In this week’s Brief: We walk through a heavy news cycle that collided head-on with the Christmas season. We unpack an attack on U.S. troops, the shooting at Brown University, the terrorist attack in Sydney, the horrific murders of Hollywood legend Rob Reiner and his wife, and a foiled NYE terror attack in California.
Then, we shift gears to some lighter—but still meaningful—moments: favorite Christmas movies and traditions, reflections on what Christmas actually celebrates from a Christian perspective.
Plus, quick-hit updates on the Candace Owens and Erika Kirk meeting, the Heisman trophy winner, Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore getting arrested, NFL updates, and predictions on this weekend’s College Football Playoff games.
And as always, we step back to ask what it looks like for Christians to process real grief, stay informed, and still hold fast to hope and joy in a world that feels especially loud—and tender—this time of year.
Powered by RedCircle
Topics
- (00:00): Introduction
- (01:46): US troops ambushed in Syria
- (02:53): Brown University shooting
- (06:07): Hanukkah attack in Australia
- (11:59): Rob Reiner’s tragic murder
- (20:08): Foiled New Year’s Eve terror attack
- (20:57): Christian response to evil
- (28:28): Top Christmas movies of all time
- (36:18): Reflecting on Christmas traditions
- (41:46): Candace Owens and Turning Point USA controversy
- (43:51): Fernando Mendoza wins the Heisman
- (44:45): Sherrone Moore scandal
- (45:36): NFL injuries and playoff implications
- (46:50): College Football playoffs preview
Resources
- Send us your thoughts, questions, and topic ideas: [email protected]
- Culture Brief Instagram
- Watch on Youtube!
- Sign-up for Denison Forum’s daily newsletter: DenisonForum.org/subscribe
Articles on this week’s top headlines:
- Rob Reiner and his wife found dead; police probe homicide – Denison Forum
- Rob Reiner’s son arrested in connection with parents’ deaths – Denison Forum
- Two heroes of the Hanukkah massacre in Australia – Denison Forum
- What the controversial “God & Country” documentary gets right and wrong: Should you watch? – Denison Forum
- Thomas Massie on X
- Mike Lawler on X
- Jenna Ellis on X
- Attorney General Pamela Bondi on X
- Patrick Mahomes on X
About Conner Jones
Conner Jones 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 Micah Tomasella
Micah Tomasella is the Director of Advancement 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 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 Faith & Clarity podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.
Conner Jones: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Conner Jones.
Micah Tomasella: I’m Micah Tomasella.
Conner Jones: And this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture and technology. And we do it all from a Christian perspective. And Micah, man, it has been an insane week, a heavy weekend. We got a lot to break down.
It’s also Christmas season, so just, you know, holidays, news, all of it. We’re gonna talk about it all. You wanna give us a quick rundown, Micah?
Micah Tomasella: Yeah, Conner. Definitely a big week, kind of in a way that we would probably not prefer. So we’re gonna be talking about attacks on US troops, the shooting at Brown University, what happened in Australia.
Rob Reiner and his wife being killed in their home. We’re also gonna take it on the lighter side. We’re gonna talk about Christmas traditions and top Christmas movies and what we enjoy most about the season and the the important things to keep in mind during Christmas time. Gonna give you an update on Erica Kirk and Candace Owens.
Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons both tear their ACLS on the same [00:01:00] day. College football playoff time is here. That and a whole lot more. So let’s jump into the brief.
Conner Jones: The brief. Yeah, you said it. Just a heavy weekend. Obviously we would not have preferred this whatsoever, but man, it felt like every 12 hours there was a new massive breaking news story of just violence and tragedy.
Yeah. And it’s really, really sad. And it’s just an example in a 48 hour period of evil being very real and the enemy being very real. And the enemy using evil to cause destruction and death and despair, and it’s really hard. So I’m just gonna break down kind of four major stories that happened over the weekend, and we’re gonna go in order of when these stories came through, when we got breaking news alerts, or you saw it on the news or on social media, whatever.
This is the order of things that happened. So on Saturday morning. We learned that two US Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in an ambush in Syria. This is probably the story that’s gotten the least attention. Just it’s been a little overshadowed, which is really [00:02:00] unfortunate. But yeah, man, two soldiers were over there.
It was two Iowa National Guards members were in Syria. They’re part of a thousand man crew that kind of tries to keep ISIS at bay within the Syrian territories. And so they were there and they got ambushed. It sounds like maybe a guy who was with the Syrian military turned on them. He was affiliated with ISIS and he ambushed them.
Also injured three other US soldiers. I just wanna point out the names. I’m gonna do this throughout as many victims names as we can kind of know. I’m gonna try to point out those people so we don’t forget those names and we honor them and obviously not the assailants. Yeah. We’re not gonna, we’re not gonna honor the shooters or whoever in this situation, but the people who lost their lives we’re gonna honor.
So in this instance, the soldiers were Sergeant Edgar, Bryan Torres Tovar, who’s age 25 from Des Moines, Iowa. And Sergeant William, Nathaniel Howard, age 29 of Marshalltown, Iowa. Grateful for their service, obviously, and just tragic in that way. And then Micah, we went straight from that into later on in Saturday, Saturday afternoon, we started getting news alerts about a [00:03:00] shooting in Rhode Island at Brownie University.
Where somebody walked in and shot up a classroom, essentially, where they were doing studies for an economic final that was coming up this week. This is right in the heart of Providence, Rhode Island, and it injured nine students and killed two students. Very sadly, those two students were Ella Cook. She was a sophomore from Alabama.
The vice president of the Brown College Republicans Club there and the Lieutenant Governor of Alabama said that she was a devoted Christian. And a committed conservative who represented the very best of Alabama. She grew up at a ca cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. And the church said she was an incredibly grounded and generous and faithful bright light.
So we are so sad to hear about her death. And then the other victim was Mak Mov. He was a freshman from Virginia studying biochemistry and neuroscience because he suffered from a neurological condition himself and wanted to become a neurosurgeon to help children the way doctors. Helped him. And his sister said he had so many hardships in his life and he got into this amazing school and tried so hard to follow through with the promise that he made when he was [00:04:00] seven years old.
So tragic, right? I mean, just, senseless death. And just to clarify, the shooter and at the Brown University, this was on Saturday. We are talking on Tuesday night, and this will publish on Thursday morning. As of Tuesday night, the shooter is still loose. Yeah, A massive manhunt is underway throughout Rhode Island and New England.
That whole territory, they do not know who this was. They’ve got surveillance video, but it’s really hard to tell who this guy was. He’s got a mask. He’s wearing all black. It’s very difficult to see. There’s internet sleuths who kind of think they might have an idea of who it was based off of pages that have been pulled from Brown University students and papers written and all of that.
You know, there’s, there’s a lot of resources going towards that. But, man, so tragic. Micah, any initial just like thoughts from just, that was just Saturday alone.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah, those stories are tough. I mean, especially, you know, the last victim specifically, right? Like chasing a dream to serve others in the way that he was served and taken care of when he had all of his hardships, he had his whole life in front of him.
You know, I’m thinking about these two soldiers and the translator, you know, who who passed away [00:05:00] senselessly just serving their country, like literally in Syria. On behalf of us, like they’re for us, like they’re to provide a living for their family, but away from their families so that we can. Sleep peacefully and live in a safe country.
Yeah. So it just really reminds you that there are sacrifices made every single day. Very thankful for our armed forces and those who lay their life down. First responders, really all of ’em who lay their life down every day for us. Yeah, I, you know, those stories just make it real. You almost don’t even really wanna read those backstories because it just makes it hit even a little bit closer to home.
And then you’re just left feeling like, why, why?
Conner Jones: That’s one of the big questions that we always ask with so many of the stories that we talk about here and every week, the, the tragic ones, the hard ones, the natural disasters, the question of why, and I think that’s one of the big existential questions of faith, right?
Is why God, why did you allow this? And we have so many different ways we can go about tackling that question, and we’re gonna do that a little bit in a here in a minute. But yeah, just as faithful believers. The first thing we can do here is, is hit our knees and pray. You [00:06:00] know, and especially for the victims who have survived, and then for the families of those who lost their lives, praying for those who are battling now in the hospital for their lives.
And that goes into Sunday morning where the biggest attack of the weekend occurred, and that was in Australia. I’m sure most people here have at least heard at least something about this. This was an attack. Basically from two guys, a father and a son duo in Australia. They were connected to ISIS that authorities believe that and they attacked a Jewish Hanukkah event at Bondy Beach in Sydney, Australia.
And the current death toll stands at 15 and 40. People remain hospitalized from injuries. You’re right. It’s pure evil. They attacked. I don’t, so many videos came outta this because they just kept attacking. It was like 10, 15 minutes long of this shooting attack without being engaged by police or anybody.
It finally took, took, which is crazy, took the man, which by the way, it is crazy. There’s a lot of criticism going out there for the Sydney Police and Australian just law enforcement because it’s like, how did these guys. Just get to keep on shooting and nobody engaged them whatsoever. And I say that some police officers were also injured when they finally did get to them.
So [00:07:00] you know, there’s a bravery there, but there’s a lot of criticism of the long response time. But a lot of people’s lives were likely saved by the man Ahmed Al Ahmad. And that is because if you’ve seen the video, it’s just absolutely insane and incredible where he. Basically just goes up to this shooter and tackles him and strips the gun away from him.
While he’s not focused on that direction, he just comes up from behind him and tackles him and risks his own life. And he does end up getting shot himself. He has survived. He’s in the hospital now, but this man is a genuine hero and he saved who knows how many lives. Just wanted to shout out. Ahmed. Al.
Ahmed. Yeah. And, and just the, the. Courage and bravery that he had in that moment as he’s a hero. Yeah, he’s an absolutely hero. And there were some others as well that family members have started to point out. Were trying to throw bricks at the shooters and all that, who were killed while trying to do that too.
But this video of him just tackling this guy and taking the gun away from him was really, really courageous and honestly kind of impressive. It was just like, wow. Straight out of a, a film or something. Anyways, those two [00:08:00] guys, father and son, age 50, age 24. The father was killed. The son is still alive in critical condition.
They took him, obviously to the hospital under police guard and yeah, there’s a lot of questions about how they got guns. Australia’s very stringent on their gun laws. They apparently had them legally. If you know anything about Australia, there was a shooting in the 1990s, late 90 96, I believe. They killed 35 people and after that, Australia really cracked down on gun laws.
A lot of people turn their guns into the government and so they don’t have mass shootings often, they don’t even have very many gun deaths each year. They do allow hunting, and that’s apparently how these guys were able to get that gun. But the, the Australian authorities believe they did pledge their allegiance to isis, and that’s kind of the motive here.
Behind why they did this attack. President Trump also condemned the shooting and said it’s a purely anti-Semitic attack. This isn’t a, it was very targeted against a Jewish population, a Jewish celebration from an ISIS affiliated. Mindset, right? That the, these guys thought they were doing something heroic in their minds and they were actually doing something [00:09:00] terrible and evil.
And that, you know, the attack really just kind of underscores growing concerns of antisemitic violence kind of around the world. But specifically in, in Australia, the Jewish community has been saying that they were warned in the government of rising antisemitism there in Australia. And one of those people is actually Aran Eisman, who is the, his next door neighbor was killed.
And he said, we feel very let down. We’ve been saying it’s only a matter of time. So Wow. Just the fear that the Jewish population lives in, in Australia, but also around the world because there is so much hate towards them and we do not condone that whatsoever. You know, there’s so much just anger and hate towards them, but not just them.
Everyone that goes against the ideologies of certain people who think that they know best and wanna serve whatever their ideology is. Yeah. So much hate and evil. Yeah. Micah. Anything there with all this attack? Just so big, so destructive.
Micah Tomasella: I mean, one, you know, you say think they know best, like one thing to know best and another thing entirely to, to, to somehow think you’re, [00:10:00] you’re you’re righteous in some way.
You’re, you’re deserving of some reward award for the murder of so many innocent people as young as 10 years old. Yep. Were, were murdered on that bench on, on that beach that day. And a Holocaust survivor. Yeah. Ages 10 to 87. One of them was a H Holocaust survivor. Literally survived the Holocaust as a child and then was murdered in this moment.
Uh mm-hmm. It’s it’s pretty perplexing. I mean, we, you know, we’ve talked about this before you know, throughout, yeah. We’ve had to cover a lot of tragedies this year, and you, you try to think about what could possibly lead someone. To get to that point, we, we talk about John 10, 10 a lot. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
Th this is an evil type of ideology that they’re believing in. And you know what there is a lot of debate around Israel and how they’re handling things in Gaza, and there’s a lot of debate around that. I, there is no debate historically that the Jewish people are the most persecuted [00:11:00] people group in the history of humanity, and yet they continue.
To rally in moments like this, you, you’ve seen some beautiful moments come out of this. They gathered right back together. A whole lot of more Jewish people gathered together on that same beach the next day. And they’re like, we’re not gonna be silenced. We’re gonna continue to celebrate Hanukkah.
We’re gonna continue to believe this. We’re gonna, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s inspiring in a way, but at the same time, like. Man, the Jewish people have been through a whole lot. And my heart goes out to people in, in this situation where you would just be persecuted for simply believing what you believe.
You know, we talk about Christians in Nigeria and Sudan and the Congo. There are Muslims who are being persecuted for what they believe, right? I mean, ev everyone deserves to worship freely. And unfortunately, even in a free country like Australia. Even from attacks that we’ve seen here in America, in the most free nation in, you know, in the world violence happens.
And it, it’s, it’s just sad. It’s just really sad.
Conner Jones: It really is. Yeah. Thanks for that, Micah. So much to, to weigh, just weigh in there. But. Going [00:12:00] beyond that, sadly, I have another story to talk about, and that’s the Rob Reiner murder. Him and his wife. Come on, Conner, on Sunday. I know. I’m sorry. It’s not me, man.
This is just, yeah, I know. The sad state of the world. Sad state of affairs, unfortunately. Yeah, so Sunday night we got more breaking news alerts, more breaking news that Rob Reiner, legendary Hollywood director, actor in his own right. Him and his wife were found gruesomely murdered in their home. TMZ reported that they were found dead at 3:40 PM Pacific time.
They likely had been dead for quite a few hours, potentially killed the night before. By their, as we now know, son Nick, he, they were found by their daughter who found them with multiple stab wounds and she immediately called the police and told them that she believed her brother was responsible. So the police did.
By Sunday evening before the, before going into Monday, they were able to find and locate. Nick Reiner, the couple’s 3-year-old son, they arrested him and as officially as of Tuesday, they are charging him with two counts of first degree murder, which has [00:13:00] the penalty of obviously life, but even the death penalty is a possibility here, depending on how they go about that.
And the prosecutor’s office, Nick is known to have a long history of substance abuse. He underwent at least 17 rehab stays, experienced periods of homelessness, and he had apparently been in a massive argument with his parents. The night before at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party and that freaked out party goers.
This is
Micah Tomasella: such a wacky story, dude.
Conner Jones: It’s crazy, man. It’s really crazy. It’s really sad. An at Conan
Micah Tomasella: O’Brien’s Christmas party at his house. Yeah. Everybody, he was probably
Conner Jones: making a bunch of, he was making a bunch of celebrities very uncomfortable, and the the Reiners left and they had told people that they were very concerned, they were gravely concerned about their son.
They were trying to look out for him. They were trying to get him back in rehab. They brought him home. He’d been experiencing homelessness around the country and they were trying to get him on the right track. Sadly it went to this. He turned on them in some form or fashion it sounds like, and likely was responsible for these murders.
I just wanna clarify, Rob Briner, man, if you don’t know who this guy is, just a legend. [00:14:00] He started in the seventies sitcom all in the family. A lot of people know him from that. His dad was a popular comedian as well, so he was already kind of in the show business. Then he had this insane 11 year director run.
I just gotta point this out. I know a lot of people have been doing this on social media and all that. In 11 years, he directed the films. This is Spinal Tap. Stand by me, the Princess Bride. When Harry met Sally Misery, a few good men, the American president, dude, water Run. Huge movies, huge movies, huge movies, classic cult classics, movies that bring up a lot of good memories for people and man.
He was also on New Girl. Remember if you’ve ever seen the show, new Girl, he played Jesse, he, his dad, he was Zoe, Dave Chanel’s dad. He would show up as a guest star every now and then. I think a lot of people would recognize him from that, but a lot of people also know him for these insane movies that he directed in his imagination.
One person was not so pleased to like just about anything was Rob Reiner, and that would be Donald Trump, who, you know, he posted a very, I would say, controversial [00:15:00] tweet on or post on true social. That got a lot of backlash and I’m gonna read it so you guys can make up your own mind. And then Micah, I’m gonna hand it to you.
To maybe speak into this a little bit, but Trump said a very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star has passed away together with his wife Michelle. Reportedly, due to the anger he caused others through his massive unyielding and incurable affliction.
With a mind crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome. He was known to have driven people crazy by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness. May Rob and Michelle rest in peace, Micah.
Initial reactions to that post?
Micah Tomasella: I mean, what I mean, let’s just call a spade a spade. We’ve talked about this a lot. That’s, that’s ridiculous. I, I mean, that’s one of the, that’s one of the worst things he said in his presidency, like in his second term. Oh yeah. I mean that’s that is, that is [00:16:00] freshly off of a gruesome murder at the hands of their own son who from all accounts.
Yeah, they disagreed politically, but I, I mean, apparently they were like really kind people and they really loved their son unconditionally, did everything to try to get him into a more healthy spot, and then they were murdered by their kid. This is not the time to make it about yourself. No, I mean, this is just not the time to make it about yourself.
I mean, it just does not sit well, I don’t think really with anybody. I don’t think there’s really many conservatives coming out saying, yeah, I totally agree with Trump on this. They’re either quiet or a lot of people are coming out saying they completely disagree with what he said here. You know, I,
we heard it when Trump was speaking at Charlie Kirk’s funeral. And we talked about this before. Charlie was better than me, he said, Trump said. Charlie wanted the best for his enemies. I want the worst. I want the worst for my enemies. You know what? That’s a very worldly response. That’s a very knee jerk reaction response that I think in moments of frustration we [00:17:00] can relate to.
I’m not necessarily surprised by this feeling that he had but I, but I am surprised he decided to tweet it out and then he also doubled down later. So yeah, a lot of people were like, if you didn’t do me, man, bad, bad look. A lot of people thought he
Conner Jones: was gonna delete it and then Yeah, just later in the night at some Now he doubled down.
It’s, you know, speaking. He was at, he doubled down on it. Yeah. Really bad. Bad. A lot of Republican. It’s a bad look. It’s a bad look. A lot of publicans didn. Call him out for it. It is a bad No, I know. It’s a terrible look. I thought it was distasteful. I thought it was self-aggrandizing. I thought it was just awful.
I, I, I really did. I couldn’t even believe, and you’re right. He did say that at Charlie Kirk’s funeral and he said, that’s what separates us. I want what’s worse for my enemies. What I think was interesting is Rob Reiner specifically after Charlie Kirk was killed Yes. Went on p Morgan show and said he does not think anybody, and he strongly disagreed with Charlie Kirk.
