The Gist — “JD Vance, Jimmy Kimmel, and America’s Radical Underground”

Podcast: The Gist
Host: Mike Pesca (Peach Fish Productions)
Date: September 20, 2025

Episode Overview

This Saturday episode of The Gist offers a characteristically reflective, sharp, and provocative exploration of American political radicalism—past and present. Host Mike Pesca reviews recent cultural and political developments, then revisits his decade-old interview with journalist Brian Burrow, author of Days of Rage, which details the forgotten era of 1970s left-wing revolutionary violence in America. The conversation examines the motivations, impact, and societal perceptions of groups like the Weather Underground, contrasting those times with the climate of contemporary activism.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: A Week of Recrimination

• Pesca’s Mood: “It's been a dispiriting week. There was death the week before, then recrimination this week, and neither cycle was good.” (00:55)
• Purposeful Retrospection: Pesca invites listeners to reflect on cycles of political violence and remembrance, introducing Brian Burrow's historical journalism.

2. Revisiting Days of Rage — Interview with Brian Burrow

a. The Violence of the ‘70s: Forgotten but Ubiquitous

• Explosion as Protest:
  • Pesca: “You talk about explosions, all these explosions, sort of press releases by explosion. How did bombs become a form of communication back then?” (05:29)
  • Burrow: “It is stunning how many bombs went off during the 1970s that we've pretty much forgotten—thousands.” (05:41)
• Evolution of Radical Protest: Student Molotov cocktails escalated into sophisticated bombings as the ‘hardcore’ element of the protest movement believed direct action could expedite revolution.

b. Impact and Human Cost

• Victims:
  • Early casualties were often the bombers themselves, lacking skill and caution—e.g., three Weather Underground members killed in a Greenwich Village explosion (1970).
  • “98% of the bombs that went off didn't hurt or kill anyone...most were ‘protest bombs’...But there were exceptions” like the 1975 Wall Street restaurant bombing (four killed). (06:09-06:43)

c. Who Were These Radicals?

• Motivations Discerned:
  • Pesca’s dichotomy: “Were these people...politically impassioned...or...violent people who used politics as an excuse?”
  • Burrow: “I think the former probably explains more of these people...by and large, you have to take the members of the American underground of the 1970s at their word: they were doing it in an effort to change the government...” (07:04)

d. Why Didn’t the Revolution Succeed?

• Law Enforcement:
  • “U.S. law enforcement was spectacularly ineffective...The underground ran its course...because it was abundantly clear...that this revolution...was not, in fact, coming.” (07:39)
• Legacy of Defeated Movements: “Those who kept on eventually were tracked down...or they simply just gave up.” (08:17)

e. Where Are They Now?

• Former Radicals’ Modern Lives:
  • Many became educators, notably “the Weather Underground's bomb guru—never prosecuted—taught special ed kids in Bensonhurst for 25 years.”
  • “Of the 12 most senior and longest-live members of the Weather Underground, I'd say 2/3 went on to careers in higher education.” (09:19)

f. Societal Attitude Shift: From Romanticism to Outrage

• Comparing Radical Bombers and Post-9/11 Perceptions:
  • Burrow: “The hardest challenge...is to explain to people today how bombings could have been seen as essentially semi-legitimate means of public protest...Ordinary men and women...almost shrugged—‘another bombing, who is it this time?’” (10:12)
• Perspective on ‘70s Fear Ranking:
  • Bombings were rarely top-of-mind among contemporaneous societal fears: “Bombings didn't hurt as many people as some of these other ills...mugging people in Central park was killing a lot more people than radical bombing.” (11:49)

g. Why So Little Outrage Today, and So Little Violence?

• Pesca Wonders:
  • “What's your explanation for...we're surprised there's not more radicalism in America?” (12:29)
  • Burrow: “Given the 60s and 70s...it's hard to imagine people today really resorting to...assassinating police, bombing the Pentagon...”
• Digital Era Escape Valve:
  • Pesca: “Maybe there's something to be said for...Internet activism...just the ease of communication, at least acting as an escape valve...” (13:12)
  • Burrow agrees, sharing that 1970s radicals used violence to get their manifestos heard, but today, “I go online and just tap, tap, tap, and thousands of people read it with nothing...with no problem at all.” (13:36)

h. The Real Legacy of the Underground

• “...they launched a kind of war on America and they lost. And it's very difficult to look back...and find anything that led to any type of constructive change in the American condition. What it led to...was bomb sniffing dogs and metal detectors and increased security at public buildings. That's the legacy...” (13:36-14:39)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It is stunning how many bombs went off during the 1970s that we've pretty much forgotten—thousands.”
  — Brian Burrow (05:41)

• “If you look at, say, the 12 most senior and longest live members of the Weather Underground, I'd say 2/3 of them went on to careers in higher education.”
  — Brian Burrow (09:19)

• “On a list of an ordinary American's fears or concerns during the 1970s, radical bombings would have hardly made the top 10. Behind the fact that New York is going out of business and cocaine and crime and all these other things...”
  — Brian Burrow (11:25)

• “The hardest challenge...is to explain to people today how bombings could have been seen as essentially semi-legitimate means of public protest.”
  — Brian Burrow (10:12)

• “But it's also inarguable that they launched a kind of war on America and they lost. And it's very difficult to look back...and find anything that led to any type of constructive change in the American condition. What it led to...was bomb sniffing dogs and metal detectors and increased security at public buildings.”
  — Brian Burrow (13:36-14:39)

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------|-------------| | Pesca’s weekly reflection & intro | 00:55–05:27 | | Brian Burrow interview begins | 05:28 | | Radical bombings as “press releases” | 05:29–06:43 | | Who the radicals were | 06:43–07:31 | | Law enforcement’s role (or lack thereof) | 07:31–08:17 | | What happened to former radicals | 08:17–09:46 | | Attitudes: Then and now | 09:46–12:29 | | Why less radicalism now? | 12:29–13:36 | | Online activism vs. armed activism | 13:12–14:39 | | Interview ends | 14:46 |

Tone and Language

Pesca’s style is inquisitive, lightly sardonic, and unafraid to interrogate leftist and rightist dogmas alike. Burrow’s responses are calm, clear-eyed, and deeply informed.

Takeaways for New Listeners

• The Left’s “Underground” Era: The U.S. once saw widespread left-wing militant actions, including bombings, mostly forgotten today.
• Motivations VS. Myth: Most of these militants were politically impassioned, not psychopaths, but their revolution never materialized.
• Impact: The violence failed to provoke societal transformation—its legacy is heightened security, not political change.
• Comparison with Today: The digital age provides “escape valves” for dissent, which may help explain the decline in comparable radical violence.
• Reflections on Outrage: Society’s relationship to radicalism, outrage, and activism changes—with history sometimes offering uncomfortable echoes.

Additional Segment Brief: Oval Office and Trump Parody

(16:19–18:52)

Pesca briefly satirizes a hypothetical Donald Trump Oval Office appearance announcing federal intervention in Memphis, referencing law and order, flag burning, and critiquing the constitutional principle against using federal troops for domestic policing. The skit is used to demonstrate how narrative and spectacle can outpace substance in the current political climate.

Notable sample:

• “I say when they spit, you hit it.” — Quoted from imagined Trump, lampooning calls for retributive justice. (18:50)

End of summary.