The Great Gas Stove Gas Light
Plus: The Hogg Hunt comes to an end, Utah’s governor hates “dumb flags” and the “dumb” bills that ban them & is Trump more of a Valjean or Javert?
Don’t worry, Golden State foodies. Your gas stove is safe for now.
The battle over Southern California's gas-powered future intensified Friday when the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board voted 7–5 to reject a rule that would have required gas appliance manufacturers to pay fees, aimed at encouraging more zero-emission models.
While people might squabble that this is a loss for people with asthma, or that the bans might hurt minorities, I remain pretty unconvinced that gas stoves are a problem. The studies that proponents of the ban usually cite don’t strike me as high quality, and it doesn’t help when they are using these appliances in ways they were never intended to be used. And while the primary concern for gas stoves is having enough ventilation to remove any pollutants, electric stoves pose a bigger fire risk.
But remember the coverage of the supposed gas stove ban, which was said to be mythological, or all in the heads of cynical right-wingers with “tales of conspiracy to promote?” NPR helpfully quoted a professor to ensure their listeners that ”a word like 'ban' activates a series of cascading frames.” Hopefully, electric frames, not gas.
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:
💄 Women are scientifically more attractive than men.
📱 App helps immigrants navigate ICE crackdown.
🏳️🌈 Utah Governor hates “dumb flags” and the “dumb bill” that bans them.
🎭 Is Trump more of a Jean Valjean or Javert?
🐷 Finally, a resolution to the Hogg hunt.
The Gist List
Across 50 Countries, Female Faces Consistently Rank Higher in Attractiveness Than Male Faces (Phys.Org)
A sweeping cross-cultural study has confirmed what Darwin suspected but no one had proven (and that any random man on the street could have told you): women are more attractive than men. The study analyzed 28 studies across 50+ countries from 12,671 raters on 11,191 faces, and discovered a few interesting details, including that women rate faces more harshly than men, and more “structural” female faces are usually rated higher.
While this might all be stuff we already know, I already knew it, but I am a heterosexual male. Meaning I find women attractive, but also there’s no way I’m going to call some dude attractive! Come on, bro. I have attempted to survey the gay men's community, but all the responses I get begin with “Oh Honey”. It also does seem worth mentioning that there is an entire $646 billion industry marketed towards women focusing on improving their appearance. The equivalent of the men’s industry convinced a generation that goatees weren’t disgusting.
New Apps Help Immigrants Navigate Trump's Deportation Crackdown (Rest Of World)
Ingenuity always finds a way. With the Trump administration ramping up immigration raids, people are getting creative in how to avoid deportation. The app “Hack Latino”, launched by entrepreneur Adrian Lozano Jr., is kind of the Waze-for-raids, sending real-time alerts for ICE sightings. The administration claims to have deported 139,000 as of April 2025, and assuming that is true, the app will come in handy for anyone looking to evade detention or track down detained family members.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Trump Admin 2.0 unless there was some pushback from some of the most loyal red states. State prosecutors in Texas have been targeting organizations helping migrants by passing laws to prohibit “smuggling, aiding and abetting.” Similar apps, such as RefAid and Notifica, have scaled back or shut down their U.S. operations due to legal risks.
'Dumb Flags' and 'Dumb Bill' Gov Cox Says of Salt Lake City Flag Feud (Fox13)
Utah’s Gov. Spencer Cox has had it with petty infighting in the state. Earlier this year, the Utah state legislature passed a bill prohibiting the display of “non-sanctioned” flags on government property and classrooms, mostly targeting Salt Lake City’s propensity to put out pride flags in June—something the governor called a “dumb bill.” In response, Salt Lake City adopted alternate versions of the Pride, Transgender Visibility, and Juneteenth flags—a workaround the governor called “dumb.”
In fact, in a PBS news conference, the governor called the whole situation “dumb” not once, NOT TWICE, but seven times, saying:
"They’re dumb flags and it was a dumb bill.”
"I'm sure they feel great that they got around this dumb law and they did it with dumb flags. The whole thing’s dumb.”
"The legislature doesn’t need to be in everybody’s business all the time … It’s the dumbest. We’re living in the dumbest timeline.”
In case you haven’t heard, the whole situation is dumb.
A Song of Revolution: Trump's Night Out at 'Les Misérables' (WSJ)
President Trump’s appearance at a Kennedy Center performance of Les Misérables this week blended politics, pageantry, and plenty of irony that went straight over his head, as we saw on the red carpet last night.
I’m dying to know which journalist asked who Trump identified more with: Jean Valjean, the complicated convict on the run, or Javert, the law and order conservative orchestrating raids. It was a great question, and she should be in line for Terry Moran’s old job. Melania did chime in, gesturing toward her husband, saying”he took my childhood in his stride”, adding, “I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living, so different now from what it seemed. Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.” And then a street urchin robbed her.
About the whole Terry Moran thing: Somehow in yesterday’s newsletter I was able to engage in non-AI assisted pattern recognition to adduce that Moran would be pivoting away from legacy media-toward the celebrated-for-bravery forum called Substack - The very forum that you’re engaging with, God love em! Here martyrs like Moran have been able to capitalize on moments of candor/purposefully fireable shit-talking, in order to huddle together in truth-telling communities, one step ahead of both the censoriousness of the federal government and the silence demanded by corporate overlords. Moran now has close to 50,000 followers, expect that to double within a week. .
David Hogg to Exit Democratic National Committee After Months of Turmoil (The Guardian)
The Hogg Hunt™️ is finally winding to a close. Gun reform activist turned political organizer turned administrative rabble rouser David Hogg has stepped down as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee after months of internal conflict. But of course, not before (almost) making DNC Chair Ken Martin cry.
Obviously, there are a lot of reasons for this, not least of all because Hogg couldn’t keep himself from undermining Democratic primaries with circular firing squads. However, it appears the DNC—who already struggles to attract male voters—used a bad escape hatch to get Hogg out of power. A panel discovered that they were improperly elected to leadership because the election didn’t maintain gender parity in leadership, meaning that the role should have been held by a woman.
Yesterday on The Show: Why Paranormal Beliefs THRIVE When Trust in Government Fades
Author Matt Hongoltz-Hetling returns with The Ghost Lab, a rollicking deep dive into New Hampshire’s paranormal subculture, where Bigfoot lurks behind every maple tree and alien abductees fill out grant forms. He profiles a ghost-hunting crew that includes a psychic medium, a paranormal paralegal, and a Bigfoot believer who swears the aliens took him more than once. What starts as a tour of fringe science becomes a sharp look at America’s low-trust spiral—where more people believe in demons than in their own democracy.
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.