Pride Month, Ukraine drone attack, Elon Musk tensions & ‘Would You Rather’ game | Ep. 22

This week, we’re breaking down the headlines shaping our world. We start with Pride Month and explore how corporations are responding this year—what’s changed, what hasn’t, and why it matters. Then, we shift to unpacking Ukraine’s latest drone strike inside Russia and what it signals for the future of warfare. Finally, we lighten things up with a round of “Would You Rather” and a quick analysis of what’s going on with Elon Musk leaving DOGE and slamming Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”. Plus, a quick preview of the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, and a return of a McDonald’s favorite. Pull up a chair and join the conversation—we’re glad you’re here!

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Topics

• (00:23): Pride Month: Cultural shifts and corporate responses
• (10:45): Biblical perspective on Pride Month
• (15:57): Ukraine’s drone attack: A new era in warfare
• (24:39): Exploring the impact of AI on modern warfare
• (25:26): The sovereignty of God in uncertain times
• (31:26): Would You Rather 
• (36:53): Rising antisemitism and recent attacks
• (38:27): Elon Musk’s shifts and political showdowns
• (41:42): Upcoming sports events and McDonald’s snack wraps
• (44:41): Conclusion and call to action

Resources

• Mailbag: [email protected]
• Culture Brief on Instagram
• DenisonForum.org/subscribe
• Sesame Street celebrates Pride Month again
• What does the Bible say about homosexuality? • Denison Forum
• Should I attend a same-sex wedding?
• In “Does the Bible Support Same-Sex Marriage?”, Dr. Preston Sprinkle answers 21 objections with clarity and compassion
• Pride Month: How America changed its mind on gay marriage
• Who Am I? What the Bible Says About Identity and Why it Matters • Denison Forum
• Sacred Sexuality: Reclaiming God’s Design • Denison Forum
• X: Breaking 911 Air Canada Pride Month
• People Are Having Absolute MELTDOWNS Over Sesame Street’s Pride Message
• Pride parades 2025: Here’s when major cities are celebrating
• NASCAR Announces Official Decision On Pride Month – The Spun
• Target employees reveal embarrassing Pride collection mistake amid backlash | Daily Mail Online
• The Scoop: How Target, Macy’s and more are handling Pride month – PR Daily
• Doubling Down: 29 Of MLB’s 30 Teams Celebrate ‘Pride Month’
• Trans Athlete AB Hernandez Wins Two Girls’ State Titles In California, Insane Medal Ceremony Ensues
• Cass Review Final Report
• GOP Rep. Launches Bid To Replace ‘Pride Month’ With ‘Family Month’
• MAGA Svengali Steve Bannon Wants Trump to Pull Ukraine Support Over Surprise Drone Attack
• Russia and Ukraine Ratchet Up War While Trying to Show Trump They Want Peace – WSJ
• Opinion | Ukraine’s massive drone attack came with a hidden message
• UK to invest £2bn in drones to make army ‘10 times more lethal’ | Defence policy | The Guardian
• Axios: New Military Nightmare
• Lessons from the Ukraine Conflict: Modern Warfare in the Age of Autonomy, Information, and Resilience
• Operation Spiderweb shows how small $400 drones deliver big blows to Russia’s $7 billion fighter jets – The Economic Times
• Could American sanctions bring an end to the war in Ukraine?

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 Jones 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. 

Conner Jones:[00:00:00] Hi, I’m Conner Jones. 

Micah Tomasella: I’m Micah Tomasella 

Conner Jones: and this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, op culture, technology, and yeah, we’re doing it all from a Chris perspective. Micah, happy Thursday. Do you wanna just give us a rundown on what we’re gonna be talking about today?

Micah Tomasella: Hey Conner. Yes. We’re gonna talk about Pride Month. We’re gonna talk about Ukraine’s recent drone attack. And its effect on modern warfare. We’re gonna play a fun Would you rather game, we’re gonna call it. Would You Rather, with Micah and cj nickname pending approval. And then we’re gonna talk about, Hey, what’s going on with Elon?

Something’s going on with Elon. We’re gonna dive into that a little bit and so much more. So let’s jump into the brief. 

Conner Jones: The 

Micah Tomasella: brief. 

Conner Jones: Okay. Micah, as you know, every June. America is awash with rainbow flags. Yeah. As pride month begins. Yeah. And it is a very big deal for a lot of [00:01:00] people. It’s very big in our culture.

So we, we just felt the need to kind of go ahead and discuss this upfront. And we’re, we’re gonna lean into some of the articles that have been written by Dr. Jim Dennison, the co-founder here. ’cause he’s, he’s done a lot of research, a lot of writing on this. We’ve got other staff members who have written entire books on sexuality, homosexuality.

For years. For years, 

Micah Tomasella: our ministry has been in the forefront of this. 

Conner Jones: Absolutely. And I’ll even be linking some of those resources in our show notes, but it’s still very much ingrained in our culture. That being said, I do think it has tamed down in this kind of June compared to last year, but really, yes, compared to two or three years ago when we were in the middle of kind of the heat of what I would say was the cancel culture, critical theory, DEI pride, just like.

Everything about those topics was huge and really pervasive in our culture. I think that started to tam down a bit, and you’ve seen that in some of what we’ve already witnessed with companies kind of staying away, and so I’m gonna give some examples here. Yeah. But Michael specifically, do you remember 2023, this was the big year, the Bud Light [00:02:00] and Target backlash that happened?

Micah Tomasella: I absolutely remember. I remember what happened with Dylan Mulvaney, who is kind of like a trans spokeperson for Bud Light, but. For like kind of, I mean, it wasn’t for the whole company. It was like a small part, but it ended up. Tanking Bud Light for a long time until they were able to kind of resurrect themselves and then, and it would target.

Yeah, I remember that one kind of vividly, you know, just because I have children and just kind of the different things that they were putting in their stores during Pride Month a couple years ago, and just the, gosh, man, what a cultural moment that was than it was just a couple years ago. 

Conner Jones: It was. And that’s what I’m saying, that was kind of the peak when these companies were all trying to go so far.

Yeah. And it started to come back down. I think a lot of that’s because of the backlash that a bunch of companies got, but also I really believe the election this past November was a big piece of this because the American populace kind of. Rejected a lot of this in the way that they voted, not just nationally, but also in local elections.

They, they tit a lot of people who [00:03:00] were trying to force things upon children in schools and, and athleticism, like in, in different sports, all of that. You know, we, we saw a lot change in the last, probably six to seven months since the election, including a lot of this stuff and companies are starting to pull back.

You know, target. They really suffered financially and back in 2023, they, they were doing that sale of. Really trans focused products and PR daily noted that. And they said that they also faced criticism for dialing back now their DEI efforts. So they’re trying to find this like balance of pleasing people on the left, pleasing people on the right.

And Target has said from a spokesperson that as we have for many years, we will continue to mark Pride month by offering an assortment of celebratory products. But my God, I was doing some research and these products this year are only available online. Or in select stores. And even in those select stores, the displays are very small.

If you remember 2023, they were like, when you walked in a store, they were right up front, like the first thing you saw. Made for, yeah. Yeah. So now they’ve completely kind of stepped away from that in a [00:04:00] grander scale. Bud Light, as we’ve said. They changed course. Their marketing is now, if you see their TV commercial and all of that is basically sports and male oriented stuff.

It’s Post Malone and Shane Gillis on commercials and they’re trying to, you know, advertise with sports teams and UFC fighting all of that. So they’ve completely changed course there. And then Disney’s in a similar boat. They, man, they still host massive pride celebrations at their parks. They’re still very big on pride, but they’ve pulled back in a lot of their content because there was so much backlash to.

Kids content, having homosexual characters. Yeah. Or pride focused things, including 2022, that movie Lightyear that came out the Pixar movie, and it had a same sex kiss in it, and they got a lot of backlash for that. And that movie ended up flopping, and it’s very possible that that was a big piece of the reason why.

And so they’ve learned their lesson. One big one that I noticed that’s different this year is nascar. So last year, nascar, remember this is a very southern sport, very conservative fan base. For the most part, they tweeted last year happy pride. NASCAR is proud to support LGBTQ plus community. That got a [00:05:00] lot of backlash on that tweet last year and they, you know, they had a rainbow flag in their post and everything this year.

Silence, nothing, not a mention. So they, you know, it makes me wonder, two things, did they post last year? Anytime in the past. Same with a bunch of companies, but the NASCAR post in the past for fear of being ridiculed or like chastised and potentially canceled, or did they say, you know, this year we still wanna support pride initiatives, but we don’t really wanna deal with the backlash of.

What their fan base said last year. Mm-hmm. It’s kind of puts them in a weird position, and I think it begs the question of, for all of these companies, are they all just scared of being canceled or boycotted if they don’t say anything? Is that what it was in the past? Was it all just optics? Or did the leaders of these organizations actually believe in support pride initiatives?

I really don’t know. I think it’s hard to know. I, a lot of this comes down to dollars and cents. What’s gonna make them money? What’s gonna prevent boycotts? What’s gonna get people in their stores? Who are they trying to please? Is it ever actually. Their values at the company? I mean, [00:06:00] what are your thoughts on all that?

Micah Tomasella: I just think it doesn’t come off genuine. Like when a company like Target, you know, I mean, we’re mentioning just a few companies here, guys. I. I mean, if you just wanna Google this topic, I mean, you’re talking hundreds of front facing companies, right? That are switching up at least slightly changing their strategy.

Some completely overhauling their strategy of how they’re approaching pride month and how they’re marketing it and how they’re talking about it. It just doesn’t come across genuine and it really comes off I want to capitalize on a cultural moment. Mm-hmm. And so therefore, whatever culture’s looking for whatever the dominant.

Opinion is whatever the optics are that help me sell my product, that’s what I’m going to do. So there’s a lot of L-G-B-T-Q advocates that are like, this was all about optics in the first place. Target, you’re switching up completely. So then really, were you ever an ally. As they would say. Were you ever an ally or were you just doing that to make more money and to capitalize? Now they’re a business. But it just doesn’t come across genuine when these companies switch up. Now that maybe culture has [00:07:00] shifted a bit on this topic, I. 

Conner Jones: They don’t seem genuine, but also they probably all went too far.

They took it too far, maybe because they did have some genuine belief behind it, so they went too far. I would say. I was thinking about this. An example of a company that does seem to stay genuine is actually Chick-fil-A, who is on the opposite side of the spectrum. They always have stood behind biblical truth when it comes to homosexual relationships and all of that, and, and Pride month.

They, they just don’t. Entertain it whatsoever. And I think while some people have boycotted ’cause they think that’s hateful or whatnot, I’ve always thought it makes them just seem more genuine and, and true to their values. Steady just And their 

Micah Tomasella: core beliefs. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they haven’t set themselves up by having to switch up later.

They’re just. The same. Yeah. And 

Conner Jones: their business has only ever grown. Yeah. I mean they, they didn’t really ever take a hit for that either. All that to say, so there’s been a change in this year in in culture. There’s been a shift for sure, but I would say pride month. It’s still very much ingrained in our culture.

And this was noted by Dr. Denison and his daily article on Tuesday. He noted that there will still be parades I rainbow flags across the month. Corporate and sports logos will display rainbows as well. [00:08:00] For instance, here’s a few examples. The MLB. You know, this year there’s only six teams that actually changed their profile pictures on social media to rainbows.

That’s way less than in the past. There are 29 teams of the 30 that are still gonna be hosting Pride Nights. This month, only the Texas Rangers have ever avoided doing a pride night. They’ve not even touched it, which is kind of interesting. Air Canada, this is interesting, obviously not America, but they had their first ever this week.

Lemme get this right. They called it their first ever all two s LGBTQIA plus Flight in Honor of Pride Month. If you didn’t know what the two S stands for at the beginning of that, it’s two-spirit, meaning they think that they’ve got spirits of both male and female in them. So I mean, these companies are still going.

