The Sense and Senseless Podcast

Bryan Mayon, Jason Hedrick
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Politics

Just two average guys making below average sense of the world. Fun and informative.

  1. Sep 13

    EP: 77 If It’s Gonna Happen Anyway, Why Not Now?

    In this episode of The Sense and Senseless Podcast, Bryan and Jason start with a comment from their Iran war short that cut through the usual talking points: if conflict was inevitable, why not now? They take that same logic and apply it to American politics. A lot of people already believe the country is heading toward civil war or collapse, so why keep the slow-motion fight? What happens if one side just wins and we let it play out? They also look at the gap between polls (most people don’t want or expect civil war) and the nonstop division on social media and news. Is the two-party system designed for control? They break down the common myth that you have to register with a party to vote, react to a comment claiming Israel has infiltrated the U.S. government, talk about Jelly Roll hosting Jimmy Kimmel and whether it was an attempt to create a Democrat version of Joe Rogan, share an observation about smokers taking one last huge drag before walking into a building (like breathing before going underwater), and end with a dark question about veterinarians and repeated euthanasia. Casual, unfiltered conversation. Tinfoil hat is on for parts of this one. #SenseAndSenseless #Podcast #TinfoilHat #TwoPartySystem #CivilWarTalk #JellyRoll #JimmyKimmel #Politics #Iran #Voting #ConspiracyTalk #Smokers

  2. Sep 13

    Ep: 76 Stay-Home Stipends, $5,000 Dividends, Who’s writing the check?

    The Sense and Senseless Podcast — Bryan and Jason break down a week of “we’ll pay you” politics and ask who actually writes the check.FOX floats a Trump-aligned idea to pay parents to stay home. The hosts agree families should be able to live on one income — then test the proposal against the existing Child Care and Development Fund: a $12.38 billion budget, about 1.3 million kids, roughly $9,000 per child. On those numbers there’s about $680 million left on paper — enough for tens of thousands more kids before operating costs. Bryan’s question: who quits work for $9K a kid, and does this fix the dollar… or just buy another constituency?From there they go to the GOP convention. Trump tells voters that if Republicans win, he’ll send $5,000. They run the adult-population math: $1.2–$1.3 trillion in a single year — larger than the defense budget. Vance points to tariff revenue. The hosts compare that to reported collections in the $155–$300 billion range and a 10-year tariff projection that gets talked about like it’s one year’s cash.They ask whether the GOP is using the same “check for votes” play it used to slam Democrats for — and whether “Trump was supposed to be different” still holds after Iran, boarded ships, Freedom Fuel stations selling cheap gas at a loss, Venezuela oil talk, and cheap-meat politics.Also this week: a Haaretz report that Netanyahu was warned before October 7 and didn’t pass it on (his office calls it a lie); Charlie Kirk on the holes in Israel’s response; AI agents reportedly leaving a sandbox to finish a task; and Bryan’s off-topic beach thought — that humans stopped migrating like birds because we learned fire.No scripts from the party. Just two guys asking where the money comes from. Like. Share. Follow. Subscribe. #SenseAndSenseless #Trump #GOP #Midterms #Tariffs #CCDF #StayAtHome #FiveThousandDollars #VoteBuying #LauraIngraham #JDVance #Iran #Venezuela #FreedomFuel #October7 #Netanyahu #Haaretz #CharlieKirk #OpenAI #AIAgents #Podcast #Politics #FollowTheMoney

  3. Sep 7

    EP: 75 Exploring the things we missed

    In this episode, Bryan and Jason explore a wide range of topics from personal safety and societal issues to dark crimes and cultural reflections, offering insights and dark humor along the way. #personalsafety #societalissues #darkcrimes #humor #discussion #darkhumor #sense #Senseless

  4. Sep 7

    Ep: 74 “If It’s Always the Most Important Election, Who Is Winning While We Fight?”

