
Culture Brief Episode 2: LA wildfires, TikTok’s final days, playoff football, and a Christian podcast movement
Join Conner Jones and Micah Tomasella in the second episode of the Culture Brief podcast as they navigate top stories of the week. They provide updates on the Los Angeles fires, insight into the NFL playoffs and college football, and discuss the deep impressions Christianity is making in popular culture. Additionally, the episode covers trending topics in politics, technology, and entertainment, including listener predictions for 2025. Join them for a comprehensive and engaging discussion from a Christian perspective.
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Topics
- (00:45): Los Angeles Fires Update
- (10:41): Political Updates
- (14:08): Christianity in Modern Culture
- (21:17): Football Playoff Highlights
- (23:04): Eagles’ AJ Brown and the Inner Excellence Book
- (27:18): Dallas Cowboys Head Coach Shake-Up
- (29:39): Listener Predictions for 2025
- (34:49): TikTok’s Uncertain Future
- (36:36): Upcoming Presidential Inauguration
- (37:36): College Football National Championship
Resources
- Mailbag: [email protected]
- DenisonForum.org/subscribe
- January 12, 2025: Los Angeles wildfires, wind warnings as Palisades, Eaton fires burn | CNN
- See some of the most dramatic pictures of California wildfire devastation
- Incidents | CAL FIRE
- LA fires: What’s happening in Los Angeles, and what caused the wildfires?
- The Blood Is in the Water for Karen Bass – Puck
- Firefighters battling “unprecedented” fires in California
- DONATE: Deliver help, hope and healing to California · Texans on Mission
- DONATE: Pray for the Victims of the California Wildfires
- DONATE: Online Donations | American Red Cross
- Donald Trump sentenced after losing Supreme Court decision
- Special Counsel Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case – The New York Times
- YouVersion Bible App Breaks Record in Single-Day Downloads | CBN News
- “Just to have the opportunity to glorify God on the football field it’s truly been an honor.” Jahdae Barron following Texas loss yesterday. Comment “Amen” down below! Athlete @officia1dae
- Jahdae Barron Shares Faith After Texas Longhorns Loss | TikTok
- Wesley Huff, PhD(c) – Apologetics Canada
- Actor Mel Gibson tells Joe Rogan that gospels are ‘verifiable history’ – Premier Christian News
- A Pastor’s Reflections: The Case for Christ (the Movie) – Westminster Seminary California.
- Joe Rogan interviews Wesley Huff, a Christian apologist
- NFL scores and recaps for every wild-card playoff game
- Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl Recap: Notre Dame vs. Penn State
- Playoff Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic Recap: Ohio State vs. Texas
- Eagles receiver A.J. Brown was reading a book on the sidelines of team’s playoff win
- ‘Inner Excellence’ writer Jim Murphy talks A.J. Brown, Eagles fans – NBC10 Philadelphia
- Book read by NFL receiver on the sideline goes viral
- TikTok Inc – Company Profile and News – Bloomberg Markets
About Micah Tomasella
Micah Tomasella is the Advancement Officer at Denison Ministries and co-hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. A graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Micah is married to Emily, and together they are the proud parents of two daughters. With an extensive background in nonprofit work, finance, and real estate, Micah also brings experience from his years in pastoral church ministry.
About Conner Jones
Conner is the Director of Performance Marketing at Denison Ministries and Co-Hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. He graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. Conner passionately follows politics, sports, pop-culture, entertainment, and current events. He enjoys fishing, movie-going, and traveling the world with his wife and son.
About Denison Forum
Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, The Denison Forum Podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.
[00:00:00] Conner Jones: Hello, and welcome to the Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast, where we’re navigating the constant stream of top stories in news, politics, sports, tech, pop culture, entertainment, and we’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. I’m Conner Jones, and I’m so glad you’re hanging out with us this week.
[00:00:18] Micah Tomasella: And I’m Micah Tomasella, and I am definitely Conner Jones’s best friend. Just ask him. And listen, this is episode number two. We’re pros at this point, don’t you think? Yeah, I’d like to think so, but probably not. Okay. Let’s go ahead and dive in. Let’s jump into what we like to call the brief cue, the fun music.
[00:00:42] Conner Jones: Great. This is the rundown of what’s going on this week. Michael, let’s start with the Los Angeles fires. Definitely hard to see. And witness the videos and images and hear the stories coming out of LA But I definitely think we need to hit on that because it is still happening The winds have started to die down.
The fires are starting to be more contained. Thankfully the threat is still there Santa Ana winds are the main cause of the wild, wildfire spread and that is very dry winds right dry winds Dry time of the year, not a lot of rain. It’s just been a really hard time for the firefighters who are working so hard and diligently to try to get these things out.
So just a quick recap on what’s happened out in LA, especially for most of us who may not live there. And it feels like, you know, a little bit of a distance, but at the same time, these are fellow Americans. We’ve got a lot of friends and family out there for a lot of our listeners. So the Palisades fire is the big one.