Way out there and try to do things to try to please the small segment of the population. And then specifically, Dr. Denison called out Sesame Street when he said they’re once again seeking to influence children with L-G-B-T-Q ideology. This year. Their characters form a rainbow [00:09:00] as they cla each other’s hands with the posts saying on our street, everyone is welcome together.

Let’s build a world where every person and family feels loved and respected for who they are. Happy pride Month. So as Dr. Dennison says, he says, as usual. Their message is worded so as to make objections feel irrational or even hateful. And L-G-B-T-Q advocates are quick to disparage anyone who disagrees with it.

This is true. A lot of times the wording is, is placed in a way or said in a way that makes you feel like you’re doing something wrong if you disagree with them at all. And that this is where it starts to cross the line is when you get to kids and kids ideology and kids TV shows. I think this is what I was saying earlier about Disney.

They kind of learn their lesson. People are like, stop trying to push stuff on our kids. We’ll handle that. And this is true with. Children undergoing gender affirming therapies. The cast report that came out in England a couple of years ago demonstrated that those are often actually damaging schools, excluding parents from discussions about their own child’s gender dysphoria.

That has made people mad. A lot of those politicians were voted out this past November, and then the [00:10:00] acceptance and celebration of trans athletes dominating women’s sports yeah, has been a big outcry. And this is even like a big thing this week as there’s this high school athlete named Ab Hernandez. Who is a biological male but identifies as a female and has been doing track and field events in the female side of the sport and has been winning and won two state finals.

Basically booting the actual females from having any chance of winning anything, and that’s just. Sad, honestly. Yeah. What’s interesting is Governor Gavin Newsom in California has actually called that out. He said on his podcast earlier this year, that girls having to compete against boys in sports is deeply unfair.

That’s his words. He got a lot of ridicule for that take. Even now. Anyways, Micah, there’s a, there’s just a lot there. What I want to hit on though. That while the culture’s changing and while we truly believe in the biblical morality and biblical instruction of marriage as being between a man and a woman and you raise a family and all of that, this is not, this will never be a call to disparage or hate on [00:11:00] L-G-B-T-Q people, right?

Yeah. Last week you and I discussed God’s love for all of his children and that Christians are to love everyone. Even those living in a lifestyle we disagree with. But what we can do is speak truth and love. And this is stated in the Ephesians four 15. It calls us to speak truth and love. But I do think Christians, you know, we may have a tendency to stray away from this topic, specifically anything dealing with gender or homosexuality.

We might even be tempted to just ignore June and all the pride push and just ignore it all. And that’s easy to do. It’s partly ’cause it makes us uncomfortable or we’re scared of being called out as a hateful person or a bigot. And those are justified things to think. But. You know, we are called to speak truth and love, and maybe you’re in a tough position, specifically if you’re listening to this and you’ve got a family member that this is someone close to you that deals with this or that you’re working through, or you work at a company where pride is a really big deal.

I used to work at a company where Pride was a massive push every June it was a huge deal and they had all these celebrations and things and it’s, it’s hard when you’re in that [00:12:00] position as a Christian and you wanna stand firm in your convictions, but you also wanna love everyone around you. I would just say in that moment, in those moments, it’s best to just.

Pray, ask God to lead you and how to handle that type of stuff. But Dr. Denson, he also noted that to not speak biblical truth to such a pervasive cultural issue feels wrong as well. Mm-hmm. All people. Whatever their sexual orientation or gender identity deserve to know what God says about the issues we face.

We need to counter the secularizing influence of the broken culture with our children and grandchildren as well. So it got me thinking like, if we don’t celebrate public displays of other sins, think you know, greed or gluttony or drinking or even sexual domination or adultery, anything, this is all goes into the head of sexual immorality as well.

If we don’t celebrate that stuff, why would we celebrate homosexuality? Which we know the Bible regards as a sin and gender confusion. We don’t wanna celebrate that. We want to help bring healing in all of that and love [00:13:00] to these people. He. Makes a point that partial obedience is Satan’s way of keeping us from experiencing the victorious life available only to those who belong fully to Jesus.

We have to love and serve others as holistically as Jesus loves us and serves us, and that’s how we reach biblical Christianity and serve and love others well. So when culture pressures believers, when culture pressures you or me, or any of us listening to this. To accept something that is so clearly not biblical.

We are all part of a spiritual war. We’re in spiritual warfare daily with this topic and with many other topics. And when you are asked by the Lord one day, what side were you on? How are you gonna answer? I. So that’s just a great way to go into this month as you think about this topic, as you think about all the implications in our culture and in your family and your friend groups, all of that consider this.

And as a side note, we mentioned this at the beginning. We’ve got a ton of resources at Tenon Forum for this. For [00:14:00] instance, we got an article literally just called, what does the Bible say about homosexuality? And it is a deep dive into what scripture says about this entire topic. We’ve also got one that’s called, should I attend a same sex wedding?

That I think is really good. Because that is a struggle a lot of Christians have of their friends or their families getting married and a same sex couple. And how do you go about that as a Christian, should you go? I will link those in the show notes. But y’all, this is a, this is a big topic and it’s kind of hard to deal with a lot of times as Christians, but I would encourage you to pray through it and remember love.

Is far greater than hate, and we can show that through the way that we’ve been shown with Jesus. 

Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Amen. Conner, that’s a very good wrap up and that’s a very good way to view this subject. The only thing that I would say that I, I feel like God is speaking so clearly to me right now after hearing you go through this, anything that is asking you to place your identity in fully and completely should be cast aside in the name of Jesus.

If you are a born again believer. Believing that Jesus died for your sin was [00:15:00] resurrected from the dead and is coming back again. And we have that eternal promise, we’re sealed by the Holy Spirit in that way. If that’s our identity, nothing else can take that place. And if anything is pulling on you, if your political affiliation, if your denomination, if the people that you associate with, if the L-G-B-T-Q community, if the company you work for, if anything.

