Join Conner Jones and Micah Tomasella on the latest episode of Culture Brief as they discuss the Oval Office spat between Trump and Zelensky. They also explore the implications of U.S. tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China while considering the economic fallout and political maneuvering. Plus, the guys talk about the details of Gene Hackman’s death and offer a review of the Oscars, including the surprising wins and cultural reflections. Lastly, Micah shares a hot take on mowing your lawn. Tune in for thoughtful insights on navigating all the week’s top headlines through a Christian lens.
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Topics
- (00:22): Overview of Today’s Topics
- (00:51): Longest Joint Session of Congress
- (02:23): Oval Office Exchange: Trump, Zelensky, and Vance
- (14:52): US Tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China
- (23:14): Gene Hackman’s Legacy and Mysterious Death
- (24:54): Oscars Recap: Highlights and Surprises
- (27:17): Controversial Wins and Cultural Reflections
- (31:17): Christian Perspectives on Hollywood
- (32:54): Listener Mailbag: Hot Takes and Debates
- (38:12): Upcoming Events and Final Thoughts
Resources
- Mailbag: [email protected]
- DenisonForum.org/subscribe
- Culture Brief on Instagram
- President Trump addresses joint session of Congress
- Trump administration pauses all aid to Ukraine
- Trump pauses all US military aid to Ukraine after heated Oval Office meeting with Zelensky
- What US lawmakers are saying about the White House clash between Trump and Zelenskyy
- Biden lost temper with Zelenskyy in June phone call when Ukrainian leader asked for more aid
- Why Russia “invaded” Ukraine: Explaining “Putin’s endgame”
- 2. How partisans view each other | Pew Research Center
- Trump’s stiff new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China take effect
- Trump ‘open to deals with Canada and Mexico’ to avoid trade war
- China and Canada retaliate after Trump trade tariffs come into effect
- Trump’s tariffs will take their toll on fresh fruit and vegetables — that’s bad news for low-income Americans – MarketWatch
- Wall Street falls again as losses wipe out all post-election gains for the S&P 500 | AP News
- Lutnick says Trump tariff with Canada, Mexico likely ends with meeting in the middle, possible deal soon
- “Anora” wins Oscar for Best Picture
- Adrien Brody’s second Oscar puts him in rare company
- Oscars 2025: Morgan Freeman gives heartfelt eulogy for friend Gene Hackman
- Oscars 2025: ‘Anora’ cleans up, Adrien Brody and Zoe Saldana make history
- Why did ‘Emilia Peréz’ actually receive 13 Oscar nominations?
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: Hi, I’m Connor Jones.
[00:00:04] Micah Tomasella: Hi, I’m Micah Tomasella.
[00:00:06] Conner Jones: And this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories in news, politics, sports, pop culture, and technology, all from a Christian perspective. Hey, Micah, you want to give us a rundown of what we’ll be talking about today?
[00:00:19] Micah Tomasella: Yes, Connor. Thank you for the opportunity. I’m very grateful for it. Let me give you a rundown of what we’re going to be hitting on the show today. We’ll be going over the Oval Office exchange between Zelensky and Trump and J. D. Vance and all the fallout from that. We’re going to talk about U. S. tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China and the retaliatory tariffs that are coming back this way.
We’ll talk about the Oscars and the Gene Hackman death and all of that from a fun and a Christian perspective. So let’s jump into the brief. All right. So before we hit our top stories, I do want to Talk about this joint session of Congress last night. This was the longest I mean, whatever you would call it.
It was the longest of its kind. It was the longest speech, the longest address to Congress from a sitting U. S. president. It was an hour and 45 minutes. Connor, I know you and I both tuned into this. Yes. No, go
[00:01:12] Conner Jones: ahead. We did. Yeah, I ended up watching the whole thing, which. Was a long speech. I watched the back half.
Yeah. This was like basically the state of the union, right? But not technically. Yeah, it was basically the president for a year.
[00:01:23] Micah Tomasella: Yes. So he he’s not a sitting president long enough to give an official state of the union. But basically Congress got together. There were some Democrats that chose not to be there.
And there were some Democrats that wanted their presence to. To be made known. So some of the Democrats did protest. Rep. Al Green of Texas specifically was, was escorted out after repeatedly shouting at Trump just a few minutes into the speech. So this was kind of planned. Many Democrat women wore bright pink in a display of defiance.
Some Democrats held up protest signs during the address. Others refused to attend. Many walked out. By the time the address was over, their side of the aisle was At most half full right so mr Trump said that the mastermind of the 2021 bombing during the u. s. Withdrawal from afghanistan had been detained So that was kind of a major update that he gave other than that It was just a rousing speech And so i’m just giving a quick update on that before we jump into the official stories The fallout from that what comes from that we’ll hit on more next week But connor do you want to give us the first story?
[00:02:23] Conner Jones: Yeah, so Man, Micah, I think everybody has probably seen the viral clips from last Friday’s just, I don’t know what to call it exchange, spat, argument, debate, whatever it was, in the Oval Office, that happened on camera between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr You know, vice president J.
D. Vance stepped in, got his little bouts in there. Man, it was supposed to be a great meeting that was going to lead to a prospective ceasefire in terms of they were, Zelensky was in the White House to sign this mineral rights deal that we discussed last week, that was supposed to be kind of that first step towards peace.