That’s the one that we’ve seen a lot of images and stories come from. That is currently burning at 24, 000 acres. Micah, that’s roughly 37 square miles. The city of Paris is 40 square miles. That is huge. And there’s some helicopter footage out there of just this entire city destroyed. There’s also the Eaton fire currently 37 percent or 35 percent contained the Hearst fire, which thankfully is 97 percent contained all around.
It’s 39, 000 acres that have burned so far, 60 square miles. This is bigger than Manhattan. Wow.
[00:02:09] Micah Tomasella: Oh my goodness, man. And, and just to clarify, you said the city of Paris, France, not Paris, Texas. Correct.
[00:02:16] Conner Jones: That is Paris, France. Yeah. Just had the Olympics there. That big city is smaller than the widespreadness of these fires.
Sadly, the death toll is currently sitting at 24 and it is expected to rise. Just heartbreaking in that sense. There’s 12, 000 structures that have been destroyed and early estimates are saying around 150 billion in property damage, which, you Is an unfathomable number and insurance companies, insurance questions are already starting to come up, going to be able to cover all of this.
And then will they even cover like insurance companies? Will they cover. Wildfire damage in the future for Californians is specifically Southern California. I just don’t know. Yeah. Like I said, the images are hard to see. It’s pretty apocalyptic. I’ve got a link I’m going to include in the show notes from NPR, just of insane images throughout the last week from that area, it looks a lot like Maui did in 2023 when they had that massive fire there that took out the entire town of Lahaina.
And man, it’s, it’s really hard to witness. These communities are just destroyed on top of the already death toll, people losing their homes, the entire livelihoods of some of these communities. It’s just gone. People have lost parks, schools, churches our fellow, you know, worshipers are, don’t have a place to go.
But one unique thing that we saw this week is, is those parishioners were saying, Hey, the church is more than just a building. It is. We are the church, you know, we can we can have church anywhere and that is so true Doesn’t make it easy to lose your your home building, but the church still exists thankfully it just seems so rare for wildfires to hit such a populated area Am I right?
Like i’ve just I don’t remember a wildfire like this in our lifetime.
[00:03:55] Micah Tomasella: Yeah, it’s it’s really overwhelming. I mean, it’s I kind of had to stop looking at Photos and videos. Cause like on, like on one hand, it’s almost like visually spectacular, just seeing how large this fire is. But I mean, like at the same time, all the destruction that’s being left in its wake, it is, it’s overwhelming.
There, you know, these are Americans. These are people who were waking up to go to work and, and, and go to school. And there’s so many people, thousands, I think something like 60, 000 people are evacuated just on the chance that the fires get there. You know what I mean? And then you see you know, Airbnbs and rentals or, you know, are price gouging and people and families are just trying to find a place to stay.
I mean, it’s, it’s really sad, but I’ve also been encouraged. And I mean, I’m sure you’re about to talk about this. I’ve also been encouraged to see believers be the hands and feet of Jesus and all the different organizations from all over the country that are stepping in and showing up and providing just the much needed supplies that people need in such a devastating time.
[00:04:56] Conner Jones: Yeah, we, we’ve seen some great things come out of the church in this realm and then this disaster. And we’ll talk a little bit more about that here in just a minute. I did want to just say, Hey, the firefighters, you guys are just doing an incredible job. We’re so grateful for the people. who are on the ground, all the first responders, the pilots.
Have you seen some of the videos of these pilots just like dropping dimes on fires? I mean, these guys are so skilled. It’s incredible to watch and they’re working so hard and around the clock. I can’t even imagine doing that job. So grateful for them. I do think we should mention maybe some of the causes and some of the finger pointing that’s been going on out there.
Obviously number one cause is what we already said. The Santa Ana winds, which do come around at different times of the year. When it is a dry wind with dry ground, the spread threat is just even higher than ever. And so these winds for the last week have just been pounding Southern California and they just take those fires and they take embers up to several miles away where they can start a new fire.
Especially with palm trees and the roofs of housing the, the embers will land and just spark a whole new fire. It is a, Investigation time already starting as, you know, investigators are looking at what was the actual spark of these fires. They’re looking at potential New Year’s Eve fireworks that had sparked small fires and then did those small fires on New Year’s Eve night stick around underground or or start small embers and pieces of wood that then sparked when the winds came in.
That is one of the The things there’s arson that’s being investigated in several areas There’s been several people caught on video trying to start little fires and trash cans or in bush areas and so there’s just a lot that’s going to come out of this and i’m sure there will be Lawsuits, there’s going to be criminal charges at some point, but I do also want to hit on the post fire Aspect with specifically Mayor Karen Bass, who has been just taking a lot of heat for her.
You know, what appears to be kind of lack of leadership and lack of a plan. If you didn’t know she was out of the country when these fires started and it’s not a great look because the fire Threat was extremely high coming into this last week So on friday, january 3rd, the national weather service was like hey, this is a really high threat There is I mean they were telling the city of los angeles.
You need to be ready You Because we, we’ve never seen this high of a threat. The mayor still decided to hop on a plane and go to Africa for a dignitary trip on Friday the 3rd. She went to Ghana she was hanging out in the embassy at a cocktail party when she found out that there was fires starting.
So she knew the threat was high. Then she’s all the way across the world and she immediately has to turn back and come back home. When she lands in LA, there’s a reporter waiting for her who just pounds her with questions. And she doesn’t say a thing. She stonewalls. For 90 seconds while he asks her questions and doesn’t say a thing to him.
[00:07:41] Micah Tomasella: That
[00:07:41] Conner Jones: video went viral, already a bad look, and then she started showing up to press conferences and it just seems to lack leadership It’s not really, you know, offering any sort of reprieve or plan, really. And then her own city officials start turning on her and, and they’re, you know, they’re blaming her in the city council for not having enough resources for the fire department, not having enough budget, getting that budget
[00:08:04] Micah Tomasella: cut.
Yeah, the budget cuts, the poor infrastructure. The projects that were in place to build more water reservoirs millions pumped into that hundreds of millions I think pumped into that and then for some reason they weren’t done And so I mean everybody’s searching for somebody to blame right? It’s like certainly Karen Bass didn’t start the fires.
However, This is when you show that you’re a true leader in the midst of a crisis like this. And it’s clear she just didn’t seem to be prepared for it. And it, you know, somebody has got to take the fall in situations like this. Unfortunately, it’s just kind of how it, how it goes. And she seems to be the one who’s taking the most heat right now.
[00:08:39] Conner Jones: She is governor Gavin Newsom’s taking heat as well. He’s been there. He’s on video a lot, which is what I think is irking a lot of people. It seems like he’s just constantly doing media hits which maybe that’s not a bad thing. I’m, I can’t say, I don’t know. And I’m not seeing him nearly as much as.
Southern California is, but anyways, there’s just a lot to think about here. And then LA is, you know, they’re prepping to host the Olympics in 2028. They’re going to host world cup games. They’re going to host the Superbowl in a few years. So they got a lot to think about planning wise and rebuilding wise.
And as they move into recovery mode we’ll just see how that all plays out. You were right a minute ago, Michael, when, when you mentioned, we’ve seen some great things on the ground. We’ve seen amazing people step up and volunteer and donate. We’ve seen the church step up. We’ve also seen the hard parts of humanity.
We’ve seen people loot, take advantage of the empty homes as people have evacuated and start looting. We’ve seen arsonists arrested and we’ve seen property owners, like you said a minute ago, try to price gouge and take advantage of people just looking for shelter during the evacuations and upon the loss of their own home.
But I am encouraged by the people who have stepped up and done incredible things. You know, Dr. Jim Denison, who is the founder of Denison Forum, who is in charge of this podcast. He wrote last week, In an article on the fire, she said, let’s ask the spirit to manifest the fruit of love in our hearts and minds for those in need, let’s pray for him to give us the compassion of Christ, asking him to break our heart for what breaks his heart.
And then let’s look at practical ways to respond. And I, I do want to point out, we’ve got some links in the show notes for ways you can either volunteer or donate, volunteer if you are on the ground out there in LA. But if you’re far away, like us, we’re here in Texas. We do have links of organizations that Dennis informed trust that is going to be Samaritan’s purse, Texans on mission and the American red cross.
So we’ll link those if you would like to donate to their recovery efforts, but all that to say, just keep LA and California in your prayers and the people who have just lost their homes, lost loved ones. And yeah, we’ll just hopefully have a better update next week.
[00:10:39] Micah Tomasella: All right, yep. Thanks for that Conner.
Um, we will be in prayer for that Let’s do a quick rundown on politics catch us up with what’s happening this past week
[00:10:50] Conner Jones: Yeah, man, it’s a crazy week in dc, last week and this upcoming week So i’ll just give a quick rundown if you missed it donald trump was convicted on friday on 34 counts of falsifying business records People didn’t know if he was going to actually get convicted or not And while he was convicted the judge also said yeah, you’re not going to do any you know sentence time There’s there’s no Sentence at all which is kind of interesting.
Then us special counsel, Jack Smith, who was investigating Donald Trump on other cases including the one to subvert the 2020 election and then the, the classified documents case at Mar a Lago, he went ahead and resigned. Which is not surprising given the fact that he was probably going to be fired once the new administration got in there.
But before he resigned, he did release his report where he indicates that he did believe his team had enough evidence to convict Trump on the election subversion case. We’ll never know.
[00:11:40] Micah Tomasella: You know, I mean, again, to remain impartial, of course he’s going to say that. I mean, this was his life’s work for the last four years and, you know, you can kind of say what you want to say in that regard, but it is worth pointing out that Donald Trump, Is the first convicted felon to ever be inaugurated as president, right?
I mean, that was kind of a, that was what Jack Smith and his team wanted to accomplish was even though he didn’t, Trump didn’t get any sentencing, he is still a felon on his record about to be inaugurated. So you want to talk about how we continue to witness these historical events? There’s another one right there.
It’s just interesting.
[00:12:13] Conner Jones: Yeah, it’s definitely interesting. And I I’m curious to see what pardon powers he has for his own name and all of that. We’ll just see what ends up happening there, but nonetheless, moving on to this week, we started the confirmation hearings for Trump’s appointees in DC in front of the Senate.
