World Cup preview, SpaceX IPO, helicopter shot down, Knicks-Spurs & UFC at the White House | Ep. 73

Conner Jones: [00:00:03] Hi, I'm Conner Jones.

Micah Tomasella: [00:00:04] I'm Micah Tomasella.

Conner Jones: [00:00:06] And this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we are navigating the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and so much more. And we're hitting really all of that today because there is so much going on in culture. Micah, we got big events coming down the line, specifically in sports. We got some financial stuff. So, you want to tell us what we're hitting on?

Micah Tomasella: [00:00:27] Yeah, so we got the World Cup coming up, 48 countries competing and representing their nations on the world's biggest stage. SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, all filing for IPOs. What does it mean? Let's talk about it. We're also going to hit on what's going on in the Middle East, what's going on in the LA Mayoral race, Stanley Cup, NBA Finals, UFC at the White House, and so much more. So let's jump into The Brief.

Conner Jones: [00:00:54] The Brief.

Micah Tomasella: [00:00:57] You kind of used my inflection there. You kind of said it the exact same way I did.

Conner Jones: [01:02] Because I'm like

Micah Tomasella: [01:03] The Brief and then you were like, The Brief, but you normally do like

Conner Jones: [01:06] Well because I normally do, I normally do that The Brief. You took my thing. That's like my thing.

Micah Tomasella: [01:11] No, I did not. Wow, okay. So that's summer for you. You know, took the, took last week off and then here we are, you know, you're doing a podcast with your brother and I guess, anyway, all right, let's jump into

Conner Jones: [01:27] You want to say it?

Micah Tomasella: [01:29] All right, so let's talk about the World Cup first. So, Connor, I I I just want to talk about something today that truly is hard for us as Americans to wrap our minds around. And and I mean that specifically on like unless you're a big football or soccer fan here in the US, which would not be one of the most popular sports here in the US. Very popular, but not as popular as a lot of the other sports that we have. I think it's hard for us to understand how big of a deal the actual World Cup is. We think about the Super Bowl, we think about the NBA finals happening right now, we think about March Madness. I mean, the list goes on and on, the things that us Americans get excited about. But the World Cup truly does take it to another level because here in the US, we think about the Super Bowl, like I said, it dominates a weekend, companies spend millions of dollars for commercials, families throw parties, even people who don't watch football tune in. But globally, there's another event that operates in an entirely different scale, and that is the World Cup. So starting June 11th, the day that this episode releases, the world's most popular sport, and it is, takes center stage as the FIFA World Cup comes to North America. Yes, guys, the World Cup is happening here on our soil. And this year, it's historic for many reasons. For the first time ever, there's a few things that have changed. Number one, 48 countries will compete this year instead of the normal 32. So 16 more nations are getting a chance for glory. Next, there will be 104 total matches when it's all said and done. That's a whole lot of soccer, ladies and gentlemen. And then games will take place across the USA, Canada, and Mexico. And the tournament runs all the way until the championship match on July 11th in New Jersey. The World Cup literally happens for like a month and a half. Like it is not a short timeline. It's very quick. I mean, this is even longer than the Olympics. Like this is this runs for a long time. And I think sometimes Americans here soccer tournament and don't really fully understand the magnitude of what we're talking about, right? This isn't just a sporting event. For much of the world, it's a cultural moment for the entire world, especially now with 48 nations being represented, um, higher than the normal 32. But Connor, just in general, you and I don't talk about soccer a lot in our personal lives, and we definitely don't on this show. But, you know, how much do you tune into the World Cup and just soccer in general, Connor? I just want to know like what's your baseline for this going into this tournament?

Conner Jones: [03:53] Uh, I got, well, first off, I want to say something real fast. You said the championship is on July 11th. It's on July 19th. Uh, is when it's going to be.

Micah Tomasella: [04:00] Oh, did I say the 11th? I literally have the 19th written down, but I said the 11th. No, you're right.

Conner Jones: [04:04] Yeah, so I think it's another week later. So, but you're right, it is going to be basically just this month.

Micah Tomasella: [04:09] On July 19th, they're playing in New Jersey. Yes, you're right. Okay, that was that was a misspeak on my part.

Conner Jones: [04:14] Five or six weeks just jam packed, so many games. Dude, the only thing I can think that's even similar to this is like March Madness, but this is on such a grander scale. So many games in such a tight period of time. But the whole world, you're right, man. The whole world's going to stop and watch this. It's like this moment similar to, the only thing I can think is the Olympics where every country tunes in, billions of humans, not hundreds of millions like we get for the Super Bowl, like you're saying. The whole world stops and watches this thing, particularly at the end. I personally don't dabble that much in the soccer world or as they say football. Uh, I, you know, I I come in every four years for sure, watch the World Cup, kind of religiously. I get very into it. Similar to the Olympics. Like you don't follow these athletes if, you know, for four years, but then you get into it, you're like, man, this guy's awesome or like, why didn't he do that? You get really into it. You learn these players, their names, maybe their family story, how they got here. There's a guy on the US team specifically from the town that I live in, Little Elm, Texas. So I'll be cheering him on.

Micah Tomasella: [05:12] Uh, what is his name? I think his last name is McKinney. McKinney?

Conner Jones: [05:15] Oh, Weston McKinney. Yes. Okay. He is from Little Elm. Okay. Yeah, that's cool.

Micah Tomasella: [05:16] No, man, I'm the same way, man. I you slap the United States of America on a jersey and trot some people out there, I'm probably going to watch it and root for the USA. Maybe I'm just old school and that patriotism comes out of me. We could be doing, I don't know, a worldwide underwater basket weaving tournament and I'm going to tune in and root for the USA to beat everybody else in underwater basket weaving. I I'm just I'm a sucker for it. I fall for it every time.

Conner Jones: [05:47] You did that with curling big time. Remember? Back in February?

Micah Tomasella: [05:49] Oh, I got really into curling last time. Yeah.

Conner Jones: [05:52] But you're not going to touch it for another four years.

Micah Tomasella: [05:55] I haven't thought about curling. Yeah, I haven't thought about curling once since the winter Olympics, but when it was on, man, I was locked in. I was literally like, Connor, did you see that curling match last night? I was like researching curling clubs near me. Um, remember I told you about the curling clubs that happened like in DFW? Anyway.

Conner Jones: [06:14] Well, here's how big of a deal it is, man. The the World Cup in 1994 that was here in the United States, that's the last time it was over here, is what spurred such popularity behind soccer that the MLS, the Major League Soccer, uh, started here in the United States. They got a whole league built out of it. So I think they're hoping for something like that again where it gets Americans and Canadians and uh, you know, down in Mexico, they're hosting games too. It's obviously a really big deal. Soccer is down there. But here in the US, it's just kind of been like a the fifth sport. And I think they're hoping to like really gain popularity out of this.

Micah Tomasella: [06:42] I mean, and hockey got a big boost from the the US men's and women's teams winning gold. Um, so I mean, we've seen some momentum into hockey where like these Stanley Cup playoffs are some of the most watched ever. And so it's like, I do think that there's some momentum and there will be some stats coming out about the momentum that came from the winter Olympics and the US teams winning gold. Maybe if the US can can catch some magic, there would be something similar happening in the future for soccer.

Conner Jones: [07:12] Well, I'll tell you this, Micah. You uh, you asked me like how often I think about this or watch the US team. Sometimes I'll throw on a friendly or something, you know, when they're kind of doing a little qualifying match or something, uh, in the in between years. But really, I've got this hat on. If you're watching on video, you'll see, I got the US soccer hat, bro. This is this is the logo for United States men's soccer. We're ready to go. I got this, I was telling you right before we hopped on. I got this back in 2018 right before the World Cup. This this was the newer logo at the time, right before the World Cup in 2018 and then the US team didn't even make it into the World Cup. We didn't even qualify. So I I had to put this hat on a shelf for four years, busted out in 22 and now here we are again, man. It's been it's been hanging out, ready to go. We're ready. I'm right there with you. You put USA on a on a jersey, on something, the patriotism comes out, brother.

Micah Tomasella: [07:58] There you go, brother. I'm with you. I'm with you. Okay, so did you have anything you else you wanted to talk about? I saw you and I were talking about some of the viral posts that we've been seeing from like Europeans traveling here and like appreciating some American things. What have you seen?

Conner Jones: [08:16] Yes. I I don't know if you've seen anything, Micah, but if you're on Twitter, and I'm sure this is on other other platforms as well, Tik Tok and and Instagram and probably Reddit of these Europeans who have come over to America to to start watching their teams play in the World Cup. And some of them have come a couple weeks early. They're exploring America. They're watching their teams in practices or little friendly games, warm-up games. And these guys are posting the funniest stuff to us as Americans because they are just divulging into our culture, man. There's this one guy specifically, his name is Freddy. He's from Germany. And in the last like three or four days, he's really gone viral. Like millions upon millions of views on his post because he's just posting pictures of him and his German friends in like Waffle House and Chili's and Taco Bell and they're just enjoying it. Um, and he's specifically called America the Holy Land as they've just gone through these different restaurants. They're they're driving right now uh from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Houston. And so they were they with a with a stop to see a practice game at Auburn University. They went to a football game.

Micah Tomasella: [09:15] They're experiencing the South, brother.

Conner Jones: [09:16] They're experiencing the South, brother. Yeah. That is and they're loving it. They're posting pictures of gas stations and the things you can buy in the gas stations in Alabama, the football stadium in Auburn being full. He even leaned into the joke, you know, where you say like this the European mind can never comprehend. And he posted a picture of the Auburn football stadium full with fireworks in the background going off after this game. He's like, this is truly the most European mind can never comprehend. Like I can't comprehend this. And then specifically overnight, Micah, you know what he discovered? And he posted a picture of and it's got millions of views in eight hours. Buc-ee's. This they they they found the world's largest gas station and they're just amazed. And so, you know, there's there's this movement kind of happening on Twitter where a lot of people are like, hey, go follow these Europeans who are just taking in America and are amazed by it and realize that we don't actually all have that many differences. We have things in America that people want to come here and enjoy and love. We don't have to always harp on our country so hard. Let these Europeans remind you that, hey, we have great things. We've got we've got culinary stuff. We've got ranch dressing. We got we got beautiful nature and rivers and mountains that they're all coming over and saying, wow, you guys have it made here.

