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Year in Review: 2024 (Ep. 697)

December 31, 2024 29m 24s Full transcript available
Year in Review: 2024 (Ep. 697)
0:00 / 29m 24s
2024 was a year of extreme highs and lows for me. From becoming the number one podcast for Christian men to facing personal losses, I navigated through it all with the support of my foxhole.
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1:18 This is Undaunted Life, a Man's Podcast.
1:21 I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
1:24 Let's get into it.
1:25 All right, guys.
1:26 We've made it to the very, very end of 2024, and guys have just got to tell you, it has
1:29 been one of those years, and we'll get to that in just a second.
1:32 But, guys, if you have not left us a review, nor shared this show with anybody, what are
1:36 you doing?
1:37 That's how you get this out to more people.
1:38 Guys, if you're wondering how we became the number one, the number one podcast show for
1:44 Christian men on Planet Earth.
1:45 It's because of guys like you, because you're leaving a five-star review, and then you're
1:49 sharing this with other people.
1:50 The algorithm loves with new phones, pick a show, and that our review is being left,
1:54 so if you haven't done the app, please do that.
1:56 Also keep us in mind for your end-of-year donations and giving Undaunted.life/donate
2:02 undaunted.life/donate, and also we are always just so, so thankful to all of our donors.
2:07 But we need a wrap of 2024.
2:09 2025 is right around the corner.
2:11 And just to talk a little bit about my 2024, more so than any other year of my entire life,
2:19 it was a collection of incredible highs and astonishing lows.
2:24 That's essentially what my year was like.
2:26 So the highs, I mean, obviously I just mentioned one, becoming the number one, I guess realizing
2:30 because we became it and then didn't know it for months and months and months.
2:33 They should really like send you a plaque or something like that.
2:35 But we became the number one show in the world for Christian men, unbelievable high.
2:40 The successful piloting and public launch of the Dominion program.
2:44 Guys go to undaunted.life/dominion, undaunted.life/dominion.
2:48 If you don't know what we're talking about, but we did a private thing, where we piloted
2:52 it and went so well, and then we launched it publicly and that's done well.
2:56 I spoke live from Church of 1122 down there in Jacksonville, and so that was an interesting
3:01 thing getting to do my pro-life presentation down there for a nice audience down there.
3:05 But in terms of lows, you know, some of this, you know, I've talked about on the show, but
3:08 obviously losing a member of my foxhole, Zach Foster.
3:11 Him dying was just an astonishing low, someone my age dying right there in the church parking
3:16 lot right in front of his wife, just terrible and everything that comes off of that, losing
3:20 my best friend, Roman the Giant, and, you know, going through what all that looks like.
3:25 And obviously I've talked a lot about just even me talking about it on the show and what
3:29 that's done for some of you guys in the audience.
3:31 And then just some crazy stuff that happened to and around me earlier this year, which I
3:36 thought was going to end undaunted life.
3:38 You know, a year ago, a year and a half ago, I guess, I thought undaunted life was over
3:41 because I thought my voice was gone.
3:43 I thought I was never going to be able to talk ever again because I was in between vocal
3:47 court surgeries.
3:48 First one was not successful.
3:49 So for those of you that have just found me in the last year, yeah, last, I guess, what
3:53 would it have been?
3:54 I think I got vocal court surgery in April and it wasn't successful and I had to go back
3:58 under the knife and get the same surgery in June, basically to give them another shot
4:01 at it.
4:02 And in between surgeries, I could barely talk.
4:04 I couldn't really even talk like above a whisper.
4:07 And so I thought that this entire thing was done.
4:09 And then, you know, I just learned some stuff earlier this year, you know, about my family
4:12 and extended family and just things that I just, I never thought was possible and just
4:16 things that I was not aware of and just crazy, crazy stuff.
4:21 And you know, the thing with 2024 and some of you guys will understand what I, what I
4:25 mean by this, you don't really know quite what God is doing.
4:30 Not like, Hey, why aren't you paying attention, God?
4:31 But like, you know, God's working and you know, God's trying to do something and trying
4:36 to get your attention, but you don't know exactly what it is.
