Not Even Mad: Joe Nocera & Jonah Goldberg

The Gist

Peach Fish Productions

Daily News, News

4.5 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Joe Nocera of The Free Press and Jonah Goldberg of The Dispatch parse the Epstein files fallout on both sides of the Atlantic, from Keir Starmer's London personnel shakeup to America's seemingly bottomless tolerance for shamelessness. Then they pivot to Mark Leibovich's Atlantic provocation, "The Democrats Aren't Built for This," with Nocera arguing the party's job is simple, win elections, and Goldberg blaming weak parties and primary incentives that elevate activist frippery over median-voter politics. The back half turns into a partial necropsy of The Washington Post, with "Wordle" as an explanation to why the Times scaled and the Post stalled. Plus, Goat Grinders: AI narrated pro-Trump government ads, mandatory adoration in TV recaps, and the great tennis ball fuzz conspiracy. 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

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's Thursday, February 12th, 2026 from Peach Fish Productions.
0:08.2	It's The Gist. I'm Mike Peska.
0:10.2	This is a not even mad day.
0:11.9	And as you will hear, our first topic is going to include Jeffrey Epstein because I'm genuinely
0:16.3	confused about some aspects of the Epstein files.
0:20.5	And in the case of the show, it's why there was such a scandal in the UK over the Epstein
0:26.1	files.
0:26.5	Well, nothing seems to have happened in the United States.
0:29.7	But I could have also talked about the Norwegian fallout to the Epstein files.
0:34.8	He cozied up to Norway royalty, literally, and foreign ministers. Yes. Thorbjorn
0:41.3	Yagland has been caught up in this Epstein file scandal, as has Borgabrenda, former Norwegian
0:48.8	foreign minister. You don't think it to reach all the way up to Bjorga Brenda, but it does.
0:53.3	And then there's another aspect
0:54.9	of the Epstein files that I just don't understand. I understand the bad stuff about the pedophile
1:00.4	and associations with him being embarrassing. But I don't understand the Casey Wasserman part of it.
1:06.5	You know, this guy is a big agent. He's leading Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. He's been losing clients
1:14.5	because he's in the Epstein files. Okay, that makes sense. But he's in the Epstein files for having
1:20.7	texted or emailed with Jisleine Maxwell in 2003. Now, in 2003, that was 18 years before she was convicted of doing
1:32.5	anything with Epstein. Though, maybe he could say years before that, a decade before that,
1:36.7	she was known to have been associate. But Epstein himself wasn't convicted until 2008. And it
1:42.1	wasn't widely known or even sparsely known that he was anything other than a rich guy
1:47.1	who provided planes for people to take flights as part of the Clinton Global Initiative,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Peach Fish Productions, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Peach Fish Productions and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.