Latest / Culture Brief - Christian perspectives on the week's biggest news, sports & pop-culture stories / Ukraine, Hegseth, American work, box office booms & College-football chaos | Ep. 47

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Ukraine, Hegseth, American work, box office booms & College-football chaos | Ep. 47 · Culture Brief - Christian perspectives on the week's biggest news, sports & pop-culture stories

0:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, I'm Connor Jones.
0:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Mike Atama Sella.
0:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is Culture Brief, a Dinosaur form podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and everything else happening in culture.
0:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're doing it all from a Christian perspective.
0:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And Mike, we've been offered two weeks.
0:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's good to be back.
0:20
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot has happened since then.
0:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, stranger things is back.
0:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Lane Giffinza, LSU now.
0:25
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
0:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So much has happened.
0:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And politically, too, you want to just give us
0:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, Connor.
0:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It is great to be back.
0:34
[SPEAKER_00]: We have missed you our loyal culture brief audience So we're gonna be doing a foreign policy roundup today.
0:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Connor's gonna take us through that Just a lot of different things that internationally abroad and here's state side and then I'm gonna take us through how the American Worker has evolved over the last 250 years.
0:51
[SPEAKER_00]: You know next year we're coming up on
0:52
[SPEAKER_00]: 250 years is a country and so we're going to talk about that and then we also got a really compelling message from one of our listeners that we're going to share with you We've got all those things and so much more.
1:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's jump into the brief the brief
1:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Michael, you mentioned it.
1:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's start up top with some foreign policy stuff.
1:12
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so much happening around the globe in the U.S.
1:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, specifically has its fingers and all of it.
1:17
[SPEAKER_01]: They are somewhat a part of some of these stories.
1:20
[SPEAKER_01]: They're trying to negotiate.
1:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Peace deals all that.
1:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And this has been the case, and we've talked about this all year, 2025, whether it's Israel or Thailand in Cambodia.
1:27
[SPEAKER_01]: But specifically, the big one right now that's gaining a lot of attention is obviously Ukraine to Russia.
1:31
[SPEAKER_01]: we've talked about this all year long it's been like peace talks here peace talks here trump and putton meeting and it doesn't feel like anything has really ever come out this been concrete so we're now at the closest position to that uh over the last few weeks there's been uh plans presented plans leaked to the media that
1:48
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we're showing maybe the U.S. is leading more pro Russia.
1:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So your Europe was mad.
1:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Your crane was kind of mad.
1:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Zelensky president of Ukraine was kind of saying, hey, we might lose a strategic partner here in the U.S. over this whole plan.
2:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it was all kind of, you know, working through the media to try to get their position.
2:07
[SPEAKER_01]: advanced, and we're now at a point where the U.S. is presenting a plan to Russia, Steve Whitkoff is the U.S. envoy, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner also kind of an envoy.
2:18
[SPEAKER_01]: They worked in the Israel peace deal to secure that with Gaza.
2:22
[SPEAKER_01]: They are in Moscow currently, as we're speaking, I think by the time this episode releases they'll be back in Ukraine, presenting what they've found out in Moscow, what they landed on with the Russians out there in Moscow.
2:32
[SPEAKER_01]: They spoke with Moscow.
2:34
[SPEAKER_01]: not not with Putin directly, but with his advisors, and it sounds like they presented a 19-point deal that was shrunk down from a 28-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-
3:03
[SPEAKER_01]: it was going to shrink the Ukrainian military, but what it would do is require Russia to take $100 billion of their frozen assets and give it to Ukraine for rebuilding, reconstruction of Ukraine.
3:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So there was some back and forth there.
3:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Ultimately,
3:18
[SPEAKER_01]: It kind of all happened at a really bad time for Ukraine, at least for a lot of years of linsky the president, because his chief of staff at the same time these negotiations were going on basically had to resign due to corruption charges, which got a lot of people just talking and a lot of Americans upset because it felt like maybe
3:36
[SPEAKER_01]: you know we're we're helping this corrupt country this is the number two guy in Ukraine had to resign because he was caught up in this embezzlement uh... scheme or he's alleged have been caught up in it but he had to resign because it was just in the middle of all these big negotiations for peace um... and you know he was considered like a power broker and was one of the top negotiators for Zelensky in the talks um...
3:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my guy just feels like we're still at a stalemate.
3:59
[SPEAKER_01]: We're hopefully getting closer, but I don't know if you have any other thoughts on kind of what's going on there.
4:03
[SPEAKER_01]: But so far, we've been talking about this for months and nothing has really advanced.
4:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, you know, we're just kind of in wait and see mode, you know, we've talked a lot about, you know, Trump's promises on the campaign trail to bring peace and, you know, to give him credit where it's due, they're, they're, they're half pin.
4:18
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of peace still's put in place.
4:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely like in a lot of smaller countries, but also what's going on in Gaza right now seems to be humming along, not perfectly, but it's still in place.
4:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, but really, the biggest domino is the war against Russian Ukraine.
4:33
[SPEAKER_00]: This thing's been going on for nearly four years.
4:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's truly, it would be a very tall task.
4:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, I mean, it seems like they're close, but it just seems like we're in wait and see mode, but so far, I have no reason to believe that there isn't going to be something figured out and everybody's going to have to compromise something.
4:54
[SPEAKER_01]: correct.
4:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would say the Russians are very much so adamant that they don't have to compromise much because they believe that they are winning the war.
5:01
[SPEAKER_01]: They have taken the territory of belongs to them and the Ukrainians would say, well, no, you entered our sovereign territory and Europe would say the same and the Europeans are mad because they think that the US is kind of siding more so with Russia and that.
5:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know.
5:14
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot there.
5:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So keep tabs on that.
5:16
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll obviously keep tabs and if we get a deal landed, we will come back with all the details on that and we are praying for a deal there.
5:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the death and destruction just continues to rage on.
5:26
[SPEAKER_01]: As you said, Michael, almost four years in.
5:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, here's state side on top of all of that.
5:31
[SPEAKER_01]: We've had quite a few stories as well.
5:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, the very tragic story of the attack, just two blocks from the White House on November 26, the day before Thanksgiving.
5:42
[SPEAKER_01]: two national guard members shot them and ambush them.
5:46
[SPEAKER_01]: One of those specialists, Sarah Beckstrom, she was age 20, did unfortunately pass away on Thanksgiving Day.
5:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other man, staff sergeant Andrew Wolff, who was age 24, is still in critical condition in the hospital, but is apparently
5:58
[SPEAKER_01]: on the road to recovery, which is really good news, and we're praying that he does fully recover, right?
6:02
[SPEAKER_01]: That has just sparked so much, obviously, just mourning for our lost soldier in her sacrifice, which is really sad, and just too blocked on the White House right in our capital.
6:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just not great, but it's also caused a lot of backlash, because people were like, okay, this guy came over from afghanistan, right after the fall of Kabul, when the US pulled out,
6:23
[SPEAKER_01]: This was in 2021 under Joe Biden.
6:25
[SPEAKER_01]: He pulled out all the U.S. forces.
6:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It was kind of a disastrous pull out.
6:28
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the way it was like terrible, right?
6:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Terribly.
6:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, reminiscent of Saigon in the 70s, right?
6:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So that happened, but what they did, what the U.S. did was they launched Operation Allies Welcome, which brought a lot of Afghani people with the U.S. to our states,
6:50
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... help the u.s. during the war in Afghanistan uh... whether they were translators or operatives or whatever was that was about a hundred and ninety thousand uh... afghani refugees came over during that operation as it was that much while it is a lot of people um... and because of that
7:06
[SPEAKER_01]: now there's people on the right and even really honestly just in the government who are saying what we need to send a lot of them back when they did a port these people were not properly vetted they came over in this like emergency situation because they would have been killed by the Taliban had it been found out they were helping the US right so there are reasons to bring them over but now a lot of government officials are saying they were not properly vetted and that includes uh... christian o'am the US Department of Homeland Security Secretary
7:36
[SPEAKER_01]: On other countries that are similar to Afghanistan, she's calling them third world countries, obviously it's a popular term.
7:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what we would classify in the US government as third world.
7:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they're releasing a list of what these countries will be.
7:48
[SPEAKER_01]: But they have stopped all immigration from Afghanistan because of this.
7:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I just want to point out one thing.
7:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I read this great article from the free press.
7:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't but by an author named Elliot Ackerman.
8:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It was titled, I served in the CIA's zero units in Afghanistan.
8:04
[SPEAKER_01]: So did the Afghan man accuse of savagely shooting two national guard members the day before Thanksgiving We cannot use the syrific act to malign all of our Afghan allies and he's right I think a lot of people are upset because there have been four to five Afghani nationals that have been arrested since just last October with terrorist cigarettes and then this guy actually pulled off the terrorist attack on these national guard members And so yeah, that caused a wave of like just
8:29
[SPEAKER_01]: questioning.
8:31
[SPEAKER_01]: We want these people here in this country and I think this guy brings up a good point.
8:35
[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot pin all Afghanis as the same kind of mentality or radical Islamic ideology as this guy had that attack these national guard members, right?
8:47
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't put that on all 190,000.
8:49
[SPEAKER_01]: But
8:50
[SPEAKER_01]: you know a lot of people say why why risk it at all why not why have them here or we do need to do a deeper vetting process that they all need to go through interviews all of that.
8:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So Mike any thoughts there?
9:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, so when it comes to the Afghani nationals and and those that helped us abroad, I can definitely understand the argument that
9:11
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if they helped us, I'm sure, from the beginning, they were assured some sort of asylum, if they were to help because obviously if they would have stayed, they would have been in grave danger.
9:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if I, if I totally agree with that author's point from the free press because it isn't that author and American.
9:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, I served in this unit and I'm an American.
9:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I served in this unit and I'm from Afghanistan.
9:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I just don't believe it.
9:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a one for one.
9:34
[SPEAKER_00]: argument.
9:35
[SPEAKER_00]: They're from Afghanistan.
9:36
[SPEAKER_00]: They served in this.
9:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So they're good.
9:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if it's a one for one because, you know, that they grew up in that environment and then you have this author who isn't American themselves.
9:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think it's important that that we draw a line and we don't throw the baby out with the bath water per se and say,
9:54
[SPEAKER_00]: all, all Afghan nationals are dangerous and so they must all be deported.
9:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I definitely think that that's too far, but I definitely would agree with, there should be more proper vetting of anybody who comes here, specifically from places that tend to have popular ideologies of not loving America so much.
10:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think I think it is a government's duty to protect its citizens too.
10:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So it is, it is a balance.
10:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a very tough balance.
10:20
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you protect your citizens?
10:22
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you also protect the people who helped your nation and would be killed in that country if they found, you know, the enemy found out they'd served with the United States.
10:31
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of questions there, but something happened between that guy coming over from Afghanistan and today that radicalized him and it sounds like it's happening with others as well.
10:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So hopefully that stops.
10:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, we'll continue to pray for just that situation in the family that I'm also sure I love to win and the man who is still in the hospital for covering.
10:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, on top of all of this, we still have a massive military build up going on in the Caribbean.
10:55
[SPEAKER_01]: They are sending more and more aircraft to Puerto Rico to station up.
10:58
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got an aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford is now in the Caribbean.
11:02
[SPEAKER_01]: All of this is placing pressure on Venezuela, but it's also part of these drone strikes that are happening on drug vessels.
11:10
[SPEAKER_01]: uh we've been talking about this since September, September 2nd was the first attack, and since then we have seen 21 strikes on drug vessels that have killed 82 people that are considered by the U.S. government, Narco Terrace, because they are saying that they're bringing all these drugs, cocaine, fentanyl, anything up to the United States.
11:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Now a lot of people would say it's mostly fentanyl, but a lot of reporters are also starting to dig into this and they're discovering that these drug boats are mostly carrying cocaine.
11:35
[SPEAKER_01]: which the US has said that they are aiming for fit in all deliveries because fit in all so deadly and it's killed hundreds of thousands of Americans over the last decade.
11:43
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's kind of the justification behind these strikes, but if they're not taking out fit in all brings up questions, Congress is getting involved in all this and now they're really starting to take a look at this because the Washington Post had an article last week about Pete Higgs at the Secretary of Defense.
11:58
[SPEAKER_01]: He calls himself the Secretary of War.
12:01
[SPEAKER_01]: He apparently had a strike ordered the very first one on
12:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It did, they did strike the boat, but then there were two survivors of the initial strike on that boat.
12:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And then a second strike hit the boat to kill the two remaining survivors.
12:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, there's been arguments about who ordered that second strike to kill the survivors.
12:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it a war crime to kill survivors who had no weapons and were rendered?
12:23
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... defenseless phexeth has said it's not a war crime he also has said that he did not order the second strike and the white house is said that it was an admiral who ordered the second strike uh... admiral frank Bradley they said gave the order and they declared at the white house that he worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed yes so they're pinning it on that admiral on the admiral on the admiral on the admiral but they're also
12:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, not backing away from it.
12:55
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, oh, the admiral did it, but we didn't do anything wrong.
12:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, a lot of people would say, but they're depending on him.
13:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Just in case, just in case it goes sideways.
13:05
[SPEAKER_00]: The admiral did it.
13:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I saw something that like Pete headsets that he had like walked out of the room.
13:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, whatever that second strike was happening.
13:12
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I couldn't have ordered it.
13:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd already walked out of the room.
13:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is what, this is what, yeah, you're right, this is what Heggseth said.
13:17
[SPEAKER_01]: He said he did not personally see any survivors after the initial strike on a purported drug vessel and that he watched the first strike live, but left before learning hours later that Bradley had made the call to sink the boat.
13:29
[SPEAKER_01]: He also said that this is called the fog of war.
13:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and he, you know, he's like, you kind of see much in these, these video streams like it's flamed or a fog of war, well, and the metaphorical fog of war, like there's just things like this that happened is kind of what he's saying.
13:43
[SPEAKER_01]: This is, this is what happens in war, uh, we're, we're, we're, we're, that's the, that's the problem with the statement according to Congress.
13:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not giving my opinion on whether we're, we're not, but Congress is questioning, like, okay, we're, we're not, I, I don't know.
13:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
13:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and Congress says they, they, you know, all these lawmakers like it has to be congressional declaration of war.
14:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
14:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So the White House is going to say we're at war, but we're not really at war because if we're really at war, you got to get congressional approval to be actually officially at war.
14:15
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're about as at war as you can be without congressional approval, I guess.
14:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I suppose well, this is the life long question thing like how far can a very interesting direct military orders.
14:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is these drone strikes.
14:28
[SPEAKER_01]: They're being at the direction of obviously Hexeth, but more specifically Donald Trump has given the orders to take these boats out.
14:35
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a question when Barack Obama used to order drone strikes in Yemen, right?
14:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Who does he have the authority to do that or does Congress have to get involved?
14:43
[SPEAKER_01]: There's all those questions in Congress of course always wants to be involved in everything and now They're even potentially bringing up war crimes as a as a phrase that they're saying with this whole strider They're trying to suggest that this was potentially a war crime Which if it is could lead to an impeachment of hexeth in fact one democratic congressman is already Putting together articles of impeachment against hexeth.
15:05
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see if that goes through.
15:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I doubt it will.
15:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It's still a Republican Congress, so let's see.
15:09
[SPEAKER_01]: It's unlikely
15:09
[SPEAKER_01]: All of this to say, this whole thing is also just boiling up towards Venezuela, we're on the precipice of apparently imminent attacks, potentially on land in Venezuela to take out drug facilities, maybe even the dictator Nicholas Maduro himself, but they've been talking with the White House.
15:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if they're going to make a deal of some sort of avoid getting military strikes on their land or to save Maduro's life, but right now it's kind of out of stalemate, it's kind of out of
15:36
[SPEAKER_01]: high tensions, and the U.S. Navy is just sitting right off the coast of Venezuela.
15:41
[SPEAKER_01]: The pressure is on Venezuela for sure.
15:43
[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll see what happens there.
15:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Mike, it's a lot going on.
15:47
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot to be concerned about.
15:49
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot to think about, a lot to be frustrated about.
15:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're listening to this and you find yourself frustrated just with all these stories, you're probably not alone or if you're confused or you're just angered, you can be angered by injustices across the globe to National Guardsman just walk
16:05
[SPEAKER_01]: getting an ambush.
16:06
[SPEAKER_01]: That's angering, right?
16:07
[SPEAKER_01]: That's frustrating.
16:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
16:08
[SPEAKER_01]: People will innocently be killed in Ukraine in Russia.
16:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you're even angered by drugboats being struck by the US military.
16:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
16:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever it is, it's all reasonable, right?
16:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's also what drives attention, uh, anger.
16:22
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the media focuses on.
16:24
[SPEAKER_01]: They're always trying to drive attention through trying to anger people.
16:27
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, the Oxford University's word of the year.
16:30
[SPEAKER_01]: They just announced this week was rage bait, which I guess is too words.
16:34
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's not right.
16:35
[SPEAKER_01]: The year rage bait, they say that rage bait is the most culturally significant expression of 2025 with the phrases used to just tripling in the last 12 months.
16:44
[SPEAKER_01]: They say before the internet was focused on grabbing our attention by sparking curiosity and exchange for clicks.
16:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But now, we've seen a dramatic shift to hijacking and influencing our emotions.
16:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that's very accurate.
16:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems that way for a while, not just this year.
16:59
[SPEAKER_01]: it's not, but for whatever reason it has just really taken off this year.
17:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's been building up in this year.
17:05
[SPEAKER_01]: We just saw it absolutely at his catalyst rage baiting.
17:09
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes me question, have I been rage baited this year?
17:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you been my cat listeners?
17:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you all been rage baited this year on certain things?
17:16
[SPEAKER_01]: This doesn't just have to be politics.
17:17
[SPEAKER_01]: This can be all the way down to sports teams.
17:19
[SPEAKER_01]: This can be theology.
17:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you've been rage baited in a theological discussion.
17:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Things where people are trying to rise any motion out of you, right?
17:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And it can be all these foreign policies, and wars, and immigration, all of that.
17:33
[SPEAKER_01]: When we are rage-bated, or when we are discussing all of these big stories, I think it's crucial to remember that we have to give it all to God.
17:41
[SPEAKER_01]: We have to remind ourselves that in all of that chaos, God is still a God of order.
17:47
[SPEAKER_01]: First Corinthians 1433 says, for God is not a God of disorder, but of peace, which I think is a great reminder.
17:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And we see it even Micah in the universe, which God made so orderly.
17:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I keep created the sun in the moon and the stars to perfectly align the time and the seasons.
18:04
[SPEAKER_01]: and we read that in Psalm 104 19 right so he made us in an orderly fashion and he did it with our bodies our bodies do incredible things it's it's truly a miracle that we operate every day right and in Isaiah 11 18 he says come now let us reason together
18:20
[SPEAKER_01]: As the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
18:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
18:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And that right there is the true order that humans, we are not orderly, but we sure can strive to be, and it's, uh, so let's pray, right, that there will be order in our world, that the gospel will be heard and that everybody will be wiped as white as snow, right?
18:42
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the only hope we can have for a full order until then.
18:45
[SPEAKER_01]: We can't expect fallen man to have order in foreign policy and in immigration and wars all of that right because unless he's in it and less god is in it us fallen humans will only continue to so disorder.
18:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's pray for order today.
19:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Love it, Connor.
19:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, thanks for taking us through that.
19:06
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a ton of subjects to cover you did a great job.
19:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
19:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So now I want to talk about the American worker in 250 years of change.
19:15
[SPEAKER_00]: So we are coming up on our 250th birthday as a country next year.
19:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Wall Street Journal recently laid out a 250-year picture of the American worker, and honestly, like, I think it gives needed perspective.
19:30
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, God's given us this platform here.
19:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just wanted to share it.
19:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I just really hit me as I was reading through this.
19:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Work feels tough today.
19:36
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of complaints about the job that people have.
19:39
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't like.
19:39
[SPEAKER_00]: It's tough.
19:40
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard.
19:40
[SPEAKER_00]: People are working a lot.
19:42
[SPEAKER_00]: You're at your having a hard time finding the exact job and marketing.
19:46
[SPEAKER_00]: that you're looking for, right?
19:48
[SPEAKER_00]: But many people feel stretched and they feel pressed, but when you zoom out, the long story of American labor is nothing short of remarkable.
19:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It is nothing short of remarkable.
19:59
[SPEAKER_00]: There is an American excellence that we have experienced and America has changed the world and now with the strongest, most prosperous nation and the world.
20:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just don't want that to get.
20:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I
20:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I just do not want that to get lost and I think this is a very timely time to talk about it with all the labor numbers coming out and all of the bad news that we see about the labor market and the economy.
20:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But before we jump into this, I just want to give you a quick disclaimer because I'm going to take you from start to finish.
20:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to try to be quick.
20:26
[SPEAKER_00]: These numbers are from real sources like the Wall Street Journal, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and like historical economic data.
20:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I was on OSHA's website.
20:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I was on.
20:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I was on the bureau of labor statistics.
20:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I was looking at census data, so anything from the 1800s is obviously more of an estimate since record keeping wasn't what it is today, but the big picture is solid and well supported.
20:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So any inferences I draw smarter people than me already drew these inferences and I'm giving credit to them in the show notes.
20:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So, from fields to factories, this is how it started 250 years ago, almost everyone in America worked on a farm, almost every job was agricultural.
21:08
[SPEAKER_00]: The average workday lasted from sunrise to sunset, there was no clock watching, okay?
21:13
[SPEAKER_00]: There were no weekends, there were no labor laws, whatsoever, and there was no real concept of just time off.
21:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Survival was the job.
21:21
[SPEAKER_00]: You do what you do what you had to do to survive.
21:24
[SPEAKER_00]: The goal was to survive.
21:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And to have your family survive.
21:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Then came the industrial revolutions.
21:29
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to jump straight to that.
21:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Millions moved into fact.
21:33
[SPEAKER_00]: The work was exhausting.
21:34
[SPEAKER_00]: It was dangerous.
21:35
[SPEAKER_00]: 10 to 12 hour days high injury rates.
21:38
[SPEAKER_00]: One in five kids were working full time.
21:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
21:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Full time jobs.
21:42
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
21:43
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1913 more than 23,000 workers died on the job.
21:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and in a year alone, 23,000 workers died today, even with a much larger workforce, a much larger nation.
21:54
[SPEAKER_00]: That number is just around 5,000, 5,000 work-related deaths.
21:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a hard life, but America kept growing through it, kept adapting through it, and so did the pressure to make work feel safer and fairer.
22:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so then let's get into the fight for fairness.
22:09
[SPEAKER_00]: The early 1900s really changed everything.
22:11
[SPEAKER_00]: The early 1900s really set up the type of work that we see today.
22:15
[SPEAKER_00]: So workers organized unions happened and out of that came the building blocks of what we see in modern labor.
22:22
[SPEAKER_00]: The eight hour work day, the weekend, okay, Saturdays are for the boys, you know, going to turn on Sunday, you know what I mean?
22:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that started in the early 1900s of people were actually starting to get time off.
22:34
[SPEAKER_00]: child labor laws were an accident in the early 1900s.
22:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm I don't know about you Connor.
22:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a big proponent of child labor laws I don't think children should should be working dangerous full-time jobs, but you know I don't want to suppose how you feel about that Some icon absolutely and happy.
22:49
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no child you feel the same there's some countries in this world that do not have child labor No, they would act them.
22:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Many don't many do not.
22:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're very blessed to live in this country a Federal minimum wage was enacted
23:01
[SPEAKER_00]: safety standards were enacted that, you know, all these, all these large companies had to actually start to do things to ensure their workers were safe.
23:08
[SPEAKER_00]: In the 1830s, factory workers averaged 70 hours a week.
23:12
[SPEAKER_00]: By the 1890s, it was closer to 60.
23:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, the national average is around 34.
23:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So the national average all across the board, the hours worked to 34 hours a week.
23:21
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a 50% drop in work hours over time.
23:25
[SPEAKER_00]: and it did not happen overnight, but the trajectory is clear, right?
23:28
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been getting better at this.
23:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So is any of this surprising to you so far, Connor?
23:34
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, I guess, I'm just always amazed by American ingenuity.
23:39
[SPEAKER_01]: First off, the fact that people had the audacity to work as long and hard as they did.
23:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, in the 1700s, 1800s industrial revolution.
23:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And you watch these documentaries, you see a movie kind of based in that time period and you're just amazed by what people were pulling off back then.
23:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it just kind of changes over time and I'm still amazed by what we pull off.
23:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, you know, I think one of the things that is so interesting about this last century was World War II and what happened there with the way that changed the work life and the amount of stuff that Americans got together and just created and built and made happen.
24:13
[SPEAKER_01]: basically no time to go towards the war if it in that change American work for the future as well.
24:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm not entirely surprised but I'm amazed.
24:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we are so focused on the here and now and I think sometimes we need to zoom out and have perspective and I think perspective changes things.
24:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it can change the way that we view people and situations.
24:35
[SPEAKER_00]: We're in a much better spot now than the average American was in the 1800s.
24:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
24:40
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
24:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about wages, living standards, and the American middle class.
24:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So now here is where the Wall Street Journal data hit the hardest in my opinion and like laid it out the most clearly.
24:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The typical worker today earns dramatically more than previous generations, even after adjusting for inflation.
24:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to give that context.
24:59
[SPEAKER_00]: 1920 the average income was barely over $1,000 in today's dollars.
25:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, by 1950 it was around 16,000.
25:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about yearly income.
25:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, 1820 around $1,000 in today's income.
25:12
[SPEAKER_00]: 1550 around 16,000 in today's income.
25:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Day, it's over $70,000, okay?
25:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Housing, child care, health care are expensive today.
25:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to acknowledge that everyone feels that, but the long-term rise in living standards is real.
25:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Food used to swallow 40% of a family's income.
25:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Today it's around 10.
25:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Clothing used to take 15%.
25:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's around three, homes that once lacked plumbing and heating and having climate control and refrigeration and clean water and more safety features than early Americans could imagine.
25:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Life expectancy has doubled, education rates exploded, labor productivity climbed more than 400 percent since 1950.
25:54
[SPEAKER_00]: That does not erase the pressures of modern life in the inflation in the crunch that we all feel, but it does remind us how far we've come and change doesn't happen just like that.
26:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, it's slow, it's gradual, but here's the modern shift.
26:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, only one in 10 Americans work in manufacturing, okay?
26:13
[SPEAKER_00]: But most do work in healthcare, education, tech, retail, or just office based jobs.
26:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Work is less physical, more mental, and more digital than ever before.
26:23
[SPEAKER_00]: We have more flexibility, but there is more stress that comes with.
26:28
[SPEAKER_00]: There are the modern American worker is asked to juggle multiple things when it used to be you did this one job in this one way and it was very labor intensive and it was a lot of hours so it has shifted it's just a different kind of difficult remote work in AI may reshape things again we might be standing at another turning point right now just like a shift from farms to factories work changes it always has so in American history we're just focusing on that.
26:54
[SPEAKER_00]: work has always changed and Americans have always adapted to it and thrived.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Connor, let's talk about what is work going to look like in the next 50 years.
27:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I was just curious about that, right?
27:05
[SPEAKER_00]: With what we're seeing with AI right now, what is work going to look like in 50 years?
27:09
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where the future gets interesting.
27:11
[SPEAKER_00]: If history is a guide, work in 50 years will probably look as different from today as it looked from like 1925, like that's the capability that AI has to change so many things here are a few likely shifts and I'm not,
27:24
[SPEAKER_00]: more automation and AI doing our repetitive tasks, more flexibility and where people work.
27:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that we're going to keep seeing that longer, healthy lifespans, which could extend working years.
27:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you're going to see people working longer and longer, entirely new industries built around tech, but we don't even know yet.
27:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Like AI is going to create industries for jobs that we do not even understand or know yet.
27:47
[SPEAKER_00]: and it continued move towards skills, specific skills over degrees, small side note, right?
27:53
[SPEAKER_00]: People who work in trades are so many good-paying trades jobs, you know, being a mechanic, working as a plumber, working as a welder, there are so many jobs open right now that I've been reading that pay very, very well, and there's just not enough skilled labor yet in the market.
28:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that we're going to start seeing that too.
28:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this, especially with AI, you're going to start seeing people move more towards
28:15
[SPEAKER_00]: skill and trade related jobs as opposed to getting another marketing degree or a communications degree.
28:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Not knock in those things.
28:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a type of degree like that too.
28:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so just like before, there will be fears growing pains and real challenges, but if the last 250 years have shown us anything so far, Connor, it is that American workers adapt, build, we move forward.
28:39
[SPEAKER_00]: The future is going to bring change, but change has always been a part of our story.
28:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Any thoughts before I jump into the spiritual application of this corner?
28:49
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I just think it's interesting because you said the AI is going to create industries.
28:52
[SPEAKER_01]: We didn't even know about it and that's hard to envision right now, but I'm thinking like five years ago.
