Israel ceasefire, pardons, Trump’s inauguration, executive orders & all things football | Ep. 3

Join hosts Conner Jones and Micah Tomasella as they navigate a jam-packed news week on Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast. They discuss the political climate, including Joe Biden’s final days as president, a significant ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, TikTok’s brief shutdown, and Biden’s last-minute pardons followed by Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th President, his executive orders, and reactions from his supporters and opponents. 

Then, they dive into the latest sports news, including the NFL divisional round, the college football national championship, and key moments of sportsmanship. Tune in for thought-provoking discussions, faith perspectives, and even a fun segment on a new candy called Soup Drops!

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Topics

• (01:03): Biden’s Final Days and Middle East Ceasefire
• (05:51): TikTok Shutdown and Revival
• (07:13): Biden’s Last-Minute Pardons
• (13:21): Trump’s Inauguration and Executive Actions
• (24:12): Trump’s Legacy and Unconditional Love
• (25:57): NFL Playoffs Recap
• (30:07): College Football Championship Highlights
• (34:30): News You Can Use: Soup Drops
• (36:2):2 Listener Mailbag and Fast Food Favorites
• (40:43): Big Upcoming Events in Culture

Resources

• Mailbag: [email protected]
• DenisonForum.org/subscribe
• What We Know About the Hostage Release – The New York Times
• January 19, 2025: First Israeli hostages, Palestinian prisoners freed as Gaza ceasefire takes force | CNN
• How the Biden and Trump teams worked together to get the Gaza ceasefire and hostages deal done | CNN Politics
• Biden declares decades-old Equal Rights Amendment law — but what happens next? | CBC News
• TikTok starts restoring service in the U.S. after shutting down over divest-or-ban law – CBS News
• TikTok is back online after Trump pledged to restore it | CNN Business
• Biden Pardons 5 Members of His Family in Final Minutes in Office
• Biden sparks outrage with last-minute commutation of man convicted of killing FBI agents – ABC News
• FBI Agents Association Statement on Commutation of Leonard Peltier
• Biden’s Catholic faith both key and complex part of his legacy – OSV News
• Trump and Vance to honor tradition with service at DC’s historic St. John’s Church
• Bidens Bring Donald and Melania Trump to the White House for Tea Before the Inauguration: ‘Welcome Home’
• Donald Trump’s inauguration — as it happened
• Trump signs flurry of executive actions and memos on Day 1 – CBS News
• President Trump’s Historic First Day
• What would be President Trump’s “proudest legacy”?
• NFL fans spot Josh Allen’s classy gesture immediately after winning huge Bills-Ravens showdown in AFC playoffs | The US Sun
• NFL Playoffs Briefing: From the expected (Chiefs) to the unexpected (Jayden Daniels) | FOX Sports
• Ohio State holds off Notre Dame to win college football national championship | Fox News
• Progresso launches Soup Drops, a hard candy that’s ‘soup you can suck on’

About Micah Tomasella

Micah Tomasella is the Advancement Officer at Denison Ministries and co-hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. A graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Micah is married to Emily, and together they are the proud parents of two daughters. With an extensive background in nonprofit work, finance, and real estate, Micah also brings experience from his years in pastoral church ministry.

About Conner Jones

Conner is the Director of Performance Marketing at Denison Ministries and Co-Hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. He graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. Conner passionately follows politics, sports, pop-culture, entertainment, and current events. He enjoys fishing, movie-going, and traveling the world with his wife and son.

About Denison Forum

Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, The Denison Forum Podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited. 

[00:00:00] Conner Jones: Welcome back to Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast, where we navigate the constant stream of top news stories, politics, sports, pop culture, and technology, and we’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. Hi, I’m Connor Jones, and we are just so glad you are joining us on this jam-packed news week.

Since we recorded last week, America has gotten a new college football national champion. We killed and then revived TikTok. We did. And we swore in a new president. Yeah, it’s a casual week. So thankfully my co-host and best friend Micah is here to help us navigate this insane week That’s right.

[00:00:35] Micah Tomasella: That’s right. Hey connor. That’s exactly what i’m here to do is help you help me help all of us Navigate what we’re constantly inundated with all of this news oftentimes overwhelming. What can we do about it as believers? What is our part to play in it? And you know what even when news is bad There’s also a lot of great news out there and we can have a lot of fun with it.

And so I’m excited to jump in on episode number three, 

[00:00:57] Conner Jones: episode three, three. Here we go. 

[00:00:59] Micah Tomasella: Let’s do it. Let’s jump into the brief, brother. 

[00:01:03] Conner Jones: Okay. So starting off, I know everybody wants to hear about the inauguration. They want to hear about football, all the fun stuff, but we got to hit on what the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency had going for it.

So right before Biden left his time as president, he did. As we kind of predicted a few weeks ago that there was a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that was reached over the last week and then over the weekend, we saw kind of the first actions of that ceasefire taking place. So, you know, after many months of negotiations, the two parties were able to come together.

With the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration, they worked together and they both kind of took a little bit of credit. They tag-teamed. Everybody knows that there was a little bit of pressure with Trump coming into office and all of that. So they were able to get this deal done. So that impacts a ceasefire and it addresses the release of 33 Israeli hostages, consisting of women and children, elderly and sick and wounded, over a period of six weeks.

So, so far there’s been three hostages released and there are nearly 100 hostages still in Gaza and Israel does estimate unfortunately that 35 of those hostages are probably dead Hopefully that is not the case. But that is what they’re thinking in exchange Israel’s gonna release over 1, 000 Palestinian prisoners for the 33 hostages just So, I mean, you’re talking about just a massive ratio of Israel hostages to Palestinian prisoners.

