2,000 episodes
The Gist Peach Fish Productions
-
- News
-
-
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
-
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.
-
When "Anti-Zionism" Is A Get Out Of "Antisemitism" Free Card
College campuses are spoiled by protests, the White House calls out antisemitism, but the NYPD says the soon-to-be-expelled students were perfectly nice. Not nice are calls for 10,000 more October 7ths. But there's a difference between "not nice" and "not acceptable." On the show today, Mike plumbs the difference and explains when anti-zionism really is antisemitic. Plus, the Dems should bail out Mike Johnson. And we're joined once more by Damon Linker to talk politics and shrubbery.
Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist
Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/
Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
BEST OF THE GIST: NPR CEO OMG Edition
In this installment of Best Of The Gist, the first half of our interview with Damon Linker, author of the Notes From The Middleground Substack about his recent Guest Essay for the Opinion page of The New York Times titled, "Why Is Biden Struggling? Because America Is Broken." Then we listen back to Mike’s analysis of NPR’s choice of its new CEO, Katherine Maher.
Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
To advertise on the show: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist
Subscribe to our ad-free and/or PescaPlus versions of The Gist: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/
Follow Mike’s Substack: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Saving NPR
Today a special show, wherein Mike discusses former NPR editor Uri Berliner's critique of the network he no longer works for, including claims about Berliner's veracity and validity.
Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist
Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/
Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Gold Heist, Foiled
Canadian police are making arrests in the 2023 theft of $14 million of gold from an Air Canada flight. The criminals weapon of choice? Guns? Dynamite? How about fraudulent bills of lading for scrod? Also on the show, Max Stearns is the author of the new book Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy. We will discuss the needed repairs.
Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist
Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/
Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Family Guy Guy Guides Us Through Danger
Evan Waite, writer for Family Guy and The Onion, discusses his career, theories of comedy, and his new book, Life Wants You Dead: A Calm, Rational, and Totally Legit Guide to Scaring Yourself Safe. Plus, why can't Ukraine have the defenses that Israel has? And a new NPR CEO critiques truth.
Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist
Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/
Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Getting Aid to Gaza
Arwa Damon, recently back from Gaza, is a former CNN International Correspondent who has transitioned to relief work. Her organization is INARA, the International Network for Aid, Relief & Assistance. She discusses the situation in Gaza, how opaque Israeli inspection protocols delay aid, how the killings of World Central Kitchen workers complicated the job of relief workers, and how Gaza compares to other war zones she's covered. ln the Spiel, we can now declare that murder is down, even if we've been falsely declaring it for some time now. And Donald Trump loves comparing himself to Al Capone.
Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist
Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/
Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Customer Reviews
Refreshing
Always thought-provoking and interesting. I am as far from a MAGA Republican as you could possibly be, but at the same time, I don’t feel like I have a real home on the progressive left, and I think that’s where a lot of people (including Mike) find themselves. More power to people who look for nuance and who are not afraid to cut against the grain when necessary. And yes, I would like to hear more about the situation at NPR. Thank you.
More about journalism
I enjoy learning about this. I’m also a disappointed fan of npr. Old enough to remember the wonder of the early years. And the CBC As It Happens.
Entertaining, informative antidote to tribalism
The Gist was here before Trump was a candidate, and there’s a reason it has worked for so long. It’s that Mike Pesca’s curiosity and playful energy happens to be far stronger than a pure desire to get high ratings. This leads him to pursue genuinely interesting and diverse topics while resisting the siren song to give red meat for a tribal audience. I’ve returned to the Gist after several years of absence, and it is refreshing. I’d admit I spent some of those years listening to heterodox podcasts that were enjoyable in the way they exposed the lunacy of some on the left. But they also became predictable and downright annoying when many of them drifted rightward due to audience capture. The Gist, after all these years, still holds to those center-left values that I hold dear: Be curious, follow the truth fairly where it leads, and don’t be a jerk.