Micah Tomasella: [10:24] Yeah, absolutely. And it's a good point. And I'm going to kind of touch on it a little bit later. It's not the full extent of what I'm going to try to get to here, but, you know, ultimately, anytime there's one of these tournaments, whether if it's in the Olympics or just nation competing against nation or here in the World Cup, first of all, you hope that it unites your nation, and we need that now more than ever. And second of all, you another factor would be we would unite as a world recognizing that yeah, we have our own countries, we have our own borders, like that's all well and good. But at the same time, like there's there's a lot less that divides us than I think what's actually out there that could unite us. And so something like a World Cup here on American soil, um, and seeing these people post, like, you know, I just I just hope it helps people take a deep breath and realize it's not so bad and we're so blessed to be where we are. But so why why is the World Cup such a big deal? Let's talk about that for a second. So the Athletic, which is kind of the sports arm of the New York Times, described the World Cup as the most prestigious, the most watched single sporting event in human history every single four years. To put the scale in perspective, the Super Bowl is massive. This past year, it averaged around 125 million viewers at a time. The 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France reached an estimated 1.4 billion people worldwide. That's a lot. Entire nations stop what they're doing. Businesses pause, schools stop, people gather in streets and stadiums to watch their country compete. And honestly, that's one of the things that makes the World Cup so awesome, so fascinating. It's one of the few moments left where billions of people around the world are watching the same thing at the very same time. But what makes 2026 unique? That's what I want to talk about a little bit more too. This is also the biggest World Cup ever. The tournament has expanded from 32 to 48 teams like I mentioned before, which means more teams get an opportunity to compete on the biggest stage. You'll have the traditional soccer powers, right? So you'll have Argentina who won the last World Cup, really cemented Messi's legacy of not just being a great club player, but also being a great international player. You've got Brazil who's won more World Cups than anyone. If you didn't know, Brazil is very good at soccer. France is competing, Spain's competing, Germany's competing, England's competing, and then maybe 10 or more teams down there, you'll see the USA get mentioned. Um, and then you'll have smaller countries getting a chance to introduce themselves to the world. That's one of the beautiful things about the tournament too. Every World Cup has a country or a player that nobody expected who suddenly is kind of that Cinderella story. That's why, you know, you mentioned March Madness. As I was preparing this, I kept thinking about March Madness. There's just always a great story, several great stories that come out of the World Cup. But there's also some stories behind the players. So Dr. Ryan Dennison, um, who serves here at our ministry, highlighted something really interesting this week in his article, The Focus, that comes out, uh, as an email every Tuesday. He pointed to a Christianity Today article by Cody Benjamin that profiled several World Cup players who are outspoken followers of Jesus. Christian Pulisic, otherwise known as Captain America, speaks about his faith constantly. Um, excuse my pronunciation of this. Bukayo Saka, one of England's biggest stars, is a part of something, um, there's several players, uh, for team Arsenal for, um, Arsenal, which plays in England, um, nicknamed the Bible Brothers who gave who who gather together and gather other elite soccer players together for Bible studies and they've gotten pretty popular on social media. Then you've got the Brazilian goalkeeper, Alisson Becker, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, has repeatedly spoken about his faith and how it shapes his life. I just love seeing that because the World Cup is a reminder that whatever platform God gives us, whether if it's in front of a billion people or even in our workplace, in our neighborhood or family, we're just called to use it faithfully. And that's what these guys are doing. Just like we're called to, um, go into our sphere and make disciples. These guys are trying to do the same thing. It just so happens to be on a much larger scale. There's also multiple ministries in a lot of these cities, like here in here in Dallas, which is hosting, in Houston, um, all over the country, in Canada, in Mexico, you see there's a lot of ministries popping up that are trying to share the gospel with the hundreds of thousands of people. It might be like a million people. Like I'm I'm not really sure the amount of people who are traveling here, all the focus and attention on these areas. There's all these ministries popping up in this time to share the gospel through the World Cup and the gathering of nations here in the US. It's a special opportunity. But I think there's something even bigger happening here, Connor, which I've kind of already alluded to. Why are we drawn to events like this? It's a rhetorical question, Connor. I'm sure you have a good answer for me. I'm asking it rhetorically in order to make a point. Why is there something powerful about seeing people from every nation, every culture, every language gather together? I don't know, maybe you're starting to pick up what I'm putting down. I think it's because we were created for something like this. Revelation 7 verse 9 says, after I looked, after this I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes, tribes, from all peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb of God. Yeah. The World Cup gives us a small glimpse of something our hearts long for. Different nations, different languages, different cultures, all gathered together. But scripture reminds us that the ultimate gathering of the nations will not be around a soccer tournament, a World Cup, the Olympics. So it'll be around the throne, the throne of God. So enjoy the World Cup, cheer for your country, USA, USA, USA, baby. I'm I'm definitely going to cheer for mine. Appreciate the different cultures and incredible stories too. But remember, our greatest identity is not found in the flag we wear or the team we cheer for. It's actually found in Christ. And trust me, that's where you want your identity to be found. That's it.

