Badlands Media features the work of a dedicated group of Patriot citizen journalists who are changing the media landscape in America. Badlands Media shows are originally broadcast LIVE on Rumble.com/BadlandsMedia.

CannCon and Alpha Warrior kick off with a mic malfunction confession before diving into one of the most heated debates the show has seen in a while. Alpha argues the military and intelligence community are already operating outside the Constitution when it comes to psyops and information warfare against Americans, and that it is a price worth paying to win the bigger fight against the deep state and China. CannCon pushes back hard, questioning where the legal line actually sits between federal law and constitutional violation, and whether ends can really justify unconstitutional means. It gets personal, it gets loud, and it circles back to the rights we are told we have versus the ones the government actually lets us keep. Expect real disagreement between two guys who respect each other but are not backing down, plus a prediction about an upcoming decision that has them bracing for round two.

Chris Paul and Burning Bright dig into this 2012 Prohibition era drama with a genuinely stacked cast, and both come away pleasantly surprised by how well it holds up. The pick came from a random YouTube rabbit hole that somehow led straight to Tom Hardy, which feels about right for how these episodes usually go. Expect a solid breakdown of the film's bootlegger versus corrupt lawman setup and why that particular flavor of systems versus sovereigns storytelling keeps resurfacing depending on where the culture happens to be. There's a real conversation about trust in institutions, narrative fatigue, and a pointed detour into who actually benefits from convincing people that human nature is fundamentally bad. Expect some sharp opinions on that one. Stick around for listener boosts and next week's pick, a late 90s thriller about martial law that feels a little too familiar these days.

Frankie Val themes the night around things that just do not add up, and invites viewers to bring their own top picks of the week. First comes the strange news tour, from a maybe rabid fisher cat terrorizing the Northeast (the media can't decide if it's a weasel, a fox, or a squirrel) to the improbable comeback of the CD, which sends Frankie fishing for everyone's embarrassing first album. The centerpiece is a roughly twenty minute sit down with Dr. Andrew Paquette, the analyst behind the New York Citizens Audit. He walks through clone voter rolls, retroactively deleted records, and what he calls the spiral algorithm, a hidden numbering scheme he says took two years to crack and can restore half a million missing records. His blunt takeaway: the rolls can't answer the basic questions elections depend on. With midterms two months out, Frankie ties it back to his usual uni party skepticism. Raffle night rounds it out.

CannCon and Ashe in America move on to Chapter 13 of The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin, and this one takes a hard turn into geopolitics. This week's theme is Masquerade in Moscow, unpacking the secret society founded by Cecil Rhodes, its American offshoot known as the Council on Foreign Relations, and the surprising role outside financiers played in funding the Russian Revolution. The hosts challenge the popular narrative that the Bolshevik uprising was purely a grassroots rebellion, tracing the money and influence back to bankers in Germany, Britain, and the United States, with the Rothschild formula popping up once again. Expect a story that starts with the Russo Japanese War and spirals into one of the most consequential cover ups of the century, plus the usual candid commentary and a few detours along the way.

JD Vance takes over the podium in his first solo White House briefing since the departure of the press secretary, and it is a marathon. He opens with fraud task force wins, over 2,000 shut down fraudulent trucking licenses, and a new 65 billion barrel oil reserve born out of the Venezuela deal, before fielding a genuinely sprawling round of questions. Expect a candid breakdown of the ongoing Strait of Hormuz shipping standoff with Iran, a defense of why gas hasn't hit $3 yet, some surprisingly personal banter about weight loss and sauerkraut, and a firm but friendly response to questions about his friendship with a certain controversial commentator. There's talk of manufacturing's hot streak, Supreme Court packing fears, East Palestine, and even a lighthearted moment about who gets called on without a seating chart. It's policy heavy, occasionally funny, and covers an impressive amount of ground for one afternoon.

Jon Herold walks through a detailed timeline theory that Trump may be quietly resetting the War Powers Act clock on Iran for a second time to keep Congress out of the loop, tracing notification dates back to February and July and predicting another possible reset is coming this weekend. He also fact checks Alex Jones' viral debate claims about NDAA Section 219 line by line, reading the actual bill text to show the "co equal to the Secretary of Defense" language Jones cited simply is not there. Other topics include Howard Lutnick's awkward military casualty gaffe and Trump's fiery follow up posts on ammunition stockpiles, a newly declassified CIA memo showing Scott Gottlieb privately estimated much higher COVID immunity than he stated publicly, and Nvidia's 13 billion dollar Hugging Face acquisition. Sponsor reads, a goofy decode post experiment, and plenty of chat banter round out a dense Thursday show.

