Common Sense has spent most of its life being carried by a small group of people doing three jobs each. That changes now. We have hired six people full-time, and next week I will introduce every one of them to you properly, with their names, their roles, and what they are here to build.

I am not going to spoil it. What I will say is that this is the first time the network has had a founding team rather than a founder with helpers, and the difference is already showing in how quickly things move. Expect changes to the shows, the publishing rhythm, the events, and the way we bring you into the work. Keep your eyes peeled next week.

The Founding Ten

The second thing I want to tell you about is something we have been building quietly for months.

We are opening the Founding Ten. We are looking for ten high-potential podcasters to invest in and support, properly, over the long term. Not a studio hire with a friendly face on it, and not a membership badge. Wrap-around support for people who are serious about making something that lasts.

Here is what it includes. Members get five hours a month in our South East London studio at a heavily discounted rate of £56 an hour, so the recording side of your show stops being the thing that eats your budget. You get an hour a month of consulting with our team, covering your analytics, an honest read on how the show is actually performing, your branding, and your growth strategy. You also get free use of the space for a live event every six months, which normally runs at £850, because at some point every podcast needs to meet its audience in a room.

It is £280 a month.

I have been on the other side of this. I know what it is to have a show, a bit of momentum, and nobody around you who can tell you which numbers matter or why the format is not landing. Most podcasters do not fail because the idea was weak. They fail because they were alone with it for too long.

That is what this is. Ten people, deliberately, so the support stays real.

Applications open shortly through a short form, and we will be sharing the full breakdown across our channels this week. If you have been sitting on a show, or you are already publishing and know it should be growing faster than it is, this is the one to move on. When the ten are gone, they are gone.

Get locked in

There is a great deal coming, and much of it arrives faster than a newsletter can properly explain.

New shows are in production and the podcast is moving weekly. We have documentaries in development, live events being scheduled, and a membership community taking shape that gives the people who care about this work a genuine seat at the table rather than a comment section.

Common Sense started because I thought the way we talk about politics and culture in this country had become useless to anyone genuinely trying to think. That has not changed. What has changed is that there is now a team behind it, a studio, a slate, and a plan that stretches beyond the next upload.

Stay subscribed, tell one person who would find this useful, and watch what we do next. It is going to be a good year.

Mike Omoniyi Founder and CEO, Common Sense

Earlier this year, Common Sense completed its transition from a news company into a media and insights collective.

The change was not cosmetic. It reflected what our work had already become across documentary, commercial communications, and the community projects that keep us rooted in South East London. Now we are appointing the two people who will lead the next stage of it.

The first is a Founder’s Associate, who will own growth and partnerships across the whole network. That means brand collaborations, grant funding, our commercial services, and sponsorship of our shows and live events. It is the seat where relationships become revenue, and the person in it will shape strategy rather than carry out someone else’s. The base salary is £27,000 with performance bonuses, reviewed at eight months, with a clear path to Head of Growth.

The second is a Chief of Staff, functioning as our Head of Operations across the network, Common Sense Plus, the studio, and On Mission.

Delivery across every live project sits with them, alongside hiring as the team grows, budgets and suppliers, and how the studio runs as a working building. This is not an assistant role. The base salary is £35,000, reviewed at eight months, with a clear path to Chief Operating Officer as the network expands.

Both are founding roles with genuine ownership and a direct line to me. The work ahead includes documentary commissions abroad, communications projects for major organisations and individuals, and a slate of live events and community programmes across the city. Both roles are full time and hybrid, based at Common Sense Studios in South East London.

If you are the right person for either of these, or if someone came to mind while you were reading, applications and questions go to mike@tcsnetwork.co.uk. We are interviewing as applications come in, so it is worth moving early.

Apply For Roles

Mike Omoniyi
Founder and CEO, The Common Sense Network

Britain has a new Prime Minister

Andy Burnham takes office today, and the man once known as the King of the North now has the keys to Downing Street. It is a remarkable rise for someone who spent years arguing that power should sit closer to the people it affects, and now he holds the most centralised job in the country.

The questions start immediately. He inherits an economy with weak growth, high debt, and very little room to move on tax or spending, which makes his promise of regional investment and reindustrialisation harder to fund than to announce. He has pledged to fix a social care system he already tried to reform once as Health Secretary, and the welfare bill keeps climbing while his own party pulls in different directions over what to cut. There is a £4.7 billion hole in the defence budget to close. There is Reform UK on one flank and the Greens on the other, both feeding on voters Labour used to count on. There is a Trump White House to manage without losing the room at home.

Seven leaders in a decade tells its own story. The interesting question is not whether Burnham can survive the honeymoon, but whether devolution and “power to the regions” can actually govern a country, or whether it only sounds good from the outside. We will be watching closely, and we suspect you will be too.

Mike is in New York

For those wondering where he has been, Mike has been in New York for a few weeks now. It has been a busy stretch. He recently hosted a panel over in New Jersey, and by all accounts, the conversation was exactly the kind of thing this community exists for: serious people, real disagreement, no shouting.

More on what he has been building stateside soon. For now, know that the work has not slowed down just because the postcode changed.

3. We have extended the hiring deadline

Good news if you have been sitting on an application. We have pushed the deadline for our open roles back by two days, so there is still time.

If you know someone brilliant, this is your nudge to send them our way. The full list of roles and everything they need to apply is in the form attached to this email. Share it widely. The best people usually come through a personal recommendation rather than a job board, so a single message from you could be the thing that lands us our next great hire.

Apply Now

That is everything for this week.

Speak soon,

Claudina

Community Manager, The Common Sense Network

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

By the time the lectern was carried out onto Downing Street this morning, most of Westminster already knew what was coming. Keir Starmer stood in front of that famous black door, his voice catching when he spoke about his wife and children, and announced that he is resigning as leader of the Labour Party and as Prime Minister. He will stay on as caretaker until his party settles on a successor. Less than two years after one of the largest landslides in modern British political history, the government he built has run out of road.

This is not a small moment. He becomes the seventh person to stand outside that door and announce a premature departure in roughly a decade. The country he leaves behind is exhausted by the churn.

What actually happened

Starmer spoke to King Charles this morning before making the statement public, which is the constitutional courtesy that signals a decision is final rather than a threat. He framed it carefully. The question his party had started asking, he said, was whether he was the right person to lead them into the next general election. He told the cameras he had heard the answer and accepted it with good grace.

The collapse had been building for months. Labour lost more than a thousand council seats in the May local elections, and the result was read across the spectrum as a straightforward verdict on his leadership. Around twenty ministers walked during his tenure. Reform UK has been leading the national polls with unsettling consistency, the Greens have been quietly peeling off the disillusioned left, and the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington dragged the Epstein story back into the headlines at the worst possible time. The final push came last Friday, when Andy Burnham won the Makerfield by-election and returned to Parliament with the open intention of taking the top job.

Here is the timetable that matters for the weeks ahead:

• Nominations open on 9 July and close when Parliament rises for summer recess on 16 July.

• If more than one candidate clears the threshold of twenty percent of Labour MPs, a vote of the wider membership follows.

• In the event of a contest, a new leader is due to be in place by 1 September.

• Starmer remains Prime Minister throughout, with a promise of an orderly handover.

Why he really lost the country

The temptation today will be to write Starmer off as a man who simply failed at the job. That reading is too easy, and it misses the more interesting and more useful lesson.

There is a genuine case that not everything was going wrong. His handling of foreign affairs earned real respect, including from people who disliked almost everything else about him. His refusal to be dragged into the Iran war was described even by his critics as brave and principled, and the tributes pouring in from European leaders this morning are not the kind you write for a man who achieved nothing. Some of the harder economic numbers were arguably beginning to steady. On paper, the story of his premiership was not the unbroken disaster the headlines suggest.

The problem is that almost nobody could tell you what he was for. He won an enormous majority on the promise of competent, grown-up government after years of chaos, and then he governed as though competence alone would speak for itself. It does not. Voters do not experience spreadsheets or quarterly growth revisions. They experience a feeling about whether the country is going somewhere, and whether anyone at the top can describe where that is. Starmer never gave them that feeling, and a government that cannot explain itself gets no credit for the things it quietly gets right.

That is the part worth holding onto, whatever you think of his politics. Leadership is not only about doing the work. It is about giving people a story they can stand inside while the work gets done. Starmer had the first half and almost none of the second, and in the end, the silence was filled by everyone else.

The succession is moving fast

Attention has already shifted to Andy Burnham, who confirmed this morning that he will put his name forward and called for the process to be conducted in an orderly and responsible way. He is the overwhelming favourite. Wes Streeting, who resigned as health secretary last month and looked like the most credible rival, has thrown his weight behind Burnham instead, which clears the field considerably. If no serious challenger emerges, Labour may opt for a coronation rather than a contest, and Burnham could be Prime Minister within weeks.

The sensible thing is to watch two things at once. The first is whether Burnham’s brand, built in Manchester on a kind of plain-spoken distance from Westminster, survives contact with Westminster itself. The second is the uncomfortable fact that the country is about to get its next Prime Minister without anyone outside the Labour Party casting a single vote. Some will say that is exactly how the system is meant to work. Others will say it is precisely the churn that has hollowed out public trust in the first place. Both have a point, and the next few weeks will tell us which instinct is winning.

Mike Omoniyi

One more thing before you go

Away from the politics, we have a new episode out this week that we are genuinely proud of. Mike sits down with Sharon Foulston for a conversation about inheritance, grief, and what she learned sailing solo across open water with nothing but time and her own thoughts for company. It is honest, unhurried, and a useful counterweight to a news cycle that moves this quickly. Have a listen when you get a moment, and let us know what lands.

We will keep watching the leadership story closely and bring you the parts that actually matter, without the noise.

Stay sensible.

Calaudia,

Community Manager

I’m Claudia, and I run the community here at Common Sense, which means I spend most of my week reading your messages, watching what you share, and noticing what makes you lean in. Today I get to write to you about something that has been quietly building for a while, and it feels right to say it plainly.