So, we are recording on Wednesday. Yesterday on Tuesday was the first hearing. And that was with Pete Hegseth, who is the appointed person for secretary of defense. That was a pretty contentious hearing. There was a lot of clips going viral of back and forth between even senators arguing with each other.
And then Pete Hegseth offering his answers. Some would say offering his dodging of answers, not really answering the questions that were. Sent his way. He was finding ways to go around them. I’m, I’m not gonna offer an opinion there, but I am just gonna say it was pretty contentious. And I think we can continue to see that through the next few days.
We’ve got 12 more hearing appointments just this week. A lot of them happening today on Wednesday and more on Thursday and again on Friday. And then we’ve got the most probably contentious hearings still to come. They haven’t even been scheduled yet, but that’s gonna be the ones with RFK Jr. Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel who are just controversial figures in the DC realm.
And so I think those are going to be very, very entertaining in a way. Being nominated to some
[00:13:24] Micah Tomasella: big, to some big positions, right? I mean, and I think, you know, even, even with Pete Hexeth and then RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, these are large roles within the government and Trump’s picks were just outside the box, they have different types of experiences than what people are used to seeing in these roles.
And some people love that, like an outsider perspective to kind of break the mold of what’s been happening. But others have also a fair argument of, okay what is your experience in governmental work? Have you ever even lived in DC? Do you understand how this works or what this looks like? You know?
So, I mean, it’s, it’s. It’s definitely something to watch. And yes, these, these videos have been interesting to watch too during these confirmation hearings.
[00:14:06] Conner Jones: We’ll just continue to see how those play out. Micah, would you show us some more about how Christianity is impacting our culture right now?
[00:14:15] Micah Tomasella: Yeah.
Yeah. Let’s talk about it. So this was just a segment I felt really passionately about sharing today, just cause I’ve been noticing a whole lot in the media where I just feel like Jesus is being very specifically proclaimed and where we’re seeing it over and over again in popular culture. And I think there was a time where we weren’t seeing a lot of it.
In fact Christianity was, if it was brought up, it, it, it was it was being Mocked I was having a conversation with my mentor yesterday, and I was just I was reflecting on how Podcasting has really changed the game when it comes to media and how we’re seeing These candidates these famous people these celebrities these people in sports if they want to reach the most amount of people they’re not going on Fox News CNN MSNBC ABC anymore They’re going on a podcast and these podcasts, at least so far, have done a really good job of, of just having guests on that bring different perspectives.
And so we’ve seen a lot of that. But the first thing I want to talk about is just the, the amount of times I’ve been noticing how not only God is being thanked, but Jesus, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his forgiveness how a relationship with him secures our eternity and gives us peace and purpose here on earth.
I mean, I’m just hearing. Jesus being proclaimed very specifically was in college football in the NFL. And so I just want to quote Jade Barron, who was voted the best defensive back in college football this past year. The University of Texas lost a heartbreaker to Ohio State University in the college football semifinal.
And so this is the press conference right after the game. After they have this crushing loss. And at the very end, he said, I just want to say one more thing, and I’m just going to take a small part of his quote. He said, just to have the opportunity to glorify God on the football field, it’s been truly an honor.
We truly know who our leader is, and that’s God. That is Jesus Christ. And so I was, I was really struck by somebody in his position. Being within 30 minutes of experiencing this loss, being thankful, being grateful and using his platform to glorify God, somebody in his position that just really struck me,
Conner.
[00:16:22] Conner Jones: Yeah, man. I love when athletes speak out, even after a heartbreaking loss, they know that they’ve got a massive platform and when they use it to, to, to do that. Exemplify the name of Jesus. Not just saying, Hey, thank you God, which is great too. But like, I mean, these guys have been dropping the gospel in their press conferences and I love it.
They’re like, Jesus came and died for me. Let’s
[00:16:41] Micah Tomasella: go. Like, yeah, it’s so cool. And it’s, it’s that mindset. And I mean, I, I really do believe that it’s a, It’s a powerful way to share the gospel or to just show so much, show someone how much you love them to tell them the truth in that way. Because when you’re experiencing such a disappointment, such a heartbreak, and we all go through those things in our lives to glorify God, even when you’re in the valley, even when you’re in the depths of despair and disappointment to still express gratitude because of what Jesus has done for you, what he’s done for us, and that doesn’t change despite.
The disappointment of the circumstance. I mean, it, it’s just a beautiful picture and I love seeing it. So going back to this podcast discussion, I’m going to run through these real quick, Lee Strobel, the case for Christ, all the, the case for books that he’s written, very famous atheist that then became a Christian, he was on the Sean Ryan show to discuss faith and his journey from atheist to believer, Sean Ryan show, a top five.
Podcast platform in the world and the amount of listeners that actually tune in and listen every single week lee’s the case for christ and other best selling books have sold over 14 million copies Wesley huff appeared on the joe rogan experience and the patrick bet david podcast To discuss the validity of scripture and the resurrection Of Jesus.