CannCon and Alpha Warrior dig into the DOJ expanding its beef pricing investigation from the big four meat packers to eight of the largest grocery retailers in the country, unpacking how a handful of companies came to control most of what ends up on your plate and just how far prices have climbed over the past decade. From there they cover Democrats blocking a proposed constitutional amendment to lock the Supreme Court at nine justices, and debate whether the whole thing is a setup or a genuine effort. The back half includes a DOJ opinion clarifying that states taking federal welfare dollars must report known illegal aliens, federal investigators sitting down with the New York Attorney General whistleblower, and another judge blocking the birthright citizenship order. Expect the usual West Coast versus East Coast ribbing and plenty of frustration with Congress.

Jon Herold and Burning Bright open with some personal banter (mystery health scares, homeschooling law rabbit holes) before landing on the real meat of the episode: Russia getting invited back to the G20 for the first time since the Ukraine war started. The guys walk through why that timing lines up suspiciously well with CIA Director Ratcliffe's recent trip to Moscow, and what it might signal about where the Ukraine conflict is actually headed. There's a deep dive into the mixed messaging coming out of the administration, sanctions talk that doesn't quite match the rhetoric, and speculation about Trump, Zelensky, and Putin edging toward some kind of resolution despite public posturing suggesting otherwise. An older Zelensky extortion allegation also gets revisited for context. As always, it's a mix of geopolitical connect the dots and the hosts talking each other in and out of theories in real time.

Shipwreck kicks off with her new obsession, fiber maxing, and how a fiber heavy routine has quietly fixed years of health issues, before pivoting into a rant about surveillance cameras popping up in towns too small to need them. She connects that to a data center fight near her home, complete with a mysterious pro data center billboard nobody will claim credit for. There is a bit on subscription based car features, a fun tangent on whether AI could already be running things, and a detour into philosophical zombies and inner monologues. The back half gets personal: turning down a lucrative brand deal that clashed with her own opinions, and reacting to reporting on the Pentagon quietly paying influencers without disclosure. She lands on a familiar note, that voting alone will not fix a rigged system, and health and self reliance matter more right now.

Jonathan Drake joins Chris Ponder and Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Steven L. Kwast this week to dig into natural law, the idea that God built physical rules for the universe and equally binding rules for human relationships, and why ignoring either one tends to end badly. Jonathan brings a research background on pattern and structure that pairs surprisingly well with Chris's information framework, and the conversation wanders through some genuinely fun territory: intuitive facial symmetry, a childhood aversion to cartoons, and a memorable bit about souls, planets, and gain of function jokes that somehow ties back to the bigger mission. Kwast keeps steering things back to the practical goal, building a tool ordinary people can actually use to separate truth from lies. Expect deep thinking, a little humor, and a reminder that none of this technology means anything without moral grounding underneath it.

Jon Herold leans on chat interaction for a genuinely slow Wednesday, working through a Hill piece framing a third Trump impeachment as inevitable given midterm polling, and pushing back hard on the idea that any political "consensus" can be trusted when he believes the outcome is already being engineered. He covers Trump welcoming Russia back into the G20 despite Moscow's continued support for Iran, a contradiction Jon flags as unresolved, plus Bessent's economic pressure campaign warning off Iran's remaining trade partners. Other topics include the fatal Times Square stabbing of a Bank of America executive, a symbolic House vote to lock the Supreme Court at nine justices, an appeals court upholding the federal machine gun ban, and a new poll showing record numbers of Americans view government corruption as widespread. Sponsor reads, fantasy football league recruiting, and a lively chat session round out a lighter hump day show.

CannCon and Ashe open with a Missouri Deputy Attorney General surviving five days lost in the Wyoming wilderness before turning to Congress, where a ballooning lame duck agenda has lawmakers punting government funding, Iran war money, and surveillance authority extensions until after the election. They dig into the House voting to condemn socialism in all its forms with eight Democrats crossing over, and have some fun with the definitional problems that creates. The middle of the show covers a Russia sanctions bill stalling out in the House and President Trump welcoming Russia back to the G20 in North Carolina, much to Europe's irritation. The election segment features a Harmeet Dhillon interview and a look at deportation numbers that sparks a moving discussion about the people caught up in it. They close with a candid conversation about scripture, Christian Zionism, and reading verses in full.

JB White returns for the Wednesday edition with another beautiful musical tribute to Dolly Parton, then dives straight into the geopolitical deep end. He unpacks the G20 fallout after Russia's surprise invite, why China dissenting on the closing communique matters, and how he reads the ongoing economic sparring between Washington, Beijing and Moscow. Expect strong opinions on discernment among content creators, a preview of a lengthy piece he is planning to read on air about invisible enemies embedded in the military and media, and some personal reflections on his own political journey from Democrat to Republican. He also teases an upcoming Badlands Media event in Las Vegas and touches on a few sponsor reads along the way. It is candid, opinionated and unmistakably JB, equal parts current events breakdown and stream of consciousness.