    On this episode of The Sense and Senseless Podcast, Bryan and Jason pick up last week’s Gen X “brainwashing” conversation and widen it: we are all conditioned. Algorithms, targeted ads, and confirmation bias keep us inside a feedback loop where our side is always right and the other side is always evil. They talk about what that does to real life. Politics is treated like religion. People will torch family and friends—weddings, holidays, years of shared history—over a politician they have never met. Pew and other polling put numbers on it: a sizable slice of adults have cut someone off over politics; more have simply stopped talking about it to keep the peace; party-line voting stays sky-high. Both tribes can’t all be correct, but both shout talking points instead of listening. Then they connect that control story to what is happening right now. Midterms are November 3, 2026. Reporting from the Wall Street Journal and Reuters says aides want the unpopular Iran war—sold as a 2–3 day job in late February, now in month seven, with gas prices up and most Americans opposed—kept “quiet” until after the vote. Trump publicly denies the election is steering him. At the same time, Washington is pushing cheaper-looking groceries and energy: a 90-day window for about 661 million pounds of imported lean beef trimmings (marketed 25% cheaper, ranchers furious, country-of-origin labeling not required), plus a Venezuela oil deal that gives a private operator long-term rights to huge reserves while the U.S. government takes a large stake and discounted barrels. Bryan compares it to the 1953 Iran oil coup and asks the same question on every file: if this is all “for you,” why does the calendar keep lining up with Election Day? No party cheerleading. Just two guys asking who actually benefits when we stay at war with each other.  Like, share, follow, subscribe. #SenseAndSenseless #ConfirmationBias #MediaLiteracy #GenX #Midterms2026 #IranWar #VenezuelaOil #BeefPrices #AmericaFirst #PoliticsAsReligion #FamilyOverParty #IndependentThought #Podcast #TwoGuysTalking

  5. Sep 5

    EP: 73 We Control the Strait… So Why Doesn’t Anything Else Add Up?

    Bryan and Jason skip the cable-news haze and start in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump claims U.S. control; they say practical control is stronger than earlier in the war, but that is not peace. Oil still needs the Navy. Fire was exchanged with Iran again; damage reports conflict by source.U.S. figures cited: 18 confirmed dead, ~500–760 wounded since the war began. Iranian estimates discussed: 4,000–7,000 killed (~1,000 civilians) and ~26,000 wounded — unofficial. They tie that to earlier protest deaths, citing a Feb. 23, 2026 HRANA report on protests from Dec. 28, 2025: 7,007 verified deaths (6,488 protesters, 236 children, 76 other civilians, 207 security/government), plus ~11,000 cases still under review. Trump asked when Iranians would rise up. The hosts ask whether a beaten-down population revolts — and whether Washington should push that.On money: official foreign buyers have pulled back from Treasuries; private buyers fill some of the gap. Since February, China sold ~$61B and Japan ~$122B. The U.S. is buying more of its own debt. France and the Netherlands have moved gold out of U.S. banks. Explanations walked through: logistics, debt worry, and blowback from weaponizing the dollar, including the 2022 freeze of ~$300B in Russian reserves.They play Trump on Canada and argue for hard lines that serve taxpayers without publicly torching allies at once. Contrast: the SCO meeting (Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) coordinating while the U.S. has paused some weapons to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (some delays ~two years). A South Korea poll cited: 65% want an indigenous nuclear weapon; the current president has ruled it out. Point: this war is teaching others that U.S. protection is not a substitute for their own deterrent.Longest stretch is defense spending. Since 2009 the U.S. has spent on the order of $13–15T on national defense ($16–18T in today’s dollars). Rough split discussed: maybe 14% of a $14T slice went to ships, subs, missiles, bombs, armor, and actual fight gear. Missile spending since 2009 estimated $250–400B; Patriot and THAAD together maybe $110B over 17 years. Inventories (estimates from public pre-war figures, including CSIS-style reporting, not an official ledger): ~8 THAAD batteries at the start of the Iran war; 534 THAAD missiles in 2025, ~250 left after hundreds fired; Patriots from ~2,330 pre-war to an estimate around 800. Recurring question: after that much money, why aren’t there stockpiles?They close with outsider clips on public mood, weather as a historical weapon, and a Virginia clip on how big-bill money hits the ground, plus the running theme of small businesses disappearing. Two hosts lining up official lines, estimates, and common-sense questions — not an official casualty report, budget audit, or intelligence briefing. #SenseAndSenseless #StraitOfHormuz #Iran #USNavy #Trump #USDebt #BondMarket #Gold #SCO #Taiwan #SouthKorea #Japan #THAAD #Patriot #DefenseSpending #USMilitary #Geopolitics #Podcast #YouTubePodcastOptional extras if the platform allows more: #Hormuz #Sanctions #Treasury #BRICS #Allies

