Almost a year after being run out of Slate for possession of an unpopular opinion, journalist and podcaster Mike Pesca joins the Fifth for his first post-controversy conversation about why how it all went down, when banal opinions became "harassment," and what we can expect from the The Gist 2.0.

• Is Kmele being prioritized for Covid treatment? Because, ya know...
• Mike Pesca gets pushed out of Slate (for referencing, but not saying, a magic word)
• Bull Connor's boss, Steve
• A "harassment-worthy" opinion
• Was anyone brave and did they call bullshit? Ummm...
• N-words and Mohammad cartoons
• Insert $5 for more podcast
• Kmele's Kovid fog
• The roughest period of Mike's life, ever
• The new, new journalism
• Hating Joe Rogan
• You don't have the truth, journalists. But you can get there
• The Gist's approchal
• Moynihan likes The Gist. Except that one episode...
• The media is atomized. Or maybe balkanized
• Coleman is a good rapper
• Don't catastrophize the normal

He's brilliant. He has a Pulitzer Prize, And he's totally jacked. New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg, who was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and could definitely kick your ass, joins the Fifth to reflect on the riot, coup, insurrection, revolution, putsch, mass hate crime...whatever you want to call it. But hang around after the Rosenberg Coup Hour for a freewheeling postgame meditation on legal crime in New York City, upbraiding Moynihan for his bad parenting skills, and the secret ghostwriters behind Kmele's Twitter account...

*Note: It's someone else's fault, obviously, but allow us to extend a half-hearted apology for the slightly subpar (occasional but not terrible) audio quality on one of our mics. If this was a Patreon episode and you forked over cash--which you really, really should do--our regrets would be far more groveling and effusive. But you skinflints and freeloaders can just deal with it....

• A Covid Christmas
• A Merry Kwanzaa
• Before you eulogize the dead, I have stupid tweet you should consider
• Matt sort of emptywheels Harry Reid
• Planes, Trains, and superspreader events
• Yes, there are no tests
• The usual Covid frustrations
• The Webb Hubbell telescope
• The Memorial shutdown
• The non-historians lecture us on history
• Destroy the idols of Americanism
• What on Earth is the Flatbush Remonstrance?

Back for his third (we think?) visit, the scourge of crackpots and charlatans, America's greatest ginger, and our favorite congressman...Rep. Peter Meijer!

• Look, it's not a great time for the Republican Party
• Unity! Now get the fuck out
• What Rep, Meijer wrong about January 6th
• Dear Congress: gimme some truth about January 6th
• Why Nancy Pelosi wanted impeachment to fail
• To get out of an anti-democratic moment, we must have even less democracy
• "You voted to impeach and your career has been weird ever since" - Matt Welch
• Was that terrorism? Or just a bunch of delusional losers
• Is the insurrection investigation the job of congress or...historians?
• He's "fucking furious"
• Exit question to Rep. Meijer: What say you about Julian Assange?
• "Just find out about the UFOs" - Kmele Foster
• An hour of post-Meijer postgame
• A mask for Dmitrios: remembering Kmele's trip to Greece
• Pack the court! / Kmele's insane Elizabeth Warren impression
• Unlike most rich people, Elon acts like a rich person
• Merry Christmas, wokeness is over (if DeSantis wants it)

Jussie Smollett's years-long legal drama careening toward its conclusion. New York City enacts the countries most expansive (and ill-conceived) COVID restrictions. While the Biden Administration sends diplomatic shots at Xi in China and navigates an increasingly tumultuous situation with Putin in Russia.

• Kmele's New York State of Mind
• Creep Show
• Playin' Journalist
• Diplomatic Games + Human Rights
• Blaming Everything on NATO (and Biden)
• Russia Hawks
• No Justice for Jussie
• Elite Lives Matter
• Yoko/Lennon
• McLaughlin Psychic Friends Network

Joining us for his third appearance on the Fifth, one of the sexiest men on planet Earth, the man with his own cam, the smartest and least partisan person on cable news...Massachusetts's own Steve Kornacki!

• Thank you North Dakota roughnecks
• The dust clears in VA and NJ...and Kornacki tells us what it all means
• Will the Republican Party divorce Trump?
• Voters, crime, and culture wars
• Remember when Alan Keyes was MAKING SENSE???
• How much power does the progressive caucus *really* have?
• Massachusetts Steve is obsessed with Mike Dukakis
• Biden, polling, and the Afghanistan debacle
• Partisanship and the history of cable news
• We know little, but Waukesha already proves so much
• Quiet Steve Kornacki....is one of the good ones
• And so, so, so much more!

w/ Jonathan Adler, Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law @ Case Western Reserve University

- Three Stacks

- Kanye ♥️ Drake

- Steve Bannon's Day in Court

- Google That

- Hurry Up, Charge Him!

- Black Panthers, Communist and MAGA Corps (Oh, My)

- Seeing What We Want

- Rittenhouse Rorschach

- (Still More) Media Malpractice

Recorded: November 17th, 2021

Published: November 19th, 2021

• Way Too Sexy
• Crypto Art
• Miss Universe (Can Get It)
• Fifth Coin
• "A Bad Gal Dat"
• Palliative Journalism
• Virginia is for Hustlers
• The Trouble w/ Complicated
• Was Rufo Right? (No)
• We're Very Sorry (But We Keepin Your Stuff)
• Map Makers + Freak Shows

Recorded: 11/5/21

Published: 11/7/21