Hostages come home, Super Bowl halftime debate, Nobel Peace Prize, MLB playoffs & NBA and NHL are back! | Ep. 41

In this week’s Brief: Micah’s out on vacation, so we had Alex Kondratev join the show as guest co-host to break down the headlines! 

We’re talking about the Israel–Gaza ceasefire and hostage release, Donald Trump’s central role in the negotiations, the still unresolved issues, and Trump’s thoughts on if he’s “heaven-bound”. 

Then we dive into the debate over Turning Point USA’s alternative Super Bowl halftime show, the heart behind it, and whether or not it’s the right move. 

Plus, we discuss the Nobel Peace Prize, Diane Keaton’s death, the NHL coming back, the NBA’s return next week, and the MLB playoffs and that wild 15-inning game.

It’s a mix of geopolitics, pop culture, and thoughtful conversation—all through a biblical lens to help you navigate the week with clarity and faith.

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Topics

• (01:39): Hostage release in Israel and Gaza
• (04:30): Trump’s role in the peace deal
• (07:58): Reflections on peace and conflict
• (16:18): Trump’s views on heaven and misunderstanding the Gospel
• (21:36): Alternative Super Bowl halftime show by Turning Point USA
• (24:16): Controversy surrounding Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance
• (29:53): The heart behind the alternative show
• (38:32): Alex shares a hot take!
• (42:44): Current events and updates

Resources

• Send us your thoughts, questions, and topic ideas: [email protected]
• Culture Brief Instagram
• Sign-up for Denison Forum’s daily newsletter: DenisonForum.org/subscribe

NOTE – you can catch Conner & Micah on the latest Faith & Clarity podcast episode discussing the spiritual implications of the AI Bible, euthanasia, congressional term limits and freedom of speech.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Why didn’t God free the hostages two years ago? – Denison Forum
• Joe Biden statement
• Bill Clinton statement

Other articles on this week’s top headlines:

• The last twenty living hostages are released by Hamas – Denison Forum
• All 20 surviving hostages freed by Hamas under Gaza peace deal
• Politico: The hostages walk free
• Richard Haas: Two Years After October 7, Progress is Finally at Hand 
• Turning Point USA announces ‘All-American’ halftime show on Super Bowl Sunday
• MAGA rage over Bad Bunny at Super Bowl sparks an alternative show – The Washington Post
• The Bad Bunny Super Bowl 2026 Controversy, Explained
• THE ALL-AMERICAN HALFTIME SHOW

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 Alex Kondratev

Alex Kondratev is the Chief Content Officer at Denison Ministries. Alex is passionate about creating content that helps people encounter God in practical, transformative ways. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband and son, and finds inspiration in books, the ocean, and the art of good storytelling.

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 Connor Jones. 

Alex Kondratev: And I’m Alex Kondratev. 

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’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. And yeah, you heard that right? My guest co-host today is Alex.

Micah is out on vacation. He’s on a much-deserved vacation. He’s enjoying the beach while we sit here at home, good for you. Micah happy for you to be on vacation though. And Alex is stepping in to help fill the spot. Alex is our Chief Content Officer here at Dentist and Ministries. She oversees all the spiritual resources created by each of our brands here.

So that’s gonna be Denison Forum, as you guys know. That’s what we’re a part of here at Culture Brief. First15, routine devotionals, christianparenting.org, and Foundations Bible Studies. She does a lot. She’s very busy, so I’m just so grateful that she’s here with us, helping lead us through all the news this week as our co-host.

Alex, welcome to the show. 

Alex Kondratev: Thank you so much. Yeah. I am here as our resident East [00:01:00] Coaster here in Charleston, South Carolina. So Micah may be enjoying the beach, but I do get to enjoy the beach regularly, so 

Conner Jones: make us all jealous, Alex. Yeah, when you get that Micah, 

Alex Kondratev: just know I might be at the beach for taking your spot and sweating this out, but Connor, I’m glad to be here.

I’m gonna share a little bit about a sport that I actually don’t watch later on today. So you’ll wanna stick on for that. I am going to talk a little bit about a hot, a hot take I have around how I read and don’t read books. So those are gonna be my stories, but for now, let’s jump into the brief.

Conner Jones: The brief. Yeah. Thanks Alex for that. And we’ll, we’ll hit on a whole bunch of other things too. So let’s start off just with the big story this week that’s gonna be the hostage release in Israel and Gaza and the ceasefire that has been announced. This is obviously. A massive story. This is something we’ve been talking about since we started the show back in January and something that’s been at the Center of Culture and News for two years now.

Ever since October 7th, I can’t believe it’s 

Alex Kondratev: been two years. 

Conner Jones: Two, it’s actually been more, [00:02:00] I mean, October 7th, 2023. We all remember that day. Wow. And some of these people, 20 of these living hostages have been in, they were in captivity for 737 days. So we are so grateful. That they are out, that they are home.

They’re in the arms of their family. There have been just incredible videos. I’m sure you’ve seen them, Alex, of these hostages reuniting with their families and just these beautiful moments and the tears of joy and relief. They’re heart wrenching. What an incredible thing. There’s so much to just be grateful for.

We have been praying for this moment. This is also good for the Palestinian people in Gaza as this should. Ho, you know, hopefully, Lord willing, lead to full peace. That’s the idea here. Now, there are a lot of logistics in the way of that, and we’ll get into that, but. Man, this is what we’ve been praying for.

Peace in this region. Yeah. Hostage is to come home. The destruction in Gaza to stop peace in Israel and in the broader Middle East. That’s the idea here. That’s what all these politicians are telling us. That’s what Donald Trump specifically is trying to say has been accomplished. [00:03:00] Peace. And we are grateful for what has happened.

The first steps have taken place. This is amazing. We got a long way to go though. So just as a little details here, that ceasefire agreement that was agreed to over the weekend mint, Hamas would release all 48 Israeli hostages. 20 of those were living, the living ones are all back in Israel as of right now.

Some of the dead hostages ha their bodies have been brought back. Others are still not back in Israel yet. This has been a point of contention. Still, Israel has been threatening to cut some of the aid that was promised until they get those bodies back. So we’ll just see what happens there. Hopefully Hamas provides those and all aid gets back in.

So in return for all of those hostages, Israel offered back 1700 Palestinian detainees and 250 prisoners that they had in their in their possession. And then they also agreed basically to start allowing way more aid into the Gaza Strip, right? Start allowing more food and start really kind of.

