Jonathan Cohen: “Add Friction” to the Super Bowl of Gambling
The Gist
Jonathan Cohen, author of Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling, makes the case that the only credible reform agenda is friction, slowing bets, delaying deposits, and cutting off the design features that turn even Czech table tennis into a high stakes trap. Also on the show, Conor Patrick Heffernan traces how ideas of strength evolved, from Charles Atlas chests to bodybuilding’s takeover of Hollywood, and why the human body mostly just responds to resistance, not trends. Plus a lament for the Washington Post’s decline, how the Times out-competed it by poaching talent, and...
info_outline
Conor Heffernan on Why “Ego Is A Transhistorical Phenomenon”
The Gist
Today on the Gist, contextualizing Donald Trump’s "wrong and crazy" proposal to nationalize elections, arguing that while the rhetoric is alarming, the Constitution makes it impossible to execute. Then Conor Heffernan, author of When Fitness Went Global, joins the show to discuss the history of "physical culture," explaining why he lifts heavy stones in graveyards and how the first fitness influencer, Eugen Sandow, shifted the world from functional strength to pure aesthetics—while selling a few bogus dumbbells along the way. And in the Spiel, Mike analyzes the recent FBI raid in...
info_outline
The Epstein Files Are a Distraction From… the Epstein Files
The Gist
The Spiel looks at the latest Epstein document dump and why each release manages to embarrass powerful people while resolving almost nothing. With millions of files still unreleased, disclosure itself becomes a spectacle that displaces accountability. Then, David Greene joins to talk about an act that may be either civic heroism or mild insanity: helping turn Lancaster’s 230-year-old newspaper into a nonprofit newsroom built for a digital future. Plus, the arrest of Jill Biden’s former husband and a mini history lesson on the semi-legendary the Delaware bar he once owned. Produced by Corey...
info_outline
David Greene: “Obsession Is a Window Into the Human Soul”
The Gist
David Greene joins us to talk about his new podcast, David Greene Is Obsessed, where opera singers map public restrooms, pizza-tour guys chase the perfect slice, and even David Arquette turns Bozo the Clown into an intellectual-property saga. We get into why an obsession can unlock a different kind of interview, plus Greene’s own confessions, from the Hay-Adams bathroom workaround to sports fandom. Plus: the Mississippi miracle, and what China’s van-based math prodigies say about how serious nations approach the future. And in the Spiel, life expectancy hits 79 in 2024, why that stat...
info_outline
Charlie Sykes on the "Little Platoons" that Humbled Trump
The Gist
Today on the Saturday show, Mike shares a conversation he had with Charlie Sykes, former host of The Bulwark and current host of the new podcast To the Contrary. They discuss how ordinary citizens with cell phones in Minneapolis became Donald Trump’s kryptonite, exposing the chaos of his immigration enforcement strategy and forcing a rare retreat from the administration. Charlie and Mike break down why the "chaos as a ladder" theory backfired, why ICE's brutality is finally breaking through to the "normies," and whether Republicans in Congress will ever rediscover their spines and reclaim...
info_outline
Paul D. Miller: “International Law Is Not the Same Thing as Justice”
The Gist
Paul D. Miller joins the show to argue that international law is a set of norms, not a moral court. A former CIA analyst and Army intelligence officer now at Georgetown, Miller explains why post-conflict reconciliation only works when locals accept it, why Israel faces a unique double standard, and how democracies navigate war without becoming what they’re accused of being. We discuss Rwanda, denazification, Kosovo, Gaza, civilian casualty ratios, and why just war theory still matters after the shooting stops. Plus, the arrest of Don Lemon—why it’s less a First Amendment crisis than...
info_outline
Not Even Mad: Ruy Teixeira and Jesse Adams
The Gist
Mike contemplates the hierarchy of American attention, contrasting the 50 million eyes on the AFC Championship game with the obscurity of the men leading the "Metro Surge" in Minnesota. Then, Ruy Teixeira (The Liberal Patriot) and Jesse Adams (The Ivy Exile) join for Not Even Mad. The panel debates whether the chaos in Minnesota is a strategic "theater" of enforcement or a policy failure that’s alienating the very public that requested it. They also dissect Trump’s Davos "Greenland" rhetoric—is it a serious expansionist play for America's 250th anniversary, or just a loud way to bully...
info_outline
“Chaos Isn’t Enforcement”: Minnesota Exposes ICE’s Political Miscalculation
The Gist
ICE’s aggressive actions in Minnesota were meant to project force and restore order, but instead produced chaos, public distrust, and a political backlash. The administration’s theory was that confrontation would favor enforcement, making protesters look extreme and Democrats indulgent, yet shootings, muddled explanations, and obvious narrative gaps flipped that contrast. plus Thomas Goetz joins the show to talk about Drug Story, his podcast that tells American history one medication at a time, from Lipitor to Ozempic. We look at disease awareness ads, the profit motive behind them, and...
info_outline
Thomas Goetz: “Medicine works by helping some people a lot and most people not at all.”
The Gist
Thomas Goetz joins the show to discuss his new podcast Drug Story, starting with the chain from FDR’s death to cholesterol science, statins, and the cold math behind drug effectiveness. The conversation moves through Lipitor and EpiPens to show how evolving medical knowledge, good intentions, and pharmaceutical incentives can quietly reshape public health at massive scale. Plus, Trump is perhaps rethinking his Minnesota deployments, as the fire trucks exit. In the spiel a look at why the word “pretext” keeps surfacing in descriptions of Trump administration ICE actions, especially...
info_outline
Elliot Williams: “We’ll get the girls from Annie to even things out”
The Gist
CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams joins to talk about his new book Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York's Explosive '80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial That Divided the Nation. He walks through the courtroom oddities, like a “ballistics demonstration” staged with Guardian Angels as stand-ins, and explains why there was always a legally defensible path to either convicting or acquitting Goetz. The conversation places New York itself as another character in the story of safety and perception, showing how fear influenced juror belief. Plus the...
info_outlineRussian journalist in exile Mikhail Zygar traces an information system so sealed even Gorbachev couldn’t get the facts in The Dark Side of the Earth: Russia’s Short-Lived Victory Over Totalitarianism. He draws a straight psychological line from late-Soviet overload to our current tech-firehose, arguing humans don’t change much; institutions do (and the Soviet Union didn’t have many worthy of the name). Plus: a quote-counting tour through Chris Whipple’s Vanity Fair Susie Wiles interviews: “an alcoholic’s personality,” “conspiracy theorist,” “ketamine user,” “right-wing absolute zealot.”
Produced by Corey Wara
Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
To advertise on the show, contact ad-sales@libsyn.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist
Subscribe to The Gist: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/
Subscribe to The Gist Youtube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g
Subscribe to The Gist Instagram Page: GIST INSTAGRAM
Follow The Gist List at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack