A weird week for Ed Sheeran, LeBron James, and Sam Altman

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Hello friends, and welcome to the inaugural edition of In The Know! I’m so grateful you’re here. 

The purpose of this newsletter is to update you on the revolving door of cultural stories through a blend of humor, honesty, and scriptural truth because I firmly believe staying culturally literate and spiritually grounded shouldn’t have to be two different things. (For more on this concept, check out my recent article explaining why it’s important as Christians to engage with the news.)

But enough with all the philosophical fluff, let’s dive into the fun stuff!

The Emmys and Ed Sheeran’s headache

Did you catch the Emmys on Monday? I’m guessing not. And not just because the Hollywood bubble somehow failed to recognize the Kansas City Chiefs (ahem, Taylor Swift) would be on TV at the exact same time. The reality is ratings for the award show have cratered from 21.7 million viewers in 2000 to 7 million last year. If you did happen to be one of those 7 million, join the club – we were definitely the cool kids in school 😉! For the rest of you, here’s a list of this year’s winners.

But while the ceremony may not draw viewers, the shows being honored sure do. HBO’s The Pitt, which won six Emmys, including Best Drama Series, is currently the second most-watched show of 2026, sitting only behind Stranger Things with a whopping 21.1 billion minutes viewed. Not too shabby for a crew of student physicians and America’s favorite tired doctor, Noah Wyle – sorry, I meant Dr. Robby!

Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran is in quite a conundrum. All of the pop star’s opening acts have dropped out of his North American stadium tour. Why such ruffled feathers? 

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft called Ed Sheeran and threatened to cancel his upcoming concerts at Gillette Stadium and organize other stadium owners to boycott the tour unless he removed the rapper Macklemore from the lineup. Kraft was upset with Macklemore saying “Free Palestine” and criticizing Israel while opening for Sheeran earlier this month. Finding himself in a tough predicament, Sheeran removed Macklemore from the tour. Now the other opening artists have announced they’re departing the tour to stand in solidarity with Macklemore and Palestinians.

Not sure what’s next for Sheeran, but I’d be on the lookout for a carefully worded statement put together by a crisis PR team. 

Moral of this week’s entertainment stories: In the face of celebration or criticism, we can’t forget where our identity lies. It’s not in performances, talents, work, politics, or even our church. As Christians, our identity is tied solely to Christ. When we recognize that, all the other pieces of life fall into place. We point back to him when encouraged. And we lean on him when admonished. 

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. – 1 Corinthians 10:31

LeBron James’ controversial endorsement

Did you hear that? The collective sound of NFL theme songs blaring through TV speakers across America this past weekend? It was glorious. 

Even though I was surprisingly let down by my Dallas Cowboys and fantasy teams this weekend, it’s still better to experience pain in the game than not to have any football at all.

But while the return of football brings a breath of fresh air to our culture, there’s still a lingering stinky aroma. And it’s emanating from prediction markets. (If you’re unsure what prediction markets are, here’s a solid explainer.) 

Not only is it insane that Polymarket and Kalshi – the two largest markets – offer trades on human suffering, military strikes, and even the Lindsay Clancy case, but these platforms are particularly ripe for market manipulation. The unregulated nature of prediction markets leaves plenty of room for more untrustworthy actors to test boundaries and negatively impact politics, economics, wars, and yes, sports.

The sports angle garnered attention this week after LeBron James starred in a new Polymarket commercial. The ad generated significant negative buzz for several reasons:

1. LeBron wasn’t alone. He was joined by a litany of other celebs (Eli Manning, Derek Jeter, Spike Lee – just to name a few) who have all attached their name to the controversial form of gambling. As Awful Announcing put it: “LeBron James’ Polymarket ad is a who’s who of disappointing sellouts”.
2. Pro sports leagues have already experienced their fair share of gambling scandals. To have someone with the cultural stature of LeBron endorse a platform that enables cheating feels like a shot in the foot. 
3. Sports betting is a cultural crisis. So every time influential athletes, celebrities, and media outlets legitimize online gambling platforms, they are adding fuel to an already aggressive fire. 

I fear we’re heading down a destructive path for sports, which will inevitably suffer more cheating scandals as prediction markets boom. The mere idea that fans would question the integrity of a game would have seemed like a foreign concept a decade ago. 

So, what’s a Christian’s role in all this?

For one, while the Bible does not outright say “do not gamble”, Hebrews 13:5 does say “Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.’”

And 1 Timothy 6:10 reminds us that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

So, as Christians, we should ask ourselves, where does my heart lie? A quick dopamine hit on a seldom won bet? In the comfort of another form of temporary materialistic joys? Or is your heart resting in the enduring richness of our Father’s love? 

Cling to these truths today:

Psalm 28:20 – A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished

Philippians 4:19 – And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Hollywood is coming for Sam Altman next

In recent days, you’ve likely come across the viral doomsday discourse regarding A.I. If you need a crash course on the meltdown, read this by Dr. Jim Denison. Or check out our discussion on today’s episode of the Culture Brief podcast.

But let’s look at the widespread A.I. freakout with some help from Hollywood.

The 2010 film The Social Network marked a turning point in the public perception of social media. It served as a high-quality and widely praised critique of the soul (soullessness?) of Facebook, its creators, and, in particular, Mark Zuckerberg. 

The movie cast Zuckerberg as a villain just as he seemed poised to be America’s next Silicon Valley darling. But in hindsight, the movie lands like predictive programming. It accurately assumed that Facebook (now Meta) would evolve into a paradigm-shifting tech giant that would do more harm than good. Is that a fair assessment? I think so. 

Fast forward to last week, when, in the midst of the AI-human destruction chaos, Neon Studios dropped the teaser trailer for their new film, Artificial. The movie stars Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and the most nationally recognized figure in the AI industry. 

Garfield must have a bone to pick with Big Tech. He stars in both the aforementioned movies. But hey, if you’re going to play Spiderman, at some point in your career, you have to take on a villain role, right?

Note the horror-esque style music and the dark, lingering camera shots used in the Artificial trailer. It’s eerie. It seems the movie will paint a questionable portrait of Altman, prompting the audience to ponder whether he’s a trustworthy steward of the most powerful technology we’ve ever seen. The film releases on December 25th. Nothing says Merry Christmas like a doom-pocalypse movie!

This moment seems akin to The Social Network’s release, which came four years after Facebook’s creation. OpenAI’s ChatGPT became available to the public in November 2022. Can you see where I’m headed with this?

Will this film have the same cautionary predictive tone as The Social Network? Will it help awaken Americans to the reality that we’ve placed a whole lot of power in the hands of computer geniuses who may, in fact, not be seeking our best interests? 

I bring this up today so we’re not caught off guard. Not just with Big Tech. But with all the cultural phenomena that are out to ensnare Christians with deception and fear.

Let Samson be our cautionary tale today. The same man who was anointed by God with supernatural strength and skill and once struck down 1,000 men with a donkey’s jawbone was rendered weak and defenseless when he let down his guard with the prostitute and Philistine spy, Delilah. She connived her way into his mind, convincing him to share the secret of his strength – his hair. She informs the Philistines of this valuable intel, and they rip out his hair and gouge out his eyes, oof. (Judges 14-16)

Will we stand strong in the face of cultural issues like long-haired Samson? We cannot lose ourselves in temporary pleasures where the devil prowls around us seeking our metaphorical hair and eyes. The Enemy longs for our spiritual destruction. Keep your guard up! 

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