And man, it,
[00:03:00] Micah Tomasella: it went off the rails, didn’t really bring a whole lot of peace, at least in that moment, Connor. Before you continue, I think it kind of reminded me of a real good debate or argument over politics at the Thanksgiving family table. You know what I mean? You’re chowing down on some turkey, you’re chowing down on some stuffing, and things are getting real.
You know what I mean? And that’s just what it kind of reminded me of, especially there at the end.
[00:03:22] Conner Jones: Yeah, it definitely, I would say that this one had a lot more weight to it than just
[00:03:28] Micah Tomasella: hurt feelings, right? This is not just hurt feelings. I
[00:03:31] Conner Jones: mean, this is super high stakes and it’s, yeah, it’s let’s, let’s kind of hit on what happened.
So the, like I said, Zelinsky was in the office to try to push peace, try to sign this deal, but they had about a 40 to 50 ish minute meeting going on. And in that last 10 minutes is when it got really testy when essentially Zelinsky. Kind of disregarded J. D. Vance’s push for diplomacy and sort of questioned him, maybe had a little bit of attitude and eye rolling in his demeanor.
And instead, Zelensky turned to Trump, almost feeling like maybe he was just ignoring J. D. Vance and saying, you’re Not who I’m here to meet with and he pushed Trump for additional security guarantees from the U S and the U S has been clear. Hey, we want to sign this mineral rights deal, but we’re probably not going to offer security guarantees for Ukraine.
Vance didn’t like that. He called out Zelensky for not being grateful and then Trump berated Zelensky and said he doesn’t hold the cards in these negotiations with either the U S or with Russia. Man, Micah, voices were raised. Body language was stiff. Tough to watch. It was tough. It really was. You could cut the tension with a knife.
And then, I mean, you, one of the cameras zoomed over to the Ukrainian ambassador to the U. S. And she just had her hands in her face. I just think that was a perfect visual encapsulation of the feeling and the mood in the room. Yeah. Reactions were split. You go to social media, it was like a big global jaw drop.
I mean, this just Broke everybody’s brains. They could not believe what we were seeing here. And so republican leaders, you know, they blamed Zelinsky for being Disrespectful and having the audacity to disrespect the white house and the president Democrat leaders blamed Trump accusing him of playing right into Putin’s hand and him and Vance teaming up on and bullying Zelinsky So it just depends on who you ask but Micah, I mean have you ever seen anything like this?
No, Not in this
[00:05:22] Micah Tomasella: context. No, I have not. I mean it was We continue to just experience earth-shattering events like brand new events, you know what I mean, some good. It feels like mostly bad sometimes like in this arena. I do think the reaction was so for the first few hours, it was so heavily. I mean, you even saw people on the right calling out Trump’s advance, but then it felt like public opinion kind of shifted where I’m not necessarily saying there was this huge consensus.
But as you pointed out, when you watched the whole interview, It was only the last maybe 60 seconds that was circulating, but when you watch a lot of the interview over time, you can kind of see the why there was frustration at the end, but at the same time, this is on the grandest stage. Maybe we should keep those types of conversations behind doors, but no, to answer your question, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this.
In terms of the U. S. and this type of audience.
[00:06:16] Conner Jones: Yeah, I, and that, you kind of hit on a good point there. I’ve also never seen anything like this because these type of meetings typically do happen behind closed doors. And there was with Biden, right? Biden, Biden used to have conversations behind closed doors and Biden did at one point actually because a lot of people were saying clearly Zelensky walked into this room thinking he still had the same leverage that he used to have over the Biden administration, thinking he was all powerful, all that, and completely misread the room with Trump and Vance.
But yeah, to your point, Biden actually did get onto Zelensky once. I had it down here that NBC in 2022 June said Biden had barely finished telling Zelensky he’d just greenlighted another 1 billion deal in US military assistance for Ukraine when Zelensky started listing. All the additional help he needed and he wasn’t getting Biden apparently lost his temper and said Zelensky could show a little more gratitude.
Now that was on the phone that was in the Oval Office that was not in front of cameras. But we know that Trump is a TV guy. He likes to make spectacles. He’s the showman, man. I don’t think Trump and Vance Expected it to go off the rails the way they really were planning on signing that deal, but I do think having all the press in there, all the cameras.
It’s a very crowded room. All these people. Rubio sitting there. The Ukrainian team is sitting there. I think all that just heightened the tensions and they knew that they had a chance to just really kind of publicly display this meeting.
[00:07:37] Micah Tomasella: So and you don’t, I don’t necessarily want to see reports out of the Kremlin In Moscow, Russia, that they’re super pumped by this display, right?
That they’re super excited by it. I know that we’re supposed to be the goal is to negotiate separately and then at the right time, bring everybody to the table to get this done. So you sign separate agreements and then you bring everybody together. I get that part. But what was weird about this conversation was that the conversation didn’t seem far fetched.
This conversation wouldn’t happen. However, it was just wild that it played out on live TV. And I’m sure, I mean, a billion people have seen it, you know, at least a clip from it or something like that from around the world. I mean, this was on the grandest world stage.