Conner Jones: [16:40] Well, there's a lot to that. I I when you're mentioning like the people from all around the world gathering and seeing that all the different languages and culture and everything, it makes me think about one, it's so cool to think what heaven will be like. Um, you know, no doubt, man. Hearing the voices of so many people, seeing people of all different, um, ethnicities and backgrounds and cultures and everything. What a beautiful picture that is. There's the song, um, well, everybody knows the song, How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin, but there's a rendition of that. I can link it. Uh, yeah, right. That was like the song in like '08, you know. Uh, but there's a rendition that he did with worship leaders from around the world and they sing how great is our God, different verses in different languages and there's a big crowd. It's one of the most unique, beautiful worship, you know, moments I can think of. It's just this beautiful depiction of the world has come together to sing how great is our God because we all worship the same God when we're Christians, no matter where we're from. Uh, and I think that's just super unique. And I'm just thinking about, I, you know, I went to Brazil on a mission trip in high school. And one, dude, they are like soccer is almost a religious experience for them down there. They they live, eat and breathe soccer. They're playing soccer all day out on wherever they can find a field and some goal posts, um, and they're making their own makeshift soccer. But they're watching soccer all the time. They're all wearing their jerseys. It is just it is part of their identity in Brazil. But two, man, we sang worship music with people there in Portuguese and we would like do these kind of like mixed renditions of the worship songs of English and Portuguese, which is what they speak in Brazil. Um, it was really cool, man, just these people who live a totally different life, live on a whole other part of the world and us as Americans going down there and and getting to serve in these communities and then worshiping God together in Portuguese was just super unique. There is something to that. Um, so very excited for the World Cup. I know the Brazilians are excited. They're always excited for the World Cup, but it's going to be fun. Thanks, Micah for that overview. Let's hit on a few things happening in the financial world, which, you know, we don't typically dive into deep finances. Uh, we're not a business podcast, we're not a finance or stock podcast, but we do need to mention this because there are some big things coming down the line here in the next one, tomorrow, if you're listening to this on Thursday, on Friday, there's a big thing happening. That's what we're going to talk about. And then a couple other things potentially coming down the line. Some people are calling this, Micah, I've seen this phrase thrown around, Hot IPO Summer because it just seems like every big tech AI company is going public.

Micah Tomasella: [19:05] The hot girl summer or whatever. It's hot IPO summer.

Conner Jones: [19:08] Hot tech IPO summer, you know, like they're they're throwing their hats in the ring. They're ready to put their names out there in the stock market, get publicly traded. That's what that means. Um, specifically, OpenAI, Anthropic, which is the uh, well, OpenAI is chat GPT, if you didn't know. Anthropic is uh the company that owns Claude, the Claude AI model. And then SpaceX is the one launching this week. These companies are trying to go public. That's the idea. SpaceX is going public. The other two companies have filed interest forms. They're saying, hey, we we would like to. It will take months to get down the whole process of getting them on there. So SpaceX uh is going now. OpenAI, Anthropic could be potentially later this summer or this fall. But I think a lot of what they're waiting for is to see how SpaceX's stocks do, uh how this IPO for SpaceX on Friday morning uh goes. And if you're listening to this post Friday, you'll have a good idea of was this a big hit? Did a lot of people buy in and their stock shoot up or did it just nose dive? So OpenAI, Anthropic, they're very eager to see what happens on Friday because it's going to be very telling of how investors and even how Americans feel about AI technology. I say that with AI because SpaceX actually acquired XAI, which is Elon Musk's uh AI arm. And so this is kind of an AI stock as well as a space ex uh, yeah, Grok. Uh, it's also a SpaceX and exploration stock. So it's a little bit different than those other two, but there is testing the appetite for, hey, we don't know where this technology is going with space exploration, with AI. Will you invest in us? Do you have hope and trust in the dreams of uh these companies and specifically really Elon Musk. Uh, do you think you can invest in this and make a return or is this too risky? Uh, so we're going to see what happens here because everyone, I mean, ultimately everyone knows AI is here for the long run. It's just kind of a question of how long will it play into everybody's daily lives, into our jobs, our careers? Will it really be what everybody's saying it's going to be or is it kind of plateauing? Is it like we've maybe reached the max it's going to be for a while and there's really no need for people to push their money into these stocks. We'll see.

Micah Tomasella: [21:12] I mean, you've seen the stock market react this week to that reality. There there are there are fears. The Nasdaq was down like 3% yesterday or something like that. There was this there are fears around um, how do you actually start calculating increased revenue through AI integration in all of these companies? Um, you know, hiring is now there were more job postings this last month from the jobs report than there were six months previously. You see a lot of companies that laid off people or stopped trying to hire due to, you know, all the AI they were rolling out and it's not yet yielding what people were saying it was going to yield, which is probably good for the worker. Um, and not so great for the rich AI guys. You know, there's some sort of balance that's going to be found. I, you know, like I've said before, I I find myself being more of an AI optimist while also recognizing the dangers of it and what it could be. We are still in the infancy of this, right? Like we've just been, you know, it's a few years now, it's been so common, you know, everybody's using chat GPT or Grok or whatever it might be and, you know, now people are able to build websites in a, you know, two minutes, you know, and that's just just the tip of the iceberg what this what this thing can do.

