Iran war update, Kristi Noem out, Warner Bros. sold, Oscar predictions & Selection Sunday | Ep. 60

Conner Jones: [00:00:02] Hi, I'm Conner Jones.

Micah Tomasella: [00:00:03] I'm Micah Tomasella.

Conner Jones: [00:00:05] And this is Culture Brief, a Denson Forum podcast where we are navigating the constant stream of top stories in news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and so much more. And we do it all from a Christian perspective. Micah, dude, what a week. We've got NFL free agency, we've got the Players Championship in PGA, we've got the Oscars this weekend, like culturally, there's a lot going on. We got the World Baseball Classic, like so much is happening right now.

Micah Tomasella: [00:00:28] I know. And USA Baseball last night lost to Italy, which is crazy, by the way. So Italy's going to play Mexico and depending on how that goes, I mean, the the fate of if if the US team advances is actually out of their hands now. So hopefully it works out that the US team can advance, but that was crazy. It was eight to zero last night and then the US scored like six, six runs, but still lost 8-6. But anyway, I digress. There's a lot to talk about today. So let's jump into the brief.

Conner Jones: [00:00:58] The brief. Yeah, there is a lot going on culturally, but there's also obviously just the big story right now that we talked about last week. We'll continue to update you guys on. That is the war with Iran or as President Trump and the administration say, the conflict with Iran. They are not declaring this a war.

Micah Tomasella: [01:16] It's not legally a war. It can't be legally a war.

Conner Jones: [01:18] I'm going to call it a war because it it is. We are beyond just like a a little special forces raid. We are into like day 10 or 11 now of full on bombing on Iran, sinking ships. They're shooting back still, not nearly as much, but they are still shooting back drones and missiles across the Middle East. Yeah, this is war. Um, I just want to read here, Micah, the Monday lead from the Wall Street Journal because I thought it really summed this up well. Here's what it said. President Trump enters the second week of Iran of the Iran conflict facing a tightening vice, surging gas prices, stretched thin munition stockpiles and sustained opposition to the war among voters, including many in his maga movement. Traffic through the straight of Hormuz has grounded to a virtual halt, unleashing the most severe energy crisis since the 1970s and threatening the global economy. I mean, what do you think about that?

Micah Tomasella: [02:13] Yeah, it's really hard. I mean, there's so many things I could say. Uh, we've talked about this, large part of the maga coalition, their definition of America first, uh, would be that you're not doing any preemptive wars, which is what you would pretty much call this, right? That you know, soon or eventually they would Iran would have gotten to this point of being nuclear. So you do something when you can, when you're given an opportunity. So that's that's against a lot of what he ran on and what he criticized when he was running from his predecessors, from previous presidents who spent a lot of time and money and energy and manpower with wars in other nations that didn't necessarily yield the type of outcome that people wanted. But, you know, as far as the global energy crisis, um, a lot of steps have been taken not just from Trump, but from previous presidents, Republican and Democrat. Um, you know, America's pretty insulated from this global energy crisis. You know, but when the UN is meeting, uh, because Europe is having a hard time getting oil, right, to release virtually like all of their reserves. It's hitting other parts of the world more. So it is a global energy crisis. However, America thankfully is more insulated and that's because of some proactive thinking from our leaders over the past.

Conner Jones: [03:31] Yeah, that's true. I mean, we have oil here in the states on our Gulf. All of that, that helps. And obviously now that's part of why Trump did Venezuela, right? Was to get their oil as well. So that might have even been a stepping stone towards this Iran thing. Who knows what the full chess game was there. But yeah, you're right. We're a little bit insulated. It does impact the world economy, which ultimately impacts our economy when costs go up across the world. Yeah, it all matters. Uh, which this is all part of

Micah Tomasella: [03:57] I probably didn't take that where you wanted me to take that, but that was just kind of what was hitting me. I was like,

Conner Jones: [04:01] No, you're right.

Micah Tomasella: [04:02] You were like, what are your thoughts? But you said like four different things. I was like, well, let's see what he thinks about this thought.