Aiming to get reconstruction going there. 

Alex Kondratev: Yeah, I saw, I mean, you can see the news stories of just the masses of [00:04:00] people headed back to their towns and it’s, I, I think, you know, obviously they’ve all been kind of away from the, the center of activity, so it’s been crazy to see those pictures and those stories of just all those people headed back to their.

Towns to see what’s left of what was there, which is 

Conner Jones: not, it’s not much, not much. I mean, honestly. The Gaza Strip is pretty much destroyed and most of them have been living in tents and will continue to probably live in tents for 

Alex Kondratev: mm-hmm. 

Conner Jones: Who knows how long until there is rebuilding that takes place.

Those people have suffered a lot and I know that they’ve been waiting for this day too. 

Alex Kondratev: Yeah. 

Conner Jones: Let’s let’s hit on Trump real fast because he’s kind of been the center of a lot of this. He, I quite honestly, he. Really brokered this deal. You could disagree with the ways he did it, but ultimately everyone’s having to recognize that this president got done was the center guy, he got it done, and this will probably go down as his biggest accomplishment of his presidency unless something else comes along that tops this.

But right now, of his two terms, this is a massive deal for him and it’s something that he’s been. Hoping to get done. It’s something that obviously Joe Biden hoped to get done. Biden [00:05:00] did maybe the timing didn’t work out as well for him. Maybe the negotiations were just different. A lot has happened since Biden was in office.

You know, he’s getting his kudos. It also goes to Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. The special envoy that Trump has appointed Steve Woff and his son-in-law too. Jared Kushner, who came in kind of last week and pushed the deal over the edge and got it done. He’s got a lot of connections there in the Middle East, and so was able to help complete the deal.

So yeah, Trump was really given a heroes welcome in Israel. When he came this past weekend. He landed on Monday and the people were in the streets. They were on the beach. They were welcoming him, welcoming him. They were celebrating him. They had signs saying, thank you, Trump. The Jerusalem Post, which is like the big newspaper there in Israel, literally put a silhouette of him on their cover, and it said he’s bringing them home, talking about all those hostages.

So they recognized that he was, he was central to this. This was not like a, a net and Yahoo negotiation. This was a Trump being the middleman who got it done right. And even at the, you know, the entrance of Jerusalem, the Israelis erected an eight foot billboard depicting the [00:06:00] president with a Nobel Prize like medal, and the caption saying, you are our winner.

They’re saying this because the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded last week. I’ll hit on that in a little bit of who is actually awarded to. Just so you guys know, as a side note, a lot of people are upset that Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. Mostly because this happened last week at the same time, but.

He wasn’t even really eligible. You have to be submitted the February before. So this was a months long process, so it didn’t 

Alex Kondratev: even, this didn’t even happen. This agreement didn’t, wasn’t even in effect when they were putting in their nominations. No, 

Conner Jones: no, not at all. Now that being said, if he’s going to get it, he could very well get it this upcoming year for negotiating this deal, right?

Assuming this deal holds, we need to see if this. Sticks right for the long term. Anyways, Politico, you know, we, we quote Politico a lot here on cultural brief. That’s because they’re just at the center of a lot of DC stuff and they are typically kind of left-leaning, but they’re even saying Trump deserves the plot.

Its, this was an international moment which was perfectly matched for the president’s skillset. Trump’s whirlwind victory lap of the Middle East gave him everything he has craved since he was first elected in 2016. And [00:07:00] that includes. Ownership of a historic diplomatic achievement. The respect of rich and powerful world leaders on a public stage, plot it across the world and the US even from his own political enemies, including Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, and of course wall to wall homages in almost basically every media outlet everyone has been saying.

Yeah, it was him. He gets the credit. You know, he spoke to the Israeli parliament, something that doesn’t really happen with the US president. He went to the Knesset and spoke there, and he said, this will be the golden age of Israel. In the golden age of the Middle East. Then he went to Egypt to sign the ceasefire agreement in front of dozens of world leaders.

A lot of the European and Middle East leaders were there. They were all smiles. They were very happy and they were, you know, of course, just celebrating this moment. And Trump got to be kind of the center of that. And they, he signed the agreement and then he came back home. All that to say, you know, there’s a lot left to be done, but Alex just, I mean, what are your initial thoughts on this whole thing?

This is obviously one of the biggest stories of the year. 

Alex Kondratev: Man. Yeah, I, I think my [00:08:00] biggest overarching thought is just, thank God there’s peace right now. And I think that’s what I mean, putting all politics aside, which is hard to do these days. But putting all politics aside, I think what every believer wants, and I think what most people want, if you talk to anyone about this story over the last two years, 737 days.

People just want peace. Mm-hmm. People want to be able to have homes, to have families, to not miss or be scared for their loved ones, to not fear for their life, to not know where the next meal is coming from, on both sides and around the world. Everybody just wants peace and that, I mean, that’s the overarching message of the gospel as well, is.

Jesus brings peace. The world after this is going to be peace, it will all be made right. And so I think where I’m at right now is just thank God that in this moment there is aid being given. There is people coming home and hugging their loved ones for [00:09:00] the first time in two, two years, over two years.

For this moment, I’m super grateful. I think I’ve got a lot of prayers hoping that this holds up. Hoping to see, you know, hope beyond doubt, that there can be agreements where this, you know, Hamas, that terror and Reign can. Cease so that there can be long-term peace. I pray, you know, for Israel to help create agreements where there can be continued peace.

I mean, it’s just the overarching theme is how can we get more peace to these people? It’s been a turbulent two years. It’s, you know, and, and then you look back at Israel’s history. It’s been a turbulent long time. Yeah. And so I’m just praying that things hold. I’m praying that people get the aid they need on both sides.

And I think my, my o my other feeling that I have is just sadness. We’ve all experienced grief in our lives, and so when you see other people, I mean, you look at these pictures and I found myself being like, I almost doesn’t look real. Because I, I can’t put [00:10:00] myself in a parent’s shoes who hasn’t seen a child and doesn’t know if their child’s alive for years.

Mm-hmm. I can’t put myself in the shoes of, I left my home and then I came back and I don’t recognize my whole town because it’s in rubble. So you like, look at these and I’m just heartbroken ’cause I don’t even have a lens. And so I’m just asking God to like, give me a softness to sit in their grief with them and pray.