4:38 You don't really know exactly what direction he's pointing you in.
4:41 And what you try to do is you try to take it day by day, step by step.
4:44 And I mean, guys, there were times this year where it was hour by hour, like I was just
4:47 trying to make it to the next hour, trying to figure out a way just to get to the next
4:51 hour, just to see what the next hour had in store for me.
4:54 I mean, there, there's some, again, highs and lows this year, crazy, crazy light and
4:58 crazy, crazy dark.
5:00 And so I am just very, very thankful that I have a foxhole.
5:04 That's why I'm on you guys all the time about creating a foxhole, getting those three AM
5:08 guys, getting those guys that'll help you bury your dog, because without guys like that,
5:12 this would have been an absolutely, probably impossible year to navigate.
5:17 And so I'm thankful for that.
5:18 I'm thankful for all of you for being so encouraging all the time with how much this content is
5:22 landing with you and the life changes you're making just because I decide, you know, a few
5:26 times a week to scream into this microphone.
5:28 And so very, very thankful for all of you.
5:31 Thankful to God for putting us on this trajectory with undaunted life and to continue anointing
5:36 it and blessing it and so very, very happy about all of that.
5:39 But to wrap up 2024, we need to look at some things that happened this year, see if there's
5:42 some things that maybe some of you guys forgot about.
5:44 So in the world of entertainment, the highest grossing movies of the year worldwide, number
5:49 one was inside out to with 1.7 billion worldwide.
5:52 So don't know what that is, but maybe you do number two, Deadpool and Wolverine.
5:56 That was 1.3 billion worldwide.
5:58 I actually did go watch that, which I missed a lot of the inside jokes because I don't
6:01 really do the comic book thing, but it was a funny movie.
6:03 And then number three, Despicable Me 4 got almost a billion, just right under a billion,
6:08 which is that where we're at now?
6:10 Two out of the top three are in basically Deadpool and Wolverine.
6:13 That's essentially a sequel because there's been Deadpool movies and Wolverine movies.
6:16 Can we not come up with anything new guys?
6:18 Come on.
6:19 All right.
6:20 Now in the world of music, we're just going to use Spotify because it's probably pretty
6:23 close.
6:24 But when you build board isn't really relevant anymore and you're looking at streams, no
6:27 one buys music anymore.
6:28 So according to Spotify, the artists of the year is Taylor Swift with 26.6 billion streams
6:35 of her songs.
6:36 The most streamed song of the year is the song Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter for whoever
6:41 that is and whoever is a fan of her.
6:43 So congratulations to her.
6:45 And the most streamed album is by Taylor Swift.
6:47 It's the tortured poets department, the anthology.
6:50 So Swifties, you had a big year.
6:52 Now if you talk about the biggest podcast show of the year, this is getting according
6:56 to Spotify, the Joe Rogan experience is number one, the skanky porn podcast, call her daddy
7:01 is number two and then Huberman lab is the number three podcast of the year.
7:05 Now let's talk about YouTube, the most popular or whatever that means because it's kind of
7:09 weird.
7:10 They don't really release these numbers that often.
7:11 But the most popular YouTube video of the year is baby shark dance by Pinkfong.
7:15 So I guess just until the end of time, I guess baby shark dance is just going to be the most
7:19 popular YouTube video just because it's played constantly.
7:23 And since I can't find accurate stats on some other stuff that I normally talk about, let's
7:27 just give you some of my favorites in the world of entertainment because again, it's
7:30 so hard to find this.
7:31 So my favorite musical album of 2024 is Father's and Sons by Luke Combs.
7:36 So I recorded an episode about that about that album.
7:39 I can't remember when that was, but it was this year, but an absolutely incredible album
7:43 released by Luke Combs, Father's and Sons.
7:45 So that's my favorite album of the year.
7:46 My favorite song of the year might, you might think it's going to be something metal, some
7:50 super aggressive, actually it's the song Psalm 23 by Phil Wickham.
7:56 But it's specifically on an album called I believe hometown version.