You can check out more on Wesley Huff at apologeticscanada. com. He’s the real deal. And I would encourage you to check him out. He’s a young guy. He’s in his thirties and he knows his stuff. He’s a historian, but he’s also just really on the forefront of Christian apologetics. And it’s really just great to see a young guy know his stuff and step out in faith.
and defend the faith. And so he was on, he was on with Joe Rogan. Mike, I
[00:18:22] Conner Jones: listened to that one last night, actually, and I was just so impressed by him. Just, you’re right. He’s young, but he’s a great communicator and his wealth of knowledge is just insane. It’s so cool to see how God is using him. And put them on this platform and I, the number of times Joe Rogan, who is definitely not religious at all, it was just like, wow, wow, it was really cool.
And I hope that a lot of listeners had the same thought, because even I had, I learned a bunch. And I’ve been in the church my whole life and I was like, wow, learning some of this history and Bible history and all of that is awesome.
[00:18:50] Micah Tomasella: Yeah, and let me, let me give a little bit of a warning, the Sean Ryan show, Joe Rogan Experience, the Patrick Bette David podcast, those hosts definitely do use some adult language, and so I would warn anybody who’s gonna listen to that, that at least when it comes to those hosts, you’re gonna be hearing some of that.
But these are where people are. Right? We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We need to go where Jesus went, right, to the places where everybody was, to what some would say are the sinful people, whatever it might be, right? We need to go where the people are. And then, right after Joe Rogan had Wesley Huff on, he then had Mel Gibson on.
And Mel Gibson talked about his faith. How he made the Passion of the Christ movie and how so much came up against him in Hollywood whenever he made those movies. And he talked about the Gospels, the validity of the Gospels and how they are verifiable. History that, that we can trust. And again, all three of these podcast platforms.
Are three of the top five podcast platforms in the world with the most listeners and this is all happening within the last Few weeks and then let me hit you with one more thing that encouraged me the u version bible app Saw a record breaking number of downloads on sunday, january 5th, right? So the first sunday after the new year the app’s founder said that the app saw nearly 800, 000 installs that day, that specific day, and 18.
2 million people engaged with the Bible on that day. And again, like I said, this is all just in the past few weeks. So let’s pray specifically that this scripture that I’m about to say over our nation every single day, may we be a small part of it. Or even a big part in repentance and surrender breaking out in our country.
Second Chronicles 7 14 says, if my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their sin. So I just wanted to talk about Christianity and culture because I feel like this is one of the few times I’ve noticed Christianity is kind of getting a good rap in culture, at least these last few
[00:20:51] Conner Jones: weeks.
Yeah, it’s cool. I mean, if, if we have what people are calling, you know, The podcast election just happened. Maybe it’s time for the like, I don’t know podcast revival I’m, not sure that is something that here at denison ministries denison forum and all of our brands We’ve talked about a long time a digital revival trying to use the power of the internet and media to reach tons of Non believers.
Hey micah, let’s pop into football real fast
[00:21:17] Micah Tomasella: Yes. Yes. Okay. This is going to be our last brief story of today, but I want to talk about football because a lot happened and well, Conner and I love football and we love to talk about it. So I’m going to give everybody a quick rundown, a quick recap on this past weekend, this past week of playoff games in the college football playoff and the NFL.
So in the college football playoff semifinal, Notre Dame beat Penn state. This was the orange bowl on Thursday, January 9th, Notre Dame rallied from a 10 point deficit to secure the spot, one of their spots in the national championship and then Ohio state. Beat the university of Texas. We talked about that a little bit earlier.
Ohio state’s defense was, was great in that game. And they had a strong rushing attack that led to their win. And then the NFL wildcard weekend, we had a ton of football for three straight days on the 11th, the 12th and the 13th of January, the Texans beat the chargers. 32 to 12, the Ravens beat the Steelers 28 to 14.
The Rams beat the Vikings 27 to nine. And then the commanders. Beat the Buccaneers with rookie quarterback, Jaden Daniels, leading them to victory. What an, what an impressive rookie season this quarterback has had. I just wanted to make sure to highlight that. And then the Eagles beat the Packers 22 to 10, and then the Bills.
My pick for the Super Bowl winner pretty much crushed the Broncos 31 to 7 and a very decisive win So next up we’ve got the divisional round and we’ve got the college football National championship.
[00:22:40] Conner Jones: Oh, man, what a glorious weekend It was a football although most of those games were kind of blowouts But it was still just fun to watch the that commander’s bucks game was awesome Jaden Daniels Obviously, he won the Heisman last year I think he’s gonna win offensive rookie of the year this year that dude is insane and it stinks because He’s gonna be playing the Dallas Cowboys twice a year for
[00:22:58] Micah Tomasella: I know he is so good.
He’s so he’s so impressive. He’s so impressive. Yeah. Okay. Let’s talk about this inner excellence book that has been everywhere. Okay. This is a book written by Jim Murphy, but the reason why it became popular, I mentioned the Philadelphia Eagles beating the Packers earlier. A. J. Brown found a unique way to pass the time on the back.
Bench instead of reviewing the playbook, the Eagles wide receiver opted for an inspirational read, flipping through a book called inner excellence by Jim Murphy, seemingly unfazed by the on field action. So all of this took place, all this controversy happened, right? So the Eagles were winning, but AJ Brown wasn’t racking up a whole lot of yards.