And ask God that he would reveal himself to all these people in their suffering and pray for continued peace. And I think there’s, yeah, there’s just this, there’s this joy in one hand that, that we have reached a place of peace and there’s this sadness that this even had to happen in the first place, that this even was a thing.

And yeah, I long for a day when, I’ll even talk about this later, when all tribes, nations, and tongues can be together in in peace. 

Conner Jones: I fully agree with that. And obviously this is just one conflict in the world. There are so many other conflicts happening too, and we hope to see peace in each of them.

’cause there’s just destruction and [00:11:00] sadness. It’s just the nature of our fallen world and sinful world and evil being part of it. This started because of evil, right? And so now here we are two years later and hopefully there’s peace, but I don’t think it’s gonna be easy. I think one of the things a lot of people have been saying is that this is the end to the thousands of years of conflict, right?

This is actually what. We’re leading towards. And I guys, I just don’t think it’s gonna be that easy. We’re talking about the most contentious spot in the entire world. A a city of Jerusalem that is claimed by multiple religions as a holy site, right? So it’s gonna be difficult. That said, this is a step in the right direction, but we’ve got some key questions that still need to be answered, which is will Hamas actually disarm?

That’s something that Trump demanded that they disarm. They’ve already been in the streets this week after the ceasefire agreement. Publicly executing their own Palestinian people that they claimed were helping Israel out. So currently they’re not disarmed. How’s that gonna happen? We don’t know who’s gonna pay to rebuild Gaza and who’s gonna govern it.

There’s questions there, you know, like I said, this is with all step one, [00:12:00] but there have not been like. Long-term thoughts quite yet about what are the next steps? The good news is a lot is happening. We’re headed in the right direction. But what is next for Gaza? Who will be in charge of it? Will it be Israel?

Will other Middle East countries help? Will the US help? Will the NATO or the EU or un all those agencies? What are they gonna do? Will Netanyahu, who is currently Israel’s longest serving prime minister, be reelected? He is. Very contentious. Not just in the world, but even in his own country. A lot of talk, 

Alex Kondratev: a lot of 

Conner Jones: talk there, lot from, 

Alex Kondratev: from both sides about, yeah.

What will he be, will he stay? Will he go? 

Conner Jones: Who knows? I mean, genuinely. I, I don’t know. He’s one of the most celebrated and hated world leaders of all time. So a lot there and then. What’s gonna come of the genocide charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court. Mm-hmm. Currently, that prevents actually Netanyahu from even entering certain countries, like in Europe.

He has to, he has to be very careful about where he goes. Geopolitical expert Richard Hoss. I liked what he said this week just kind of [00:13:00] in relativity to all of this. He said, Hamas has not accepted that it must disarm, and even if it did, there is no way to monitor or verify the handing over of its weapons.

Hamas could be denied a formal role in Palestinian governance, but it will still have influence and that’s just true. Hamas, do they, they’ve got their, they’ve got their like just ideology. And it’s seeped into them and it’s definitely seeped into certain people within the Palestinian population. I do not think it’s seeped into nearly all of them.

It’s that small percentage that’s the bad apples, right? That just want to continue to wreak havoc and Right. Perform evil deeds. They don’t like that this is the case they lost, right? This is basically them saying, yeah, we lost the war, and they just handed over all their leverage of the hostages, the living hostages, they had to basically surrender and it, it makes sense. I mean, they lost everything and all their powerful partners are gone too. Hezbollah, Syria, the, the former regime in Syria, Iran, all these places that had so much strength two years ago before October 7th are weakened. And so they’ve lost all of their leverage.

So there’s a [00:14:00] lot that came outta this war, the full toll of the war. It will always be hard to know. Right now estimates have it at 67,000 Palestinians were killed. Wow. In the Gaza Strip, which is just. A really hard number to swallow. It’s, it’s really hard to know 

Alex Kondratev: that a lot of women and children too.

I think that’s like the piece too is yeah. So much innocence. So much future. Much I, 

Conner Jones: so much crossfire. Just there that people just wrong place, wrong time. So much innocence, like you’re saying, it, it’s heartbreaking. Mm-hmm. And war is not a good thing or a fun thing. And then virtually, obviously we already said it, Gaza is destroyed.

That’s another one of the tolls of this war. It’s this huge strip of land. The house 2 million people is gone. Essentially. It’s been completely raised and so now there’s the opportunity hopefully to rebuild, but that’s gonna take who knows how long. I can’t even imagine the logistics are are gonna go into that and the mess that’s gonna be politically right.

And then in Israel, 1200 people were killed on October 7th, 250 were abducted and held hostage or killed in captivity. And then a thousand, roughly a thousand [00:15:00] Israeli soldiers were killed in all the fighting. So they had their own toll. That’s awesome. The country of Israel has suffered greatly as well.

Everybody has suffered in this. And then Israel is just diplomatically, they’re, they’re isolated, which is a really tough position for them to be in. Obviously the US still backs them. Trump has not completely backed off from them. They’re still one of the strong power players in the Middle East. They obviously decimated all of their enemies this past summer and in the past few years.

But yeah, they’re, they’re, they’re politically kind of in a bad situation across the world. So a lot of toll from this war over the last two years. One quick side note Dr. Jim Dennison wrote an awesome article. He actually released it this morning that we’re recording. We’re recording on Wednesday, it’s called, why didn’t God Free the Hostages two years ago?

I highly recommend going to read that. It was a great article. Gotcha. Question 

Alex Kondratev: we are all asking, so I’m glad you wrote that. 

Conner Jones: I am too. ’cause you know, it, it is a fair question. It’s God, what You could have done anything, you could have released these hostages on October 8th. So we’re why didn’t, why, yeah.

And it’s a, it’s a fair question and I think [00:16:00] it’s one that’s greatly addressed by Dr. Denison in this article. Will Lincoln in the show notes, or you can just go to denison form.org and find that and he talks about it and he talks about God’s timing, miracles, all of that. And then how to apply it to our own lives.

Something else I wanted to point out is. Kind of in the midst of all of this and in peace talks with or really kind of just conflict talks about Ukraine. Trump was asked by the media over the last few weeks about his, you know, his views on heaven, perspective on heaven, and he was asked on the flight to Israel this past weekend by a reporter.

