Israel-Gaza update, Baldoni vs. Lively drama, Super Bowl recap & a crypto question | Ep. 6

This week on the Culture Brief podcast, Conner Jones and Micah Tomasella break down the biggest stories shaping our world. The guys start off with a deep dive into the latest Middle East tensions, unpacking the escalating conflict in Gaza and President Trump’s response to Hamas. Then, it’s a Hollywood check-in—what’s behind the Emilia Pérez controversy? And why is Blake Lively feuding with Justin Baldoni? After that, they break down the Super Bowl highlights, from the game itself to the halftime show and their favorite commercials. Plus, they take on a listener’s question: Is cryptocurrency reshaping our economy, and does it have prophetic significance? And don’t miss their take on Trump’s latest executive orders and what’s worth watching in the week ahead.

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Topics

• (01:00): Middle East Update: Gaza Conflict
• (12:24): Hollywood Check-In: Emilia Pérez Controversy
• (18:30): Hollywood Drama: Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni
• (29:05): Super Bowl Recap and Chiefs Dynasty
• (31:51): Halftime Show Review: Kendrick Lamar’s Performance
• (34:12): Super Bowl Commercials: Hits and Misses
• (37:02): Jalen Hurts: A Story of Resilience
• (39:20): Executive Orders: Yay or Nay?
• (42:34): Mailbag: Cryptocurrency and the End Times
• (47:04): Upcoming Events and Final Thoughts

Resources

• Mailbag: [email protected]
• DenisonForum.org/subscribe
• Culture Brief on Instagram
• President Trump declares that the US should “take over” Gaza
• Trump warns Hamas to free hostages by noon Saturday or he will ‘let hell break out’
• Israel-Gaza ceasefire: Netanyahu will end deal if hostages not released
• Trump’s chilling ultimatum to Hamas as he calls for ALL Gaza hostages to be freed this week or ‘all hell will break out’ | The US Sun
• Hamas says it’s delaying next hostage release, alleging Israeli truce violations | The Times of Israel
• Jordan’s King Abdullah tells Trump he will take in 2,000 Gaza children
• Spain’s Gascon goes silent for sake of ‘Emilia Perez’ film ahead of Oscars | Reuters
• Emilia Pérez’s Oscar Hopes: Just How Badly Has Karla Sofía Gascón Hurt Them? | Vanity Fair
• ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine
• A timeline of the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni sexual harassment case
• Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni: A timeline of the feud and lawsuit between It Ends With Us co-stars | The Independent
• Blake Lively’s Grim Reaction to Taylor Swift’s Super Bowl Snub Revealed – Athlon Sports
• Got Questions

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 stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, and technology. And we’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. I’m Connor Jones, and this is my friend Micah. And I just got to ask you, Micah, was that the worst Super Bowl of all time?

[00:00:18] Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Hey, I’m Micah Tomasella. Welcome to Culture Brief. Connor, thank you for the wonderful introduction. And yes, to answer your direct question there, Connor, that was the worst Super Bowl ever. And I’ll tell you why. It was actually a terrible, non competitive Super Bowl, the commercials overall were kind of safe.

And also, as a Cowboys fan, you kind of just wanted both teams to lose, and the team you really didn’t want to win won, and the Eagles won. So 

[00:00:47] Conner Jones: we’ll dive a little more into that in a little bit, but eager to hear all your thoughts there. Hey, let’s dive in to the brief.

[00:00:57] Micah Tomasella: All right. So I’m, I’m going to jump into our first story here. So we’re going to talk about what’s going on in Gaza today. Give you a Middle East update. We’re also going to do a Hollywood check in. Connor’s going to lead us through that. And then we’re going to talk about the Super Bowl, our reactions to that and the different parts that play out in that.

And then we’ve got. Hot takes game for us and then we’ll go through some mailbag questions and then give you some things to tune into this week So the first thing that I want to talk about today is what’s going on in gaza and what’s happening in the middle east This is a constantly evolving And as Christians, we should, we’re called, I believe, to really care about what’s going on in Israel, about what’s going on in the Middle East.

We should care for all people and, you know, how things are kind of unfolding over there. So let me kind of give you a quick update on that. Let’s go through the different talking points that we’ve all been hearing in the news. So the Gaza conflict remains at a a critical juncture. President Trump turning up the heat on Hamas just a couple of days ago and neighboring countries in a rapidly evolving situation.

The way that he turned the heat up corner was he gave an ultimatum. So ultimately Hamas decided to pause the ceasefire agreement and pause the release of hostages. And they accused Israel of violating the cease arms. The ceasefire terms Israel officials have condemned this delay, calling it a breach of the agreement.

But Trump basically said that if you don’t release all of the hostages, Hamas, all of the Israeli hostages, by noon on Saturday, the ceasefire will end and, in his words, all hell will break out, is what Trump said. And then the day following, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, backed that claim up and said, that’s right, if all of the hostages are not released, then the ceasefire agreement will end.

Will cease and fighting will ensue. Connor, what, man, what are you thinking with this right now? 

[00:02:47] Conner Jones: You know, it’s really, we’ve talked about this conflict quite a bit already, and so we’ve discussed how hard it is to watch from afar. And just praying for the poor people who just caught on the crossfire.

And of course the hostages the Israeli hostages who are still in Hamas tunnels underground and they are not in good conditions. And we so desperately would like to see them come home. And so I, you know, playing the strong hand here from Israel and the U. S. ‘s perspective is probably the way that, you know, a lot of the world thinks it should go say, Hey, you guys.

You better give up these hostages back to us, or we’re going to bring down fire on y’all, whatever that looks like, if that’s just a reopening of the Gaza war, if that’s the U. S. starting to get involved, Trump’s also, you know, really in his campaigning and even since he’s been president again, has said that he’s not going to support global wars, so whatever that means, and whatever his threat here is, I’m not sure.

I’m sure there’s some back channel conversations happening as well, but Oh, yeah. Ultimately, I just want to see everybody come home and I don’t know what’s going to happen after the war ends either. Even once all the hostages are back home, what’s the next steps? You know, does the U. S. fulfill its, you know, promises to take over Gaza and potentially rebuild it and whatnot?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Do neighboring countries come in? I know the King of Jordan was saying something to Trump yesterday. 