Conner Jones: [04:07] Yeah, well, they they punched a lot into that one kind of like paragraph there, the Wall Street Journal did. They're trying to point out all the implications of this, not just in the Middle East, but here at home. There's a political aspect to this. There is a military aspect in the fact that, yeah, our munitions, we're using up the stockpile that we've got. A lot of our defensive missiles are being used here. And they're trying to note that, yeah, China and Russia are taking notice of that. China could take advantage of this moment. The other thing that is really a big deal here is Iran's strategy. And that is they're trying to make this painful to the American people and to the world economically. They realize that militarily, they're probably going to get defeated. So what can they do? They can try to prevent oil from going through the straight of Hormuz. They can try to make this feel like a strain on the American populace by political means, making Trump look like he's going against what his voters did. They know that that could work as like a a pressure point even on Trump and the administration and on Congress. That's their strategy. Live, like the regimes, specifically, stay alive as long as they can, stay in power as long as they can. Even if they can just survive a few more weeks, they could cause Trump to declare victory. And that's almost what they want. They want Trump to say, we we were victorious in what we did. But if the regime lives, were we really victorious? That's kind of what Iran is holding out for. A few other updates here, just on the latest of things that have happened over the last week. A seventh US service member did die, unfortunately, after severe injuries from March 1st. RIP. Uh, we continue to honor those who have fallen in this. There have been 140 US troops injured on top of the seven who have passed away, unfortunately. Some of those have returned to service, some of those are more serious. The White House has also said that they have hit more than 5,000 targets in Iran. That is big. Uh, 60 ships of their navy and that the ballistic missile attacks from Iran are now down by 90% from the first week. So we have either they're using up a lot of their munitions or we've been able to take out a lot of their uh missile facilities.

Micah Tomasella: [06:06] Probably both.

Conner Jones: [06:07] I I it is probably a mix and that's what Israel's also doing. They're trying to find those ballistic missile launchers and and knock them out before they can shoot. There's also mounting evidence that there was a US missile that did hit that school in Iran that killed 175 school girls and their staff there on the very first day in the first hours of the attack. There's a video that shows a Tomahawk missile, which is what the US uses. Uh it appears to be a Tomahawk. So it's not for certain, but it's evidence is mounting there. So there will be pressure on that.

Micah Tomasella: [06:35] Well, the fact that like Pete Hegseth, um, the Secretary of War or defense, you know, keeps saying we're looking into it, we're investigating it, kind of gives you the answer there. I don't know. I I'm not necessarily being like an apologist for this. It is so sad. Um, when you're hitting 5,000 targets, I don't know how this doesn't happen in some way. I I just hate that it was a school and it was kids. You know, and this is kind of what we've been talking about. Just so many innocent people caught up in this war, uh, and it's just really sad.

Conner Jones: [07:10] So sad. There yeah, there are hundreds of civilians who have been killed in Iran and across the Middle East, uh, through this whole thing, which is just really unfortunate. Uh, that's the that's we're going to talk in a minute about the just casualty that is war as a whole. That's part of it. Uh, Israel also blew up a bunch of oil refineries in the heart of Tehran. And I don't know if you saw the images of this, Micah, but like Tehran looked like it was like on fire because of these oil refineries were so bright and burning that it just made the whole city orange at night. Uh, it sent flames down the streets through the sewage systems because they had oil going through there. It was crazy. Doesn't have a great visual image of these attacks. And apparently the US was taken aback. They did not know Israel was going to hit those oil refineries that hard and blow up so much. Uh, the administration here in the White House is saying, you can't be doing that, Israel, because we need the people to support what we're doing here. We don't want them to be so scared of and losing their oil there that they can't even drive their own cars, get their own economy running up. Like there there's implications to things like that. The US has, as I mentioned earlier, started moving interceptor interceptor missiles and launchers from Asia into the Middle East because of stockpiles, just redundancies there. They they are losing or using so much of the stockpile that we have in the Middle East that they're having to pull in from the rest of the world, which causes problems and it's making people nervous in the Pentagon who are like, hey, hey, hey, we can't be using all of our stuff on this war. We need to be ready for an attack from China or Russia or some other enemy and be able to use our weapons there. These weapons are not quick to produce. Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrup, it takes them a while to produce a lot of these missiles. The last big update here, Micah, is that Iran did select a new supreme leader and that is going to be Mojtaba Khamenei, which is the son of the previous supreme leader. So it's basically a a royal succession in a way, but he was confirmed by the 88 member Assembly of experts there in Iran. He has close ties, man, to all the ideological extremist clerics. He's been at the forefront of a lot of the decisions that have been made by his own father who was killed last week. He's obviously a hardline just like his dad. Some think he might be even more of a hardline kind of theocratic dictator here. And he's been dubbed the Shadow Prince of Iran for the way that he's largely worked away from the public eye. He's kind of been a little bit hidden, but was apparently being groomed to to potentially take over his dad's position. And man, he's he's cultivated close relationships with the conservative clerics and elements of the military. They will respond to him essentially is what our intelligence is saying is like, yeah, the military respects this guy. They see him as an actual leader. The the Islamic clerics see him as an actual leader. So if there's anything to take away from this, it's that if there was going to be a regime change, this was not what you were hoping. And I I Trump's even said he had people picked out that he thought could be replacements that would actually work with the US, but they all got killed. Like they've all been killed. So it left this guy alive. Uh all of his siblings were killed in that initial strike on his dad, uh but he lived. He's apparently injured. And now he's going to be in charge. I mean, it's kind of a a thing of if we're talking about regime change, this doesn't feel like a full regime change. Now, Israel has said that they are going to target him. I mean, I I would not be surprised if they somehow find him and target him like they did with the original leaders. But yeah, thoughts on that, Micah?

