David Greene: "Obsession Is a Window Into the Human Soul"

The Gist

Peach Fish Productions

Daily News, News

4.5 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David Greene joins us to talk about his new podcast, David Greene Is Obsessed, where opera singers map public restrooms, pizza-tour guys chase the perfect slice, and even David Arquette turns Bozo the Clown into an intellectual-property saga. We get into why an obsession can unlock a different kind of interview, plus Greene's own confessions, from the Hay-Adams bathroom workaround to sports fandom. Plus: the Mississippi miracle, and what China's van-based math prodigies say about how serious nations approach the future. And in the Spiel, life expectancy hits 79 in 2024, why that stat misleads even when it's true, and why good news gets swamped by the bad stuff. Produced by Corey Wara Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig Do you have questions or comments, or just want to say hello? Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com For full Pesca content and updates, check out our website at https://www.mikepesca.com/ ⁠For ad-free content or to become a Pesca Plus subscriber, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ For Mike's daily takes on Substack, subscribe to The Gist List https://mikepesca.substack.com/ Follow us on Social Media:⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pescagist/ X https://x.com/pescami TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@pescagist To advertise on the show, contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠ad-sales@libsyn.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Monday, February 2nd, 2026 from Peachfish Productions.
0:07.4	It's The Gist. I'm Mike Peska.
0:09.4	In education news, we have been teaching our kids to read wrong.
0:13.4	This is the Mississippi miracle finding that phonics works, but whole language doesn't.
0:19.2	The whole language was adopted mostly by the more progressive states, but most of the U.S. in general,
0:24.2	they were under the thrall of whole language.
0:26.4	Huge disservice to the kids.
0:28.4	We're wising up to this.
0:30.3	It's half tragic waste of human potential on a mass scale, half just letting the Chinese win the future.
0:36.6	So on the just list today, Mike pascott.
0:39.3	That's substack.com. I go somewhat thematic. A story first about how ed tech, education tech,
0:46.2	just doesn't work. Not really. A story about the paucity of boys and men, boys to men,
0:51.1	all across college campuses. A story about everyone gets an a so they have this
0:56.4	idea how to stop that they're debuting perhaps the a plus so i guess everyone won't get an a
1:02.3	how does that combat grade inflation i don't know they had some in-house experts figure it out
1:08.9	and those guys all had 4.0s.
1:12.7	Oh, sorry, those women all had 4.0s. I want to speak accurately, demographically.
1:14.9	So that should work, right?
1:16.1	Then there's China.
1:17.4	Oh, China.
1:18.6	They have the genius plan.
1:20.8	100,000 teens a year are selected into science competitive tracks.
	...

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