[00:08:18] Conner Jones: Yeah, it was. Okay. So now now what’s the up?
Yeah, what’s happened since then because that was on Friday So it’s been almost a week. So on Monday night Trump ordered the pause of all US military aid to Ukraine Yeah And then a White House official said this pause is gonna remain in effect until Ukrainian officials demonstrate a good faith commitment to peace Negotiations then on Wednesday morning yesterday the administration announced a pause in intelligence sharing So that one’s a little bit If you’re to me, because this isn’t a monetary thing, this isn’t saving weapons.
This is, we’re not going to share intelligence with you that we’ve got on the Russians. I think that’s kind of interesting. All of this is trying to force Zelensky’s hand. And Zelensky has now said that he’s ready to sign the minerals deal, but a deal to end the war is still far off. So this first step might happen, but we still got a long ways to an end of the war.
The European nations did rally behind Ukraine and Zelensky. They offered their support and are seeking a European coalition to try to strike a peace agreement. Denison Forum co founder and cultural theologian Dr. Jim Denison wrote an in depth and great article on Tuesday morning, and he kind of laid out the situation and how it’s both complex and simple.
So I wanted to kind of highlight some of the things he said. So let’s, Micah, start with the complex part of this. That would be that the U. S. political climate is divisive, right? With many people considering that anything Trump does to be either entirely right or entirely wrong. Right. Right. Right. So many partisans are convinced the other side is not just wrong, but potentially evil.
And so you don’t compromise with evil. That makes us very complex. And so every political story kind of just descends into name calling and point scoring from, you know, our side versus their side. Zelensky also wants security guarantees from Europe and the U. S. to keep Russia from invading again. In his view, and in the Ukrainians view, and you can’t blame them for this, they’re fighting Putin on behalf of the West.
They’re fighting, essentially, our war. They’re the, they’re the ones doing the becking for us. Then European and U. S. leaders know that if they grant all these guarantees, Russia would invade Ukraine potentially again, and World War III would start. So knowing that everybody’s got nuclear weapons here, this could end up in a much worse situation.
So there’s just a lot at stake there and then trump sees this as a european conflict And therefore believes european nations should do more to support ukraine and that the us should be less involved We should back out and putin sees any western influence In ukraine as an encroachment on russian sovereignty paving the way for another invasion of his motherland And so trump and zelensky both argued for what you know, ultimately they believe is best in the best interest of their own nation.
So that’s, that’s the thing here. There’s so many complex, just little pieces, but what are the simple pieces? Here’s what we can understand simply. Ukraine and Russia want the same territory. They both consider it part of their historic homeland and vital to their sovereignty and security. If one wins, then the other must lose.
The only way to resolve a zero sum dilemma without conflict is to change the terms of the engagement from win lose to win win. But Micah, as we look at this conflict. I think we just have to look at Jesus’s second great commandment, where he says, Love your neighbor as yourself. He did not tell us to love our neighbor only when we agree with them.
This is how we are to love our neighbor, whether a person or a nation. And such a selfless love, I think, is impossible for fallen humans, which is why, you know, zero sum conflicts continue in our families, in our communities, in the world at large. But while we can’t fulfill God’s word and our strength, the good news is that I don’t think we have to, that the love Jesus commands is a fruit of the Spirit and a result of the Spirit’s work in our own hearts and in our own lives.
Yep. It’s not something we can do on our own. It makes me think that if both sides, you know, Russia and Ukraine, would submit themselves to Christ as Lord and surrender to His Spirit, God could empower them to forgive each other. Yeah. And seek each other’s best and live together in harmony. Now that sounds like a far off thing.
You know, we, we’ve seen it in the Bible, God changed the heart of Paul, Saul turned him to Paul, no doubt, who became a great Christian, but he was a persecutor of Christians. And then he became the greatest disciple of Christ and started the movement of the gospel. So there’s just a lot to take in there.
And I think God can do anything.
[00:12:37] Micah Tomasella: What do you think, Micah? I mean, the word love is thrown around a lot, but the concept of love, biblical love, we see that specifically embodied through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we see that in the way that He continues to love us despite our waywardness.
So Jesus took on a payment that we deserved ourselves. The sin that we have sinned, the wrongs that we have done, Jesus, being perfect, took that on for us, but then continuously. No matter how much you and I sin, Connor, no matter how much you and I struggle, there is an unconditional love and nature of Jesus.
That is, you’re right, impossible to perfectly emulate, but my goodness, don’t we need that love right now more than ever? And that’s what I think about from the point that you’re making. We need that love now more than ever.
[00:13:26] Conner Jones: Yeah, we
[00:13:26] Micah Tomasella: do.
[00:13:27] Conner Jones: Just as one last little thing here, we know that God is grieving over the war in Ukraine right now.
His Children are fighting and there’s so much conflict and hate and sin involved in that and death and destruction and he’s also grieving over any zero sum conflicts in your own life and in my life and your life, Micah, and he loves your neighbors so much that he did die for them like you just said, Micah, and now he wants So let’s pray for Jesus to step into this war and into the hearts at the center of it, into the leaders, into the fighters, all of that.