Micah Tomasella: [10:29] I mean, he's just going to have to stay underground 24/7. I mean, he's going to have to stay deep in the bunkers. I mean, I between Israel and like US intelligence, they they've been able to take out 95% of what they want. I think now, probably the way that Trump can claim a win from this or the US can claim a full win from this is if you actually do get a leader that will be more receptive to the US voice and cause, um, and isn't hardline. Appointing his son, I'm I'm not exactly sure like if you leave that in place, how you can definitely claim you've set them back, you've set their capabilities back, they're not going to be a threat for a long time. You could pull you could pull out right now and say that. But ultimately, if the goal is regime change, which people keep tiptoeing around, but it definitely seems like if you put the pieces together, that's one of the big goals, you can't claim success there if you leave this uh if you leave uh Khamenei's son in.

Conner Jones: [11:31] Yeah, I I fully agree with that. Um, okay, one of the other big things we kind of hit on it already is the oil aspect of this. 20% of the world's oil goes through the straight of Hormuz because it's coming from Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia.

Micah Tomasella: [11:43] Just this little waterway.

Conner Jones: [11:44] Bahrain, 20%. It's so tight and it's right there on the coast of Iran and they're they're trying to make it hard for ships to go through and ships are not going through. It's basically frozen to a halt, which is why oil prices are just surging because there's a lot of oil that's stuck. 20%. That is a fifth of the world's oil. Now, like we said, a lot of that goes to Asia, it goes to Europe. So it's not going to impact the Western hemisphere as much except for a few months from now, we could see that turn into a greater impact, like a a a ray of impact here on everybody. That said, you know, there's mines that Iran says they have. They say that they're going to lay out thousands of mines, but who knows? Apparently the US struck a bunch of boats, 16 boats that were expected to lay mines out in the straight of Hormuz yesterday. So the US has taken proactive steps to prevent mines from being laid out throughout the straight of Hormuz, but that's what Iran says they're going to do. They're going to try to make it a living mine field so that oil ships cannot be going through, which is frightening. Insurance companies are not willing to insure these oil ships.

Micah Tomasella: [12:42] Imagine being on an oil Well, but I mean like, you know, imagine being on an oil ship. Yeah. In the middle of air strikes and firefights, an oil ship, you know, I that yeah, that seems a little dangerous. So, you know, I can I can understand the trepidation there.

Conner Jones: [12:57] I don't know if you've seen the videos. There there are guys out on oil ships that have been taking videos from their phones and posting them and they're just there's like F-18s flying over and then a missile will a missile will fly over a few hours later. Like they're they're they're in they have a front row seat to all these things flying over them.

Micah Tomasella: [13:13] And they're just sitting there waiting. Yeah.

Conner Jones: [13:15] Crazy stuff, man. Okay, so where are things at now? We're we're talking on Wednesday. Things could change like we said by the hour. But right now, Trump's advisors are apparently urging him to find a quick end to this war because they know that it is politically not sitting well with much of the American populace. It's also potentially going to hit our economy pretty hard. It's it's just causing backlash essentially. And the cost of living is already the hottest topic on this like political mid-term year. That is the hottest topic. That is what people want addressed is the economy here in the US and this is not helping. At least not right now. Maybe down the road it somehow helps in a few months, but right now it's not. It doesn't look great. Uh it's just hitting our economy. Stocks have uh really struggled the last week or so. They've gone up, they've really tanked, they've gone up again, then they tank again. Just all over the map. It's just there's an uncertainty in the air that that doesn't help the economy. And on Trump, uh on Monday, Trump did say that it could be over soon. The theory here is he was trying to get oil prices back down because they were they were starting to go way up. But he said, I think the war is very complete pretty much. They have no navy, they have no communications, they've got no air force. And he added that the US is very far ahead of the initial four to five week estimated time frame of strikes. So we'll see. So he he kind of alludes to that, but then a few hours later, he said, um, basically, I I'm not sure we're done yet. There's still a lot more to take out. So who knows, man? I I think the only person who really knows is Trump, maybe Pete Hegseth and General Kane and a couple other leaders, Marco Rubio, who actually understand where this is going to sit, like and how long this is going to go for. But as far as the objectives go, that's a big question is what were the full objectives? There's still not full clarity.