Rob Reiner was very liberal, but he said, I don’t think anybody deserves to be killed or violently attacked for their political beliefs. Like that, that, yep. That’s not any sort of violence that should happen. And sadly, we’ve now lost Charlie Kirk and Rob Reiner in terribly [00:18:00] violent. Terribly violent crimes this year, right?
Yeah. It’s just awful. So we should never wish that upon anybody that we just disagree with. No. That, that’s just not how it goes. No, I, I, I did one point out, I wrote an article last year, Micah, on a movie that Rob Reiner produced called God and Country. It was really a documentary, it was all about Christian nationalism, and I kind of learned a lot about Rob Reiner during that time, just why he produced this movie, what his beliefs are.
And a lot of people would say, man, he was one of those Hollywood people who didn’t just. Say things, he actually backed it up. He was big on producing films that he believed in, in liberal activism. He was always out on the streets. He was actually supporting politicians. So whether you agreed with him or not, he was there and he was very active in politics.
And then trying to make people’s lives better in the way that he saw would make it better. So yeah, again, just a sad, sad attack. And then lastly I saw, I saw something
Micah Tomasella: that James Woods said. James Woods is a. Famous actor. Not as famous as it used to be, but James Woods has been known. James Woods has been conservative in Hollywood for oh yeah, 25 years, and he’s been absolutely blackballed for [00:19:00] it.
It’s like him and John
Conner Jones: Voy are like the OG Hollywood conservatives. Yeah. He came out, which
Micah Tomasella: is like. The, just the kindest words about Rob Reiner about how they stayed close throughout the years and how they, they loved and supported each other as friends, despite the way that they felt completely different about their politics.
And it just, it just reminds you, man, like life is about so much more than political opinion and we’ve just drifted so far into this identity politics and you disagree with me, therefore you hate me. You disagree with me, therefore you’re the enemy. No, no. We have to reject that, and I’m not. Rob Reiner was killed.
I mean, we, we won’t know for sure for a while, but he was not killed for the same motivation that Charlie Kirk was killed. But it is somebody who was like pretty extreme and out front with their political beliefs. This just happened to be somebody on the other side of the Isles, Charlie Kirk. And I don’t know.
It just, it just hits differently.
Conner Jones: Yeah, it does. Whole thing sad. You’re right. There was a, everybody that came out giving tributes to Rob Reiner from Billy Crystal to just anyone in Hollywood was saying both sides of the aisle. They all just [00:20:00] noticed so many people were. Yeah, how kind he was and you can see that even when he is on, on camera if you go watch any clips of him.
He just seems like a very nice, he was a big teddy bear. Okay? Something else that happened is the FBI apparently foiled a New Year’s Eve terror attack that was planned for California. Pam Bondy, the Attorney General tweeted this on Monday that they had foiled massive plans for this attack. She said that the Turtle Island deliberation front, a far left pro-Palestinian anti-government and anti-capitalist group was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California.
Before New Year’s Eve, and they also plan to attack ICE agents in vehicles. Four arrests have been made so very grateful that they were caught. But it also just underscores everything we’re saying here. There is hatred and evil in this world, and people are willing to act on that in the worst possible ways.
And these guys were planning to do horrible crimes and horrible attacks that would’ve been. Very deadly, probably. And so tragic. I’m so glad that they caught these guys. So we’re not reporting on that in a few weeks. That would’ve been awful.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah.
Conner Jones: My, it’s just the whole thing, all of this is [00:21:00] leaves you thinking like, how do we respond as Christians?
How do we respond to this, these threats? How do we respond to threats to us? And you know, as Christians, you’re right, I’m thinking about that right now. Persecuted too. You know, Jews are persecuted. We’re all persecuted in different ways. I found Dr. Jim Denison’s articles, several of his articles this week so far.
If you have not written read any of his stuff on Rob Reiner or on the attack in Australia, you definitely should. Very good stuff. His article on Tuesday morning was really hitting on the Islamic Jihad attacks that happened either in Syria or in Australia and potentially Brown University. We don’t know the motive there yet, but there’s been some rumblings there of what that motive might have been, and it could have been Islamic related, but we’ll see.
But I wanna expand this beyond that because there was other stuff that happened this weekend and we’re not all being attacked by Islamic hatred and evil all the time, but we are being attacked in different ways and everybody is. So I wanna just kinda expand on that and the threats of just evil, right?
All around just evil as its own thing. We can look back to the Bible and we can look at the Apostle Paul himself, and he described [00:22:00] his former life in Acts in Galatians, and then one Corinthians, he used to, he would say, I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. Specifically, he was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord when he sought the authority to arrest Christians and Damascus and bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Paul said that he was exceedingly enraged against them and he persecuted this way to the death. But we all know what happened with Paul. He went from that life of persecuting Christians trying to get them destroyed and killed to going on the road to Damascus and having his encounter with the Lord that changed his heart, changed his everything, and he ended up becoming what may be the greatest Christian of all time and gave us so much of the scripture that we have today in the New Testament.
So now we. Today can pray for our Lord to do the same in the hearts of those who are seeking to do harm to others around the world. For attackers, for people who have evil in their hearts and such, intercession is a response that no one else [00:23:00] can or will make is something that Dr. Dennison pointed.
I love that. So what Jesus did to transform, solve tarsis, he can definitely do to transform any jihadist, terrorist, any addict, and any dangerously angered person. Anywhere in the world. Yeah. So the next time, Micah, I think that we hear about this attack. I think we can take several things and just run with it.
We can first and foremost, intercede for the victims, of course, right? We can also stop to pray for the attacker to come to Christ. Let’s pray for Jesus to reveal himself. To this person through believers and even specifically for Islamic people in dreams. That’s a big thing that happens with Muslims, is they see Jesus in their dreams.
And so praying for those dreams to continue to happen. And then let’s pray for Christians to use their influence to demonstrate the fruit of the spirit and otherwise manifest the presence of Christ. And let’s pray for God to redeem the global crisis of antisemitism, jihadist, terrorism, and all around destructive evil by bringing millions.
[00:24:00] Faith in his son. I think that’s what we can do. And I, I love what Dr. Denton laid out with some of that, I kind of tweaked it a little bit myself too. Just these intercessions we can do praying and then asking God to change hearts ’cause he’s the one who can do it.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah, it’s, it’s a great reminder Conner, because it, this really is a spiritual sickness that’s afflicted the hearts of, of everyone since.