Alpha Warrior and Josh Reid break down a wild day at the G20 summit in North Carolina, where a surprise Russian delegation stirred up plenty of European anger and a well timed Trump post seemed to say more than it let on. They dig into comments from Scott Bessent about tracking Iranian regime money hidden in offshore accounts, connect the dots to old London banking networks, and lay out a theory about a quiet financial war being waged against the old guard behind the scenes. There is also talk of foreign bot farms getting exposed, influence operations getting called out by name, and why the guys think the information war is finally starting to tip in favor of the good guys. Expect the usual blend of sourced clips, speculation, and community energy that keeps this show rolling.

CannCon and Ashe in America finally land a guest CannCon has chased for years, and it's personal, since Tim Canova is a law professor at CannCon's alma mater and once ran for Congress in his district. A lifelong Kennedy Democrat turned establishment thorn, Tim recounts his against-all-odds 2016 primary run at DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, built on 12,000 door knocks a week, a surprise Bernie Sanders endorsement, and a national map lighting up with small-dollar donations. Then comes the gut punch: local media posting results with 70 percent of precincts reporting before a single ballot was counted, polls that vanished, and a ballot-destruction saga that followed. Along the way the crew connects it to Kari Lake, Pennsylvania, WikiLeaks, and the machinery that protects incumbents. A rare insider's view of how a party crushes its own insurgents. Plus AI data centers, loaded gun coffee, and the Creature from Jekyll Island.

Jon Herold digs into a new USPS whistleblower report claiming the mail ballot verification system is rushed and vulnerable, then traces the whistleblower's legal support back to the same nonprofit involved in the 2019 Ukraine impeachment complaint, arguing the parallel structure gives away the operation. He also covers an update on the effort to secure Fulton County's Dominion voting machines for review, DHS launching a coordinated voter fraud investigation surge across nine states, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's resignation amid tension with Hegseth, and the Supreme Court's 5 to 4 ruling allowing White House ballroom construction to proceed. There's also a look at a new grand jury subpoena tied to James Comey's leak investigation and a General Dan Caine letter addressing concerns about military involvement in the midterms. Sponsor reads, Vegas conference promo, and a viral clip of a father confronting lawmakers over an immigration related tragedy round out a dense Taco Tuesday show.

CannCon flies solo for a packed Tuesday as election season officially kicks off with ballots going out in a matter of days. He opens with the Supreme Court allowing the White House ballroom construction to proceed even as the Chief Justice calls the project likely unlawful, then turns to a CNN exclusive on DHS launching an unprecedented surge of investigators into voter fraud cases across select states. The Schrodinger mail ballot executive order gets another update as a federal judge refuses to lift her block ahead of a September hearing. There is also a look at the twenty biggest midterm donors so far, a surprise resignation at Army Secretary that has everyone reading the tea leaves, and a genuinely strange California reparations development. He wraps with rants and a heads up about live coverage of closing arguments in the Charlie Kirk case immediately after the show.

Jon Herold and Zak Paine hit a genuine milestone tonight, and Jon celebrates the 200th episode the only way he knows how, with an incredibly deep dive into a man most people have never heard of. Otis T. Carr claimed to have built and patented a working flying saucer back in the 1950s, and with the help of his self described "plucky" assistant Ralph Ring, he spent years chasing government approval, media attention, and eventually a very public unraveling. Expect rare archival footage, an actual interview with Ralph Ring himself, patent history, run ins with the SEC, and a fascinating look at how Carr basically ran his own proto version of the very kind of late night radio and call in show that Jon and Zak do today. It's part biography, part cautionary tale, and part genuine mystery about what this guy actually built.

Ashe in America welcomes back Jonathan Drake for a two part conversation, starting with a fun behind the scenes recap of their live jury trial experience at Deadwood, complete with an unforgettable "my son is innocent" courtroom moment and a preview of what is coming at the Great American Restoration Tour stop in Las Vegas. The two also swap notes on show intros, badlands community swords, and a bit of easy banter before shifting gears entirely. The second half digs into Lysander Spooner's writing on poverty, exploring his argument that scarcity is largely manufactured rather than natural, and that systemic roadblocks, not laziness, keep talented, hardworking people down. Ashe and Jonathan connect that thinking back to trial by jury and common law, making the case that the two ideas are more related than they first appear. Expect a mix of lighthearted recap and genuinely thought provoking philosophy by the end.

