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Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

The Gist

Peach Fish Productions

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.

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All Episodes

42:15

No Capes, Real Peace: U Thant's UN and What We Lost

The Gist ·

2025/10/23

Historian and grandson of third secretary-general of the United Nations U Thant, Thant Myint-U, discusses Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World—how the UN once brokered real ceasefires (Cuban Missile Crisis, India-Pakistan 1965), why its stature faded, what decolonization changed, and Myanmar's present. A reminder that boring, grown-up diplomacy can beat laser eyes every time. Plus: the case against franchise-ified superhero "universes." Produced by Corey Wara Production

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33:15

Alicia Wanless — “The Ecology of Information”

The Gist ·

2025/10/22

Carnegie Endowment’s Alicia Wanless argues that disinformation isn’t new—it’s just our latest pollutant. In The Information Animal, she maps centuries of “information ecosystems,” from King Charles I’s pamphlet floods to the social-media deluge, and shows why attempts to “detoxify” them often fail. We trace the analogies between DDT and digital outrage, ask whether suppression ever works, and weigh how democracies can regulate without strangling truth. Also: China’s dirty edge in the rare-earths

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43:46

Michael Kirk — "RFK Jr.'s Latest Addiction: Attention"

The Gist ·

2025/10/21

Frontline's Michael Kirk discusses The Rise of RFK Jr., charting Kennedy's path from sex and drug addiction to what Kirk calls "an addiction to validation." He describes a man driven by grievance, and details how the alliance between Kennedy and Trump built the so-called "MAHA movement," and why it may collapse under its own contradictions. Plus: a breakdown of how Supreme Court shifts and redistricting could strip representation from Black voters in states like North Carolina and Louisiana

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33:26

Michael Townsend & Jeremy Workman: "Secret Mall...

The Gist ·

2025/10/20

Michael Townsend and director Jeremy Workman tell the wild true story of an eight-artist collective that built a hidden home inside Providence Place Mall—part prank, part art project, and a pointed reply to gentrification. They revisit grainy 2003–07 footage, a tape-art 9/11 memorial, and the logistics (and ethics) of living behind a cinderblock wall in America's retail cathedral. Plus: a look at Christine Lagarde's plan to collateralize frozen Russian assets for a Ukraine loan—and why that's

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23:26

Chris Murphy: “Congress needs to take war powers back.”

The Gist ·

2025/10/18

Mike revisits his 2019 conversation with Senator Chris Murphy on the AUMF — the two-decade-old law still used to justify U.S. military strikes from Yemen to the Caribbean. Plus, a new strike on a Venezuelan vessel raises questions about presidential authority and transparency. We trace how “temporary” wartime powers became permanent policy, and what it would take for Congress to reclaim its constitutional role. Produced by Corey Wara Production Coordinator Ashley Khan Email us

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39:17

Lisa Graves: On The Roberts Court's Power Play

The Gist ·

2025/10/17

Lisa Graves joins to discuss Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights—from court "capture" networks to why she sees the recent immunity ruling and emergency-docket moves as system-tilting, not umpiring. She and our host spar over what counts as a "constitutional crisis," contrasting TRO reversals and precedent-scrapping with the break-glass scenario of outright defiance. Also: the Young Republicans' Hitler-meme leak and J.D

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01:06:06

Not Even Mad: Jonah Goldberg & Zee Cohen-Sanchez

The Gist ·

2025/10/16

Hamas hostages, Trump and autocracy, and the strangely quiet shutdown — we tackle all three. Why Trump’s blunt style played in the Middle East, whether “competitive authoritarianism” really fits his second-term instincts and enablers, and who’s taking the fall for Obamacare-premium brinkmanship. Plus: goat-grinders (pointless rebrands at Max and Apple TV, Crowder’s vest-and-glass cosplay, and the humbling age math of Roy Orbison, the Skipper, and the Golden Girls). Produced by Corey Wara Production

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48:14

Jonathan Mahler: The Tabloids That Made The City That...

The Gist ·

2025/10/15

Mahler walks us through The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City, 1986–1990—how a late-'80s crucible of crime, crack, and tabloids minted characters like Spike Lee ("the coolest guy in America"), Al Sharpton, Donald Trump, Ed Koch, and Rudy Giuliani. We revisit Howard Beach, Yusuf Hawkins, Do the Right Thing, and the media ecosystem that turned norm-breaking into power, alongside the policy tradeoffs (SROs, development, homelessness) that still echo

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35:52

Cory Doctorow: Enshittification: Why Everything...

The Gist ·

2025/10/14

Doctorow lays out his "enshittification" playbook—how tech platforms lure users, trap businesses, then extract value from both—tying it to interoperability, right-to-repair, and DMCA lock-ins, with Facebook as Exhibit A. He explains why incremental state laws can break Big Tech's coalitions better than sweeping federal reforms. Meanwhile, Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro warns, "If the gringos threaten, we work harder; if they attack, we respond," after Trump-ordered strikes sink another Caribbean vessel,

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35:22

SCOTUS’s Shadow Docket, Calibrated + Steven Vladeck

The Gist ·

2025/10/11

Mike previews the new Supreme Court term: Colorado’s conversion-therapy ban, transgender athlete cases out of Idaho and West Virginia, a Louisiana Voting Rights Act fight, and a Rastafarian grooming claim, then dials in the panic meter on the “shadow docket”: what it is, why Trump’s emergency-order wins look so lopsided, and where concern beats catastrophizing. From the vault, law professor Stephen Vladeck explains how the Court’s stealth rulings amass power, and why explanations matter. Produced by

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01:07:34

Funny You Should Mention: Steph Tolev

The Gist ·

2025/10/10

Season 3 of Funny You Should Mention begins with the “Filth Queen” herself Steph Tolev to explore why gross can be smart, how crowd work goes viral, Bill Burr’s boost to her career, and the Canadian comedy grind. Big laughs, sharp ideas, adult themes. We also get into slapstick dummies, family lore, and why Boston brings the best chaos. Come for the filthy stories, stay for the surprisingly thoughtful theories on why certain jokes land, and what that says about us. Produced by Corey Wara Production

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51:48

Plestia Alaqad: “The Eyes of Gaza,” Witness and...