You talk about how you hoped to end the war in Ukraine because it might help you get into heaven. How does ending this war help? Speaking of the war in Israel, and Trump responded and he said, I don’t think there’s anything going to get me in heaven. I think I’m not even heaven bound. I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to make it to heaven, but I’ve made my life or I’ve made life a lot better for a lot of people.

Kind of an interesting statement there, Alex. I think agreed point, I’m like reading it 

Alex Kondratev: too as you’re looking at it and I’m like, wow, 

Conner Jones: that’s 

Alex Kondratev: not [00:17:00] quite how I think works. I’m maybe not heaven bound. I haven’t heard him say that before. 

Conner Jones: Yeah, I I would say that this is a complete misunderstanding of the gospel, right?

And I, and. You know, I don’t know Trump’s complete faith stance. I don’t know where his heart is. Maybe he has accepted Christ. Maybe he has not. Depends on him, you know, and his relationship with God. Sure. But I would say that this is, that statement leads me to understand that he doesn’t have a full grasp or understanding of the gospel, and he’s not alone.

A lot of conservative commentators this week kind of took that statement and ran with it and they’re like, oh, no. You Trump, you securing this peace deal in Israel, you’re definitely getting into heaven like that. That’s that got your stamp of approval with God that secured your eternity. Guys, that’s not, and we’ve talked about this on the show, that’s not how it works, right?

There’s so much more to God than just works. Your eternal salvation comes from your heart set and from accepting Christ as your lorded savior, and that secures your salvation. It’s not anything to do with what you do here on earth. It’s not anything to do with works. And [00:18:00] it, it’s a misunderstanding.

And I think a lot of people believe this, you know, this is, this is the case of a lot of, definitely, especially in, in a culture where it’s all about what you do, what, how you succeed, how far up the hierarchy you make it, how rich you are, all that. Did you do good in your life? Does it outweigh the bad you did in your life?

That’s actually, that’s just false religion. That’s a false theology, and that’s how some of the other world religions actually work. But that’s not how the gospel works. Thankfully. That’s not how the gospel works. Thank goodness. Yeah, thank goodness. Yeah. Think about how much we fail. We could never do enough good to over to, you know, overachieve what we have accomplished.

There’s just not, there’s not a way to balance that out. Our failures outweigh our accomplishments. All day long. 

Alex Kondratev: And the whole piece too, of being able to partner with God in that I don’t want to accomplish things apart from, I mean, my, you know, fleshly self, of course. Like I want to accomplish things and be like, oh yeah, Alex did this.

But when you partner with God in those things, it’s so much more fulfilling so much more like impassing I don’t [00:19:00] know if that’s a word, but it, it feels so much better to partner with. The creator of the universe and things versus saying I’m gonna do enough good things, so the creator of the universe cares about me.

Like I don’t have to, I can be freed from that. I can just partner with the creator of the universe who loves me and who saved me to do these great things. I think that’s the beauty of it. 

Conner Jones: That’s so good. Yeah, and, and it’s super true. And just as a reminder, Romans 10, nine lays it out perfectly. Really. Ten nine and 10 10.

Paul puts it in there so simply of how you attain that salvation, how you end up in heaven for eternity with Christ and with God and his presence. And it’s just if you declare with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith.

And are saved. That’s it. It’s that simple. I mean, it’s a big commitment. It’s a big decision. It’s the best and biggest decision you will ever make in your life. But choosing Jesus and confessing him as your Lord and Savior, and recognizing that he died on the cross for your [00:20:00] sins and bore the weight of your sins, even though he was completely sinless in his life.

When you do that, that is when you have salvation. That is when you have heaven and you don’t have to question it. You don’t have to stand on Air Force One as the most powerful person on the planet and say, I’m not sure. Maybe, maybe not. I’m not sure if this was good enough 

Alex Kondratev: or bad enough or, 

Conner Jones: Yeah, you don’t have to do 

Alex Kondratev: that.

Conner Jones: That’s not the way it works. Thankfully, that’s not the way it works. God has given us grace and we’re so grateful for that. As you take that and you run with that, and you keep that in your head this week and in your mind this week, also consider all the people in the Middle East who do not know the Lord and are also questioning how they have eternal salvation.

What, there are so many people in this conflict in Palestine, in Israel, people at the center of it, across the region, and really around the world that don’t know the truth of the gospel, that don’t know the truth of salvation. And so let’s pray for those people in the midst of this, for God to redeem the situation.

And to bring the gospel about in this region so that so many would come to know him. Let’s pray for the recovery, obviously of the region [00:21:00] and for the evil in the region to dissipate, for Hamas’ power to go away for them not to have that anymore. And for these people to feel freedom of Hamas and evil let’s pray for the gospel to spread ultimately is just, that’s one of my big prayers.

May God turn this into a gospel presentation for so many. 

Alex Kondratev: Thanks, Connor. That was good. Good word. Honestly, hopefully that, I really hope that happens, that, yeah, the gospel spreads because even in the midst of tragedy, God is still there. He’s still real, he’s still working. Yeah, I pray that people come to know him.

Come to see him. Okay, so I’m gonna change gears a little bit from your story. And like I said at the beginning, I’m gonna share on a story about a sport that I personally don’t even watch. I actually watch once a year. I watch every February, and it’s between two teams. And I dunno much about the rules.

Can anyone guess what it is? It’s 

Conner Jones: water polo. It’s football? 

Alex Kondratev: Yeah. You could [00:22:00] cue the, what is it? There 

Conner Jones: you go. Sees 

Alex Kondratev: I won’t do more of 

Conner Jones: it. That’s 

Alex Kondratev: the fox. Yeah. Now I watched a lot growing up because my mom is a huge football fan. I, on the other hand, as soon as I got outta the house. Actually watch one football game a year that is called the Super Bowl.

So yeah, although I’m not the biggest fan of football, I saw this story from USA today and it really caught my attention. So the story was all about turning Point USA planning what they’re calling an All American halftime show to compete with the halftime show that’s going on. At the Super Bowl on February 8th, and that’s gonna be bad Bunny Super Bowl performance.

So Connor, it honestly just got me thinking as I was reading this story, like when does creating an alternative event cross the line into making some sort of statement about who can be included, who’s not included. And so I just wanted to dive in. I thought it would be fun for us to discuss a little bit.