Seems a little lopsided to me. It does, but we know that this is how Israel values life. And I think it was 2000, early 2010s, Israel did a swap for one soldier who was captive for a thousand prisoners. So there’s just a different value of life with the Israel side. And so those three hostages did come home after 15 months.

Beautiful pictures of just, you know, them coming back into the arms of their family. Very emotional. I teared up the other day just watching the videos of these women coming back and seeing their family and hugging them and embracing for the first time in so long after so many months in captivity. I cannot even imagine being in their shoes.

No, I can’t either. Anyways, now we’re expecting another swap this upcoming Saturday, I believe for four more. Israeli hostages to come back into Israel from Gaza, and then I don’t know quite yet how many prisoners from Palestine will be returned, but we’re now seeing just the next kind of phase starting to negotiate.

So this is phase one, these six weeks of 33 hostages, and then they’re hoping that this leads into six weeks. Stage two, which will hopefully lead to the end of this conflict. Yeah. I mean, I think we can all say we’re praying for the end of all the death and destruction and for peace in that region. The last 15 months has just been insane.

The middle East has been totally flipped on its head. Iran is no longer in the position it used to be in, in terms of power. Syria has been totally overturned and Hezbollah is pretty much wiped out. Hamas is almost wiped out. Yeah. It’s just a different ballgame over there. So all of that to say it’s estimated about 50, 000 people have been killed and 100, 000 people have been injured in this conflict.

So yeah, I would love to see an end to this. I think many, many people would and just join us in praying for that, for peace, for the end of that death and destruction moving on though. Oh, go ahead, Micah. 

[00:04:15] Micah Tomasella: Well, I mean, I was just going to say, you know, just praying for something sustainable moving forward, you know, rebuilding the Gaza Strip.

the Palestinian state, how that’s controlled, figuring out, you know, how those people can have the necessary infrastructure to be able to live as they’re returning to their homes in the Gaza Strip. Well, you know, a lot of them are destroyed. And so, you know, what’s going to happen to rebuild it? But then even moving forward from that, you know, how do we avoid this in the future?

What part can America play? What part shouldn’t they play? Right? I mean, there’s all kinds of questions like who’s going to step in and figure all that stuff out. So just praying for a solution that as things are being rebuilt, assuming that this ceasefire will last, at least for the time being, that there’s lasting infrastructure and peace in that region.

[00:05:01] Conner Jones: Right. And that is part of stage two negotiations is they’re planning to start talking about the security infrastructure for Israel on the Gaza Strip. And then also, how do we rebuild? Because I mean, it is going to be a big haul and going to take many years. Right. Also, I want to mention one of the last things Biden did on his way out of the office, he decided to state that the Equal Rights Amendment, Is now a part of the constitution as the 28th amendment, but the national archives has confirmed that that is not the case.

The president cannot just declare something an amendment. And so it is not a part of the constitution. Just thought that was interesting. His way of trying to add an amendment that did pass certain legislatures over the last 40 and 50 years, but it has not technically been ratified as a constitutional amendment, but he decided to tweet that it should be.

Hmm. Okay. Also, as we talked about last week, TikTok did shut down. We, we gave it a little eulogy last week, but then, you know, it went down and then it was closed for less than a day. I was thinking about this. It was like Chick-fil-A fil A Sunday, except it just decided to open it back up in the afternoon, 

[00:06:08] Micah Tomasella: right?

It was shorter than 24 hours. You didn’t have to wait the whole Sunday. Yeah, right. That’s a good analogy. 

[00:06:15] Conner Jones: Yeah. And well, it happened because Biden said he wasn’t going to enforce the law that his own people, you know, passed. And then Trump said he wasn’t going to enforce the law either. And so all these companies were like, okay, well, if nobody’s going to enforce it, we’re going to go in and just, you know, revive the services, bring it back online and it’s been online and now it’s gone.

It’s probably going to be online for at least another 90 days as the Trump administration tries to negotiate some sort of deal. I think Trump has indicated he wants a 50-50 split between an American buyer and ByteDance, the Chinese-owned company, as well as. Mentioning Elon Musk could be and we talked about this last week as well But it seems like Elon Musk may be more inclined to actually take a share in TikTok. There’s other buyers Larry Ellison of Oracle is considering putting a stake in there as well So we’ll just see what happens there.

But nonetheless it’s back. So if you like TikTok, I’m happy for you I guess right if you didn’t know You can 

[00:07:09] Micah Tomasella: get back on and enjoy your trust me. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. Yeah. Right. Last thing here. 

[00:07:15] Conner Jones: There were a bunch of last-minute pardons from Biden on his way out the door. Literally the morning of the inauguration, Joe Biden decided to go ahead and announce pardons for several government officials and family members.

So those government officials do include. Dr. Fauci, who we all know from COVID General Mark Milley, and then some lawmakers that did the January 6th investigation hearing that included Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and Adam Schiff. On top of that, we know that Biden did pardon his son, Hunter, a few months ago, but he went ahead and decided to pardon his siblings, his two brothers and his sister, as well as their spouses.

And that literally came in like 10 minutes before He left office. I mean, he was sitting in the inauguration room when that news came out and it was like, okay, the response has been kind of heated. People are saying this is an abuse of power. They’re saying the same thing about Trump’s pardons as well.

So this is kind of just one of those things where they are testing the limits of the presidential pardons and powers. And then one of the big ones that I thought was interesting is he commuted the sentence of native American activists, Leonard Peltier. Do you know who that is, Micah? Honestly, no, I don’t know me.

I didn’t know either until this week. I don’t think a lot of people did, but I was reading about him. He is serving. Well, he’s not anymore, but he was serving a double life sentence for the murders of two FBI agents in 1975 on the Pine Ridge, Indian reservation. He is a native American activist. He’s now 80 years old.