8:00 So Phil Wickham, his normal versions of songs is really poppy typically a lot of synthesizer,
8:05 a lot of stuff going on.
8:06 I'm not as into that.
8:07 I'm into stuff that's a little bit more dressed down, some of his acoustic stuff.
8:12 But this album is just very, very unique.
8:14 It's all Phil Wickham stuff, but it's just recorded in a different way.
8:18 And so when I look at my Apple music, I listened to that song more than I listened to any other
8:22 song this year.
8:23 So Psalm 23 by Phil Wickham, my favorite TV show of 2024 is if I have time to watch TV.
8:27 So I just did the chosen season four, so all you people that hate the chosen, you're going
8:30 to hate that answer.
8:31 But hey, it is what it is.
8:32 And then my favorite movie of 2024 is Gladiator 2.
8:34 So there's some haters out there about Gladiator 2, but I think it's because you walked in
8:38 with the wrong expectations.
8:40 You walked in thinking, this is somehow got to live up to the greatest movie of all time,
8:44 which is the first Gladiator, which is not possible.
8:47 It's just not possible.
8:48 There's never going to be a better movie made than that.
8:49 It's got everything.
8:50 Okay.
8:51 But this movie was one of the most visually impressive movies I've ever seen in my entire
8:55 life.
8:56 There were some things that, you know, you were kind of left wanting some in some areas
8:59 when it pertained to, you know, certain dialogue and certain places in the plot and things
9:04 like that.
9:05 But I thought it was thoroughly pleasing to watch and it had like the coolest scene.
9:10 Maybe that I've ever seen and it doesn't, no spoilers here, but one of the early gladiatorial
9:15 scenes inside of the call, see him, this dude comes in on a rhinoceros.
9:19 He's on a rhinoceros is back and he's got like a, I guess, you know, he's got this rope
9:24 and he's just basically standing there.
9:26 So he's got like this, this rhino by rains and he's basically standing as he's coming
9:30 into the arena.
9:31 And then he does the gladiatorial battle on the, like, on the back like it's a horse,
9:36 but it's a rhinoceros.
9:37 One of the coolest things I've ever seen.
9:38 So that's my favorite movie of 2024.
9:40 Now in the world of sports, let's remind you of some stuff you may have forgotten.
9:43 So recently in Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers smashed the New York Yankees
9:47 in five games and then proceeded to buy up every good free agent.
9:50 Baseball's got a major problem here because three of the top four teams left were the
9:55 Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, and then I refuse call them the guardians, so the Cleveland Indians.
10:00 And so those three top teams, those were all the top teams in terms of payroll.
10:05 And so it's like, you have the Los Angeles Dodgers that have a payroll that is like equals
10:09 the gross domestic product of most of the South American countries that you could name.
10:14 And so that's going to be a problem moving forward.
10:16 But if you're a Dodgers fan, you enjoyed it.
10:17 In terms of college football, Michigan beat Washington to win their first national title
10:21 in a very long time.
10:22 Stanley Cup finals or Stanley Cup final.
10:24 I can't remember what you say.
10:26 Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers in seven games.
10:28 So again, can Canadian teams just can't seem to win the Stanley Cup.
10:32 In terms of the UFC, we have some new undisputed UFC champs as we wrap the year in Bantamweight.
10:37 We have Marab Devosvili.
10:39 Another way we have Iliad Taporia, welterweight, we have Belal Muhammad, middleweight, we have
10:43 Dr. Stuplessis, or Dr. Stuplessi, women's flyaway, we have Valentina, Chef Chanko, and women's
10:48 Bantamweight, we have Julianna Peña.
10:50 So guys, we've literally entered the most impossible UFC era ever for spelling and pronouncing
10:55 champions names.
10:56 But I did my best there.
10:57 In the world of boxing, Jake Ball beat up an elderly person when he fought Mike Tyson.
11:02 It was supposedly the most watched boxing match of all time, but I don't know that you
11:05 could actually call it a boxing match.
11:07 But in terms of the biggest sports story of 2024, we've got, I'll mention a couple, we've
11:13 got the United States dominating the medal count again in the summer Olympics.
11:16 So you know, you could have assumed that that was going to happen.
