Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Stewart has built a respectable career as a lawyer in Montreal, but he’s yearning to chase a very different dream: becoming a club DJ. He knows how to curate a killer playlist, but the leap to commanding a live room feels intimidating and technically out of reach. On this episode: How To!'s Mike Pesca brings on Tom Nash, a former top Sydney club DJ (known as DJ Hookie) who spins using prosthetic hooks. Tom offers Stewart guidance on bypassing the technical hurdles to truly read a crowd, building a music brand from "scratch"—and why the DJ's one true job is to delight the audience.
🎧Listen here👉mikepesca.com/how-to-with-mike-pesca
Executive Producer Corey Wara
Edited by Geoff Craig
Booking by Lya Yanne
Do you have a burning question or a problem you need help with? Email us at howto@mikepesca.com and we will consider your topic for the show.
For full Pesca content and updates, check out our website at mikepesca.com/
To receive ad-free content, become a Pesca Plus subscriber at subscribe.mikepesca.com
For Mike's daily takes on Substack, subscribe to The Gist List mikepesca.substack.com
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To advertise on the show, contact ad-sales@libsyn.com or visit advertising.libsyn.com/howto
Visit Mike's website:
mikepesca.com
_______________________
CREDITS:
Creator & Host:
Mike Pesca
Producer:
Corey Wara
Video Editor:
Geoff Craig
Stewart has built a respectable career as a lawyer in Montreal, but he’s yearning to chase a very different dream: becoming a club DJ. He knows how to curate a killer playlist, but the leap to commanding a live room feels intimidating and technically out of reach. On this episode: How To!'s Mike Pesca brings on Tom Nash, a former top Sydney club DJ (known as DJ Hookie) who spins using prosthetic hooks. Tom offers Stewart guidance on bypassing the technical hurdles to truly read a crowd, building a music brand from "scratch"—and why the DJ's one true job is to delight the audience.
🎧Listen here👉mikepesca.com/how-to-with-mike-pesca
Executive Producer Corey Wara
Edited by Geoff Craig
Booking by Lya Yanne
Do you have a burning question or a problem you need help with? Email us at howto@mikepesca.com and we will consider your topic for the show.
For full Pesca content and updates, check out our website at mikepesca.com/
To receive ad-free content, become a Pesca Plus subscriber at subscribe.mikepesca.com
For Mike's daily takes on Substack, subscribe to The Gist List mikepesca.substack.com
Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram instagram.com/pescagist
X https://x.com/pescami
YouTube youtube.com/@pescagist
TikTok tiktok.com/@pescagist
To advertise on the show, contact ad-sales@libsyn.com or visit advertising.libsyn.com/howto
Visit Mike's website:
mikepesca.com
_______________________
CREDITS:
Creator & Host:
Mike Pesca
Producer:
Corey Wara
Video Editor:
Geoff Craig








![On Writing from Jail & Our True Crime Fixation | John J. Lennon
John J. Lennon, currently incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, discusses The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories That Define Us, arguing that true crimes fixation on innocence obscures the harder stories of guilt, punishment, and change. He describes refusing to be branded Inside Evil on Chris Cuomos show—and how that exploitation pushed him toward critiquing the genre from within. Lennon explains why he writes himself beneath the other men he profiles—even as hes owning [his] sh*t on the page so he can have a life when he gets out. Also: an analysis of the odd-bedfellows coalition pushing to force a House vote on releasing the Epstein case files.
This interview is from a Full episode of The Gist Podcast, Hosted by Mike Pesca.
🎧Listen Here👉https://open.spotify.com/episode/3BptQDXnncEQO4wRxjv8Xp?si=eTi9RPlcTNCKn7WtnW76fA
Follow us:
INSTAGRAM:
/ pescagist
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https://x.com/PescaGist
https://x.com/pescami
Visit Mikes website:
https://www.mikepesca.com/
Join the Pesca Profundities membership and get access to the Gist List Newsletter:
https://mikepesca.substack.com/
Get a premium edition of the podcast and help support Mikes work:
https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/
CREDITS:
Creator & Host:
Mike Pesca
Producer:
Corey Wara
TIMECODES:
0:00 The setup
1:04 Why “guilty men” and “us” matter in true crime
3:18 What’s wrong with today’s true crime industry
4:54 Inside Evil: being framed as “evil” on TV
7:07 Lifestyle murder and the killing that sent him to prison
10:48 Prison pecking order and getting stabbed in Attica
13:45 How the Cuomo segment pushed him to critique true crime
17:12 Writing The Tragedy of True Crime and choosing four guilty men
21:35 True crime fame, status, and how TV portrayals land inside prison
24:18 Being an in-prison journalist and living with your sources
26:20 Prison officials, Sports Illustrated, and unexpected “grace”
28:06 Running a book tour from inside Sing Sing
30:02 Tablets, free phone calls, and the business of prison tech
32:02 Can we change the narrative of true crime?
34:09 Narrative, forgiveness, and why parole can feel arbitrary
36:23 Who gets a second chance when introspection is hard
39:06 Closing: 24 years in and what Lennon wants this book to do On Writing from Jail & Our True Crime Fixation | John J. Lennon](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fUzNOGQfuRI/mqdefault.jpg)

