The Gist

Freddie DeBoer drops by to discuss his new book, How Elites Ate The Social Justice Movement . In Texas, a judge spikes buoys. And, in Alabama, somehow the same group of Republicans who keeps screwing up the congressional map keeps getting to screw up the congressional maps. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertis...

Massive demonstrations in Seoul mark the anguish of Korean teachers pushed to the brink by pushy parents. Plus, the miracle of air safety is presented as a crisis. And more with Foer—Franklin Foer, author of The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the struggle for America's Future. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show,...

Franklin Foer, author of The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House , argues that being a politician is not an insult. In the Joe Biden view of the world, it's the explanation for his philosophy and success. Plus, the querulously quitting Qantas CEO. And, once again, we hit the BRICS. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, vis...

Today on The Gist , a gift. We are giving all of our listeners a taste of what Pesca Plus subscribers get each week, namely a regular episode but with an extended cut of a fantastic interview. This was our June 21, 2023 show, in which Mike interviews comic genius Steven Wright about his first novel Harold . We discuss Wright's thought process, how his rate of speech works for him, and how, after a...

The globe may be warming, but that doesn't stop summer from coming to an end. So, in honor of the long weekend which symbolizes the transition from summer vacation to back-to-school, we dug up a couple gems from The Gist's archives. First up, to honor the return to school, we are replaying Mike's 2017 interview with Lenora Chu, author of Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the...

Yesterday, Mike unpacked how and why he was wrong about the Central Park Karen story, and today he has a couple more points to make about his wrongness. Then rewind back to 2018, when, with the Muller investigation filling the headlines, the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes issued a memo titled "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justic...

In May 2020, Amy Cooper had her dog off leash in New York City's Central Park, when a black bird watcher name Christian Cooper asked her to leash her dog. In response, Amy Cooper said she would call the police and tell them that "an African American man" was threatening her. A video of the incident went viral, and "the Central Park Karen" was born. Only, the story was more nuanced than the media h...

While Mike is on vacation, we are revisiting topics he was wrong about. Today we take on Aziz Ansari. Back in 2018, a woman using the pseudonym "Grace" accused Aziz of sexual misconduct on the website Babe.net . Aziz came back in 2019 to address the accusation in the Netflix special Aziz Ansari: Right Now. On today's show, Mike talks about his previous conversation on the topic and how, looking ba...

While Mike is on vacation, we are revisiting topics he was wrong about. Today we tackle Louis C.K. Back in 2017, the comedian was at the top of his game, when multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. As the news swirled, Mike predicted that Louis could rehab his career and return to the pinnacle of comedy ... but those predictions did not come true. On today's show, how Mike got it wrong....

This week, Mike is on a well-earned vacation, but before he left, he wanted to correct the record on a few topics he felt he had misled listeners about over recent years. On Day One of "I Was Wrong" week, Mike reflects back on a judgement he made about Sweden's reaction to the corona virus pandemic. This was in May 2020, early in the pandemic, when countries were faced with choosing whether to loc...

Each week on Best Of The Gist, we give you something from the past week and a deep cut from the archives, and this week we're starting off with Mike's Tuesday Spiel, in which he listens to the #1 song "Rich Men North Of Richmond" for the first time and reacts. Then we rewind to 2017 for his interview with NPR music critic Ann Powers about music's roll in the sexual revolution. "Tutti Fruitti…good...

Sports Explains the World unveils some of the wildest and most surprising sports stories you've never heard - And they're all true. From the teenager who wrote a Wikipedia page that got a young athlete signed to a million-dollar deal - to the Ugandan National basketball coach who was really an undercover agent for the CIA, these stories will amaze and move you at every turn. Reported by award-winn...

A new study shows that paper and bamboo straws are WORSE for the environment and the human body than plastic straws in important ways. Plus, the death of Yvegeny Prigozhin was confirmed by his ol' pal Putin. And an interview with Guy Nattiv on his new film, Golda . Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com...