We are hiring, and here is why it matters

Common Sense started life as a news company. Over the years, it became something larger than that label could hold, a place where young, curious people come for honest conversation about politics, faith, culture, and the questions that actually keep them up at night. We are formally becoming what we have already been in practice, a media and insights collective built for people who want to understand the world rather than simply react to it. Growth like that asks for more hands, sharper minds, and people who take the mission as seriously as we do.

So we are opening five founding roles, and the word founding is deliberate. These are not seats to fill but a team to build with. We are looking for a

• Chief of Staff,

• Head of Media Production and Content,

• Head of Partnerships and Services,

• Multimedia Producer and Editor

• Community and Engagement Manager.

If any of those sound like the work you were made for, or you know the person who fits, I would love to hear from you. You can read the full descriptions and apply through the link below, or email us at mike@tcsnetwork.co.uk with the role and your name in the subject line.

Apply here → link

The episode you should not skip this week

Our latest conversation is with Austin Okolo, who went from football to fashion before stumbling into building the Gen Z Club and a recruitment agency focused on young, diverse talent. What makes this one worth your time is the honesty. Austin talks openly about getting everything he wanted and still feeling empty, about losing money to a pyramid scheme at eighteen, and about a job market so brutal that a whole generation is being pushed into businesses they never chose.

The title carries most of it. Everyone Wants Dubai. Nobody Wants the Work. It is a clear-eyed look at the distance between the highlight reel and the real cost of building something, and it pairs nicely with a strong coffee on a slow morning.

That is everything from me for now. Thank you for being part of this, especially as we step into a bigger version of what we set out to do. Reply and tell me which role caught your eye, or what you made of Austin. I read every message.

Claudia Community Lead,

Common Sense

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

When I started Common Sense almost seven years ago, I did it from a place of frustration rather than ambition. I was tired of watching a media culture that rewarded the loudest voice in the room and treated disagreement as something closer to a blood sport than a conversation. I believed there was a quieter, hungrier audience who wanted to understand the world rather than simply be told how to feel about it. That belief is the reason any of this exists, and it is the reason for the announcement I am making today.

After nearly seven years, Common Sense is making its full transition from a news company to a media and insights collective. Our mission from here is to help different perspectives build understanding, trust, and change. It is a small shift in language and a massive shift in what we actually do. I want to take a few minutes to explain why, because the people reading this are the people who got us here in the first place.

News taught us something we did not expect to learn. The problem was never a shortage of information, because people are already drowning in it. What people lack is a way to make sense of competing perspectives without feeling forced to pick a tribe and defend it to the last breath. The most valuable thing we ever produced was rarely the story itself, it was the understanding that sat underneath it, so we decided to build the entire company around that instead of around the headline.

We have been doing this quietly for the past year. We have taken on documentaries, branding work, and PR, and we have started telling longer, slower, more careful stories of the kind that never fit neatly into a news cycle. We have also acquired a property in South East London that will become the physical hub of everything we do, a full-service third space, content studio, and office where this work can finally live under one roof. Local roots, global footprint, has stopped being a slogan and started being an actual address.

To shape this next chapter, we are hiring five full-time people over the next two months. The work ahead runs from documentaries in the Middle East to new conversation formats built in the spirit of Jubilee Media, where people who disagree sit across from one another and something honest tends to happen.

We are looking for a

• Chief of Staff,

• Head of Partnerships and Services,

• Head of Media Production and Content,

• Video Editor and Producer

• Community, Engagement and Social Manager.

Discover Roles

If you read that list and a particular name came to mind straight away, that is rarely an accident, so please pass this on to them.

There is a line I keep returning to about not despising the day of small beginnings. Common Sense started as a handful of us with a laptop and a conviction, and I am writing this to you now from a company that owns a building. I do not mention that to boast, I mention it because I have genuinely seen what can be done with small things held in faithful hands. The next version of this only works if more of the right people choose to build it with us, which is the whole reason I am writing rather than waiting for a press release to do it for me.

Everything you need is gathered in one place. The full announcement video is below, along with the link to the roles and the details on how to apply. If you want to be part of this, apply for the role that fits you. If you know someone who would be brilliant at it, send this to them while you are thinking of it. If you simply have a question about any of it, reach out to me directly, because I do read these and I do answer them.

Thank you for being here for the version of Common Sense that carried us this far. The next one is going to be the most ambitious and the most honest work we have ever made, and I would love for you to see it up close.

Watch the full announcement:

Apply for a role: https://forms.gle/X5hGngrjcSJQQhVd9

Mike

Lets change the world

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

They got into all of it. The monarchy, which she called archaic and depraved without flinching. Faith and doubt, including a line that has stuck with the team since we first watched the cut, where she says she believes more than she doesn’t. The weight of being the eldest daughter who tries to fix everyone and everything. The moment that gives the episode its spine is when she jokes about running for Mayor of London, then makes it plain she would rather put her energy into buying local kids their school uniforms. Underneath all of it sat one challenge she kept returning to: question me, don’t worship me.

That refusal to be put on a pedestal feels rare at the moment, and it is exactly why the conversation is worth your time, whether you nod along or argue with the screen the whole way through.

Watch and listen: Kelechi Okafor on Doubt, Identity and Refusing to Be Worshipped. Mike’s full conversation is live now on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the episode here.