Micah Tomasella: [14:49] The objectives are the yeah, the objectives are the big part of this, right? Is they you know, you ask General Kane, Pete Hegseth, Trump, uh, when is this war going to end? Their their answer behind closed doors is probably, well, when are these objectives going to be completed? Once these objectives are completed, then it'll end. So, I mean, they don't even know the timeline.

Conner Jones: [15:11] They don't. On the objectives, here's the ones that I I know that they keep mentioning and they they've all said different things over the last two weeks. What are the objectives of this war? One thing we do know is the Navy and the Air Force are apparently pretty destroyed, the Iranian assets there. Pretty pretty much destroyed. I mean, we took out basically their whole navy and much of their air force. So that was an objective. That that's been achieved for the most part. Nuclear capabilities destroyed? That's a questionable one. Depends on who you ask. Did we take out their nuclear stuff? Did we not? Have special forces done already secret raids to go grab nuclear enrichment materials? We don't know. Maybe. Trump has suggested that that might happen. Uh but that could have already happened. There's just a lot there with that one. And then regime change, as we said, it doesn't really seem like that's happened. Uh yeah, they've taken out a lot of the top leaders in the regime, but there were more in the in the back waiting to step up and they're starting to do that. So it's going to be more strikes needed if you want to really topple that regime. And then if the idea was to instigate protests in the streets and have the people topple the regime, that is definitely not happening. The people are scared to step out because there are so many bombs and missiles hitting. Now, do those end? Do we stop doing strikes and then the people start to rise up? Maybe. This is a potential, but if that was part of the plan in this first week or two, that's not currently happening.

Micah Tomasella: [16:24] Yeah.

Conner Jones: [16:25] So it it's just it's it's messy, man. It's messy, but that is what war is. War is messy. Why? Because sin is always at the center of war. Yeah. I was thinking this week about 1941. Uh it's said that after planning the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor back in 1941, the Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto declared, I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. Yamamoto, I mean, honestly, he came to believe that the Pearl Harbor attack ended up being a massive blunder strategically, uh politically and the big point here is morally. He realized that it was a bad bad mistake. And he was right. I mean, ultimately, the US rose up and came and just crushed the Japanese. It obviously led to the atomic bombs being dropped years later, all of that. So just like with Japan in World War II, I think that this war, Micah, is showcasing how steps taking taken by a hateful, murderous regime or emperor, whatever it is, those type of steps lead and did in this case, led to a wave of destruction that up ends a nation and their own region. Iran basically self-destructed here when they decided on October 7th to enable their terrorist proxies and green light their terrorist proxies to attack Israel in 2023 and do those atrocities. It was a massive strategic, political and moral blunder and it was driven by hate and sin and a desire for wrath and murder. Which wrath is one of the seven deadly sins. Um and I think it's backfiring on them. Um now, you can debate if the US should have actually entered this fight with Iran, but we are in it now and you can't deny that this war is Iran's own making, right? When they greenlighted those attacks, they sparked a wave of retaliation that was always going to come back to bite them from Israel, probably from the US. They had to know that people weren't just going to sit idly by. Uh but that's not to say that, you know, sin isn't at the center of decisions in Israel's side or the West or the US or the White House or anything. Uh we may be able to find ways that we can justify this war from the US or Israeli or the Western perspective, but there's just no denying that even in our own halls of power in the Pentagon or the White House or wherever it is, sinful desires are going to seep their way into the rooms where the decisions are made. That's just the reality of it. You can't deny that pride and greed and envy and covetousness and all of that won't find their way into the the places where those decisions are made and that could lead to short-sided decisions, all of that. So all that to say, sin drives war. But sin drives things in our own hearts too. So what can we do today? I think number one, we check our own hearts. Are we waging a sinful war of our own? May we instead live out the truth of 1 Peter 2:24 that says, he bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. I would also say we need to pray for righteousness to pierce through the darkness of evil and sin in this conflict. Uh may God touch the hearts of the decision makers in this war. Honestly, that this is a call just to continue to pray for peace. Would this end? Would this destruction, the death, the just torment that is happening all over the world, all over the Middle East region, end? We don't want to hear about the deaths of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. That is terrible. We don't want to hear about the deaths or injuries to our soldiers over there who are brave and courageous and fighting. Um, we just want we want the region to find peace. I would love for this regime to be toppled and for the people in Iran to be free. That's what we talked about with Dr. Jim Denson last week is praying for a free Iran so that there could be a revival, a Christian revival in the country. Um and then number three, just as a last thing here, let's just continue to pray. Um, all around. And that's kind of what I was just saying, like let's just do an all-encompassing prayer for this whole thing. Um, and so there's so much that can cause us angst and cause us worry with this war, um or conflict, whoever you ask. But let's pray for an end quickly and swiftly and for there to be peace in the region.

