Reflecting pool mess, Air Force One drama, Clavicular, 'Maxxing' trends, World Cup & new studio! | Ep. 75

Conner Jones: [00:00:03] Hi, I'm Conner Jones.

Josh Miller: [00:00:04] And I'm Josh Miller.

Conner Jones: [00:00:05] And this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories in news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and so much more. We do it all from a Christian perspective. And Josh, welcome to the show and everybody, welcome to our new Culture Brief studio. We are in a new space. If you're listening to this, I highly recommend going finding the video and checking out where we're sitting. But Josh, welcome to the show.

Josh Miller: [00:00:29] Thanks, glad to be here and fun to christen the new studio with you. This is awesome.

Conner Jones: [00:00:33] Yeah, we're obviously we miss Micah today, but Josh is our CEO here at Denison Ministries. I mean, we've been, we've both been working here for six or seven years. It's been a blessing to work together for so long and Josh is leading the strategy. He's leading a whole new wave of stuff we're doing here at Denison Forum. Part of that is getting studio spaces like this for podcasts and so many of you support Denison Forum and you have made things like this possible so we can reach more people with high quality content, high quality video, high quality audio, all of that. So we're grateful for that. I'm trying to nickname this place. I was thinking about this, should we call this like the culture cave, the culture crib, the culture corner?

Josh Miller: [00:01:08] Culture crib. Are we cool enough to call it the culture crib?

Conner Jones: [00:01:10] It's like MTV. Yeah, welcome to our crib. Um, no, it's a it's a cool space. We're so grateful. Thanks to everybody who helped put this together. We've got some great decorations. We had a great team come in and set up all the lights and technology and camera. Sound of a Rose, you guys are awesome. Thank you for helping us with that. But Josh, we have so much to talk about this week in culture. What do we, what are we hitting on today?

Josh Miller: [00:01:28] You know, there's some weeks in culture where you go through the news and it feels a little bit more like a reality show than it does journalism. This is kind of one of those weeks. And so we're going to be covering some things like the the reflection pool drama in DC, the beautiful yet controversial new Air Force One plane. And Connor, have you heard about maxing?

Conner Jones: [00:01:48] Oh, have I? Yes.

Josh Miller: [00:01:50] It's bizarre, but it's a thing and there's a lot of implications for our culture. So we're going to talk about that today. So let's get into it. Let's jump into the brief.

Conner Jones: [00:01:58] The brief. Yeah, just because we're in a studio doesn't mean we're going to stop saying the brief at the beginning. We're going to keep diving into that. All right, yeah, Josh, you kind of cued it up perfectly. What is going on with the reflecting pool in Washington DC? Some of you may have seen this, maybe you haven't. It's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it's causing a lot of drama up there in DC because the reflecting pool is just one of those iconic things that we get to see when you visit that capital city or it's just one of those things everybody in America recognizes. There's several reasons why. I mean, we've all seen Forest Gump. We've seen when Jenny runs out of the water, Forest runs and meets her in the middle of the reflecting pool. We've seen Captain America Winter Soldier when Cap is running around the reflecting pool. He's like, on your left, on your left, you know, the whole time. Um, obviously MLK did his I had a dream speech around the reflecting pool from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. So it's that it's that pool of water situated between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. It's very symbolic of America, reflecting back the Washington Monument, especially in certain light and at night. Uh, really a unique thing, but it's been the center of a lot of drama. Why? Well, because it's got algae in it and it has for a long time and it was kind of turning green. So, uh President Trump wanted to completely redo it. He wanted to essentially restore it. He had it drained. Back in April is when he announced this was going to happen and his prediction was it was going to cost $1.8 million. Somebody probably told him that and that's what he announced. At the end of the day, it ended up getting a $12 million bid from a contractor and now the pool has been drained. It has been painted American flag blue on the bottom and it is now been refilled with water and the paint is coming up to the top and the algae is coming back. We are one week into this new uh refilled pool and it it's causing um it's having issues essentially.

Josh Miller: [00:03:36] Yep, yep.

Conner Jones: [00:03:37] Uh Josh, you were in Washington DC like a week, two weeks ago. You saw the pool. How was it looking?

Josh Miller: [00:03:40] I I tried to go see it. Our flight got in late and so it was a little bit dark. And then I was at right in the sweet or unsweet spot where the pool had just been filled back up, but they hadn't taken the fencing down. So I'm like kind of peeking through the the chain link fence trying to get a feel for uh how clean it was. At that time from some of the staffers that talked to you that week, it looked good, but that was right after it got filled back up. And so it didn't take long for it to all of a sudden, you know, apparently start turning green again. People are wondering if it's still leaking like it has in the past. I'm just kind of to me the the most bizarre thing is just how controversial and how big of a story this is. We're talking about an outdoor swimming pool to some degree. And there's so much controversy over this thing right now.

Conner Jones: [00:04:26] I think it's because of just what that pool, where it is and what it represents and then also the expense of what it costs to to redo this when a lot of people said it didn't need anything done. Um, now, I will say this, on June 17th, so this is basically a week ago, this is right after the pool was refilled, the interior department posted, they're the ones in charge of our national parks, uh in charge of essentially the capital monuments, uh including this pool. They posted on Twitter X, whatever you want to say. It literally said the advanced nano bubbler technology very effectively killed the algae that has plagued every Lincoln reflecting pool reopening. Most infamously, Obama's reopening. The reflecting pool water is crystal clear and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the reflecting pool, just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf.

Josh Miller: [00:05:13] Just had to get that in there.