And let’s pray for peace in this conflict and pray for peace in your own personal conflicts this week too. I think this is a bigger conflict in the world, but we have our own every day that we have to focus on in our own lives. So a lot to take in there, a lot happening. It is updating and changing daily.
So we will keep tabs on that and bring any updates next week. But, Michael, why don’t you talk to us about the fun topic of tariff.
[00:14:20] Micah Tomasella: Tariffs again, right? Okay, I’m not going to just do like an overall tariff segment again in general. I’m going to get really specific with this one, but Connor, thank you for the application.
I think it’s really, it’s really easy to just look at a story and say that’s far away or let it just grieve you. But, but I do believe God is trying to teach us something through this. And while there’s a conflict happening abroad, there’s also conflict in our own heart and in our own lives and in our personal spheres.
Maybe we can find ways to extend that grace and love that Jesus extends us every day to the people around us. All right. So the second thing I want to talk about, our second story is the United States tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. And then talk about the reciprocal tariffs that are coming back. So as of March 4th, the United States implemented significant tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, leading to a series of retaliatory measures and notable economic impact.
So let’s go over that real quick. So let’s talk about the U. S. tariffs, Connor. So first, Canada and Mexico. On February 1st, 2025, President Donald Trump signed executive orders imposing a 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from Canada and Mexico, effective March 4th. These tariffs were justified by the administration as measures to combat drug trafficking and protecting domestic jobs.
So that’s, that’s the reason for it specifically stopping the threat of the spread of. Fentanyl across the borders, cartels, drugs, things like that. And then with China, the US increased the tariffs on Chinese goods from 10% to 20%. So it wasn’t zero to 10. So a lot of people talk about this as a 10% tariff.
This is 10% to 20% tariff on all imports from China, aiming to pressure China to address related issues of drug production and distribution. So a lot of this has to do with the spread of drugs and people dying in our country now. There have been some retaliatory measures that I want to talk about from these various countries, Canada in response, Canada announced a retaliatory tariff on U.
S. Imports worth approximately 30 billion, Prime Minister Trudeau criticized the U. S. Tariffs, and he literally said it was kind of funny. He said, That’s a very dumb thing to do. And when I heard that quote I was like, that’s kind of something that Trump would say, because sometimes he’s that’s very dumb.
That’s very stupid. But Trudeau was like, that’s a very dumb thing to do. Mexico. So their government declared intentions to impose retaliatory tariffs. And there are specific parts of that kind of coming out. China. Imposed a 15 percent tariff on agricultural imports, including chicken and wheat, and a 10 percent tariff on items such as soybeans and pork and just different foods.
So the Chinese government expressed strong opposition to this, and they vowed to defend their interests firmly. All of these countries have. Connor, there’s an economic impact to this, and then I want to get your thoughts. The implementation of these tariffs have led to a lot of market volatility. So major global markets, including those in Asia and Europe, not just here in the U.
S., have experienced declines. In the U. S., the Dow Jones fell by half a percent and the S& P dipped by 0. 1, erasing most market gains since Trump was elected. Now again, that’s not lost money unless you pull the money out. That’s just value. But still, that’s a lot of volatility just from the announcements of these tariffs actually going in and then the technology heavy Nasdaq managed a almost 1 percent rise because of how NVIDIA and Microsoft has bounced back even despite this, but economists.
Economists, economists, economists warned that tariffs, and again, a lot of them are on the same page about this, could lead to increased consumer prices, particularly for food and automobiles, because a lot of our food and automobiles are connected between the agreements that we have and the imports and deports that we have from Canada and Mexico, so there are also concerns about a potential trade war that could disrupt The global markets and economic stability.
But Connor, I mean, what are your thoughts on all this so far?
[00:18:12] Conner Jones: Yeah, it’s a lot to take
[00:18:12] Micah Tomasella: in.
[00:18:13] Conner Jones: I think just in reading about this this week and seeing different reactions, I think a lot of people are worried about what are the full term, long term implications. What does this mean for the average American?
Maybe not right now, but we’re potentially going to see the effects of this in a few months. Different prices on all these products that are being tariffed heavily start to rise We get a lot of imports from China. We got a ton of imports from Mexico And a lot of our auto industry imports from Canada all of that So there’s a lot to take in there and I don’t know Trump has even I believe said yeah, there may be some temporary Issues or like just temporary pain here, but it’s gonna pay off in the long term, and maybe it will.
Maybe this is all just one big negotiating tactic. Obviously, every time there’s a little success, it gets blown. I think almost everything
[00:18:58] Micah Tomasella: for him is a negotiating tactic, right? I mean, we’re trying to get inside of his brain, right?
[00:19:02] Conner Jones: And like Honda announced this week that because of the tariffs on Mexico, they’re moving a plant that they were going to use to build civics.
From Mexico to Indiana.
[00:19:10] Conner Jones (2): Yep.
[00:19:11] Conner Jones: Trump mentioned that in his speech last night, like they’re going to make little stories like that into big things and say, this is why we’re doing it or winning this. And maybe it’s true. I don’t know. I, I, this is just one of those things where you got to let the economy sort of play out and see if who ends up.
I guess, quote unquote, like winning this trade war, my guess is there will be middle grounds here in the next few, maybe even days, potentially hours, and there will be meetings of Canada and Mexico and China, they all meet somewhere in the middle, I’ll tariff you this, if you’ll tariff me that, all that, fun, fun negotiating conversations.