About what that, what that means for us as a people. So let’s break this down a bit. Like I said, turning Point [00:23:00] USA, so that’s a conservative Christian organization. A lot of us have come to know that over the last month after Charlie Kirk’s murder. So they announced last week that they were going to, like I said, do an all amount American halftime show during Super Bowl 60.

This is as like counter programming to what the NFL’s. Original halftime show is by Bad Bunny. So if you don’t know Bad Bunny, I don’t know Connor, if you are familiar with Bad Bunny. Yeah. But I’m sure many people are because I didn’t know this, but he was Spotify’s third most streamed artist globally in 2024.

I think from like 2020 to 2022, he might have been the most streamed artist. In Spotify, I saw somewhere. I know for one, I’ve listened to his music while working out because it’s just really good beats for working out. So I don’t know. That’s, that’s my experience with him. But I feel that, but 

Conner Jones: it’s, yeah, his music’s, I mean, it’s, it’s catchy and to be honest, I don’t understand a word of it, but like the melody and the beats, like I’m here for it.

Alex Kondratev: It’s good. It’s good. It’s catch. So he’s a Puerto Rican artist. He’s [00:24:00] also a US citizen that’s actually been questioned back and forth after the NFL announcing that he would be the headliner. But he is a US citizen. He’s from Puerto Rico. He’s known, like we said, for his Spanish language music. And recently he’s been known for his criticism of Trump era immigration policy.

So that includes the ICE raids and everything that’s kind of gone in there. I know y’all have talked about that some. So turning point. As their alternative is promoting its event as a celebration of what they say is faith, family, and freedom. Okay, so what’s the controversy here? We’ve got bad Bunny’s performance at the Super Bowl.

We’ve got this, you know, faith, family freedom, all American alternative halftime show. Here’s where it kind of got a little dicey because of bad bunny’s, vocal criticism of Trump’s policies. He actually did, you know, he refused to tour in the US outside of Puerto Rico. Um mm-hmm. Because of these policies, he was afraid that his audience members would potentially get caught up in a raid or something like that.

So he said he was staying [00:25:00] out of most of the US because of that. So there was obviously. Immense pushback from conservatives, which also led to a lot of commentary in the last week about their outrage of her performance being not only by bad bunny, but being sung mostly and performed mostly, if not fully in Spanish.

Which. As a side note, the NFL did say that was a win for them, that they as a business move, are trying to expand their market reach, right? And so for them, they’re like, Hey, this is business for us, which of course it makes zillions of dollars. But there was commentary on both sides about, you know, what does this mean for our culture?

What struck me the most when I was reading this USA Today article and several articles talked about this was one of the details when Turning Point announced this, they said, Hey, listeners, go to our form. Tell us a little bit about what you want. We don’t, you know, there’s not an an announcement yet of who’s singing, who’s performing, what exactly will be happening, but they had an online signup form.

On this. Online signup form [00:26:00] fans were able to express their interest for, for what they wanted. So there was a preferred musical genre category, and it lists things like Americana, classic, rock country, hip hop, pop. It had a worship section, but then there was one option which was actually at the top of those like checklists.

And you could check one or multiple that said quote anything in English. So on the surface you’re like, okay, if this was outside of the bad bunny announcement world, this could just be a catchall for, you know, people who want something in English. But in the context of the larger conversation, that phrase has been seen as pretty symbolic and pretty provocative.

So critics are saying that turning points, anything in English box reads less like a neutral preference and more like an outward statement. They’re saying that it seems you know, a rebuke. As a cultural shift away from traditional American values. So they’re wondering, you know, are, is turning point trying to reframe language itself as a boundary?

Is it trying to say that [00:27:00] English equates to patriotism and English equates to belonging to the real America? Which is obviously a very scary thought if, if that’s what an organization is doing is equating one language with what America really is. So here’s, here’s where, you know, I wanted to have a conversation.

I think that’s two prong, at least my analysis of it. And I would love to look at scripture as well as one, the idea. Of an alternative show to me isn’t wrong in principle. I think you’ve seen Christians and other belief systems create alternatives all the time. You’ve got Christian books, you’ve got Christian movies, you’ve got Christian shows.

You’ve got all different groups of people creating alternatives of what exists. Because that’s what caters to their audience, because that’s where they feel passion to create content. So I think on its head, I have, you know, I don’t think there’s anything wrong to creating an alternative to the halftime show.

Especially because I’m a mom of a 2-year-old, so my 2-year-old, by the time bad Bunny [00:28:00] gets on to perform, will be dead asleep. Hopefully. I mean, the monitor hopefully won’t be making any noise and I’ll be enjoying the buffalo dip and time with friends and what I actually like about the Super Bowl but my kid will be asleep, but there’s plenty of parents, my sister, a kid of a mom of four, a lot of her kids will be awake.

And so I think what’s right about an alternative show is that parents. Should be vetting what their kids watch. Parents, whether it’s on Netflix or somewhere else, should be saying, do I want my kid consuming whatever content that they are wanting to consume? And so on its head, I know that the Super Bowl show for years and years and years, as long as I’ve been watching it has been contested.

When it comes to the. To the halftime performance. Sometimes it’s oversexualized. Sometimes the lyrics are not appropriate for many ages. And some people just don’t prefer to put that into their minds, their hearts, their heads. And so I think it’s right for people to say, this is or isn’t for me. And I think as believers, we need [00:29:00] to make those judgments on a lot of things.

And so for me, I’m like, yeah, it’s, I think it’s great to offer an alternative, you know. If there’s no, no harm on its head on that, what do you think Connor would, what are your thoughts of an alternative show? Would you consider it? Would you go back and forth? What do you think? 

Conner Jones: I think I got a lot of questions here because I’m just like, how’s this gonna work?

Where’s it gonna be? Like how, what platform will this be? Is this like a YouTube video? I know. Will it 

Alex Kondratev: stream? Is it gonna be, yeah. Will it 

Conner Jones: stream? Can I split screen it? Can I, if I wanna watch both, can I throw on, you know, on YouTube who’s gonna be there? Yeah. Who’s performing? I’ve seen some Christian artists, you know, they’re throwing their.

Kind names in the hat, which I saw Fort 

Alex Kondratev: Frank do a lot of posts about it. I know he’s Frank’s like clearly trying to get himself on 

Conner Jones: the stage there, but would it be also like Jason Aldean, who’s like a big, you know, country star that a lot of right wing America really likes? I don’t know. We’ll see. That will obviously all come down to the details.