Conner Jones: [00:05:14] They had to, they had to throw in a jab at Obama and at the Iranian Navy. Um, of course, since they posted that, two things have changed. One, the we've got a official deal memorandum of understanding with Iran signed now and the pool has been drained. So in one week a lot has changed. Um, yeah, and there's videos they're going very viral of uh the paint coming to the top. This new paint that they put on the bottom. This was all in preparation for America 250. They wanted to get uh essentially the, you know, the the pool ready for celebrations there in DC on July 4th week. Uh, yeah, the paint is coming to the top. It it's just basically chipping away and videos are going viral. There's been videos of dead ducks in the pool, probably from some sort of chemicals that they're being put in there, all of that. Um, and then on Saturday, Trump said on Truth Social that contractors are going to have to drain the pool again and repair the bottom. So they are in the process of doing that. Um, some experts are, you know, blaming some type of shoddy job or putting chemicals, whatever chemicals they use might be causing the paint to come up. Um, Trump though and the interior department are saying that it was vandalizers who went in, they potentially took knives to the paint, uh and poured chemicals in there. Um and they've actually arrested five people in the last few days here that they say are vandalizing or taking box cutters. Um, Trump says that somebody put a 350 foot gash into the paint. So, I don't know. They supposedly there's evidence to show that that's going to come out of videos of somebody doing that. So we will see if that comes through.

Josh Miller: [00:06:39] And this is one of those cases where who do you believe? You know, you see so many stories and different news outlets reporting that there's no indication of vandalism, that it's just this was just a poor choice of kind of method to fix the the pool. Then you see people on the other side that are saying this was the right way to fix it and needed to be fixed. And I agree I agree that we should make this look nice. You know, this is the our capital. You you literally if you're down there are looking at Lincoln Memorial on one side, you know, the Washington Monument, the capital are right there and to have this sort of pool that's such meant to be such an anchoring staple of that area, look kind of nasty. I don't think is is a good look for the country. And so I I agree something should be done about it. I think it's interesting to me how people will use something just like this to just try to find another way to villainize the other side. And so both are doing that in this case as well. Hard to know who to trust, hard to know what's what's true at all, but it's I do hope they get it fixed up and and cleaned up.

Conner Jones: [00:07:40] Yeah, I I agree with you. Yeah, the water is definitely, it doesn't look good. There's like, you know, overhead shots of the water the last two or three days here and it's murky, it's green, it's it doesn't it doesn't look as good as it did two weeks ago when you were there, right?

Josh Miller: [00:07:50] It's also not a new problem though either. It's been over many, you know, presidents have tried to fix this in various capacities as well.

Conner Jones: [00:07:56] Yeah, uh it's definitely interesting. Uh so my whole point of bringing this up is we're obviously we're approaching America's 250th birthday. And I was thinking about this of like, how how do we celebrate that? You know, it's 250th year of America. You celebrate with birthday gifts. So one of those things was supposed to be this reflecting pool. The other thing is apparently uh the new Air Force One, uh which is another very iconic just thing in American culture and particularly with the the executive branch. We all know the big Air Force One with the the beautiful blue and all of that, the one that Harrison Ford flew on in the movie Air Force One. Yes. Well, it's outdated apparently. Uh it's they, you know, there's actually two versions of it. I don't think most people realize there's two of those aircraft. They both started flying in 1990, so they've carried, I like to say like six and a half presidents because Trump is one of those and he so, you know, it's it's he's been there twice. Um, and Trump obviously wanted to get a new Air Force One. So, you may remember last year when the Qatari government offered up their brand new 747 that was being used by their royal family to the American public as they put it and they offered up this 747 that has been now 10 months later retrofitted by the US Air Force and by contractors to make sure it is safe enough to carry the literal president of the United States and serve as Air Force One for a few years until Boeing can complete the updated 747s that they are working on. Those uh 747s are four years delayed. They were supposed to arrive last year. No, in 2024 actually. Now they're delayed to 2028. So this is why uh the administration is saying they needed a new aircraft because the old ones are going through long maintenance schedules and are outdated and not comfortable enough, I guess anymore. Um, although I would fly on it if I could.

Josh Miller: [00:09:33] Oh man, wouldn't that be amazing?

Conner Jones: [00:09:34] Yeah, well, wherever they whatever museum it ends up in, one of the two, I will be there as soon as it's there. I I love walking through old Air Force Ones. You can go to Dayton, Ohio and see most of the previous Air Force Ones and walk through them actually. It's pretty cool. Um, yeah, so, you know, there there was this $400 million renovation though that was required to get this plane from the Qatari government up and ready to carry the US government's top officials including the president himself. $400 million. Now, in the grand scheme of things, like the reflecting pool, $12 million, $16 million, whatever it was that it balloon to in cost, it's not that much when you consider the US government, but it is a lot of money and it's at the time where we've got a lot of other things going on in American culture where people are like, hey, we can barely afford to live. We have a war going on across the the world. Why are we spending money on this type of stuff? It's a fair question. Even uh California Governor Gavin Newsom, he of course had to do his little jab at Trump this week and he said, um, Trump is so laser focused on affordability that he spent $400 million retrofitting his flying palace. Now, I I think that's funny because obviously Gavin Newsom wants to be president in 2028. So if he becomes president, he will fly on this plane for a little bit. So he might want to check his tune a little bit there. Uh but you can get the point of what he's trying to get across, what a lot of Democrats are trying to get across. Um, all that to say, these are America's birthday presents, right? This is what uh they're saying. We are celebrating America's birthday with a new reflecting pool restoration, a new Air Force One that I guess we get to see. And I will say the plane looks pretty good. I don't know if you've seen any pictures.

Josh Miller: [00:11:00] It really is beautiful. Yeah, it's stunning. And it's it's larger from my understanding than the current planes, you know, so so it can hold even more press on trips, more comfortable. And again, where the president of the largest economy, big, you know, most powerful country in the world, it makes sense to have an updated plane that's secure new technology, but to your point, the context around how all of this happened is not a good look in terms of the cost, in terms of how we got the plane in the first place. There's so much here that makes it less clean than just the president needed a new plane to fly securely.