[00:04:06] Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he was. I mean, he was, he came and he visited the white house, King Abdullah from, from Jordan. And he said, I truly believe. That with all the challenges that we have in the Middle East, I finally see how Trump, see someone, he says Trump, who can take us across the finish line to bring stability and peace and prosperity to all of us in the region.

So Israel is surrounded. It’s a tiny country. And something that we have to remember is that Israel values life at, you mentioned this a few weeks ago, Connor, in a much different way than Hamas does. I’m not saying they view life differently than the average Palestinian does either. When you do research on this, you see that Hamas does not represent the will of the Palestinian people, and Hamas over and over again is willing to sacrifice the lives of the Palestinian people in order to do the one thing that Hamas was built and created to do, destroy the state of Israel.

And so there, to be honest, I also, I’m kind of with you to a certain extent that I, Support a measure that just stops this because if this is just going to stop for a year and then another attack is going to happen, I mean, eventually, this just has to be stopped and, you know, you hate to hear and think about all the casualties that that’ll take place praying against all of that, but just praying for a more final solution to this, that Israel can live peaceably and that the Palestinians can have somewhere that they can live and they can live peaceably too.

But there was also something that happened. Connor. There was a proposal for Palestinian relocation, and this is coming from Trump and his team and even allies in the region So in a separate controversial move trump also suggested that jordan and egypt should take in palestinian refugees from gaza And the goal is to help stabilize the region and redevelop gaza We mentioned it last week turning it into the riviera of the middle east is what trump said He proposed that the u.

s could finance the reconstruction of the region. However, this idea was met with a lot of different opinions initially rejection from jordan But now Jordan’s giving a different tune and originally Egypt was rejecting it and now Egypt’s kind of being silent on it because ultimately the Countries that are stabilized in the area don’t seem to be stepping up to take care of the problem either and you know Something’s got to be done.

So many have also voiced concerns about The Palestinians right that if they do have to temporarily leave, are they going to be able to come back and Trump did walk back his comments of what a takeover of the region would look like he’s talking more about overseeing it, financing it, but not necessarily annexing that region, you know, to be a U.

S. Territory or anything like that. But in response to the backlash, the Trump administration you know, like I said, emphasize that it would be temporary. And then in recent news too, Jordan did say that they would take in 2, 000 kids with cancer or who are sick, who are in the Palestinian population. So that’s a far cry from the 2 million that are being displaced, that are displaced because of this war that Hamas started, but at the same time.

It’s a start, right? And so we just hope that some things come from this. 

[00:07:04] Conner Jones: Yeah, definitely. It’s good too, because there are so many sick people in Palestine who aren’t getting the medical care that they need if they’re, if they do have cancer or some other disease or injuries or whatnot. So getting some of those people out of that region and into good medical care in Jordan is a, is a great start, I think.

But it’s, you’re right. It’s, I mean, that is. Such a small percentage of the people who who need a home, 

[00:07:26] Micah Tomasella: but it’s a start. It’s a start, you know, because because you go from Immediate rejection of doing anything whatsoever Immediate we don’t want u. s. Influence. We do not want to take in anybody to all the sudden the king of Jordan is coming to the White House and saying I think this administration this American administration is the one to help bring peace to this Region and he’s his country is right There, right?

And it’s, it is an interesting situation, but let’s talk a little bit about, about about what’s next, like what’s to come in this conflict, what to look out for, because this is consistently evolving. As the ceasefire hangs in the balance and Trump’s demands grow more pressing, the world is watching closely.

The hostage situation, like we talked about, coupled with Palestinian relocation proposals and regional opposition. It’s added a lot of complexity to something that’s already very fragile. This ceasefire deal has been very fragile. But with Trump’s ultimatum in place, the coming days, I mean, it’s just going to be very crucial to see what happens here.

So far, Trump has given deadlines. And so far, for the most part, things have panned out at least in the way that, that he wants us to think it’s panned out, right? Just to kind of give credence to other arguments that we’ve heard and give credence to both sides of the aisle. But I, so far, I’m just, I think he knows something we don’t know.

I’m just not necessarily sure he puts that ultimatum out to the world if he’s not at least very sure that they’re going to end up releasing those hostages, but I could be totally wrong. 

[00:08:59] Conner Jones: We’ll know very soon. I mean, about two days from now, whenever you’re listening to this, yeah, on Saturday, we’ll see just what happens.

And again, the prayer is that it leads to peace. So hopefully honestly, the threats kind of work and bring the hostages home. 

[00:09:14] Micah Tomasella: So Dr. Dennison, our co founder and our CEO, cultural theologian in his most recent daily article. He wrote about this topic. And side note, Connor, I just want to give a plug to the Daily Article real quick.

If you aren’t subscribed to the Daily Article, what are you doing? What are you doing? If you’re not subscribed, do me a favor. Go to denisonforum. org and subscribe to get the news discerned differently and biblically to your email inbox every single morning. Something relevant, something complex, but written in a way that helps us as believers process what’s going on in the world and what we can actually do about it.

It’s been super crucial in my life. I know it’s been crucial in your lives and millions of the people who consume it. So if you’re not subscribed to it, subscribe to it. But Jim, in his article, gave two biblical reasons why Christians should care deeply about what happens in Gaza. Number one, he said God loves all people, whether Jews or Arabs, Israelis or Palestinians, and that’s from Galatians 3.

28. And then number two, he said we must pray. We’re called to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That’s Psalm 122, verse 6, and that means interceding for the entire region for the sake of the world at large. And then he makes the point, Christ alone can bring lasting peace. There can be all of these agreements in place.

They can be these ceasefires, these treaties signed, but only through Christ and Christ alone can true peace be found in our hearts, but also in that region and in that situation. So on many trips to Israel, he says, His friends were always greeting him with Shalom. Now, Connor and I had the pleasure of going to Israel, and we were always greeted with Shalom, and it’s a Hebrew word translated as peace.

However, it means far more than the absence of violence. Biblical peace means right relations with God. Others and ourselves. And he also says we’re called to pray and work for such peace for Jerusalem in the broader Middle East for the sake of not only the Jews and the Palestinians, but the world at large.