What we’re watching

The story dominating Britain this week is the death of Henry Nowak. The 18-year-old student was stabbed in Southampton last December, and the case has erupted again after his killer was sentenced to life on Monday and police body-worn footage was released. The video shows officers handcuffing Henry as he told them he had been stabbed, apparently after his attacker falsely claimed to have been the victim of a racist assault. When officers realised how badly he was hurt they uncuffed him and began CPR, but he died, and the judge later rejected the claim that Henry had said anything racist.

Hampshire Police have apologised, protests have gathered outside Southampton station, and the case has been pulled in every political direction at once, from Reform drawing comparisons with George Floyd to ministers steering the conversation back to knife crime. The line worth holding onto came from Henry’s own father, who called the treatment of his son inhumane while pleading that his death not be used to create further division or hatred. That tension, between justified anger at a clear failure and the refusal to let grief be weaponised, is exactly the kind of conversation we want to have here without the heat.

Westminster, meanwhile, is having its loudest wobble in years. After Labour’s heavy losses in the May local and devolved elections, with Reform now leading several national polls, a large block of Labour MPs have called on Keir Starmer to go or to name a date for his departure, and he has flatly refused. The Makerfield by-election on 18 June, with Andy Burnham now in the running, will tell us how serious the threat to his leadership really is.

Further afield, keep an eye on Iran. American aircraft struck Iranian sites near the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, and within days the President was telling Fox News the United States should never have been there at all.

Open House this Friday

Here is the part where you stop reading and come and be in the room. This Friday we are opening up Common Sense Studios from 9 to 5.

If you are a founder building something, a creative working out your next move, or someone who just wants to think out loud around people who get it, the door is open. We have the space, the conversations, and depending on the day, people who can genuinely help. Mentorship, a second opinion, honest feedback, or simply good company. There is no ticket and no agenda, only an open studio in South East London and a reason to show up.

Spaces are limited by the size of the room, so let us know you are coming.

Sign up for Open House here.

See you Friday.

Claudia Community Manager, Common Sense

Last month the Office for National Statistics published its latest portrait of the British family, and almost nobody noticed. Married couples still head around two thirds of families, while close to a quarter of households with children are now led by a single parent, a figure that has barely moved in a decade. Numbers like these tend to get weaponised long before they get understood. One side reads them as proof of moral decline. The other treats them as evidence that the so called traditional family was always a bit of a myth. The more honest conversation sits somewhere underneath both positions, which is exactly the one we decided to put on camera this week.

One home or two

We put a deceptively simple question to the table. What actually gives a child the best shot at a good life, the stability of two parents under one roof or the focus of one parent who is fully present? The debate went live this week, and it is already splitting the comments in the way only an honest argument can. Nobody on the panel pretended the answer was obvious, which is precisely why it is worth your time. Watch it, then tell us where you land, because the best comments genuinely shape what we cover next.

Watch the debate here:

Mike sits down with Nelson Louis

This week’s episode is one we have been looking forward to sharing for a while. Mike sat down with Nelson Louis, the 23-year-old creator from Geneva who has built a following north of a million, though almost nothing about how he got there looks like the usual story. He streamed to zero viewers for a full year, funded his setup by pitching for charity door to door, and kept going long after most people would have walked away.

The turn came when he stopped performing for strangers and started living the content instead, spending a month in the favelas in Brazil and climbing Kilimanjaro along the way. What makes the conversation worth your time is how honest he is about the part nobody posts. The reach arrived, and it still left him feeling lost.

If you are short on time, these two moments are the place to start.

The first clip is the one we keep coming back to. A million followers, and Nelson admits he still felt empty at the top of it. It cuts straight through the quiet assumption that an audience is the same thing as a life

Keep the conversation going

The comment sections under our videos have quietly become some of the best reading on the whole channel. People disagree well, they bring evidence, and they hold us to a higher standard than most of the internet bothers with. We do not take that for granted. Keep commenting, keep sharing the clips that move you, and keep telling us plainly when you think we have got something wrong. This community works because you treat it as a conversation rather than a broadcast.

One more thing before you go

The team has been building something quietly for a while now, and we are genuinely excited for you to see it. We will not spoil it here. What we can tell you is that it changes how you experience everything we make, and it lands in your inbox next week. Keep an eye out.

Speak soon,

Claudia

Common Sense Community Team

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

Common Sense is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

There is a particular kind of guilt that arrives with a hot bank holiday. London is sitting at around thirty-three degrees this afternoon, the sky is clear, and somewhere in the back of your mind a voice is insisting that you ought to be doing something with all this. Mowing something. Assembling something. Finally tackling the cupboard that has become a museum of carrier bags. The sun has a way of turning rest into a productivity problem.

I want to give you permission to ignore that voice today. Not because the work does not matter, but because the rest is part of the work, and we tend to forget that until our bodies remind us the hard way.

It has been a loud few weeks. The local elections earlier this month gave us plenty to chew on, with Reform and the Greens both forcing the established parties to look harder at ground they assumed was theirs. The new parliamentary session has opened, the King’s Speech has been and gone, and the usual machinery of comment has been running at full tilt. If you have felt slightly battered by the volume of it all, you are not imagining things. The pace of news now is not designed for human absorption. It is designed for engagement, which is a different thing entirely, and often the opposite of understanding.

