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 polarized American politics. In this stew that mostly older generations cooked up for us, there’s a big question: Why can't Gen X and Baby Boomers unplug from the political hype and be real? Do they know they are hyped? Do they realize how weary people are of left-right frames and games? How is that divide serving society? They’re diving into election cycle drama, global perspectives, and why younger generations will inevitably flip the hype script. How? By taking us back to an age where ears rule over eyes. (Spoiler: Plato would be proud.) Hear a thread of insights about Michael Jordan, AI, China, philosophy, and certain spooky skills we each have. What we have in common has much to teach us. Tune in and discover how ignoring the noise to heed those insights might just be the ultimate superpower! Show notes:🗽 September 11th, a day after the debate: the gender gap is widening in many ways in the US. 00:39🎩 Spooky skills and analysis: Mark Vancil is joining the Punch Up with open-source intelligence (OSINT) starting next episode. 01:53📚 American Strategy Press and new projects: a new publishing brand. 03:54🏀 Michael Jordan: We learned in 2023 from Mark Vancil’s The Last Excellent Man how MJ didn’t seek justice or vengeance for his dad’s killers or for Oprah rudely pressing him about it on live TV. 07:48☯️ Strategy and wholeness: what to ignore and what not to ignore as a leader or individual. 11:11🎤 Harris and Trump Debate: who owned the debate, and how is it handled in simple language with a high-level background? 14:29📺 The psychology of communication on television: 17:41⚠️ Game-ready-daily: digital data flows have a cascading effect across markets and cultures. 19:53🦅 The US political system has been in a hype machine for too long: people can’t be split into left and right - people are more complex than that. 24:43🤩 Being bipartisan: translatability is not hard when you're kind and honest. 29:04⏭️ The elections, technology, national security, and global order: what to expect in the next Punch Up episodes. 34:42🥛 Glass half-full thoughts: there are good things to come, as well as the crazy stuff that Elon Musk predicted. 38:21👂 Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: shift from eye to ear. 39:24 Links: Connect with Mark: www.linkedin.com/in/markfedeli Connect with Kent: www.linkedin.com/in/kentgustavson Publish a Book with American Strategy Press: www.americanstrategypress.com