This one weird trick will ruin your Easter!
Plus: Elon’s reputation goes up faster than a Tesla in Seattle, David Hogg stays clear of Pelosi and Harvard goes bananas on monkeys.
With Easter around the corner, it’s time once again for that cherished tradition: dunking perfectly good breakfast food into vinegar and dye. But this year, there’s a twist—eggs, it turns out, are too bougie for the moment. Enter the potato. Yes, influencers, ever in tune with both the algorithm and the price of groceries, are embracing a new “recession-core” aesthetic by dyeing spuds instead of eggs.
Naturally, cooking blogs and lifestyle columns are all aflutter—or perhaps abutter—with tutorials and TikToks heralding the Great Potato Pastel Pivot. It’s all shaping up to be the biggest Pinterest fail of 2025. Kaitlyn Tiffany of The Atlantic even ran a side-by-side test of dyed eggs versus dyed potatoes and found the following:
The eggs came out in stunning shades of marigold, magenta, and cornflower blue. The potatoes came out sort of yellow, or sort of pink, or sort of purple, all of which you may recognize as colors that potatoes already have when you buy them at the store. I hated them.
When I painted HAPPY EASTER on one of the potatoes, it looked like a threat.
At least she got all of her materials expensed to The Atlantic.
Welcome to the Gist List—a news roundup, interesting things you should know, and my thoughts leading up to today’s podcast episode.
Here’s what’s on my mind:
💪 The relatable “scandals” of Andrew Cuomo.
🙈 Harvard goes bananas on monkeys.
✊ Young DNC activist to attack older democrats. Knows not to fuck with Pelosi.
🏳️⚧️ DOJ sues Maine over allowing transgender athletes in women’s sports.
💥 Elon is destroyed more thoroughly than a Tesla on the streets of Seattle.
🇸🇻 Democrats plan a trip to El Salvador. Hope they bring a camera!
The Gist List
Called Out for AI Slop, Andrew Cuomo Blames One-Armed Man (Futurism)
New York mayoral race candidate Andrew Cuomo was caught up in another “scandal,” but this time, for using ChatGPT to generate some of his housing plan. His rivals called him lazy. His spokesman (and what we can only assume many ChatGPT users) called it relatable.
But the next day’s story had a different explanation, which centered on a staffer whose arm was amputated in 2012, relying on voice commands to dictate the proposal. Hey, that’s even more relatable!
Harvard to lose funds, possibly murder monkeys (Boston Globe)
Trump’s beef with Harvard is claiming its next victim: macaques. These noble beasts are being used in a vaccine study funded by a Harvard contract (although being performed at the University of Pittsburgh). Now, with federal funding cuts, these monkeys are on the chopping block—literally. Maybe.
Lead Harvard scientist Sarah Fortune said if the funding is cut, “Anybody who has animal studies ongoing ... is looking at killing the animals.” Something of this whiffs of an animal studies lab: Is this an empty threat to garner public sympathy? Is this the Ivy League equivalent of the “Cheeseface” National Lampoon cover?
A Top Democratic Official Plots to Take Down Party Incumbents (NYT)
DNC vice chair and Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg is sharpening his axe for civil war in the party. He set his sights on older party members (except for Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Nancy Pelosi) and is planning to spend millions of dollars through his new project, Leaders We Deserve, on Democratic members of Congress in the next primary.
What makes this weird is that the House Republicans only have a slim, three-seat majority—why not go after them instead? Further, Hogg is also at odds with Ken Martin, the party chairman, who circulated a neutrality policy on interfering in Democratic elections. All the DNC leaders signed it… except Hogg.
AOC also made the mistake of trying to shake up the Democratic party earlier in her career and has since taken it down a notch.
Trump administration sues Maine over participation of transgender athletes in girls’ sports (AP)
The DOJ filed a suit against Maine claiming the state is violating Title IX regarding letting transgender athletes compete in women’s and girls’ sports. Maine Governor Janet Mills asserts that the state is following the law and has declined a settlement that would have banned transgender students from sports, maintaining that current law allows schools to permit transgender athletes to participate.
Confirmed: Musk’s Pentagon Meeting Destroyed by Trump (Axios)
"What the f**k is Elon doing there?” A question we have all asked at least once over the last four months, but now we are hearing from President Trump. According to Axios, Trump killed a top-secret Pentagon meeting about China, and two top security officials lost their jobs after the meeting was leaked to the media.
Musk’s White House reputation is blowing up faster than a Cybertruck on the streets of Portland and gaining more unwanted attention than his army of babies.
Trump Refuses to Bring Back Man Illegally Held in El Salvador, But Remains Popular on Immigration (Politico)
While the economy deflates Trump’s standing, his stance on immigration is proving to be a net positive. So much so, the Democrats are planning their own trip down to El Salvador to check on the Maryland father, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was illegally deported. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele flat out refused to return Abrego Garcia, and the Trump administration is apathetic at best, despite a Federal Judge ruling that the U.S. Government needed to facilitate the return.
In that light, this trip will be more of a “welfare check” than a rescue mission from CECOT, a maximum security prison for terrorists. The larger question is, what exactly is the plan for Democrats here?
Yesterday on The Spiel: Are Married Women Going to Lose Their Voting Rights?
Is the SAVE Act going to put married women back in the kitchen? Is the GOP terrified of women voting? Big if true, but it’s unlikely that it will disenfranchise tens of millions of American women who took their husbands’ last names. Between married women leaning more Republican and not having the votes in the Senate, here’s what I think about the law:
There’s more where that came from. Listen to The Gist, and upgrade to Pesca Plus for the ad-free version.
Have a story you want us to talk about or an opinion you want to share? Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com or share your thoughts in the comments. We might give you a shoutout in our next newsletter or on the air.