Ghost is back live for the first time in a while, kids tucked in, wife out of town, and a full month of news to catch up on. He starts with the fallout from the Mecca agreement, the Saudi Turkey Pakistan defense pact he had been mapping out since February, and why he thinks Egypt, Iran and Syria will all eventually join. From there he digs into a resurfaced 1962 interview where Israel's first prime minister laid out a vision that sounds a lot like modern globalism, then walks through the new three billion dollar Israel Greece defense deal, complete with laser interceptors he expects to see tested in the Aegean. He also covers a suspicious ferry sinking near Cyprus, a wild historical detour involving yogurt and the Armenian genocide, and a leadership shakeup inside Iran's IRGC that has him questioning whether the organization even still exists.

Matthew Ehret picks up right where last week's Khazaria episode left off, tracing the idea of "Greater Israel" back through some unexpected company: Roman mystery cults, the Templars, and a 1935 rabbi whose writings on holy war and world conflagration set the stage for a lot of what follows. Expect a sprawling map through ancient Mithraic and Sibel Atis rituals, the Havara Agreement between Zionist leaders and Nazi Germany, the Arch of Titus, and modern crusader revivalism showing up at rallies in the UK. Ehret connects it all to a much bigger question about who is actually orchestrating the geopolitical chaos of today, and why certain symbols keep resurfacing in unlikely places, tattoos included. It is heavy material, deliberately provocative, and moves fast, so buckle in for the ride through 2,000 years of empire, ritual, and rebranding.

Nine more pharmaceutical giants join the fold, bringing the total to 26 companies covering 90% of the domestic drug market, and Trump calls it the biggest medical announcement of his presidency, maybe of any presidency. RFK Jr., Dr. Oz, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick each take turns explaining how "Most Favored Nation" pricing flips America from paying the highest drug prices in the world to the lowest, with projected savings north of $600 billion. A parade of pharma CEOs step up to announce Medicaid discounts, billions in U.S. manufacturing investment, and donations to the national drug stockpile, while GLP-1 weight loss drugs and IVF medications get singled out for dramatic price cuts. The Q&A afterward wanders well past pharmaceuticals, into Iran's military status, a massive Venezuela oil deal, interest rate frustrations, and China's upcoming state visit. Dense, numbers heavy, and genuinely wide ranging, this one covers a lot of ground fast.

Ashe, Christy, and Jackie open with a rundown of sponsors and a quick preview of Badlands Media's upcoming Las Vegas trip, complete with a callback to the legendary photo that started it all. Then the history segment turns reflective with a tribute to Dolly Parton, sparking an honest conversation about a beloved icon and the complicated feelings around her Covid era advocacy. Things lighten right back up with a hilarious old interview clip full of unexpected answers, followed by a genuinely useful trip into the mainframe. Jackie walks through exactly how to screen record on your phone, including the audio trick that makes those viral clips possible, perfect for anyone who has ever begged someone to clip a moment from the show. Expect the usual mix of sponsor shoutouts, inside jokes, and a preview of what is coming next on the Badlands lineup. Fast, funny, and full of heart.

Football is finally back, and so is the crew's favorite ritual: predicting every Week 1 matchup before a single meaningful snap. CannCon opens solo again, working through StreamYard chaos and a mystery about whether Alpha is secretly having a rough week (blame the chat member who spilled it) before Alpha strolls in with a printed pick sheet he plans to track all season long. The heart of this one is a game-by-game Week 1 draft where all three lock in picks, from the Patriots-Seahawks Wednesday opener to the 49ers-Rams clash in Melbourne that sparks a genuinely confused group attempt at time-zone math. Along the way they debate the Josh Jacobs suspension, mourn the departure of JB from the show, and cook up increasingly cruel end-of-season loser punishments involving karaoke, half-and-half jerseys, and forced hangouts. Expect hot takes on Malik Willis, Bengals faith, and a Pete Rose tangent. Pure football banter with the usual brotherhood roasting underneath.

A rare solo outing. Burning Bright kicks off Episode 80 by taking full credit for its title, one of the cleverest plays on words you have probably heard in the last few minutes, if not your entire life. No guest was lost. He simply wanted to get the ideas out of his head before they pile up like bad cache in a CPU. Only his second solo stream ever, this one doubles as practice and as a table setter. Starting into September he plans to alternate solo weeks with guest weeks, pending audience reaction. The substance is a State of the War address. Expect a run through his eight pieces of the Iran War thesis, the Strait of Hormuz as "Schrodinger's Strait," global energy and the oil cartel angle, and how the same template maps onto the Taiwan situation so you can keep a level head when the narrative arrives. Pure pattern recognition, delivered with his usual dry confidence.