11:19 But for all of you people here, especially in the United States of America, I think the
11:23 combo of the transfer portal and name and mention likeness, the NIL, I think it's ruining college
11:29 sports.
11:30 And I think we're watching it before our very eyes.
11:31 There was a story that I saw recently where the Washington state football head coach.
11:36 He said that he mentioned some players, I don't think he mentioned them by name, but
11:39 he's like, we had some guys that got no D one offers, nobody wanted these guys.
11:43 But we did.
11:44 We saw some potential.
11:45 So we brought them in.
11:46 And for a couple of years, we coached them up, we trained them up and we made them into
11:49 really solid football players.
11:51 And then they entered the portal because they were going to get some NIL money from another
11:54 school.
11:55 And it's just like, okay, if we're going to take the veil off, let's just take it off
12:00 completely.
12:01 Let's just call these guys professional athletes or call them semi pro or something like that.
12:04 Let's get rid of the, hey, they got to go to class and oh, they're getting an education
12:08 and all those everything.
12:09 Let's just get rid of all that, right?
12:10 They at least for football and men's basketball, which are typically the only sports that make
12:14 money collegial.
12:15 But I think if you just had NIL, it wouldn't be a problem, but and if you just had the
12:19 transfer portal, it wouldn't be a problem, but the combo of both, I think is ruining
12:22 one of my favorite things, which is college sports, specifically college football.
12:26 But the dumbest sports story of 2024 has to be the WNBA, not knowing how anything works.
12:32 And so I don't want to flow on this because I think I'm going to talk about it a little
12:34 bit later.
12:35 But the WNBA got a golden goose dropped right in their lap in Caitlyn Clark and they spent
12:40 the entire team trying to kill her on the court and then trying to destroy her off the
12:44 court.
12:45 And you know, she was just quiet going about her business.
12:47 And there was some, you know, nerdy website that looked at every single individual player
12:52 in the history of the WNBA and did this whole big statistical analysis, find out who the
12:56 most efficient, who had like the most efficient offensive season in Caitlyn Clark was head
13:01 and shoulders above every single woman that has ever played in the WNBA in terms of offensive
13:06 efficiency.
13:07 And it was her first season and she was coming off a long collegiate season and a run to
13:10 the final four in the women's, you know, March Madness thing, right?
13:15 And so basically I don't remember players when Michael Jordan took over the league in
13:18 the 80s and into the 90s, complaining about all the people that were coming to watch their
13:23 team play the Chicago Bulls.
13:24 You know why?
13:25 Because they're not morons because they knew that if there's more eyeballs on the league,
13:29 that means there's more money in the league and if there's more money in the league, that
13:31 means when they go to re-up or get a new contract, they're going to get paid more.
13:35 But apparently all the dumb dums around the WNBA have no idea about that yet some, what
13:39 was it?
13:40 The Washington mystics owner said, you know, when Caitlyn Clark was put on the cover of
13:44 Time magazine as the athlete of the year, well, why couldn't they have put the entire
13:47 league on the, on the cover?
13:49 Because that's not what they do.
13:50 You moron.
13:51 Like, what's wrong with you?
13:52 Like, okay, did y'all give out an MVP this year for the, the WNBA?
13:56 Because I think you did.
13:57 This person's name, but they gave out an MVP.
14:00 Why didn't they just give the MVP to the whole league?
14:02 Because that's not how any of this works, right?
14:04 And so you got the WNBA literally doing everything they can to be as irrelevant as possible.
14:09 And I think they're winning.
14:10 Hey guys, real quick.
14:11 I know a lot of you guys are really doing everything you can to have a consistent workout routine.
14:15 But the problem is you work out at a global gym.
14:18 And so there's 17 guys on the bench that you need and there's people doing bicep curls
14:21 on the squat rack.
14:23 And the biggest problem is not your schedule.
14:25 It's actually where you're trying to get your work in.
14:28 How about you guys stop making excuses and build yourself a home gym?
14:32 And when you do, make sure you use Sorenex.
14:35 So Sorenex is a family-owned and operated business that builds some of the most impressive
14:39 workout facilities in the entire world.