Yes, right, right, tariff negotiations,
[00:19:45] Micah Tomasella: yeah, Connor, I actually haven’t been on that. Oh, cool. As far as what’s coming out right now. So we record on Wednesdays, our episodes release every Thursday morning at 5 a. m. So this situation is ever-evolving. And really, ever since the Trump administration has been back in office, every topic we talk about is, is ever evolving.
So bear with us. But in summary of this, before I give you those updates, the recent U. S. tariffs on Canada and Mexico to just kind of tie bow on this in China have sparked significant international tensions. Yeah, and it’s leading to these retaliatory measures, considerable economic uncertainty abroad, but then even at home, like you’re reading about this and you’re like, man, inflation is already so high.
These bills are already so high. How is this going to affect how I can provide for my family? I know that we’re all having those thoughts. The situation remains fluid when negotiations happening, but here’s a couple of updates. Howard Lucknick is the Commerce Secretary for the United States, and he said to Fox Business and Bloomberg these two things, I’m going to give you these direct quotes.
So Lucknick told host Larry Kudlow that Trump will likely look to meet America’s neighbors in the middle with a focus on the United States Mexico and Canada Agreement, the USMCA, which was created to create fairer trade between the nations, and then he told Bloomberg just recently Trump will make a new tariff announcement this afternoon as in we’re recording on Wednesday.
Our episode releases on Thursday and that he may cut the tariff in some sectors like autos while keeping the rate at 25 percent for other things. So I know for a fact right now, those negotiations are ever evolving. So those are the latest updates. But let me kind of give you the spiritual application of this, of what’s, what’s striking me.
So in short, some of the principles that we find in scripture are these, we find justice, we find fairness, peace, and we find wisdom that provide us with guidance on how to handle issues like trade, tariffs, and the broader effects. So there are concepts, there are things that scripture teaches us, tenets, core tenets that, that do help us deal with this.
So by keeping the welfare of others in mind, by seeking reconciliation and trusting God’s wisdom, we can approach these complex issues with integrity, with faith, and I would say even, even confidence, even in uncertainty, we can approach all uncertainty with certainty. And I’ll tell you why. We are able to trust the sovereignty and the providence of God in all uncertain situations and difficulties.
Let me just encourage you, as I’ve been trying to encourage myself with some of these things swirling around and all the uncertainty of today, take a deep breath, fellow follower of Christ. Take a deep breath, fellow believer. God is not shocked by this. He’s not dismayed by this. He’s not surprised by this.
And let me give you this verse from Job 12 10. In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. God is not only in control, he’s working at all for our good and for his glory. And we can take confidence in that no matter how good or bad the news seems.
[00:22:50] Conner Jones: Yeah, amen to that. I think that can apply.
It’s a well beyond tariffs all the way down to the smallest things in our, our own daily life. So thanks Micah for that. And we’ll just, yeah, we’ll see what comes out the next few days here. And maybe by next week, the tariff war is over or it’s escalated. Who knows? Anyways, Micah, I want to hit on some Hollywood stuff real fast because we did have the Oscars this past week, but also.
America lost in a legend. Yes. And Gene Hackman, which if you’re younger, maybe you don’t know who this is or look at him. Do you’ve seen some of his, I mean, he was in a ton of movies, you know, like a 50 year career in Hollywood, just making movies, two time Oscar winner, Gene Hackman. It’s just a big loss for the movie world and for many people who just adored the classic 70s, 80s, 90s films that he was in, but he did leave Hollywood about 20 years ago.
Yeah, he made a movie. It was bad. He was like, I’m done with this left, moved to New Mexico with his wife. They’ve been living in Santa Fe for many years. And they were kind of reclusive, people did not see them very often. I mean, he just disappeared from public life. He went from being at the Oscars and everything to just off the map.
Sadly, he did pass away, which is not shocking. He was age 95. You know, not surprising. But. But what is surprising is the manner of death. And I’m sure many of you have seen this on the news. His body along with his wife’s body. She was 65 years old. Her name was Betsy Arakawa. They were both found in their home in New Mexico.
One of their dogs was also found dead and it’s believed that they might have been dead for up to nine days before somebody discovered them. So just weirdness of this is causing police to investigate. They did Test for carbon monoxide because that was kind of the, I think everybody’s first suspicion was it was probably carbon monoxide.
They tested negative for that. So there’s no immediate signs of foul play, but they are investigating. There were some drugs found spilled out on the counter. It’s just weird. A door was open. So we’ll see what comes out of that. But either way, sad to lose both of them. And we’ll just. We’ll keep up with that.
Morgan Freeman had the Oscars on Sunday came out on stage to pay tribute to Hackman And he said our community lost a giant and I lost a dear friend him and Gene were great friends And Gene was friends with a lot of you know, the older crowd in Hollywood. So just a big loss Anyways, speaking of the Oscars Micah, did you did you watch any of it?
