Thomas Goetz: "Medicine works by helping some people a lot and most people not at all."

The Gist

Peach Fish Productions

Daily News, News

4.5 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Thomas Goetz joins the show to discuss his new podcast Drug Story, starting with the chain from FDR's death to cholesterol science, statins, and the cold math behind drug effectiveness. The conversation moves through Lipitor and EpiPens to show how evolving medical knowledge, good intentions, and pharmaceutical incentives can quietly reshape public health at massive scale. Plus, Trump is perhaps rethinking his Minnesota deployments, as the fire trucks exit. In the spiel a look at why the word "pretext" keeps surfacing in descriptions of Trump administration ICE actions, especially in Minnesota. What the term actually means, why it is often misapplied, and what its ubiquity reveals about how this administration justifies force before retreating. 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	We here at The Gist are in need of a Booker. This is a person who goes out and gets the guests, gets the guest for The Gist and all the other great shows that we have and are coming up with at Peach Fish Productions. Now, I'd like to say that we're looking for someone who would say, oh yeah, Booker is my middle name. That actually literally is the case with my son and he'd be a terrible booker because he's a freshman in college and quite disorganized.
0:22.6	So what we need from our booker could be you, could be someone you know, is organization,
0:27.3	experience, knowledge of the news, someone who will go out and work for us.
0:32.3	It is a part-time job.
0:34.2	The pay is quite competitive, and we are contactable at the gist at Mike Peska.com. Thanks.
0:44.4	It's Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 from Peachfish Productions. It's the Gist I'm Mike Peska.
0:51.0	Donald Trump, the man, if not the administration, seems to be somewhat backing off
0:55.0	his collision course with chaos in Minnesota. The critical words of members of the House and Senate,
1:01.0	including Senators Tillis, Collins Murkowski, Ricketts of Nebraska, Curtis of Utah, Moran of Kansas,
1:06.4	appear to have had some impact. Representative James Comer, prominent committee head, has also suggested
1:12.7	ICE might be better deployed elsewhere. At McCall of Texas, Gabriano of New York, they've called
1:18.7	for real investigations into ICE. As with such slim margins in the House and a Department of Homeland
1:25.5	Security funding bill hanging in the balance,
1:28.5	Trump at least has been chastened.
1:31.2	He has put Tom Homan in charge of ICE, seemed to have pulled back his personal Frank Nitty
1:36.1	or Luca Brassy Greg Bovino.
1:39.2	Sorry to use the Italian comparisons, but when the black shirt fits, wear it.
1:46.8	I have no deeper analysis of why Trump changed his mind. You could normally say optics got too bad, though weren't they
1:52.8	fairly horrible after the Renee Good shooting? You could say Christy Noem got too stupid. I'm not
1:59.2	denying that she's not extremely sharp in these matters.
2:02.8	Her and Bovino's immediate comments would seem to stand as ipso facto examples of the indefensible,
2:10.1	except that Carolyn Levitt says this stuff every day and only seems to appreciate an esteem
	...

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