14:41 They built gyms for teams in the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and even the UFC.
14:48 They've also built gyms for some of the biggest and most successful collegiate and high school
14:51 athletic programs in the country.
14:54 But in addition to that, they make the highest quality home gym products that I've ever seen
14:59 on the market.
15:00 In my personal home gym, I have the Sorenex Outfitder Rack, the heavy version in military
15:05 green.
15:06 Also, I have some of their center mass bells.
15:08 I've got their Nordic Glute Ham developer and their patented landmine attached to my rack.
15:13 So guys, stop fighting the riff-rath at your local gym or bench or squat rack or whatever.
15:19 And if you're going to build out a home gym, you may as well get one that will last you
15:23 and one that you could even pass down to your kids.
15:26 Begin your build out by going to Sorenex.com.
15:29 That is Sorenex.com.
15:31 S-O-R-I-N-E-X.com.
15:34 Take control of where and when you work out Sorenex.com.
15:37 All right, in terms of some noteworthy deaths in 2024, obviously this one is close to my
15:43 heart.
15:44 Country music star, Toby Keith, died at the age of 62.
15:46 And I just got to tell you, as an Oakie, and I mentioned this to my wife the other day,
15:49 and she confirmed it.
15:50 There was like mourning across the state.
15:53 You could feel it.
15:54 Like, and I'm not being hyperbolic, you could literally feel people's sadness across the
15:58 entire state of Oklahoma when he died because he was our son in a way.
16:02 And so losing him was hard for Oakies, but you know, them's the brakes.
16:06 Also double murderer and former football star O.J. Simpson died at the age of 76.
16:10 Super-sized me, documentarian Morgan Spurlock died at 53.
16:14 NBA and UCLA great and legend Bill Walton died at the age of 71.
16:18 The NBA logo Jerry West died at 86.
16:21 Willie Mays, probably the second or third best baseball player ever died at 93.
16:26 Former Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe died at 89.
16:29 Fitness star Richard Simmons didn't think that guy would ever go.
16:32 Yeah, I thought he was just going to keep going, energize your bunny style until rapture time,
16:36 but he died at 76.
16:37 Conservative political pundit, Lou Dobbs died at 78.
16:41 The actor that played Apollo Creed, Carl Weathers, he died at 76.
16:44 English actress Maggie Smith died at 89.
16:47 The guy who played Darth Vader, Mufasa, one of the greatest voices of all time.
16:50 James Earl Jones died at 93.
16:52 MLB hits King Pete Rose died at 83.
16:54 DeCambe Mutumbo died at 58.
16:56 Legendary music producer Quincy Jones died at 91.
16:59 And for those of you who don't know, DeCambe Mutumbo, former NBA star, he would block shots
17:03 and go, no, no, no, and wag his finger.
17:05 Anyway, just yesterday, I'm recording this, you know, kind of middle or towards the end
17:09 of December, Ricky Henderson just died.
17:11 So Ricky Henderson, the greatest lead-off hitter in Major League Baseball history, you
17:15 know, a preposterous amount of steals.
17:17 That guy died at 65.
17:18 For those of you that listened to the Church of 1122 podcast, the sermons by Joby Martin,
17:23 you remember that guy that yells out and says, "Amen" right in the middle of his sermon.
17:27 So they just called the guy, "Amen" Frank.
17:29 He passed away just a few weeks ago.
17:31 I think he was in his 60s and so, you know, wanted to make sure we acknowledge him because
17:35 we know there's a lot of people that are missing him at Church of 1122 right now.
17:38 But also Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' political futures died.
17:41 So a lot of deaths happened in 2024.
17:44 But now let's get into some news that perhaps you've forgotten about that actually happened
17:48 in 2024.
17:49 And every year when I do this, I go back through my show notes, I go back through some news
17:52 reels, and I'm like, "Crap, that happened this year."
17:54 So the pagan opening ceremonies at the Paris Olympics, I think you guys remember that.
17:58 We had hurricanes that ravaged the Southwest United States and, you know, the people in
18:01 those areas are still struggling.
