THE TALKING SENSE PODCAST
This week's of episode of Talking Sense looks at a green hydrogen project in the Western Cape, the illicit economy, elections in California, and the impact winter has on South Africa's protest cycles.
This week’s panel dissects South African politics, deindustrialisation, Labour’s global lessons, police failures in the Henry Nowak case, Democrats’ missteps, and ANC-DA coalition polling insights.
This episode tackles Phala Phala, ANC foreign funding, farming and state overreach, British Labour politics, AI’s energy demands, and whether the DA should risk governing a broken Johannesburg.
This week’s panel covers CSA’s Newlands ticket debacle, Trump’s midterm risks, Britain’s deepening cultural divide, Ramaphosa’s defence of BEE, and the MK Party’s latest leadership confusion.
This episode revisits the Shelley Garland affair, the collapse of HuffPost South Africa, and what it revealed about wokeness. The panel then turns to Phala Phala, Ramaphosa’s impeachment danger, and the political price the DA should demand. They end on the collapse of Labour in Britain, and Trump’s China visit, where the real fight may be over the future of the dollar.
This week the panel discusses the DA's new proposed empowerment policy, fake polls, xenophobia, and the British local elections.
A hard-edged panel discussion unpacking the third assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the media and political climate around it, big tech tensions between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, shifts in global energy power after the OPEC split, and the growing governance struggles of the Democratic Alliance.
Is the world really in crisis? In this episode, the panel debunks global hysteria, explores the US-Iran strategy through revolutionary theory, and discusses the UK's controversial ambassador appointment, Roelf Meyer, and Cape Town's mayoral future.
The Common Sense panel unpacks new Institute of Race Relations polling showing South Africans remain broadly moderate, assesses Geordin Hill-Lewis’s leadership debut, and examines how flawed economic ideas have reshaped Britain’s trajectory.
In this episode, the panel unpacks the realities of the Iran war, assesses its true economic impact, explores Nathan Kirsh’s $29 billion deal, interrogates proposed cadre deployment reforms, and examines the strategic stakes of the emerging space race and why countries that control the 'Hormuz points of space' will control the balance of power on Earth.
In this episode, the panel unpacks the roots of township crime, breaks down a major global media deal, and explains what to expect from the upcoming DA Congress, including key proposals and a leadership race. The discussion closes with two major US developments, a landmark Supreme Court ruling on free speech and new data on the economic impact of internal migration.
In this episode, the panel explains how two agricultural unions and a business lobby group are pressuring the minister of agriculture, through the courts, to allow private vaccine procurement and administration to combat the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) epidemic. It then talks through the political madness of the UK and Western energy policy broadly amidst the Iran war.
Dr James Myburgh then provides a fascinating deep-dive analysis of the origins of South Africa's violent crime pandemic and its ties to armed liberation-era movements. The panel then talks about new marriage data published by The Common Sense and why the drop in the marriage to divorce rate bodes ill for the country's long-term stability.
In this episode of Makin Sense, the panel examines the reports that Patrice Motsepe is not running for ANC leader. They then unpack the diplomatic fight between South Africa and the new United States ambassador. The focus then shifts to an Asian fraud scandal with a South African twist.
The panel then studies the facts around venture capital in Africa. After which, they explore the misreporting on the recent terrorist attack in New York and they finish by discussing the surge of support for the Green Party in the United Kingdom.
In this episode of Makin Sense, the panel examines the misrepresented history between the ANC and Iran. The panel explores how the myth of ties between the ANC and Iran overlooks Iran’s repression of leftist movements and the deaths of many communists under the Iranian regime.
The panel outlines the fluid situation in Iran today, focusing on US objectives, the shifting global power dynamics with China, and the energy market impacts. The panel also discuss how South Africa’s foreign policy might shift with Iran’s declining influence. Dr Frans Cronje lays out how the war will end.
In this episode, the panel discusses the attack by the US head of the Financial Times on The Common Sense, what the new CBS documentary on farm murders got wrong, South Africa's budget, the US Supreme Court decision on tariffs, Geordin Hill-Lewis running for DA leadership, the UK's new Cabinet Secretary, and South Africa's illiterate children.
In this episode, the panel discusses whether Patrice Mostepe could be eyeing a run for the ANC leadership, Marco Rubio's speech in Munich, the EU and UK's latest economic data, and the situation going into the US midterms.
We unpack the Roedean controversy, the mounting pressure against UK PM Keir Starmer, shifts inside the DA, and unease among Christian ANC members over South Africa’s stance on Iran.
We also explore US energy policy, Johannesburg’s ongoing power and water crisis, and what South Africa’s deepening trade ties with China could mean for the country’s economic future.
In this episode of Makin Sense the panel is joined by Rowland Brown, the co-founder of Cirrus Capital in Namibia as well as Benji Shulman the Executive Director of the Middle East Africa Research Institute, who and discuss the importance of Namibia, the bitcoin, silver and gold crash. What is next for the DA, SA/Israel relations and Trumps latest Fed pick.
In this episode the panel get to grips with AI, what it is, its future, and its likley effects on markets, politics, economies, and human relations.