We’ll get the logistics there that’ll help determine if I watch it or not. I, I think as a broader concept, I actually really like this idea. I really love the idea of. [00:30:00] Having something that performs at the exact same time that the Super Bowl halftime show does that people can turn on. You know, you, you click off the Super Bowl halftime show, get away from whatever is on there, and you go over to this other concert that’s also fun and the whole family can watch.

And your kids who are 7, 8, 9, that are still up and awake can also watch. You know, I distinctly remember as a kid seeing some of the Super Bowl halftime shows, and they’re still ingrained in my memory. There’s this very specific one that, a wait, what? This, A lot people probably remember when I was like six or seven years old.

That caused a lot of controversy, and I’m sure you guys all know which one I’m talking about. But even in recent years, they’ve, they’ve been very, very sexualized, right? It’s gotten worse. Now I, they’re not all that way. Not every artist is that way. There’s always the cold plays or you know, the nineties rappers who came up and did that one a few weeks or a few years ago.

That was fun and different. But I, I totally get this. I’m like, yeah, people want to be able to sit with their family and not just watch a football game. They wanna watch the entertainment that comes with it.

Alex Kondratev: And we all go to different concerts. Like I go to Justin Bieber concerts, Connor, I would like wager to guess.

You’re probably not at every Justin Bieber [00:31:00] concert. So you just might have different preferences. 

Conner Jones: This is true. Yeah. Everybody has different preferences. You’re, you’re exactly right. Kendrick Lamar last year was not for everyone. And that one, I also got a lot of heat, but. He’s a good artist, right?

And so he’s a big artist and so is bad Bunny. I think my question with this whole thing is what is the heart? Behind this alternative show and why this year? Why not? Why not past years? Why, why is this just now coming about now? Could it be because Charlie Kirk’s death gave turning point USAA bigger stage than ever?

It definitely did. Now the whole, the whole country knows what they are and I’m sure they got tons of investment in donation dollars and all of that. And maybe that is allowing them to be able to put something like this on. And they’ve got this like brand recognition now, right? So they’ve got this ability to do it.

I think that’s a piece of it, right? I, the other piece is what you’re kind of maybe calling out is, are they only doing this because bad Bunny is unpopular with a certain sect of America because he’s only, and, you know, sings in Spanish and has his immigration perspectives? I don’t know. I don’t think we [00:32:00] know fully the hard thing.

They haven’t explicitly 

Alex Kondratev: said. 

Conner Jones: They have not explicitly said, but the timing seems to suggest certain things, right? So I, I think it’s all about the heart behind it if they’re doing this so that really they can do a halftime show and ultimately I would hope they pre present the gospel kind of the way they did it.

The absolutely Kirk Memorial service to millions of people who tune in the gospel was very much so presented there. Hopefully that would happen here to. My hope would be this is a continued thing if they’re gonna do this. I, I, I don’t think it should just be this one year because of who the artist is. I think it should be a continued thing.

It’s a good call out so we can always turn, tune into it, but yeah, you’re, you’re asking great questions here. 

Alex Kondratev: Yeah, and I think there’s, yeah, there’s a few more questions too that, that I’m wondering and, and here’s where I think they cross the line, in my opinion, and as I like, look at scripture here. Is where I think it crosses the line a little bit.

A checkbox like quote, anything in English to me, whether it was an intentional, you know, intentionally put in there or not. I have my own opinions there, but I, what it [00:33:00] signals is that music in other languages, so example Spanish in this case is less valid or welcome and you know, other organizations who don’t have the beliefs like Turning Points, they are Christian, they’re founded in Christian principles.

I would expect more from a Christian organization than I do just from any other organization out there that says our goal is to make money and to turn PE to people who just want our content, and that’s our niche audience and we’re gonna make advertising dollars off of them. I would ex, I expect more, I expect more from our organization.

I expect more from our other brothers and sisters in Christ, their organizations, and. What we talk so often about here at Denson Forum, at Denson Ministries is that we don’t wanna fuel polarization. We don’t wanna deepen divides, but instead we wanna model the beauty of diversity. You see it all over the Bible, you wanna see communities come to flourish.

You wanna see people of all different places and, and areas of life and languages and types and [00:34:00] personalities come together and celebrate the beauty of the gospel. And so that’s why I want, I would, you know, if I were having a conversation with someone from Turning Point, if I was, you know, welcome to their desk when they’re making these decisions, I would say, you know, are we even by accident, I’ll give ’em benefit of the doubt there.

All alienating people from this show by putting this checkbox there. And I think Christians should just be eager to engage across cultural cultures, languages. It’s our job not to build walls, but to tear them down to welcome more people in, to share the gospel with them. And it reminded me like I said earlier of Revelation seven, nine through 12 that says.

After this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. Standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb, [00:35:00] and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, amen.

Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. That to me, this may sound like the cheesiest thing and now that it’s about to come outta my mouth, I think it is. But like I’m like, man, all these people standing and praising God, like that is the Super Bowl show.

Like all of these, this is what the opportunity is like you are here in this great multitude and that is like. The Super Bowl is just this teeny, tiny version of that. But what would it look like to have this alternative where this great multitude where people would get a little view in of what it looks like for all different cultures, all different languages, to be saying amen.

Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power, and might be to God forever and ever. And [00:36:00] so that’s where I like wanna call Christian organizations to, that’s where I want us to call ourselves to every day is. How do we stop ourselves from alienating others and really look through the lens of how do I welcome people in?

How do I give people a glimpse of what heaven is gonna look like? How do I give people a glimpse, a glimpse of who Jesus is? You know, we’re not called to erect cultural barriers or to embody, we’re we’re, we’re supposed to embody the reconciliation of Jesus, the bringing back together of the body. And we worship a God who right here, brings together a great multitude from every tribe, every language.

So for me, I think we should be asking the questions of how can we build something that lifts up all who love Jesus across languages and cultures? I think it’s gonna make it a better show. And at minimum, how do we keep from alienating part of the body? ‘Cause I would just say that narrows our vision.

If we only have something in English, are we missing a little piece of what we could experience even for someone like me who doesn’t [00:37:00] speak. Another language. Am I missing something if I don’t welcome in other cultures, even if it’s not another language, but just other cultural expressions. So yeah, I just, to me I’m like, how do we model something better?

Conner Jones: Yeah. 