And so Biden commuted a sentence so that he could no longer sit in prison, but could go home and serve The remainder of his time in home confinement. This did receive quite a bit of backlash, particularly from the FBI Agents Association, which I believe is their union. They released a pretty scathing statement Monday afternoon, and they said they are outraged by then-president Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, a convicted cop killer responsible for the brutal murders of FBI special agents, Jack Kohler and Ronald Williams.

I just thought that was interesting. I mean, there’s a lot there to see a president.

I’m not sure that’s happened before. I mean, this, that’s just kind of interesting anyways. Yeah. It’s definitely perplexing. Yeah. It’s kind of perplexing. Yeah. Biden’s four years are now done. He left the office and I think a lot of people are now thinking around his legacy. What does that look like when you consider he did 50 years of public service, which is quite an achievement.

Has that been achieved? Life is definitely worthy of a book, worthy of probably a movie in the future. I mean, he, he rose up from, as he would tell you, Scranton, Pennsylvania, to the highest office in the land. And I think that is something that is very commendable. Yes. For sure what happened during those years and during his time as president is what a lot of people are going to focus on as Well, though, you know, it got me thinking micah, you know people will hit on the failures They’ll hit on some of the successes, but I think failures tend to you know Be where people really gravitate towards we always focus on the failures of past presidents whether it’s jfk lbj jimmy carter Whoever it is failures always get the the most attention.

Yep But I think one of the things that is really going to hit hard is how did he treat his? It’s well known that Joe Biden was a, is a devout Catholic. And when you look at how he kind of diverged from biblical instruction on some of his policies as president around abortion and gender issues, it’s got me thinking, and he got a lot of people thinking, what does that mean for his legacy as a Catholic, as a Christian?

So I just had to sit and wonder how would I feel if I was in his position? If I’m the president, I feel like I need to be a political person who’s going to please both sides of the aisle, needs to please America, but also has biblical convictions. And I’m just reminded, Micah, that we are called to stand by our biblical convictions, to stand by biblical truth.

And that’s what we’re trying to do here on this podcast. We have to stand firm on truth and never waver, even when there is societal or emotional, financial or political pressures. Even first Corinthians 16, 13 and 14 says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith. Act like men, be strong, and let all that you do be done in love.

And we got to wear that armor of God, you know, that Paul lays out for us in Ephesians 6, 13 through 15 of, you know, actually longer than that. But I want to focus on those verses where he says, Fasten on the belt of truth and have the breastplate of righteousness on. Those are just things that we have to keep in mind.

We serve Christ and we can’t, from what he tells us is truth, even when we’re in a position of power. And this is true in the Oval Office. This is true in your home. This is true in your just daily walk. You know, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re at. You have to stay true to the truth. Truth.

What do you think, Micah? 

[00:12:08] Micah Tomasella: Well, you know, the first thing I think of is obviously when you’re in the highest office, not even really in the land, but in the world. The President of the United States is debatably, but probably the most powerful person on the planet when they serve for their term, their four years, their eight years, whatever it might be.

So Joe Biden is under extreme scrutiny because of the position that he chose to put himself in. Right? As the president, but also, when you’re talking about this, I think that you’re handling it really well because I think it’s a good representation of how we view things as a ministry. We take a stand here at Denison Forum, at Denison Ministries, on God’s word, on his word, on his eternal truth, and we believe what he says to be true fully.

And so, even though we’re not going to take a stand when it comes to partisan politics, we will take a stand for God’s Word. And so, if there is going to be somebody in a high ranking office who is going to claim Christ as their Savior, to a certain extent, we’re going to hold them to account. You know, however much that means coming from little old us, right?

And so, expect the same thing from us as we’re breaking down Trump 2, somebody who’s claiming to know Jesus. Well, then we’re going to hold people accountable to following what God’s word says, you know, because that is what guides us in our faith, right? So all of that to say, I think that that’s a great point, Connor.

Let’s jump into this next story, though. I want to talk about Trump’s inauguration. I’m just going to blow through this real quick and talk about his executive action. So let’s talk about the inauguration of Donald Trump that happened this past Monday on MLK Day. I found myself very interested. I’ve watched all the previous inaugurations.

that I can remember because they’re all kind of different and they have a different spin based off of the personality of the person that’s being inaugurated. And so I just find it really interesting. This was very, all of it was very Trump, you know, obviously, but, but like at the same time, I know he loves a big crowd and there was the record cold.

And so they had to move everything inside, but it was very, it was very Trump. Right. But I kind of liked 

[00:13:57] Conner Jones: it indoors though. I just got to say it was very pretty. 

[00:14:00] Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Yeah. So a side note to we’re recording this episode on Wednesday, January 22nd, and this episode’s being released on Thursday, January 23rd.

And so news is breaking moment by moment. So when I talk about Trump’s executive actions, anything coming out of his inauguration, this is up to date as of Wednesday, January 22nd. I just want to say that. So let’s start from the top, right? I thought it was really interesting that the Trumps and the Vance’s Incoming president and vice president started their day at st.

John’s Church right across from the White House. This is a tradition I looked back on dating back to the 1930s that the incoming president on Inauguration day would attend a church service there at st. John st. John’s Church right across from the White House from the White House. And then they went from there to then having a tea, Trump did.

Trump and Melania had a tea with Joe and Jill Biden in the White House. And then once they had that tea together, they walked over and then they got, swore in. And so, as I said, on MLK Day, January 20th, 2025, Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States, making his second non-consecutive term.

