Séamus McElearney on the End of Omertà as a Business Model

The Gist

Peach Fish Productions

Daily News, News

4.5 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Former FBI agent Séamus McElearney, author of Flipping Capo: How the FBI Dismantled the Real Sopranos, walks through the case that shattered the DeCavalcante crime family. He explains the mob's quiet tax on regular people via unions—no-show jobs, pension skims, and an asbestos local run by guys who couldn't pass the test (so they had someone take it for them). He also gets into the overlap with The Sopranos and contrasts real life with the one premise he says flatly wouldn't happen: a boss talking mob business to a shrink. Plus, the Renee Good shooting and the way "objectively reasonable" ends up riding on an officer's story; and in the Spiel, Iran's protests and "semi-official" media; and how the fake Fed investigation is Trump's own attempt at an autocrat-like crackdown. Produced by Corey Wara Coordinated by Lya Yanne 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, January 12th, 2026 from Peach Fish Productions.
0:08.2	It's the gist.
0:09.1	I'm Mike Peska.
0:10.4	The Minnesota shooting and killing of Nicole Good has facts, interpretations, and then this third thing.
0:18.1	There was another narrative there, and there was the woman who we believed to be
0:23.3	Renee's wife yelling, drive, drive, drive.
0:26.7	That was from Fox's The Five.
0:29.0	Here's an opposing voice from the same show.
0:31.7	Never trusts a narrative that is being forced on you before the body is cold.
0:40.4	And here's Margaret Brennan, hosting Face the Nation.
0:44.7	Four days after an ICE agent shot and killed a protester in Minneapolis,
0:49.4	the struggle to own the narrative of what exactly happened continues.
0:52.2	And Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota.
0:58.3	You can see everything that they are doing is trying to shape the narrative to say what happened without any investigation.
1:00.9	I always find that you have the facts, they have the narrative.
1:05.8	One side's narrative was innocent citizen who never wished anyone harm and was in no way impeding the police
1:12.5	was trying to remove herself from a tense situation where her First Amendment rights were
1:18.4	protected. The other narrative was domestic terrorist. Oh, God, is that overwrought?
1:24.6	I find myself laughing or crying, as I say it.
1:28.6	Domestic terrorist aiming a car at law enforcement.
1:32.4	And since we're dealing with that particular narrative, not just aiming, but hitting a member
1:36.8	of law enforcement.
	...

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