This is something we think about a lot at The Common Sense Network. The goal was never to add to the noise. It was to help people make sense of a complicated world without feeling like they have to drink from a fire hose to stay informed. A bank holiday is a good moment to remember that staying informed and staying anxious are not the same project. You can care deeply about the state of the country and still close the tabs for a day.

There is decent thinking behind this, not just a nice sentiment. The psychologist Daniel Kahneman drew a sharp line between the experiencing self and the remembering self, the part of us that lives a moment and the part that files it away. We spend enormous energy curating the second one, the highlight reel, the sense that the day was well spent. We spend far less attention on the first, the actual texture of being alive on a warm Monday with nowhere to be. Most of us are so busy producing a life worth remembering that we forget to experience the one we are in.

The irony is that the people who seem to achieve the most are often the ones who have made peace with stopping. Rest is not the reward for the work. It is part of the engine that makes the work possible. I have learned this slowly, and usually by getting it wrong first. There were seasons where I treated every spare hour as a moral failing if it was not converted into output. That is not discipline. That is fear wearing discipline’s clothes.

So here is what I would gently suggest for today. Pick one thing that is genuinely yours, not a task disguised as leisure, not a chore you have rebranded as self-care. A walk without a podcast in your ears. A long lunch with someone you have been meaning to see. A book you have owned for two years and never opened. Or, if you will allow me a small bit of self-interest, something good to watch while the kettle does its thing.

We released a new conversation this week that I think suits a slow morning well. It is an honest, wide-ranging chat that goes somewhere more interesting than the title might suggest, the kind of episode you can sit with rather than simply consume. I would love for you to enjoy it with a coffee and an open window today.

If you do watch it, reply and tell me what landed for you. Some of the best ideas we have ever pursued at the Network started life as a one-line reply from someone reading on a quiet morning exactly like this one. I read them all, even when it takes me a while to respond.

The forecast says this heat holds through tomorrow before it breaks midweek, so the window for a genuinely lazy Monday is real and it is short. Use it. The cupboard of carrier bags will still be there on Wednesday, patient as ever, and you will be a better version of yourself for having ignored it today.

Rest well. Think clearly. We will be back in your inbox soon with more to get your teeth into.

M.T. Omoniyi

Common Sense Network

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

Last Thursday, I sat down to write this newsletter and had to throw away two drafts before lunchtime. Every time I started a sentence, another piece of news arrived to make it wrong.

By the time I got to draft three, the Health Secretary had resigned, a Labour MP had given up his seat to make way for Andy Burnham, Angela Rayner had been cleared by HMRC, and eighty-seven of Keir Starmer’s own MPs had publicly called for him to go. All in the space of six hours.

You think I’m exaggerating. I’m not. Check the timeline.

This is the most dramatic week in British politics since Liz Truss tried to fight a lettuce and lost. The difference is that this time, the people involved aren’t a joke. They’re serious figures with serious followings, and what happens next will shape the country for the next decade.

Here’s where we actually are.

Wes Streeting has resigned from government but hasn’t formally triggered a leadership challenge. He needs eighty-one Labour MPs to back him. The briefing war suggests he might not yet have them. Andy Burnham is fighting the Makerfield by-election to get back into parliament, which he has to win before he can even stand. Angela Rayner has been cleared by HMRC and told the Guardian she’s ready to run. Ed Miliband is hovering. Keir Starmer is refusing to budge.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage is sitting on fourteen new councils, a five million pound personal donation from a crypto billionaire, and the biggest opportunity any populist British politician has had since Brexit. Every day Labour spends arguing about itself is a day Reform spends building its machine.

I sat down with the Common Sense Podcast this week to do something I haven’t done in a while. A proper listener Q&A. You sent in the questions, and I answered them honestly. Who’ll lead Britain next. Whether the two-party system is finished. Whether Christianity still has a place in public life. What I’d actually say if I had to write a Prime Minister’s first speech for them. The new episode is out now. Go listen.

I’m also working on a proper Editor’s Desk breakdown of the leadership race itself. Who each of the contenders actually is, what they believe, and what each one would mean for the country if they got the keys to Number 10. That drops later this week. Subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already, so you don’t miss it.

But the bigger question, the one I’ve been thinking about all week, isn’t who replaces Starmer.

It’s whether any of them can offer the country a story worth believing.

That’s the thing about this moment. The country isn’t waiting for a better manager. The country is waiting for someone who can explain what Britain is for. What it’s trying to become. Why the next twenty years should look different from the last twenty. Nobody in Westminster seems willing to attempt that question.

Reform has filled the silence with grievance. The Tories have given up trying. Labour is too scared of losing more focus groups to say anything brave. And so the country drifts, the populists get louder, and the people who could lead refuse to lead.

I’m not sure who wins this. I genuinely don’t think anyone knows. What I am sure of is that the country deserves better than what it’s currently being offered.

Reply and tell me who you’d back if you had a vote tomorrow. I read every response.

More soon.

M.T Omoniyi

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

Two things for you this week — one for the ears, one for the eyes.