Is pulling you away from your identity and the one who gave himself up for you. If it’s pulling you away from that, cast it aside. It’s evil. Yeah, it’s evil, right? Yeah. Whatever it is, our identity is in Jesus. That’s it. It’s in God’s word. That’s it. It’s that simple, and that’s the beautiful part. When culture gets confusing, what we believe hasn’t changed.

It’s the same thing. It doesn’t change and, and I’m thankful for that today. Yeah, Conner, thank you for that. Okay let’s jump into another story, another great story. So let’s talk about Ukraine’s drone attack [00:16:00] and its effect on modern warfare. So this is the night that Ukraine rewrote the war, Conner Jones, on June 1st.

Okay. 2025, something extraordinary happened. Ukraine pulled off what is called a bold covert strike deep into Russia, launching a total of 117 drones from hidden trucks near Russian air bases hidden months in advance for a day like June 1st. 

Conner Jones: Yeah. They’re calling this like the Russian Pearl Harbor, right?

Because it was this just surprise attack that Yes, it didn’t destroy so much of their Air Force, it didn’t 

Micah Tomasella: have the casualty. Right numbers that like Pearl Harbor had. However, this really hurts Russia in their effort, especially to strike deep into Ukraine and really just their air superiority and that their superiority as a military.

Mm-hmm. I’ll get into this, but it, it took out some planes that Russia hasn’t been able to produce themselves for over 10 years. These are not easily replaced anyway, so this was called Operation Spider’s Web. The [00:17:00] attack damaged. And I just wanna get this right, 34% of Russia’s cruise missile bombers and reportedly destroyed $7 billion in equipment.

The drones were hidden in mobile cabins with remote controlled roofs, so Ukrainian spies and covert ops. Hid these things near Russian bases deep into Russia over a long period of time for a moment like this. So Ukrainian agents had worked undetected inside Russia for months, even setting up shop near certain offices.

The mission marched 29 years since Ukraine handed over strategic bombers and nuclear warheads to Russia under a promise of peace. So this was, mm-hmm. An intentional day, like 29 years to the day that they did that, that that happened. 

Conner Jones: Yeah. ’cause that was supposed to be, yeah. Russia got those things from Ukraine Yes.

29 years ago. And was the promise Yes. Was you’re never gonna attack us. And they did not stand by that. That’s, yes, that’s for sure. And 

Micah Tomasella: they did it on that anniversary. Officials say the bombers targeted were used in attacks on Ukrainian cities. One strike that [00:18:00] happened took place over 2,600 miles from Ukraine.

So the former US Ambassador, his name is John Herst. Here’s what he said. He called the operation a major blow to Russia’s long range strike power, and he warned that the US could face similar tactics. Mm-hmm. Experts now from this are fearing that China and other adversaries of America. Could adopt this strategy and they could be using drones and they could launch them from shipping containers or farmland to near us base and one defense analyst.

Put it this way, it’s only a matter of time. Now, obviously when this happens, fear swirls around. We know that God’s in control, but it is something to think about. President Zelensky and Ukraine, spy Chief oversaw the whole thing and it took 18 months to plan. Zelensky said. And I quote, this is what future wars will look like.

He said that verbatim for the cost of a used car, Ukraine took out some of Russia’s most valuable military assets. Billion dollar bombers like the TU 95, [00:19:00] the TU 22 M. These aren’t just planes. They are truly the backbone of Russia’s long range strike capabilities. And they are the backbone of Russia’s ability to carry out long range nuclear warfare.

That’s what Ukraine just took out. This is huge. Like I cannot overstate how shocking and huge this is and how this tips the scale. Some were destroyed, right? But others were badly damaged. In one night, a handful of cheap drones delivered a blow that decades of conventional warfare never could. What was your first reaction to this garner?

Conner Jones: Man, I had a lot I woke up on, it’s crazy this morning, 

Micah Tomasella: and I, I could not stop reading about this too. Yeah, 

Conner Jones: I, I was like on Twitter and every 10 minutes it was a new video of another base in Russia being just like blown up, like their planes being blown up and everyone was like, what is going on?

How did Ukraine pull this off? And so I was like, man, this is really, really impressive that they did this. And I’m not gonna offer any tactical analysis or whatnot, but I just was like, wow. What did they do? And as more [00:20:00] details came out about how they pulled this off, because I was like, how did they get these drones 3000 miles away?

These are small drones. And it caused me to remember, remember when Israel used those pagers? Yeah. To blow up? Yeah. A bunch of Hezbollah fighters like these, like just kind of like cheaper, more conventional ways that, especially when you’re in Ukraine’s position, you’re the smaller combatant here. You, you’re getting a lot of countries that are starting to pull back the weapons they’re sending you.

So yeah, you gotta think outside the box and you gotta think smarter than your enemy. And they did that here. And they just caught Russia flat-footed. And I know Putin’s really mad and upset. That’s what they’re saying about what’s coming outta the Kremlin, is that he’s just I mean, this is embarrassing, right?

Yeah. And they just lost so many planes, including ones that could potentially nuke. Other countries like the US right? If they want which is what I saying, these are the nuclear warhead planes 

Micah Tomasella: that would, it took out their long range capability to wage nuclear warfare against their enemies who are farther away.

Yeah. So this actually segues perfectly into Russia’s reaction of this, ’cause I want to cover this. This is devastating for the Kremlin. This is [00:21:00] devastating for Putin. These bombers aren’t easily replaced, and as I said, haven’t been built, some of them in decades. Russian generals are now scrambling not just to patch up their losses, but they’re having to rethink their entire defense strategy.

Air defenses could not stop $400 drones, and now the world knows it. So this hit deep. Not just an equipment loss, but kind of confidence shaken. Within the country, but outside of the country that a large superpower like this could be attacked on such a large scale. And then Ukraine’s message, it wasn’t just military action, this was a psychological attack on Russia.

Oh yeah. Small but mighty type of thing. Ukraine is outmanned. Outgunned Underequipped have a lot less money. Just showed the world. It can still hit hard, and so they did it. While international aid is slowing down, while a lot of people are questioning Ukraine’s role in this, you know, and. We’re not getting into that right now.