28:56
[SPEAKER_01]: If you said there'd be an entire AI industry, people would think you're crazy.
29:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Now there are so many AI companies that are hiring up tech people all around.
29:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's hard to predict what's going to come, you know, five years from now, there could be an industry we can't even comprehend sitting here in this moment, but we'll be talking about it five years from now.
29:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
29:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there was just so many things in our nation's history.
29:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you think about, you know, people thought the internet, the creation of the internet would destroy the world.
29:23
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the whole Y2K stuff, when the car was first invented and people stopped writing horses, you know, people were the end is near.
29:30
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, all that we're not going to figure this thing out.
29:32
[SPEAKER_00]: When you move from farm to factories, that's a huge deal.
29:34
[SPEAKER_00]: When you move from factories to more tech related jobs office,
29:40
[SPEAKER_00]: why not view things glass have full and why not say hey if you look at our history we've gone through a lot of big changes and there's something special about this country and the the way that people are incentivized and able to risk to create a better life for themselves.
29:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to beat this American excellence drum as long as I possibly can because I don't believe it really helps anything much if we're just so negative about the place that we live.
30:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But if there isn't an underlying gratitude in a perspective that we live in a very safe, sovereign, prosperous nation, no matter where you're from.
30:17
[SPEAKER_00]: You can go out and make a better life for yourself.
30:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously there are some exceptions.
30:22
[SPEAKER_00]: But by and large, the only thing that stops you from accomplishing what you want to accomplish is you.
30:29
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a system, it's not, you know, and again, what I'm saying is probably pretty controversial, but I know that Connor and I are on the same page on this, I just, I will beat that drum of why not be grateful.
30:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I think a heart of gratitude pushes us to do greater things.
30:44
[SPEAKER_01]: We're very blessed to live here, and there's a reason so many people around the world try to get into this nation.
30:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Still, right?
30:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still every day.
30:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, thousands of people are trying to get across our borders or fly into our nation to come work here, study here, start a business in a life here.
30:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It's incredible.
31:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, absolutely.
31:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So this all hits differently.
31:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I think for me after Thanksgiving, Connor, it's so easy to look at our current situation and assume this is how life will always be.
31:10
[SPEAKER_00]: If things are difficult, we think it's going to stay difficult.
31:13
[SPEAKER_00]: If something feels uncertain, we imagine that uncertainty stretching out forever.
31:17
[SPEAKER_00]: We're a prisoner of our emotions.
31:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether we realize it or not, you can just kind of be in this mindset.
31:22
[SPEAKER_00]: of angst and really not even personally recognize it to be able to pray and pull yourself out of it.
31:27
[SPEAKER_00]: But history tells us that seasons do not stay the same.
31:31
[SPEAKER_00]: The American worker has lived through massive change like I just covered through progress and setbacks through good years and hard ones.
31:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, there were many bad hard years.
31:41
[SPEAKER_00]: But in aggregate over time, we're moving up and up and up.
31:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And God has been faithful through all of it.
31:47
[SPEAKER_00]: in the mountaintops and in the valleys.
31:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Your God, my God, He is faithful.
31:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Philippians 411 says, I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
31:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 100, verse 5, the Lord is good.
32:00
[SPEAKER_00]: His steadfast love and durs forever.
32:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
32:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews 138, Jesus Christ is the same.
32:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, today, today and for.
32:10
[SPEAKER_00]: ever.
32:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Work changes.
32:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Life changes.
32:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Circumstances change.
32:15
[SPEAKER_00]: But God stays the course.
32:17
[SPEAKER_00]: He stays steady on our behalf.
32:19
[SPEAKER_00]: He carries people through every season, even the ones that feel confusing or frustrating in the moment.
32:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's the challenge for me, for you, for everybody listening, for you too, Connor.
32:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of assuming the grass is greener, somewhere else, or letting today's pressure's defined tomorrow, choose gratitude.
32:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not?
32:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Trust that God is working even when the path is not straight or even when you feel like you can't see it.
32:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Growth is rarely linear, but his faithfulness is, he has been faithful in the past, he is faithful today, and he will.
32:51
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a promise.
32:52
[SPEAKER_00]: He will be faithful in the future.
32:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, even to that.
32:56
[SPEAKER_01]: He's always faithful, and that includes and work, that includes, and, you know, everything we talked about in the first part of this podcast, everything, again, he's a God of order.
33:05
[SPEAKER_00]: He's also been faithful to our nation.
33:08
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been faithful to our country, you know, I just, I pray and hope and believe that's going to keep happening.
33:14
[SPEAKER_01]: No matter all the, all the difficulties we're experiencing right now.
33:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for sure.
33:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, we always pray for like revival in our nation.
33:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
33:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's the most important thing.
33:22
[SPEAKER_01]: A massive spiritual revival here, because that's what puts a lot of things in the right direction.
33:26
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really what would change things.
33:28
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really what would change things.
33:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, which, you know, we're seeing signs of something.
33:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, having something in the water.
33:34
[SPEAKER_01]: So continue to pray and cover that.
33:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And we still, and we will keep covering that.
33:39
[SPEAKER_00]: We're praying every day and the ministry, the, the way get to serve out.
33:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We, we want to.
33:43
[SPEAKER_00]: be a part of a revival taking place.
33:46
[SPEAKER_00]: It's in our founding documents.
33:49
[SPEAKER_00]: As an organization, like we want to leverage digital technology, and this digital world AI, all these different things to bring about revival, true, repentant revival, and a turning to Jesus.
34:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, definitely.
34:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess you were talking through this whole thing.
34:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I was thinking about an article.
34:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I saw it yesterday or two days ago, Wall Street Journal in New York Times somewhere, second about how dress and work a tire has changed over the last, really.
34:16
[SPEAKER_01]: It was doing the last thing.
34:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's interesting.
34:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And everything you just talked about, it was very interesting.
34:20
[SPEAKER_01]: It was talking about how it was very formal, especially post-World War II, everybody came in and suits.
