The Gist

Mike Pesca

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Booking Overview

The Gist is a daily, provocatively reasonable take on culture and politics, built around a strong editorial lens. Guests are prominent writers and investigative voices who can connect contemporary conflicts to deeper historical, constitutional, and social currents—making the show a solid platform for issues-focused promotion.

Metrics

Episodes: 3054

Frequency: Daily

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Estimated listeners: 10k-100k

Gender skew: Male

Location: USA

Contact Information

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Host

Mike Pesca - Hosts The Gist and delivers daily takes in a “responsibly provocative” style that critiques the left, the right, and broader ideas; the show also features external guests who join for extended segm...

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

medium
Typical Credentials:  
Award-winning or widely published writers and journalists (e.g., Pulitzer-winning investigative reporters, acclaimed novelists, cultural critics/authors) who can connect current disputes to historical, constitutional, or societal frameworks.
Required Achievements:  
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting, acclaimed novels and satirical political fiction, published books on culture wars, constitutional law, or social conflict, major investigations into hate/violence or political movements

Recent Guest Discussions

Isaac Butler - Media Framing Of Supreme Court Birthright Citizenship; Book On Culture Wars; Historical Rifts Tied To Textbook Conflicts, Political Coalitions, And Arts/culture Battles; Discussion Of The AIDS Crisis And Provocative Art In LGBTQ Authenticity And Survival

Eric Lichtblau - Supreme Court Ruling Related To Birthright Citizenship; Investigative Account Of Neo-nazis And A Hate-based Pathway To Violence; 14th Amendment Historical Debates

Ben Fountain - Satirical Novel About Fictional Presidents; Parallels Between Manufactured Reality And The Electorate; How Sensory Overload Shapes Collective Anxiety

Recent Topics

Politics, Culture Wars, Law, Constitutional, Journalism

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on
The Gist
:

Isaac Butler: "Part Of Living In A Society Means Giving Over A Certain Amount Of Agency"

July 02, 2026

Today on The Gist, we explore the media framing of the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship decision. Then, author and cultural critic Isaac Butler joins the show to discuss his new book, The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars. Butler tracks our modern societal rifts back to the volatile 1974 Kanawha County textbook war in West Virginia, detailing how a routine school board vote spiraled into bombings and sophisticated right-wing direct-mail infrastructur...

Eric Lichtblau: "Hate Speech Leads Directly To Hate Crimes"

July 01, 2026

Today on The Gist, a look back at a Webby Award nominated focus group spoof from the vault before diving into a major analysis of the Supreme Court's monumental ruling against Donald Trump's birthright citizenship executive order. Then, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and author Eric Lichtblau joins the show to discuss his new book, American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate. Lichtblau unpacks the tragic 2018 murder of Ivy League student Blaze Be...

Ben Fountain: "We're Real Good At The Blur"

June 30, 2026

Today on The Gist, Mike Pesca delivers a bittersweet announcement. Then, acclaimed novelist and political chronicler Ben Fountain joins for the entire hour to discuss his sprawling, scathing new satirical novel, Rasputin Swims the Potomac. Fountain details his decision to render the fictional president’s identity as a literal redaction, the fascinating parallels between the manufactured reality of professional wrestling and the modern American electorate, and how the relentless firehose of se...

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