wonder how we went from hypervigilant to oddly indifferent about terrorism. Plus, from the vaults: A classic Spiel from July 17, 2017, revisits Ann Coulter vs. Delta, Day 3 . Yes, it somehow made it to Day 3. Pr...

Tony Tost, now showrunning Poker Face , reflects on the show's expertly woven mysteries, genre roots, and why women who don't want to pick up a gun keep finding themselves forced to fire. Tost, an expert in poetry and Johnny Cash, brings a reverence for populist storytelling to a format that straddles the procedural and the mythic. He also discusses why westerns are still a hard sell in Hollywood—...

Boston Globe columnist Carine Hajjar and five-time Emmy-winning comedy writer and proprietor of the I Might Be Wrong Substack, Jeff Maurer, join to discuss the flood of ICE agents and President Trump's growing suspicion that Putin isn't on the up-and-up. Plus, in Goat Grinders: teeny-tiny air conditioning in New York, misinterpreting the cane toad, and (hardly ever) exploding sawdust. Produced by...

Josh Dawsey joins to discuss 2024: How Donald Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America , digging into Kamala Harris's campaign missteps, Biden's loyalty hangups, and Hunter's oversized influence. In the Spiel, a statistical deep dive tests whether so-called "100-year floods" are actually happening more often as seems to be the case. Spoiler: the data is murkier than the headline...