34:25
[SPEAKER_01]: A man used to be required to wear hats to the office in the like 1920s and 30s, which is crazy, because now wearing a hat is viewed as not as professional.
34:32
[SPEAKER_01]: No professional or plan or just work but and that's where it was like it was very formal you were suit and tie women You wore a very formal dresses to work and then at over the decades it got less formal and now wherever we are now Which is just you know some people wear very casual clothes basically just just wear clothes is where we are right now
34:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's kind of funny, but it's just one of those things that is a telltale sign of where our culture has gone and how work has changed, which part of that's just more a lot of people's works sit at a computer now, so you want to be more comfortable.
35:04
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a part of it's evolving.
35:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, part of evolving.
35:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we love, as we always say hearing from our listeners, we love it when you guys send us stuff.
35:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You can always email us at culture brief at dinnisonform.org or shoot us a message on Instagram at culture brief podcast.
35:21
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the read this incredible message we got from Brian, Brian sent us a message on Instagram.
35:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought this is great.
35:26
[SPEAKER_01]: He was very open with us and shared.
35:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, we could share this on this show.
35:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's good perspective.
35:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Brian said, I have an interesting background.
35:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Immigration topics have been tough to hear on channels like CNN or Fox.
35:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I immigrated illegally to the US at age 4, and was raised by loving immigrant parents who are devout Christians.
35:46
[SPEAKER_01]: At 16, I got a deferred action for childhood arrivals residency, which let me work in study.
35:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I earned my undergraduate degree and Master's degree at a Christian University, and I now work in banking.
35:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to share my story to convey my main message, which is to say thank you for encouraging compassion and empathy in the immigration discussion.
36:04
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been hard recently to hear how people talk about immigrants, even those who don't know my background.
36:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I lean conservative, but feel politically homeless.
36:13
[SPEAKER_01]: But thankfully, my identity is in Jesus.
36:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in.
36:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Man.
36:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Brian, thank you for sending that.
36:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Brian, that means a lot to us, man, that has, I think, Connor and I would both agree that that has been, you know, obviously, we started this podcast nearly a year ago and it's been such a blessing.
36:30
[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, ever since Trump has come into office, immigration has been one of the top two or three things that we're going to talk about when it comes to anything political.
36:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is consistently the most difficult discussion that Connor and I have, not like disagreeing with each other or whatever, but just trying to handle that of understanding, a nation needs rules and laws and borders.
36:53
[SPEAKER_00]: We believe that.
36:54
[SPEAKER_00]: We believe there's biblical context for that.
36:56
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, every single person has created in the image of God.
36:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as a believer, there is an American versus somebody from another country.
37:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We are the same.
37:08
[SPEAKER_00]: We are all created it in a way that allows us to magnify and glorify God.
37:14
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been gifted in specific ways.
37:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we have to remember that as believers, we can't just let the political part of it, the rule of law part of it dictate exactly what we believe on the subject, because every person is created in the image of God, therefore they have dignity and they're worthy of respect.
37:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And we will keep banging that drum.
37:33
[SPEAKER_00]: But it has been a difficult topic to cover and so Brian, we really thank you, man.
37:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That means a lot to us because we really have tried to balance it and handle it with grace.
37:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we have, I'm grateful he sent this into because I think it gives perspective to the stories of so many immigrants who, you know, the news is always focusing on people who came here illegally and do crimes or crossing the border at an age that they understand, but I mean, Brian came here as a child.
37:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say, you know, that's just something that a lot of people forget is stories like this where Brian, you're doing great work, man.
38:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It's awesome.
38:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It's cool to see that you have really.
38:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Got a solid job.
38:09
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got your degrees.
38:10
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
38:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think there's a lot of people similar similar similar shoes like that.
38:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And we have to remember those types of stories too when we talk about immigration.
38:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So thanks Brian for sending that and we'll continue to talk about that and just see where, you know, this Trump administration and government goes with all the immigration stuff going down the road.
38:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Michael, let's jump into check in real fast.
38:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We got several things that have been happening.
38:30
[SPEAKER_01]: One, I know you want to give an update on the Dells.
38:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I do.
38:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I do.
38:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
38:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Dell family gave $6.25 billion to US children.
38:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me break that down a little bit.
38:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So they gave a gift and it'll give about 25 million US children roughly a $250 deposit into a new investment account for each child with the program launching July 4th, 2026.
38:52
[SPEAKER_00]: July 4th, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding, God bless America.
38:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Children born from 2025 through 2028 will also receive an additional $1,000 in government funded deposits we've talked about this these are the Trump accounts.
39:08
[SPEAKER_00]: The money stays invested until each child turns 18 when it can be used for education, a first home or starting a business.
39:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, the Del Family kind of put out this statement about you know how how each child just needs to see it and needs the ability to build something for the future.
39:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is incredible.
39:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is so cool that extreme wealth like this, that, you know, some people are like, why do you need all that money?
39:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually being leveraged for something that's not selfish.
39:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It's being leveraged for the future of the future of this country.
39:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I just thought that was really cool that they did that.
39:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Did it?
39:40
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been, every, I mean, like, this is going to impact, you know, 25 million children?
39:45
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a whole lot of kids.
39:46
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's our future.
39:48
[SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing.
39:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, one of the biggest donations ever made I believe definitely just a government funded thing.
39:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, Adele's, of course, Dell technology Dell computers.
39:56
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where that wealth comes home.
39:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael Dell is worth, I think, $150 billion.
40:00
[SPEAKER_01]: So very cool, man.
40:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of a drop in the bucket for him, but also a large amount of money.
40:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So just drop in the Dell family, man.
40:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's cool.
40:10
[SPEAKER_01]: something else the box office man it was tough and in the fall man October was really bad lowest October and history besides the COVID year 2020 only 445 million dollars was collected and so people were freaking out and Hollywood and then the butt then came the Thanksgiving holiday and we saw two massive movies coming I'm sure many of you listeners went and saw these films I don't know Mike if you took your girls to see either wicked for good or zootopia too but those movies
40:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, they blew everything up.
40:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Wicked for good, brought a part of the problem.
40:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't seen a movie in a while.
40:40
[SPEAKER_00]: When the new top gun comes out, I'll go see that.
40:43
[SPEAKER_00]: That's probably five, six years away from now.
40:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'll go.
40:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll go eventually.
40:48
[SPEAKER_01]: They either still exist by then.
40:51
[SPEAKER_01]: If there's weeks like this, it'll continue, because Wicked for Good, brought in $270 million in Zootopia 2 has brought in $156 million just since the last Wednesday.
40:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's good news.
41:00
[SPEAKER_01]: As I thought this was interesting, the New York Times Hollywood Reporter Brooks Barnes wrote,
41:05
[SPEAKER_01]: that the message film goers seem to be sending to studios is once again saying give us energetic fantasies that allow us to escape the challenges of the real world and we will come.
41:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he's to focus on movies like this that allow people to go and have fun in the theater to get just like like top gun right like enjoy the movies not just feel like a Debbie downer every time go to see a film.
41:25
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a good point, especially from the New York Times too, you know, you saw, and we've covered this extensively.
41:31
[SPEAKER_00]: There has just been such a, like a left-word shift in all media created for a while where you felt like you couldn't see a movie or watch a TV show without being preached at for some political opinion.
41:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that that was just kind of grinding on people.
41:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I mean, that's kind of what movies are.
41:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, they, especially when you go to a theater, it provides an escape.
41:51
[SPEAKER_00]: It gives you a couple hours where you're thrusts and do a completely different world and not thinking about your problems.
41:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, I think escaping too much is a problem, but I don't think there's anything wrong with just taking a brain break.
42:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's right.
42:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Jason Bateman, voice a rabbit.
42:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And just do this right.
42:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Wait, what?
42:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Inzutopia?
42:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's, that's, that's baving room.
42:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I do look just a bit.
42:11
[SPEAKER_01]: It's great.
42:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, maybe a little Disney plus action.
42:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait a minute, you said Jason Bateman?
42:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
42:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, for at first, at first I thought you said Jason's stay thumb.
42:18
[SPEAKER_00]: See, don't you think that would be weird if Jason's stay thumb was in?
42:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think so?
42:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that would be a little weird.
42:23
[SPEAKER_00]: But honestly, because he's a baby.
42:24
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a baby makes sense.
42:25
[SPEAKER_01]: He'd, he'd play the bad guy in the, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
42:27
[SPEAKER_01]: But I just, I would do Jason's stay thumb in a cartoon.
42:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, that'd be crazy.
42:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Something else, college football dude, Lane Kiffin.
42:34
[SPEAKER_01]: We mentioned it at the top.
42:36
[SPEAKER_01]: uh he's at LSU the coaching care cell is crazy playoffs are down the road we got the uh conference championships this weekend if you're a big college football fan i know you'll be watching those a lot still at play with trying to get the last few seeds in that college football playoff bracket but man Micah any and he just initial thoughts on this is the
42:53
[SPEAKER_01]: chaos down there in the south.
42:54
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been a while, man.
42:55
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, what I've been paying most attention to is just all the coaching hires.
42:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just been a carousel, like so many big jobs have been open, like SEC, like larger jobs, LSU, Auburn, Penn State, Kentucky.
43:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Kentucky was open now.
43:11
[SPEAKER_00]: It's filled Oklahoma State, Penn State, Virginia Tech.
43:15
[SPEAKER_00]: What else?
43:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Right before we hopped on this, I saw the Kansas State coach is retiring.
43:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I don't see that.
43:21
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, this was open because Lane Kiffin left old miss for LSU.
43:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So just more just crazy.
43:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're seeing how money plays into this like Lane Kiffin's reason that he gave, like he's kind of known as being someone of a selfish guy, but he operates well in this NIL world.
43:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do think he's a good coach.
43:38
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he basically was like, it wasn't about the salary for me.
43:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's the salary difference between Ole Miss and LSU is very little.
43:45
[SPEAKER_00]: But he, he was given a promise and has a better understanding that I will have more money to spend on players at LSU than at Ole Miss.
43:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Cash is king in order to build a better team.
43:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, as, as, you know, when we have covered in IL, that is, that is going to become more prominent in college sports.
44:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can say, I mean, that really kind of feels like that's like ruining the good thing about college athletics.
44:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We're already too deep.
44:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully there's a world which is in some legislation that takes place that can stop a coach from leaving a team when they're about to go to the college football playoff.
44:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Thus almost ruining that team's chances.
44:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, man, that was that was a weird situation with Lane Kiffin, but we could talk about that for a while.
44:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's jump in a tune in.
44:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Just have one update for you here.
44:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So make sure to listen to this week's Faith and Clarity episodes, so that is our big brother podcast in the Dinnison form podcast network, Faith and Clarity with Dr. Mark Termin.
44:39
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been so gracious to us.
44:40
[SPEAKER_00]: We love working with Mark.
44:41
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a very wise person.
44:43
[SPEAKER_00]: He hosts a podcast.
44:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So Connor joined Dr. Mark Termin and Josh Miller to discuss cloning and gene editing.
44:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Holiday loneliness and the rising church attendance among younger generations.
44:54
[SPEAKER_00]: They covered all that and a lot more.
44:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So all these things will be linked in the show notes or just search for the faith and clarity podcast on Apple Spotify or YouTube.
45:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, thanks back to that was a fun conversation with wide ranging and yeah, Jean editing is crazy.
45:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So go listen to that.
45:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and guys, thank y'all so much for joining us on culture brief a denson form podcast and all articles videos anything that we mentioned will be posted in the show notes even the link to that podcast episode and the thing else that we mentioned and if you enjoyed today's episode, please like subscribe and write a review the show and share it with a friend and we will see you next Thursday.