The Gist - When An Insurmountable Obstacle Meets A Hubristic Work Force

Joe Biden's foreign policy team has mixed success, or some "non-failures," depending on if you regard the Afghanistan withdrawal plan as a regrettable misstep or bungled necessity. Alexander Ward is out with a new book, The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump. Plus, Shane Gillis hosts SNL, Trevor Noah hosts the Grammys, Joe Koi hosts the Golden Globes, and Twitter hosts pointed critiques of each. And are we really going into government shutdown watch ... again?!?


Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara

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The Gist - American History Tellers: The Underground Railroad

Wondery’s podcast American History Tellers takes you to the events, times and people that shaped America and Americans — our values, our struggles and our dreams.

In the early 1800s, slavery rapidly expanded across the American South. But each year, thousands of courageous enslaved men, women, and children fled their owners in search of freedom. And in Philadelphia, secret allies came to their aid. Quaker abolitionists collaborated with free Black people to bring the freedom seekers to safety.

It was the start of the Underground Railroad, a clandestine network of activists, safe houses, and escape routes that would help tens of thousands of enslaved people flee bondage in the decades before the Civil War and challenge the very roots of American slavery.

This is just a preview of American History Tellers. You can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, or at American History Tellers - Wondery | Premium Podcasts

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The Gist - BEST OF THE GIST: Women In Film

In this installment of Best Of The Gist, with the Oscars fast approaching, we listen back to Mike’s Thursday Spiel in which he tries to figure out if 2023 was a great or terrible year for women in Hollywood films. We also listen back to our 2015 interview with filmmaker Leslie Headland, whose film Sleeping With Other People had just come out. 

 

Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara 

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The Gist - So Close To China, They Can Hear The Music

Kinmen Islands is a part of Taiwan, but it's only five miles from China, the main Island of Taiwan laying over 100 miles across the Taiwan Straight. S. Leo Chiang is the director of the Oscar-nominated short documentary about Kinmen called Island In Between. Plus, a Magician apparates in the middle of the Democratic primaries. And, five years on, where would we be without the Green New Deal?


Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara

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The Gist - Not a Fan of Fani

Andrew Fleischman is an Atlanta-based litigator, and he joins us to discuss the Fani Willis Trial and which way he thinks Judge McAfee will lean in his decision. Plus, in China monkeys are hard to come by, which is something South African wish they could say about ships filled with cattle wallowing in their own feces. And was 2023 the year of the woman in Hollywood? Mike Spiels an answer.


Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara

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The Gist - Meet Your Raconteur Guide

Even after Tucker Carlson issued his double coupon day dasvidaniya, the ghost of Navalny trails him. Plus, Putin arrests a U.S. ballerina for donating $51 to Ukraine. And we speak with Charles Duhigg, author of Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection.


Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara

Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com

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The Gist - Your Enemy’s Victory Speech

William Ury, author of Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict has worked on peace negotiations in Norther Ireland, South Africa, and Colombia joins us to share some lessons and tactics. One is to imagine your loathed rival delivering a speech to their public. What would he say. If it's Kim Jong Un, would he shout-out Dennis Rodman? Plus, Nikki Haley takes the low road, too. And Donald Trump pays the piper, but the piper only requires 5% down.


Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara

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The Gist - BEST OF THE GIST – Presidents Day

We are off on this Holiday, but we wanted to share two interviews from the archive. One is from 2019 with founding CEO of C-SPAN Brian Lamb and Co-CEO Susan Swain are here to discuss their new book The Presidents: Noted Historians Rank America’s Best—and Worst—Chief Executives. Also from 2018 is Kate and J.D. Dobson are out with a book that considers Ulysses S. Grant’s quiet charisma, Franklin Pierce’s youthful charm, and the distinguished eyebrows of a certain Warren G. Harding. The Dobsons are the authors of Hottest Heads of State, Volume 1: The American Presidents.

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The Gist - BEST OF THE GIST: Tunnel Edition

In this installment of Best Of The Gist, we listen back to Mike’s December 6, 2023 interview with Aric Toler about the storied Hamas tunnel network, which, depending on where you get your news, is either a "vast labyrinth" or a 160-yard tunnel with little room for a command center capable of orchestrating the October 7th attack. Aric Toler is a reporter on the Visual Investigations team at The New York Times, where he combines traditional reporting techniques with "open-source" reporting practices, and he recently contributed to a Times investigation about the tunnels. Then we rewind to this past Tuesday so Mike can again ask the question, “Would a ‘Winter Wonderland’ occur to any songwriter today?” 

 

Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara 

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The Gist - BEST OF THE GIST: Tunnel Edition

In this installment of Best Of The Gist, we listen back to Mike's December 6, 2023 interview with Aric Toler about the storied Hamas tunnel network, which, depending on where you get your news, is either a "vast labyrinth" or a 160-yard tunnel with little room for a command center capable of orchestrating the October 7th attack. Aric Toler is a reporter on the Visual Investigations team at The New York Times, where he combines traditional reporting techniques with "open-source" reporting practices, and he recently contributed to a Times investigation about the tunnels. Then we rewind to this past Tuesday so Mike can again ask the question, "Would a 'Winter Wonderland' occur to any songwriter today?"

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

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