Badlands Media

The crew settles in for another Friday night with the usual tech hiccups (cameras that won't turn on, the classic "unplug it and plug it back in") before diving into a full slate of news. There's a real conversation about shaky financial markets nobody wants to admit are shaky, a recap of a NATO summit where a foreign leader handed out loaded pistols to some very startled European delegates, and a...

Host Matt Trump returns from a break (a Fourth of July in the Arizona pines, plus a whirlwind Gart conference) with a story about his old physics-grad-school friend Jacques, a laid-back Frenchman who claimed he wouldn't visit America until "the orange dude" is gone. Matt assumed the worst, then discovered he'd read the whole thing wrong, and admits the episode title is technically a lie. What foll...

Jordan Sather and Nate Prince kick off a slower newsweek by trading MAHA wins (fasting, ankle rehab, and other Friday flexes) before diving into RFK Jr.'s push for a formal COVID vaccine injury table and what it could mean for Americans still waiting on compensation. They break down HHS's new Make Hospital Food Healthier Pledge, wonder aloud why hospital cafeterias so often resemble a sad Applebee...

Ghost tackles the week's biggest headline first: reports that Israel warned the US of a fresh Iranian plot to kill Trump, and why Ghost thinks that story deserves a heavy dose of skepticism (and maybe a raised eyebrow at who actually benefits). From there it's a full lap around the map. Ukraine strikes a Turkish-linked gas pipeline, Trump pulls Syria off the state sponsor of terrorism list, and NA...

Jon Herold digs into Trump firing the remaining Election Assistance Commission leadership and traces the history of the agency, from its role distributing COVID era election funds to its Dominion voting system certification timeline, connecting it to his long running election integrity coverage. He also unpacks reports that Israel shared intelligence about an Iranian assassination plot against Tru...

CannCon and Chris Paul open by unpacking Trump's move to fire the remaining Election Assistance Commissioners ahead of the midterms, tracing it back to years of documented problems with voting machine certification. From there they dive into a genuinely strange Axios report about a State Department official accused of going rogue on Venezuela policy, tangled up with exiled opposition figure Machad...

Chris Paul and Burning Bright drop into the water for a look at Spielberg's 1975 classic, and yes, the animatronic shark holds up better than you'd think. The guys dig into why practical tension still beats modern CGI, trade theories on whether Jaws would scare anyone who first saw it as an adult, and take a hard swing at Spielberg's recent output along the way. Expect real talk about shark encoun...

Grab your coffee (or bourbon pecan, your call), because CannCon and Alpha Warrior trade the news desk for the hangar this week. They sit down with Vietnam War veteran and Huey pilot Warrant Officer Rick McAninch, who flew assault helicopter missions with the 334th and trained alongside the 317th Air Cav. Rick walks through what it actually took to fly troops into hot LZs with no night vision, why...

CannCon and Ashe in America crack open Chapter 8 of The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin, and things get spicy fast. This week's theme: Fool's Gold, the story of how paper money without any real backing became the norm, and how fractional reserve banking let banks issue more gold receipts than gold they actually had. They trace fiat money all the way back to Marco Polo's account of...

Ashe in America and Ghost are back to unpack Season 4, Episode 6 of The Chosen, "Dedication," and this one is doing a lot at once. Expect a surprisingly deep detour into Alexander the Great and how his conquests reshaped the world Jesus and the disciples actually lived in, plus a spirited debate about which Bible verses tend to get conveniently trimmed by preachers who like half a promise more tha...

Jon Herold works through a New York Times deep dive on the many ways Trump is using federal power to try to shape the 2026 midterms, walking through nationalization efforts, redistricting battles, election security cuts, and ongoing fights over voter rolls in states like Georgia and Minnesota. He shares some skepticism about whether these efforts have produced any real world results yet and invite...

CannCon and Alpha Warrior kick off with a Chuck Grassley bombshell claiming Jack Smith's own office mishandled classified material while prosecuting Trump, then dig into what that could mean for the special counsel himself. From there the two go head to head, genuinely head to head, over the unraveling Graham Platner scandal in Maine and whether a similar controversy around his would be replacemen...

Jon Herold and Burning Bright are back for a Wednesday session that opens with bathroom demolition chaos before diving into the real construction project: tearing apart the DOGE narrative. Was it a genuine cost cutting crusade or a "narrative delivery vehicle" for waking people up to government waste? The guys hash out both sides after a rough reaction to a poll about it. From there it's straight...