Alex Kondratev: Something that reflects like the breadth of God’s kingdom. 

Conner Jones: Eh, for this example here, I think for Turning Point USA, if they wanna do that, they could bring in a They do, yeah. They have the opportunity. Latin A a Latin artist, right? Somebody who does sing in Spanish, or worship leader or whatnot.

Somebody who sings in Spanish too, that it’s not alienating. I get what they’re saying. You don’t wanna watch the bad bunny performance. Okay, but let’s not alienate an entire section of the globe. I see what you’re saying too. I mean, there’s a lot to take here. Alex, great deep dive into that.

There’s a lot of questions there and obviously that story’s gonna continue all the way up to February and we’ll see what this leads to. I think it’ll be very interesting and we’ll see how this performance comes about and who’s gonna be a part of it. And what it’ll look like. And I, I’m very eager to see what happens there.

This will be the first time, me Too, that Super Bowl’s ever really had a competition. Not in the game, but in the halftime show, which is a big draw. A lot of people tune in just for that. And maybe [00:38:00] you do too, Alex. I don’t know. I’m there for football. It’s, it’s always 

Alex Kondratev: on the tv, but am I watching any of it?

Do I know who’s playing ever until the night of? No. 

Conner Jones: The one thing you do know is that the Cowboys are never in it, that’s and I’m sorry for you guys about that. 

Alex Kondratev: I also know that I’m from Atlanta and the Falcons. Never in it. And when they are, they don’t win. 

Conner Jones: They, they, they blow the biggest lead of all time.

They 

Alex Kondratev: really blow it. And my mom turns off the TV and kicks everyone out of her house. 

Conner Jones: There you go. Yep. We’ve both got our football problems. Alex, thanks for that. Why don’t you why don’t you introduce us to the hot take? You kind of teased at the beginning. I, so as anytime we have a guest on except for Landon last week, we should have asked them for a hot take too.

But anytime we have somebody else on, we, we definitely like to get their hot takes. Mike and I have shared plenty of our own. Alex, what do you got? 

Alex Kondratev: Okay. I had to think long and hard about this. I like asked my husband, I was like, okay, so what’s my hot take? And it’s funny ’cause Josh, who’s also been on this show who works here at Denison Ministries, he was like, I feel like you have a lot of hot takes that you share.

And I was like, yeah, but which ones do I wanna share? With a whole bunch of [00:39:00] people. I don’t know. So I picked one that I think is a good hot take for us to debate. So I am a big good reads user every year. Lots of good reads is like also notoriously one of the worst apps out there. I don’t know if you’re a user, you probably know it’s.

Pretty junky to use, but we all use it and we all track our books on there. I’ve got lot. It’s like one of my only social medias that I have, and I follow my friends and how many books they’re reading. So I set my goal every year. This year my goal is 15 books. I’m currently at 13 books. Nice. But here’s the catch.

On that list of red books, I’m doing air quotes here. There are two audio books represented. So here’s my hot take. I believe that reading a book and listening to an audio book should both count as quote, reading a book. Like when I finish an audio book, I’m going straight to my Good Reads app. I’m gonna wait for it to load and be buggy, and then I’m gonna put in that audio book as one of my red books that will go into my [00:40:00] 15 book goal for the year.

What do you think, Connor? 

Conner Jones: So you’re basically, you’re saying if you listen to a book, you read it, right? Yes, sir. I personally, I, I’ve actually never listened to an audio book. Anytime I read a book, I, I physically hold a book in my hand. I do. That 

Alex Kondratev: is my preference. 

Conner Jones: I. So I’m struggling here because I, I haven’t fully experienced this.

What I will say is, I think it’s weird to say that you read a book if you listen to it. I’ve listened to a lot of these podcasts where, you know, the, the host is oh, I read your book. You know, to clarify, I, I listened to it on the audio book. Like they, it’s almost like an asterisk. Like you have to put the asterisk next to it, like you listen to it.

Yeah. And as somebody who listens to a ton of podcasts, I feel if I said. I read all of those podcasts, it would come across weird. You know? True. It would like it. I, I feel like as much podcasts as I listen to, I, I, I read a book a day if we’re going by this mantra. And that’s the 

Alex Kondratev: thing, I believe, so my, the reason I hold this stance is because you’ve got all different types of learners.

So you’ve got like the people that are tactile, you’ve [00:41:00] got the people that are visual. You’ve got the people that are auditory. And so for me, the whole point of. Quote, reading a book is to grow, whether it’s fiction, whether it’s nonfiction, whether it’s the Bible, your whole point of reading and consuming content is to grow as a human, to grow closer to Christ, or all of these different reasons that we have.

And to me, if you’re listening to a bunch of podcasts or if you’re listening to what I just finished ina Garten’s audio autobiography on audiobook. You are still gaining knowledge, you’re gaining fresh perspective. And so for me, when I go to check, yeah, I, I completed one of 15, did I gain that knowledge?

Did I gain that perspective? And some people, like my husband, if he holds a book and reads it, he’s not gonna gain any of that perspective. But if he listens to it, he gets it all. And that’s just like how he learns.

Conner Jones: Go. I, it’s, it’s a interesting hot take. I want to hear what everybody else has to say.

So guys, me too. I, I, I, I’ll post a poll both in the Spotify app and on our Instagram [00:42:00] stories so that you can answer what you think about this question. Also, you can email us, as always at culture [email protected]. Let us know your thoughts. Let us know what your thoughts on the show. Your thoughts on this hot take and go.

Follow us on an Instagram that’s at Culture Brief Podcast on Instagram, again at Culture Brief Podcast. And hey, thank y’all for listening to last week’s episode with Landon. We got some great feedback there. Landon’s an awesome dude. Hope y’all, if you did not know the song The Lord Will Provide. You guys have listened to that since Forrest Frank, obviously the biggest Christian artist out there right now posted a.

Really a post on Instagram this week announcing he’s having a second child with his wife, which is awesome. And the song that he chose was The Lord Will Provide On That Post. I didn’t see that. Okay, cool. Yeah, it was really cool. I was like, oh, look at that. There we go. So Landon’s doing great things.

Thank y’all for listening to that. It was a fun, fun conversation. Alex, let’s check in on a few things real fast here. First and foremost, I don’t know if many of you guys saw this, but there was a big explosion in Tennessee this past week at an ex, it was actually at an explosives facility. Really wiped that building off.