Adam and Eve in the garden, and Cain and Abel and the sin that led to the, the need to have an arc and flood the earth and start all over again. You know, we talked about that. You know what struck me earlier, Conner, something that you said you know, you talked about that mass shooting that happened in Australia in.
1996 where 35 people were killed. Yeah. You think about, that was literally just like 30 years ago, and it, it, I know that that wasn’t really that long ago in terms of like human history, but gosh, we’ve just been dealing with evil for as long as we can remember. Yep. I think it, I think it hits us [00:25:00] more on the forefront.
We have to remember that because we carry these devices in our phones that connect us to everything happening in the world. It can feel like things are more evil. I, I don’t know if that’s true. The evil has always existed and there are things that exacerbate it, and there are ideologies that pop up, but Satan’s the one behind all of this.
All of this evil. All of this hate, all of this racism, all of this murder, right? Satan’s the one behind it. Because he’s the father of lies and this is his, his domain to mess with things here on earth. And we just have to remember to not be so inundated and so bogged down and start to even think for a minute that, that God is surprised by this.
Or that for some reason God wouldn’t have all of these situations in his hand, that he wouldn’t be redeeming all that he’s allowing here. And remember, and know that, that God is good. He doesn’t cause evil. And if you have a belief in something or someone that’s causing you to commit evil, oh well we’re, we’re praying.
It’s tough, right? It’s a tough thing, but it’s [00:26:00] just, it’s important for us to remember that like right now, in this time in in history, we are bearing the brunt and the weight. Of the world, and that’s just kind of new for humans to deal with. You know, I’m, we’re we’re hearing and seeing an in the moment with those people in Australia, an hour after it happens and we’re scrolling on our phones and seeing this, seeing these people being shot, seeing these, you know, people jumping in and helping.
That’s new. That’s a new thing for us to deal with, you know?
Conner Jones: Yeah, it definitely is. Yeah. I think of like war reporters, like World War II reporters, you know, they’re reporting back and they’re trying to send images and they’re sending videos that they can, but it’s weeks later but now it’s, you’re right.
It’s instant. But human history has changed. One thing that I can think, Micah, based off what you’re saying is it’s always been evil. And yeah, that shooting was 30 years ago and we’ve seen so much evil in our time, in our life. And we’re not even 30 yet, and we’ve seen so much happen. One of our first memories is nine 11.
Just, you know, when we were young kids. But one thing that you can point to is as Christianity spread around the world and throughout human history, [00:27:00] the idea of protecting life grew, there used to be a just complete disregard for life. It was seen as a commodity, not a right. You know? That’s right.
Ancient times. Anybody, just even through medieval times, man. Death was just expected. Low survival, survival rate, life, your life expectancy was like 30 in some places like it. No one cared. The people in power did not care. They saw life as just something that they could play with. They, they didn’t care.
And as that changed throughout history, we’re now in a time where there’s never been a greater desire to help protect people’s lives and to rescue people out of situations and to, to keep people safe and to mourn. When somebody dies, like a death is seen as like a terrible thing. Point in most people’s eyes, point, not everybody’s, but in most people’s eyes.
That has changed throughout history. So yeah, evil has always been here, but thankfully we’re seeing the goodness of God rushing in, I think. And we’ve seen that throughout history.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. You and I have talked about a lot a lot about the concept of Imago Day. Like whether, if you’re choosing to follow your creator or not, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s still your [00:28:00] creator.
Every single life has value. Amen. Limitless value. Eternal value, whether. Some people believe it or don’t, and you’re right. I think that that is something that’s changed is that the majority of people do and that that is a beautiful thing. And yeah, we’re praying for everybody affected in all this. And thank you for trusting us loyal culture, brief audience to walk you through some difficult news, stories and situations and circumstances.
We’re all learning to navigate this together. Okay, so here’s the next story and we’ll hit this quickly. So let’s talk about the top Christmas movies of all time. I we’re just gonna, we’re gonna pivot hard here and we’re gonna talk, pivot about Christmas. Christmas for a few minutes. Okay? We’re gonna talk about we need it.
We need a good palette cleanser. We need light, you know, so we’re gonna talk about the top Christmas movies of all time. We’re gonna talk about, if I have any fun Christmas traditions or things that I think of, or anything that Conner has, and then, you know, just gonna kind of give us a spiritual application encouragement challenge in this time as, as we’re heading closer and closer to Christmas [00:29:00] when this episode releases.
It’ll be one week from Christmas. Okay? These are the most respected, respected, top 10 Christmas movies of all time. And I say that because this is, this is not my list of personal favorites per se. I think it, a lot of this largely depends on your age. But it’s, it’s an overlap of the American Film Institute, a FI, the Rotten Tomato scores, IMDB, just cultural longevity box office.
Sales, you know, all of that stuff. So here’s the consensus. Top 10 that I was gonna kind of able to compile from a few different lists. Let’s go 10 to one. Alright, give it to me. Alright, so the, so the 10th best Christmas movie of all time is the Polar Express. Okay. That’s number 10. All right. You had Tom Hanks in there, and basically it’s a magical train ride that reminds children why belief matters.
I’m just giving an actor a brief synopsis. Listen, the animation was kind of creepy, like when you watch it back, but I remember watching [00:30:00] this. And it was pretty, pretty darn magical man. It was pretty darn magical when they’re doing that train through the winter and the, and the mountains and stuff like that.
What did you think of Polar Express?
Conner Jones: My favorite thing about Polar Express, first off, you’re right about the animation. It was way ahead of its time. So it’s creeping now. The, the, the, the depiction of the North Pole as being this like massive manufacturing city with warehouses. Yeah, you’re right. And intense transport.
It’s the only depiction I’ve ever seen of a North Pole that would actually make sense if the North Pole existed. Everyone else is its little. You look at like the movie Elf or something, they’re like little dinky things that they’re sitting on. Like how are they like, it’s gotta be this.
Micah Tomasella: If you’re supplying it to every child in the world, it’s gotta be China
Conner Jones: sized.
Like we need yeah, we need like a true manufacturing powerhouse here. So I always appreciated that. I felt it was most realistic in that sense. I
Micah Tomasella: love that. I love that. Okay, number nine is how the Grinch Stole Christmas, the original version. So the one that was released in 1966 is a bitter outsider.
The Grinch learns the true meaning of. [00:31:00] Christmas. Okay. Boris Karloff was the narrator of that and that iconic voice, you know, you’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch. I mean it’s, it’s iconic. Everything. Grinch love it. What do you think?