The ceremony originally planned, as I said, for the Capitol’s West Front, to the Capitol Rotunda and then you had a bunch of people in different ballrooms and then they would also show us shots from the Capitol One Arena where the Washington Wizards play and I think the, the Capitals as well. The hockey team plays in there as well.

Yeah. So that, that place was full and then Trump would later go in there later to sign a lot of executive actions in front of the entire crowd, which is kind of what I would mention. It was very Trump. So let’s, so let’s go over some, some key moments. I mean, his inaugural address was actually the longest.

U. S. history, which was, which was very interesting. It didn’t feel crazy long, but I guess for an inauguration speech, he sure did cover a lot. So he declared the onset of a golden age for America, emphasizing plans to boost economic growth through increased oil production and the imposit, you know, him, him really saying, Hey, we’re going to start doing these tariffs.

You know, I, like, I wasn’t joking about that. This is what I’m going to do. And then he also announced intentions to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations to strengthen his immigration policies. If they’re designated as something on a higher level, I think that he can use more of his power and force to stop them.

And then he even doubled down on, Hey, we’re renaming The Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. And I was kind of, I was kind of looking up, Connor, have you done any research or seen, and this isn’t like a right or wrong answer, but this whole concept has been really interesting to me because I’m sitting here like, how exactly does somebody go about doing that?

Have you seen how he’s actually going to pull that off? 

[00:16:37] Conner Jones: I haven’t seen the exact details. I know there’s some like geographical entity that is in charge of naming things or whatnot. I don’t know. But I also know he is apparently renaming, Back to its old name, Mount McKinley. It was, it’s currently Denali or maybe it was, I don’t know.

Yeah. In Alaska. Yeah. 

[00:16:53] Micah Tomasella: Right. 

[00:16:53] Conner Jones: Yeah. In Alaska. And then, you know, Florida already used Gulf of America and some of their maps for this winter storm that they’re getting right now. Classic Florida already moving. So. 

[00:17:03] Micah Tomasella: Right. So he kind of gave a timeline. It seems like things are going to be set into stone here pretty quickly within the next 30 to 60 days.

And really at that point, everything from the American government side of anything printed. You know, you’re going to pull up your Apple Maps app, and I believe that we’re actually going to start seeing Gulf of America. I think that this is going to take multiple generations for people to get used to that.

But eventually, I guess, unless somebody else comes in later and tries to change it back. It just kind of is what it is. I just think that that’s a really interesting talking point. Next, I want to talk about the policy initiatives that he laid out. Trump outlined several executive actions, including declaring a national emergency at the U.

S. Mexico border. He, you know, took back a lot of Biden era policies from the previous administration and initiated the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Treaty. I’ll talk about that a little bit more here in a second. But pardons, right? Let’s talk about that. You know, in a significant move, one of the first things he signed, President Trump issued pardons to approximately 1, 500 individuals involved in the January 6th Capitol riot.

And let me just go ahead and say this right now, you know, that’s, that’s a tough one to swallow because, you know, so, you know, some police officers were assaulted and, you know, laws were broken, right? And so we are seeing right off the bat as Biden exits, as Trump enters. We’re all kind of grappling with, okay, like what does the constitution and what do the amendments lay out?

What are the safeguards in place? Because, you know, Trump is able to pardon a whole lot of people, some of which were actually guilty of some serious crimes. 

[00:18:32] Conner Jones: Yeah, it’s, it’s a weird one and I don’t want to get political on this or anything. So, I’m just going to recognize also that, yeah, it’s a weird one.

It’s kind of hard to grasp because there is a lot of just wait to that decision, but it’s also hard to grasp some of the ones that Biden did. That’s what a lot of political pundits are saying. It’s like, okay, well both did a lot of pardons this week and to clarify Biden did preemptive pardons. I don’t think I said that his are saying.

This is if somebody was to come after them thinking that the Trump administration may try to seek retribution against those individuals And so then other people are like, well, is that just a you know, a sign of guilt? Did they actually commit crimes if they didn’t commit crimes? Why are you giving them a pardon?

So it’s going both ways both presidents on on Monday Just issued all these pardons that are you know for the regular American people out here. We’re like, oh Okay, this is kind of, 

[00:19:21] Micah Tomasella: yeah, 

[00:19:22] Conner Jones: you know, maybe a little too much, but 

[00:19:24] Micah Tomasella: maximizing both are maximizing their presidential power. And we’re, we’re left to grapple with as the American citizen, what’s what, you know, what’s right, what’s, what’s wrong, what does God’s word have to say, what’s our guiding principle in this.

And so I just wanted to share kind of what I was, what I was thinking about there. All right. Now, the attendees in the inauguration, this was really interesting to the inauguration was attended by a lot of notable figures, a lot of millionaires, billionaires, including tech industry leaders, Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, mark Zuckerberg, a lot of the executives and the leaders of, you know, some of the most used social media apps in the world.

I thought that was interesting. You had Dana White there, the founder of the UFC. You had Joe Rogan from the Joe Rogan experience, the most listened to podcast on the planet, and that’s not even really close. You had Logan and Jake Paul, the the brothers who were also wrestlers and boxers and famous on social media.

And then you had the TikTok, CEO, the guy who owns Bite Dance. on the stage for the inauguration. I mean, that was, that was interesting. Okay. Like we haven’t seen something quite like that again, very Trump. 

[00:20:25] Conner Jones: Yeah. And what’s also interesting is they were all sitting in front of Trump’s cabinet appointees. I mean, he put them up front and I don’t know if that’s just so that he could show that he has power over them or, or if, I mean, it’s very public display.

The whole country saw who was right there sitting behind him and JD Vance. And so there’s a lot of political power plays there and it’s all strategic. I’m sure on everybody’s part, but yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. And a lot of other people were there as well. And I want to, I just, we have to shout out real fast, Micah.