And so, instead of just sitting there on the bench or talking with his teammates or looking at the tablets, you know, just. To review plays, he decides to read this book called inner excellence, Conner and what Brown said, he admitted that he often reads on the sidelines. He just said, y’all caught me that time.
And, and then we just, you know, like I said, he had one catch for 10 yards. Brown had time to dive into the book and the book, it promises this to train your mind for extraordinary performance in the best possible life. So I wanted to do a kind of quick search on what is this book about? What is Jim Murphy about?
So let me tell you. Before I even tell you that. Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy is the number one book on Amazon’s bestseller list. This book was not purchased very much previous to this. Like, it has shot up the ranks like millions of times more sales because A. J. Brown was reading this on the sideline.
But this is the thesis of the book according to a recent interview. The thesis for inner excellence is that self centeredness is the greatest challenge that we face in performance and in life. It leads to fear and selflessness is fearless. The essence of inner excellence is how do you develop the habits every day of thought and action around the person that you want to become and what’s most important to you and how you can be fully engaged heart, mind, and body in the moment and unattached to your results that are always temporary and always in the past.
So Conner, I actually really love this concept as a concept, but I keep coming back to the same question. What is it rooted in? Is this rooted in a feeling? Is this rooted in a desire? I’d argue if it’s rooted in a feeling or just a desire that it isn’t enough. Colossians one 16 says this, for by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.
Whether thrones or dominions, or rulers, or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. So doing something like this, having a desire and seeking to not be self-centered, to live a selfless life. I would argue and it’s put on my heart in this situation that that can last for a certain period of time But if it’s not contected if it’s not attached to a strength beyond ourselves if it’s unattached to a work greater than something we can muster up at some point it’s gonna fail and falter.
What do you think Conner?
[00:26:04] Conner Jones: Yeah, I just agree with that I I don’t know I think you can get into dangerous territories with some of these like self help type of books that they have great principles But if it’s not In my opinion, rooted in something deeper with faith in Christ, then you can easily go down a, you know, path of, Oh, I’m, I’m doing this.
This is me making myself better and all that. But what we really know is Christ is the one who makes us better when we dive into him and lean more into him and his scriptures. That’s when we can find ourselves actually attaining, I think, a real inner excellence, not to dog on this book. I’m sure it’s got some great principles and all that.
And I am sure Jim Murphy is having the week of his life. I mean, his royalties on that book just shot up. So, yeah, anyways, I think it’s just interesting that an NFL player would be sitting on the sideline. He could have been doing anything else and that’s what he’s opted
[00:26:48] Micah Tomasella: to do. And such an interesting storyline and really kind of points to, I mean, the NFL It’s just the consistently one of the most, if not the most popular thing happening in American culture.
And so a player reading a book on a sideline can make it the most popular book, the highest selling book. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s insane. And it’s, it’s really interesting to see. Last thing I want to talk about on Football Conner, I’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about this. I’m sure our friends and family would be angry with us if we didn’t talk about this.
If you haven’t heard, Mike McCarthy is out as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Conor. America’s team is without a coach, without a leader. Now, Jerry Jones would argue with me on that. Sure, he’s the leader. He can take credit for everything that’s happened, but he sure needs to be taking credit for all the bad things that have happened the last 30 years.
But my thought process is, okay, what is Jerry thinking? What’s the next move? We have heard a lot of competing stories of what happened. Did Mike McCarthy won out? Did the Dallas Cowboys not want him back? They didn’t fire Mike McCarthy. Their window to negotiate expired and then they parted ways. So this was not decisive.
They actually denied the Bears from interviewing him during that time that they were discussing the contract extension. And then they still let it run out. And now Mike McCarthy will go and get a job somewhere else. He had two playoff wins. He had a winning record, but he was there for five years and only had two playoff wins.
And so if championships is the standard, this move does make sense to me. But Conner, I’m hearing. That Deon Sanders is the one he’s the betting on favorite to get this next job. What do you think about what’s going on here?
[00:28:29] Conner Jones: No, I think it’s kind of just a big PR stunt. It helps Jerry and it helps Deon stay at the forefront of the conversation.
But we’ll just see would Deon be a good coach? Maybe, I don’t know. He seems to be pretty good at Colorado, but that’s also just a totally different ball game. That is the University of Colorado versus the most valuable. Sports franchise in the entire world. The attention that he already draws at Colorado is pretty big.
So imagine if he’s also in charge of America’s team, that would be wild. I don’t know if I’m here for it or not. I would like to see other candidates get interviewed. I don’t know. We’ll just see. It would be it would be ESPN’s heyday if they could just talk about Dion and the Dallas Cowboys all day, every day.
So. I don’t know and jerry likes being at the you know, the the center of all attention Everyone’s eyeballs on the dallas cowboys and him and so he knows that this is drawing that attention, you know We’ll just see what happens though. I think there’s gonna be other candidates that come about and they’ll find somebody and it’s Probably just going to be a bunch of the same old same old.