Jon Herold digs into a Washington Post report alleging the Pentagon secretly installed conservative military influencers, including Kurt Schlichter and the anonymous "Cynical Publius," into civilian roles to amplify Pete Hegseth's messaging without disclosure, and makes the case that undisclosed paid cheerleading is just as troubling coming from allies as it is from opponents. He also breaks down newly released Fauci memos showing repeated instructions to delete emails and steer intelligence agencies toward the natural origins theory during COVID, plus a New York Times report on roughly a billion dollars in untraceable dark money already flowing into the 2026 midterms. Other topics include Trump's Venezuela oil deal timeline, a New York prosecutor's claim that Letitia James' office directed him to target Trump, and a jaw dropping 65 billion dollar Obamacare fraud report. Sponsor reads, personal weekend stories, and a lively chat session round out a newsy Monday show.

CannCon and Zak Paine open Monday with a genuinely explosive whistleblower email from inside the New York Attorney General's office, where a prosecutor accuses his own bureau chief of directing him to target President Trump and affiliated organizations without credible cause, an email that was scrubbed from more than two thousand inboxes almost immediately. From there they cover a Florida representative's whiplash reversal on the massive Venezuela oil deal and what over two hundred billion in projected tax revenue could mean for the country. The centerpiece is a three and a half minute Pennsylvania press conference on the measles outbreak that CannCon calls pure gold, paired with the county coroner's own account that complicates the official narrative. They wrap with fresh Fauci documents on a deleted gain of function email and a look at the continuing resolution fight tied to the Save America Act.

JB White is back from his summer break, and he eases into it with a little bit of everything. There's a heartfelt musical tribute to Dolly Parton, a rundown of his cross state move and the ongoing effort to hold onto his family's historic land in Georgia, and plenty of early season Gator football talk, including the quarterback situation heading into the fall. Expect candid reflections on the evolution of country and R&B music, a few personal stories about family, faith and real estate headaches, and JB's read on the broader geopolitical landscape, including why he thinks a sovereign alliance without military muscle behind it does not hold up. It's part homecoming, part therapy session, and part scouting report for the season ahead. Grab a glass of something and settle in for a wide ranging, unscripted return to the show.

Alpha Warrior and Josh Reid tackle the question that runs under everything: in a war of perception versus truth, who are the actual good guys? They start from the messy present, the special government employee reveals around Data Republican and Nick Sortor, the "are they on a payroll" arguments, and the Department of War's rumored 60,000 strong ghost army, then reach back to a single Q post that names Black Hats to build out a hats framework of white, gray, and black. Josh and Alpha wrestle with the uncomfortable premise that good guys sometimes have to do questionable things behind plausible deniability, and that disinformation can be a necessary wartime tool aimed at the enemy rather than the audience. Expect board readings, a detour through Trump's Hegseth and Gabbard picks, and a lot of "perception is not truth." No neat bow, just a sharper lens. Bring an open mind.

Jonathan Drake kicks off a brand new series, tackling Spooner's dense essay "Poverty, Its Illegal Cause and Legal Cure." Born out of Spooner's own brutal experience losing everything in the Panic of 1837, this essay argues poverty isn't natural scarcity, it's an artificial deprivation created when contracts get manipulated by a judiciary that either misunderstands natural law or willingly ignores it. Expect a deep dive into freedom in banking, the true nature of debt, and why "equal distribution of wealth" here has nothing to do with Marxism despite how it might sound on the surface. Jon also lays groundwork for a genuinely compelling Bitcoin connection, framing proof of work versus proof of stake as a real world natural law versus artificial barrier showdown. Sprinkled throughout are stories about roly polys, a butterfly named after a Spartan admiral, and a spirited debate about whether chartreuse has always been green.

In this sponsor spotlight, Jon Herold welcomes Nelson McIlveen, the injection molder turned water evangelist behind Century H2O. Nelson's origin story is a wild one. He spent decades running factories and building plastic parts for Boeing, Airbus, fighter jets, and yes, the palm-leaf covers on Southwest cell towers, then made a fortune assembling reverse osmosis systems before deciding the water they produced was, in his words, poison. From there he pivots to oxygen, industrial scale management, and a personal health story involving climbing PSA levels that he credits his own filtration system with reversing. It is part manufacturing memoir, part water science pitch, and part Badlands sponsor rundown, complete with a claim that even your cat will notice the difference. Take the health talk with a grain of salt, but Nelson's enthusiasm is hard to miss. Jon just had the system installed and promises to report back. Where to buy and the promo code get covered at the end.

Jon Herold and Chris Paul dig deep into the aftermath of Maduro's capture, walking through the Pentagon's newly secured stake in Venezuela's oil riches and how the deal has evolved from a broker relationship into a full investment position. They cover Chevron's long, complicated history operating in Venezuela through the Chavez and Maduro years, and play a clip from a ConocoPhillips executive meeting that lines up suspiciously well with the timeline of events. The conversation broadens into what this could mean for the region's energy future and whether the sovereign alliance framework they've discussed for years fits what's unfolding here. There's also a Tucker Carlson clip worth a listen, plus some banter about AI tools that can now auto clip and post your podcast content for you, which one host finds genuinely useful and the other finds a little unsettling.