Carrie Underwood just killing it on the acapella when the music didn’t work. She was probably the best guest that was there. I was hoping that she would bust out the Sunday night football anthem, but you know, we’ll take America’s beautiful all day Sunday night, huh? Yeah, literally. That would have been.

Amazing. If I was becoming president, I would request that. That was like, 

[00:21:11] Micah Tomasella: I think it was probably like a 60 to 90 second just waiting, right? And for some reason, the AV guy could not figure out how to play the music, right? And so Kerry was like, all right, you guys know the words, sing with me. I thought that that was incredible going back to what you said earlier, though, about those executives on stage, I think that that really just falls in line with Trump being a very pro business president and his concept of like, I’m going to deregulate things and in his mind, you know, and in his policy initiatives, that’s going to accelerate growth.

And so I think what he’s saying is he’s like, what makes this country really great is the fact that you can earn a lot of money and you can be in this position and you can be influential. I think that that was kind of the. Overall, the point that he was trying to make. But yes, of course, he has power as well.

The inaugural parade that was in Capital One Arena that lasted a long time, you know, President Trump overall emphasize a return to policies aimed at prioritizing national interests and reversing several initiatives from the previous administration. Finally, Connor, I’m going to run through this really, really quick.

And I’m just going to do these by categories just so that we know how to categorize all the executive actions that Trump signed into law. So on his first on his first day, Okay, and I’m gonna read this part. On the first day, this is from Caroline Leavitt, who’s the White House press secretary. On his very first day.

In office, 42 executive orders, memoranda, proclamations, 115 personnel actions, more than 200 executive actions, and three speeches, all in one day. I imagine he was pretty tired after that. His executive actions, I’m going to put it in categories. He had executive actions affecting federal agencies. He had immigration and border executive orders.

He withdrew from international entities like the Paris Climate Treaty and the World Health Organization, and then executive orders focused on the economy tariffs. I want to touch on this just for a second on February 1st. What he’s saying is that 25 percent tariffs from goods. Coming from south of us in Mexico, north of us in Canada are going to get a 25 percent tariff on them.

And then he’s talking about and he’s mentioned a 10 percent tariff going into effect on all goods coming from China on February 1st. And so that’s going to be interesting seeing the two biggest world powers kind of spar back and forth on that. And then the last one is that. The gender and diversity orders, he made it very clear he’s ending all of the DEI policies and then he said on stage that there are two genders and there’s not going to be anything within the government that is going to try to say anything different.

So, I mean, that was, that was a bit of a whirlwind, wasn’t it? 

[00:23:37] Conner Jones: Monday was a crazy day. Inauguration. Executive orders galore. And then also a college football national championship. So it was literally a month’s worth of news in one day. So all the executive actions that we’re going to see them kind of spill out over the next few weeks probably.

And some of these DEI things have really gone into action. I think even today on Wednesday, all the DEI offices and federal agencies have to be shut down by 5 PM. So that is just one of those 

[00:24:03] Micah Tomasella: that is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s just crazy. That’s just crazy. So Dr. Denison, our ministry’s founder, he’s a great guy.

If you don’t know him, look him up. He’s the best. But in his Tuesday edition of the daily article that he sends out every single day, he quoted Donald Trump from one of the last things he said in his inaugural address. He said, my proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier is what Trump said.

Dr. Denison made a really good point and he, He’s very good at asking questions to ask the reader, us as believers, what our part is to play in it. Dr. Dennison, in response to this, says, Well, what makes us good citizens? And then Jim said, Here’s the problem. Unconditional love that puts the other person first.

Choosing to part in their sins and seeking to restore what is broken is a fruit of God’s Spirit. We find that in Galatians 5. 22. Not human effort. No matter how hard you try, you cannot manufacture it. This is why. Wars and rumors of wars will continue to the end of human history. Matthew 24 6. It’s why past ceasefires in the Middle East have not brought lasting peace in the Middle East.

And it is why America’s greatest need is for Americans to experience and share the transforming love of God in Christ. That’s the only thing that lasts. Amen. And a 

[00:25:17] Conner Jones: Amen to that. Yeah. I think about, you know, Trump is big on this whole golden era of America and obviously he loves the color gold. I think that that is strategic in his, I mean, if you’ve ever been to a Trump tower or something, it’s just gold everywhere.

And so when you think about that, I don’t know, he’s saying a golden era of America. That might be true. I don’t know. And I don’t even know what that fully means, but ultimately it’s not about just, It’s the golden era of America. We need to be focused on Christ. And I think that’s exactly what Jim was hitting there on.

And I think you just hit on it so great. Let’s keep God at the center of everything that we do and politics and life in our daily actions. So thanks for taking us through that, Micah. Hey, let’s hit football real fast. Yep. Always. So Monday was the college football national championship. But before that we had the NFL divisional round of playoffs and I don’t know about you, but I really.

I mean, I watched every second of all of those games. They were some juicy games. So in the AFC, we had the chiefs play the Texans. Naturally, the chiefs did their thing and they won Patrick Mahomes. You know, he’s just, first off he’s got, I think, I think he’s got the refs on his side and he’s now flopping and also super 

[00:26:29] Micah Tomasella: human though.

He’s super human. 

[00:26:31] Conner Jones: Yeah. It’s just, yeah, it’s an advantage for the chiefs. So they didn’t beat the Texans. Womp. Womp. Your team who you predicted to win the Superbowl, the bills pulled out a small two point win over the Ravens. What a game that was coming down to the last second. And yeah. Then something happened at the very end.