It’s just, this is really interesting and it really flips this war on its head. This is quite the [00:22:00] impressive feat, and I’m thinking about when Ukraine did this. Conner, what do you think? I mean, when I was reading this, I was like, what is Russia gonna do? This is the type of thing where it does feel like Russia has for some reason, not just gone all out.

Like just put all their soldiers on the front line and just march right into Kiev in Ukraine. That’s my initial reaction when this happened is, is Putin just about to go scorched earth and just burn everything down? I. I’ve been reading you some expectations because he’s embarrassed. You know, he’s embarrassed.

Some people, you talked about it last week. He’s a very prideful man, you know, 

Conner Jones: he’s very prideful. He cares so much about strength and this makes him look weak and he’s not gonna like that. So how will he show some sort of strength? That I don’t know, and I don’t know when it will happen. Hopefully it doesn’t.

What’s interesting is this attack happened like the day before. They were meeting for another round of peace talks in Turkey. The two sides were supposed to be having to talk and they did go meet. I don’t think of it. Yeah, like the next day it happened. Like the 

Micah Tomasella: next day. That was probably awkward. You ever been in an awkward meeting before this for Ukraine?

Conner Jones: Maybe [00:23:00] did it at this timing, I know you said it was an anniversary, but also intentionally as another leverage point. Oh yeah. And people were talking about how Trump, you know, when they had that Oval Office spat. I said, you don’t have the cards, but people are like, maybe Zelensky has more cards in his back pocket like this that he knew were coming down the line.

No one seemed to 

Micah Tomasella: expect this. 

Conner Jones: Yeah. Yeah. And what else do they have planned? If this is a year and a half of planning, maybe they’ve got something else. I don’t know. The whole thing reminds me of anytime you, you read the stories of like a, a David versus Goliath type of war situation. Think for instance, the US colonies, when they were fighting the British military, they had to just be gorilla warfare almost.

They had to change the style of fighting to win. Against the world’s most powerful Navy and military in Great Britain. So that’s what Ukraine’s trying to do here. It is a really just impressive feat, and it is a good question. What will Russia do in response and that, yeah, I’m just unsure. 

Micah Tomasella: So I mean, the future of warfare just shifted right before our very eyes, right?

Definitely NATO countries are watching closely. China’s watching closely. Every military planner, every person in charge of every, every [00:24:00] military in the world. From Washington to Tehran. The age of of drones isn’t coming. It’s here. And it’s funny, drones have been around for a while, right? Like you think of them as like new technology, but they’ve actually been around for a while.

But the use of some cheap drones just humiliated one of the world’s largest militaries. And so here’s what this means for us. Like here’s what I’m thinking about, just kind of as a country. The US faces a complex moment. Some commentators are viewing this as a bold new strategy, but you know, it’s a bold new strategy and Ukraine needed to do it for their own nation sovereignty.

There’s a lot of people raising up the alarms right now saying this is gonna bring some serious escalation within this conflict and beyond. And ai, you know, Conner, I’m thinking about AI as we’re gonna be diving more into that this summer with certain topics as that continues to progress. Not only is AI threatening jobs or AI is.

A part of, you know, engaging in modern warfare. There’s a lot to that topic, and as AI gets more involved, we’re gonna see it progress. Conner, I mean, [00:25:00] how’s all this gonna play out? I 

Conner Jones: really don’t know. Do you have the answer? I don’t have the answer. What I can say is, and I keep harping on it, like just the ingenuity here.

Did you even mention that the, the trucks that these drones flew out of, they then self-destructed? No. I, I didn’t mention that, 

Micah Tomasella: but I saw that. Yeah. 

Conner Jones: Yeah, they, they they were time to then blow up so that the Russians couldn’t even figure out how they did the, I mean, like the, the whole thing is just very interesting.

I don’t know how it’s gonna plan out, and I don’t think any of us do. What we do know is obviously God is sovereign and providential. Amen, bro. And you’re right. This changes modern warfare. I mean, we now, the US has to be really on top of things watching our own borders or our own land. I know one thing that people have been pointing out is that China owns so much land in America that what prevents them from bringing in.

Yep. Containers that just look like regular containers and loading them with drones that could attack something, you know, or doing that with Taiwan, or I ran doing this over in the Middle East, or even smaller gorilla groups pulling something off like this, or like the Houthis, right? There’s so many different things to consider here.

It even got me thinking about, remember in December the, [00:26:00] the drones over New Jersey that were freaking everybody out? Yeah. The government, I mean, Trump’s administration came out and said that those were friendly. That might be true, but it just like the way that it freaked everybody out for a couple weeks there when people were like, what are these drones flying over the east coast and over these airports?

If this is what they can do, and this is maybe without much AI help right now, where’s this going? I don’t know. 

Micah Tomasella: Yeah, I mean, and our goal in talking about that is just more trying to take these topics and you know. Make them relevant to us. Understand that this could have implications for the future, but nearly every story you hear it’s, oh, if this continues to escalate, it means the end of the world.

I mean, this is, this is a tale as old as time. Conner, you had a, a really good point. I. To remember that we don’t know how all this is gonna pan out with this situation or any other situation that we talk about, but we do know who holds each of these situations in his hands. And we do trust and we do believe that God is providential and that he’s sovereign.

So this past Friday, Dr. Ryan Denison wrote the Denison form article. It was entitled, could American Sanctions Bring An End to the War in Ukraine? [00:27:00] His spiritual application on this really inspired me as I was thinking about the story and as I was researching and writing this, it hit home for me in the same way, and I hope it does for all of you listening as well.

Operation Spiderweb is one of the boldest military moves we’ve seen in this war. Ukraine just used cheap drones and strategic creativity. It wasn’t about raw power and they damaged Russia’s elite bomber fleet. It was unexpected. Con rate was smart and it worked. It’s a reminder that outcomes, the point that I’m trying to make don’t always follow human logic.

And that’s not just true in war. That’s that’s true in life. That’s true in our lives. We love predictability. We crave it. I, I crave it. We want plans that make sense, that we can map out. We want our plans to fit neatly into a spreadsheet or to a list, but God, he doesn’t always work that way. And we, we live in a sinful, fallen world, and it doesn’t always work that way.

