Mike Pesca (born December 29, 1971) is an American radio journalist and podcaster based in New York City.

He is the host of the daily podcast, The Gist,[1] and the editor of Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History.

He had a recurring segment on OTM called "Mike's Shoes", in which he would "disgorge little bits of media fluff" he encountered.

[2] In addition to his weekly duties as a panelist on Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast, Pesca has appeared as a guest on many popular podcasts including NPR's Planet Money,[6] Slate's Culture Gabfest,[7] Luke Burbank's Too Beautiful to Live,[8] The Sporkful[9] and Maximum Fun's Jordan, Jesse, Go!.

In announcing the hiring, Slate podcasts executive producer Andy Bowers called Pesca "one of the most interesting, exciting on-air personalities working today.

In February 2021, Slate indefinitely suspended Pesca after he debated colleagues over whether people who are not Black should be able to quote a racial slur in some contexts.

"[17] Pesca attended Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity and served as vice-president of the school's intra-fraternity council.

[24] He received the award for the season-long weekly series, Friday Night Lives, on "the phenomenon of high school football"[25] which Pesca created with NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman.

[27] The feature's premise was that Cracker Jack's inclusion by name in the song Take Me Out to the Ballgame amounts to the "most successful product placement in history".