[00:25:14] Micah Tomasella: I, I saw some clips afterwards. I saw, I saw a few clips afterwards. And then Jim wrote on the Oscars on Monday this past week, which kind of piqued my interest. So I went back and watched some of the videos of some of the things that he pointed out. But no, I did not. I did not watch it live. And I think that this is a point you’re probably going to end up making is that a lot of America isn’t super interested in it like, like they used to.
And I think that there’s reasons for that. But anyway, go ahead.
[00:25:40] Conner Jones: Yeah, there there are reasons it did get close to 20 million viewers, which is actually better. Oh, that’s pretty good I mean, that’s actually not bad. Yeah, but you know 20 years ago, they were getting 40 to 50 million viewers So it’s still I mean they they gotta claw their way back.
That’s better than I thought 20 million
[00:25:55] Micah Tomasella: is better than I thought Yeah,
[00:25:56] Conner Jones: it is. It was better than I was expecting too. So part of that’s probably because of the wicked aspect Kids and families probably tune in and it did start off. I actually found this Oscars to be pretty entertaining Conan O’Brien was the host and pretty a political just did his thing and he made some great jokes And I think they wanted to leave politics out of it.
That’s been a stain Yeah in recent years and then the wicked Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo came on stage and opened up the Oscars with a big wicked medley and it was awesome Honestly, they’re they’re very talented I didn’t, I didn’t predict last week on five of the awards and I only got two of them.
Oh, that’s pretty brutal. I did get correct the supporting awards, which was best supporting actress did end up going to Zoe Saldana for Amelia Perez and best supporting actor went to Kieran Culkin for a real pain. And the ones that I did not get correct were best actor, which ended up going to Adrian Brody for the three and a half hour movie.
The brutalist that movie is so long. It has an intermission in the middle. Wow. Adrian Brody won his second best actor great actor.
[00:26:58] Micah Tomasella: He is a great actor.
[00:27:01] Conner Jones: He really is. I need to see that movie. I just gotta I haven’t seen it. I mean, I’ve seen him in a lot of
[00:27:04] Micah Tomasella: stuff, but he plays kind of, 1950 guys really well.
You know what I mean? He plays just kind of an old timey guy. That’s what all of his movies are. Yeah,
[00:27:12] Conner Jones: yeah. Yeah, yeah. There’s something about that. Anyways, he won best actor. Here’s what Really swept the floor the movie a Nora which I’m gonna guess many people had not heard of until this night when it won all These awards it won five total Oscars including some of the big ones it won best picture best director and best actress Oh, so best actress went to 25 year old Mikey Madison, and it was honestly shocking You could kind of feel the shock in the room because she beat out the Hollywood veteran Demi Moore Which was my prediction for winning best actress everybody thought she was going to win But it ended up going to Mikey Madison, which congratulations to her There’s a lot of reasons for that, and I want to dive into Enora because it’s pretty disappointing that it won all these things.
But on the plus side, Emilia Perez, which we have spent plenty of time talking about all the issues with that movie, only won two Oscars after being nominated for 13. So I think that’s pretty good. It ended up being the butt of quite a few jokes that night because they had such a tumultuous Oscars season all because of Carla Sophia Gascon, the transgender post and everything so and I’m glad that Carla Sophia Gascon did not win because that would have been a man winning the best actress award and I just don’t think that would have been a good or fair thing.
Anyways, here’s the deal. The reason I say Nora is disappointing as a winner of all these awards is because I think it could be an indicator of what Some of our culture values the film for anybody who doesn’t know is the story of a sex worker who marries a former client and Gets mixed up with some Russian oligarchs.
The movie is filled with gratuitous nudity strip club sequences and has over 500 expletives It’s just one of those films that Truly, I don’t think has any actual redeeming quality. It is celebrating essentially a lot of sinful things and it’s a celebration of sex work. Right? I mean, because yeah, Mikey Madison, even when she was giving her speech, gave a shout out to the sex worker community and said, I stand with you because she plays essentially.
Somebody in that community. I’m just I’m a little appalled that this is the movie that the Academy one gave the wind to The movie only got 15 million dollars in the box office It is the lowest grossing film to ever win right
[00:29:23] Micah Tomasella: and that’s and that’s the surprising thing about it Right is I don’t expect the Academy to have biblical values.
It’d be great if they did it, right? So so them awarding it to this type of movie doesn’t surprise me one bit. However No one saw it. So that’s, that’s, what’s, that’s, what’s surprising to me and to a lot of people.
[00:29:42] Conner Jones: Yeah, and so I I’d like to quote Dr. Denison had in his article this week. He said great cinema is apparently in the eye of the beholder and many of the beholders are not many of us.
Yeah, this is so true. Like a lot of us had not seen it. I have not seen this film. I am not going to see this film because of all the things I just stated. There’s just truly no reason to I think apply a Christian heart to to this film and Divulge in that which is kind of sad. I usually like to watch all these best picture movies And no, I don’t expect the academy to be on the same level as us, but it is surprising because this one is A whole nother level of just like I mean debauchery essentially and I was kind of I just was surprised Anyways, so maybe the academy is just a subset of the culture that likes this sort of story And is simply ignoring the greater public’s like actual interest in movies that we actually watched and want to watch It was just a weird year.