USC professor Peter Kim, author of How Trust Works: The Science of How Relationships Are Built, Broken, and Repaired , says that when the violation is one of competence, we're forgiving, but when it's one of integrity ... we do not. Broad treatises on trust that fail to distinguish between the two types are destined to not just fail but do more damage than if we just lied. Also on the show, when s...

Tonight's Milwaukee debate presents a chance for the absent Donald Trump's fellow Republicans to offer a frontal assault, a sideward glance, or a kiss on the backside. Plus, the free-floating anxiety of death tolls estimated and unknown. And we're once more joined by Martha Hodes, author of My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Em...

Martha Hodes is now a professor of history at NYU, where she teaches students techniques of interweaving their first-person accounts and the historical record. But in 1970, she was a 12 year old flying back from Israel, when her plane was hijacked. Her new book, My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering , tells that story, then it examines the story she and the other victims t...

Uber is actually turning a profit, and it's looking like it could realize the once-seeming-long-shot goals of its founders and investors. Ali Griswold, who writes the Oversharing Substack Newsletter joins us to discuss. Plus, a Russian rocket fails. And, at a meet-up of the BRICS nations, South Africa, Russia, and China are, in fact, there to make friends. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara...

The Iowa State Fair is in its final weekend, and, along with deep-fried delicacies, politics was in the air. That reminded us of Mike's 2019 visit to Iowa ahead of the 2020 election, so we thought we'd replay his take on a political tradition that is very Midwestern. Then we rewind to this past Wednesday to listen to Mike's Spiel about the U.S. Women's National soccer team crashing out of the Worl...

Herman Andaya, Maui's emergency chief decided not to sound sirens before the fires scorched Lahaina, which seems like an obvious mistake. But all the officials agreed, to do so would have been a contradiction of policy ... and perhaps a dangerous one. Andaya was pushed out anyway, though he was, to some extent, the author of his own fate. And how much was Barbenheimer Hollywood's salvation? We tal...

With 151 days until the Iowa Caucuses, we're joined by Amy Walter, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and the host of The Odd Years, a Cook Political Report podcast. She says that if Trump is to be felled, it won't be through arguments that strike Democrats as especially powerful. Plus, a Ron DeSantis debate prep dump. And the military's recruitment woes can...

Noah Pines, a top Atlanta-based litigator, assesses the strength of Fani Willis's indictment of Donald Trump and eighteen others, with special attention given to the specifics of Georgia state law, and the state's unique RICO statute. Plus, Vivek Ramaswamy's rap. And the North Koreans "explain" why a U.S. soldier ran into their arms. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mi...

Donald G. McNeil Jr., former NY Times Pulitzer Prize winning science and health reporter specializing in plagues, discusses the leading scientists who dismissed his inquiries into a covid's origins. Their paper " The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 ", solidified the idea that there was nothing to a lab leak, even as they were internally admitting there couldn't entirely dismiss the lab leak theory....

Horror movies are one of those invisible dividing lines of society. You either watch them, or you don't. Alison Leiby, co-host of Ruined , a podcast reviewing horror movies, would present as an American who loves the horror genre, but wait … she's only seen three horror movies in her life. How does she do it? Mike and Alison discuss. Also, in African political news, leaders in and out of jails. An...

In this installment of Best Of The Gist, we listen back to Mike's 2020 roundtable discussion with journalists Richard Kreitner and Matthew Yglesias about how each of their then-new books addressed the problem of an ever-increasing American population. Yglesias' book is One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Big , and Kreitner's is Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of A...

Jar Jar Binks—meant to be a lovable, floppy-eared character in a Star Wars prequel—brought the heat of both of Tatooine's suns unto the movie, the actor who played the character, and the entire Star Wars franchise. That sort of internet-sponsored hate was new, and it's now being examined in the podcast The Redemption Of Jar Jar Binks , hosted by Dylan Marron of the Conversations With People Who Ha...