David McCloskey on Why Real-World Spying is "Too Crazy for Fiction"
Podcast: The GistPublished On: Wed Jan 14 2026
Description: Today on The Gist, a look at Donald Trump's plan to cap credit card interest rates at 10%—a populist move that might actually rob the poor to pay for the rich man's travel perks. Then, former CIA analyst and The Rest Is Classified co-host David McCloskey discusses his new novel, The Persian. He explains how real-world Mossad operations inside Iran are so "insane" they don't even need to be exaggerated for fiction, from remote-controlled machine guns to the devastating pager attack that crippled Hezbollah's command and control. He also breaks down the "unlikely but plausible" tradecraft used in the Israel-Iran shadow war and why the U.S. organizational and legal structure wouldn't—or couldn't—pull off the same stunts. 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
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