Conner Jones: Incredible stuff. Yeah. We watched it a couple years ago just ’cause I was like, I need to see this again.
I haven’t seen it since I was a kid. Yeah. I was like,
Micah Tomasella: this
Conner Jones: is good.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah, it’s great. Number eight is Die Hard. Basically a cop battles terrorist during a Christmas Eve party. That’s really the only Christmas thing about, it’s just going to the movie. With that. It’s the fact that it set during Christmas time, and it kind of starts to happen from like an office Christmas party.
Obviously it’s Bruce Willis. It’s Alan Rickman released in 1988. Just an absolute cult classic. I think that this is in the top 10 of Christmas movies because the debate has been so fierce on if it’s a Christmas movie or not. I mean, PE-people really still debate this, but it, it’s, it really is a legendary movie.
Conner Jones: It’s just one of those Christmas movies you could get away with watching in like July.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Yep. Number [00:32:00] seven. Christmas in July. So some people would do that. Let’s Okay. May watch it in May. Yeah. Halfway to Christmas. Alright, number seven is white Christmas. This was released in 1954. Bing Crosby, Danny Kay.
Just a classic two entertainers helped save their former commanders struggling in, okay, so I have not seen this one, Conner, have you?
Conner Jones: No. But isn’t this the movie that the song White Christmas comes from? Yes. I’m dreaming of a white Christmas know Uhhuh because they’re, they’re James Dean. They’re over there.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Anyway no, it’s, it’s being Crosby. It’s being Crosby, but then there’s another song that comes out from James Dean where, anyway, nevermind. I think he was maybe the sixties, guys, you know, I wasn’t alive then.
Conner Jones: Thank you for that clarification. I probably got all that wrong. Okay. What? What’s, what’s number Six?
Micah Tomasella: Okay, number six is a miracle on 34th Street, a man claiming to be Santa puts belief itself on trial. Edmund Gwen and Maureen O’Hara. I haven’t seen this one either.
Conner Jones: What?
Micah Tomasella: No, dude. Great movie. I haven’t seen it. [00:33:00] Classic.
Conner Jones: That’s one you should watch with your daughters.
Micah Tomasella: 1947. You think they’re gonna pay attention to that movie?
Find the colored version. If it’s not animated. Probably not. Okay. Number five is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. This was released in 1989. Clark Griswold. Oh yeah. Tries and fails to create the perfect family. Christmas, Chevy Chase. Just an absolute classic kind of kind of kicked off, I think.
Normalizing really funny Christmas movies, you know, I mean that Yeah, the genre really leaned into it after that.
Conner Jones: Yeah. We kind of got
Micah Tomasella: away
Conner Jones: from serious Christmas movies. They’re all like
Micah Tomasella: comedies now. I know. They’re comedies in like corny rom-coms. Yeah.
Conner Jones: Hallmark stuff.
Micah Tomasella: Elf. So a human raised by elves.
Will Ferrell. Incredible stuff. He heads to, he heads to New York to find his real family. I love that movie. That’s probably, I think that’s like my number two Christmas movie of all time. Just, just personally I remember as a kid, ’cause I remember in the movie Elf, he would eat spaghetti. He would eat his [00:34:00] spaghetti with syrup and I definitely for breakfast.
Yeah, man. Tried that multiple times. Definitely tried that multiple times as a kid. And I think I remember enjoying it quite fondly. Okay. Number three, incredible stuff. Yeah. Number three is Home Alone. This is my favorite Christmas movie of all time. I, I think I watched Home Alone 7,800 times. I mean, just over and over and over again.
Doesn’t matter if it was Christmas or not. I love that movie. And accidentally abandoned kid, McCulley Culkin defends his house from two Burglars classic Joe Pesci in that movie. Just an incredible movie.
Conner Jones: Someone said, Joe Peshy in that movie is like a, a masterpiece artist at figuring out how to cuss without cussing.
If you li Yeah, if you like watch the movie. He’s just yeah. ’cause that’s like his thing in most of his gangster movies. And then this movie has to tone it down ’cause it’s kids film and he plays it so perfectly. He and McCaulay Culkin is perfect. Yeah, definitely. And what’s the tall guy with the bushy hair?
I can’t even remember
Micah Tomasella: his
Conner Jones: name.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah, whatever his name is. He should have, he should have won an Oscar though. [00:35:00] Joe. Who? Joe
Conner Jones: Bei.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. For his, for his work. He got it
Conner Jones: the the next year for casino.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. I mean, you and I have talked about this a lot. The criteria for what they give away these awards for, I think he probably does deserve it.
But anyway, I digress. Number two is a Christmas story released in 1983, A kid’s single-minded Quest for BB Gun during a Midwest Christmas. A young Peter Billingsley, Darren McGavin’s in this movie. Just an absolute classic. I love this movie as well. And then number one is it’s a Wonderful Life, 1946.
A Discouraged Man learns how much his life has. Mattered. James Stewart and Donna Reed. So that is the top 10 list. What’s interesting is how these old school how old school some of these are, and how they’re still like number one for people or they’re still like in the top 10 for people. We think Christmas movies are a modern thing, but some of the most beloved ones were made when Hollywood actually took you know, this, this season even more seriously, right?
I mean these, like a one, you know, it’s a wonderful Life Miracle on 34th Street, white Christmas like. These are very like straight laced, family oriented Christmas [00:36:00] movies. Like the Christmas movie genre has just changed a lot since these original ones were released.
Conner Jones: Yeah, they definitely have. I mean, they just, they were, they had a purity to them back then.
Yes. And they were, yeah. You know, the whole family would sit around the one TV in the house and watch ’em black and white and you just knew these movies like the back of your hand.
Micah Tomasella: Conner, what’s one Christmas tradition that you. Remember growing up or that, you know, if not that, that you’re trying to instill with your family now,
Conner Jones: man, just one thing we always did growing up and that we still do and we’ll continue to do is going that Christmas Eve service, the candlelight service where, you know, yeah, special.
Do you like the candles and you praise Jesus. Usually singing silent night with the candles up in the air. It’s just a kind of a reminder. Before you go into the Christmas day of this is what this is actually all about. It’s not just about presents in Santa and all the marketing dollars and all this stuff.
Yeah. And that’s, I think even as an adult, I recognize that more, I’m more focused on the shopping and the marketing and the everything that goes out on the outside with Christmas and kind of can [00:37:00] easily miss that aspect of this is about Jesus, like the birth of Jesus up. Oh, am I setting you up?