Micah Tomasella: [20:30] Great, Connor. Great update. Thanks for taking us through that. That was a good fruitful discussion. I'm going to give us a I'm going to jump in and and give us a Department of Homeland Security update, a DHS update. We're going to talk about shutdown because we are still in a partial government shutdown, guys. Just ask your TSA agent friends in your life. They're they're not getting paid right now. Travel delays, domestic threat concerns and leadership changes. Let's talk about all of it. So the Department of Homeland Security has been in the headlines this week for all the things I just mentioned, political gridlock, travel disruptions, rising security concerns tied to the Iran conflict. You know, there's a lot of talk around now that now the Department of Homeland Security is busy with uh apparently there are sleeper cells put here in the US by Iran who, you know, that are being funded that are potentially terroristic and um have some bad intentions for Americans on American soil. So first the shutdown, let's talk about that. So the the the DHS uh the DHS funding has been caught in this political standoff in Congress tied largely to the disagreements over the immigration enforcement policies. And we've touched on those before. But because of that, parts of the department have been operating under a funding lapse since mid February. So this has been going on for almost a month now. One of the biggest real world impacts are people are noticing is at airports. So if you've traveled recently or you're going to be traveling, uh, you know, send us a a message on Instagram at Culture Brief podcast or shoot us an email uh at [email protected]. Let us know what your experience

Conner Jones: [22:06] Get up to the airport early.

Micah Tomasella: [22:07] Yeah.

Conner Jones: [22:07] Get up show up super early at this point, especially some of these airports are saying five hours.

Micah Tomasella: [22:11] Yeah, New Orleans is saying five hours early. Houston Hobby was brutal. Yeah.

Conner Jones: [22:15] Yeah.

Micah Tomasella: [22:16] So, you know, they they're being asked, you know, they're considered essential, so they still have to show up technically during a shutdown. But tens of thousands of TSA screeners are currently working without pay and that's beginning to affect the staffing levels. Like, you know, like you mentioned, Connor. Um, some, you know, at the very least airports are seeing like 10, 15% call outs. In some cases, it's like nearly half, half are calling out. So there's the the result has been really long security lines at major airports. Um, there have also been ripple effects across the system. Staffing shortages are forcing adjustments to the security operations in airports when that should be checked on right now. And travel groups are warning that delays could grow worse if the funding fight drags on. Um, we will make this point every single time when we talk about a shutdown. Congress, do your job and open up every part of the government. There's no reason to put Americans at risk and there's also no reason for hard-working TSA agents to not get paid as well. Figure this out, get it funded.

Conner Jones: [23:12] Yeah, I mean, I can't think of a worse time. Like, there's so many threats right now. Um, and I'm sure you saw this, Micah, too, even over the weekend in New York City, two guys who who apparently have some sort of ISIS sympathy threw these little cluster bombs at protests out there. They didn't they did not explode and there were some heroic police officers who took them down, but the idea that people like that could be building these little cluster bombs in their in their own garage and in storage units and stuff and our DHS is shut down. This is crazy.

Micah Tomasella: [23:42] Right. Right. So at the same time, there's also a leadership turnover at the department. Um, President Trump announced that the Homeland Security Secretary, so the the person over DHS was Christy Noam, that she'd be leaving the role and moving into a diplomatic security position focused on cooperation across the Americas. So she was lovingly, gently removed from her position. Yep. And then we've got Senator Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma has been tapped as the administration's choice to replace her, which would bring new leadership to the department at a moment when border security and domestic threats are made are already major national debates. He's not a in front of the camera, glitz, glamour guy. Uh, he he seems like a roll up your sleeves and do your job kind of guy. Now, he is in politics, so who knows? Yeah. Um, yeah, but it it seems to be a better choice and uh that was the right choice by the administration and some would probably argue too late of a choice.