We’ll have another Decent season next year. What’s really important is that we get some new players. But it’s interesting because the NFL has got all kinds of openings and coaches are interviewing everywhere. So we’ll just see how it all shakes out and where everybody lands in the next few weeks.
Well, Conner, let’s, let’s go ahead and jump into the mailbag, man. Hey, thanks to everybody who emailed us last week. Mike and I made our 2025 predictions and then we asked you guys to send us some. And so Micah, I, I have to read some of these cause I just thought they were kind of, they were so out of left field.
Some of them out of left field, some of them, not some of them have some validity maybe. So let’s just see listener, Tracy, Micah predicted that Elon Musk is going to buy tick talk. Obviously we’ve got a few days left. We’ll hit on that in just a second. There’s even a report that came out this week that, you know, Chinese officials are, you know, Considering selling to Elon.
He’s one of the only people who
[00:30:14] Micah Tomasella: sent that email in
[00:30:16] Conner Jones: before that report came out. So
[00:30:18] Micah Tomasella: we’re going to give her credit for it. If it happens.
[00:30:21] Conner Jones: Yeah, that, that could happen. Okay. Then somebody named Canada LVR 96. Hopefully they weren’t mad about you not knowing the Canadian Canada,
[00:30:30] Micah Tomasella: Canada lover. I didn’t even see that.
Okay. They reached
[00:30:33] Conner Jones: out with, I would say some pretty bold predictions. And so here we go. Let’s just hit these. Okay. They are saying that Kendall and Kylie Jenner will announce dual sister pregnancies. I gotta tell you, I’m not fully up to date in the Kardashian Jenner verse, but I could maybe see this happening.
This is so specific. And then another one, Justin Bieber and Morgan Wallen will release a song. But what I didn’t know are they predicting individual songs or a song together imagine Bieber and Wallen on it I
[00:31:00] Micah Tomasella: like the idea of them releasing a song together You want to talk about that would be the biggest song of the year, even if it was bad That would be the biggest song of the year if I don’t if they got together.
I don’t see their style released a song
[00:31:13] Conner Jones: Yeah, okay. This is obviously a golf fan because they got they got Ludwig Sneaking by Scottie Scheffler and winning the Masters in 2025. So that’s very possible. I think he got second last year. He’s
[00:31:27] Micah Tomasella: been, he’s been very competitive. I don’t think that that’s crazy.
[00:31:30] Conner Jones: Yeah, the European. And then that this prediction, I think is good. The YouTube TV rates will go up again, maybe even twice this year. That’s not even a prediction. That’s not even, that’s just a guarantee. Essentially, that’s not just YouTube TV either. That’s anybody, YouTube. It’s not even cheaper than
[00:31:45] Micah Tomasella: cable anymore, man.
It’s not only streaming. Everybody cut the cord to save money. And then now you’re not really saving money anymore.
[00:31:52] Conner Jones: No, YouTube TV goes up every six months. So this is probably a good prediction. They think that there will be a demise of one of the five major nighttime talk show guys hosts. I guess like Jimmy Fallon, Kimmel, Seth Meyers who am I missing?
Conan O’Brien. I don’t even know, man. See,
[00:32:06] Micah Tomasella: see, that’s the thing. I feel like, I mean, I, you know, I’d love to research the viewership on this. I, I feel like that, that late night, you know, Monday through Friday at, you know, those 1030 shows, I, I think that that still represents establishment media and establishment media is going through an overhaul and has an even bigger overhaul coming up.
So I think, I think that’s right on the money actually.
[00:32:30] Conner Jones: I think so too. And when they say demise, I don’t know if they mean like a downfall, like over a scandal, or if they just mean like the show’s gonna get canceled. I
[00:32:38] Micah Tomasella: think probably cancellation. And then, did you read this one? Taylor Sheridan will create a show even better than Landman or Yellowstone.
Maybe about welding or carpentry. Yeah, maybe, you know, his show, I mean, he, he just kind of likes to drop you into an environment or like into a situation like very specifically,
[00:32:55] Conner Jones: you’re going to a ranch or a mountain or a prison or making
[00:33:00] Micah Tomasella: a show about Jesus, the carpenter.
[00:33:02] Conner Jones: Oh, I don’t know that would be cool, but that also kind of sounds like the chosen.
So, yeah
[00:33:06] Micah Tomasella: I, I wouldn’t trust Taylor Sheridan to handle material very well. So
[00:33:10] Conner Jones: me either. And then this one I, I fully agree with, they think that we will all be sick of Lin Manuel Miranda by the end of this year, because he’s going to have written all the songs for another big movie and we’re just going to be done.
He’s so talented. He is so talented, man.
[00:33:26] Micah Tomasella: He is a machine. Thank you everybody for sending those in. We want to continue to hear from you all. Send us your questions or thoughts or topic ideas that you want us to discuss to culturebrief at denisonforum. org. Please keep sending us this stuff. We want to keep covering it.
It’s so much fun for us and we hope it’s fun for you guys. We want to give you a few things to tune in. I’m going to give you the next round of the NFL divisional playoffs and then I’ll pass it off to Conner. So, uh, on Saturday, January 18th, so coming up here in just a few days, we’ve got the Houston Texans at the Kansas city chiefs at three 30 central standard time.