Spike it here. Set me up. Oh shoot. Spike it here. That’s great because maybe I need to hear this. All that to say the Christmas Eve service, love going, have always loved going ’cause it is kind of like a man right before you go into Christmas Day. I love before you go open gifts or anything, or think about Santa or anything, even as a kid, you know, it was like, is Santa coming?
Refocusing on Jesus right there on Christmas Eve. I love it.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. You know, one of the things that’s really helped shape this Christmas season for me has been doing advent with my daughters every day in December. So we started out December 1st, so each morning we slow down just for five minutes.
I try to get them to slow down. We read together and remember that this season is about waiting in this advent series that we’re doing for kids is really cool because it’s all of these Old Testament stories. That point to Jesus in a very specific way. That’s cool. So not waiting for gifts, not waiting for plans, not waiting for gatherings, but waiting for the coming of our savior.
Jesus. [00:38:00] So now they’re toddlers, right? So keep that in mind. So I’m not saying this is the most incredible thing every single morning as we’re trying to get out the door, but some mornings are short, some are distracted, and some are just a little chaotic. But even it’s just been such a gift to begin showing them and teaching them in small and simple ways what this season is really about.
It’s about Jesus. Yep. So what’s been especially beautiful is seeing how each story in each book of the Old Testament points forward to him. From the very beginning, scripture is telling one unified story, God promising to send a savior and faithfully keeping that promise. Watching my girls hear these stories and begin to connect the dots has been a reminder to me like I’ve teared up a few times.
Like it’s truly been like a a. It’s been really cool to be able to teach them about this has been a reminder to me that Christmas did not start. In Bethlehem, think about that for a second. It was prepared across generations, like from Genesis, from what we can read in scripture, like Christmas [00:39:00] really started even before then the coming of Jesus, and then what that would mean for us.
For humanity, which would eventually lead to the death, burial, and resurrection of our savior Jesus, and create the most clear pathway for our eternity. Yeah. And so here’s the application. Christmas is truly wonderful. There’s parties, traditions, family time, travel, celebrations, and those are good gifts.
Those are really good things, but it is also incredibly easy to become so busy celebrating Christmas that we lose sight of what we’re actually celebrating. Like you can go a few days and be like, wait, what just happened? The danger is not enjoying the season. The danger is filling every moment with activity and never slowing down long enough to remember why this season exists in the first place.
When everything is loud and everything is full, reflection is obviously. The first thing to go. So scripture keeps calling us back to that posture of anticipation. Back to that posture of remembrance. Isaiah nine, six. For unto us, a child is born for, to us, a [00:40:00] son is given Isaiah, in Isaiah in the Old Testament, and then Galatians four, four.
And when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth his son. So here’s the challenge. Here’s my challenge this season, this Christmas season for myself and for all of us, slow down on purpose. Pray more than you plan. Create space to actually sit with the story instead of just rushing past it. Just checking it off as a task.
Let the noise fade long enough. Just long enough to remember that Christmas is not about everything that we are doing for God, but about what God has done for us by sending his one and only son. Maybe the most faithful thing we can do in this season is pause. Give thanks and wait again for Jesus.
Conner Jones: Mm.
Yeah. Good stuff, man. It’s always a good reminder. Christmas is an easy time to get distracted and busy. Yeah, no doubt and overwhelmed, but man, just slowing down and pausing and praying and that sounds great. We need to do that for, you know, just worshiping our God and saying, thank you for sending [00:41:00] Jesus, but we also need to do it for everything.
We sit in the first segment of this episode stop and pray for these. Terrible situations in the world, but also recognize the beauty in this world. No doubt Jesus did come. He is our savior. It’s awesome. So much to stop and just think and reflect and meditate on. Okay. As y’all know, we’d love to hear from you, so let us know what’s your top Christmas movie?
Did you agree with us on any of the things we said about Christmas movies? Is it crazy that Mike has never seen a miracle on 34th Street? You let us know. We like your opinions. Yeah. Isn’t
Micah Tomasella: that crazy? It might be.
Conner Jones: Maybe, man, maybe let’s hear from the people. You can always email us at Culture [email protected] or go follow us and message us at Culture Brief Podcast on Instagram.
Okay. Checking in on a few things that have happened in the last week or so. Yeah, give us the latest
Micah Tomasella: on, yeah, yeah. On that. Give us the latest. Let’s talk about Erica Kirk and Candace Owens. Yeah,
Conner Jones: so if you’re not aware, Candace Owens has been a very popular right-wing podcaster for a while, but she’s gotten really popular in the last year.
She was good friends with Charlie Kirk, and she has just. Gone on a whole escapade, I would say, [00:42:00] of theories and questioning and trying to rip apart turning point USA and people in the government and in Israel and in the French government. It’s kind of crazy. She believes there’s a hit out for her head from the French government and the Israeli government.
A lot there, a lot of conspiracies. But she’s really driven a wedge in turning Point USA and specifically towards Erica Kirk, Charlie’s wife, and now the CEO of Turning Point. They finally got together for a private meeting this week that was facilitated by Megan Kelly and they were able to, I guess, hash stuff out over the, of four or five hour period.
And now Candace is kind of pulling back on some of the things she had been saying, and I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the reaction to that, Micah, this is kind of in the last few hours, but. Candace’s comments are kind of now questioning her. And was she blackmailed? Was she was something said in the meeting that scared her?
All of that oh,
Micah Tomasella: oh. Like her followers? Yeah.
Conner Jones: Yeah. Her followers you know, maybe a little bit of a taste of her own medicine of you. You, you make everything. [00:43:00] Conspiracy theory, people aren’t gonna believe you when you start to say things yourself, but are not a conspiracy theory, co conspiracy. It’s all about
Micah Tomasella: conspiracy.
It’s all about the unknown. It’s all about the conspiracy. If it’s actually not a conspiracy, then they’re, then they’re not, then they’re not interested. I mean, Candace was literally implying that not only was turning point USA in on. Charlie Kirk’s death, but she was starting to imply that Erica at least knew that it was going to happen, right?
That even kind of planned for it. I mean, pretty low man, pretty low. So I am hoping that that meeting does actually bring about peace. I saw that Erica said like it’s time for them to get to work and reunite. There’s been a lot of infighting on the right. Which doesn’t do much for their cause.
They’re in power. Yeah. So if they’re just gonna spend time fighting each other, then they’re not really gonna get anything done that they want to get done. And hopefully this does lead to. Some reconciliation and some good steps moving forward. Okay. Quickly here. Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman.