First, the new episode is live. We sat down with Jon Onabowu — British-Nigerian drummer, composer, and bandleader — whose music sits at the intersection of jazz, funk, hip-hop, and gospel. Jon founded the Cosmic Fusion residency at Ronnie Scott’s, has performed at Montreux and the EFG London Jazz Festival, and has just dropped his debut single “The Bounce” ahead of his first album Now’s The Time, out in May. It’s a genuinely brilliant conversation about creativity, craft, and what it takes to build something from the ground up. Go listen — and then go find the music too.

Second, we wrote something this weekend about the Together Alliance march in London. Organisers said half a million people showed up. The Met said 50,000. That ten-fold gap tells you almost everything you need to know about how political events get weaponised before the crowds have even gone home. But beyond the numbers dispute, there’s a more honest question worth sitting with — does a march through Whitehall actually speak to the parts of the country where these political tensions are sharpest? I don’t think the answer is as simple as either side wants it to be.

Read: The March That Couldn’t Agree On Its Own Size → tcsnetwork

As always, share both if something lands with you. That’s how we grow.

Common Sense Community Team.

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

This one’s a little different.

Usually I’m the one steering the conversation. Picking the guest, setting the agenda, deciding what we’re going to dig into. This time, you did that. You sent in the questions, and I had to actually answer them.

No deflecting. No “great question, but let’s reframe that.” Just me, your questions, and whatever honesty I could muster.

The episode is live now on YouTube, and I’ll be honest, it was one of the more enjoyable things I’ve filmed in a while. There’s something clarifying about being on the other side of the mic. You lot don’t pull punches, and I respect that. A few of the questions genuinely made me think harder than I expected, and I hope that comes through in the answers.

We got into The UK vs The USA, Trump and Farage, and a few things I probably shouldn’t have said but did anyway. Classic.

This format works because of the quality of people in this community. The Sensibles are exactly who The Common Sense Network was built for: curious, rigorous, not easily satisfied with surface-level takes. Your questions reflected that, and I hope the answers do too.

Watch it here:

If you enjoyed it, share it with someone who’d appreciate a proper conversation. If you’ve got more questions, for a future episode, a future guest, or just to keep me honest, hit reply. I read these.

More soon.

Mike

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

We wanted to flag a recent conversation we had on our platform.

At some point in life, most people face a quiet but unsettling question. What would happen if I actually pursued the thing I care about? For many, that thought fades quickly. The sensible path is safer. Predictable. Approved by parents, teachers, and LinkedIn.

But every now and then, someone takes the other route.

This week on the Common Sense Podcast, I sat down with award-winning visual artist Toyosi Olowe, who once worked in finance before making the decision to leave corporate life behind and pursue art full-time.

Watch the full conversation here:

What struck me most about Toyosi’s story is that it was not driven by some dramatic moment of rebellion. Instead, it was a gradual realisation that the path she was on was no longer aligned with who she was becoming.

During the conversation, she shared a moment that quietly changed everything. A client once insisted on paying more for one of her pieces than she had charged. It forced her to confront something many creatives struggle with: the gap between the value you offer and the value you believe you deserve.

Sometimes the world can see your potential before you do.

We spoke about what it really takes to leave a stable career and build a creative one. The confidence required to treat your craft as a profession rather than a side project. The financial and psychological risk of walking away from something secure. The process of learning to value your own work.

These are questions that go far beyond art.

Anyone who has ever thought about changing direction in life will recognise the tension between security and calling. The challenge is not simply making a bold decision. It is learning to trust that the risk might actually lead somewhere worthwhile.

Toyosi’s journey is a powerful reminder that careers are rarely as linear as we imagine. Sometimes the most meaningful work begins the moment we step away from the path that seemed most sensible.

If you have ever wondered what it looks like to bet on your creativity, I think you will enjoy this conversation.

Watch the episode here:

Have an amazing week

Common Sense Community Team,

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

Common Sense is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Our Black Before Christian event, exploring the intersection of Black identity and Christian faith, has now garnered over 6,000 views online across platforms. For us, that is not just a metric, it’s a helpful insight into the kind of conversations people want.

It tells us that people are hungry for nuanced, honest conversations about identity, belief, history, and power.

We wanted to ask a real question many people wrestle with quietly: What comes first? My Blackness or my Christianity? And instead of reducing it to slogans, we brought together a Christian, a Pan-African thinker, and a pantheist to wrestle with it in real time.

The result was thoughtful, uncomfortable, clarifying, and at times deeply personal.

Here’s how the series breaks down.

Part 1: Is Christianity a White Man’s Religion?

In this opening conversation, we tackle one of the most persistent claims in cultural discourse. We examine the historical roots of Christianity in Africa and the Middle East, the legacy of colonialism, and how power distorted perception.

This episode lays the groundwork. It asks whether the faith itself is culturally European, or whether history has simply been selectively remembered.

👉 Watch Part 1 here:

Part 2: What Comes First? Blackness or Christianity?

This is the heart of the debate.

Here we move from history into identity. Is faith something that sits on top of ethnicity, or does it reorder it entirely? Can someone prioritise their cultural identity without compromising their spiritual allegiance? What happens when the two appear to collide?