Shipwreck is back after a wild news week, wading through the Charlie Kirk trial fallout, the Candace Owens versus Turning Point USA divide, and a fresh round of Mitch McConnell conspiracy talk (yes, the collagen ad makes a comeback too). She digs into the Christian Zionism debate, questions why curiosity gets treated like a crime online, and reacts live to a stack of viral clips on segregation, th...

Ever wonder why a bunch of satellites floating in the sky matters so much to your daily reality? Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Steven L. Kwast sits down with Chris Ponder to lay the groundwork for their new "Tools for Truth" series, starting with a crash course in orbital mechanics that's part physics lecture, part treasure map. They break down the difference between low Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit, and geo...

Jon Herold rolls into hump day with a lighter mood, opening with a shoutout to a fan painted portrait of his cat before diving into the noise around Trump's Air Force One travel plans and the speculation over why he's flying home the old fashioned way. He plays a few clips from the president's press gaggle, including some candid comments on assassination odds and the ongoing Iran conflict, then br...

Fresh off a NATO summit in Turkey, Trump holds court with the press pool and, true to form, covers roughly nine topics in the time it takes most people to answer one question. Expect a victory lap on defense spending hitting the 5% benchmark, some pointed words for Iran's leadership and their now very much sunken navy, a Toyota plant relocating to Texas thanks to tariffs, and a spirited defense of...

CannCon and Ashe dig into day two of the Tyler Robinson preliminary hearing, walking through a stack of courtroom clips that raise more questions than answers: mystery body cam footage, a curiously unsecured bullet, and DNA testimony that gets more technical than convincing. From there they pivot to the increasingly bizarre saga of Mitch McConnell's health, with dueling claims about brain death, h...

Alpha Warrior and Josh Reid open with a Fourth of July high, then dive straight into the deep end. Expect talk of a RICO case getting broken into smaller, more manageable prosecutions, possible August indictments, and why the phrase continuing conspiracy keeps coming up. They connect the CIA freedom quilts posted by the agency director to a Morse code puzzle, walk through a presidential sports boo...

Ghost dives into a jam-packed NATO summit in Ankara, where Trump shows up dressed like he's attending NATO's funeral (his words, basically) and proceeds to cozy up to Erdogan over F35 jets, lifted sanctions, and some very pointed remarks about allies who didn't show up when it mattered. Meanwhile Netanyahu is not thrilled, Macron can't seem to take his sunglasses off after a bombing in Damascus, a...

Jon Herold kicks off a quieter Tuesday by admitting the news cycle feels stuck in neutral, with Iran, Ukraine, and the economy all in a holding pattern. He gets it out of his system on Team USA's early soccer exit before turning to the swirl of speculation around Mitch McConnell's health and whether Scott Jennings' account of their phone call adds up. There's a quick check-in on the Tyler Robinson...

CannCon and Ghost open with a spirited breakdown of Team USA's rough World Cup exit, turning a soccer flop into a broader riff on masculinity, culture, and why Europe just can't stop flopping (literally). From there the guys pivot through sponsor shoutouts before diving into the Platner scandal roiling Democrat primaries, a fresh batch of midterm polling that has both parties spinning their own na...

Jon Herold and Zak Paine are back for Monday night, and things get weird fast. After a brief detour into USMNT soccer heartbreak (the goalie deserves his own investigation), the guys dig into the increasingly strange case of a Senate leader who hasn't been seen in public for weeks. Hospital statements, a very specific 911 call, a spouse's oddly timed overseas meetings, and a family that has gone c...

Ashe in America is back after a "GART week" with a fired up episode built around one big idea: the fight for the country isn't happening in DC, it's happening in your HOA meeting, your county assembly, and your group chat. Joining her is Corey from Break the Chains Media, a fellow Colorado troublemaker she first met years ago handing out stickers at a protest. The two dig into why the two party sy...

Matthew Ehret is back with roughly 50 slides and zero patience for the AI doom cult, whether they're pitching machines as gods or demons. This episode zooms out from last week's Tesla debate to ask a bigger question: is technological progress really a trade for personal freedom, like the transhumanists insist, or is that just repackaged Malthus with better marketing? Expect a wild tour through mec...