This means ultimately that we are to pray and work for Jews and Muslims to come to Christ as their Messiah and Lord, because when we accept that free gift of salvation and surrender our lives to Jesus, and we then have access to God’s power in our lives. That’s what brings lasting peace, is when people’s hearts truly change and surrender to Jesus.

And then he ends his article with a quote from C. S. Lewis. Love C. S. Lewis. And he says, God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it’s not there. There’s no such thing. And then he quoted one of my all time heroes, Billy Graham, and he said, Billy Graham said this, Christ alone can bring lasting peace, peace with God, peace among men and nations, and peace within.

our hearts. Christ alone can do that. 

[00:12:06] Conner Jones: Amen. Good word. That’s also true. Grateful for Christ’s peace, but he is the only way. I mean, that’s just the reality of it. Money won’t do it. Fame won’t do it. Only Christ. That’s right. That’s right. 

[00:12:19] Micah Tomasella: So money and fame. Connor, what’s our next story? 

[00:12:24] Conner Jones: Yeah, let’s let’s check out what’s going on in Hollywood because there’s some juicy stories happening over there.

So it’s been crazy. Yeah, it’s absolutely crazy. Okay. First and foremost, I want to do a quick check in on the Amelia Perez movie that we talked about a few weeks ago, we discussed the Oscar nominations came out in this movie. That received terrible reviews and had basically no audience that enjoyed it and whatnot.

Somehow received 13 Oscar nominations, and we discussed why. Most of all time, 

[00:12:51] Micah Tomasella: right? Most of all time. 

[00:12:52] Conner Jones: It’s up there. I don’t know if it’s most of all time or close. It was 

[00:12:55] Micah Tomasella: like top, yeah, something like that, yeah. 

[00:12:57] Conner Jones: I mean, it’s kind of insane. What we discuss is the reasons why. We think it’s because Hollywood has an agenda.

Because the movie surrounds a character that is transgender. That character is also played by a transgender woman. Actor named Carla Sophia Gascon, who was born male, has transitioned into female and was nominated for best actress in a leading role. We discussed all that I would suggest going to. That episode from a few weeks ago to hear more about our discussions there.

All this to say it’s all starting to backfire, Micah, what was supposed to be this big progressive movement and a show of force for Hollywood to say, Hey, we are, you know, we’re, we are another step ahead and potentially a. Rebuttal to the election results is now starting to backfire. And that’s because Carlos Sofia Gascon, the transgender actor, had posts on social media from previous years that were extremely offensive and derogatory.

They were typically, you know, racist and Islamophobic. And sorry, that’s not funny, but I’m just like, it’s just amazing to me that somehow Netflix who produced this movie. Did not have a team go back and find these social media posts just from recent years and clean it out before they started putting this person on the front page of everything and upfront for this movie, the star of their movie and trying to get them nominated for Oscars.

And winning Oscars, one of these posts said Islam is a quote, hotbed of infection for humanity. All right. So pretty brutal. Another tweet, he tweeted about his co star Selena Gomez in 2022, calling her a quote, rich rat who is obsessed with her ex Justin Bieber and his wife, Haley Bieber. Now that’s funny.

That’s just awkward. That’s just awkward. That was literally 3 years ago. Just 

[00:14:49] Micah Tomasella: scroll on the timeline a little bit. It’s just crazy. How did no one know this? Anyways. Obviously it’s backfiring. If they did, they would have deleted it. If they know about it and they still wanted to hire. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Right.

[00:15:03] Conner Jones: Anyway, either way, even after the movie, they had guests go and star in it, whatnot. There’s still typically PR teams whose entire job is to go through and clean out anything that could backfire. And it is backfiring. And it’s just, in my opinion, it’s showing the other side of promoting something that does not.

Add up that there’s, you know, they’re trying to push something, an agenda here, but it’s all starting to backfire. Anyways, Gascon has apologized, went on CNN and cried on CNN and Oh, you got to do 

[00:15:35] Micah Tomasella: that. 

[00:15:35] Conner Jones: Yeah, you do. Also, that was not sanctioned by Netflix or the PR team. Gascogne went and did that all by themselves.

And so you have to go cry 

[00:15:42] Micah Tomasella: on live TV if you’re actually going to apologize, though. I mean, everybody knows that, right? Yeah. 

[00:15:46] Conner Jones: Yeah. And and now Netflix is distancing themselves. Zoe Saldana, who is also up for best supporting actress and was the co star of the movie. is distancing herself from this whole thing.

And Selena Gomez is as well. It’s tainting the whole movie. Probably going to end up just honestly, they may not win any of these 13 Oscars. Definitely won’t get best leading actress, which I think is a really good thing because this is not an actual female getting that’s right. Nominated for actress.

So I think that means an actual biological female will for sure. It probably. 

[00:16:18] Micah Tomasella: It probably is. If I can just interject, I would, if I was a betting man, I’d say they’re most definitely not going to win. This movie will not win any awards because it seems like the Oscars agenda is to continue to do things to push the envelope, but also follow along with the crowd and whatever Hollywood is believing at that time or pushing at that time, whatever the culture is.

So they’re going to be very susceptible to these headwinds. And I bet you that this movie won’t win anything. 

[00:16:51] Conner Jones: It very well may not I would not be surprised. And honestly, I wanted to read this quote because I was reading from Vanity Fair about this whole thing, and I thought this, this one little snippet summed it up perfectly.

They said, The opportunity to vote for a history making nomination, to champion a film with values and subtle but clear opposition to the Trump administration, This was something for the industry to feel good about. But while Emilia Perez still has its champions, it is no longer a cause to rally around.

So kind of just reiterating what you just said, they’re probably, I mean, Hollywood likes to push the envelope, but they follow the headwinds, and this is just not gonna end up being the thing that they thought it was gonna be. Everybody, 

[00:17:31] Micah Tomasella: I mean, they have to follow their own rules, right? If they’re gonna set the rules for, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, And it’s not really based on anything concrete, anything foundational, like I believe that we get to base our faith on and what makes it so powerful.

It’s based on what the emotions and feelings are at the moment. So I mean, you know, you even project to what was it like five years ago? What will it be five years from now? It’s going to change because it’s not founded on anything concrete. solid or foundational, right? 