Conner Jones: [24:42] Too late for sure. I mean, Christy Noam ended up being just a a PR nightmare for the administration, especially when the the deaths in Minnesota in January, she responded terribly. Uh she's been buying private jets for the DHS essentially and Coast Guard and stuff that were way overpriced. And then I think ultimately what did her in was that $220 million ad campaign where her face was just splattered on everybody's TV during football weekends and it you didn't even understand what it was for other than like her own PR campaign and then trying to get people to self-deport. But yeah, man, what a disaster she was for the whole administration. It seems a little late for this, but you I was thinking about this, if you look back at past administrations, how many DHS heads can you think of their names?

Micah Tomasella: [25:25] No, none. Not right now. Not off the top of my head.

Conner Jones: [25:26] She really made this about herself. Like if you can think of the name of the DHS person, then you've made it too much about yourself.

Micah Tomasella: [25:32] True. True. Good point. Okay, let's talk about the security side just a little bit more. So DHS officials are also watching potential threats tied to the ongoing tension with Iran. Intelligence agencies have warned that when conflicts uh escalate with Tehran, which is the capital of Iran, one of the risk Western countries consider is the possibility of the sleeper cells or the proxies and the actors operating quietly inside of our own borders. These are individuals who may live normal lives for years, but could potentially be activated if a regime or or affiliated group decides to retaliate. Officials stress there's no confirmed attack right now, but law enforcement agencies have moved to a heightened awareness and there's a lot of warnings out there right now. So when you zoom out just overall, the Department of Homeland Security is dealing with several things at once, which is why it doesn't make any sense why it's not properly funded. Um, a funding fight in Washington, operational strain during one of the busiest travel seasons of the year, leadership changes at the top of the department and the continued challenge of monitoring threats can sometimes originate, you know, from thousands of miles away. So let's talk about the spiritual application of this that hit me pretty hard. When you hear news like this, it's really easy to feel unsettled. We just talked about two things that are not fun that make you look at your life, which uh many of us work very, very hard to be in alignment with God's will, seek him. And uh scripture calls us to be peacemakers, not simply peace keepers. You can keep the peace and still be passive. God calls us to step up and be peacemakers. And so you have your own life and you've created peace, but then anytime you turn on the news or look at your phone, it brings stress into your heart and into your life because these are so many things you feel like you can't do anything about. Government instability, international tensions, security warnings, all those things can can make you feel like you're on edge. But scripture reminds us that while governments and security systems matter, they were never meant to carry the weight of our ultimate trust. Psalms 20 verse 7 says this, Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. In the ancient world, I was looking into this because I think that's a a really interesting work picture. picture. Chariots and horses were military strength. Back then, if you had lots of chariots and horses, it's like today, you've got aircraft carriers and F-35s and bombs and ballistic missiles and all those things. Back then, in biblical times, chariots and horses were military strength. Today, it's all these things, right? Intelligence agencies, government, all the things I said. Those things matter, but they're not where our ultimate security comes from. Our challenge as believers is to stay informed without becoming fearful and to stay engaged without losing perspective. And just remember, I quote Dave Ramsey often on this show, what happens in your home, what happens in your house is far more important than what happens in the White House. We're in control of less than we think we are. We like to think we can control everything that we can touch. We cannot. We can't. God's in control. So ultimately, no matter what season of life you found yourself in in history, no matter when God decided to place you on the timeline of human history, because he sovereignly did that. Everyone listening to this podcast, Connor and I, we are here right now for a purpose and a reason. We need to be seeking God for that. But beyond that, there has never been a life that has been lived that was not full of struggle and strife and difficulty and wars and rumors of wars and sickness, heartache. No, that's a part of life. No matter when you've lived, no matter when you're going to live, if you past, present, future, that's just a part of it. So what are we to do? Okay? Here's a simple challenge. Stay aware of what's happening in the world. Don't bury your head in the sand. That's not the answer. But before you let headlines shape your emotions or your outlook, remind yourself where your true stability comes from. Pray for wisdom for leaders. Pray for the people responsible for protecting others and ask God to help you walk through a loud and uncertain world with steadiness and trust. And that is something that God is faithful to provide. Because in a culture driven by fear and reaction, a calm and grounded faith might be the clearest testimony you can offer to those around you.

