Mike Pesca

NPR sports reporter Mike Pesca checks-in from London to talk about this year's Olympic trends, upsets, and the controversial New York Times article on American runner Lolo Jones.

If the Olympic badminton players could be faulted for anything, it's for not throwing their matches better. Manipulating the draws in tournaments has a long tradition in sport. In the...

The result of a judo men's quarterfinal bout was announced, and then reversed, Sunday. Since then, it became the source of international indignation over a perceived injustice. But th...

On Friday, the internet was all abuzz with Serena Williams. Yes, she beat Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-3 in a Madrid Open quarterfinal. But the real news was the leak from an apparently forthcoming rap track. The tennis star is just the latest athlete to get behind the mic – joining the ranks of boxer Manny Pacquiao, basketball great Shaquille O’Neal and even the ‘86 Mets. Today, NPR sports correspondent Mike Pesca joins us for a look back at what happens when athletes get into the music game. 

The national championship game in men's college basketball is set. The Jayhawks beat Ohio State in a close one and Kentucky got past Louisville.

Mike Pesca, Stefan Fatsis, and Josh Levin, the hosts of “Hang Up and Listen,” Slate’s sports podcast, talk about college football’s national championship game and the college football system. They’ll also discuss the NFL playoffs and the highlights and lowpoints of the year in football.  

NPR sports correspondent Mike Pesca joins us to share three knockout boxing songs.

Mike Pesca, NPR sports correspondent, previews former Yankee Roger Clemens' perjury trial, which is due to start next week.

Amidst the recent flurry of news coverage on hacks and hackers, President Barack Obama has signed executive orders that set down the rules-of-war for cyber attacks. James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says that while the actual threat of cyber warfare has been widely exaggerated many countries around the world are adopting policies to combat such attacks.

Last week after the Republican presidential debate the conventional wisdom was clear – Michelle Bachmann had transformed herself into a viable candidate for president. Whether or not that’s true, it raised some questions for our guest host Mike Pesca. Who forms the conventional wisdom, how has that changed over time and what, exactly, is it? Mike talks to Politico’s Mike Allen, Time’s Mark Halperin, The New Republic’s Franklin Foer, Republican operative Mark McKinnon and Washington Post political reporter Dana Millbank about political conventional wisdom.

Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman announced his candidacy this week. Political reporter Dave Weigel says that Huntsman's only constituency is the press, and that for a Republican candidate, that's more of a kiss of death then a boon.

Had they beaten Ghana, the USA would be playing this afternoon. So, why should you still care what's happening in the world cup? Mike Pesca, NPR sports correspondent, and Franklin Foer, editor at The New Republic, soccer fanatic, and author of How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, join us to discuss soccer in the USA.

Neil Diamond's career exhibits all the characteristics of a music icon - numerous hits spanning numerous decades, the charisma and the chest hair-revealing wardrobe to back it up -- but he has yet to be formally recognized by his peers with a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of ...

Greenville, NY —

Aside from baseball's 'World Series' there is a 'World Series' of poker, a 'World Series' of billiards, a 'World Series' of marbles, and even a 'World Series' of cliff diving. Recently, in upstate New York, they held another world series - one that would decide once ...

Mayor Bloomberg is downplaying advertisements by a marijuana reform group which quote him admitting to having used the drug.