Conner Jones: [00:11:36] Exactly. A lot of people are actually calling out that this is unconstitutional to accept this plane as a gift from a foreign government. Depending on, you know, who your constitutional lawyer is, whoever you call up for those situations, uh it might be considered unconstitutional. Technically, the Constitution states you're not supposed to accept a foreign gift because it could obviously um bring some sort of influence over a very powerful person. Now, we could see that happen, you know, the Democrats are worried that Trump will curry favor to the Qatari government for something in the future, maybe even now with Iranian negotiations, you might see that in some format. Uh we have no proof that that's happening, but that's just kind of the thought and that's why the Constitution states presidents, state department officials, all that are not supposed to accept gifts, not just from foreign governments, but even companies, um, which is where you get even weirder with some things like do you want your big tech companies offering gifts to the president of the United States so that he would in turn curry favor? Yeah, there there's a lot to that. Um, no matter what your feeling towards both of these things, the reflecting pool, the Air Force One, just the government in general and spending and all of that, um, it's just worth considering where you place your trust. I think you mentioned trust a minute ago, Josh. Like there is a lot to that. Do you trust in a contractor to get the job done right? Like these guys who came and did the job on the reflecting pool? Did they paint it right? Did they put the right chemicals in? Did they fill the pool right? It's hard to know. Or is it just being vandalized? I'm not I'm not here to say what's happening for sure or not. But when you bring a contractor into your home to come do some sort of project, maybe they're building a pool in your backyard. You want to have some you want to have some like qualifications applied to that, right? Like you're you're kind of blindly trusting that this person's going to get the job done right. You're going to pay them, you're hoping they're going to do it correctly. Um, do you trust someone else to gift you with something but with no strings attached? I think we've all had those gifts where somebody gives it to you and you know that there's a string attached to it. Like, oh, they're going to expect a gift from me at their birthday or at their wedding or whatever it is. That's the only reason they're giving us something or or something like that. Or is it a situation like a lot of us have, we have loved ones, we have family members, we have friends where it's like, I just want to gift you something because it's out of the goodness of my heart. Like I I love you. I want you to have this thing. Um, I think, you know, you can look at both of these things and realize there's good news. And that's that we actually have a savior who got the job done perfectly. He was the perfect contractor. He was he was actually a carpenter. He kind of was a contractor. Um, Jesus was. Um, and so he got the job done perfectly, obviously probably with carpentry, but most specifically with going to the cross and dying for our sins. And his job was that free gift of eternal salvation. So he he did the job right and it was a free gift. Um, and he didn't expect anything in return, right? Uh, there was no strings attached. John 3:16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. What a beautiful, beautiful gift that is. Romans 10:9 is the no strings attached part. I mean, it it's as simple as this. If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I mean, Jesus died on the cross so that we cannot have to carry the weight of our sins anymore, right? For the wages of sin is death, but now we have life in him. That's that free gift that he gives us. Um, man, yeah, he was a carpenter and a Messiah and he did his work with love. He did it with integrity. He did it with perfection. Uh, and he's the giver of life. And praise God for that. Amen, right?

Josh Miller: [00:14:50] Amen. Yeah. And that's it's so good. You know, when you look at even our own motivations for just about anything, all of us have imperfect motivations. Even our the way we follow Christ, we are getting something in return for that. And so we always have to recognize that none of us have perfect motives all the time. And so even when we're looking at things happening in the world like with the, you know, Air Force One or the pool, everybody has their own built-in motivations. And so nobody is being completely objective, certainly nobody is being completely selfless on either side. And so what's so powerful about the gospel in this case and in every case is that this is a true gift that God did not need anything from us and yet he gave himself, gave of himself sacrificially with no strings attached that we're able to just receive that. It's the only place in our entire life where that's truly the case, where if we don't kind of own up to our end of the deal, his love is still good and still given. Uh, where else do you experience that in life? I don't think there is anywhere else. And so

Conner Jones: [00:15:52] There's not. I mean, there's there's just not.

Josh Miller: [00:15:54] That's what makes it so powerful.

Conner Jones: [00:15:55] The the closest thing you can think of is a parent's love for their child and what they would do and give for that. But even that has worldly implications a lot of times. So you're right. I mean, it it's such a unique gift. So grateful for that. Um, and I should mention before we move on to our next topic, which Josh is going to very sacrificially take us through. Uh, as you celebrate America's 250th birthday, there's so much to celebrate and we hope everybody has a great 4th of July. I also want to mention while we're here, today's actually Josh's 40th birthday. So Josh, we're not just I can get you a reflecting pool restoration if you would like that for your for your 40th birthday. Happy birthday, Josh.

Josh Miller: [00:16:26] We'll do some fireworks and all that.

Conner Jones: [00:16:28] Yeah, perfect. Cool, Josh, you want to take us into maxing?

Josh Miller: [00:16:35] Maxing. Yeah, so we're going to do, I'm going to call this segment, what's trending? Because I can't believe we're talking about this to be honest. But I'm a bit of a nerd. Uh, I I have all these kind of newsletters that come in that talk about what's happening in culture. And one came through my email last week that was all the Google Trend search report. And so basically it talks about every week what people are searching the most on Google. And sometimes it's things you would expect like the New York Knicks when, you know, they were winning the NBA finals or or whatever else. There's like big events happening, people are searching for it, kind of move along. But this past week, maxing was one of the top searched trends uh happening on Google. And so I first of all, I'm just going, what is going on? You know, I've heard obviously this this word uh has been around for quite some time, a couple years now, has been kind of around, but is continuing to grow in terms of its popularity and exposure across culture. And it's it's it's crossing all sorts of different type of spheres of culture. And so, uh for those who haven't heard of this term, now this is maxing, M A X X I N G. So we got to already we're just like, why?

Conner Jones: [00:17:44] Yeah, there's so many questions here.

Josh Miller: [00:17:46] So many questions. It is worth talking about. You're right. It is like a central cultural thing though. And it has been for about probably about a year. It's kind of developed, but I'm glad you're diving into it. It is a weird word though.

