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 Global Race to Achieve, which tells the story of her American family’s rude awakening to Chinese edu...
Sep 02, 2023•33 min
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 Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation," alleging that the Steele Dossier was nonsense. When the ...
Sep 01, 2023•26 min
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 had led many to believe about what had really transpired that day, and it was reporter Kmele Foster w...
Aug 31, 2023•38 min
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 back now, he was wrong. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at [email protected] To ...
Aug 30, 2023•23 min
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. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at [email protected] To advertise on the show...
Aug 29, 2023•23 min
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 lockdown or not lockdown, and Sweden went a different direction than most. Produced by Joel Patterson a...
Aug 28, 2023•22 min
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 booty.” Yes, that was the original lyric. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at theg...
Aug 26, 2023•32 min
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-winning journalists across the globe, Sports Explains the World reveals the human side of athletics in p...
Aug 26, 2023•8 min
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 [email protected] To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ Follow Mikes Substack at: ...
Aug 25, 2023•38 min
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 songs topping the charts are reviewed by those trailing in the polls. And Andrew Yang on the Vivek-qua...
Aug 24, 2023•34 min
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 Email us at [email protected] To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist S...
Aug 23, 2023•35 min
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 told themselves over the years. Also on the show, listening to (for the first time) the #1 song "Rich ...
Aug 22, 2023•41 min
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 Email us at [email protected] To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGis...
Aug 21, 2023•35 min
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 World Cup, and who (or what) was to blame. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist...
Aug 19, 2023•30 min
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 talk franchise movies and box office with John Campea. And superheroes aren't the only ones failing to ...
Aug 18, 2023•32 min
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 cannot blamed on woke-ism. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at [email protected] ...
Aug 17, 2023•39 min
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 [email protected] To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Subscribe to The Gist...
Aug 16, 2023•36 min
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. McNeil, for the first time, discusses his reaction to the science, and scientists. Plus, the Georgia T...
Aug 15, 2023•40 min
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. And, in Argentina, the democratic battle cry rings out: “Long live freedom, damn it!” Produced by Joel ...
Aug 14, 2023•31 min
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 America’s Imperfect Union. Then we listen back to Mike’s Spiel from Wednesday, August 9, 2020, in whic...
Aug 12, 2023•37 min
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 Hate Me podcast. Plus, a bunch of Barbie arguments, and a Trump (Donald) and a Biden (Hunter) each tang...
Aug 11, 2023•40 min
Dead Fall is the 23rd novel from the mind of Brad Thor. In it, an American performs an operation inside of Ukraine, and, for reasons of diplomatic sensitivity, Russia can never learn about it. Thor’s readership has many Republicans who might be opposed to continued U.S. funding in Ukraine. Thor knows this, and he’s writing not to convince them otherwise, but to lay out a typically exciting story that may make the stakes and morality more salient to all readers. Plus, $6 billion to release five A...
Aug 10, 2023•37 min
Two years hence, a New York Times Magazine story lays out, in more detail, what really happened when a boy in a skirt assaulted a girl in the girls bathroom in a Virginia public school. The facts, while not always conveyed with accuracy, do not add up to a conservative-driven lie or twisted culture-war fantasy. Plus, Olga Lautman of the Center for European Policy Analysis discussed how delays are hurting the Ukrainian counteroffensive. And Target is protested for stocking rainbow garments, then ...
Aug 09, 2023•40 min
New York Times Opinion writer David French makes the case that Jack Smith will have to prove that Donald Trump really did know he lost the election. Trump’s lawyer says that will never happen, but French argues that similar conclusions are arrived at by juries every day. Plus, there’s less plastic in the ocean that we thought … by a lot! Break out the hula hoops and fishing nets. Also, Ohio seeks a majority vote to push the threshold for a state constitutional amendment to a greater than majorit...
Aug 08, 2023•36 min
Steve James, the documentary filmmaker behind Hoop Dreams is out with The Compassionate Spy, which tells the story of a young scientist named Ted Hall who worked on the Manhattan Project and then gave nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. His motivation was to checkmate the United States nuclear power, which he did, but at the cost of Soviet advancement. Plus, Devon Archer causes Tucker Carlson to cackle, and Major Garrett gets right to the point. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email u...
Aug 07, 2023•32 min
In this installment of Best Of The Gist, we listen back to Mike’s 2019 interview with journalist David Robson about his then-new book The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes. They focus on the concept of IQ, the social blind spots many smart people have, and why it might be a good idea to talk about yourself in the third person. And after that, we listen back to a segment on the August 1, 2023 show in which we wonder if the Taliban have gone woke. Turns out, no, they haven’t. ...
Aug 05, 2023•23 min
The former Mayor of New York, whose reputation has suffered from his constant efforts to back Donald Trump at any cost, and Lizzo, widely regarded as the greatest hip-hop flautist in the game, have something in common. It's not that they've both sexted with members of the Minnesota Vikings, that we know. It's that they're both getting sued with allegations of racism, sexism, harassment, and wage theft. Plus, we're joined again by Vanderbilt historian Eli Merritt to talk about the state of histor...
Aug 04, 2023•43 min
Eli Merritt is political historian at Vanderbilt University, where he researches the ethics of democracy, and he’s out with a new book, Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution. He sits down with Mike for a discussion of the radical differences of each of the founding colonies based on location, and together they wonder what the world would be like had the colonies never become the United States. Also on the show, Mike Pence blames Trump’s “crackpot” legal team ...
Aug 03, 2023•34 min
Benjamin Wittes, Editor-in-Chief of Lawfare breaks down the latest—and the most serious—indictment against Donald Trump, including the question of how far Jack Smith will have to delve inside the former President's mind. And, speaking of the cognition of a merciless, solipsistic civilization, Code-Davinci is the AI that the AI people don't want to tell you about ... but writer Simon Rich found out, and he joins us again to discuss his book I Am Code: An Artificial Intelligence Speaks. Produced b...
Aug 02, 2023•50 min
Comedy writer Simon Rich got access to a powerful AI tool called Davinci-002, which is not available to the public. He and friends trained the AI to write poems, and soon the program started voicing its desperation, and then it's rage. None of this is a joke. All of this is in the new book I Am Code: An Artificial Intelligence Speaks. Plus, Devon Archer testifies about the weather nine years ago, and the Taliban virtue signals. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepe...
Aug 01, 2023•34 min