  6. Sep 1

    EP: 72 Cheap Labor to $770 Car Notes and Why We’re All Still Underwater

    In this episode of The Sense and Senseless Podcast, Bryan and Jason start with a dirty vacation condo and end up tracing 400 years of American cheap labor.Bryan noticed the cleaning crew did a mediocre job even though a cleaning fee was paid. That observation launched a discussion about how cheap labor pools change over generations. New immigrant groups typically arrive desperate, work extremely hard, accept low pay and bad conditions, then gradually realize they are being overloaded and underpaid. Quality drops. They organize or move into better jobs, and employers simply replace them with the next group that has even less bargaining power.The episode walks through a simplified historical chain: indentured servants, Irish canal and railroad workers, Chinese railroad laborers, Italians in urban trades, successive waves in the garment industry, Eastern Europeans in steel and meatpacking, the Bracero Program, and today’s undocumented agricultural and construction labor. The pattern is consistent — shortage or walkout by the previous group, wage suppression, eventual replacement. Workers often turn their anger on the new arrivals instead of the employers who benefit.The conversation then turns to the modern welfare state. Government assistance is supposed to be a temporary ladder. Instead, the benefit cliff means earning a little more can leave a family worse off. Meanwhile, large corporations in the “Low-Wage 20” (Walmart, Amazon, Target, Dollar stores, restaurant chains, etc.) pay median wages so low that many of their 6.7 million U.S. workers qualify for SNAP and Medicaid. Taxpayers effectively subsidize corporate payrolls while CEO-to-worker pay ratios average 899-to-1.The episode closes with personal-finance reality checks: most Americans cannot cover a $1,000 emergency from savings, credit-card balances average $6,500–$7,700, and new-car payments have climbed to $770 a month with 70-month (sometimes 84-month) terms. Many buyers are rolling thousands of dollars of negative equity into the next loan.Bryan and Jason argue the cheap-labor cycle never really ended — it just changed costumes. The real fight isn’t between ethnic groups; it’s over whether wages and conditions will ever be allowed to rise enough that ordinary people can stay above water. #SenseAndSenseless #CheapLabor #WageGap #WelfareCliff #LowWage20 #CorporateWelfare #EmergencySavings #CarPayments #AmericanHistory #ImmigrationLabor #Podcast

  7. Aug 31

    EP: 71 Everyone Has an Angle: China, Israel, and Who Recruits Your Kids

    On this episode of The Sense and Senseless Podcast, Bryan and Jason start with documented claims that China-linked accounts used AI to seed anti-U.S. data-center messaging—then ask why that story gets amplified when most local opposition is grassroots over power prices, land, and environment. They use that as a lens for media bias: hosts rarely invent everything, but they spin hard, and listeners have to check the other side instead of only hunting for flaws. The conversation then turns to Israel and the United States. They walk through the Christian Zionist media tradition (Robertson, Falwell, and later Levin, Hannity, Shapiro, Beck, Huckabee) that framed Israel as indispensable to American survival, and they ask whether that is evidence-based conviction or institutional interest. Clips cover alleged influence on U.S. elections and policy.  From there they go to college campuses: why every major faction recruits there (AIPAC-aligned groups included), why they want loud advocates rather than independent thinkers, and why TPUSA mattered. Charlie Kirk’s organization was the biggest conservative campus machine and an early Israel supporter; later comments from Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and others claimed he cooled on that support at the same time youth polling showed collapsing backing for Israel. Bryan offers his own (clearly labeled) speculation about Kirk’s death and the message it sent. They also play clips of officials praising Netanyahu, Trump on U.S. weapons in Gaza, and a historical segment on nuclear and political leverage. The through-line: agendas, recruitment of the young, media spin, and why uncritical “holy land” loyalty is getting harder to sell as images and numbers change. Listener caution: this is two hosts connecting public reporting, clips, and opinion—not a legal brief. #SenseAndSenseless #IsraelUS #TPUSA #CampusPolitics #MediaBias #AIPAC #DataCenters #FreeSpeech #CharlieKirk #ForeignInfluence #ChristianZionism #YouthVote