I mean, this was the post hollywood strike year. So there was not as many Options and movies that came out. So maybe that’s a piece of it I do think this movie’s coming out on Hulu next week, so it’ll probably get a big bump, so that’s just gonna be a piece of it. Hopefully a lot of people realize that it’s actually not a good movie or redeeming movie.
It might be great acting, it might be good cinematography and music and drama and all of that, but I just, I think it’s kind of just a picture of what some people value in our culture, and I think This is something that possibly even gene hackman saw and part of why he left hollywood He was seeing this downward trend It was not the hollywood that he knew and grew up in and and worked in for so many years, right?
And I I don’t know that for sure but I just I think it’s kind of interesting that you see the stalwart of hollywood from past and then Compare that to what we’re seeing in the oscars this weekend What I can say and we’ve kind of already hit on this is god is just grieved by sin. And so it certainly Hits when it’s on such a big platform as the oscars celebrating a movie that is just literally talking in glorifying sinful lifestyles.
The sexual immorality and self reliant like egotism of these films just lambasts faith and it grieves God. But this is also an opportunity for Christians to shine a light in a dark place. Dietrich Bonhoeffer even said, being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.
When we follow Christ fully, others cannot be the same. Your life as a Christian should make non believers question their disbelief in God. I think that’s so true. And so any way that we can do that, whether it’s Christian filmmakers, like there’s certain movies that are coming out that are glorifying God.
There’s even a movie on Dietrich Bonhoeffer this past year that are so great. And if we can glorify God through those, or whatever your workplace is, or your just influence in life is in your family, all of that, anything we can do should make non believers question Why they don’t have a belief in God so avoid anything that can cause you to stumble like the film menorah or any of these other films and instead He’d the call to live differently for Christ.
That’s the takeaway. I get just from all of this.
[00:32:45] Micah Tomasella: Amen, but amen Connor Jones Thank you for always walking us through what’s going on in Hollywood and taking the lead on that. There is so much to pull from these types of stories. All right let’s jump into the mailbag. So we want to continue to hear from you all.
Okay, please keep sending us questions, topic ideas, whatever you want to know. We’re an open book, I guess, to a certain extent, we’re an open book. So send us all of your thoughts, your questions, topic ideas to culturebrief at denisonforum. org, culturebrief at denisonforum. org. So we received an email from someone calling themselves the accountant.
This past week who said we heard the hottest take from Connor discrediting Star Wars has left a huge imbalance in your show and the force is what he says. Okay, I think he’s a Star Wars fan. Connor, Micah, Micah, balance this out for me. What is your hottest hot take before I give you my hottest hot take, Connor, how is your last week been after you shocked the world by telling everyone you hated Star Wars?
So I’ve gotten a
[00:33:48] Conner Jones: few people who are like, Hey, they’re kind of like under the table secret. Hey, I kind of, I kind of agree with you in your year, that star, yeah. They’re like, star Wars is overrated. Right? And I’m like, thank you for the support. Can you say that publicly? Mm-hmm . To, to support me. But I would say the majority of people have been like, dude, what are you talking about?
You’re talking about Star Wars. Yeah. Even in my own family, people were just. And I, I called this last week, they were shocked. My, my dad is a super Star Wars fan. And when, when he heard my hot take, he, he texted me and said, you’re, you’re removed from the will.
[00:34:22] Conner Jones (2): I would say the week’s been fine. Wow.
[00:34:25] Conner Jones: Dad, if you’re listening to this, I hope you’re not serious. But if, if anything, I think it’s just been a fun conversation with people. And shout out to the accountant. I’m sorry if I made you mad. Also, why are you calling yourself the accountant? I I’d like to hear this sounds like the ben affleck movie.
Yeah, which there’s a second one coming out soon This guy’s story man. I want to
[00:34:41] Micah Tomasella: know this guy’s
[00:34:41] Conner Jones: story Is this ben affleck? All right. Anyways, that’d be like give it to us. What’s that hot take you got?
[00:34:46] Micah Tomasella: All right. I’m gonna tread lightly here. But again, it’s a hot take And I’m trying to make this one spicy.
I’m trying to make it caliente, ghost pepper. I’m trying to do my best. Oh, you came out, you came out swinging last week. All right. So let, let me preface this by saying this when it comes to my hot take, if you own or rent a home and your lot, isn’t multiple acres that you live on. If you’re a relatively healthy and able bodied person, this hot take is for you.
Okay. So all of those criteria, right? Right. Okay. So that includes you. Conor, was my criteria clear? Do you understand my question? Okay. Yeah. I would say this. If you have ever hired or currently employ someone to mow your yard for you, I’m not I’m not saying that I don’t respect you. I’m going to respect anyone and, and everyone, but what I am going to say is that if you do not mow your own yard, and you’re able to mow your own yard, I know that there’s a lot of circumstances there.
I’m going to stop prefacing. I’m just going to jump into this. I feel very passionately That you should be mowing your own yard and I think it’s connected to like how we’ve been created society has progressed so much we’re not hunting and gathering the same way are hunting and gathering is going through the drive through and going to the grocery store.
There is something about tending to your land and taking care of the plot of land that you have your little piece of God’s green earth so if you do not mow your yard and you hire someone to do it. I think you should consider doing it yourself, and I would be bold, so bold as to say you’re missing out on a joy and a passion of tending to your own land if you’re not doing it yourself.