[00:18:02] Conner Jones: That’s absolutely right. Yeah.

And well, and then, so what happens is that all comes crumbling down when there’s no actual foundation and the movie is, is ultimately damaged. It was already not well received. So this whole thing’s just been kind of a big joke, in my opinion. So now that they put it up on a pedestal, it’s coming back down to where it probably actually belongs, which is without any awards.

Anyways, that’s one whole debacle, another one just overtaking Hollywood. And I’m sure many of you have seen some of the headlines, but if you’re not sure of everything, I’m gonna run this down. Have you heard, Micah, about the Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni drama? 

[00:18:38] Micah Tomasella: You know, I know all about it. My wife Talks about it all the time because this story is taking twists and turns and normally stories blow over But this has been in the news for months and you’ve seen public opinion I know that you’re gonna talk about it But you’ve seen public opinions like switch where I thought everybody was on one side Now everybody’s on the other side and when everyone everything comes out and all the receipts, but yes, tell us about it This has actually been very interesting 

[00:19:04] Conner Jones: Yeah, so as you know, Blake Lively A list actress married to A list actor, Ryan Reynolds, if you don’t know who that is, Deadpool, and a whole bunch of other movies.

Who are typically 

[00:19:12] Micah Tomasella: very liked. I mean, these two people are very liked. They don’t typically do a lot of controversial things either. They’re just like, you know, they have a family. They’re typically very liked. 

[00:19:21] Conner Jones: Yeah, they’re, like I said, power couples. They’re, they’re one of the elite couples. Everybody loves them.

They have a great curated image. It’s all starting to kind of crumble down similar to the Amelia Perez thing. So here’s, here’s what’s happened. Blake Lively was in the movie, It Ends With Us. That was a Colleen Hoover book, very popular, came out this past summer in August. The movie was directed and also starred in by Justin Baldoni.

So he was, he was the main male star in that movie, opposite Blake Lively. And the movie surrounds domestic violence. Blake Lively was the love interest here and she was in love with Justin Baldoni’s character. Domestic violence got involved. It spills out in this whole story. Anyways, when the movie started to come out, people started to notice that just about Donnie and Blake Lively, we’re not doing any press together.

They were no longer following each other on social media and everything was really awkward between the two of them. They were kind of avoiding answering questions about each other. It was very odd and then Lively started getting criticized because at every press conference that she was at, or not conference, but like on red carpets or any sort of press questioning, she was taking a very light approach when promoting this film that’s on a very heavy topic of domestic violence.

And so Baldoni opposite was going very hard on that saying men have to be better. No more domestic violence. And his whole brand is men need to be better. He’s been preaching this for years. He did a TED talk in 2018 about this, about manliness and being a true man is not what the world tells you it is.

It’s being softer and gentler, all this stuff. It’s very interesting. Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. You know. Anyway, so that was all very odd, and Blake Lively took a lot of heat during that time because of the way she was approaching press press tour, and then also past press tour clips were going on social media, viral, of her being rude and joking with Interviewers and making fun of them and kind of what people were calling a mean girl.

So it all, you know, for about a month, it was kind of dominated. Everything blew over a little bit. Then on Christmas week, the New York Times published a bombshell report that revealed lively had a, had filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and then orchestrating this massive PR smear campaign to damage her reputation of business, which could explain.

Why she was getting so much heat and why she was being misled on on press tours and where all these clips are coming From from past years and all that that it was being dug up by a pr team and getting Basically boosted on social media to go viral. She claims that all of that that pr smear campaign Damaged her business of hair care products and cost her sales by 78 percent and caused her severe emotional distress.

She’s been laying low for quite a few months now. Ryan Reynolds kind of has too. Anyways, Baldoni, he denied all those allegations, but then he was dropped by his management. And had his awards that were surrounding his topic on being a better man, all rescinded, and he lost his podcast co host where they talked about basically feminism and being a better man.

So it all kind of came crumbling down for him in response. Baldoni sued the New York times for 250 million. That is an insane amount of money. And then he also sued Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, alleging that they tried to destroy his career. So there’s a trial date for those lawsuits. That’s going to be March 9th, 2026.

So it’s a ways off, but I do think it’s going to be very similar to what we saw with Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, where it was these very famous people and it just became a big event and people watch that trial live and everything. So I think we’ll see something like that. Should it actually go to trial and there’s no settlement.

Anyways, Micah, now the internet is just divided. People are either team Blake or team Justin. It feels kind of like twilight all over again, team. And what are you I’m, I’m neither because, and that’s what I’m gonna talk about here. I don’t really know the truth here. I don’t think anybody does. And it’s like you were saying people are divided here, but it seems every week, one of these two teams is like the winning team, some new statement gets said, some new source comes out, some new texts are released or whatnot.

Showing damage on either side and people are like now this person’s the one who’s in the right and this person’s the one right because 

[00:23:27] Micah Tomasella: there’s, there’s all these texts from Ryan Reynolds, kind of these condescending texts from Ryan Reynolds that have been released to Justin Baldoni. I mean, I, I feel like my opinion has kind of shifted, but you just, it’s hard to know what the truth is.

[00:23:41] Conner Jones: I’m telling you every week, it seems like something new. And then, so this past week, the big news was Taylor Swift. You know, she got drawn into this whole thing because she was apparently at one of these meetings between Blake Lively. And Justin Baldoni, Taylor Swift, and Blake are like really close friends.

They’re always seen together, they go on double dates. Wasn’t she there? What, what, Taylor? Yeah, she was. She was at the meeting. No, no, no, no. Why? Why though? I mean, what? That, that’s the question, right? Baldoni is saying it was to, you know, leverage her fame in an intimidation tactic to make him feel pressure, saying, hey, look who my best friend is.

I’ve got all the power in the world. I’m going to have the PR side. I’m going to have the public image side on, you know, and then what’s interesting is Taylor is now apparently through leaked sources, been very frustrated with this whole situation and does not want to be involved. Wants to be like taken out of this.