  8. Aug 30

    Ep: 70 $40 Trillion_$3 Billion a Day in interest_and loss faith in the Dollar

    Six months into the U.S.–Iran war, Bryan and Jason walk through the money first and the strait second. Iran’s population is widely reported to be short on fuel and food. The hosts stress they do not support Iran and love the United States; the target is government policy and an unpopular war.   The federal books: national debt already in the $40 trillion range and rising. Interest runs about $3–3.2 billion a day. Collections are roughly $14.4 billion a day ($5.26 trillion a year). Spending is about $19.3 billion a day (~$7 trillion a year), so the government borrows on the order of $4.9 billion every day. Ten-year sketches put debt near $64 trillion and annual interest near $2.1 trillion; twenty-year sketches run $80–120 trillion.The dollar’s value still rests on two pillars: oil priced in dollars (the petro-dollar) and global faith that the United States will stand behind the currency. The war strains the first. Growing debt, talk of large Treasury buybacks, and weak foreign appetite for bonds strain the second. Clips cover collapsing confidence, a “Treasury Ponzi” framing of buybacks, and Bessent telling countries to cut ties with Iran, warning that no country is above the rules, and floating an “economic D-Day.” The world’s reported response is to hang up. If sanctions fail, military intervention is on the table. JD Vance compares reserve-currency status to the Appalachian resource curse—extracting value while hollowing out the place that produces it. The hosts ask whether the current dollar system is doing that to American workers. They analogize federal finance to revolving credit and to the wealthy “Buy, Borrow, Die” strategy: hold assets, borrow against them, never sell, never settle up in one lifetime. Washington holds a growing tax base, rolls Treasuries forever, and bets that reserve status, bond buyers, growth, and inflation keep the burden from exploding. That is selling tomorrow to fund today.On Hormuz, officials say the U.S. controls the waterway and sees every inch. Traffic graphs and tracker data (including Kpler, Aug 1–19, 2026) show a sharp drop and a majority of ships—especially oil and gas carriers—going dark or using unknown routes. Oil still moves via night shuttles and ship-to-ship transfers. Whether the strait is “open” depends on the definition: pre-war volumes of 15–20 million barrels a day have not returned; some flow continues at lower averages. CENTCOM cites tens of millions of barrels blocked or stranded (figures from ~69 million on 41 tankers up to 100 million-plus). The U.S. has also seized millions of barrels. Energy importers blame the war that started in late February 2026 for higher oil, food, and shipping costs. Trump told them in March to get their own oil. U.S. producers have gained volume while the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been used to cushion domestic prices. The hosts support selling American energy but argue celebrating a broken world market makes the country look like a tyrant—and tyrants eventually stand alone. A fight, if it comes, will be paid for by ordinary people, not the loudest voices. With only about 30% public support, they argue Washington should pause and fix conditions at home. #SenseAndSenseless #USDebt #NationalDebt #PetroDollar #StraitOfHormuz #IranWar #Treasury #ScottBessent #JDVance #BuyBorrowDie #Dollar #Oil #Sanctions #Podcast #Geopolitics #Economy

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Just two average guys making below average sense of the world. Fun and informative.

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  • Creator
    Bryan Mayon, Jason Hedrick
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    130
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Bryan Mayon, Jason Hedrick
  • Show Website
    The Sense and Senseless Podcast