This conversation was rigorous and, at times, emotionally charged in the best way. It forced clarity.

👉 Watch Part 2 here: [

Part 3: The Q&A — The Hard Questions

In the final instalment, we opened the floor.

No scripts. No softballs. Just the questions many people hesitate to ask publicly. From theology to politics to lived experience, this episode brought the tension to the surface and allowed each participant to respond without interruption or caricature.

If you want to see where people really stand, this is the one.

👉 Watch Part 3 here:

What has been most encouraging is not just the view count, but the quality of engagement. Thoughtful comments. Civil disagreement. People sharing it into group chats and church communities. That is the kind of ecosystem we are trying to build.

If you want to shape what we explore next, I would strongly encourage you to join our Discord community. That is where we test ideas, float potential topics, and invite real feedback before we hit record. You do not just consume the conversation there. You influence it.

👉 Join the Common Sense Discord here:

Join Our Discord Community

We are building something deliberate. Not loud for the sake of it. Not safe for the sake of it. Just serious conversations for people who are tired of shallow takes.

More to come soon.

Have an amazing week

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

Over the past few weeks, we hosted one of the most honest and necessary conversations we have had in a long time.

The question was simple, but loaded:

What comes first. Your Blackness or your Christianity?

From there, it went deeper.

Is Christianity a white man’s religion?

Has the Church harmed Black communities?

Can faith and cultural identity truly coexist without tension?

We brought together a Christian, a Pan-African thinker, and a Pantheist for a serious, respectful, but unapologetically direct exchange of ideas. No shouting matches. No cheap soundbites. Just conviction, history, theology, and lived experience.

All three episodes of the Black Before Christian? series will be published this week and the first one is out now:

• Is Christianity a White Man’s Religion?

• What Comes First: Blackness or Christianity?

• Audience Q&A: Is Christianity Causing Black People Harm?

This is the kind of conversation that rarely happens publicly with nuance. It deserves to be watched carefully, discussed thoughtfully, and shared widely.

If you care about faith, identity, culture, or the future of honest dialogue in the UK, this one is for you.

Watch the full series here:

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

Hope you are doing well.

Just a quick one to let you know that E117: Why Are Black Brits Still Behind on Wealth? | Rotimi Merriman-Johnson is now live.

In this episode, I sit down with Rotimi Merriman-Johnson to unpack the wealth gap in the UK, the habits that help or hurt long term wealth building, and what practical steps people can start taking today. It is honest, challenging, and probably one of the most important money conversations we have had so far.

If you care about ownership, investing, and building something that lasts beyond you, this one is worth your time.

You can watch or listen now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

Let me know what stands out to you once you have tuned in.

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

Common Sense is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thank you to everyone who came to the live recording of Black Before Christian.

The discussion was thoughtful, challenging, and genuinely energising, and it confirmed that there is a real appetite for conversations that refuse easy answers. We are excited to share the full episode with you very soon.

If you want to stay close to what we are building, join our Discord community on Discord here:

Over the next few days we would love to hear your ideas for future topics, guests, and debates you think we should tackle next.

Join The Discord

New and trending clips

1) From the The Common Sense Podcast

A sharp clip asking whether it is time for Israel to stop taking aid from the United States, and what that would mean geopolitically and morally.

2) Rabbi Pesach on Gaza

A tense exchange with Rabbi Pesach Wolicki as he is challenged on the Gaza blockade and the wider regional implications.

3) The full Rabbi Pesach episode

We go deep with Rabbi Pesach, often described as Charlie Kirk’s personal rabbi, exploring the American right, the future of Israel, and where US politics may be heading next.

More conversations are landing soon, and this stretch is only the beginning. Stay locked in, jump into the Discord, and help shape what Common Sense tackles next.

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

Common Sense is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Common Sense is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The news cycle has been loud, fast, and emotionally charged — so this is your moment to slow it down. Here’s what happened this week, why it matters, and what we published to help you think clearly about it.

This Week in the News

This week’s stories were shaped less by single events and more by shifting alignments — between countries, political movements, and belief systems.

In the UK, the government continued its cautious re-engagement with China after years of strained relations. The approach reflects a broader balancing act facing many Western governments: managing economic interests while navigating political, security, and values-based concerns in an increasingly multipolar world.

Alongside geopolitics, questions around identity, belief, and power continued to surface - not just in public debate, but in the kinds of conversations people are increasingly seeking out.

How Different Sides Are Seeing It

Here’s where perspectives diverge.

Some see the UK reaching out to China as a practical way to protect trade and national interests in a changing world. Others worry it could look like the country is softening on its principles or giving up leverage.

Israel has become a focal point in debates over how information spreads during conflict. One argument is that the country is at a disadvantage, with speed and misinformation often outpacing verification. Critics counter that public opinion is shifting for deeper reasons, including a broader erosion of trust in official narratives.

More broadly, right-wing political groups are feeling the strain as people with different beliefs, cultures, and priorities start pulling in different directions.

From Our Newsroom

If you missed anything this week, start here:

• Reels:

  • “MAGA Is in Big Trouble” — Internal divisions, ideology, and competing loyalties.