Cause it’s obviously damaging her name. So you may have noticed that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were not at the Super Bowl with Taylor Swift this year up in the suite like they were last year. So anyways, the whole thing’s just been kind of weird. Here’s the deal, Micah. The truth is hard to know sometimes, especially when you’re not in the room, you’re not in those messages.

You’re not aware of who’s hiring who, who’s saying what, who’s going to different media sources to leak different information, all that. So the truth remains unclear, but the scandal has impacted both Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni and trickled into impacting even Ryan Reynolds. And Taylor Swift’s reputation and image.

And ultimately Micah, it’s overshadowed the film, which was about domestic violence. And so now we’re all focused on the case that we’re seeing here, where it highlights the ruthless nature of, you know, Hollywood’s PR machine which, you know, builds reputations and destroys reputations. That’s literally Hollywood’s.

Whole thing with PRs. They work hard to curate images or destroy images. So Michael What should we make up all of this? These these stories kind of seem like they don’t matter to us unless we’re living in the Hollywood bubble Even though it’s in everybody’s social media feeds and all of that You know Even if you don’t care that much about this or if you eat up all this drama and you’re like in the know on every Little thing that’s coming out And you’re following every development.

We can still glean some wisdom from this and from these PR disasters. And I would say, I point back to numbers 32, 23, which says. Your sin will find you out. And this is true for the Amelia Perez thing in this whole saga with Balboni and lively. So I imagine Carla, Sophia Gascon figured Hollywood would just move forward with rose colored glasses without thinking much about the post of the past.

But the reality is. Everyone involved with Amelia Perez is having to suffer the consequences for the sinful heart Gascon had when posting hateful tweets. You know, those were moments of, of a soured heart, posting racist or Islamophobic or whatever it is, misogynistic stuff, and it’s now affecting everyone involved with that movie.

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Are probably honestly both responsible for sinful actions over the course of the last year, you know, and now those deeds are being spilled out fully in, in the public image and for the public to divulge. I can’t even imagine how all the parties are feeling right now.

Even fame cannot hide humiliation. I would actually guess it probably just magnifies that humiliation makes it really hard. Sin is something, Micah, that we all struggle with. And these stories I think we can take as a reminder that it can come back to haunt us. But we also know that the gospel offers us grace and rescues us from that sin.

And I would say, just reflect on that beautiful truth this week and pray that these Hollywood dramas would ultimately shine a light on the reality of the saving grace of Jesus. I mean, that’s ultimately what it comes down to. It’s like you talked about in the first segment there, there’s only one truth.

And that one truth is Christ. He’s the only way to peace, whether it’s in Gaza or PR scandal, whatever it is. We have the one true peace in Jesus Christ, and I’m grateful for that. 

[00:27:49] Micah Tomasella: Oh, yeah. Yeah, good, good stuff, Connor. Thanks for catching us up on that, and that’s a very good spiritual application. I have two quick thoughts on that.

The first thing I think about is, I think about, be careful what you submit yourself to. When you submit yourself, in this example, to the Hollywood machine, to the ideals of something that, you know, that we talked about earlier, is consistently changing, be ready to, to meet some resistance. Be ready for there to be difficulty because you’re submitting yourself and giving all of yourself to something that will change, that has a moving goalpost, that isn’t founded on something foundational.

And then second, I think about, But these PR machines that you’re talking about creating these curated images, that verse from Numbers 32 is perfect, that your sin will find you out because you can only fake it for so long. You can only be somebody that you’re not for so long. And the verse that I think about is Hebrews 13, 8, and I love this verse.

I probably said it before on the podcast. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So be careful what you submit yourself to. And if you submit yourself to something, make sure it’s solid, concrete, and has eternal life. Reasoning has eternal impact. Yeah, Connor, thanks for sharing that story with us.

Do you want to talk about the Super Bowl for a minute?

[00:29:12] Conner Jones: Yeah, I really, really do. Let’s talk about it. Like we said at the beginning, it felt like the worst Super Bowl ever, but we can still recap a few things here. As everybody knows, the Philadelphia Eagles our least favorite team in the entire, it’s so hard, man. They won and they didn’t just win.

They stinking dominated the crush. Some chiefs crushed and the score doesn’t even really show how the game went because it ended up at Eagles winning 40 to 22, but we all know that it probably should have been 40 to six. Yeah. The chiefs just had some last minute, like garbage time. Yep.

Touchdowns, which honestly were impressive. And if they had been earlier in the game. Would have been awesome. Anyways so the Chiefs did not win that historic three Pete’s and they all just look so defeated. Patrick Mahomes looked defeated. Travis Kelsey looked defeated. All of that was just very interesting.

Jalen Hurts he did win Super Bowl MVP. He played his heart out. Although I thought Cooper Dejean, who had that pick six in the first quarter might get that MVP award. That 

[00:30:06] Micah Tomasella: really, that really swung the momentum in the direction of the Eagles after Patrick Mahomes threw that pick. In a way that I don’t think that they were able to overcome it just all of a sudden was 21.

Oh, right And so it’s just it’s hard to overcome that. 

[00:30:22] Conner Jones: Yeah, and then he threw another interception pretty close to their end zone later on in the game Also, I just gotta say I feel like jake elliott the kicker for the eagles should have been considered for mvp that dude kicked like I don’t even know six or seven field goals.

Yeah, kickers need more respect. Is that what you’re saying? Maybe. Anyways, Micah, was this the end of the Chiefs dynasty? No. So you think they’re going to work going back here? 

[00:30:50] Micah Tomasella: As long as you have the best quarterback in the NFL, you’re going to be competitive. It’s like any team sport. You have the best player, you have a chance.

You have an open window. Now I think there’s going to be some retirements. People are talking about Travis Kelsey retiring, which is the Long time tied in for the Chiefs, who’s broken all these records, gonna go down as one of the best tight ends ever. He might be retiring. Travis Kelsey is dating Taylor Swift.

You know, all those types of things. But no, their, their reign is not over as long as they have Patrick Mahomes. In my opinion. 

[00:31:21] Conner Jones: I agree. I mean, the Chiefs are sorry, the Patriots kind of did that. They had their few years of a complete dynasty, had a few down years. And then they came back and they’d won some more Super Bowls and then Tom Brady left and won another one with the Buccaneers.