[00:26:50] Micah Tomasella: Something happened. Okay, so Mark Andrews, right? He has been a top five tight end for multiple years in the NFL. One of the most sure handed guys, not even at the tight end position, but just in the NFL in general, okay? With the game on the line, alright? Lamar Jackson rolls out for the two point conversion after the touchdown is scored, which would have tied the game.

It was 25 27 at this point. He rolls out. Mark Andrews is out. wide open. Lamar Jackson puts it right in his chest, right in the bread basket. Mark Andrews would have fell down into the end zone and it would have just been a beautiful moment to tie the game at the last minute. And Mark Andrews dropped the ball.

He dropped the ball in all All of the Ravens hopes and dreams were dashed, which was fine with me because I predicted the bills to win from the start. Your lines have already been knocked out. That was your prediction. I’m going to go ahead and put that out there. A lot of our listeners predicted the Lions, and I understand that, but you were wrong on that one.

Just FYI, but Connor, here’s my question, man. Can Mark Andrews live in Baltimore anymore? Like, are they going to accept him back? He fumbled the ball in the second quarter, too. Like, he really, he made two gigantic mistakes that really affected the outcome of this game. 

[00:28:05] Conner Jones: Mark, Mark, man. I’m telling you, I really like Mark, mostly because I’ve had him on my fantasy football teams multiple times over the years, and he’s been so clutch, and I just feel this, like, personal, like, connection to him.

Like, oh, Mark’s my guy, even though I don’t like the Ravens. I just felt so bad for him, but yeah, you do also have to catch that ball. I mean, he’s never going to live that down. Unfortunately, I think Baltimore respects him enough to be like, okay, this guy has been solid for the last, however many years on this team that they can’t let him just eat that all the time.

But we’ll just see, I don’t know, man, he’ll stay in Baltimore. I think he’ll be on the team again next year, but maybe he’ll have a redemption game and like winning a game for them and people will forget that ever happened, but he’s never going to forget poor guy moving on though. to the NFC. The Eagles did beat the Rams.

That was another great game. Saquon Parkley. What a running back. 205 yards two touchdowns. I mean, he’s just an unreal monster. Then the commanders did unfortunately defeat the lions. So yeah, my pick is out. I really thought the lions were going to do it and they just struggled, man. They’re defensive. Side of the ball is just tattered with injuries.

And so they kind of stopped Jaden Daniels and the, that, that commander’s offense looks hot and they are just scoring like crazy. Jaden Daniels is something else. He’s a rookie. I’m just very impressed. I’m just very impressed with Jaden Daniels. Yeah. The Giants passed up on picking him and they went somewhere else.

And so, and they let Saquon Barkley leave. It’s just a bad time to be a Giants fan. It could 

[00:29:35] Micah Tomasella: always be worse. You know, we struggle as Cowboys fans, but you know what? We can always be New York Giants fans. You know, it could always be worse. Or New York Jets 

[00:29:43] Conner Jones: fans. That’s 

[00:29:43] Micah Tomasella: even worse. Sorry for any New York area, area listeners.

Sorry. Yeah. 

[00:29:48] Conner Jones: So that’s the situation in the playoffs there. So we’re going to have this upcoming week. The chiefs play the bills in the AFC championship and then the NFC championship Eagles versus commanders. The winner of those two games will go on to the super bowl. So going to be fun. Going to be a good weekend.

You guys got to watch those games for sure. 

[00:30:06] Micah Tomasella: Mhm. All right, well, let’s let’s jump into the college football championship results. The Buckeyes are on top again. Ohio State took down Notre Dame this past Monday night to win the college football national championship game at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

On Monday night, Ohio State has now won nine college football titles, tying them with USC for the fourth most ever. Okay. This was, I mean, Ohio State from the beginning, they had a 20 million roster. Money is changing college football. I think in some ways for the good, I think in some ways for the bad.

We’ll talk in the future about some ways that we feel like college football can kind of be reformed and some plans that are already in the works. But you know what? Ohio State got hot right at the right time at the end of the season and then headed into the next The playoff and just whooped on pretty much everybody that they played and then they won so congratulations to the buckeyes But connor I wanted to share a feel good story that I noticed from the divisional round games Specifically that right at the end of the game between the bills and the ravens So imagine this scene mark andrews drops that ball to tie the game.

It’s very heartbreaking for the ravens, right? But something stood out to me and it was josh allen and lamar jackson sportsmanship Josh allen and lamar jackson sportsmanship Are the quarterbacks, respectively, for the Bills, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson for the Ravens. They’re both neck and neck for the NFL MVP race.

Josh Allen, right after the win, runs over to Lamar Jackson. The two shared a heartfelt hug and a laugh, showcasing just a lot of respect after a battle, right? After really going at it, you know, they showcased camaraderie. Allen later praised Jackson as a true competitor and one of the greatest football players alive.

These are two guys. who are battling for a bid to the AFC championship game all on the line, a whole year’s worth of work, really a lifetime of work. And right when that final whistle blew, they went straight to each other. Allen, Josh Allen was humble in victory, difficult to do at times, right? But Lamar Jackson was humble in defeat.

Difficult to do as well. So that’s a lesson I think we can all learn from, and it makes me think of this verse. 1 Peter 5, 6 says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. What this makes me think about is, I’m not exactly sure where Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen stand in their faith, but what I’ll say, from my perspective as a believer, is that If we can all have the perspective that the best things about us as individuals actually have nothing to do with our effort and all to do with what God has given us and how he’s gifted us and how he’s blessed us and how he’s planned our life out for us, right, that’s the best thing about us is what’s been done for us, and I think that mentality does keep us as believers humble if we hold tight to that idea.

But anyway, that at the end of that game really struck me, Connor. 

