
The Gist
Slate
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.
Location:
Washington, DC
Networks:
Slate
Description:
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.
Language:
English
Episodes
High Stakes, Low Standards: America's Gambling Gamble
8/5/2025
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 to admit.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
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Duration:00:38:12
Pay to Play: The NCAA’s Big Payout Era Begins
8/4/2025
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 Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:35:29
Puzzling The Puzzle Master on The Puzzler
8/2/2025
Today on The Gist we air Mikes appearence on The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:38:59
The NIH vs. The New Grievance Politics
8/1/2025
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 comic potential of Sydney Sweeney’s controversial jeans ad, and a failed auction bid for Larry King’s designer denim.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
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Duration:00:37:41
Airborne Assumptions and Subventilated Science
7/31/2025
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 childhood development.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:45:38
How to Make Crime Feel Weird
7/30/2025
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 City in 25 years, the New York Times’ spotlights the shooter’s CTE claims and symbolic vendetta against the NFL.In the Spiel, claims we’re reliving 1999.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:36:08
The Algorithm Is Hollywood’s New God
7/29/2025
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 launched merch like MAGA-branded Instant Pots. In the Spiel, The European Union's timid trade posture, favoring compromise over confrontation in the face of bombastic American tactics.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
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Duration:00:32:52
When Hulk Turned Heel
7/28/2025
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 government-funded lizard wind tunnels. Plus: The worst job in Tehran as the wells run dry.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:32:35
Mike Pesca talks NPR Funding on The 21st Show
7/26/2025
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
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Duration:00:28:01
Phil Gramm Hearts Capitalism, From Dickens To The New Deal
7/25/2025
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 power dynamics, not symbolic gestures. And in The Spiel: Benjamin Crump returns to the spotlight in a viral police beating case, and renewed concern over noose reports reveals our reflex to dramatize the ambiguous.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:37:51
Not Even Mad - Zee Cohen-Sanchez and Jesse Adams
7/24/2025
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 whether NPR got PBS defunded by sheer association. Meanwhile, the Democrats try to square "abolish ICE" with NYC’s obsession with safety—somehow still winning.
Plus, Goat Grinders include denied entrance at Charlie Kirk events, the tyranny of the word “unhoused,” and the tragic combustion of Jeff Maurer’s own anti-sawdust screed.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:54:14
Ben Smith On Truth At A Lower Resolution
7/23/2025
Semafor CEO and founder 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 media—and how even flawless reporting wouldn’t have prevented audience collapse.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:45:21
The Bliss Gene And The Burden Of Mood
7/22/2025
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 over sanctuary cities and local autonomy. And in the Spiel a burial standoff concerning the former President of Zambia.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:32:45
RFK Jr.: Sophist, Saboteur, Snake Oil Secretary
7/21/2025
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 epistemological gray zones. Also on the show: Trump’s obscure-commission chess moves, as he "Truths" his way through any Epstein flak.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:32:23
Live From America with Mike Pesca
7/19/2025
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
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Duration:00:28:16
Funny You Should Mention: Trae Crowder
7/18/2025
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 with JD Vance who hit big about the same time Trae did. The two became friendly. For a while.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:01:18:28
Jake Tapper: Original Sin, Ongoing Fracturing
7/17/2025
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 shrinking market for non-ideological reporting. Plus, a glimpse into the spectacle of immigration enforcement, where shocking imagery is a Presidential tactic and a public turnoff.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:55:04
The Great Lantern Fly Freakout: Is That BS?
7/16/2025
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, setting off a civil war within MAGA media as conspiratorial cracks widen and cranks rage.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Duration:00:37:29
The War After the War: Hamas and Israel
7/15/2025
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
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Duration:00:59:13
Chris and Paul Weitz say Murderbot Doesn’t Want to Be a Real Boy
7/14/2025
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 his 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 a roiling interior monologue. Also: the GOP goes ball(point)istic over Biden’s legal use of an autopen.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
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Duration:00:45:00