Cam Cooksey opens episode 65 (August 29th) with a MyPillow ad that doubles as a plug for Mike Lindell's post campaign standing to expose Minnesota election issues, then settles into a relaxed, tangent heavy night of Truth Social. The theme is Trump the builder versus the dying legacy media. Cam walks through posts framing Trump as the most popular president in our lifetimes, a barrage of media roasts, and the striking "CNN is in a death spiral but can be turned around" post, which he reads as classic Trump: demo the corrupt structure, then rebuild it. He mixes in tariff talk, a candidate endorsement, Kathy Hochul jabs, the playful "Lake of America" renaming, an Amish and electricity rabbit hole, and an AI data center chat. He closes on Venezuela and a New York Post piece arguing Trump is winning the Iran war through economic pressure. Cut off the funding, defeat the proxy.

Trump drops a genuinely wild Truth Social announcement mid show, a massive oil agreement handing the US majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan reserves, and the crew spends a good chunk of the night picking apart whether Maduro is really finished, whether this counts as regime change or just a really good deal, and why "it's not stealing if nobody stops you" somehow becomes the working theory. From there it connects into a sharper conversation about the Iran war's real effect on gas prices, oil refiners quietly dodging consequences, and whether the whole conflict has become a convenient narrative shield heading into the midterms. There's also some good natured ribbing about billionaires paying eighty grand for stem cell treatments in Switzerland, a Kirk Cousins football aside, and the usual sponsor detours. A dense, genuinely engaging night of geopolitics with the jokes still very much intact.

Host Matt Trump (fighting a temperamental mic cord) turns his leftover map slides into a full episode on a provocative question: did the barbarians actually destroy Rome, or preserve it? Picking up from last week's Phantom Time detour, he leans on Belgian historian Henri Pirenne and the book Medieval Cities, bought decades ago as an Austin physics grad student, to argue a mainstream but revisionist case. The thesis: the Germanic tribes (Goths, Angles, Saxons, Franks) did not want to burn Rome down. They wanted in, preserving Roman civilization under new rulers, feudalism, and above all the Church, which outlived the state. What truly severed the ancient world, Pirenne argues, was the Arab conquest cutting Christian Europe off from Mediterranean commerce, shifting Europe's center of gravity north. Expect Hagia Sophia, Ravenna mosaics, Justinian, and pointed parallels to whether America is reliving Rome's fall.

Jordan and Nate dig into what they call a genuine media scandal this week: two supposedly measles related deaths in Pennsylvania that the county coroner and commissioner themselves say never happened, complete with a NBC infant death story that quietly admits the actual cause was a ruptured spleen. They connect the dots to what they believe is a deliberate push to pressure Amish communities in Pennsylvania and New York into vaccinating, tying it to a related Supreme Court bound legal fight over religious exemptions. From there it is a rundown of astroturfed food recall panic accounts, RFK Jr's newly signed temporary beef import deal and what it means for American ranchers, and a genuinely nostalgic tangent about the worst school lunches either of them ever ate. The show wraps with some real optimism: new fertilizer plants breaking ground and early signs of a farming shift away from glyphosate.

Jon Herold marks the six month anniversary of the Iran conflict by ribbing early predictions it would wrap up in weeks, then covers the Treasury Department's first named sanctions target under "Operation Economic Outcast," a UAE bank accused of processing 1.8 billion dollars for Iranian shadow banking networks. He digs into a new report on hundreds of millions in tax deductible charity dollars allegedly funneled into Democrat leaning voter registration efforts, and breaks down Trump's surprise announcement letting farmers and ranchers process their own meat to bypass a handful of dominant processors. Jon also debuts a new "Flashback Friday" segment, revisiting a November 2020 Politico article on presidential records that he argues quietly laid groundwork for the later classified documents scandals, plus a personal story about turning down a paid Polymarket promotion over disclosure concerns. Sponsor reads and lively chat banter round out a newsy Friday show.

Ashe in America and Ghost call Season 5, Episode 4 of The Chosen, "The Same Coin," a real turning point, and they mean it. This episode zeroes in on two men chasing the same broken idea of righteousness from opposite sides, as Judas continues to unravel and Shmuel crosses a line of his own that changes everything for him. The hosts spend real time on the Last Supper dialogue between Jesus and Judas, breaking down just how close the show sticks to the Gospel accounts while still finding room for gut wrenching original material. Expect a close look at betrayal, self deception, and what happens when someone convinces themselves that compromise is really conviction. They also talk through where Shmuel's arc is headed and why his storyline mirrors Judas more than either character would probably admit. As always there is warm banter, some sponsor reads, and genuine reverence for how the show keeps raising the emotional stakes. Ashe promises no spoilers too soon, so settle in.