Conner Jones: [22:25] Yeah, it's like being in 1997 and dabbling with the internet. Like you're just still kind of in the infancy of it. You don't really know what it's going to become yet. So we'll see. Uh, there and that's that's kind of the big statement here is we'll see. We'll just have to see what happens.

Micah Tomasella: [22:40] Sorry guys, we don't have the crystal ball. Sorry.

Conner Jones: [22:42] Can't tell you, man. And that's the thing. Well, that's what makes these investments and these IPOs so interesting is nobody knows. And so they're really kind of, it's almost a gamble. Like these companies that are going to make these investments are are trying to determine, hey, is this worth our money, our investment? Um, so let's let's real quick hit on SpaceX specifically because they are launching on Friday. They are going to be the most valuable company in the world in terms of IPO. Like it will be the most valuable IPO ever if it really reaches what it's supposed to reach, which is selling 555 million shares at $135 a piece. That is a massive valuation of 1.77 trillion dollars, uh, which would top Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's Aramco, which is an oil company that IPO'd in 2019 at 1.7 trillion. So it's a little bit more than that. You know, that that that that's just a these numbers are huge. Um, it's also going to roughly double the company SpaceX's valuation from what it was six months ago. And it could, Micah, it could on Friday make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire, uh, whose net worth is currently standing on as we're recording on Wednesday, his net worth is $970 billion. So if this goes the way it's supposed to, he's hoping.

Micah Tomasella: [23:52] He's got a slack. He's hoping.

Conner Jones: [23:54] Yeah, man, if we $1 trillion in his net worth, which is just crazy. I mean, most of that is in stocks, right? Like it's not like he just sits there with cash, but a lot of it's in stocks and property and all of that. But if you stretch that out, just I saw the stat, if you stretch that $970 billion out number out over 31 years, which is his career span, that equates to $3.6 million an hour that he has made over that 31 year career. That is insane. So, yeah, if if Musk gets this valuation that he's seeking, SpaceX will be one of the most valuable companies in the world. It'll surpass Meta, it'll surpass uh Berkshire Hathaway. It'll surpass Elon Musk's other company, Tesla, and which has a market capitalization of $1.3 trillion. Um, that that's a lot. So, Micah, when you hear numbers that big with, you know, either these company valuations or with Elon Musk's net worth or even some of these AI guys, their net worth and what these companies are hoping to do and raise in the future, I mean, what do you think? Like, do those numbers just blow your mind? Are they hard to comprehend?

Micah Tomasella: [24:56] Not really, and I'm not sure why if that was the answer you were looking for. I I just at this point, you know, I read the news every day kind of like you do to stay in the loop so we can keep our loyal culture brief listeners in the loop on everything that's going on in culture. At this point, after consuming this information and seeing something on one of these AI companies over and over and over again and just the sheer numbers that we're talking about at a certain point, it doesn't shock me anymore. Um, you know, if anything, you know, there is this concept of like, why does somebody need that much money? Definitely a fair question. I also think my mind goes to hopefully this creates more jobs, levels the playing field, gives people more opportunities. Somebody could purchase a $135 share in SpaceX that could grow, grow, grow and end up being something like, uh, there's a lot of people who can scrounge together $135 to purchase something like that, right? Like I just all of that wealth, I do hope that it does find a way to trickle throughout the economy to level the playing field for people is kind of where my mind goes.

Conner Jones: [26:05] Yeah, I I feel the same way. No, I didn't I I didn't know what your answer was going to be. For me, I was like, those are when you first read them, they're just shocking numbers and scale and size and then you're like, well, you know, there's a reality to if you're really going to go explore space, you're going to need a lot of bang for your buck to get that going. So, no doubt. Yeah, but it does it does beg the question, is actually SpaceX worth that amount of money? Because that is, you know, a 1.7 trillion dollar valuation. That is a lot. So, for some context, SpaceX made $18 billion in revenue in 2025, which means it is being priced in this stock of $135 per share at 93.6 times its sales. Um, so they got a lot to prove still. Uh, and the company was actually unprofitable in 2025. It lost $5 billion almost. So that's a that's a lot of stake being put in Elon Musk. Wall Street Journal specifically was kind of analyzing this and they said, the investors and acceptance of SpaceX's mammoth valuation will likely hinge on whether they believe Elon Musk can deliver on his ambitious ideas, which include colonizing Mars and launching data centers into space. So basically, investors are, if they're if they're going to go forward with this, they're saying, you better prove this sci-fi stuff can actually happen. Go get us on Mars, go build data centers.

Micah Tomasella: [27:20] And Elon Musk wants to build data centers on Mars because or sorry, the moon too, because they're huge. They require a lot of energy and everything here on Earth. And so he's like, the best place to do it is to build it on the moon where we're not impacting communities. Love him or hate him, I if somebody's going to be able to pull it off, I think that he might be able to pull it off. Uh, if if there's somebody out there to pull it off. I mean, I think the question more for me would be more of the concept of the idea is actually becoming a reality, putting data centers on Mars, colonizing Mars. That idea in and of itself, how far are we from that? That's the bigger question for me as opposed to is Musk the one to do it? Because I'm looking around, I I don't necessarily see somebody on the frontier here who would be able to do it before he could. It's just, hey, is this actually possible within a reasonable timeline?

Conner Jones: [28:08] Yeah, well, the next best bet was probably Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin space company, but their rocket ship blew up two weeks ago on the launch pad. So I heard about that. Yeah, I I don't know, man. Uh, just as a quick thing real fast, you might be wondering like, can you actually buy into the IPO? The answer is maybe. Uh, really it's most of the shares are going to be going to large companies, banks, um, brokerages, billionaires who can afford the risk should the stock tank. But maybe you can get in. You have to go to your brokerage, either Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Robin Hood, SoFi or E-Trade. Those are the brokers that are getting access to share trades. And a lot of them require you to have an account balance of at least 100 to $500,000 already in your account. So if you've got that, then you can apply.

Micah Tomasella: [28:50] Okay, so basically just canceling out my point. Never mind.

Conner Jones: [28:53] Well, some I I think it was maybe it was E-Trade was it could be as low as $2,000. So you would have to check on your brokerage what is required. You got to fill out a whole application and all that. I don't know if you're going to have time to do that by the by Friday morning. And even if you do do it and you go through the whole eligibility process, you may wake up on Friday morning and still not have those stocks in your portfolio. So all that to say, the big guys are going to take up the majority of the the stocks here at the IPO. And then by next Friday, it's expected that you can actually start to buy into index funds if you have those in your 401k or any of your investment plans, you can put them into your Nasdaq index. Maybe all of this information gets you excited. You're like, oh yeah, we got technology rapidly improving. We're going to go explore space. We got AI that's going to maybe improve livelihoods, change medicine, change.

Micah Tomasella: [29:40] It is exciting. There is a part of this that's exciting.

Conner Jones: [29:42] Yeah. There's all I I really I'm I'm I'm excited about the idea of like humans going back into Mars and or back to the moon and then on to Mars. See what that takes. I mean, I think it's going to be a big, big challenge. We talked to Zach Huker a few weeks ago and it's a big challenge to do that, right? Yeah, no doubt. Um, so there's a lot to it, but it is exciting. Or maybe some of this causes you anxiety. Maybe you are sitting here and you're like struggling to make ends meet. You live paycheck to paycheck. Finances cause you deep anxiety and you're sitting here hearing about these insanely large numbers and these very wealthy individuals who can move forward an entire economy or bring it down. Like it's kind of it's kind of crazy. If it gives you anxiety, you're you're definitely not alone. Like there's a lot of people who feel the financial anxiety that you would love to be invested in things and you're struggling to make that happen. Well, um, you know, you can live in a world of like a bunch of hypotheticals, but really, you know, I I want to reference here Dr. Jim Dennison's article from get this date, March 17th, 2020. This is just a week into the COVID, um, you know, we just the world had just shut down. The economy just went to tatters. Like everything was going crazy. This is when they were trying to figure out how to move forward with um those first stimulus checks. Uh so this is March 17th. And so Jim, he wrote a an article called when you're fear, when you fear for your finances, here's how to avoid the prison of anxiety. And I'll link this article in the show notes if you want to read the whole thing. But essentially, you know, he's noting that like if you're like many Americans, you are probably worried about the global economy, maybe the national outlook, but you're also worried about your personal finances and your retirement accounts. Um, but we're also not the first followers of Jesus to have such fears. There's actually scripture about this. Uh, the Apostle Paul, when he founded the Philippian Church, um, he did so in the face of great opposition. In Acts 16, he and Silas were beaten and imprisoned before they were released and they were asked to leave the city. Well, the congregation at the Philippian Church, um, faced a similar threat, right? Of political and religious persecution. They they likely also wondered about their financial security and their future there in Philippi. They had to have been concerned about that. They were could the city shut down their their their businesses? Could they lose their jobs? Anything that they were doing? Would they be ostracized and persecuted? Well, Paul addressed those anxieties in his letter to the church in Philippians 4:6. He says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And then when we do that, verse seven says, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen to that, right? So the next time anxiety about your finances or really honestly, anything else. This is an anxiety thing all around. The next time that creeps in, uh, obey verse six and claim verse seven. Pastor Max Lucado wrote in the one of his devotionals, he said, the presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional. You don't have to be imprisoned by your anxiety. So what fear do you need to trust to the Father today? Rather than living in that prison of anxiety, let's choose the promise of abundant grace in Christ.

Micah Tomasella: [32:53] Great point, Connor Jones. Thanks for that.

Conner Jones: [32:57] Yeah, absolutely, man. All right, well, let's move on to our mailbag real fast. We got some messages last week. I last week my brother Parker was on. He was the co-host with me and uh, we were talking about college baseball and all that. We were talking about West Virginia baseball. They had this great moment in their stadium singing, take me home country roads, one of my favorite songs of all time and it was a cool, cool moment. Well, he said the University of West Virginia. We were corrected. It is West Virginia University. But that's a great little correction. Micah, I just want to say, it makes me beg the question, why do we call the University of Oklahoma OU?

Micah Tomasella: [33:35] I expect Oklahoma to do things a little backwards. Um, I that's that's all I can say. I'm not even going to look into it. I I'm like, that makes sense to me because it doesn't make sense.

Conner Jones: [33:47] No, I see I I didn't look into it either. I've just always wondered that. I was like, it's the University of Oklahoma, but we call it OU.

Micah Tomasella: [33:52] Well, UO doesn't that sounds weird. UO. Yeah, it does. OU feels right, you know.

Conner Jones: [33:59] Yeah. Uh, well, what do they do for so University of Texas is UT. What does Tennessee do?

Micah Tomasella: [34:05] They they say UT as well. It's kind of a big debate. Yeah, they say UT as well. Who's the real UT? They yeah, I mean and like people, um, a lot of people will like mess with Texas and call them like TU, um, because technically the University of Tennessee was founded before the University of Texas. Um, University of Tennessee is like one of the oldest like state colleges set up like anyway, but um, there's all kinds of those jabs that kind of go around, but I mean, ultimately, I I think they're both considered UT and they're both in the SEC, which is interesting. And they both are orange. They just have both different shades of orange. And they both probably have some origins to David Crockett. Like I just imagine.

Micah Tomasella: [34:46] Well, absolutely. Texas would not be a state if it wasn't for the Tennessee volunteers. Literally the their mascot is the volunteers.

Conner Jones: [34:54] You're a Longhorn fan and you're giving credence to their opponent.

Micah Tomasella: [34:57] Well, I mean, there are bigger fish to fry than than how uh us Longhorn fans feel about the volunteers. You know, there's other issues that need to be addressed, I think.

Conner Jones: [35:11] Yeah, I agree with that. All right, well, let's jump into Check In.

Micah Tomasella: [35:17] Check in. Oh, do we do that? I don't know. Maybe you do. I've never done that.

Conner Jones: [35:21] Maybe I do. Okay, so we talked about Spencer Pratt a couple weeks ago in the LA Mayor race and I made a bold claim. I thought he was going to win. Well, let me just go ahead and own it. He didn't even make the runoff for the election. So, uh, Karen Bass and Nithya Raman, basically identical candidates for the most part in kind of the way that they view politics, policy and government are going to be heading to a runoff later this year in November. Um, California historically takes forever to count ballots. And so we didn't know for weeks what was going to happen here and Spencer Pratt was like neck and neck with Karen Bass for a long time and then over time he just kind of started his you saw his lead get smaller and smaller and smaller. They just take forever to count votes and I was actually just reading in the in the Wall Street Journal this morning that there's a lot of a lot of people inside and outside of California being like, look guys, like you've got to you've got to fix the way that you count votes here. This shouldn't take this long. This is 2026 heading into midterms. And so now there's all these strategies of how on earth can California fix their vote tallying and counting before the midterms in November. So we'll see.

Conner Jones: [36:33] Yeah, and it is just interesting. I I thought he had a good shot too. And he did even last week we we brought up a, you know, an update on that a day out from the election and it was like, hey, people really thought he he had it secured and then as those mail in ballots came in.

Micah Tomasella: [36:44] They're still being counted too, which is crazy. There's still votes being counted. But yeah, they do a lot of mail in ballots there. I anyway, yeah.

Conner Jones: [36:52] Well, he's he's now a nationally known name. I'm sure he's going to leverage that to get into something.

Micah Tomasella: [36:55] He's going to figure out something. Yeah, he just might not need to run for mayor in LA. Might need to go move somewhere else and maybe he'll have a better chance.

Conner Jones: [37:03] Yeah, maybe. Something else going on, as we always talk about, we're we're monitoring the situation over in the Middle East. There was some more firing back and forth between Israel and Iran this weekend.

Micah Tomasella: [37:11] Is there something happening in the Middle East right now, Connor?

Conner Jones: [37:13] There is. There's a lot happening over there with the Strait of Hormuz and Iran and everything. Um, and it's just kind of it's it's still at a stalemate, but there's there was some exchanging of missiles this weekend between Israel and Iran. And then on Tuesday, uh, Iran shot down a US Army helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz. The two pilots aboard were able to crash land the helicopter into the ocean, essentially, survive, um, and they floated in the water for two hours before a unmanned boat came in and rescued them. This was the first time a drone boat has ever been used for a rescue. In fact, this drone boat was just commissioned by the military in March for this this conflict.

Micah Tomasella: [37:54] I was I was just reading about this. Like about how this whole thing was designed to not put more American soldiers lives at risk in order to rescue. And it's like using like proprietary AI technology to like find the soldiers and I mean, it's crazy. Imagine being rescued and there's like nobody there to rescue you though. You know? I had that thought. I was like, did these guys Hey, thanks. Oh, like there's nobody there. There's nobody on board the boat. I mean, I know that they're grateful to be rescued, but it's interesting.

Conner Jones: [38:23] Yeah, there's nobody there to hand you like a nice warm towel and like, hey, you're all right. Right. I'm supposed to grab my own towels after like putting my life on the line for my country. I'm supposed to pull myself up on the boat. It is kind of interesting. I I wondered about that too. It was like, did they just see this boat come and were they like, is this ours? I assume it's branded with American military stuff on it, but like they it probably crossed their mind, this could be Iran's, you know, drone boat or something. But either way, so glad that they survived, that they were able to get rescued by this drone boat. They came back home, all is well. And the US was like, well, Trump was not happy about this obviously. And so he said they were going to respond. The US responded in three waves of what the Pentagon called self-defense strikes hitting different missile launch sites along the coast of Iran. So, you know, even we are kind of firing a little bit as they continue to try to negotiate some sort of ceasefire. I don't know what's going to happen there. But that's the latest.