Josh Miller: [00:17:55] It's a weird word. It's just so bizarre. Uh, but essentially the the whole idea around maxing is optimizing a specific aspect of your life. So and and typically to an extreme degree. So this is like beyond just reasonable optimization of your life. This is how can I take optimization of some area of my life to the extreme? Now, in in some cases, this is feels healthy, reasonable to some degree like, okay, that sounds like a good thing. In other cases though, this can be taken to just absolute wild extremes that nobody would argue is healthy. Uh, but let me go through just some of the examples of this. You maybe have heard of some of these, maybe you haven't. But one of the most popular, the most popular version of this is called looksmaxing, which is the idea around optimizing your physical attractiveness. Now, so this can be uh again, this is this this all can be on a spectrum. So in some cases this is like this sounds great and then there are extremes. So this can range anywhere from like skincare routines to going to the gym, getting healthy, uh to how you do your hair, but then it can go all the way to this extreme of uh using dangerous steroids, elective jaw surgery, all sorts of what I would consider sort of bodily uh mutilation almost to go and optimize in in quotes if you're on video, you can see me air quoting here, optimize what you look like. And so the we can talk about some examples of this in a bit, but that's the most popular sort of application of this maxing uh trend. But there's some others here that you may may or may not have heard of. One is called friction maxing, which is the idea of doing things the harder way on purpose. So this would be kind of like, I'm going to take the stairs rather than the elevator, but again, can be taken to all sorts of extremes in terms of like, I'm going to make my whole life harder to like the friction is good for me. So, you know, this kind of idea that life has become too easy and comfortable. I'm going to add artificial friction to make myself stronger. There are things like lean maxing, which is kind of what it sounds like, chasing extreme leanness, lower body fat, which gets into all sorts of body dysmorphia, anorexia type issues here, uh which is kind of having a resurgence in some ways. There's things like there's things like fiber maxing, which is exactly what it sounds like, loading up on high fiber for help your digestion. There's smell maxing, optimizing your scent. Now I've been to some like junior high camps where smell maxing had like a different uh implication just but this is supposed to be like, I'm going to make myself smell so good. There's aura maxing, which is like all about your sort of your vibe and appearance, that swagger. And so people are like, how do I optimize my aura? Uh, then like Forbes has an article talks about career maxing. So how do I optimize my career path to get to the highest tier of the ladder, get the most promotions, make the most money. Uh and even Forbes is talking about how concerning that is and how actually negative that is both for our mental uh mental health, but also even in the workplace, the damage that that causes. And so we've seen uh all of these trends escalate over time over the past couple years, becoming a very popular thing in culture. I this was a fascinating thing in the Google Trends report as well. Can you guess what the top locations are or states or regions in the country where these are being searched more than any other?

Conner Jones: [00:21:12] Oh, I would have to guess probably like Florida, New York and California would be my top three.

Josh Miller: [00:21:16] Neither one are on the list. I was surprised. Really? So DC is number one, which is

Conner Jones: [00:21:22] Guys, yeah. How much are we going to talk about DC today?

Josh Miller: [00:21:26] I mean, yeah, shocker or not. And then my my I claim my home uh city, my home state, Oregon is actually the top state, which I was very surprised by. We have Hawaii, Alaska and North Dakota are the top regions where uh maxing is being searched on Google, which is bizarre. So, anyway, I I'll stop there for a moment. Connor, first of all, are you at all familiar with this trend? Second question, what are you maxing?

Conner Jones: [00:21:53] Uh, I'm I'm culture maxing, man. I'm we're living in culture. We're we're learning it all. We're trying to keep up with everything going on. No, uh yeah, I am 100% familiar with this trend, not to the extent of like I know everything about it, but I see it all the time. I it seems like there's this like just surge of interest in whatever this concept is of like you have to do everything you can possibly do to quote unquote do self-improvement, right? Like this idea of you can completely change your body. So it's it really what I wanted to bring up is I I'm sure some of y'all have seen this guy Clavicular. That's his kind of like a online persona name. His real name is Braden Peters. He's 20 years old. He's from Florida. He's a streamer. Uh he is a guy who has just taken on looks maxing to its furthest possibilities, right? And he has become a massive influential figure for Gen Z specifically and for young men specifically, uh who kind of live in the world of like Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes and this looks maxing guy who think that he is the perfect example of how to achieve whatever it is you're trying to achieve in life. You want uh a higher career, you want higher wages, you want uh the attention of a lot of them for it's the attention of girls. They just want the attention of. And so they they are willing to do whatever they need to do to what you said, almost mutilate their bodies or inject themselves with so much stuff. Clavicular specifically, uh does a strict diet. He injects himself with loads of steroids. Some of these are veterinary steroids for animals. He puts in his body. He takes drugs for skin tanning, weight loss, hair retention. He uses crystal meth to hollow his cheekbones. Um, he has smashed his jaw with hammers and dumbbells to try to reshape the bone structures. He now wants to do more jaw surgery and lengthen his legs uh through surgery. Just this month in June, he's been doing what's called Ascension week, which is a term essentially where when you ascend, you have reached your peak, I guess of some sort, like your peak physical attractiveness as they would say it. Um, in this month, uh leading up to Ascension week, which is specifically this week, Paris Fashion week, he is in Paris as we speak right now, trying to gain attention over there um and trying to get himself on some sort of I guess runway walks and all of that. Uh, specifically this month, he has gone uh through scar removal surgery, ear reshaping surgery, wisdom teeth removal to slim his facial silhouette, and he even live streamed his nose job that he got done. Um, this is a bizarre, bizarre just phenomenon. Uh he is the face of it, but he's not the only one doing it. Um, but he is showing the extremes and unfortunately, a lot of people like what he does. He's getting 50 to 100,000 people watching his eight-hour live streams all day every day.

Josh Miller: [00:24:26] Well, that's what's so sort of terrifying about this as well. It's one thing for an individual to go, I'm going to go do this to myself, but he's really established and you mentioned Tate as well has done this. He's established himself or is attempting to establish himself as a role model for this generation. And so this is where I take even larger issue with the entire premise here is that, you know, if you have some, you know, some uh self-confidence issues, if you have this kind of desire for fame and fortune and are going to do some extreme things, that's one thing, but to then kind of set yourself up as a, hey, you should follow me, do as I do type of mentality here. It just it it's so sad for me to watch and it it's concerning for me to see how many people not only are following him from a a social media standpoint, but also following his behavior and going, maybe I should do this too.

Conner Jones: [00:25:16] Yeah, and he just reached new heights of of reach this past, really this past year and then specifically this spring, he had quite a few very viral videos go, I mean, just mega viral across all the social platforms that kind of made him a a face that people were like, what is this guy talking? He was he's using weird terms. It sounds like he's got his own language and he's got a following of people who speak in this language where they say maxing and mogging and ascension and all this stuff and it's like, what are they talking about? But it made him extremely famous beyond Gen Z now. I mean, he got a New York Times profile. He was on like Piers Morgan, all these things where he's having to go and kind of answer for what you're saying. Why are you thinking what you're doing is good, one, and why do you think others should be doing this? It's not not not great. Ultimately, what I would say this guy, he needs Jesus. Like that that's it and to recognize his identity should not be in himself. It should be in something much greater than himself. But yeah, I'll I'll pass it back to you, Josh. I just want to bring up who this guy is.

Josh Miller: [00:26:07] Yeah, yeah, and I, you know, I'm hoping some people listening to this or watching this haven't heard of him, but the reality is probably most have and which is, you know, unfortunate. You know, he's not the first person to sort of engage in these extreme behaviors for fame, money, power. That's kind of a typical celebrity move, right? How do I get more attention, more power? Well, I've got to do something to the extreme. That's not a new thing. But this goes beyond just an individual. You know, my my question underneath all of this was, why is this resonating? Why are people connecting with this on such a deep level? Even if it's to some degree, it's sometimes maybe there's this aspect of kind of watching a car crash, you know, where it's like, this is going to not end well. And so I I think there's maybe some of that going on, but there's enough of those people going, man, he's actually accomplishing something I want to emulate and I'm I'm that's what really made me reflect after seeing that trend here is what is happening in our culture and how is what is he tapping into that's working? Because something he's doing is making him successful in this short season uh that people are drawn to, want to watch, engage with, uh maybe emulate. And so what why is that working? Uh and so it really for me, it it really came down to two things that I thought about as I was looking at this. The first thing is it's actually a bit of control. Uh and so when you're in a uh sort of a time in culture, a time in your life where you are experiencing a lot of things you can't control. Maybe it's politics, relationships, your health, worried about the future. We tend to want to grab onto things that help us feel like we are more in control. There's something comforting about going, hey, I can career max. I don't know what the economy is doing. I don't know what things are going to look like two years from now. I don't know when I'm going to be able to buy a house. Uh and so I'm going to career max and take control over my life. And I think there's some some aspect to that. You know, there's always been this aspect of uh, you know, worrying about our appearance and how we look. And there are more ways to go about that now than ever before. Uh and so I think people go, well, let me take control of uh of what I look like and how people perceive me. And so people are are grabbing onto things like this to go, well, maybe my relationships aren't great. Maybe if I looks max, I'm going to have more successful dating relationships or find people that respect me or love me more. And so I think there's a control aspect to this and I do think underneath all of it is a self-worth issue. Where do we get our identity? Are we comfortable with who we are? At some point, Clavicular didn't feel like he was enough as who he was. And so the only option is for me to be enough, I need to optimize, again in air quotes, I need to optimize myself in order to be sufficient, in order for people to love me, respect me, give me the attention to be successful in my career. And so to me it comes down to really uh those two things. Are can we be comfortable with the fact that we aren't in control? And obviously we serve a God who is. And so my hope would be that people would recognize that you can't control your life. I was talking to uh somebody the other day who had a health scare just two days ago. Life was going great, things were awesome, uh successful in the places, all the places and all of a sudden there was a health scare and like life's derailed. Uh, you realize pretty quickly you're not in control. Uh, and who do you turn to in that moment? And so, man, my hope for anybody listening here even today would be that just to recognize where some of those motivations are coming from from for one, do we recognize that we're not in control? Do we recognize that at the end of the day, we need to have our lives be dependent on the Lord and how he's going to lead us and are we submitting to that? And then at the end of the day, if you are drawn to some of these things, uh I think it's healthy and helpful to take some time to reflect on where your self-worth is coming from. Is your self-worth based on your career, on your health, on your looks, on what people think about you or is your self-worth coming from who God says you are and who he's created you to be? And so, uh it it does concern me again to see what's happening in culture that this is resonating on such a deep level, but it also makes sense to me in the fact that if our our identity isn't rooted in Christ, we're going to be drawn to things to replace that and they're never going to be as effective uh as walking with the Lord.

Conner Jones: [00:30:34] It's deep in history. People have always been drawn to other things when their identity is not rooted in Christ. Um, I mean, the Israelites are in the desert and they are drawn to a golden calf. I like there's just things that will always appeal specifically this this kind of movement is I think really hitting at younger generations um who and specifically teenage boys is the main target audience who are maybe lonely and feel like they aren't getting the attention. So what can they do to get that attention? Um all this maxing stuff and it's it's bizarre. Yeah, scripture tells us our body's a temple and we should take care of it. And we should take care of it. That doesn't mean um going to the extremes always like this. But, you know, everybody gets to choose how they want to go about handling their own body. Um, I just I would I would highly caution against a lot of this maxing stuff.

Josh Miller: [00:31:19] Yeah, and I was going to say just one more thing to your point here, that we are wired to grow, improve, to build, become better versions of ourselves. You know, there's this sanctification idea in the Bible of we are being transformed into the image of Christ. Those are good motivations to keep your body healthy, to go and be successful in business. Those aren't necessarily bad. You know, uh Paul talks about using about disciplining our body and keeping it under control. Talks about training yourself for godliness. And so, uh but he also adds training uh bodily training is of some value. This is in 1 Timothy, but godliness holds value for both this life and the next. So again, we the the enemy has an a pretty unique way but a consistent way of taking something that was meant to be good and twisting it into something unhealthy that instead of glorifying God through these things, we are either glorifying ourselves or glorifying someone else. And so my encouragement again would just be this this maxing trend is just outlandish, but there is something underneath that I think we can all look at and that is where are we pointing our life toward? Are we trying to build our own success, our own image, our own whatever, or are is our life pointed towards Christ? Are we looking to mirror him? Are we looking to develop our relationship with him? And if we're going to put any effort and intention into something, it should be there, drawing close to the drawing closer to the Lord and allowing him to change and transform us into who he's created us to be from the first place.