Proverbs three, five through six tells us to trust in the Lord with all your heart, not leaning on your own understanding, and always acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. That [00:28:00] sounds simple, until life throws you into the unknown. Until you’re asked to obey without clarity, until God asks you to move without knowing what the next step is gonna entail, without knowing what you know, what that exact next step is.

But this is the pattern of scripture too. Like we can, as believers draw on the pattern of scripture. God shows up in unexpected ways through weak people, through strange strategies through last minute, last second breakthroughs and his plans often flip our assumptions. Upside down. It takes trust in him, first and foremost.

So what do we do with that? Here’s the real question. Where in your life are you still trying to control the outcome? I. I am gonna venture to say there’s not one single person listening to this that isn’t trying to control some sort of outcome in their life. If I was to boil human nature down into something, I would say our need to control the unexpected, our, our, our desire to control every outcome that we can.[00:29:00] 

Maybe it’s your career, maybe it’s your family, maybe it’s your calling. Maybe it’s your timeline. Maybe you’re waiting for everything to make sense before you take that next faith step. But what if God is asking you to take the next step in faith? I. Before it feels safe, before you know the answer, ask yourself these questions.

Am I depending more on my strategy than God’s guidance do I really believe is working even when I don’t understand the path and what’s one area where I need to let go and trust him more deeply today? Mm-hmm. Ukraine didn’t wait to be fully resourced. They move with what they had. And sometimes that’s exactly how God works with us, works through us, works in us, and on us.

Not once everything is perfect, but in the middle of, of the mess, in the middle of the struggle. Faith isn’t about feeling strong. It’s not about that. It’s about trusting the one who is strong and who is able. 

Conner Jones: Hmm. Great stuff, Micah. Yeah, it’s, it’s a big [00:30:00] topic. We’re constantly seeing new things happening in global conflicts all around the world.

So recognizing everything that you just said about where our faith stands and where sovereignty lies, it’s, you know, a sense of hope and these big unquestionable things like, or really, I guess, questionable things, like where’s this all headed? Yeah. Where are different things headed in our own personal lives?

Only God knows and just resting in that. It’s peaceful. Yeah. I 

Micah Tomasella: mean, and like, and like we’ve talked about several times, like we can invite God into. Teaching us and redeeming our news consumption don’t feel bad that God might wire you. If you’re listening to this podcast, you wanna know what’s happening in the world and you wanna know what God’s redemptive plan is through all of these difficult situations and circumstances.

We talk about the biggest stories. Guess what? The biggest stories are oftentimes scary and unpredictable. We would love to come in here and talk about just great stuff all the time. Wouldn’t that be fun and easier, Conner? But. Ultimately, we have to remember that we don’t have all the answers, but we know who does have [00:31:00] the answers.

Mm-hmm. And that we’re able to invite God into the consumption of the news and current events and say, God, what are you teaching me through this? How can I apply this to my own life? And guys, we’re just, we’re just excited that you’re jumping in on this journey with us. 

Conner Jones: Yeah. Yeah. This is so true. And sometimes we do get the fun stories.

Mm-hmm. Those are fun too, when we about football or you know, movies or something, but. Yeah, we gotta hit on the big things too. Mm-hmm. Okay, Micah, thank you for that. But I think it’s time to jump into this game that you came up with. What did you say it’s called? 

Micah Tomasella: Yeah. So we’re going to call this Would You Rather With Micah and cj.

Is it cool if I call you cj? I said nickname pending approval. 

Conner Jones: I don’t know. Maybe we need a, you know, copyright or a trademark on it or something, but Okay. We’ll talk about it. Guess it’s, it’s my initials. You could also, yeah, it’s fine. 

Micah Tomasella: Okay. Yeah, I could also just call you Conner, or maybe that works too.

Yeah. Mr. Jones, I. Sure. Okay, cool. Alright, so what I’m gonna do is we just [00:32:00] have a few questions prepared. I prepared them. I didn’t think much about this beforehand other than I found some good ones. I came up with a couple of ones. Conner has not looked at these yet, and so we’re just gonna answer these.

Would you rathers real quick. Alright, Conner, first one, would you rather have to announce every thought out loud or never be able to speak again? 

Conner Jones: I don’t know. I don’t know, man, that’s tough. That’s I, it’s a tough one. I really do to talk, but I also really like to think, and you just never know where your thoughts are going sometimes.

Gosh, I’d probably have to say this. I’d rather not speak. Probably I can still write. So ever 

Micah Tomasella: again, 

Conner Jones: I don’t know, man. 

Micah Tomasella: Yeah, it’s tough. Okay. Okay. So you’re saying never able to speak again? I would actually say I would rather announce every thought out loud. 

Conner Jones: I guess it would. It would. Check your thoughts for 

Micah Tomasella: sure.

I was about to say, because you know, we’re called to renew our minds in Christ. I. I would probably cause some major damage [00:33:00] for the first few years after this change of announcing every single thought that pops into my head. It would damage relationships in my life. And I mean all kinds of things, right?

But over time, I think maybe I’d get used to it and I’d be able to just think completely normal thoughts and think completely nice thoughts all the time. Maybe that’s pushful thinking. 

Conner Jones: People would realize just how often my brain just sits empty too. You know, men are just, the way we’re wired is we’ll either get really into something or we just sit and there’s like just nothing 

Micah Tomasella: happening.

Sure. I just think, oh man. Yeah. Yeah. That would be tough. Okay, cool. Alright, next one. Would you rather always have a pebble in your shoe? So would you rather always have a pebble in your shoe? Always, or always feel like you would have to sneeze? But never could. 

Conner Jones: What? Oh, that’s a tough one, dude. The feeling of a sneeze coming is the worst, especially when you can’t actually get the sneeze out.

Micah Tomasella: Yeah. 

Conner Jones: So I may have to go with the pebble because I feel like you’d at least get used to that. I don’t know if I could ever [00:34:00] get used to the the sneeze thing. 