Conner Jones: [29:58] Yeah, it's good. I mean, it's a fallen world. And so how do we respond to that? I think exactly like you just said, Micah. Man, we we don't bury our head in the sand, but we stay aware, but we stay faithful and what the Lord has for us. I mean, a utopian society is just not a realistic picture. We are all going to go through massive struggles and sickness and war and everything like you said. So realizing that truth means we got to respond differently than much of the world will. And I think that's what's cool about God is we can respond faithfully to him and with him and uh partner alongside the Lord to understand how to bring righteousness into this world even in all the sickness and pain. So thanks, Micah. Okay, guys, uh that was the brief, but let's talk about uh a couple other things going on in society real fast. Hollywood, there's a lot happening there. We're going to talk about the Oscars here in a minute, but I want to update you guys because one of the big things we talked about in December was the battle for Warner Brothers. Paramount and Netflix were both bidding to try to secure that company. Netflix won out back in December. And Netflix is going to buy Warner Brothers for a lot of money, but they were only going to buy part of the company. They had intended to get uh basically just the streaming service and then the the movie studio there and some of their franchises as well, but they were not going to buy all the TV networks that Warner Brother owns, which is like uh CNN, TNT, which are pretty influential, but they are not very profitable. Well, but CBS had said, well, we'll buy the whole thing. We want the TV networks too. But Netflix won out because Warner Brothers did not like Paramount and the idea that Paramount might be aligned more so with the Trump administration. Yeah. And then we were all shocked two weeks ago to learn that never mind, Paramount uh is going to win this battle. Warner Brothers pulled out of the Netflix deal. Netflix gets $2 billion from Paramount for breaking the for a breakage fee of the of the essentially agreement that was made. And so Netflix comes out $2 billion richer, which they don't really need that much money, but they got it. They'll make a new movie or show out of that, I'm sure. And then Paramount gets Warner Brothers and they're going to get the whole thing. And the whole situation is this shrinks Hollywood a bit. A lot of people will lose their jobs because there's now a movie studio buying another movie studio. They don't need two of everything, two of every position, two of every lot. Uh so Hollywood is freaking out and they're worried about all the job cuts that are going to come and especially with AI coming down the line. Uh New York and Washington DC are freaking out because Paramount is now going to be owned, is owned by the Ellisons and they're going to own CNN. And so they're worried about what the influence on news and culture is going to be from that perspective.

Micah Tomasella: [32:27] That's crazy.

Conner Jones: [32:29] It's absolutely crazy. Uh this whole thing has just been a big saga, but

Micah Tomasella: [32:32] The shoe was about to be on the other foot, honestly.

Conner Jones: [32:35] Yeah. And Paramount wins. So now Paramount is going to have DC Comics, Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings movies, a bunch of other big franchises and CNN. So there you go.

Micah Tomasella: [32:44] Oh, I mean the the mashups we could see are incredible, but but but zooming out on this topic for a second, Connor, when we talked about this last time, you made the point that it actually probably is better long-term for Hollywood if Paramount wins out, right? Because

Conner Jones: [33:00] For specifically for movie theaters, not necessarily for Hollywood as a whole in terms of the amount of content it's going to make, but for movie theaters.

Micah Tomasella: [33:06] Yeah, but if like if no one's going to movie theaters, isn't that going to affect movie production? They make, I mean, box office numbers are important, right?

Conner Jones: [33:13] They are. They are. Uh I think the fear was if Netflix bought it, they would make as many movies as they still do, but they would just put them all on streaming or only put them in movie theaters for two or so weeks. This means Paramount is more likely to make more movies for theaters. Specifically David Ellison, he was a producer on Top Gun Maverick, some of the Mission Impossible movies, all that. He likes big spectacle movies. He likes movie theaters. And so the idea is maybe it will keep movie theaters alive, but it will shrink the actual number of jobs in Hollywood. So that's the update there. Uh Micah, what else we got going on?

Micah Tomasella: [33:47] Yeah, let's jump into tune in. We've got a few things for you to tune into. So the Players Championship is coming up. This is kind of known as like the fifth major on the PGA tour. This is the first really big tournament of the year since it got started. So, um, the Players Championship takes place March 12th through 15th at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Beautiful course, beautiful area. Fans can watch on the golf channel on Thursday and Friday and then on the weekend they can watch on NBC and Peacock and Rory McIlroy won last year. So he's stepping into the fray and seeing if he's going to win again. So let's see what happens. Also, gosh, I love golf. So I'm I am excited for that.