Conner Jones: [00:32:46] Totally. Well, I mean, just great stuff, Josh. It is an important topic. Maxing will not go away quickly. I think it will stick around. We will continue to see Clavicular in our lives. We will continue to see maxing and mogging and whatever else terms they say and uh, you know, it's not going to go away that soon. So it was important to hit on this. Thank you for taking us through that. A lot of great points. All right, I want to play a quick game with you, Josh. Um, I'm calling it signer of the Declaration of Independence or the name of a company.

Josh Miller: [00:33:15] Oh no.

Conner Jones: [00:33:15] Uh, some of y'all might see those commercials for like companies or law firms or something and it sounds like you're like, that name really sounds very historical. Like that has to be a colonial declaration signer, right? Not always. So, I'm going to toss some names towards you, Josh, and he has not seen these. I promise. Uh, I I put these together yesterday.

Josh Miller: [00:33:31] I'm nervous. I just saw the Declaration of Independence a couple weeks ago in DC, so I feel like I should know all of this, but there's a lot of names. There's like what? There's 56, 56. I think there's 56 signers.

Conner Jones: [00:33:42] I kind of think there's more.

Josh Miller: [00:33:43] Is there more?

Conner Jones: [00:33:43] Should we confirm? Somebody somebody please confirm that. We need to confirm. I I I could be thinking of the Constitution too. Either way, there's a lot of names on there and a lot of them are not ones you would be familiar with. They're not everyday names. Not everybody is Benjamin Franklin. So, Josh, I'm going to toss a name to you. You're going to tell me if you think they were a signer of the Declaration of Independence or if it is just some sort of corporation out there. All right, let's start with John Penn.

Josh Miller: [00:34:06] Signer.

Conner Jones: [00:34:07] Signer. You got that one right. Wow, nice. Thomas Edwards.

Josh Miller: [00:34:10] Signer?

Conner Jones: [00:34:12] No. Thomas Edwards is an executive search firm. Uh I actually think they're based here in Dallas, but big uh big recruiting agency. I know it sounds sounds like a signer, right? All right, Thomas Stone.

Josh Miller: [00:34:23] I'm going to go signer again.

Conner Jones: [00:34:24] That's a signer. Yeah, you got that one. That's good. Uh Thomas J. Henry.

Josh Miller: [00:34:27] No, that's like a law firm. An attorney. I think I've seen his commercials. I think you've seen the commercial. Yeah. I I always see the commercial. He's like getting off a private jet. Yeah.

Conner Jones: [00:34:34] Although some of these I want to answer both, you know, like is it both?

Josh Miller: [00:34:37] It could be.

Conner Jones: [00:34:37] Thomas J. Henry sounds like the name of somebody who was like definitely a founding father, right? Okay. Another Thomas here. Thomas McKean.

Josh Miller: [00:34:43] Uh, signer.

Conner Jones: [00:34:44] Yeah, signer. Wow, you're doing pretty good.

Josh Miller: [00:34:46] That was a guess. That was a complete guess.

Conner Jones: [00:34:47] Yeah, you're doing good here. Samuel Chase.

Josh Miller: [00:34:50] Uh, not a signer.

Conner Jones: [00:34:51] Signer. Dang. I know, it sounds sounds kind of like a bank, right? It does. It sounds too modern. It literally. Uh, Roger Sherman.

Josh Miller: [00:34:58] Not a signer.

Conner Jones: [00:35:00] It is a signer. These are one of these are these founding fathers whose names you just they're not everyday names. These are tricky. Benjamin Moore.

Josh Miller: [00:35:08] That's a paint company.

Conner Jones: [00:35:09] That is a paint company. Yeah, yeah, that's a paint. Benjamin Moore, but I always see it and I'm like, it sounds so

Josh Miller: [00:35:14] You get the Benjamin in. I mean, there's obviously Benjamin Franklin and so you yeah, that's a tricky one.

Conner Jones: [00:35:18] Last one here. Okay. John Hancock.

Josh Miller: [00:35:21] A signer.

Conner Jones: [00:35:22] Signer and That's the both. That's the both. There's your trick one and insurance company. So, thank you for playing Declaration signer or name of a company.

Josh Miller: [00:35:29] I don't even think I got a passing grade on that. That was pretty bad.

Conner Jones: [00:35:31] Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, I I should have kept track of yeah. Hopefully you guys played along and had better answers there. Uh, but that was in honor of America 250. We won't have an episode next week. We'll have a short week here at the ministry uh for July 4th obviously. So that was our America 250 game right there.

Josh Miller: [00:35:46] There we go.

Conner Jones: [00:35:47] All right, let's jump into check in real fast. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. You've probably heard of him. You might have seen this week that he's stepping down. He's resigning. Um, in recent months, he's really been embroiled in quite a bit of controversy. One from Epstein. Uh he had appointed an ambassador to the United States who he knew had tons of ties to Epstein, uh Jeffrey Epstein specifically. So some of those scandals are there. Um, but also he's got a lot of economic turmoil. He's got immigration turmoil. People just don't trust him to govern the country anymore. In fact, there's not really been anybody to step up in the UK in the last decade to kind of bring the country out of the Brexit um uh decision that they did back in 2016. They they exited the EU in 2016 and they have had seven, this will now be the seventh, whoever steps in, will be the seventh Prime Minister in 10 years.

Josh Miller: [00:36:31] It feels like such a mess. It really does. Yeah. I mean, American politics are messy and confusing and frustrating enough. I can't imagine living in this world and in terms of UK politics as well.

Conner Jones: [00:36:42] Yeah, Axios specifically, I like how they put this. They said Brexit began with utopian promises of an unshackled, quote unquote, global Britain that could curb immigration, slash red tape and take back control of its borders and budget. And yet nobody has been able to step in and actually get that done. You can think of Boris Johnson, uh you can think of Theresa May, um, and Liz Truss was in there for like 47 days. I know not everybody here cares about UK politics, but it's kind of interesting. The same way the British people like to watch our politics over here and be like, that's just a soap opera that doesn't affect me. In a way, it kind of does. This is our closest ally that we have. And so it is important to know what's going on over there and with their leadership. There's a guy that apparently has been the mayor of Manchester in Britain. He's expected to be the new Prime Minister. He's apparently very popular. Uh he's risen up the ranks through a populist kind of election cycle as mayor. Um so he is likely going to be the next Prime Minister here in the next couple months, but we'll see.