18:03 There's still ways to get those people help.
18:05 So guys, make sure that you're still on top of that.
18:07 SpaceX literally caught a rocket in mid-air as it was coming back to Earth.
18:12 And if, you know, Elon Musk were like a big Kamala Harris supporter, it would have been
18:15 the greatest thing ever, ever done.
18:16 But people tried to like, "Tut, tut," like, "Oh, it's not that big a deal."
18:19 Also, Christopher Nolan won Best Picture for Oppenheimer.
18:21 And I just got to tell you, of all the Christopher Nolan films I've ever seen, that's probably
18:24 the worst one.
18:25 I mean, I really like a lot of the stuff that he's done, but I literally sat there for like
18:29 three hours.
18:30 I was like, "Oh, my gosh.
18:31 This movie.
18:32 This movie just will absolutely never end."
18:33 But he got off the schnide, he finally won Best Director.
18:35 France became the first country in the world to include access to abortion in its constitution.
18:40 So congratulations, France, on sacrificing more babies to Molok than anybody else could
18:44 ever imagine.
18:45 Good for you.
18:46 The Francis Scott Keybridge in Baltimore collapsed after it was hit by a cargo ship.
18:51 Taylor Swift became the first musician ever to become a billionaire just from songs and
18:55 concerts.
18:56 Chad GBT4 went live.
18:58 Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records, which is hilarious
19:03 looking back now.
19:04 642 million people voted in India's general election, which set a record for the world
19:08 in terms of world's largest election.
19:10 Joe Biden, remember that guy?
19:12 He was bounced after the debate.
19:14 Remember that?
19:15 So he's the guy.
19:16 He's definitely the guy he's better than he's ever been.
19:17 He goes in the debate and basically can't mush words out of his face and he gets replaced
19:21 by Kamala Harris.
19:22 A duct tape, taped to a wall sold for $6.2 million in a New York art auction.
19:28 So if you don't think money laundering is a thing, allow me to present to you exhibit
19:32 A.
19:33 And then also Joe Barton and Joe Barton.
19:35 Joe Biden pardoned his son for any crimes and all crimes that he committed over a 10-year
19:40 period, which was the same period that he and his family were profiting from foreign
19:44 actors.
19:45 So a lot of news happened this year, but now we need to get into some of the main things.
19:48 We're going to give some category.
19:49 So I guess you can consider these to be awards, but let's go ahead and get into that.
19:52 The most concerning news story of 2024.
19:56 So the most concerning news story could be, I guess, the escalation towards a worldwide
20:02 conflict.
20:03 There's escalations of conflicts between Israel and Islamic fundamentalist groups, and also
20:07 the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
20:10 And then circling the drain on some of those situations are certainly North Korea and
20:14 China.
20:15 And so obviously if we're going to be going towards some sort of nuclear war, a nuclear
20:19 Holocaust, if you will, a, you know, Dan, if we do, Dan, if we don't mutually assure
20:24 destruction and I feel like we certainly got closer to that, especially with a dead person
20:28 running the White House here in the United States.
20:30 Now when we get into most of these other things, obviously there's going to be a theme to this
20:33 because there's, there's basically the entire world revolved around what was happening politically
20:38 in the United States this year.
20:39 But the most insane news story of 2024 obviously has to be Trump escaping assassination by
20:44 centimeters.
20:45 Again, I think, I think we kind of forget that there was a point in the election cycle where
20:49 people kind of forgot, remember when Trump had his head almost turned into a canoe?
20:54 Remember when a bullet barely graced his ear because at the last second he turned his head
20:57 just a little bit, like, do we remember the fact that basically nobody is asking any questions
21:02 about the shooter anymore?
21:04 It's almost as if it never happened, but we literally got the most insane crazy picture
21:09 of all time perhaps in terms of political history in the United States is him standing
21:13 up bleeding from his ear, you know, holding his fists in the air saying fight.
21:17 But the most insane news story was that and then obviously another guy tried to kill him
21:20 while he was playing golf in Florida a little bit later on that year.
21:23 So absolutely insane news story.