Micah Tomasella: [39:11] At the time of this recording, it doesn't seem like Iran's going to retaliate again. It's kind of that tit for tat thing. So both countries can feel like they sufficiently defended themselves. So hopefully this fragile ceasefire stays in place and maybe something more long-lasting can be ironed out. We'll see.

Conner Jones: [39:29] It's what we're hoping and praying for. All right, let's pop into Tune In.

Micah Tomasella: [39:35] Tune in. No. That one didn't feel right. That one didn't. Yeah, I'm going to stop. I'm going to stop. Yeah. Anyway, okay. All right, so let's talk about the Stanley Cup. All right, so we're locked in a 2-2 battle in the Stanley Cup in the NHL right now. You got the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes going at it. Isn't it crazy? Two teams from two places that are not cold at all, having these wonderful professional hockey teams that one of them is about to win the Stanley Cup. And every time we talk about it, I just like to talk about it again. Canada has not had a professional team win the Stanley Cup finals since 1993. And there's no chance of them doing it this year. Hopefully they can break that streak potentially next year. But it's been it's been a great series so far. It's a best of seven series. Game five is Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. Game six will be Sunday night. And if uh, if game seven is needed, it'll be on Wednesday night. So no later than Wednesday, one week from today, the day of recording, will we know who the next Stanley Cup champions are.

Conner Jones: [40:36] Yep. And similar to that is the NBA finals and golly, man, these finals have been fun. I've been watching these games. It seems like a lot of the the country's tuning in. Uh, we got we got a lot going on there. So yeah, the Knicks, New York Knicks, can you believe this? Are leading the best of seven series two to one against the San Antonio Spurs. Uh, game four is tonight after we record this. So by the time you listen to this, you will know uh what the result of game four was for sure. And then game five is going to be Saturday at 7:30 p.m. And if needed, game six will be Tuesday night. I guess, uh, yeah, it'll be Tuesday night. So by next week, we'll have a better picture of what's going on. Maybe somebody's already won the whole thing by then. Um, yeah, Micah, I I I've been having fun watching this finals. I don't know if you have and seeing everybody at the Knicks game in Madison Square Garden, every celebrity you can think of and Donald Donald Trump was there, which kind of caused a lot of controversy and

Micah Tomasella: [41:25] Well, yeah, and there's there's just been, um, there has been a lot of attention on these finals, but I mean, I think overall it's been very positive. I think it's been positive for the NBA just because the the game of basketball itself in the NBA, the style of play has just become something that people don't want to tolerate as much, right? So it's it's it's good to see, you know, um, America like rally around basketball again and be interested in this and all the celebrities involved in this and seeing Charles Barkley working out on the boardwalk in San Antonio. Uh, that's that's always fun too because you can just go and look and you can see, uh, Charles Barkley has made some some some funny comments over the years about San Antonio and the people of San Antonio. That's all I'll say. But he was just, I just saw this video, Charles Barkley just walking along the river walk and then he just like found a random chair and started doing like lifts with it just out on his own, just getting a good workout in on the river walk. And I was like, okay, cool, good for you, Charles. Um, but we have the UFC at the White House coming up. Yes, I said that right. You've probably all heard about this, right? But there really is a UFC octagon and arena currently sitting on the White House lawn and they're calling it UFC Freedom 250. There are seven fights planned, but the main card is between uh, Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje and it can be watched on Paramount Plus. Connor, we have talked a lot about the World Cup. Just so you know, just so we're all on the same page, the USA is taking on Paraguay this Friday at 8:00 p.m. Central Time, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Connor and myself and some buddies are getting together on Friday night to watch the US Men's soccer team take on Paraguay. We're just hoping that it we're able to start this uh this tournament out on a good foot. Go USA. Anything else to add, Connor?

Conner Jones: [43:23] Just go USA, dude. I'm excited. Let's see how far we can make it through this World Cup and uh continue to watch. I I like that you mentioned earlier, watch the players who stand out on their faith. I'm sure there will be many moments where we get to watch these guys in interviews post game and what not and hopefully a lot of them give glory to God. I'm excited for that.

Micah Tomasella: [43:38] Oh yeah. I mean, and if you haven't watched the World Cup, tune in. Like people watch, right? I mean, it's it's it's just really interesting. The passion that you get to see that these people have for their teams and for their countries, it's a beautiful thing. Like as long as it stays peaceful and stuff, it's it's it's a really beautiful thing. And so like if you haven't tuned in and watched the World Cup yet, Connor and I are not everyday soccer fans, okay? But we love it. Just give it a shot, guys. It's great entertainment.

Conner Jones: [44:09] It is. It is. It is. And it will be on for the next month and a half. What a summer it's going to be. All right, thanks guys. I hope you'll have a great week.

Micah Tomasella: [44:17] Peace.

Conner Jones: [44:20] Thank you for joining us on this week's episode of Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast. All articles and videos mentioned in this episode will be linked in the show notes. If you want to help us reach more believers with truth in today's chaotic culture, please share this podcast around and leave a five-star rating and review. All episodes are produced by Sound of a Rose. For more information, you can visit soundofarose.com. See you next Thursday.