The Gist

Is vaping bad for you? If you don't know the answer to that question it means the wars were never really settled. Luckily Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes the reporters behind the podcast Backfired: The Vaping Wars are here with answers. Plus, the Russians take New York, and Trump is talking differently about Kamala. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kevin Allison, member of MTV's The State, and decade long host of the podcast RISK! talks about chances he's taken in comedy life, sex, and podcasting. Plus, JD Vance's thought experiment and Elon Musk talks particulate matter parts per million with Donald Trump 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Ann Burgess is a pioneering profiler of serial killers, and a primary character in the Netflix series Mindhunter. A new Hulu series directed by Abigail Fuller is out, titled Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer. Both director and subject are on today's show. Plus, the two journalism poo-bahs with consistently terrible ideas about journalism. And our broken breaking discourse. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this installment of Best Of The Gist, with Presidential polling and prognosticating in the air, we listen back to Mike’s 2018 with Jordan Ellenberg, a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison about his book How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking. We also listen back to Mike’s Spiel, in which he recounts the RFK bear fiasco … in song.    Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara  Email us at [email protected]  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

The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the former President of the United States (POTUS) each gave press conferences. One was much much much more unhinged than the other. Guess which one. Plus, a full-show interview with poker player, forecaster, and author Nate Silver about his new book, On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kamala and Tim are in their honeymoon period as a presidential ticket. They are brat. They are joy. They are vibes. They are happy. Why the hell would they throw away all this momentum, just so they could tell Americans where they stand on issues that matter? It's a good question, and they better come up with the right answer or suffer the fate of candidates who hide from the press in their Delaware bunkers. Capisce? Also on the show, a double-interview day. Mo Rocca on his new book about old folks, Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs. Plus, Kiki Friedman on her online abortion-care company, Hey Jane. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A full analysis of Tim Walz's entry into the 2024 presidential race. Discussed are the chants of "coach," the claims of "joy," the new ways of thinking about key issues that he's introduced into the race. Plus, former Ambassador to Moscow and Acting Secretary of State John J. Sullivan discusses his book Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia's War Against the West. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Minnesota's current governor, Tim Walz has been named Kamala Harris' Vice Presidential pick. Nate Silver is here to tell us what it means and what Harris missed out on in not picking Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Plus, Shad White, state auditor for Mississippi joins to discuss his new book Mississippi Swindle: Brett Favre and the Welfare Scandal that Shocked America. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On a day when the Dow dipped considerably, we're joined by Kayla Scanlon, the coiner of "vibe session" and author of In This Economy? How Money and Markets Really Work. Plus: RFK. Bear. A bicycle. A coverup. A recap in story and song.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on The Gist, we listen to a 2007 interview from NPR, wherein Mike spoke with Tim Walz, who has emerged as a serious contender to be Kamala Harris' Vice President, should she win). Also, a little extra segment with our guest earlier this week Corey Brettschneider about John Adams' strange relationship with democracy. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kamala Harris is on the verge of a Vice Presidential choice, and we will evaluate the arguments against the Jewish Governor of Pennsylvania over the perception that his Judaism is a liability. Plus, more on the Olympic Boxers who are women but also did have size and strentgh benefits of testosterone that their fellow competitors did not. Also on the show, Washington And Lee University professors Chris Gavaler and Nat Goldberg discuss their new book, Revising Reality: How Sequels, Remakes, Retcons, and Rejects Explain the World. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Biden now out of the 2024 Presidential race, the polling data has gotten cleaner … so says conservative pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson. She joins us to talk about Kamala’s sugar rush, Trump’s lack of a nickname for his new opponent, and the breaking of Biden’s negative effect on Democratic polling numbers. Also, an Olympic boxer punches “too hard.” And prisoners are swapped. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On a day when former President Donald Trump told black journalists that Kamala Harris denied being black (fact check: untrue), we speak about former President John Adams, who himself ran athwart many Constitutional norms ... or, at least, what we have come to accept as norms. Our guest is Corey Brettschneider, author of Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It. Plus, what Israel's reported assassination of the political leader of Hamas does to the "Israel is doomed to fail" narrative. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With charges of weirdness and cat lady-dom flying around, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana gets into the act by calling Kamala Harris a "ding dong." Fox News host Neil Cavuto was not having it. Plus, in other Kamala news, she apparently also can't stand Jewish people, which is weird, because she's married to a Jewish person. And Corey Brettschneider is out with a new book in which he contrasts anti-Constitutional acts by such presidents as Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon, and John Adams, and identifies the citizens and politicians who worked to preserve constitutional order. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last week, after many months spent recovering from a shoulder injury, Clayton Kershaw, maybe the greatest pitcher of his generation, returned to the mound for the LA Dodgers. He is a singular talent in the long history of baseball, and we are joined by Andy McCullough, author of The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness, to discuss how he earned that distinction. Also, Biden proposes major changes to how the Supreme Court works. And an ode to table tennis. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this installment of Best Of The Gist, with the 2024 Summer Olympic Games underway in France, we listen back to a 2016 Spiel, in which, Mike tries to get to the bottom of an Olympian canard about the happiness of bronze medalists. Then we listen back to our Tuesday Spiel, when Mike ponders Kamala Harris’ past as a prosecutor and whether or not that will mean anything as she faces a convicted felon in the race for President.    Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara  Email us at [email protected]  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

Kamala Harris, or at least some fans, try to remix her way to Coolsville, but there's a detour into Dorksylvania. Sure, go ahead, every candidate gets that treatment, and it all evens out into a thin lime-green meme. Also on the show, we speak with Ibrahim Nash’at, an Egyptian filmaker who imbedded with a group of Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan following the US military withdrawal. The resulting film, Hollywoodgate, is a bizarre, tense, and unique glimpse into how a feared fighting force transitions from guerrilla warfare to actual leadership. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So Biden didn't say goodbye, but he did explain that duty surpassed ambition in his decision to not seek re-election. Jonah Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Dispatch, drops by to discuss some of the Biden theses. We will also diagnose where Kamala Harris now stands, and where she needs to move to win the favor of the median voter, a person too often forgotten as we chase the label of being "brat."    Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara  Email us at [email protected]  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

Kyle Clark, anchor and debate moderator for 9NEWS, Denver's NBC affiliate, recently got a lot of attention for his deft moderation of a debate between Lauren Boebert and five Republican rivals. The kudos were deserved, and in this feature interview, Clark discusses how to conduct a good debate, his critique of CNN's recent debate, and which of the latest trends in long-form interviewing annoy him. Also on the show, Netanyahu goes to Washington ... where he's greeted by maggots. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Astead Herndon, host of The New York Times' podcast The Run-Up, has been covering Kamala Harris for a while. He was the Times' campaign reporter for Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, and last year he wrote the extensive and fairly devastating profile titled, "In Search of Kamala Harris" for The New York Times Magazine. He here to discuss Harris' skill set, why the cross pressures of the past are gone today, and what arguments she thinks will work against Donald Trump. Plus, as Harris embraces and emphasizes her role as prosecutor, an examination the effectiveness of that argument considering the scale of past prosecutions. 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: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices