Plane crash, tariffs, Super Bowl predictions, & processing the Luka Dončić trade with Dr. Ryan Denison | Ep. 5

Join Conner Jones and Micah Tomasella as they break down the week’s biggest stories: the tragic plane crash over the Potomac River, Trump’s new tariff plans, and the shocking Dallas Mavericks trade of Luka Dončić for Anthony Davis. The episode features a special guest, Dr. Ryan Denison, who helps analyze the implications of the trade. They also cover upcoming news highlights, including Trump Cabinet confirmations and plans for Gaza, and share their Super Bowl predictions.

Powered by RedCircle

Topics

• (01:01): Tragic Mid-Air Collision in Washington, D.C.
• (02:53): Impact and Reactions to the Plane Crash
• (13:33): Trump’s Tariff Plan
• (21:39): Dallas Mavericks Shocking Trade
• (24:16): Ryan’s Perspective on the Trade
• (26:22): Fan Reactions and Emotional Impact
• (30:33): Subtitles Debate: Listener Responses
• (34:29): Upcoming News and Gaza update
• (37:37): Super Bowl Predictions and MVP Favorites

Resources

• Mailbag: [email protected]
• DenisonForum.org/subscribe
• Tragedy over the Potomac
• Recognizing the 28 Lost on Flight 5342 | U.S. Figure Skating
• Students, Olympic skaters, families and more. A tribute to lives lost in the DC plane crash
• The triumphant final days of the skaters killed in D.C. crash – ESPN
• Air traffic controller ‘left work early’ before deadly crash as helicopter’s flight height comes into question | The Independent
• South Korea reports initial findings of Jeju Air crash | CNN
• Washington DC plane crash: investigators probe wreckage and flight logs | Reuters
• What caused the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan? Here’s what we know so far. – CBS News
• Tariffs Definition | TaxEDU Glossary.
• Inside the Luka Doncic-Mavericks feud that preceded blockbuster trade
• Luka Dončić’s father attacks Mavericks’ ‘hypocrisy’ after shock Lakers trade
• Axios-Trump’s wild Middle East vision
• ​​President Trump declares that the US should “take over” Gaza

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 Dr. Ryan Denison

Ryan Denison, PhD, is the Senior Editor for Theology at Denison Forum. Ryan writes The Daily Article every Friday and contributes writing and research to many of the ministry’s productions. He holds a PhD in church history from BH Carroll Theological Institute after having earned his MDiv at Truett Seminary. He’s authored The Path to Purpose, What Are My Spiritual Gifts?, How to Bless God by Blessing Others, 7 Deadly Sins, and has contributed writing or research to every Denison Forum book.

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, technology, anything else. And we’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. Hi, I’m Connor Jones. And Micah, what in the 

[00:00:18] Micah Tomasella: world were the Dallas Mavericks thinking?

This still hurts, man, this still hurts, but we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it. My name is Micah Tomasella, and today we’re talking about last week’s plane crashes, Trump’s tariff plan, the Super Bowl, and of course, the story that shook the sports world and really news in general over the weekend.

We have an extra special guest on the podcast today to discuss the stunning and heart wrenching Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis trade. Who do you think our special guest is, Connor? Well, I don’t feel like it’s a fair question because I actually know who it 

[00:00:49] Conner Jones: is. Well, you’ll just have to wait and see. You’ll just have to wait have to wait and see.

But yeah. Let’s let’s dive into it, Michael. We’ve got a lot to cover this week, so let’s go into the brief. Let’s jump into the brief. Okay, well, we’re going to have to start off with kind of the more tragic side of stories this week. Unfortunately, As everybody knows, there was a massive plane crash last week over the Potomac River in Washington, D.

C. Yeah. In which American Eagle flight 5342 coming in from Wichita, Kansas was in a collision with a U. S. Army Blackhawk helicopter and they both went crashing into the Potomac River. Very tragic, Micah. Unfortunately, all lives were lost. There were 64 people on board the American Eagle jet, three people, three soldiers on board the Blackhawk.

Micah, this was the first fatal U. S. Airline crash since 2009. Just a really heart wrenching images, very tragic stories, hearing the stories of people who are waiting for their family members at the airport and picking them up. The figure skating community has been hit hard. 28 of the people that were killed were part of the U.

S. Figure skating community. And the U. S. Figure skating Federation said they were incredible athletes, caring and supportive family members and coaches who worked tirelessly. For their athletes, they were returning home from the U S figure skating championships that were just held in Wichita, Kansas.

And so they all had just been competing, or they were coaches and family members that were there for that competition. And on their way home, unfortunately, their lives were all cut short. I did include and will include a USA Today article in the show notes that gives the stories of each of the victims as far as they’ve been able to reach out to those families and whatnot.

So they’re updating that consistently. As a tribute to those people, I would just encourage going to read the stories of these children competitors, family members, there were guys on a hunting trip, there were people on work trips, all of that. Just hearing their stories is very, very tragic, but it is a good tribute to them.

Micah, this is just such a devastating tragedy. What do you, what do you think about all this? What was your first reaction when you saw the news? This was on Wednesday night last week. 

[00:03:01] Micah Tomasella: Yeah, I mean, it was probably, it was probably similar to everybody else’s reaction. I mean, you start to get the alerts.

I mean, Connor and I are news junkies. And so we get the alerts, we see them. You know, and you just see that a plane went down with people on it. And you saw a crash, and you saw that a helicopter was involved, and you see the videos flooding, but you don’t really know what’s gonna happen, and then fast forward.

You start to figure out what happened, and you just figure out that just now, I think on Tuesday, they were able to recover all 67 bodies from the Potomac River. I mean, this plane was landing. Like, it was very close to the ground. It was landing, and then It had a collision with this Blackhawk helicopter and tragically, just a seemingly like a casual flight after a competition from Wichita, Kansas to Washington, D.

C. So many people’s lives were cut short. It’s, it’s brutal, man. It’s really, it’s really sad. And I think a way that we can honor victims in this situation, just like you said, is read their stories and pray for their families. Tragedy can strike at any time. Life is fragile things can happen quickly, things can be great, and then in the next minute they’re awful.

And so that’s, that’s life, but this is this is hard to swallow for sure. 

[00:04:14] Conner Jones: This one is hard to swallow and you know, like I said, we haven’t had an accident in America since 2009. Plane crashes are, are fairly, fairly rare. They were more common in the 80s and 90s, but we’ve learned so much over time in the aviation.

Industry that they’ve been pretty much prevented for so long. And this was obviously just a, in a way, a freak accident. A lot of things lined up. Yeah, my initial reaction was the same. I was initially just like, what? When I got the first push notification that a plane crashed in the Potomac. That’s already happened.

That happened in 1982 with air Florida flight 90. And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen those images, Micah, but that one crashed in the icy waters, I believe in January, it was December or January, and there were insane rescue footage and pictures of that rescue when I think there was like five survivors there.

And so, you know, we’ve seen similar images and I was just like, this can’t be. possible. This, this doesn’t happen anymore. I mean, initially the reports where it was a small aircraft and then as it came out that there was an American Eagle involved, it just was like, oh, the gut wrench. This was going to be more tragic than anybody thought.

It’s brutal 

[00:05:14] Micah Tomasella: and it’s almost like you assume that as technology increases. These things should be happening less. I mean, people have been flying for a long time, right? You know, so you’re talking about that story from Florida in, what, 1982. And then, you know, now, fast forward to 2025, like, you just think we would be done with these things.

But, Connor, tell us about, I mean, what is the, I mean, there’s been so much backlash on this. There’s been so much scrutiny on this. I mean, tell us about that. Yeah, well, it is 

[00:05:39] Conner Jones: interesting because this happened in the nation’s capital, I think we saw immediate response from, National and global media. I mean think about the images we were seeing that night You had the emergency lights and you had the capitol building dome in the background and the washington monument It’s just like was these iconic sites and also right on the you know Precipice of an insane week in dc already and then you’ve got all the agencies around it and you have all these new cabinet members pete hegseth was Just confirmed a few days before, and then the new secretary of transportation was confirmed the day before this crash, Sean Duffy, and so these two new secretaries are having to work on the investigation.

So we do have the National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB. Begun their investigation immediately. They’re actually headquartered in Washington, DC. So everyone was on scene very fast. They’re already kind of releasing some information. Obviously this is going to be a really long investigation. They’ll probably take over a year to get the full report out.

And then with that, they’ll release suggested changes across the industry that need to be made. And so we’ll see what comes out of that boat. Here’s what we do know so far. Obviously the nation’s capital is a highly trafficked area for aircraft. This is because there are so many VIPs and senior government officials flying around DC and helicopters.

That it’s just, there’s congested air. If you’ve ever been to DC, you will see aircraft landing at Reagan airport, just right over the city. And then you’ll see helicopters flying around everywhere as well. So everybody already knows it’s congested, but there’s, there’s rules in place for those helicopters.

They’re supposed to follow some very specific paths and stay at very specific altitudes. This chopper should not have been above 200 feet. It does sound like it might’ve been in the 300 foot range based off of preliminary data. The pilots of the helicopter were wearing night vision goggles, but for some reason they didn’t see the aircraft you know, there’s limited visibility in these aircraft cockpits.

So maybe that makes some sense, but we’ll just have to find out more. Here’s the kicker, the air traffic control tower. Normally there are two people in the spot who would one person be focused on helicopters, one person focused on planes in this area until 9 30 PM at 9 PM is when this accident happened.

And the air traffic control supervisor had sent home one of those other controllers. So one controller was watching both helicopters and planes about 30 minutes earlier than normal while there’s still a lot of air traffic going on. So something will probably come out of that information. And then the controller did ask the Blackhawk if they saw the American Eagle jet.

And the Blackhawks said yes, but investigators are trying to determine if the Blackhawk pilots thought it might have been a different jet that they were seeing. Right, because there was another jet in the area, right? Yeah, because there was a line of jets coming into land. I mean, that’s, that’s, you know, when you see at an airport, you see the line of jets just back back and forth behind each other going in and out of the airports, all of that.

And then This is interesting Politico noted last week in an article that the pandemic did worsen staff and short staffing shortages of air traffic controllers, which led to some pretty bad stats over the last few years. There were in 2022, there were five near miss collisions in 2023. There were 11.

And that, that really sparked a lot of fear in their aviation industry. And the FAA did work pretty hard to put new protections in place. So last year in 2024, there was only one recorded near miss of commercial airliners. That’s still bad. You don’t want any, but all of those near misses. Everybody’s been kind of raising the alarm, like, Hey, someday this is going to end up happening.

Something needs to change with air traffic controllers or technology that’s supposed to prevent collisions, all of that. So it all came to a head last week and it’s also on the heels of just several other tragic crashes. There was one in Azerbaijan airlines in December on Christmas day that killed 38 people.

And that, that was actually hit by a Russian missile. And there’s a lot more to that story. Then on December 29th, in South Korea, Jeju Airlines, Boeing 737 crashed into a wall after it had engine failure that killed 179 people. You remember that one? Yeah. And the videos of both of those accidents were really hard to watch.

And then even this last week just a few days after this crash in DC on Friday night, a Learjet took off from Northeast Philadelphia. It was Mexican Learjet, and it was an air transport for medical reasons. Took off and within 60 seconds, nosedived right into a city block. It killed all six people on board that aircraft and kill, including a child, patient and her mother.

And then one person on the ground was also killed. Many, many people were injured. The city block was just destroyed. Fireball took out a lot, cost tons of damage. It was really hard to see those videos as well. Micah, it’s just not normal to have so many tragic and very visible plane crashes in such a short span.

It’s putting a lot of emphasis, obviously, on the needed safety measures. And we’re going to see pressure on plane manufacturers, government officials, military people all across the globe. But Micah, just what do you think, what do you think this requires us to respond as Christians? Like, how do we, how do we.

Go to God in a situation like this and say, God, you, you know, you’re such a good God, but how can you allow tragedy like this plane crash in DC or any of these plane crashes or any other tragedies? 

[00:10:46] Micah Tomasella: Yeah, you know, I think about just the raw emotion of that, you know, and, you know, you hear about this plane crash and the 67 people who passed away and then.

Just a few days later, everybody’s getting alerts. Just a couple of days later, everybody’s getting alerts about this crash in Philadelphia. And you learn about that story. And I mean, that child was being flown in from Mexico to get life saving surgery and then flying back after that surgery was completed and then the plane crashed and they passed away.

So I think about. Something that Dr. Dennison our founder, noted in response to the crash last week in one of his articles, that if we are to blame God for all innocent suffering, mustn’t we also credit Him for all the innocent good? A very relatable quote from C. S. Lewis, following his wife’s death to bone cancer, he says, Not that I am, I think, in much danger of ceasing to believe in God.

The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not, so there’s no God after all, but so this is what God’s really like deceive yourself no longer. So we do worship a good God and we can lament and hard moments. Psalm 36 through seven, David says, as for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved by your favor.

Oh Lord, you have made my mountain stand strong. You hid your face and I was dismayed. You know, it’s, it’s tough, Connor. What are your thoughts on that? 

[00:12:05] Conner Jones: Well, that C. S. Lewis quote is so good because it’s just like, we could take this moment and be like, our God is not a good God, you know, but that’s not the case.

Our, our faith, you know, there’s the opportunity to waver here, or there’s an opportunity to look back at God, and like Dr. Dennison said in his article, If we credit God for all the innocent suffering, we also have to credit him for all the innocent good. We don’t deserve anything That’s ultimately what it comes down to now That’s really you know, not something that people suffering in these tragedies or any sort of trial Like to hear but it is reality god is a good god and we can’t explain everything that happens It’s really hard to to go through a trial to go through a tragedy.

But god can And will redeem everything so somewhere there will be you know down the line We’ll we’ll hear stories of redemption in these tragedies, but you were right earlier on Saying we need to pray for these families who are going through this right now in this plane crashes or anyone just going through suffering, if it’s the LA wildfires or other natural disasters or cancer, whatever it is, we pray for those people and ask God to step in and bring them peace and comfort.

But yeah, thank you, Micah, for kind of hitting on those encouraging notes. Anyways, pray for these people as, as they walk through the, you know, days of grief and mourning but that, that’s kind of a wrap up on the plane crashes. It’s hard to talk about, but let’s, let’s, Micah, let’s go into your section on tariffs, 

[00:13:33] Micah Tomasella: tariffs, let’s talk about tariffs, such an exciting topic tariff says, so we’ve heard about tariffs a lot in the news for a couple of years now, Trump ran on this, he ran his campaign on it and we’re seeing it be implemented now.

So I put my thinking cap on for you guys and I do it for the culture brief audience I do it for you connor right so that I can catch you up on all things tariffs and how they affect us As everyday americans, so let me define the tariff before I oh, of course anything for you, buddy So let me define a tariff for a second here before we even start this conversation I think there’s a lot of confusion around what this means.

We just keep hearing the word tariff It’s such a buzzword right now tariffs are taxes imposed by one country on goods imported from another country. It’s a simple As that so over the last week, the United States has introduced bold new tariff measures, signaling a strong push for economic fairness, domestic job growth and national security.

That’s what Trump saying. The reasons are for these tariffs. These tariffs are championed, obviously by President Donald Trump, and they align with his longstanding commitment and plan. He’s talked about tariffs a lot. He had levels of tariffs in his first term. But during the second term, he is, he has cranked up the heat for sure.

And so here are the tariffs implemented so far this past week. So China, so as of February 4th, the US has imposed a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports, including products that were previously exempt. This move also for example, it requires formal customs entry for mail packages from China, adding another layer of regulation.

Initially, A 25 percent tariff on imports from these neighboring countries, Canada and Mexico, was scheduled to take effect on February 1st. However, following negotiations the tariffs have been postponed for 30 days, contingent upon Canada and Mexico enhancing border security efforts to curb drug trafficking.

So we hear this, we hear it’s about to go in. There is a tight network of, of importation, deportation. In North America, right? So this would really disrupt things. And so in the 11th hour, Trump negotiates with the president of Mexico, negotiates with the prime minister of Canada. And then the 11th hour, he delays them 30 days.

And really that all hinged upon drugs, drug cartels. The movement of fentanyl right the goal was to get them to start putting in more effort to border security Now it can be argued what they were already doing There’s a lot of conflicting reports out there and I can go ahead and tell you Even as somebody who’s doing this day in and day out and recording this podcast connor it is and you know, we can talk about this more in the future.

It’s hard to find the truth on something It really is like on a topic like this and the effects of it. It’s hard to find the truth out there to see through the bias On A topic like this. Have you noticed that? 

[00:16:13] Conner Jones: No, it definitely is. Well, you and I are texting this week about these tariffs and we’re like, okay, so Canada, you know, they agreed, well, Mexico did it first.

And then Canada followed. They agreed to some of Trump’s demands on the border. And they said, we’re going to do this and this and this and implement these military motives. And Canada was like, we’re going to appoint a fentanyl borders are. Yeah. Type of person in their government. And then, you know, people are like, this is amazing.

Trump has, you know, shown the strength of America and his strength and he’s negotiating with everyone’s caving, 

[00:16:43] Micah Tomasella: everyone’s caving. But then 

[00:16:44] Conner Jones: other people came out or like, yeah, maybe they caved, but they were already planning on doing this. So it, you know, it’s, it’s hard to know where they had already done it.

They’d already done it. People were like, it’s not the big of as big of a win as you think it is hard to know. This is part of discernment, right? Is like going through and not just listening to one side and trying to land on what is the truth. Yeah, we do hope to help bring that truth here on this podcast.

That’s part of why Mike and I are diving into news every day. We want to help you discern that. And honestly, we’re still trying to figure this one out because there’s just so many questionable reports on, and it depends on who’s talking. You know, if you’re the Canadian government, you want to look like you’re stronger.

And so you’re saying, yeah, we were already doing this. We just wanted to appease Trump and Mexico may say the same thing. If you’re in the white house, you’re saying Trump one, he showed the strength of America. He’s using tariffs as leverage. Like he did last week with Columbia. And we talked about that too.

He’s, he’s figured out a way to negotiate with tariffs as the leverage here. But each side is going to try. I 

[00:17:44] Micah Tomasella: mean, and that’s a great point, Connor, that you just kind of drawed upon because it was, it was really just what we were talking about with the plane crashes. We’re not going to sit here in every single episode and, and give you a for sure answer, unless we have one.

We’re discussing things right now, doing our best. to stay in the loop ourselves, and to inform our audience, and do it from a biblical perspective, do it in a fun way, even when we’re having to cover hard things. But, I mean, ultimately, it’s difficult for us to be able to look at this situation and say, I have the exact answer.

So thank you for bearing with us. But it’s just important that, you know, people say, you gotta stay informed. Well, I’m sitting here saying you gotta read a lot, and you still might not feel as informed as you’d like to. But let’s talk about the consequences and the reaction of these tariffs across the globe.

So let’s talk about China’s retaliation. So in response to the new tariffs, China swiftly countered with its own set of retaliatory tariffs on U. S. imports. So it, you know, they targeted industries such as coal, liquefied natural gas, crude oil, automobiles, and agricultural machinery. I’ve been reading about this quite a bit.

They did retaliate. But they could have retaliated a lot more and I think that that’s because the president of China is seeking to negotiate something from this and so in the coming days We’ll see what comes from this and if I had to guess personally I’m, not sure if this tariff is going to stand for a long time I just think that there’s some things being played out right now There’s some different dominoes that need to fall secondly, we volatility So it you know just for fun watch the stock market for a few hours If you just have an extra few hours while it’s open, whenever stuff like this happens.

It just it just dive bombs and then an agreement is announced Trump tweets something puts it out on truth social you start to see stocks go up. I mean, it’s crazy What the president of the united states mere words has on things like stocks and what they’re valued at, right? but the tariff announcement initially sent shockwaves through the financial markets.

The Dow Jones saw sharp decline, but then following these agreements, you saw them kind of tick back up. You saw that there was an automotive industry impact. There’s a cryptocurrency market decline that is, you’re kind of seeing it go back up as well, but ultimately it’s either going to work out these tariffs or it’s not going to work out.

It’s going to have some consequences. It might be a little bit of both. I think when we read bias from both sides, you kind of have to take pieces of both and that’s how you kind of find the truth in it, but here’s what I do know. God is in control. In situations like this, I have a tendency to worry, worry about how this impacts the economy, how it’ll impact my family.

It’s the definition of a situation that we cannot control. And personally, I don’t know about you, I don’t like those situations. But I’d like to give you a verse, and I’d like to give you a quote from the modern prophet Dave Ramsey. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of him before. Which one do you want first, Connor?

[00:20:32] Conner Jones: Does Dave Ramsey’s quote come in an envelope? Because he had to make, cut up the plastic card for it. And it’s Which one do you want first? 

[00:20:41] Micah Tomasella: I want the Dave Ramsey quote. Okay. What happens in your house is more important than what happens in the White House. He says that all the time. He’s been saying it for years.

What you can control is more important than all of the things that are outside of your control. And the things that are outside of your control, we have to trust God that He’s in control. And I’ll give you this verse. Philippians 4, 6 7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all.

All understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So let’s focus on what we can control and trust God that he is faithful to handle the rest. 

[00:21:21] Conner Jones: Amen to that. Yeah. I’m fully there with you. I don’t know what all’s going to happen with tariffs, but we do know God’s got everything under control and we’re grateful.

There’s tariffs with Micah.

[00:21:33] Micah Tomasella: All right, well, let’s jump into our. Third story. Let’s talk this maps trade. And you know what guys? Connor, I think it’s time to bring in our special guest. What do you think? Let’s do it. Bring him in. Okay, so here’s our special guest. Let’s bring him in. His name is Dr. Ryan Denison. You hear me clapping? You hear me clapping?

Dr. Denison. Yippee. Yippee. Welcome. Dr. Ryan Dennison is the Senior Editor for Theology at Dennison Forum. He’s a brilliant guy, has all these degrees and all these very intense subjects, but he’s here today to talk to you about the implication of this Mavs trade. Ryan, how are you today, man? 

[00:22:09] Dr. Ryan Denison: Honestly, I’m still a little sports side, but I appreciate the chance to process that grief with y’all.

So I think it’s gonna help. 

[00:22:14] Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know what, I’m glad, I’m glad that you called it, I’m glad that you called it sports sad. I am still, it truly has been a gut wrenching situation. So let me lay out the trade and then Ryan would love to get your thoughts on it. So we have brought Ryan in to discuss the Luka Doncic Anthony Davis swap between the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Ryan’s a huge Mavs fan, just like me. And this was gut wrenching, this hurts even now, just a few days later. So here’s what happened. The Dallas Mavericks shocked the NBA. Shocked the world by trading Luka Doncic, really known as a top three player in the world, to the Lakers for Anthony Davis in a blockbuster deal this past weekend.

The trade, which also involved other players and picks, immediately got backlash. It was highly controversial from the start. Here are the key controversies, but there are a lot. I’m just gonna give you a few. First of all, Donchich was blindsided, Luka reportedly found out after the trade happened, and after it was finalized, sparking criticism of Mavericks GM Nico Harrison, he’s the one that pulled all of the strings on this, Luka was with the Mavericks for seven years, drafted and developed, accomplished so much, and he wasn’t even given an opportunity before the trade was even finalized to have a conversation, you saw backlash from his dad who came out and said certain things, Mavs, The, the front office and their decision making has come under scrutiny, still under scrutiny.

Many questioned why Dallas moved a young superstar, and I’m gonna point this out, a 25 year old traded him for a 31 year old, almost 32 year old, injury prone, who’s a star himself in his own right, I’m not saying that. But you swapped, you swapped players who are seven years in age difference, and you know, in the NBA and professional sports, age really does matter.

And then the missed trade opportunities. Reports suggested Dallas could have gotten a better deal from the Lakers, but settled for less. So, all of that to say, this divided fans and analysts, mostly going on one side. This one stings, and it feels wrong for so many reasons, and there’s a ton I could say.

I’m having to stop myself here. But Ryan, what are your thoughts and feelings on how it all went down, man? 

[00:24:16] Dr. Ryan Denison: Well, it just separates it from so many of the other trades we’ve seen recently is that Luca didn’t want out and I was starting to get over the sports elements of it and then I made the mistake of watching the clips from his introductory press conference with the Lakers and he just looked Pained to be there.

[00:24:33] Micah Tomasella: I couldn’t watch it. I couldn’t watch it. Ryan was hard. I still haven’t watched it was hard 

[00:24:36] Dr. Ryan Denison: because he was asked questions and he gave all the right answers to handle that really well. But at the end of the day, it was so clear that he didn’t want to leave and it was just. It was hard because, and then to know that he was there and especially in an age where it seems so often like loyalty is sort of a one way street, like his fans, our commitment to the team last beyond the season, last beyond most of the players.

I mean, I can remember back when Dirk and Steve Nash and Michael Finley were my source of hope for the Mavs and now all of them have kids that are like, a lot of them have kids that are starting to play basketball and stuff like that. It’s like, but I’m still a fan. Like my, my fandom will extend beyond the.

Luca will extend beyond, well, beyond the reign of Nico Harrison, it seems like because, and that’s one of the things that came out is it’s just, it’s, even if they win a championship with this core, if the trade turns out to be the missing piece to get them over that hump, the long term ramifications are still going to be hard to take because we’re going to have to watch Luca play for other teams for the rest of his career, 

[00:25:38] Conner Jones: the Lakers.

The Lakers. This isn’t just any other team. This is, golly. 

[00:25:44] Dr. Ryan Denison: Yeah, it’s going to be rough. I mean, and Michael Harrison even joked about how in his press conference talking about it, about how this was a deal he made for the next few years and how he and the head coach Jason Kidd weren’t going to be around for all the, all those years where it was going to get rough.

Very tone deaf. Very much so. Because we’re going to 

[00:26:00] Micah Tomasella: be around. Very tone deaf. 100%. 

[00:26:02] Dr. Ryan Denison: And it just, it just made me angry all over again. It’s like every time I think I’m over it, just something else comes up and it’s like, nope. Right back to being upset that this happened. In ways that, it elicits emotions that sports probably shouldn’t if I was a more emotionally mature person.

[00:26:18] Micah Tomasella: Yeah. 

[00:26:18] Dr. Ryan Denison: And I’m not, yeah, I still just get angry. 

[00:26:21] Conner Jones: Well, you weren’t alone, right? I mean, the whole to clarify the three of us are Mavs fans. I’m very casual. Micah and Ryan are just dedicated Mavs fans. They watch all the games. But we’re all Dallas boys, right? So, but we would talk about this even if we weren’t Dallas fans, because this was so shocking.

So Ryan, you’re not alone in that. First off, the sports world was just, I mean, shocked though. My wife who doesn’t watch basketball was woke up the morning after, and I told her that Luca got traded. And she was like, I’m sorry, what? Because even she knows, and I was at church the next day. We were talking to a whole bunch of couples, right?

And all the, all the wives who normally don’t talk about sports with us. We’re all standing in the circle with me and the guys. And they’re like, yeah, we got it. What happened here? Like we know Luca because the city is dedicated to Luca and Luca was dedicated to the city. So there is a writing process here.

There’s a devotion that was broken, a loyalty that was broken here. On both sides and the fans feel betrayed. Luca feels betrayed It’s sad and it is so significant that the whole nba was just shocked and it came in at like midnight On a saturday night. This was like just out of left field So we would talk about this anyways, because it’s such a big deal but for the three of us and for you two in particular, this is just I mean, Brian, I can see it on your face.

Listeners can’t, but I can see the pain on your face. I know you’re heartbroken. 

[00:27:38] Dr. Ryan Denison: It’s, it was going to be rough and Luca had his frustrating elements of it. I mean, he wasn’t a perfect player and I can intellectually grasp why they would be a little hesitant to give him that super max contract. Like in the highest paid player in basketball, that it doesn’t change the fact that.

They’re not gonna get another player of his caliber anytime soon. And it’s just, it’s gonna make basketball less fun for the foreseeable future. 

[00:28:03] Conner Jones: Yeah. Would you have been opposed to a trade at all, Ryan, if they got the right return and did it at the right time and not gone behind Luca’s back? 

[00:28:11] Dr. Ryan Denison: I mean, I feel like there was a way to do it that maybe could have ended better, but at the end of the day, it still kind of comes back and that’s part of what.

What’s so frustrating with it is it just comes back to this idea that as fans were more committed, were committed the team for a lot longer than the people who make the decisions about that team, right? And I mean, but I’ll be honest, as soon as I started feeling that way and really started kind of getting into my feelings about it and all that, I felt like God kind of hit me upside the head and was like, well, You know, it’s not that different from the way you treat me sometimes.

And that was a little convicting because there are times where I felt like God reminded me of it, where it’s, there’s times where I take a much shorter view of my life than he does. And it was kind of, if I’m grateful for anything from this trade, it’s that God kind of used it to remind me that. You know, when I go through hard times initially or up front if God leads me through that, then it’s because He has a better plan for the long term.

And because God is interested in a relationship that lasts for eternity, not just one that lasts for today. And it’s really hard for me to take that larger view sometimes, but And so while I’m grateful for that revelation, it’s been convicting the last few days as I’ve tried to process that alongside of it.

And I think that’s part of God’s redemption of it. Maybe is that it’s, it’s helped me have a better appreciation of our relationship, but I still miss Luca and I still wish he was a maverick. That part’s not good. 

[00:29:34] Micah Tomasella: Oh, that’s good. That’s good. Thank you for giving us some conviction and some hope in that Ryan.

I mean, I, I, I had similar thoughts. But I appreciate you sharing that as, as, as we’re processing. I mean, in the, you know, ultimately jokes aside, we’re all going to be okay. If you’re worried about us, Ryan and I are going to be fine. I would check in on the kids in DFW though. I mean, if you just want to look up and see some kids crying, I mean, the amount of videos I’ve seen of parents telling their kids that Luke could, you know, Yeah.

In DFW, that Luka Doncic was traded, and they’re bawling their eyes out. Well, one of our co 

[00:30:03] Conner Jones: workers, we were on a meeting yesterday, one of our co workers showed us a picture of her son who just got a Luka jersey for Christmas. And when she told him the news, she, she took a picture and yeah, he was, he was not well.

I feel bad for these kids, man. 

[00:30:17] Micah Tomasella: It’s brutal. Ryan, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for joining us. We hope to have you and future guests on the podcast. But Dr. Ryan Dennison, thank you for joining us and thank you for sharing today. Thank you for helping me process my 

[00:30:28] Dr. Ryan Denison: grief a little bit with y’all.

I feel better. 

[00:30:31] Conner Jones: It was a pleasure, brother. Thank you. Micah, let’s hit on something real fast that we talked about last week.

So we mentioned last week on our, you know, hot takes slash mailbag section, which by the way, you can email us your thoughts on this stuff at culturebriefatdenisonform. org. Please email us about any of the topics we just discussed. Or about a hot take or something. It shapes what we talk about If you want to mourn the mavs trade or if you want to celebrate the mavs trade shoot us that email We want to do that 

[00:31:03] Micah Tomasella: a lakers fan.

Yeah, I guess a lakers fan. 

[00:31:05] Conner Jones: Yeah Yeah, if you’re a lakers fan, dude, you’re you’re like, yes, we just we’re set for the next decade But let’s talk about what we discussed last week on subtitles. Yeah last week. Let’s do we debated If we should have subtitles on the television, I said, no. And I still feel right in my answer.

You said, yes, subtitles are so necessary on TV. And I do feel let down by the world because we got a lot of responses. We put up some polls, we got comments on Instagram and Facebook. Cause we, I put a clip up on, on our socials of us. In that debate and on our polls. I 

[00:31:42] Micah Tomasella: want to hear you read them off. I want to hear your Spotify 

[00:31:45] Conner Jones: poll We did put a poll on Spotify.

82 said yes, they do use subtitles 18 percent said no. That is not good for me. Brutal. Ryan S. left a comment on Spotify. He said, If you don’t watch shows with subtitles, you’re not a true fan. Wow. Thank you for that comment, Ryan, but I don’t know if I agree. 

[00:32:05] Micah Tomasella: Fan of your TV itself? Or fan of the show you’re watching?

[00:32:09] Conner Jones: Like, I guess I’m not a fan of the show because I don’t watch it with subtitles? I don’t know. And then we put up a poll on Instagram, and yeah, 78 percent of you guys said that. You do watch TV with subtitles and only 22 percent said no. Now I will say several of those people who said no left comments and we’re like, yeah, absolutely not.

Well, why would I ever do that? And in fact, I wanted to point out that our friend Steph Thirling, she’s the podcast host of the Christian parenting podcast and she does have multiple children. She said, subtitles are like reading glasses. Resist until you absolutely have to have them 100%. And she said she should have done it a few years ago, but she simply cannot.

I agree with that. If you don’t need them, don’t use them, you know, it’s like reading. And I think, 

[00:32:53] Micah Tomasella: I think we’re forced into this position like pro subtitle people. I’m very casual about it, but I think that there’s, I think that there’s a little bit of an arrogance coming from those and a little bit of a high, a high and mighty attitude coming from those that don’t use subtitles.

So then we’re forced into our corner and we have to defend ourselves, you know, and so it seems like we did, but Connor, did you see this? This poll from the flyover, and admittedly the flyover is gonna get a lot more votes, and that did cast more of a balanced shadow on this topic. So the flyover is a great newsletter that you can subscribe to that comes to your email inbox every morning.

It’s a great way that Connor and I stay informed. It just hits all the biggest topics and gives you some context. But they put a poll. The day after our podcast release, by the way. Yeah, so if 

[00:33:39] Conner Jones: you’re the writer of the flyover, are you listening to us? Hit us up, man. Hit us 

[00:33:43] Micah Tomasella: up, because that seems like random timing.

But the flyover, their question was, Do you watch TV with the subtitles on? Which might have been our exact title. I mean, literally. It was released, our podcast was released last Thursday, and this was on the day after that Friday’s flyover, and we were both like, what? So anyway, the poll results were 51 percent yes with subtitles, 49 percent no, no subtitles.

So that did, that did cast a more balanced shadow on this whole thing. And we’ll see what comes from it. Ultimately, I think that we can agree to disagree and still love each other as brothers in Christ. What do you say, Connor? 

[00:34:18] Conner Jones: Yeah, it’s not that big of a deal to, you know, ruin a friendship. Anyways, let us know your thoughts on that or anything else at culturebrief at denisonforum.

[00:34:28] Micah Tomasella: org Let us know. It’s time to talk about what’s, what’s coming up. What’s coming down the pike. You know, we always want to do this because we record weekly. So we do want to kind of give you an idea of what’s coming up and news is ever evolving. Right? So we just want to hit some highlights of some things that are coming up.

So here, here’s what’s happening. There are upcoming Trump Cabinet confirmation votes. It’s looking like, more like Tulsi Gabbard will get confirmed as the Director of National Intelligence, RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Kash Patel as FBI Director. Those will all be, Close I think the votes are going to be along party lines here But even if they are along party lines with the Senate having the majority with the Republicans having the majority in the Senate All three of these people should be confirmed and we should know that before we record the next episode And then you know The next steps of the Israel Gaza ceasefire.

So Benjamin Netanyahu was in America meeting with Trump this week And he’s the leader of Israel Trump said in a press conference on Tuesday that the U. S. could take over Gaza And he did not decline the possibility of using U. S. troops to make it happen He said he thinks it could be the Riviera of the Middle East And this is going to be something that reverberates across the world and Dr.

Jim Denison our founder wrote a special edition article with many details on this, and we are going to link that in the show notes here. But Connor, talk to me just a little bit about that. 

[00:35:48] Conner Jones: Yeah, man, that shocked the world. When in this press conference with net and Yahoo, everybody was like, I’m sorry, what?

Because everyone knows that there has to be a plan set. For Gaza and what’s going to happen with, with 2 million people that live there and this, the strip of land. And there’s so many countries in 

[00:36:03] Micah Tomasella: the area that are refusing to take it over. Right? So it’s been in limbo since the ceasefire. 

[00:36:08] Conner Jones: Yeah, Saudi Arabia, all of them don’t want to like really take it over or let the people move into their land.

But also the Palestinians say, Hey, this is where we live. We want to stay here. And so when Trump said this and was like, Hey, the U S might just take it over. People like who gave you the right to do that? How’s that going to happen? And some people are saying this is just a bluff. He’s just trying to, you know, negotiate.

We know he’s the art of the deal guy. It’s what we talked about with tariffs. I guess we’ll see, right? So we’ll see if he’s negotiating or if he’s very serious about this. He is a real estate guy. And so some people think that he’s being serious. Like, hey, demolish everything and build resorts. It’s, it’s seaside location.

I don’t know. We’ll just see. Either way, what Trump and his team know. Is that chaos is not an accident. This is out of axios this week. They just were really talking about how the team is strategically knowing that the tsunami of ideas and executive orders and news stories and press conferences is overwhelming the media and overwhelming specifically their opponents and the Democrats.

No one knows how to respond to all these stories. I mean, every day it’s something about Elon Musk. It’s something about Greenland. Tariffs, trade wars, USAID that just got shut down over the weekend or Ukraine, South Africa, TikTok, whatever it is, it is every day, which is why in this tune in section, we’re saying, just keep your ears peeled, your eyes open, because it’s going to be something daily, essentially out of this administration.

And so, yeah there’s a lot to take in there, Micah, but we’ll stay tuned on that. We may come back to it next week before we close out this episode, we have got to talk about. The big thing this weekend. What does that Micah? 

[00:37:40] Micah Tomasella: Oh gosh. I don’t know. Maybe the super bowl. Yes. The super bowl is this Sunday, February 9th.

The Kansas city chiefs are taken on the Philadelphia Eagles in new Orleans at the superdome at six 30 Eastern time, five 30 central standard time Trump will be in attendance. First time a sitting president has ever been in attendance, which is crazy. 

[00:38:00] Conner Jones: If I’m the president, like, and I can go to anything I want, I’d be at the super bowl every stinking surprise me 

[00:38:05] Micah Tomasella: too.

[00:38:06] Conner Jones: Yeah, I can’t believe a president’s never been. 

[00:38:09] Micah Tomasella: This is not, this is 39 days after the New Year’s Day terrorist attack on Bourbon Street. The halftime show is being performed by Kendrick Lamar. He has some special guests there. There’s gonna be a lot of great commercials. I hope they’re better than how they’ve been the last few years.

It seems like we’ve kind of gotten away from the heyday of amazing commercials, but we’ll see. Yep. Connor, let’s talk about predictions and current favorites for MVP for the leagues. So let me ask you who’s going to be the MVP in the NFL this year, which is a regular season award. By the way, that’s, that’s what I want to clarify.

The MVP is awarded to the best regular season performance. And then who’s going to win the super bowl, man. 

[00:38:44] Conner Jones: Okay. Well, first off my super bowl prediction. I do. I think the chiefs are going to win. I just think they’re going to do this three peat thing. They tend to just pull off these games. I don’t know.

I did not say I want them to win. Although I really dislike the Eagles. Yeah, so I I don’t like either of these teams that much i’d rather someone else be in the superbowl Preferably the cowboys, but that’s a long time from now so I do think the chiefs will win. They’re just that that team they pull it off every time Mahomes is probably going to be the superbowl mvp and I do think the league mvp is going to be josh allen What I mean, what are you thinking?

[00:39:18] Micah Tomasella: Well, unfortunately, I wish we would have talked about this beforehand I think we’re gonna have the exact same predictions I cannot I refuse Like, I’ll be honest. I’m not going to be impartial here. I will never pick the Philadelphia Eagles to win a game or win anything. I refuse. I, I’m a diehard Dallas Cowboys fan.

Cut me open. I bleed silver and blue. No matter how bad or good it is, mostly, it’s just been bad to be a Dallas Cowboys fan recently. But you cannot root for the, for the Philadelphia Eagles. They’ll just be able to hang that over our heads. Let’s witness history. Let’s witness the first repeat in the Super Bowl era.

The Kansas City Chiefs winning again. Patrick Mahomes is undeniable. He’s amazing. I think we’re seeing the goat in the making. I said that before. I think that we’re witnessing something we’ve never really seen before. And so that’s always exciting. I think Patrick Mahomes will also be the Super Bowl MVP.

And I do think Josh Allen is going to win. And I’ll tell you why. The regular season award aspect of it, I did clarify that. But the, the people who vote for this, you’ve gotta believe that there’s a little bit of the playoff performance that kind of goes into their mind. Josh Allen beat Lamar Jackson in the playoffs.

Okay. And so I, I do think that that plays in effect even in just their psyche as they’re casting their vote. I think it’ll be close between Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. Josh Allen’s the quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. Lamar Jackson is the quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens. I think Josh Allen wins the league MVP just by a little bit.

And the Chiefs win and Patrick Mahomes is the MVP. I’m sorry for copying literally everything you just said. Well, 

[00:40:46] Conner Jones: I mean, I feel like it’s a solid prediction, but what if we’re completely wrong? And we could be. Hey, how many times do you think they’re going to show Taylor Swift on the screen? 18. I feel 

[00:40:54] Micah Tomasella: like, I think they’re gonna store 18.

So many times. I didn’t go to the shower too many times. Too many times. We’ll see 

[00:41:02] Conner Jones: about the commercials. 

[00:41:03] Micah Tomasella: Alright, well hey guys, thank you so much 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 show An episode, please like, subscribe, rate, and review the show.

Wherever you consume podcasts, you’ll see an opportunity to be able to rate it. Give us those five stars. It helps us grow the show. Look beneath where you consume your podcasts, where you can see polls or you can leave comments. That helps us formulate our next show every single week. Thank you for tuning in, and we’ll see you next Thursday.