21:25 In terms of the most ignored news story of 2024 is the continued decline of the birth
21:30 rate in almost every major economic country in the world.
21:34 This is something that no one is talking about.
21:36 I think of all the top countries in terms of economic output, I think Israel is the only
21:42 country that is currently above replacement rate as it pertains to their birth rate.
21:47 So being above replacement rate means that you're going to have enough people in the
21:50 future to basically take care of the people that are currently in your population.
21:54 So the United States, Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada, like Brazil, all these countries,
22:02 they are way below replacement rate China, Japan, they're way, way, way below replacement
22:06 rate.
22:07 And that is a major, major issue, but we basically don't think about it at all.
22:11 So I guess we're just going to keep whistling past that graveyard.
22:13 Now let's talk about the most talked about news story of 2024.
22:16 And that is obviously the 2024 presidential election here in the United States because
22:20 it doesn't matter even if you were in the United States, Trump being elected or Trump
22:25 not being elected would have a huge impact on everything around the world as it pertains
22:29 to geopolitics as it pertains to economics going on around the world, shipping lanes,
22:35 warfare, everything that you could possibly imagine.
22:38 It's easily the most talked about news story because even if you weren't listening to nightly
22:42 news or to conservative or liberal or supposedly middle of the road, breakdowns of politics,
22:49 we were all talking about the presidential election.
22:51 Now it's finally behind us.
22:52 So everyone's eyes are on 2026 at this point for the next midterm.
22:56 All right.
22:57 Then we got the biggest news story of 2024.
22:59 And I'm going to expand this out a little bit further than the United States in terms
23:02 of politics.
23:03 But it's the global shifting politically in terms of the landscape to the right.
23:07 So this includes the Republican landslide victory in the 2024 general election.
23:12 So the Republicans maintain the House of Representatives took over the United States Senate and then
23:16 also took over the White House, obviously with Donald Trump and JD Vance.
23:20 And the interesting thing about the story as well is we're seeing right where it shifts
23:23 in a lot of different countries currently in Canada.
23:27 By the time this comes out, Trudeau may actually resign.
23:30 And so there could be new leadership in Canada.
23:32 By the time you guys are hearing this, that's definitely it looks like the trend.
23:35 A lot of European countries that did this kind of open borders, let whoever in, let's not
23:39 make sure these people assimilate, they're realizing, well, that was a terrible idea.
23:42 Oh, doing this European Union thing where we can't, you know, Italy has to think about
23:46 what Germany wants and not just what's going to be best for Italians.
23:50 That seems to be breaking out.
23:52 Obviously, years and years ago, yeah, Brexit, whenever they left the EU, there's a whole
23:56 lot of things going over there.
23:57 But really around the world, we're seeing a shift more towards the right because people
24:01 understand, even if they don't agree with some of the things on the right, that it is better
24:05 for human flourishing.
24:07 And then also obviously the biggest news person of 2024 is Donald Trump.
24:10 The dude has his own, I guess, orbit around him, he's got his own gravitational pull.
24:16 I mean, if you think about every single person, every single important person as it pertains
24:20 to the 21st century, there's not a single person that has been more important, more
24:24 talked about, more studied, more criticized than Donald Trump, there's not a single person
24:30 that's even close.
24:31 You know, I'd be like, well, what about Barack Obama?
24:33 Like first black president, even though, you know, he was deeply corrupt, had major issues,
24:38 was not good for flourishing of Americans and all that.
24:41 But even him, he wasn't the biggest news person, because again, Republicans didn't like him,
24:47 but we were like the country's going to end if he gets a second term.
24:50 That wasn't what it is.
24:51 But easily the biggest news person of this year of 2024 is Donald Trump.
24:55 And he'll probably go ahead and take the title for next year.
24:57 But before let you go, again, a little bit of a shorter one as we wrap up the year with
25:00 all these wrap up episodes, I'm going to make some predictions here for 2025 of some of the
25:06 biggest news stories.
25:08 So they're not like predictions like this is what I think is going to happen.
25:11 But these are the things that we really need to focus on, and it's really going to be at
25:14 the head of everyone's attention.
