Mike Pesca Biography
Mike Pesca is an American radio journalist, Slate Podcaster and NPR Sports Commentator based in New York City. He is the host of Slate magazine’s daily podcast, The Gist. Pesca is also the editor of Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History.
He studied at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He also served as vice-president of the school’s intra-fraternity council. Pesca graduated from Emory in 1994.
He first appeared on radio as a ten-year-old caller to a local New York City sports program, offering his opinion on the New York Jets. Pesca got his first job in radio in 1997. He was an intern at the station working on New York & Co, which would later become The Leonard Lopate Show.
He went on to work as Producer-At-Large for the WNYC and NPR program On the Media (OTM). Pesca had a recurring segment on OTM called “Mike’s Pockets”, in which he would “disgorge little bits of media fluff” he encountered.
Mike Pesca Photo
Pesca is a fan of the New York Jets, New York Mets, New York Knicks and St. Johns Red Storm. He appeared as a contestant on the game show Jeopardy! in 2006. There, he led going into the Final Jeopardy round, but finished in third place.
Mike Pesca Age
Mike Pesca was born on 29 December, 1971. He is 47 years old as of 2018.
Mike Pesca Family
In Pesca’s podcast, he has described himself as “the son of a Catholic and a Jew”. He has also described himself as someone who “grew up Catholic, a little bit.”
Mike Pesca Wife
Pesca was previously married to public relations executive Robin Dolch. He has two sons Milo and Emmett with Dolch.
Mike Pesca NPR
He then became the first NPR reporter to have his own podcast, On Gambling with Mike Pesca. On the show, he discussed topics related to gambling.
Pesca served as a reporter for NPR and Slate’s mid-day show Day to Day where he also occasionally filled in as host. He has also guest hosted other public radio programs which include: The Bryant Park Project, Talk of the Nation, On Point, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! and The Brian Lehrer Show.
Pesca has served as a National Desk correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR). His reports have been featured on Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. Pesca mainly covered sports and pop culture for the network. He has previously covered a wide range of topics including politics, economics, and the arts.
Mike also appears on the WBUR-FM/NPR program Here and Now as well as CNN, PBS NewsHour, and MSNBC. Pesca is a regular contributor to the NPR program Weekend Edition Sunday.
Mike Pesca Slate
Pesca announced in February 2014 that he was leaving NPR to join Slate magazine. Slate podcasts executive producer Andy Bowers called Pesca “one of the most interesting, exciting on-air personalities working today.” He has also filled in as host of the NPR radio program Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me when Peter Sagal was away.
He edited and published Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History in May 2018. It is a collection of essays in which authors explore alternative histories in the world of sports. He started releasing Upon Further Review, a weekly podcast based on chapters from the book that month.
Mike has weekly duties as a panelist on Slate’s Hang Up and Listen podcast. He has also appeared as a guest on many popular podcasts including NPR’s Planet Money, Slate’s Culture Gabfest, Luke Burbank’s Too Beautiful to Live, The Sporkful and Maximum Fun’s Jordan, Jesse, Go!.
Mike Pesca Podcast | The Gist Mike Pesca
Pesca joined Slate’s daily podcast The Gist serving as a host since 2014. The show aired first in May 2014 and covers a wide variety of current news and issues. New episodes of The Gist are
released daily during the week. Pesca interviews an expert on the issue being discussed. It then concludes with a “spiel”, which is short op-ed by Pesca on some topic that may or may not have already been discussed in the podcast.
Mike Pesca Net Worth
Pesca has had a wide career in journalism, having a wide audience and creating a name for his show, his net worth is however not disclosed.
Mike Pesca Twitter
Mike Pesca Interview
Updated: May 1, 2019
Interviewer: The Las Vegas sports better now holds the top nine spots for most money won in a single game, and he’s riding a 19-game winning streak. Commentator Mike Pesca has some thoughts on how Holzhauer hacked “Jeopardy!”
MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: The sports equivalent of “Jeopardy!” champion James Holzhauer isn’t a dominant individual. It’s a team. The Golden State Warriors. Before the Warriors, everyone knew the rules, that three-pointers were more than two. But few capitalized on them to change the game. Then the Warriors began taking an ungodly amount of threes and amassing a staggering number of wins. The same is true of Holzhauer. He stalks the board like a predator in an attempt to build up his bankroll with the hardest questions first. Then he makes huge bets when the “Jeopardy!” board reveals a Daily Double. Holzhauer takes full advantage, wagering massive amounts.
MIKE PESCA: Holzhauer has uncovered almost 80 percent of all the Daily Doubles available and only gotten four wrong in 19 days. Now, it’s not like others haven’t tried this. There was a champion, named Chuck Forrest, who bounced around the board hunting for Daily Doubles on his way to winning the 1986 Tournament of Champions. Forrest reminds me of the 1988-’89 New York Knicks who, under coach Rick Pitino, attempted 14 three-pointers a game. There had never been a season in which an NBA team averaged even 10. Impressive. That was before the Warriors, of course.
Holzhauer is a quantum leap beyond those who came before, the first to truly exploit “Jeopardy!” Holzhauer’s knowledge is impressive, but his biggest skill isn’t his smarts. Even he says in interviews that most contestants know most of the answers. Holzhauer’s greatest virtue is his speed. He beat opponents to the buzzer on the way to more than 700 correct answers, including all but one Final Jeopardy during his run. Then comes his betting strategy. As a professional gambler by trade, he makes bets that are smart and aggressive. And unlike most of his competitors, he doesn’t psych himself out.
“Jeopardy!” is something you can’t practice for. I know. I was a contestant in 2006. I was prepared for the trivia, unprepared for the video Daily Doubles, having forgotten to bring my eyeglasses with me to California. But like everyone else, I was caught off-guard by the mechanics of the buzzer. I did well enough, but I can only imagine how a few practice games under my belt would have helped. And that is why incumbency in “Jeopardy!” is one of the great advantages. By now, Holzhauer has a ton of experience and the psychological edge over everyone he faces. Now, it’s not as if he can’t be beat. Two days ago, Holzhauer won by just $18. But here’s the thing about the just $18 part. It seemed that close because the second-place contestant over-bet in Final Jeopardy.
Now, that’s the kind of critique that seems nit-picky – come on, you got to bet it all when the game is on the line. Well, in this case, it was an un-strategic wager. It didn’t cost the runner-up the game, but it could’ve. Holzhauer would never have made that mistake. Or at least, he never has during his tenure. Ninety-nine percent of the public might dismiss such a point, but Holzhauer surely wouldn’t. And that’s why he’s one of the greatest game show champions ever. And you and I and everyone he’s faced so far can only stand by watching in awe.
Interviewer: I live my life in awe of commentator Mike Pesca, who hosts the Slate podcast “The Gist.”
Adopted from: npr.org