Conner Jones: [34:29] Me too, man. So pumped.

Micah Tomasella: [34:31] So we also have selection Sunday coming up. Uh if you don't know what that is, have you ever heard of something called, I don't know, March Madness, okay? So that's coming up, all right? And that's coming up on CBS uh at 5:00 p.m. Central Time. Uh first four entry games are on Tuesday and Wednesday and then the first round starts on Thursday. So on Sunday we'll find out all the teams that made it and then um the subsequent rounds. So make sure that you get your brackets in in time. That is always so much fun.

Conner Jones: [34:58] Bracketology time, baby. Yes, so Sunday is stacked because here's how it's going to go for me, man. I'm going to watch the Players Championship and then tune in immediately after that into the selection Sunday, which will probably be about an hour, getting that bracket filled out and seeing who's going to be in there, what what their rankings are going to be. And then right after that at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on ABC and Hulu is my Super Bowl, dude, the Oscars. I know a lot of people don't care. Um, I know you're not as as big of a fan, but it's still a really it's still one of the top broadcasts every year. A lot of people tune into this.

Micah Tomasella: [35:27] I like hearing you talk about it and I like that you're passionate about it. You know, but I'm just not going to watch it.

Conner Jones: [35:34] Yeah, I know you're not. Uh I I'm just a big movie guy. So this is just one of those things where I I'm in all the I'm in all the theory boards, who's going to win this, who's going to win that. I'll tell you this, one thing that is popular about the Oscars is last year they brought on Conan O'Brien to host and he was actually really good, really funny and it it upped their ratings. So they're bringing him back. He is going to host again. Should be great. Sinners is the movie that probably has the best shot at collecting the most number of awards here. It's got 16 nominations, which was a record. A lot going on with that one. Um, Michael B. Jordan was the main actor there. Haley Steinfeld is in it.

Micah Tomasella: [36:05] Called Sinners, so I imagine there's a lot of sinning. So I don't think that we are going to recommend to our audience that they watch it.

Conner Jones: [36:11] I'm not going to recommend it. Um, for sure. It's I will say this, it's more of a vampire movie. I I think the name is a little deceptive. It's it's really just an odd vampire movie. Uh, Will Smith is now in his fourth year of his 10-year Oscar ban. Just wanted to provide that update. So he will not be there.

Micah Tomasella: [36:29] Right, because he slapped Chris Rock.

Conner Jones: [36:30] Right. Yeah. He's not going to be there. Um, not that he's really been putting out movies. He's been on a bit of a hiatus. Uh, here are my predictions. I do think that Jesse Buckley will win best actress for Hamnet. I think Timothy Chalamet will win best actor for Marty Supreme, the ping pong movie where he plays a young ping pong star who also lives a chaotic lifestyle. I think Sinners is going to win best picture and I think Paul Thomas Anderson will win best director for the movie One Battle after another, which is a movie that a lot of people see as timely. It could also win best picture because it's kind of got this like immigration storyline going on here.

Micah Tomasella: [37:02] Did you watch Marty Supreme?

Conner Jones: [37:04] I did. Yeah. That movie

Micah Tomasella: [37:05] Was it good?

Conner Jones: [37:06] Um, it's chaotic. If you've ever seen Uncut Gems, it's just like that where it's just

Micah Tomasella: [37:11] Oh, it's it's uh it's uh A24, isn't it?

Conner Jones: [37:14] A24, Safdie brothers probably involved behind the scenes.

Micah Tomasella: [37:16] Yeah.

Conner Jones: [37:17] Yeah, man, it it has uh Adam Sandler was not involved with this movie, but it's similar style, man. It's just every second is a loud noise. It's chaotic, never slows down. Literally never slows down. You're just kind of it's almost an anxiety riddled. It's on purpose that way. Yeah, it's on purpose.

Micah Tomasella: [37:29] It's on purpose that way.

Conner Jones: [37:30] Timothy Chalamet, he kills it, man. So I would not be surprised if he wins best actor, but we're just going to have to see. We're going to have to see. But I think that's all we got, Micah. Anything else?

Micah Tomasella: [37:39] No, thanks for joining us for this week's episode of Culture Brief at Denson Forum podcast. All articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please, please, please, please, like, subscribe, and rate and review the show and share it with a friend and we'll see you next Thursday.