And then we’ve got the Washington commanders on the same day, visiting the Detroit lions at 7. PM. And then on Sunday, we’ve got the LA Rams heading to Philadelphia to play. at 2 p. m. and then that last game on Sunday is the Ravens visiting the Bills at 5 30. That is the best game without a doubt because those are probably two of the top three teams in the NFL, not including the Lions, and they’re playing right now.
And so I think the winner of this game, that’s a big deal. I think that that’s almost like you need the bills to win
[00:34:31] Conner Jones: for your prediction to live. I
[00:34:32] Micah Tomasella: do. I do need the bills to win. And it seems like the bills are getting the more difficult path than the Lions, which might not be good for my prediction, but we’ll see.
[00:34:40] Conner Jones: Yeah, we’ll just we’ll have to see that’s gonna be fun. And I think Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are the two MVP candidates right now for the season. So yeah, should be a great quarterback duel. Okay. Also this week, as we’ve already said, TikTok is going to be banned. Should we cue the music for in the arms of the angels as we are in during the final days of this app?
Yes. Yes, regardless.
[00:35:00] Micah Tomasella: Let’s pause let’s pause for five seconds,
[00:35:07] Conner Jones: but hopefully tick tock Hopefully it’s been it’s been good. I think maybe it’s been hopefully they put this on again i’ve been on it in a few years, but so bloomberg is reporting that chinese officials are talking to elon musk about potentially Buying the app elon hasn’t said anything. So I don’t know how true that is And then a report came out on tuesday night from the informant that they are Tick tock is going to go ahead and shut itself down entirely on sunday barring the supreme court ruling So the supreme court heard the arguments for and against tick tock sticking around The other day on Friday, they have not made their decision yet.
They will have to probably make it, I guess, before Sunday which is Joe Biden’s last day in office. And then, you know, a lot of Americans are already moving on to a new app called Red Note, which is also owned by the Chinese. And people are saying, hey, this is a good place to go if you are a fan of TikTok, but I don’t know if that’s going to stick around.
I’m not sure there’s a true replacement for TikTok. Isn’t that going to, isn’t
[00:36:02] Micah Tomasella: that going to create the same security concerns if you just Right. Go to another Chinese affiliated, I mean, you know, whatever these concerns are, you know, as far as like security. I think switching over to that’s just going to create the same problem.
And if that app gets popular, the Supreme court is ruling on that app later. So, I mean, there’s just going to be a better solution. They could be
[00:36:20] Conner Jones: because this law leaves that open. The only difference is TikTok has 170 million people on it. So moving all those people over is. Probably not a small task. So yeah, just that’s going to be a massive cultural change by next week.
Even if that is just gone we’ll see what happens. Obviously we’ve got the inauguration on Monday. That is going to be at 12 PM Eastern on the steps of the Capitol building. We all know those images. There’s going to be a lot of people there that are trying to, you know, cozy up to the new administration.
We’re also going to have some good performances. The village people of YMCA fame will be performing. Carrie Underwood’s going to be performing. So that’s going to be fun. And then we’re going to see Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos all on the platform. So the billionaire, a billionaire class is going to be right there up there with all the appointees, right?
[00:37:06] Micah Tomasella: I feel like that’s
[00:37:07] Conner Jones: unique. Very unique and I don’t know how people are gonna feel about that and then you know watch out for that slew of executive actions that the trump administration has been saying will be coming that first week Even potentially over 100 he said
[00:37:18] Micah Tomasella: day, right? He said over 100 is what they’re saying
[00:37:21] Conner Jones: Who knows?
We’ll have to see how it plays out, but they’re saying even on day one things will start popping out So maybe even monday afternoon or monday evening. We’ll see new executive actions as this administration attempts to You know Push forth its entire agenda very quickly. And then Monday night, Micah, we got the national championship for college football.
Ohio state is taking on Notre Dame in Atlanta at the Mercedes Benz stadium. Ohio state currently the favorite. I personally believe Notre Dame is going to win. I feel like they are just. on a heater right now. I really like Marcus Freeman, their coach. Obviously it’s a, it’s a Catholic school. So the, that faith is at the center of a lot of what they’re doing and what he’s teaching in their locker room and all of that.
So, we will just see how this game plays out. I am
[00:38:04] Micah Tomasella: definitely, I’m definitely. My heart tells me Notre Dame when I’m looking at it on paper, Ohio State is pound per, pound for pound the most talented team in college football and they really have been since the first week of the season. They definitely have the highest payroll, if I can go ahead and say that.
It’s the most expensive team fielded in college football history. But they are very well coached and they know what they’re doing and they’re good on both sides of the ball. So I want the fighting Irish to win, but I think Ohio state’s going to win. Good stuff, Conner Jones. Thank you for your time today and spending time with me.
And we thank each of you for joining us for this week’s episode of culture brief, a Denison forum podcast. All articles all videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes If you enjoyed today’s episode, please like please subscribe, please rate and review the show You can actually comment on a lot of the platforms that you listen to like on spotify Drop us a comment.
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