Micah Tomasella: I’m a total agreement with you on this. They both sound awful because you know, Lord willing, we’re on this earth for a lot longer, and so I mean, a constant pebble in your shoe.

Oh my God. Goodness that you could just never find or never get rid of. But man, that that feeling, those few seconds before you have to sneeze, that stops everything, doesn’t it? Yes, I agree with you. You can’t even open your eyes 

Conner Jones: fully 

Micah Tomasella: and feel like you can’t breathe. You wouldn’t even be able to operate.

You would always feel like you have to sneeze, but never can. Oh man, you want to talk about hell on earth? That would just be awful, dude. Some of the 

Conner Jones: worst things in the, on the planet is when you’re like driving and you’re having this, this prepped up, sneeze coming and you can’t see the road ’cause your eyes are like starting to wa and then if you do end up having a full sneeze attack in the car, I’m like, man, this is kind of sketchy going 75 down the highway.

Micah Tomasella: Yeah, exactly. Okay, last one. Would you rather your listeners hear your unedited bloopers or have to do a live episode with no script? Is this like for this podcast? Is that what you’re asking about? Yeah. For us, man. Yep. Mm-hmm. [00:35:00] So would you rather, I feel like we could do your listeners, hear your unedited bloopers or have to do a live episode with no script?

Conner Jones: I, so to clarify, we don’t necessarily have a script for this show already. Yeah. We have an outline that gives us, yeah, we’ve got our, some of our notes written down, all of that, but it’s not a script. So I think we could go completely off book, have no outline, and maybe take questions or something. I’d rather do that than bloopers.

Totally agree. You got the bloopers. Totally agree with you on that. You hear my weird coughing fits and stuff like that. 

Micah Tomasella: Yeah, I totally agree with you on that. We don’t often have to edit our episodes much, which you know, I know. We’re so great. But you know, it’s, it really is just like a conversation and so I would say an episode with nothing prepared, no outline.

I think that’d be pretty fun because then it would be like a live audience thing and we could just kind of talk about whatever came up. I think that’d be great. It would just be like you and I sitting down to talk about anything I. 

Conner Jones: Yeah, that’d be fun, honestly. 

Micah Tomasella: Mm-hmm. Okay. That’s it. Thank you for playing.

Would you rather Okay with Micah and cj, 

Conner Jones: how do we determine if somebody 

Micah Tomasella: won? [00:36:00] Conner, not everything’s a competition. Dang. But if it was, I’d win. I. 

Conner Jones: You don’t wanna know my thoughts right now? Good thing I chose the other answer. Look, you did choose to never speak again. Okay. Let’s real fast mention the mailbag as we always say, we want to continue to hear from you all.

Please send us your questions, thoughts. Send us your, would you rather question? We will answer it. We’d be happy to send anything to us at Culture [email protected]. Or go follow us on Instagram at Culture Brief Podcast where we are posting all kinds of stuff and having fun over there on the Instagram channel.

And we’d love to hear from you guys and leave us some comments too. Please do vote on our polls. Yeah, everything. So that being said, that’s mailbag mentioned for this week. We’re also gonna give you guys some things to check into that we’ve been talking about in past weeks. Here’s where several things stand.

So last week, Micah, you discussed the rise of antisemitism and different attacks that have happened in the us. Sadly, this past weekend there [00:37:00] was another attack in Boulder, Colorado where a man named Mohammed Solomon threw incendiary devices at. People that were walking in this peace walk, they were just trying to raise awareness for the hostages still being held by Hamas and Israel.

And this was a Jewish group doing this walk. This guy walks up and throws Molotov cocktails and his own homemade flame thrower and tries to catch people on fire. He does end up burning some people. There were 13 injuries, mostly older individuals, aged between 52 to 88. One of them was even a Holocaust survivor.

Wow. Just wow. Awful man. I, I, I hate to hear this. He is an Egyptian. Who overstayed a visa. So now it’s become a whole immigration debate about different people that were allowed to stay in the previous presidential administration to where it all goes. Now his family has now been detained by ice. So this is just tragic on so many levels.

Ugh, I hate it. Thankfully nobody has passed away. But I can’t imagine being literally set on fire and the the just injury that that is. 

Micah Tomasella: Yeah, I mean, these stories just continue to become more prevalent, no matter [00:38:00] if you agree with the stance or not. It, it is a core tenant of this country to be able to assemble freely and to be able to stand for what it is that you believe in.

So these people on a literal peace walk for innocent people who are being held hostage by Hamas, I mean, it, it, it’s tragic, but you know what, unfortunately, it’s just, it’s just not surprising. You know, it’s, as we touched on last week, really has been a surge in antisemitism, and I just pray that this doesn’t continue somehow some way.

Let’s talk about Elon. What’s going on with Elon right now? Elon first. Yeah, Elon Musk, he’s done with Doge. Okay. Mm-hmm. So we’ve mentioned that before, and I know that many of you have heard that he’s done with Doge. He’s returning back to his normal duties, but he stepped down after 130 days, and then he’s saying that Doge became a whipping boy for bureaucracy as a whole, which I mean is true for better, for worse, no matter what you stand on the subject.

It did become kind of the blame game for everybody. He’s now refocusing on his AI company, Neuralink and Tesla as. All are [00:39:00] facing pressure and all are seeing falling profits. Yeah. 

Conner Jones: This was like a mutual breakup. Because he was kind of a liability for the White House and the Trump administration was like, okay, he’s actually damaging this more.

Yeah. They weren’t good for each 

Micah Tomasella: other. Yeah. I mean, it just became clear it that they weren’t good for each other anymore. That it just wasn’t, you’re 

Conner Jones: two very ego driven, very wealthy, powerful men. It just, they were, they’re gonna act like friends, but they were always gonna butt heads at some point. So this felt like it was.

The White House saying, thank you for helping us now leave because you’re just a liability. And Elon being called back really to his companies by his board saying, you gotta get back here. ’cause they’re all tanking. 

Micah Tomasella: Yeah. So Elon steps away. Everything becomes official. They have a moment, you know, in the Oval Office.

