Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchDiane Foley on America’s Hostage Blind Spot
Diane Foley, founder of the Foley Foundation and mother of slain journalist James Foley, joins Mike to discuss America’s fragmented hostage-recovery system, wrongful detentions, and why the U.S. resp…
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Jonah Blank: “Very Quickly and Then Very Slowly” in Nepal
South Asia expert Jonah Blank explains how a Gen-Z–driven uprising—fueled by social media, flaunted elite wealth, and ubiquitous VPNs—toppled Nepal’s government. He sketches a country where remittanc…
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Not Even Mad: Ben Wizner & Ilya Shapiro
Free speech under heat: the ACLU’s Ben Wizner and the Manhattan Institute’s Ilya Shapiro square off (and sometimes align) on the “ethos” of the First Amendment—from the Ball State firing over Charlie…
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Yaakov Katz - While Israel Slept: Winning Tunnels, Losing Time
Yaakov Katz co-author with Amir Bohbot, of While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East, traces the failures that led to October 7 and how Israel's security e…
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago
KJ Steinberg, on The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox
We talk with KJ Steinberg, showrunner of Hulu’s The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, about concentrating on Knox’s perspective while still showing how others perceived her, and the legal tightropes that …
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Amanda Knox — “You don’t have to be a psychopath to wrongly convict somebody.”
Knox recounts confronting prosecutor Giuliano Mignini and explores how certainty, incentive structures, and “alternate realities” turned her story into a sprawling international conspiracy. She parse…
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Is Masculinity A Prison? - Mike on Open to Debate
Listen to the full debate on Open to Debate’s podcast channel or watch it on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MikePesca
Men are falling behind in our society, and some point to traditional ideas of masculinit…Published on 2 months, 4 weeks ago
Andrew J. Taylor: “Blue-Collar Voters Don’t Want Blue-Collar Politicians”
We talk with North Carolina State political scientist Andrew J. Taylor about his new book, A Tolerance for Inequality: American Public Opinion and Economic Policy, probing why voters often prefer pub…
Published on 3 months ago
Justin Driver: “The Fall of Affirmative Action”
Yale Law’s Justin Driver argues that SFFA v. Harvard/UNC broke with precedent and embraced a faux “colorblindness,” spotlighting the Court’s creative reading of Grutter’s 2028 “sunset.” He lays out t…
Published on 3 months ago
Laura Spinney on the Language That Conquered the World
Laura Spinney joins to discuss her new book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, tracing the unlikely rise of Indo-European and why most of the world now speaks it. Also, a look at the Dallas…
Published on 3 months ago