The ground, like just nothing was left really sad. [00:43:00] 16 people died there. I don’t think this made a lot of big headlines, but that’s a community that has been ripped up in this small town in Tennessee. So by this, at this facility where so many people were working that day. So just pray for them. There also the Nobel Peace Prize.

That was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader at Maria Karina Machado, and they said it was for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela, and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. This is a woman who has run for presidency in Venezuela.

She technically has been on the winning party, but they. You know, ruled by a dictator Maduro there, who Trump is currently about to wage war with. I mean, we’re, we’re, he wiped out another drug boat this week. So there’s a lot going on with Venezuela. She actually dedicated the war to Trump for trying to seek out peace across the world, but specifically in Venezuela.

Kind of interesting there. And so maybe that’s just a of. Foreshadowing of what’s to come next year with the prize. Also, on Friday, Trump is welcoming Vladimir Zelensky, of course, the [00:44:00] president of Ukraine to the White House. They’re gonna talk about tomahawk missiles being delivered to Ukraine to potentially you know, be used against Russia.

This would be a big. Escalation essentially from the Ukrainian side and from the US providing these weapons. So we’ll see what comes outta that. Trump’s obviously kind of on a, a kick right now of trying to find peace and negotiate deals. Let’s find it. 

Alex Kondratev: Yeah, let’s 

Conner Jones: find it. I hope. I hope we do. And hopefully those missiles aren’t even needed.

We just bring it into that war as well. Alex, I think you had a couple things you wanted to mention real fast. 

Alex Kondratev: Yep. I think on Saturday, many of us saw across all of our different social feeds, but Diane Keaton an amazing actress, uh mm-hmm. Died at age 79. She was in dozens, tons, and tons of movies. Over her five decade career.

She won the Oscar for Best actress for her performance in Annie Hall, which was a 1977 film. She was in the Godfather Films, the father of the bride. I personally know that one of these movies I already told my husband we’re gonna be watching one this weekend. We’ll, we’ll typically once we put lab to bed, like on a Saturday, just make popcorn and watch a movie.

So I [00:45:00] was like, let’s, let’s do a Diane Key movie. 

Conner Jones: Are you feeling, are you feeling Godfather, gangster, or like father of the bride? Many. I the 

Alex Kondratev: big difference. You do kind of like a gangster movie, which if you could see my face, you probably wouldn’t pick me as that, but. It may be a Godfather it may be something’s gotta give.

You know, it could go, go the spectrum. Totally 

Conner Jones: different. One totally different movie. 

Alex Kondratev: It’ll be, yeah, it’ll be crazy or it’ll be a love story. Yeah, she’s great. And then, yeah, the other check-in is the government shutdown. We are 14 whole days in two weeks in there is no end in sight. I was reading first thing this morning that.

Both sides. Heels are dug in and they are not planning on opening things back up. It’s been the center of atten. It hasn’t been the center of attention, like a lot of past shutdowns. The economy hasn’t reacted super poorly so far. Obviously media public attention has been on Israel, on Gaza, on.

Just the massive amounts of news coming in day by day. And Trump and White House, again have just been focused on [00:46:00] Israel, and so we’ll see. I know that there’s a lot of people who are about to be struggling when they miss a paycheck coming up here. I think the first like half paycheck people would be missing is coming up this week and then next week I think is the first full month paycheck that some people will miss.

So there’s definitely people feeling it. And I’m just hoping again along the lines of peace. Can we just get the government open back up and, and get back going again? 

Conner Jones: Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s frustrating. There’s no reason the government should be shut down. Congress needs to work something out, and we don’t need another 35 day shutdown like we had.

Get it together. Get it together, guys. Let’s, let’s negotiate couple things to tune into. One NHL started this week. I know, Alex, you’re a big hockey fan. Boston Bruins. Go Bruins. 

Alex Kondratev: Okay. Yep. 

Conner Jones: Stars. Let’s go Stars and whoever your team is. They’re now playing. So regular season of hockey is back. NBA regular season is also coming back.

They start on Tuesday night, some big games to kick off. It’s also gonna be back on NBC for the first time since 2002. So if you’ve seen like those Michael Jordan clips of the nineties, most of them were like on NBC and the, that [00:47:00] was just the classic nostalgia field. The round ball rock theme song was on there and it’s coming back too.

So they’ve got all that queued up. It’s gonna be fun. MLB playoffs currently going on. Alex, I know you were in Seattle during the game the other day. I was, yeah. 

Alex Kondratev: During the 15 innings. 15 innings. We were, yeah, 15 inning game. So I got to watch two baseball games essentially from the couch. I was in Seattle, so it was pretty sick to be around the whole atmosphere that whole day.

I did not go to the game that was far outside of my budget. But it was, it was pretty cool being there for a pretty historic moment. And they got the win. So they moved to the next round. They 

Conner Jones: got to win Seattle Mariners and I stayed up. It was past midnight here. When that game finally ended, I kept thinking that’s when I was happy for the West Coast time.

Better on the West coast, but for the east coasters, this was past 1:00 AM Everybody was just like, okay, one more inning, one more. I was done. After 15 innings I had to go to bed, but then they finally won. I was like, oh, let’s go. Okay. But the A LCS is going on. That’s Toronto Blue Jays versus the Seattle Mariners.

Currently, that’s the best of seven games. NLCS is the Milwaukee Brewers versus the LA Dodgers. That’s currently going [00:48:00] on. Also best of seven games. So watch those series. Those are really good baseball teams playing each other. And we’ll officially know who’s gonna be in the World Series by at least Tuesday night, if not earlier.

So next week we’ll come back with some World Series takes on who we think will win the whole thing. Guys, thank y’all for tuning in this week. Alex, thank you for being the co-host. We’re grateful for your time. Hey, I did 

Alex Kondratev: it. 

Conner Jones: Join. This is fun. Some great conversations. We’ll have to have you back on at some point.

When either Micah and I are I guess on vacation or if we’re just like, Hey, let’s just bring Alex on just to join. Hey, we’ll do that. Send 

Alex Kondratev: me a Slack message. 

Conner Jones: We will do that. Thank y’all so much for joining us this week on Culture Brief, dentist Informed podcast, all the articles, all the videos, all the tweets, anything we mention on the show, it will be in the show notes.

So go check those out and please rate or review the show, share it with a friend, and we will see you next Thursday. See you next Thursday.