CannCon and Chris Paul kick off Friday with what CannCon dubs Schrodinger's case, as a federal judge blocks the President's mail in ballot executive order yet again, roughly a week before the first ballots go out, in a ruling everyone expects to be appealed within days. They walk through the dizzying timeline of injunctions and reversals stretching back to April. From there they cover a USAID report finding more than a hundred UNRWA employees took part in the October 7th attacks, plus new sanctions avenues opening up against domestic extremist networks. The back half wanders into a genuinely interesting history detour on the Lusitania and what Woodrow Wilson knew, before closing with a Jessica Tarlov clip that has to be heard to be believed and a fresh Trump post it leads directly into. Plenty of banter and a good Friday send off.

Chris Paul and Burning Bright take on the 1997 Val Kilmer vehicle, and the verdict lands fast, this one is rough. Expect an entertaining teardown of a movie that was clearly built to launch a franchise and immediately fizzled, plus a genuine deep dive into Val Kilmer's eccentric career and the strange choices that pushed him away from Batman sequels and James Bond toward this instead. From there the conversation drifts into nuclear fusion, Russian oligarchy talk, and a pretty entertaining read on the film's ending as unintentional propaganda, complete with an NGO cameo that gets roasted hard. There's also some current events woven in around energy prices and manufactured scarcity. Stick around for boosts, a Vegas meetup mention, and next week's pick, a Depression era bootlegging drama with a killer cast neither host has seen.

CannCon and Alpha Warrior go dark, literally, kicking off in the shadows before diving into a stack of military videos and a healthy round of inter branch trash talk. They react to Javelin footage, boot camp chaos, and a Navy recruit graduation before landing on the real debate of the night, that viral video of a run down ship head that had the internet convinced sailors were suffering nine months at sea with no working toilets. Both hosts, one Marine and one who has heard it from every angle, break down why the story was likely overblown family gossip rather than sailors actually complaining, and why deployments are simply not supposed to be comfortable. There is also a deep dive into submarine depths and a hard pass on ever volunteering for one. It is inter service ribbing, military myth busting, and classic SITREP banter start to finish.

Frankie Val builds the whole night around a question posed by a voice note from Kenny in Cleveland: is polite society already gone? Kenny describes a neighborhood that now feels like a GTA lobby, and a moment of hesitating to help a stranger for fear of being mistrusted, which Frankie treats as the real warning sign of breakdown. From there it sharpens. Frankie lays out his non negotiable line on law and order (commit violence and you are damaged goods, full stop) while insisting we still examine the larger factors nobody wants to touch, chiefly pharma and SSRIs, and the selective way media frames white male shooters versus everyone else. It is not all heavy. Expect a scattering of lighter fare, from a Betelgeuse companion star and a viral "jellyfish on Mars" to the absurd GTA 6 leak rumors, plus callers pitching black widow encounters and postpartum stories. Raffle and Saturday sleepover show teased.

CannCon and Ashe in America return to finish what they started, picking up the second half of Chapter 12 of The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin, and this time they actually get to the sinking of the Lusitania. The hosts walk through how the ship was quietly outfitted for war, the cargo controversy that followed it for decades, and the strange timeline of warnings and decisions that put it directly in a U boat's path. They dig into the competing explanations for why the ship went down in under eighteen minutes, from torpedoes to secondary explosions to what divers actually found in the wreck decades later. Expect some genuinely jaw dropping historical details, a healthy dose of suspicion about official reports, and the kind of ending that makes the whole setup from last week click into place.

Trump kicks off with an 81st stock market record and a shoutout to a South Carolina Senate win before getting to the real headline: signing an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, following the same playbook as the Gulf of Mexico rename, with a hint that an ocean might be next. The Q&A that follows is a genuine grab bag, a blunt breakdown of trade grievances with Canada, tariffs on Canadian cars, a Putin and NATO question, a mail in ballot ruling in North Carolina, missing Americans in Nepal after a disaster, and a detailed Iran and Strait of Hormuz update covering blockades and cleared mines. The room also gets a bittersweet moment as the press secretary marks her last day, reflecting on two years behind the podium before heading off to spend more time with her kids. Wide ranging, a little emotional, and very on brand for a Wednesday press gaggle.

Jon Herold digs into a fresh batch of White House transparency documents on election machine supply chain vulnerabilities, walking through claims that voting machine vendors rely on Chinese made parts, but flags what he thinks is a bigger discovery: what appears to be the previously unknown title of a classified national security memorandum buried in the document citations. He also breaks down Trump's new national emergency declaration over foreign threats to the power grid, connects it to earlier joint declarations from top intelligence officials about the White House ballroom construction, and plays Trump's signing ceremony for the very on brand renaming of Lake Ontario to "Lake America." Other topics include a skeptical take on CIA Director Ratcliffe's under the radar Moscow trip, fresh Kremlin threats toward British military facilities over Ukraine support, and RFK Jr.'s claims about a fabricated Pennsylvania measles death. Sponsor reads and chat banter round out a document heavy Thursday show.

