Chris Dalla Riva: "Billboard's become a Christmas chart."
The Gist
Mike Pesca
4.4 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Data journalist Chris Dalla Riva brings charts, facts, and plenty of fight to Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us About the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves, a tour through every Billboard Hot 100 #1 and the strange incentives that pick our "popular." They debate whether streaming makes the charts more accurate or just more boring—why Christmas songs now squat in the Top 10, why covers almost always slow songs down, and what the early "wilderness years" of the Hot 100 were missing. There's also a detour into the power of platform kings (hello, Sean Parker) and how a playlist can turn "Royals" into destiny. Plus: Trump's ghoulish Rob Reiner post, a reminder of Reiner's unreal directing run, and a weekend that managed to be both pointless and ugly.
Produced by Corey Wara
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, hello, listeners. This is Max Kerman from the band Arkells. We're a Canadian band, and I'm coming to you today because I'm a listener of the Gist. I listen every day. And every day, if I accidentally click on the normal feed, I listen to Mike promoting the GIST list and Pesca Plus. And to be honest, I'm both sick of it and inspired to make a pitch because, frankly, I'm embarrassed |
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| 1:12.4 | They can Google Peska Plus and be a part of the program in 30 seconds. |
| 1:19.8 | It's Monday, December 15th, 2025 from Peachfish Productions. |
| 1:24.0 | It's the gist. |
| 1:25.1 | I'm Mike Peska. |
| 1:26.6 | And it's always hard to know what to say when someone |
| 1:30.2 | passes away. Do you go with our thoughts are with you? If like me, you don't necessarily pray. |
| 1:37.2 | Do you go with so sorry for your loss when maybe everyone else is exactly saying so sorry for |
| 1:42.8 | your loss? The exact words doesn't matter. |
| 1:45.2 | From what I hear, it's just that you're there to express your sympathies. |
| 1:49.1 | You know, these are all the choices. |
| 1:50.9 | Now, President Donald Trump made another choice. |
| 1:54.0 | A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. |
| 1:56.3 | He wrote, so far so okay. |
| 1:58.8 | Rob Reiner, and here it goes downhill, |
| 2:01.6 | a tortured and struggling, |
| 2:03.1 | but once very talented movie director and comedy star, |
| 2:06.1 | has passed away together with his wife, Michelle, |
... |
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