25:16 So Trump's first 100 days in office.
25:19 So if we can get through the inauguration, like I still am not fully convinced that we're
25:23 not going to have a bunch of bloodshed or things set on fire during, you know, leading
25:27 up to the inauguration.
25:28 Inauguration, there it is.
25:30 But those first 100 days are obviously going to be very, very important.
25:33 It's going to signal a lot for the world and certainly for the United States.
25:36 So we need to see Israel versus Iran and US, the United States versus Iran, because obviously
25:42 the Trump administration was very harsh on Iran, had basically bludgeoned them financially
25:47 and they were not in a good place.
25:48 But then Biden gets into office and also Iran is thriving again.
25:52 So Iran is obviously taking care of a bunch of rebel groups and Islamist terrorist groups
25:58 to make sure that life on in Israel is as horrible as possible.
26:02 And so we're going to have to keep an eye on that.
26:04 Obviously the continued war between Ukraine and Russia, will there be a settlement?
26:08 Will Russia get their land grab?
26:10 But then basically the world will be over.
26:12 Is Trump going to have any involvement in that?
26:14 That's obviously going to be a big story.
26:16 The mass deportations that are being signaled here in the United States of America, and
26:19 I hope that this happens.
26:20 Obviously, I hope that it begins with every single criminal that has made their way into
26:23 this country, that they are kicked out of this country and that they stay on the other
26:27 side of an actual border like a wall and that we actually have enforcement of deportations
26:33 and things like that.
26:34 But obviously, whether you're pro that or anti that, that's going to be a center point
26:37 of the talking in all the different news as we get into next year.
26:41 Also the continued conservative push for a lot of Western countries, I just talked about
26:45 that one.
26:46 And the last one I'll talk about and this one, I don't want to say it's the scariest,
26:50 but we'll just kind of have to see the introduction, perhaps of artificial general intelligence.
26:55 So there's artificial intelligence.
26:57 There's, you know, chat GBT that can help you write a paragraph or help you figure out
27:00 a good quote for your Christmas card, but artificial general intelligence will be an
27:04 absolute game changer.
27:06 It will make entire industries obsolete.
27:09 It'll eliminate entire jobs.
27:11 It'll free people up in a way that it's never been able to free them up before.
27:15 And we'll have to determine is this going to be a net negative or a net positive?
27:18 Is this going to turn into iRobot where it starts to think on its own and do things on
27:22 its own and to be able to affect us on a day and day basis in a negative way?
27:26 We'll have to see, but in terms of timelines, in terms of when the new chat GBT is going
27:32 to be out, I think that would be chat GBT five or artificial general intelligence AGI 2025,
27:37 I think is the year for that.
27:38 So we'll have to see how it goes.
27:39 But guys, thank you so much for being here with us this year.
27:42 This has been the biggest year of our show.
27:44 We're so thankful to have all of you here in our audience.
27:46 But before I let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost and undaunted life
27:49 permission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual
27:51 mental and physical resilience.
27:53 One link for you today, again, our donation link, we are a donation based ministry.
27:57 So if you want our show to grow even more in 2025 and beyond, we need you guys like you
28:00 hopping on board to be a donor.
28:02 So in Donton.life/donate, all right guys, we'll see you in 2025.
28:06 Thank you for listening to this podcast.
28:07 Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five
28:10 star review.
28:11 If you want to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, just shoot me an email
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28:22 including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way.
28:25 Just go to www.undonton.life.
28:27 And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing us to use their music for
28:31 our content.
28:32 The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua, which is off their self-titled debut album
28:36 on Face Down Records.
28:37 The links are in the description.
28:39 I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
28:41 Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental and physical resilience.
28:48 You're seeking the lion of Judah.
29:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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Kyle Thompson
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Show notes & links

In this episode, Kyle goes through the biggest news stories from the crazy year that was 2024. We will look at the big news stories that we have forgotten about, the most ignored news story of the year, the most talked about news story of the year, the biggest single news story of the year, the biggest news person of the year, predictions of the biggest news stories of 2025, and much more. Let’s get into it…

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