But anyways, I also think they’ve got the best coach in the league. So I don’t think that their dynasty is necessarily going to be over. But I do think they are going to have to learn some things and figure out a way to, to beat some of these more, I would say, talented teams. Because I do think the Eagles, just from a talent perspective.

Had the, had the advantage this week 

[00:31:50] Micah Tomasella: for sure, for sure. So what did you think about the, the halftime show Connor? 

[00:31:54] Conner Jones: Yeah. Kendrick Lamar. So first off, I’m not a massive Kendrick Lamar fan. I know a few of his songs. I did know that he’s been in a, you know, beef with Drake for several months and I had a feeling he was going to turn this into a whole escapade to just damage Drake even more and just say, Oh, he did look at me.

I win. I’m the one performing at the halftime. He did the biggest stage on the world. Another 

[00:32:15] Micah Tomasella: celebrity feud. Kendrick Lamar and Drake. 

[00:32:18] Conner Jones: Yeah, it just all goes. builds back into what we talked about just a minute ago with celebrity feuds and image and everything. Anyways, I thought it was okay. I didn’t think it was great.

I didn’t find myself highly entertained by it. What did you think? 

[00:32:34] Micah Tomasella: You know, I had to look up some of the meaning afterwards because I was so curious. I mean, you had Samuel L. Jackson as like Uncle Sam during the performance. And there was, I think there was kind of two points to this. The first point was you know, Hey, Drake, look at me.

I won, I’m here, I’m performing at the Super Bowl. Like you said, trying to kind of get a leg up in their feud. But then the second thing was kind of a cultural commentary of what it feels like to be a black person in America. Was, was kind of his point of the halftime show. And so I, I mean that I kind of appreciate.

How much thought and how like artistic it was I just didn’t fully understand it in the moment Would have been a great time for subtitles, by the way, just because he was rapping so fast Yeah, right, right I mean so like I appreciated the the work that went into it and just because we don’t listen, you know Just just because some people might not listen to that kind of music.

That doesn’t Invalidated as a good performance or not. You know what I mean? I mean, I guess I’m just kind of, I guess I’m just kind of neutral. I’m definitely not gonna say it was bad and it didn’t captivate me either. 

[00:33:40] Conner Jones: Yeah, I’m not saying it was bad either. I just, I’m not sure he was the, in my opinion, I’m not sure he was the right person for the Super Bowl halftime show.

I think you gotta go with someone that most people know, like I, that’s right. I would appreciated it felt a little more niche, 

[00:33:51] Micah Tomasella: but that could just be us though. I mean, ’cause he’s like one of the most streamed artists of the last five years and I mean, he is. So I mean, it could have just been, it could just be more us.

I don’t know. 

[00:34:00] Conner Jones: Yeah, that’s very true. I just, what, what happened to the days of George straight standing up there with just a guitar. It wasn’t like a dance. See we 

[00:34:07] Micah Tomasella: would love that but yeah, a lot of people Might not you know, okay. So what what was your favorite commercial though? 

[00:34:14] Conner Jones: Oh, man I did did you see that commercial with it was rocket mortgage, which they didn’t make that super clear that was on them But I like the message of the commercial At the end and literally gave no explanation and so I was like I, I’m going to have to find out who this is anyways.

Rocket mortgage did a commercial where they showed like families, young couples buying homes raising babies, small towns. It was very kind of American dream centric. And that was the message of the, of the commercial was you can achieve the American dream, chase it when and they had take me home country roads in the background and I just loved it.

And here’s why I think in past years, a lot of these commercials have gone either super you know, quote unquote, like woke or very sexualized or whatnot. This just felt like a very pure commercial that was saying, you know, start a family, have a baby, get married buy a house and the American dream is still possible.

Yeah. And you got this classic, one of the most famous songs of all time in America. Take me home country roads by John Denver is playing in the background. You want to sing it? You don’t want to hear me sing that no but I love that song I mean what’s cool is then they cut over and that was the last commercial and it cut over the stadium The stadium was singing the song because everybody loves to just belt that one out when it’s going on in the stadium I thought it was cool.

I just love the the message of it. Hey This is the American 

[00:35:33] Micah Tomasella: dream. Chase it. I love that. What was your favorite? I did enjoy that commercial. Another one was, I think it was in the first quarter. I just thought it was really funny. I also thought it was random. I didn’t understand everything that was going on.

But it was like, that 90 second commercial. I mean, it just lasted forever. But it was the Dunkin Donuts commercial. With the Affleck brothers, Ben and Casey, and then Jeremy Strong, who’s the method actor. And it was just a really funny commercial about how people just want coffee. And then they, it was like this Dunkin Donuts crowd versus this, it was very obvious they were making fun of the Starbucks crowd, you know?

And it was, you know, it was like, we don’t need all the oat milk and nonfat and skim milk or whatever. I just want black coffee with a shot of cream or, you know, something like that. And I just thought I just thought the commercial was funny and honestly kind of relatable of like coffee’s just fuel, you know So I just I just thought that was funny.

[00:36:26] Conner Jones: Yeah It was pretty good. I don’t think it was as funny as last year’s Duncan ones that had a Matt Damon Ben Affleck and Tom No, 

[00:36:32] Micah Tomasella: honestly overall. I didn’t find myself cracking up that much in these commercials So I felt like that was one of the funniest ones, but this this crop of commercials just wasn’t super funny 

[00:36:43] Conner Jones: Yeah, we got to get we got to get better commercials if you’re on marketing teams, please I don’t know, do better.

[00:36:48] Micah Tomasella: We need to get funnier movies, shows, commercials. I mean, we’re just losing comedy, man. But that’s just a different story for a different time. 

[00:36:56] Conner Jones: That is. Okay. All of that to say, you know, one. Hold on before we move on. I want to point out one quick story. Jalen Hurts, who won the MVP and I know he’s the quarterback of the Eagles.

So that’s tough. But we just gotta talk about his story real fast. In 2018, do you remember when he was the quarterback at Alabama? He was in the national championship and he was playing horrible. So at halftime, he got benched. They brought out Tua Tagovailoa, who came in and ended up winning the game. And everyone was like, man, that stinks.