Josh Miller: [00:37:32] Makes you wonder why people sign up for this stuff though, you know, right? Just how the how temporary a lot of this is. I wonder if they just kind of go in at sometimes going, hey, I'm going to have my moment in the sun, get the kind of name recognition, a little bit of uh time at the top, knowing that actually staying there in leadership and keeping people with you is more difficult than it's ever been.

Conner Jones: [00:37:51] Yeah, it's just it's different than we have here. You do not get in for a term. You get in for however long they want to keep you in. And sometimes a Prime Minister like um, oh gosh, what's Tony Blair can be in there for a decade, right? It just seems like that's going to be hard to replicate in in this culture now.

Conner Jones: [00:38:06] Totally. All right, something else. Toy Story 5. It's out and man, it's surging at the box office. I think in our bust the block game, I I I think both AJ and I predicted it would bust the block. It has in fact already busted the block. It has brought in $160 million in its opening weekend. It's still surging out there. Apparently it's really good. I've not seen it yet. Josh, have you seen it?

Josh Miller: [00:38:28] I I wanted to go see it. While I was in a meeting at work, turns out I have a job. My family went to the theater without me. It's summertime, so they were like, we're going to go see it. I'm like, I actually, you know, sometimes kids movies, I'm like, you please go see that without me. And then others I'm like, I actually would enjoy seeing that. I would have loved to see this one. I'm going to have to wait till it comes out uh, you know, streaming or something later. But it I mean, my family loved it. They said it was great. And my wife was like, yeah, they tapped into something that every parent is experiencing right now in terms of this tension between technology and like real toys and screen time and all of that tension that any any kind of young parent uh is experiencing. They they were smart in tapping into that tension.

Conner Jones: [00:39:12] Yeah, there's there's so many probably spiritual applications you could even take from a movie like that. I know that's not their intention, but where's my focus? Is it on um, is it on technology? Is it on iPads? Is it on TVs? Or is it on my family, my friends, my my faith, all of that. So a lot there. I'm excited to see this movie. I I keep hearing great things and clearly it's the rebound that Pixar needed because they've had some they've had some um flops in recent years. Let's talk about sports real fast. Uh, we got the University of Oklahoma. I know a couple weeks ago, Micah made a joke that he was like, I don't know what they're doing in Oklahoma. Why they call themselves OU versus University of Oklahoma. Well, this is their slap back at Micah and probably myself too. They won the college World Series. Uh they beat North Carolina in a series of of three game series. They won two of those games to win the college World Series. They actually stomped North Carolina in game three, 13 to two. So congratulations Sooners. You have a baseball championship. Can you translate it to football? We shall see. That's the real question. Uh meanwhile, in the NBA, yeah, the finals just wrapped up. We just saw the Knicks do like this like insane historic run. Uh they they paraded through New York City. All the parades were uh and parade celebrations were huge and I got to see a lot of viral clips out of that. But we also saw this week the Milwaukee Bucks trade their star, oh man, I can never say this last name. Antetokounmpo.

Josh Miller: [00:40:26] I'm not going to help you. I can't, yeah.

Conner Jones: [00:40:27] Just take it from me. I just normally say Giannis. I think a lot of people on TV normally just try to say Giannis because his last name is hard. He's Greek. Uh one of the best players in the NBA. He was traded in a blockbuster trade to the Miami Heat. Um taking a lot of his all of his talents to South Beach, the same way LeBron did many years ago. And in return, they sent back like four draft picks, uh four players. The guy is very valuable. That's why I'm mentioning it because it kind of shakes up this whole league and uh it feels like the NBA is also having a resurgence right now. Pixar, NBA, things that were big in 2010 are back. You know what I'm saying? Maybe Oklahoma sports, all that stuff. So good to see them uh the Bucks making moves and the Heat making moves. Meanwhile, Wyndham Clark, he won the US Open. Did you watch any of the US Open in golf?

Josh Miller: [00:41:07] I I didn't. I've been watching US soccer, which I think we're going to get into in a second, but I didn't I haven't watched any of this. Uh

Conner Jones: [00:41:12] I know a lot of people aren't golf fans, but I wanted to bring it up for this reason. Wyndham Clark uh is considered probably the most or second most dislikable player in in PGA Tour golf. There's reasons for that. Uh and I'm not saying I dislike him in that way, but the crowd was out there literally booing him. Um now there are reasons for this. He has thrown tantrums. He's not carried himself well. He's said things that are very kind of disrespectful, uh especially in a in a sport that carries itself as a it's nicer, it's more formal, all of that. So he's kind of built a reputation and he's come out and apologized somewhat here and there. My point, I guess, Josh, that I was hoping to ask you is, you know, when you have somebody like that, this is not a team sport. You're not booing another team because you dislike that team. You're talking about people are on the course following this guy as he was headed towards hole 18 and just booing him and cheering anytime he had a bad shot or his ball landed in the bunker, all of that. I there's it it rubs a little bit of the wrong way. I get that you have reasons you don't like a player, but um, I don't know. I don't think if I was standing there, I would want to be taking part in that.

Josh Miller: [00:42:11] Yeah, it's one of to me it's one of those things where bad behavior doesn't justify bad behavior. Uh and so, you know, even if he's done some things here that have been truly outside of the kind of respectability of golf and are things that are immature, you know, maybe be a good way to describe it. I I don't love seeing fans play into that. You know, I'd much rather them just decide not to watch him and go watch some other players uh and show their who they're eager to follow. And so I just that's one thing that golf really has had that's different than other sports is this sort of air of respectability and composure, uh and uh still this air of kind of air of positivity still in it. And uh so I think this just kind of feels a little gross to get into that kind of uh that kind of, you know, engagement with the players in that way.

Conner Jones: [00:43:00] I tend to agree. But hey, congrats to Wyndham Clark. He won the US Open. He got to hold up the trophy and celebrate with his family and friends.

Josh Miller: [00:43:05] That much more impressive, right? In in terms of uh having to deal with all of that backlash too.