[00:33:03] Conner Jones: Yeah, it’s good stuff. And I think hitting exactly on what you’re saying, the quarterback of Ohio state, Will Howard, right after the game, went to his interview. First thing he did, and we’ve already talked about this a little bit, but he think Jesus, he was like, I think Jesus might.

And he went into how faith has played a role in the entire Ohio state program. Like it is a whole thing. Yeah. And just seeing these guys, they just won the national championship. They just Battled hard on the field and they just went through an incredibly hard season. And first thing they do is thank jesus that is humility recognizing that hey, it’s not just them God gave them this platform and these skills and these talents.

Yeah And they you know, they steward it well, obviously and that is that takes work that takes a lot of dedication and commitment, but then They’re humble enough to say, Hey, this was God brought us here. 

[00:33:47] Micah Tomasella: Right? Amen. Yeah. So 

[00:33:49] Conner Jones: cool. 

[00:33:50] Micah Tomasella: It’s, it’s encouraging, man. It’s encouraging to find some good news out there and it’s encouraging to look at these situations and seeing God being glorified again, everybody’s going to hit you with the bad news because that’s what sells like earlier when you were talking about presidents are criticized because people are just going to focus on their failures as opposed to their victories because it’s human nature, man.

Failures is what gets reads. It’s what sells. Bad news is what gets reads and what sells. But we as believers can choose to find positive in all of this mess. And that’s a great thing. 

[00:34:22] Conner Jones: Definitely. All right, Micah. I know you got a fun little thing you want to share with us real fast. What do you got for us?

[00:34:30] Micah Tomasella: Yeah. So let’s, let’s jump into a little game I like to call News You Can Use. So, Progresso. We all know Progresso. Okay, Progresso is a soup brand, you know, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, next time you’re at the store or whenever you do your, your grocery pickup, man, times have changed, right? You don’t even have to step into a store anymore.

Just look up Progresso and you’ll see they sell every type of soup known to man. Well, for a limited time, this month is National Soup Month, if you didn’t know. So they launched something called Soup Drops, a hard candy candy. Of soup that you can suck on. Soup drops are packed with chicken noodle soup flavors and are available for a limited time during national soup month They have done two drops on this and they have sold out within just like a couple of minutes Like for some reason people are super into this, but I also know they probably have a limited supply They probably weren’t expecting this to be incredibly popular.

I think it’s kind of a gimmick and it’s funny But Connor, I remember from last episode last week. You said you love a hot meal. You said you love hot soup So is this something you would try or something that you’d be interested in? You 

[00:35:32] Conner Jones: I don’t . I don’t know if I saw it on the shelf. I do not think I would buy it.

If somebody handed me a soup drop, maybe I would try it. , I looked at the picture. These look like cough drops, but they’re brown and they’re just, I don’t know. They don’t look that appetizing. How do you pack the flavor of an entire soup in a little, basically cough drop. Don’t. I don’t know how to comprehend that.

We live in an 

[00:35:53] Micah Tomasella: amazing time. We live in an amazing time, Connor. Well, 

[00:35:56] Conner Jones: I imagine it’s like jelly beans and you know those nasty jelly bean flavors. That’s what it makes me think of. 

[00:36:01] Micah Tomasella: You know what? Thank you, Connor. And thank you for everybody for stopping by for another segment of News You Can 

[00:36:07] Conner Jones: Use. Yep. And honestly, if you, if you’re out there and you’re listening and you’re like, Oh, I got a story that you can use, send it to us at culture brief at Denison forum.

org so that we can mention it. And the news you can use segment again, we are loving hearing from our listeners. So just want to hit on a few things we got in the mailbag, Micah. So over here on Mailbag you can either comment on Spotify below our episodes, or you can email us, like I said a minute ago, at culturebriefatdenisonforum.

org, shoot us a message. We’d love to hear from you, either questions, comments, complaints, I don’t know if you want to lodge a complaint maybe, let me give you a different address to send that to. No, I’m just kidding. Ashley on Spotify left us a great comment. After last week’s conversation about music, she thinks that Justin Bieber and Morgan Wallen would be a great collaboration.

We agree, Ashley. We’re here for it. Song of the summer. Let’s get these two together and 

[00:36:57] Micah Tomasella: 100 percent agree again, even if it’s bad, it will be the song of the year. Putting those two together. I agree. I’d love to hear it. 

[00:37:05] Conner Jones: Yep. Let’s I’m here for it. And then Scott emailed in and he wanted to know what is our go to fast food spot and order.

I, I, I guess I could start by just say, 

[00:37:15] Micah Tomasella: go ahead, man. 

[00:37:16] Conner Jones: You know, it’s the classic Chick fil A chicken sandwich with fries and barbecue sauce. And that’s the classic. I also love roses. Go in and get some tacos, but I’m not I’m not a big fast food guy, but what do you got? 

[00:37:28] Micah Tomasella: I’m gonna get granular and you might judge me for what I like to put on my burgers and like toppings I really lack thereof toppings But mine is a number one from Whataburger with cheese and ketchup only with spicy ketchup and a dr.

Pepper That is my guilty pleasure that hits the right spot every single time It’s consistent. You might have to wait 45 minutes for it to say man Can I get an amen from the water burger lovers out there? But you know what? It’s worth the wait. It’s worth the wait. 

[00:37:59] Conner Jones: Is it? I go to Whataburger not nearly as often anymore because it takes way too long.

But hey, Micah, you know what I’m thinking about with this question? When we were in college, do you remember how many times you and I would go to Arby’s? Like get the roast beef sandwiches. You didn’t tell me you were gonna bring up Arby’s! I just thought about it! Man, I don’t even think I could eat an Arby’s sandwich anymore, but it’s fun.