The Gist ·

2025/10/09

Today on the Gist, a tough conversation with Plestia Alaqad about what she saw in Gaza and how she frames it for a global audience. They dig into sympathy versus credence, terminology like IDF versus IOF, the Al-Ahli Hospital claim, and whether journalism requires shared vocabulary. Plus, a spiel on U Thant, transliteration, and the “clean” versus “stable” wings of politics. Produced by Corey Wara Production Coordinator Ashley Khan Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ To advertise on the

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35:55

Jake Tapper and the Race Against Terror

The Gist ·

2025/10/08

Today on The Gist. Jake Tapper breaks down the first U.S. criminal trial of a foreign combatant: why prosecutors chose court over Gitmo, and the painstaking sleuthing that turned a shaky confession into a conviction. We talk DOJ institutional memory, the politics orbiting the Comey case, and why trials rather than commissions lock terrorists away. Plus, James Comey’s indictment and the strange team behind it. Produced by Corey Wara Production Coordinator Ashley Khan Email us

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37:35

Obama CDC Director Tom Frieden: “'Believe in Science'...

The Gist ·

2025/10/07

The former CDC director lays out his “See, Believe, Create” playbook from The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives—Including Your Own. He separates settled facts (hypertension control, PM2.5, tobacco) from guesswork, owns early COVID failures, and argues vaccine mandates and long school closures were mismatched to risk. Practical levers follow, rebuild primary care, mind your potassium-to-sodium ratio, and scale what actually works. Also: a withering look at Pam Bondi’s Judiciary

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37:39

Steven Pinker: “Common Knowledge Changes Everything”

The Gist ·

2025/10/06

Steven Pinker joins to discuss his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life, exploring how shared awareness coordinates everything from markets to manners. He traces spirals of silence, costly signals, and why a single public moment can flip private hunches into history. Also: the sentencing in the intended assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh — what the court record shows about Nicholas (Sophie) Roske’s change of

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29:12

Diane Foley on America’s Hostage Blind Spot

The Gist ·

2025/10/04

Diane Foley, founder of the Foley Foundation and mother of slain journalist James Foley, joins Mike to discuss America’s fragmented hostage-recovery system, wrongful detentions, and why the U.S. response lags far behind countries like Israel. In the Spiel, Mike looks at the 20-point Gaza plan, Israeli hostages, and the very different ways nations value their own citizens. Produced by Corey Wara Production Coordinator Ashley Khan Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ To advertise on the show,

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34:51

Jonah Blank: “Very Quickly and Then Very Slowly” in...

The Gist ·

2025/10/03

South Asia expert Jonah Blank explains how a Gen-Z–driven uprising—fueled by social media, flaunted elite wealth, and ubiquitous VPNs—toppled Nepal’s government. He sketches a country where remittances power daily life, institutions lack public trust, and political parties play musical chairs. Also: Trump fires another U.S. attorney and pressures Microsoft to oust a former DOJ official. And in the Spiel: Hamas’s willingness to release hostages, and how Israel’s democratic self-image shapes the next

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01:02:34

Not Even Mad: Ben Wizner & Ilya Shapiro

The Gist ·

2025/10/02

Free speech under heat: the ACLU’s Ben Wizner and the Manhattan Institute’s Ilya Shapiro square off (and sometimes align) on the “ethos” of the First Amendment—from the Ball State firing over Charlie Kirk comments to cancel culture, government jawboning, and campus heckler’s vetoes. We dig into the Supreme Court’s shadow docket and unitary-executive fights, birthright citizenship, visas vs speech rights, and why institutions keep ducking protests. Plus: goat-grinders (the NBA’s three-point bloat,

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44:58

Yaakov Katz - While Israel Slept: Winning Tunnels,...

The Gist ·

2025/10/01

Yaakov Katz co-author with Amir Bohbot, of While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East, traces the failures that led to October 7 and how Israel's security establishment misread Hamas's strength and intent. He explains how world opinion, hostage leverage, and casualty ratios constrain Israel differently in Gaza than against Hezbollah, and how Netanyahu's post-ceasefire decisions prolonged the war. Katz argues Israel allowed hardliners to define the mission

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37:30

KJ Steinberg, on The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox

The Gist ·

2025/09/30

We talk with KJ Steinberg, showrunner of Hulu’s The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, about concentrating on Knox’s perspective while still showing how others perceived her, and the legal tightropes that shaped the series. She details the refracted structure (episodes from the prosecutor’s to the co-defendant’s POVs) and why the story follows Knox through re-entry. As she puts it, “the echoes of trauma are loud and long.” Also: Israel’s hostage ethos, why twenty remaining names can command a nation’s

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2,864 results

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