That’s, that’s my hot take.
[00:36:32] Conner Jones: Okay, coming in hot. Okay, let me, so let me preface by saying I do mow my own yard, and I kind of understand what you’re saying, but We have
[00:36:39] Micah Tomasella: friends who don’t. We have friends who don’t. I’ll play a little devil’s
[00:36:42] Conner Jones: advocate right here. I can see why, because one, it takes time, so a lot of people like to just Not have to worry about that.
It’s one less thing for them to worry about right to it is kind of hard work So if you’re not one who’s all in for getting sweaty and dirty and all that I can say
[00:36:58] Micah Tomasella: Sweaty and dirty though. I’m saying there’s something primal about it There’s something innate about it that that we should be doing that if we can if we can ourselves
[00:37:07] Conner Jones: I I don’t even fully disagree with you.
I think it is something great but I’m going to turn this back on you, Micah, because I would say the same thing, but I think you should change your own oil on your vehicles. And so how many times have you done that?
[00:37:19] Micah Tomasella: Maybe once or twice, I would come right back at you and say, if you price out your oil in your filter, it’s actually a very similar price to just going and getting it changed.
So when you mow your own yard, you save money.
[00:37:34] Conner Jones: Yeah, but if we’re talking about the primal aspect of this, the idea of taking care of your own things, there’s just something so great about changing your own oil. Do you change your own oil every time? For the most part. Yeah.
[00:37:47] Micah Tomasella: Wow. Okay. That’s, that’s, that’s impressive.
You know what? You do it. And I see, I see the point that you’re making and I see how you’re using my words to make another point. And so I’m just, I’m just going to stop talking. I need to think about this. Maybe we’ll talk about it next week.
[00:38:02] Conner Jones: Yeah, when you change your own oil, come back to me and tell me I need to mow my own lawn.
That’s what I’m saying. Okay. Okay. Anyways, not a big deal. That’s a fun little hot take. Thanks, Micah. Yeah. Okay. Let’s talk about what you guys can tune into this week. So here’s what’s coming up. We’re going to be watching for a compromise in the tariff situation. We’re going to be watching for a compromise in Ukraine.
Keep your eyes peeled on the news. See what happens there. Also, as we’ve been saying every week, it seems every day there is a new, new story with the Trump administration and some executive orders and all. Apparently now Trump signed an executive order to say English is the official language of the U S which I did not know was not, I didn’t know
[00:38:39] Micah Tomasella: it wasn’t
[00:38:40] Conner Jones: anyway.
Yeah. So there’s that everybody. It’s Daylight Savings Weekend. Make sure to set your clocks forward on Saturday night and do not show up to church. Would you be showing up to church late or early? I don’t know. This always really confuses me. There
[00:38:55] Micah Tomasella: is legislation out there to get rid of Daylight Saving Time.
And I’m going to come out and say I’m all for that because this confuses me every time. But I think this is the time change where we actually lose an hour. So in the fall, you lose an hour. Fall back, you gain an hour. Spring in the spring, you lose an hour, but Connor, we say,
[00:39:13] Conner Jones: you know, we get that extra time of sunlight in the evening and it is so my opinion.
I’ll lose an hour of sleep all day to basically extend that daylight during the day. I love it. Anyways, change your clocks and then. We started an Instagram account. We did. So go follow us over there. Yeah, we did, didn’t we? so follow us at culture reef podcast on Instagram and Give us a give us a DM If you don’t want to email us you can DM us you can comment on the post whatever So we’ll put the link in the show notes, but go follow us on Instagram.
Follow us on there.
[00:39:45] Micah Tomasella: Follow us on there Yes, we post updates and clips and all that jazz
[00:39:49] Conner Jones: Yes, we do. Okay, and then Mike as we kind of close out this episode I wanted to leave a little bit of an encouragement slash Kind of just wisdom and advice from James Clear who is the author of the book atomic habits I think it could just be applied to much of what we discussed on this episode and everything going on in the world but also in our own personal life and he said Think about self control less as the quality of a person and more as the quality of a place.
There are some places and situations that lean towards lower self control and others that lean toward higher self control. Self control is about your context as much as your character. Put yourself in good positions. And I think, yeah, it’s a good one. And I think, you know, if I’m thinking about the Oval Office.
Yes. Was self control shown? I don’t know. If I think about the Oscars, was self control shown in some of the speeches, for instance? AJ Brody won that award, but it’s kind of been forgotten a little bit because he got up there and gave a five minute speech. He waved off the music and he kind of bragged about himself a little bit.
He’s I’ve been here before. Maybe if he’d shown some self control that would have come off better. So how can that be applied to each of our own personal lives this week? Just something to consider,
[00:41:04] Micah Tomasella: but great point. Yeah. Connor, thank you for that wisdom. Thank you for that little tidbit for us to be able to have and chew on a little bit.
Man, that is, that’s a great point. Thank you, Connor. Thank you, James Clear, even. I’m sure he listens to this podcast. Anyway, thank you for joining us for this week’s episode of Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast. All articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please, please, please, please.
Subscribe, and rate, review the show. Share it with a friend. Help us grow the show. Let’s do this together. We’ll be back next Thursday. See you then.
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