    Watch

  • “Israel Has Done a Terrible Job Telling Its Story” — Media dynamics, misinformation, and public opinion.

    Watch

• YouTube: “America First” Is In Big Trouble Over Israel — Mike Omoniyi speaks with Orthodox Rabbi Pesach Wolicki about Israel, the American right, and growing internal fractures.

• Instagram Carousel: UK–China’s ‘Ice-Age’ Is Thawing — What renewed engagement signals, and what it doesn’t.

Read

Live Discussion on 7 February 2025: Black Before Christian?

This week we also announced a live Common Sense Studios discussion exploring how faith, race, and politics intersect in real life.

Black Before Christian? asks how identity shapes belief - and how those identities sometimes complement, and sometimes compete with, one another.

🎟️ Stay posted on all our events via our Instagram page & Linktree.

The event will be recorded, and highlights will be shared for those who can’t attend live.

Instagram page

Linktree

What to Watch Next

Looking ahead, expect more long-form conversations, live discussions, and analysis focused on belief systems, power, and how narratives shape the world we’re living in.

If something here helped you think more clearly, share it with someone who disagrees with you. That’s how better conversations start.

See you next week. Stay curious.

Brenda Toke

Content Lead / Common Sense Team

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

It is a big week for Common Sense, and we wanted to pull you in close for what is coming up. We have a live event at the end of the week called Black Before Christian, which is a brave, thoughtful conversation about faith, identity, culture, and the tensions many people quietly carry. It is honest, nuanced, and exactly the kind of space we exist to create. Grab your ticket here and come be part of the room:

Get Tickets

A conversation with the MAGA rabbi.

We have also just wrapped a heavyweight interview with Pesach Wolicki, often called the MAGA Rabbi, and the conversation went exactly where it needed to go. I pressed him on Gaza, on AIPAC, on Israel’s influence in America and the US government, and on what peace in the Middle East could realistically look like. It was respectful, direct, and properly challenging in the way grown up public debate should be. Keep an eye out for that drop, because this one will spark serious conversation.

Last week’s episode took a very different angle and focused on something that hits home for almost everyone: money. We spoke with Ken Okoroafor from The Humble Penny, a Sunday Times bestselling author, about practical steps you can take to control and manage your finances. The episode is packed with clarity, encouragement, and tactics you can actually use rather than vague motivational fluff. If you have not watched or listened yet, go back and catch that one.

Across the board, we are getting more consistent with our output, and your involvement genuinely makes the difference. Comment on the videos, jump into the discussions, share clips, and let us know what topics you want us to tackle next. This is a community project as much as it is a media one, and we want you shaping where it goes.

Stay locked in,

Mike

Founder, Common Sense

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

Common Sense is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The news cycle has been loud, fast, and emotionally charged, so this is your moment to slow it down. Here’s what happened this week, why it matters, and what we’ve shared to help you think clearly about it.

This Week in the News

Two longer-running themes came into focus this week: how technology continues to reshape work, and how political decisions can quietly redraw the electoral map.

Automation and artificial intelligence are no longer emerging trends - they are permanent features of modern economies. South Korea’s highly automated workforce offers a glimpse of where long-term investment in robotics can lead, particularly in terms of productivity. In the UK, AI has become a central part of economic planning, framed as a way to improve public services and address persistently low productivity. As these technologies evolve, attention is shifting from whether automation will affect jobs to which jobs are most exposed, and how societies adapt over time.

In UK politics, Labour made a difficult choice over an upcoming by-election. Party leaders decided to block a well-known former figure from returning to Parliament, arguing that the move would avoid disruption and limit electoral risk. The decision has changed the shape of the contest, turning what was once seen as a safe seat into a more open race, with several parties now seeing an opportunity.

How Different Sides Are Seeing It

Views differ across both issues:

• On AI and automation, some see sustained adoption as necessary for long-term growth, while others focus on how the transition may unevenly affect workers - particularly those early in their careers.

• Within Labour, some view the decision as a practical attempt to keep control of the contest, while others believe excluding a popular figure could cost the party support and momentum.

• For smaller parties, the by-election represents a rare chance to capitalise on voter dissatisfaction and fragmented loyalties.

Together, these debates reflect a broader tension between long-term strategy and short-term consequences.

From Our Newsroom

If you missed anything this week, start here:

• Instagram Carousel: South Korea’s Robot Revolution - Looks at global automation trends, how AI and robotics affect different types of work, and what the UK’s low productivity means for future policy choices.

Read

• Instagram Carousel: Labour’s By-Election Dilemma - Breaks down Labour’s decision to block a high-profile return, the candidates now in play, and why the outcome could carry significant political risk.

Read

What to Watch Next

Next week, we’ll continue tracking key developments in global politics, governance, and domestic events that shape public debate. Expect updates and insights to help you stay informed and think clearly about the issues that matter.

If something here helped you think more clearly, share it with someone who disagrees with you. That is how better conversations start.

See you next week. Stay curious.

Brenda Toke

Content Lead / Common Sense Team

Connect with us on socials

Website | Twitter (X) | Youtube | Linkedin | Tiktok | Facebook | Mailing List

Common Sense is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.