Two Sense Podcast: Recent Episodes
Two Sense Podcast
Co-hosted by friends Scott A. Shay and Harry Ballan, this podcast explores life under the hood. The show takes a fresh approach to topics like government, religion, finance, and global affairs. New episodes are released every other week. Learn more at www.scottshay.com/twosensepodcast
What do Norman Rockwell, Iranian protests over head coverings, and Northwestern’s denial that a slogan “from the River to the Sea '' is indeed anti-semetic have in common? It seems that Norman Rockwell, influenced by President Roosevelt's State of the Union address and impressed with a town meeting in Vermont in which despite the fact that everyone in the room disagreed with the speaker still respectively listened, painted the first of four freedom pictures, which he called Freedom and Speech.
Scott and Harry worry that the underpinning of our freedom and indeed our constitution itself is being challenged by our unwillingness to engage in open, truthful and respectful dialogue. They remind us that the United States was founded on a concept of dual loyalty, but the safeguards our country was founded on, corporations separating CEOs and Chairmans, States rights vs national jurisdiction, freedom of speech and press are being challenged from all directions. We are being silenced not by the government, but by our peers. They conclude this conversation with some concrete suggestions on how we can rescue our country with a return to some fundamental principles.
Harry declares that “easy money is always a cultural phenomenon”. This kickoffs a lively and insightful conversation about the impact on our culture and specifically the individual of low interest rates, low inflation, low unemployment, and of course easy money. In creating a culture of complacency, Scott remarks that we want to live in a utopian society, and he always asks for the “bad news first” when given the choice. As usual, Scott and Harry take us back in time and around the globe to anchor this conversation historically and globally.
Scott and Harry reflect on the extraordinary leadership of the late Queen Elizabeth II. What are the lessons we can derive from her selfless leadership? The pageantry of her funeral speaks to a view of kingship that inspires awe, reverence, and love. Scott reminds us that the Bible wants to limit the power of kings to remind us that there is only one true king, that God rules above all human beings.
Taking a deep dive into England’s recent economic and political woes, Scott and Harry reflect on the historically large role of the Bank of England. Discussing such factors as keeping interest rates close to zero and printing money, Scott quotes Warren Buffett in observing that pension funds were the ones “swimming naked”. Analyzing the global situation from both historical and current trends, as well as the role of journalism and “telling the story accurately'', they both offer thoughtful and practical recommendations for swimming out of our current quagmire.
Scott and Harry take us on a deep discussion of realpolitik as it relates to the war in Ukraine. Harry asks Scott if Zelensky is truly a “Churchillian figure”? What makes this war in Europe different? Should Ukraine concede the Donbass region and Crimea as some suggest? Scott reminds us of the dangers of modern day idolatry and Putin’s desires to be a G-d/king. In thinking about the conflict from this perspective, what kind of deterrence can we offer? What is Putin’s end game? Broadening the conversation to China’s desire to conquer Taiwan, they discuss if we can or should support the Taiwanese in the same way.
Join these two successful business leaders as they delve into the fundamental definitions that guide so many of our conversations about our economy. Scott and Harry begin by offering a definition of capitalism and socialism. Then they share the common misconceptions surrounding those definitions. In defining different kinds of ownership and risk taking, they then take a deep dive into three kinds or stages of capitalism: shareholder, stakeholder and ESG. They discuss the liabilities of having elected officials set the rules, yet Scott advocates for a government enacted carbon tax. They wonder if Karl Marx were alive today how different these suggestions would be for how to overturn capitalism.
Join Scott and Harry as they grapple with the role of culture, the values of our society as it informs and guides our economic policies. Have we lost faith in the integrity of our social policies and institutions? A case is made that culture, our values, inform the economic decisions we make, and sometimes those policies compete with the facts on the ground. So in an effort to curb inflation, do we create more unemployment? This, they say, is a cultural question as much as it an economic one. Defining and measuring inflation and how it impacts our trust in the value of the dollar in our institutions, is of concern to all of us thinking about the well being of future generations. Scott and Harry ask us to think about what we owe future generations, and how that will impact the choices we make today.
Scott and Harry discuss the importance of culture as a set of beliefs, and how it irrigates and animates all things we hold dear from law to politics to economics. Giving examples from history, they discuss the importance of trust and the nature of our social connections. They ponder the question, what happens when cultures collide?
Are you optimistic about the future? In this podcast, Scott and Harry explore decades past - notably the 60's and 70's to understand the present time of malaise. What are the dangers of short-term thinking to tackle large and important issues? "Short-termism" forebodes a lack of seriousness and an inability to be realistic about the current situation in favor of quick fixes and immediate gains. Replete with examples from economics and politics, the co-hosts illustrate how short-term thinking has led to our present situation in society. Can faith and believing create a different perspective for more long-term thinking? Join Two Sense Podcast in this positive conversation on how we can create a healthier perspective for ourselves and our leaders.
Is a university education useful? In this far reaching conversation about bigness as it relates to the university, Scott and Harry bemoan the universities as the upstream cause of many of society's problems from the lack of diverse opinions tolerated on the university campus, the effects of the astronomical rise in college tuition, the consolidation of textbook publishers and more. Harry posits that the populists movement that pervades our society stems from a lack of understanding of a distinction made in the Federalist Papers between passions and interests. Scott and Harry cogently discuss why we need to renew our vocabulary about the dangers of teaching through the myopic lense of passions versus the more scientific, verifiable, and transparent lense of interests.
Scott and Harry take a deep dive into the grand narratives that we entertain from crime, attacks on capitalism, and foreign policy to illustrate how these grand narratives act to actually subvert truth. They speak of the dangers of bigness and empire-building and the demise of journalistic integrity.
Join Scott and Harry on a broad and freewheeling discussion on Putin's empire-building through hybrid warfare, the proliferation of conspiracy theories from the left and the right that is corroding our ability to distinguish theory over fact, and finally the effects all this has on young people today.
Scott and Harry introduce some of the "big ideas" that they will continue to refer back to in subsequent episodes. They begin with asking aspirational questions such as:
- Are extreme views losing favor and is moderation back in vogue?
- What is the impact of culture on our political, economic and educational institutions?
- How can Judeo-Christian ethics inform our conversation?
Come along in this deep conversation of things that really matter.