Jalen Hurts, his career may be done. Tua’s gonna be the new quarterback at Alabama. He had the chance to just be a baby and complain about it. And I think a lot of players would have. He’s kept his head up high. He actually finished that game really well standing on the sideline and supporting his teammates and talking to Tua and celebrating with him when they won the national championship even knowing.

That his, you know, his career might be damaged based off of the benching. He ended up transferring to OU playing his mind out. And then he got second place in the Heisman trophy running that year. Gets drafted by the Eagles. And now he has been to two Superbowls. He’s won a Superbowl and one Superbowl MVP.

I just think it’s one of those stories where you’re like, okay, this is a guy who put his head down and just dug into his craft and improved. He had the chance to quit. He had the chance to complain. He never did that. He realized he could learn and I think it’s perfect for an application of Proverbs 11 12 that says when pride comes, then comes disgrace.

But with humility comes wisdom. And maybe, maybe that bench ended up being the hum humbling thing that he needed. I don’t know. I don’t know what his story was at that moment, but I just, I do think he’s got strong character and he’s always shown that he’s always been positive and all week at, you know, press conferences at super bowl week, he was, Giving the glory to God, which is just cool.

Very 

[00:38:44] Micah Tomasella: specifically Jesus Christ too. Like he was, he was very, very specific about that. I honestly hate how much I really like him. As a person, just as a Cowboys fan. He’s the quarterback for the Eagles. Our arch, you know, our rivals, right? Just won the Super Bowl. But Jalen Hurts has made it the right stuff.

And again. I think he’s building his life on the solid rock. And I think that you just see that in the way that he carries himself and the way that he handles the roller coasters of his career. Imagine those types of roller coasters. And that’s why it’s a great example for why it’s worth us basing our life off of it too.

So that’s a great point, Connor. That was great. We ran through all the top stories. Let’s jump into something I’d like to call executive order, yay or nay. Connor, are you ready? Okay, I guess so. What are we doing here? Let’s do it. Okay, so I’m gonna give you three executive orders. Okay. You just say yay or nay and give me a one sentence explanation of why you are for or against it.

So we These are 

[00:39:43] Conner Jones: executive orders from Trump over the last Yes, yes, yes. So these 

[00:39:47] Micah Tomasella: are actual executive orders. I’m just giving three. I mean, there are so many and not all of these are jokes either, right? Like I’m not, I’m not saying that we’re handling this in a joking way at all. However, it’s a new executive order every day.

And so might as well just see kind of how we feel about it. And let’s talk about a serious one and then a couple more random ones that for some reason also kind of make sense. But anyway, all right, Connor. First one, executive order. No more biological boys and girls sports. Oh, I’m so for that, 

[00:40:14] Conner Jones: I, I, I actually think most of the country’s for that too yay or nay.

[00:40:17] Micah Tomasella: Oh, sorry. Yay. There you go. Thank you. Thank you. I am you asked. I am. That’s a yay for me as well. Okay. That’s, that’s a yay for me as well. . 

[00:40:27] Conner Jones: Sorry, you asked for a sentence. I was gonna give you a sentence, . Anyways, I, I do, I do think it’s a good one. 

[00:40:36] Micah Tomasella: Yeah, it just makes sense. I agree. It’s, it’s just common sense.

It doesn’t have to be political. It’s common sense. Second, no more pennies. Connor, Trump wants the U. S. meant to stop creating pennies, and basically it came down to a penny is worth one cent, and it was like three and a half cents to create one. Are you pro no more pennies? Are you yay or nay? 

[00:41:02] Conner Jones: As an 8th, up to 8th grade I had a coin collection and I thought pennies were super cool.

That makes sense for you. That makes 

[00:41:09] Micah Tomasella: a lot of sense that you did that. 

[00:41:12] Conner Jones: Anyways, the coin, the coin collection part of me is no, the fiscal sense of me is yeah, this makes sense. Who’s using pennies anymore? Also, how many pennies go missing every year thrown into fountains and lakes? What else did you collect?

What else did you collect? Stamps? Stamps? Yeah, man, I didn’t have the money to 

[00:41:32] Micah Tomasella: collect cars. I, I, I collected baseball cards and I also had a coin collection where I had quarters from every state and American territory. So I did have a small coin collection. Yeah. You probably had, that was probably the tip of the iceberg for you, dude.

I had the whole map laid out everything. Yeah. I was okay. So overall we are yay. No more pennies. Yeah. Just to save the money. Okay. I’m with you. All right. Last one. No more paper straws. Yay or nay? I am so 

[00:42:00] Conner Jones: here for this. I absolutely hate those things. 

[00:42:02] Micah Tomasella: You want to talk about something I’m, I’m a come out and, and, you know, complete support of, and I am sorry if we get backlash on this.

I am so sick of paper straws. This is 2025, and they still melt after five minutes. We cannot figure out how to make a paper straw that is functional for more than five minutes? No, we can’t. Yeah, 

[00:42:23] Conner Jones: it’s, it’s it’s because paper isn’t meant to get wet. That’s just the way it is. Right. Good point. Yeah, I mean, good point.

I I’m here for this. I’m sure environmentalists are not happy about it, but okay. Hey, Micah, that was fun, but let’s, let’s hit the mailbag real fast. Cause we did get a message this week from Jen who asked us a great question. I think we should try to tackle it really quickly. She said she emailed us at culture brief at Denison form.

org. You can do the same thing. If you listen to this, you want to ask questions, you want to bring up a topic. We’d love to talk about it. Culture brief at Denison form. org. Okay. So Jen said, send them. I’m trying to follow the Trump administration around cryptocurrency regulations coming down the pipeline.

How will that impact the cryptocurrency market and trading? Should I invest in us based cryptocurrencies? And then she added on a question on the spiritual side is crypto part of the central money exchange in revelation 1317. Should Christians care about crypto? Does a cashless society note that we are in the end times?

Interesting question, Jen. Love it. Michael, what do you 

[00:43:25] Micah Tomasella: think? 

Let’s just say, you know, I opened up that Word of God, read Revelation 13, 17, and I googled like any good American would. Maybe ask chat GPT for some help on this. Just to make sure that I can try to answer this question, but I did prepare an answer for both.