Mike and I would go, I want to venture to say two to three times a month over to Arby’s. It was one of the closest fast food restaurants and we were like obsessed with that place. The Arby’s sauce, the curly fries. Okay, I don’t even know if it’s real meat, but 

[00:38:32] Micah Tomasella: do not knock that Arby’s sauce until you try it.

It is a beautiful combination of flavors in your mouth without. I don’t know if you’re going to bring up Arby’s. It seems like since we used to go, neither of us go as much anymore, they all just keep shutting down. So there’s just less options out there. I’ve never seen. 

[00:38:47] Conner Jones: You’re right. 

[00:38:48] Micah Tomasella: Every time you go into Arby’s, there’s 

[00:38:49] Conner Jones: never 

[00:38:49] Micah Tomasella: anyone else there.

No, it’s always like, hi, like, what else are you guys doing? 

[00:38:55] Conner Jones: Okay. And then just a real quick thing. Have you watched this new golf league, the tomorrow golf league that’s owned by I think Tiger woods and Rory McIlroy there, they started this like indoor golf thing with a big simulator and I was spinning green and all of that that launched like two weeks ago on ESPN.

Have you watched that yet, Micah? 

[00:39:14] Micah Tomasella: Yes, I did watch it. And thanks for Timison for sending that in. I. Actually think it’s very interesting. I think it’s going to kind of take some time to catch on. It’s a virtual reality version of golf. They pick the best golfers in the business. Like these are legit PGA tour golfers that have won major championships and are constantly competing for the top spots.

I think it’s very interesting. I think the idea is very interesting. They’re going to have to refine it, but I do think it’s a way that they can compete with, you know, every sport that’s blowing up right now is more fast paced. 

[00:39:44] Conner Jones: Yeah, 

[00:39:45] Micah Tomasella: you know, football is at its peak. It is so fast paced. Things can change immediately.

Major League Baseball has been struggling because they haven’t necessarily been able to adapt. Because people’s attention spans are just shorter than they used to be. They introduced 

[00:39:59] Conner Jones: the pitch clock and that changed the game. And I think that’s one of the things here with TGL, they have a shot clock.

These guys have 40 seconds to get their driver in or whatever. So, I think that’s interesting. And Timison specifically asked if we think this will help the new merger between Live and PGA come to actual fruition. And my answer is no. No, I don’t think so, but probably not, but 

[00:40:21] Micah Tomasella: like, I mean, whatever it takes, because I want the best golfers on the same stage playing together.

I’m not judging live guys or PGA guys, whatever it might be. I want the best golfers on the same stage competing every single weekend. That’s best for them. That’s best for us as the watcher and the consumer and the fan. So whatever it takes to get that done, I’m all for it. 

[00:40:42] Conner Jones: Yep. I totally agree. Okay, Michael, what do we need to tune into over the next few days?

[00:40:46] Micah Tomasella: It’s a great question, Connor Jones. All right. So we have the NFC and AFC championship games coming up this weekend. Tune in for that. You know, as we, as we talked about, that’s chiefs and bills and the AFC championship. And then in the NFC championship Eagles versus commanders and NFC East matchup hurts for us as Cowboys fans, considering those teams are both in our division and we, you know, didn’t even make the playoffs this year.

Second thing, to tune in for is the Cowboys head coach search is heating up. It’s honestly not been great news coming out, but I’m not trying to count my chickens before they hatch. We’ve been hearing everybody from Kellen Moore to Brian Schottenheimer, who’s already on staff to Dion Sanders, who we talked about last week.

It has been a carousel of names, but names that you wouldn’t expect names that no one else is looking to hire. Just the Cowboys, because Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys marched to the beat of their own drum. So we got to look out for that. But by the time we record our next episode, there might be a new head coach for the Dallas Cowboys, 

[00:41:42] Conner Jones: coach of the Cowboys and several other spots too, that are still open, except not the Chicago bears.

They did get the guy that we all wanted. Ben Johnson left the lions. He was the offensive coordinator there. And it’s now the head coach of the Chicago bears. We’ll see if he can turn that terrible program around. 

[00:41:57] Micah Tomasella: And it’s looking like Aaron Glenn’s going to be the coach of the Jets. It’s not fully confirmed yet, right?

But you, you have the Lions getting knocked out. The offensive coordinator immediately leaves and goes and takes the head coaching job for the Chicago Bears. And then the defensive coordinator, Aaron Glenn for the Detroit Lions is most likely going to take a head coaching job, if not with the Jets, probably somewhere else.

So there’s going to be massive turnover for the Lions there too. 

[00:42:20] Conner Jones: Yep, and then something else to tune in for is literally just daily White House updates This is a different White House than what we just had the last four years where you never know What’s gonna come out what? Announcement is gonna be made if Trump’s just gonna walk up to a podium and do his own press conference He tends to do that.

So it is just a different ballgame So be looking out for any big announcements there as well as Trump’s cabinet appointee confirmations so far the only appointee who has been confirmed by the Senate is Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. We’re waiting to see all the others who have already gone through their confirmation process and hearings to see if they get confirmed.

Pete Hegseth is still a contentious one. Tulsi Gabbard, and then obviously we’re looking forward to the RFK Jr. one, just because that should be an interesting hearing. I’m going to watch that one. I’m going to watch that one. 

[00:43:05] Micah Tomasella: Yeah, that was going to be really interesting. Okay, great. Well, those are all the things to tune into.

Thanks for joining us for this week’s episode of The Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast. All articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes below. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please, please, please like, subscribe, rate, and review and share with a friend. This is what helps us grow the show and grow our reach when it comes to this podcast.

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