You know, Trump gives him something and then he goes on his way and then. He comes out and he, he puts on X and I, I’ll spare you the whole details of the tweet or whatever you call it, but he did call this mega bill that Trump is pushing that we’ve talked about before. A disgusting pork filled abomination, disgusting pork filled.

Abomination. Yeah. [00:40:00] Trump’s big beautiful bill just passed the house and it’s facing scrutiny in the Senate, so this is a pivotal time for this bill. It includes major tax cuts, like eliminating taxes on tip and overtime, 150 billion, more for defense, 50 billion more for border wall, and strict reforms.

Strict cuts to Medicaid and food aid, and that’s a lot of where the debate is raging on supporters are saying it boosts workers and national security, but a lot of critics are saying, including some Republicans and Elon Musk, that it could explode the national deficit. So the Senate has to decide by July 4th, but Elon coming out and saying that.

Is surprising and isn’t at the same time. ’cause the whole point of doge is to decrease the deficit. And so I guess Elon just felt like he could come out and say that now that he’s not a part of the administration anymore, 

Conner Jones: I. He’s very much so like cut cost everywhere. But at the same time, this is going exactly against what Trump is trying to get past.

Yeah. And now Elon’s teaming up with Rand Paul, who’s a senator from Kentucky, who’s very big on cutting government spending. And [00:41:00] Trump at the same time is like bashing Rand Paul on Trump’s social. So I mean, they’re butting heads. I mean, we may be headed down a big political like showdown between these two.

So I don’t know. We’ll just see. Yeah. But I, I will say one thing that people called out is, of course Elon’s gonna say this too, because. The bill takes away some of the electric vehicle credits that helps Tesla make much bigger profits. There’s tax credits when you buy a Tesla, this bill strips those away saying, we’re not going to allow you to get money for buying an electric vehicle.

So Elon’s seeing that as well. So is he seeing this from a business perspective or actual government spending and cutting? I don’t know. Anyways. No one is 

Micah Tomasella: without bias, man. No one is without bias, especially people in those positions. And Elon is exactly definitely biased. Yeah, 

Conner Jones: absolutely. Alright, Michael, here’s a few things to tune into this upcoming week

tonight. If you’re listening on Thursday, we’ve got the NBA finals are starting, so we will get a Crown Champion here in the next couple weeks. This is gonna be between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana [00:42:00] Pacers. Game one is at eight 30 Eastern, seven 30 central. It’s best out of seven games. Micah, quick prediction, who do you think is gonna win and what’s the record gonna be?

Micah Tomasella: First of all, I think the NBA is probably upset about this matchup, definitely because this is small. Two small market teams. This is small market versus small market. Two of the smallest markets in the NBA. Indiana, the greater Indianapolis area versus Oklahoma City. You know what I mean? And 

Conner Jones: no real massive star.

I mean, they’ve got some stars on these teams. Tyree, Halliburton, I mean, Gilbert just 

Micah Tomasella: Alexander’s pretty big. And then Tyrese, Halliburton for the Pacers. But yeah, you’re right, like nobody who’s typically there. Mentioned LeBron. LeBron like the top three. James, no step Curry. 

Conner Jones: Yeah, 

Micah Tomasella: no Luca. You know? Yeah.

Okay. I’m gonna say the Pacers in six. I think they’re a more established team. OK C’s still young. I do think OK C’s gonna win some championships in the future. I just don’t think this is their time. I. 

Conner Jones: Okay, I’m going the opposite. OKC wins four games to Indiana’s. One, they’re gonna dominate heavy favorites, so KC in five.

Okay. They’re the more talented team. They are younger, but they’ve [00:43:00] got more talent, assuming everybody stays healthy. OKC in five. Okay. Okay. Team, the cup finals also starting. They started technically Wednesday night, so if you’re listening on Thursday. You already know the result of Game one we’re recording just before that game starts, so we do not have the result quite yet.

But that’s also best outta seven. Micah, you got a prediction there? 

Micah Tomasella: Yeah. That’s Florida Panthers versus the Edmonton Oilers. It’s kind of been a, yeah, I should have mentioned that. It’s kind of been a joke that a Canadian NHL team has not won the Stanley Cup since 1993. That’s what’s so interesting, right?

Like the country that literally came up with the game of hockey hasn’t had a winning. NHL, you know, team that actually won it all since 93. I’m actually picking the Edmonton Oilers. They just knocked out my stars. The Panthers won last year. I, I just would rather see a different winner and I think Canada needs a win right now.

So let’s go Edmonton Oilers in five. 

Conner Jones: I got the four Florida Panthers and seven, they are probably the better team here, but it would be cool to [00:44:00] see a Canadian team win maybe. Actually, I kind of like that. America just dominates in their sport. Yeah, it’s kind of fun. 

Micah Tomasella: Yes. 

Conner Jones: Even though it’s mostly Canadians on the teams, even in America.

Yes. 

Micah Tomasella: Yes. But anyways, one final thing. One final thing that we want you as the audience of culture brief to tune into the McDonald’s snack wraps are back. Oh my gosh, on July 10th, get Ready People, an affordable snack wrap that you can drive through order on the mobile app, and you can get yourself a snack wrap.

I think they’re gonna be like three bucks or something like that. It’s a crispy tender with cheese and lettuce, and then you can choose your sauce. It’s only gonna be crispy back in the day. The snack wrap, you could order grilled as well, so just FYI. They’re coming back on July 10th for anybody who’s excited about that.

Conner Jones: If you’re excited about that, good for you personally, I am just like, okay, I don’t, I don’t know what these snack wraps are, but anyways, thank you all for tuning in to Culture Brief this week. Thank you for joining us, and we will post all the articles, videos, any images that we mentioned in our show notes.

They’re all gonna be linked there. As some of our books on [00:45:00] homosexuality will be in there as well this week. If you enjoy today’s episode, please subscribe or rate and review the show and share it with a friend that you think could enjoy it or use some of the resources that we’re talking about and we will see you next Thursday.

See ya.