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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Today on The Gist, guest host Scott introduces a pair of interviews focused on the shifting identity of the Republican Party. First, Mike Pesca sits down with former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger to discuss his memoir Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country , exploring how his fundamentalist Christian upbringing shaped his aversion to political groupthink, his…
Today on The Gist, guest host Scott introduces a 2022 conversation between Mike Pesca and former US Senator Al Franken, who discusses his return to stand-up comedy and looks back at his tenure in the Senate. Franken examines how his background as a comedy writer and performer informed his sharp, forensic approach to committee hearings, including his memorable question during Jeff Sessions'…
Today on The Gist, guest host Adaam Levin introduces Mike Pesca's conversation with comedian and actor TJ Miller, who reflects on life, stand-up, and the traumatic brain injury that altered his cognitive wiring. Miller walks through his experience surviving a 2010 brain surgery to remove an arteriovenous malformation in his right frontal lobe, explaining how the resulting neurological shifts fuel…
Today on The Gist, guest host Adaam Levin introduces a conversation between Mike Pesca and Chris Smalls, co-founder and former president of the Amazon Labor Union and author of When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class . Smalls looks back at his journey from an underground hip-hop artist and warehouse employee to the face of modern labor organizing, detailing the…
Today on The Gist, guest host Adaam Levin introduces a classic spiel from the archives analyzing Vivek Ramaswamy's debate strategy and an interview with Andrew Yang on the differing party dynamics facing political outsiders. Then, Mike Pesca revisits his conversation with the late Bob Saget, who reflects on his decades in comedy, writing his first jokes in a law library, and releasing his stand-up…
Today on The Gist, guest host Bryan Green shares Mike Pesca's interview with writer and composer Andrew Fox, the creator behind the viral satirical musical Slam Frank . Fox breaks down the origins of his controversial parody (which imagines an Anne Frank musical staged through an absurdly over-the-top, intersectional lens) and examines how well-intentioned performative language in modern theater…
Today on The Gist, guest host Bryan Green shares an interview with Derrick Palmer, co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union and co-author of Handbook for the Revolution: Building a More Perfect Union for the 21st Century . Palmer reflects on his time working inside Amazon's JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island, the dangerous working conditions and lack of sick time during the pandemic, and how he and Chris…
Today on The Gist, guest host Bryan Green shares a classic 2019 interview with comedian, writer, and host Larry Wilmore. Wilmore reflects on his podcast Black on the Air , the reality of the medium, and the freedom of moving beyond narrowly defined racial content. He and Mike Pesca discuss mentorship, the limits of "woke" cultural criticism, and why using comedy as a tool for political activism…
Today on The Gist, guest host Vanessa Quirk steps in to share Mike Pesca's 2024 interview with Kelsey Snelling, creator of the investigative podcast Camp Shame . Snelling outlines the history of Camp Shane (one of America's longest running youth weight loss retreats) and details her own experiences as a counselor witnessing neglected facilities, untrained staff, and severe calorie restriction. The…
Today on The Gist, guest host Vanessa Quirk steps in to share a previously unaired interview between Mike Pesca and Irish American comedian Des Bishop. Bishop traces his trajectory from a Queens childhood and teenage modeling gig to moving to Ireland at fourteen, getting sober at nineteen, and eventually rising to become one of Ireland's top touring comics. He and Mike discuss the differences…
