This episode kicks off season 2 of The Punch Up — a happy place where wonky and human talk converge on topics of digital change, geopolitics, and business. Mark and Kent are spotting the gorilla in the room and, as always, dissecting events for strategic insights. The gorilla is the fiasco brewing if we let polarization continue to dominate national strategy. This and other political and cultural critiques come from personal reflections about the stewing pot of unpreparedness that is...

It will take a team effort to utilize the American system to solve modern-day problems, but can we find the talent we need with the industrial, siloed model that the government is stuck in? Today's digital natives live in a world where finding talent is driven by the unlimited freedom of digital communication, but are largely gate kept from sharing their digital perspectives within the system. It's time to cross-pollinate the wisdom from these antiquated silos and integrate this contextual...

Should America’s strategy be calculating and Machiavellian in the age of AI? Do the Framers get a vote? Or did they create the matrix with ratification of the Constitution permitting slavery to continue. Today, this system is still open to being abused to support the interests of K Street over Main Street on behalf of special interests and powerful elites. The digital natives seem ready to pioneer a different future. Can we handoff a national strategy that reflects the logic of the...

Can America 'stay ahead and catch up' in the world of increasing cybersecurity threats, or will the red tape be our demise? Brian Gallagher is the CEO and Co-Founder of CodeLock, where he pioneers technologies emerging in the intersection of physical security and cybersecurity. Most of today's industry and government-run on software, making both the average citizen and our country's infrastructure susceptible to major security threats. Due to the hurdles of America's policies and legislative...

Is war with China inevitable, or is the American strategy out of touch? Thomas P.M. Barnett is an American military geostrategist and Dale Moore is an innovation and technology leader, and together they join the panel to discuss the bastardization of America's Grand Strategy and what it means for different generations. Seemingly stuck in an era of political tribalism, America's grand strategy is fixated on the traditional appeal of focusing on the player instead of the board....

 America needs to redefine itself as the world deals with the price tag of globalization, and it's time to address the symptomatic churn. Thomas P.M. Barnett is an American military geostrategist and the author of 'America's New Map: Restoring Our Global Leadership in an Era of Climate Change and Demographic Collapse', and he shares his gritty and eye-opening take on the future reevaluation of the American strategy. In the wake of globalization, America finds itself at the edge of a...