Please feel free to chime in Connor. This is a great question, Jen. Thank you for this. So this is a very pro crypto administration. So comparing itself to the Biden administration, they were very skeptical on crypto. There was very little support from the government on cryptocurrency and investing in that.

So I’d say from my very nonprofessional opinion, I’m not licensed. Let me just clarify that. So I am, cannot give. financial advice. But sure, go for it. Invest in it if you want to invest in it. Just don’t put all your eggs in one basket. That’s just a great principle. If you ask one of our best buds, Cody, who’s a CPA and a CFP, he would say, absolutely not.

Do not invest in crypto. But what does he know? You know, go ahead. He is a financial advisor. 

[00:44:29] Conner Jones: He seems to know some stuff. So I, my thought is, you know, just do your research, figure out what’s best. I would say be very, very careful. There are so many scammers out there in crypto and meme coins that are just being created literally every day.

People are taking celebrity names every day, creating a coin. So if you’re going to do it, just make sure you’re investing in legit coins. Obviously, Bitcoin’s big, Litecoin is it Ethereum? There’s several that are really big and more established, but it’s all unregulated. Dogecoin? I mean, Doge, Doge is a big one.

Obviously now that we’ve got a government department named after that. So it gets kind 

[00:45:01] Micah Tomasella: of confusing. Yeah. 

[00:45:02] Conner Jones: It does well, I mean it was quite literally named after the coin so it is what it is It’s just an interesting space. Just do your research and be smart about it, Michael What about that spiritual side of this?

[00:45:13] Micah Tomasella: Yeah, so the second question is crypto part of the central money exchange and Revelation 13 17 and should Christians care about crypto? Does a cashless society know we’re in the end times. So here’s what Revelation 13 17 says so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark that is the name of the beast or the number So a great resource for any questions that you might have.

I’m going to plug this here is gotquestions. org. It’s a wonderful Christian resource and website to give biblical truth to answers of just anything you could possibly think of. Just go on that website and type in anything. It’s great. So a cashless society could make it easier for a overreaching government, a totalitarian type of government to control citizens.

But this isn’t necessarily linked to the end times. We’ve been seeing that since the dawn of time, people get power, organizations get power and the wrong people are in place and they want to do things for personal gain. And so they exploit their citizens, right? So it doesn’t indicate that the Lord’s return is imminent specifically, I would say, but as believers, we’ve always been warned that he’s going to return at any time.

And Jesus also tells us we’ll never know the exact. day or hour. So keep on trying to guess you’re not going to be able to guess even before electronic transactions existed. This is what the truth has been, right? So we’re and we’re navigating this, this world, this virtual world, this technological world that is, is new to history in the way that we’re experiencing it now.

And so ultimately every day brings us closer to his return. Let’s just be ready for it. What do you think, Connor? 

[00:46:51] Conner Jones: Yeah, I fully agree with you. I honestly don’t even have anything to add. I just think you hit it right on the head. So boom. Thank you. Got questions. org. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Jen for sending the question again.

Send us anything you’d like to at culture brief at Denison forum. org. Okay. Micah, before we head out, let’s, let’s give the people some things that they should tune in for or what they want. Let’s give the people what they want. If you are unaware and you’re listening to this on Thursday, tomorrow’s Valentine’s day.

So if you forgot, make sure you get your significant other. Okay. Something, you know, nice, sweet, take them out to dinner, whatever it is. Tell them you love them. Micah, do you have any Valentine’s Day traditions? 

[00:47:27] Micah Tomasella: Spending time with my wife. It’s been fun to do some Valentine’s Day things with our daughters.

Right? Just to show them that we love them. And all of that stuff. I mean, I, I think the tradition just continues to mold that as long as I’m with the people that I love, then Valentine’s Day is great. I’m not trying to be corny there, it’s just That’s that’s my tradition. 

[00:47:51] Conner Jones: Yeah, very deep. My tradition is we go to Waffle House.

So I knew that I 

[00:47:57] Micah Tomasella: knew that you did that my wife and I went to Waffle House Every, every Valentine’s day. And then we just kind of stopped. I think we’ve kind of gone from, we’d love chilies till we like chilies, but anyway, go ahead. 

[00:48:10] Conner Jones: No. Yeah. I mean, look, here’s the deal. I loved Waffle House in college. So we started going on, on Valentine’s day cause we were poor.

And so we would just go to, you know, cross the street over to Waffle House and it’s just stuck ever since. So I think this year will be like our eighth or ninth year of going there. I 

[00:48:26] Micah Tomasella: love that you guys do that. Never stopped doing that. Unless Waffle House goes out of business, but you know what, Waffle House keeps America running.

I think that’s their 

[00:48:35] Conner Jones: tagline. It’s something like that. Okay. This Sunday, you may not care about this, but I kinda care. Daytona 500, 2. 30 Eastern on Fox Sports. If you’re a racing fan, NASCAR fan. We all know this is the big one. This is the Superbowl of NASCAR. So tune in 

[00:48:52] Micah Tomasella: boogity, boogity. Let’s go racing boys.

If you ain’t first, you’re last 

[00:48:57] Conner Jones: Yep. There’s Will Ferrell and Darryl Waltrip in one line. Love it. Okay. This, this is interesting. SNL is celebrating their 50th anniversary with a massive show on Sunday night, which I think is kind of weird because it’s Saturday night live anyway. That is weird. Get that 7 PM.

Central 8 p. m. Eastern on NBC, they’re going to have apparently all, you know, the, the people who’ve been on the show for the last five decades coming back, tons of stars, it’s going to be a big deal. If you’re a big SNL fan, this is going to be made and tailored for you. I will maybe tune in. We will see.

I’ll probably watch it right after the Daytona 500. So we’ll see. Yeah, 

[00:49:32] Micah Tomasella: there you go. You got a busy Sunday. 

[00:49:34] Conner Jones: Well, football’s gone. You got to fill it with something. 

[00:49:37] Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Okay. 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.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, please please subscribe and rate and review the show. That’s how we grow it. interact, leave comments, rate and review it on wherever you’re consuming it. Just look for that. You’ll be able to find it and please share it with a friend who could use it as well. We’ll see you guys next thursday.