CannCon and Alpha Warrior open with a DHS statement on crime rates that Alpha is very pleased about, tying the drop back to deportation numbers and a broader debate over what actually drives the trend. From there they cover a wave of Democrat officials being charged over pandemic relief fraud, including a Massachusetts state representative facing eleven counts, plus a separate case involving postal employees recruited into a twenty four million dollar stolen check scheme. The centerpiece is the why we vote segment, where a federal judge lifts the last block on the President's mail in voting overhaul, letting the Postal Service move forward with its final rule ahead of the midterms. They close with a clip of leftists in LA County openly regretting their choices after a rough mayoral debate. Expect strong opinions, some good natured needling, and plenty of election talk.

Jon Herold and Burning Bright open with the escalating US Canada trade dispute, breaking down a clip from US Trade Representative Jameson Greer disputing the media narrative around a last minute tariff postponement gone sideways. There's real skepticism here about who actually backed out of the deal and why the coverage seems tilted. From there it's a stretch of speculation around the CIA director's overnight trip to meet with Russian officials, with theories ranging from Iran sanctions messaging to something involving England, before the hosts settle on a more mundane explanation. The back half shifts to Elon Musk's newly announced Terrafab project, reportedly set to be one of the largest physical structures on Earth, and what it means when Trump's data center rhetoric and Musk's building plans start looking suspiciously coordinated. A August 2025 flashback clip also gets revisited for context.

Cam and Chris Ponder rejoin Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Steven L. Kwast for round two of the truth triangulation series, picking up where last week's 16 steps left off. Cam offers a genuinely great mental exercise for the audience: imagine zooming into history the way you'd zoom into a map app, down to the exact building, the exact timestamp, even Thomas Jefferson's pen moving across the Declaration of Independence. Kwast adds the crucial caveat that makes it more than sci-fi speculation, an information system immune to AI manipulation, where truth strengthens the more it's cross referenced. Expect a detour into how ancient Sumerian cities aligned themselves with the cosmos, a story about Chinese municipal titling that'll make you raise an eyebrow, and a closing reflection on why none of this technology matters without moral character underneath it. Homework included, as always.

Former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin joins Shipwreck for a wide ranging, no filter conversation that starts with home defense, go bags, and a legendary prank story from his academy days, then gets serious fast. He walks through his ongoing lawsuit fallout tied to calling out Cash Patel's inner circle, the strange background research he has done on a certain country singer connected to Patel, and why he thinks getting sued is meant to bankrupt critics into silence. They swap theories on energy vampires and loosh, debate whether voting can actually fix anything, and revisit the COVID years and the friendships that never recovered. There is real venting about broken promises from this administration, plus some genuinely funny detours into regional slang and parody songs about the FBI. Kyle leaves listeners with his six Fs for getting through it all, and Shipwreck adds a seventh: fiber.

Jon Herold works to untangle public confusion over a recent SCOTUS ruling on mail in voting, explaining that it only unfroze one of two active cases challenging Trump's postal executive order while the League of Women Voters case is still blocking key provisions. He covers the DOJ and FBI seizing Chinese state sponsored hacking tools that targeted NASA, the Fed, and other agencies, a Secret Service leak investigation resulting in staff suspensions, and a newly announced Meta settlement over child safety claims. Ashe in America joins later to break down the Mike Lindell Minnesota recount fight and why the state's proposed "partial recount" methodology raises red flags. Other topics include a Pentagon claim of newly found Afghanistan withdrawal documents, a Massachusetts lawmaker's pandemic fraud arrest, and some fun with a new nickname for a Colorado election official. Sponsor reads, ad mishap bloopers, and a lively chat session round out a Wednesday show ahead of tonight's Power Hour with Burning Bright.

CannCon and Ashe open with the CIA director making an unannounced trip to Moscow and speculate on what business would justify a visit nobody was supposed to know about. From there they dig into three Secret Service communications officials being suspended and stripped of clearances in a leak probe that appears tied to the Air Force One plane swap story, with both the FBI and CIA involved. The middle of the show covers the Department of Education rollback and a Colorado teacher taking on her own union, sparking a broader conversation about decision rights and who should actually hold them. The back half is heavy on elections, from Michigan's motor voter whistleblower claims and a Postal Service standoff with a federal judge to an Ohio proof of citizenship block and Lisa Murkowski's shifting explanations on the Save America Act. Plenty of banter and real depth throughout.