Lawless: A Storm of Shade and Sneering

The Gist

Mike Pesca

News, Politics, Arts, Daily News

4.4 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Leah Litman, author of Lawless: The Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes, argues that originalism masks a partisan project, while critics counter that Roe’s reversal doesn't require conspiracy. Her pop culture–infused book uses The Barbie Movie, American Psycho, and Arrested Development to advance critiques of the conservative court. Plus, the NYC mayoral debate crammed nine candidates into two chaotic hours, yielding more zingers than substance. And in the Spiel, rather than accept the usual narrative about the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, a look at actual turnout data post-Shelby County v. Holder—which suggests far less than a real-world calamity. Produced by Corey WaraProduction Coordinator Ashley KhanEmail us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠To advertise on the show, contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠ or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist Youtube Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist Instagram Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠GIST INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow The Gist List at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Pesca⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Thursday, June 5th, 2025 from Peachfish Productions. It's the gist. I'm Mike Peska.
0:09.6	Last night was the first New York City mayoral debate. And the first time this election,
0:14.5	the frontrunner Andrew Cuomo was in the same room as most of his rivals. So what happens
0:19.2	when nine candidates, four moderators, and two hours
0:22.3	minus a commercial break, all crashed together in the most raucous city in America? Well, a lot of this.
0:28.9	Brief response, Mr. Maldani, then we have to move on.
0:31.3	Okay, we have to move on, though. We're going to move on. We're not getting an answer.
0:34.5	Okay, I'm sorry, we do have to move on. We're at time, Mr. Mamdani.
0:37.8	Okay, we do have to move on. Gentlemen, gentlemen, listen, we are moving on from the question.
0:42.9	We have to move on, but I just want to just add that the question was how would you respond to the
0:48.0	allegations, but we have to move on. And that was from only the first third of the two-hour debate.
0:56.5	Really shocking when the question is, how do you solve the affordability crisis?
1:01.6	You have 30 seconds.
1:03.0	That was literally the first question asked.
1:05.4	This debate was not designed to get answers.
1:07.3	It probably couldn't have gotten answers.
1:08.8	It wasn't even designed and couldn't have really heard ideas. And few ideas were actually exchanged. Andrew Cuomo took most of the
1:16.6	incoming, a few candidates dredging up a quote from 2008. When Cuomo said the words,
1:22.3	Shuck and Jive, maybe he was racist. Didn't seem to stick. But what about the sexual harassment complaints that drove him from office?
1:31.6	Here was how Michael Blake, a very low polling Cuomo rival, put it.
1:36.6	The people who don't feel safe are young women, mothers, and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo.
1:41.8	That's the greatest threat to public safety in New York City.
	...

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