Conner Jones: [00:43:10] Some of the other players even said, even Scotty Sheffler, our favorite player here, uh were like, honestly, respect. He he owned the moment as a crowd was against him and and kind of shut them up uh in a way. So, very uh very just interesting situation. Yeah, let's talk World Cup real fast. I mean, I know you're a soccer guy. You've been watching a lot.

Josh Miller: [00:43:27] I'm a soccer guy. I played soccer. I thought I was going to be a soccer player. Didn't work out. Health stuff outside of my controls. We talked about earlier. So, but that was my dream was to go play soccer. So I I don't play anymore, but World Cup is just such a blast to watch. My boys are now old enough to really appreciate it as well. I've got the whole house rigged with lights that color change when people score goals. Yellow yellow card happens, the whole light or whole house flashes yellow. It's a whole thing. So we we've been way into it. In fact, some people during a meetings are like, why are the lights flashing behind you during the meeting? And I think it's like there's a game on. I'm not watching it. Exactly, exactly. So we're having a blast and it's been even more fun to see the US actually be competitive. They they've been such a disappointment in so many ways over previous previous World Cups. You're like, we should be more competitive. This is one of those sports that, you know, most sports we can kind of hang as a country and be really competitive right at the top. Not been the case in soccer, but something has shifted here uh over the past few years. And so it's fun to see them come out and really surprise the world in so many ways uh in terms of how how well we've done so far where people are going, well, maybe we actually do have a chance to get a little further than we typically do.

Conner Jones: [00:44:46] It's not even just the men's team. This World Cup in general, it's one, it's doubled in viewership in the United States versus the 2022 World Cup. Now there's several reasons for that. One of them is just it's here. It's in our time zone and people are more in tune because of that. Two, I think the men's team is is just amazing. Three, there's so many games. There's so many countries, so many unique story lines. We're seeing a goalkeeper from Cape Verde become the star of this um this World Cup because he hasn't allowed uh, you know, as many goals as people would have thought in. He's 40 years old. His mom's been brought over. She got a visa through the congressman of what it's it's story lines like that are so fun to watch. You got Lionel Messi breaking the World Cup goal scoring. He's got five goals in this World Cup so far. He's played two games. I mean, just the best maybe the best player of all time. That's the debate is going now. We'll see how far Argentina makes it.

Josh Miller: [00:45:29] And is it nice just to have something that just feels positive? Like there's there's not been a lot of drama here. There's not been any kind of nasty stuff happening. It's it's been everybody's celebrating their country, being excited about their country. It's so fun to see fans coming from all over the world and cheer on their team. It's just it's been a nice breath of fresh air in a time that feels a little bit tenuous, you know.

Conner Jones: [00:45:53] Well, we said that on last week's episode when we um, you know, I was discussing with Ryan Dennison the the fans from around the world that are here and just loving America and it felt like a breath of fresh air. This whole thing feels like a breath of fresh air when there's political drama, when there's geopolitical drama to see the world come together and on our own home soil and in Canada and Mexico and just stop and like, let's celebrate. You're seeing these fans from Norway like taking over a stadium and rowing and doing Viking skull chants together. It's kind of insane. It's like, man, they're like modern day Vikings literally. They sound and look like it. Um, they are the descendants. It's really cool. Uh I'm loving it too. The men's team, guys, go get it done. Just go get it done. I know you're playing Turkey. They're playing Turkey. Uh if you're listening to this on Thursday, they're playing Turkey tonight in a game that doesn't really matter. Uh we've already secured our position in the next round, but it'll be fun just to see maybe we'll play some backups or what not, get them some um time out there on the on the field and uh to see how much we can get more excitement built up going into the next round. Like I think people are here and watching and tuned in because we are surprising the nation. There is a uh I'm not sure if you've seen it, Josh, there's a documentary on HBO right now that they just dropped like a couple weeks ago leading up to the World Cup following the US men's team. I've seen it. I need to check it out. I watched the first episode last night. It's really cool. They cover the 2022 World Cup and they're setting it up for like, here's where the players are now in the recent years prepping for this World Cup that they recognize the weight of, hey, our team has not succeeded in the past and we're here in America now, we need to get this done. We have a goal, we have a mission, we want to be patriotic, we want to bring our country together. Like they recognize kind of the moment that they've got. Um and they're they're owning it right now. I mean, we're just dominating these games.

Josh Miller: [00:47:26] And there's always just a little bit of energy that's added being on your home soil in your country. You're you're extra motivated, have extra fans. This is the time. This is the opportunity for sure.

Conner Jones: [00:47:35] It's it's definitely the time and it's honestly a time for soccer to like blow up in America. Like maybe maybe this makes soccer more popular and the MLS more popular. All these guys go play in Europe. And so we don't get to see them or unless you're a big Premier League or European League fan, uh you don't see a lot of our players. This is their moment. They have it had me looking at FC Dallas tickets here in town after watching the World Cup. I'm like, we need to go to a game.

Josh Miller: [00:47:54] It's fun. Soccer is kind of fun um to watch and it it's just really cool when the whole world gets behind it.

Conner Jones: [00:47:59] All right guys, well, I think this was a good episode, Josh. I'm so glad you were here to join me on the first one in our studio.

Josh Miller: [00:48:03] Studio worked.

Conner Jones: [00:48:04] It we think it worked. I mean, if you're watching this, it worked. Um, sound worked, audio worked, visuals worked, lighting, I think worked. So we're grateful for that. Um, again, we won't have an episode next week, so don't don't come searching for us on Spotify or Apple or YouTube. We won't be there. Um, but we do hope you all enjoy your 4th of July and America's 250th birthday. Um, and Josh, your 40th birthday. I hope you enjoy it too.

Josh Miller: [00:48:26] Thank you. Thanks.

Conner Jones: [00:48:27] Thank you all for joining us this week.

Josh Miller: [00:48:28] See you.

Conner Jones: [00:48:31] Thank you for joining us on this week's episode of Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast. All articles and videos mentioned in this episode will be linked in the show notes. If you want to help us reach more believers with truth in today's chaotic culture, please share this podcast around and leave a five-star rating and review. All episodes are produced by Sound of a Rose. For more information, you can visit soundofarose.com. See you next Thursday.