He’s the first Indiana University football player to ever win the Heisman. He made history by winning it here in 2025. He’s the [00:44:00] quarterback. Let’s see, the Hoosiers, the Indiana Hoosiers won the Big 10 title and interviews during his acceptance speech and just even after games. I mean, even back to when he was the quarterback at the at cal, at the University of California.
You know, Mendoza’s energy and joy are just like so obvious. I just love listening to this guy talk. Just, just unbridled joy childlike really. Yeah. Just how excited he is to play football and he thank God repeatedly. He thanks Jesus and mentions him. By name repeatedly speaking openly about his faith and his relationship with God and how it fuels his journey and encourages others to lean on faith, teamwork and perseverance and chasing their dreams.
Fernando Mendoza is a really cool story and I love that this kind of guy’s on the forefront ’cause I just think he’s doing it right and I’m really happy to see him be successful. Really quick, Sharon Moore, the disgrace. Head coach, former head coach of the university university of Michigan Wolverines.
That story was kind of crazy. It comes out, okay. First of all, he gets fired because he has an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. Next thing you know, he’s [00:45:00] arrested. Yeah, because he got fired and then his wife found out that he was having a relationship with one of his staffers. He then goes to his former staffer’s house, threatens to kill her, kill himself.
He then gets arrested. He’s still in custody. And Michigan doesn’t have a football coach and everybody’s looking around what on earth just happened? The Sharon Moore story is absolutely bonkers and more comes out every single day.
Conner Jones: Yeah. You know, we’re gonna get a Netflix doc on that one. That was crazy and insane.
So I want that Netflix doc
Micah Tomasella: tomorrow give it to me like yesterday. I, I wanna know more what of, of what happened there. And then one more thing. Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons tore their ACL on the same day, probably two of the. Top 10 most recognized and best players in the NFL Patrick Mahomes, a quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Micah Parsons, the former Dallas Cowboys ez Roger Edge rusher now plays for the Packers. They both tore their ACL on the same day. That’s crazy.
Conner Jones: Yeah, it, it really [00:46:00] hard to watch and sad and unfortunate for both of them as players. Also really bad for the chiefs. They’re now longer in playoff contention for the first time in 11 years.
Dude, they’ve obviously been the dynasty in the NFL for the last few years. Absolute juggernaut. It seems like this is, it’s over. Travis Kelsey might be retiring. He is gonna go fly off into the sunset with Taylor Swift. Do his thing there and Chief’s Dynasty could be done. Now, if it’s anything like Tom Brady’s caReiner with the Patriots, he had a similar thing also towards ACL in his ninth season, just like Mahomes did this past weekend.
And then Brady came back and started like a, he took a second dynasty to more Super Bowls with the Patriots. So Mahomes could still do it. We’ll see, he’s not done. Patrick Holmes is not done. He’s so good. Yeah, I, you know, he is that guy that every other team wishes they had as a quarterback, even when he’s injured.
Of
Micah Tomasella: course. You know, of course.
Conner Jones: Gonna be, gonna be interesting to just see how the playoffs shake out there. We’ll give y’all more updates on that as we get to the NFL playoffs. But right now we’ve got the college football playoffs. They do start, we talked about the bracket last week and Yes. Kind of just our thoughts on it.
Micah Tomasella: This is what to tune into. This is what to tune into coming up.
Conner Jones: Yep. So [00:47:00] get, you know, get your popcorn ready. ’cause we got some good games here. We got Friday night it starts, we’re gonna have number eight, Oklahoma versus number nine, Alabama at 8:00 PM Eastern. That’s gonna be on A B, C-E-S-P-N. And then Saturday we go into the.
Noon game, that’s gonna be noon eastern. All these times are Eastern. That’s gonna be Texas a and m. Number seven versus number 10, Miami. Also on ESPN, followed by number six. Ole miss, taking on number 11, two lane at 3:30 PM on TNT. And number five, Oregon versus number 12, James Madison University. Good for them, man.
They’re the Cinderella team here. I’m gonna give you my picture real quick. Oh, okay. Go for it.
Micah Tomasella: Alabama. Beats Oklahoma. Miami Beats a and m. Ole Miss Beats Tulane, Oregon beats James Madison. Book it.
Conner Jones: Yeah. Yeah, you could be right. We’ll see. Let’s come back next week and see if you got it right. Anyways, those are gonna be fun games.
Really looking forward to it. There’s also NFL games sprinkled throughout Saturday in between those. So just a day of football. Let’s go guys. Christmas is here. No reason to watch the
Micah Tomasella: Cowboys though. That’s true. Watch the Cowboys [00:48:00] because they’re outta the playoff hunt now
Conner Jones: yeah. So were the Chiefs and those are the two teams playing on Christmas Day, so that’s gonna be fun.
Yeah. NFL couldn’t have predicted that. With Christmas coming up next week. First off, Merry Christmas. We’re so happy you guys listened to us and you get to enjoy Christmas movie. Talk with us today. We hope you have a great time with your families and friends and just enjoy cozy days and times around the tree and at church if you opt to go to your Christmas Eve service.
I hope you do. But because of that, we will not be having an episode next week. We will be back the following week, but it’ll be posted on Monday, December 29th. That’s because Mike and I are doing a special episode where we are recapping. 2025. We’re gonna talk about some of the biggest stories that happened this year.
Some other things. We’re gonna give a great little fun recap of just the year as a whole and dive into that. Some of our top things from the year, we’re excited to kind of dive into that. So that’ll be December 29th on Monday. Then we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming on January the eighth.
So we’ll have that New Year’s week off as well. But January 8th, we’ll be back with just our, our first episode of 2026 and [00:49:00] probably have a much better idea of where certain things are going in politics and sports, and obviously playoff football and so much more. And we’re looking forward to it. And also we’re gonna be on the Christian Parenting Podcast that’s gonna come out on December 30th.
So go find, look out for our friend Steph Ling on the Christian Parenting Podcast. We’ll be joining her to talk about culture and faith. And how do we do that as parents? Gonna be a fun conversation. So looking forward to that. And guys, we will miss you over the next few weeks until January 8th. And we’re back for regularly scheduled programming.
Thank you. Just thank you for joining us. We’re grateful that you were with us all this year. And yeah, this is Culture Reef Dennison Ford Podcast. As always, all of our articles, and videos mentioned, they’ll be posted in the show notes. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please subscribe, or rate and review the show and share it with a friend, and we will see you next Thursday.
Micah Tomasella: Merry Christmas.
Search