It's the only thing he

could speak to, yes.

Yeah, okay.

By definition.

He speaks, he says, the law and the prophets, you are under that.

So that's Torah and Talmud stuff.

Absolutely.

It was, you know, I think I'm past this sometimes and it surprises me.

okay yeah let's get to your uh your saul on the road to damascus experience

Yeah.

So I found myself in Denver, Colorado at the age of 24 and still no undergraduate degrees trying to figure my life out.

And I just realized that things weren't They just continued to not go the way that I thought they would.

And I remembered who I was in high school.

I remembered debate.

I remembered Boys State.

in

As you sort of think about some other jurisdictions like Singapore, like the UK and so on, that are maybe trying to be a bit more systematic and encouraging fintech, and then you look at the sort of um diversity of regulation you have in the states you know do you think there are trade-offs there there are advantages to the u.s system in some ways um or do you think the u.s just doesn't have to worry about it so much because you've just got such a big powerful economy that they just naturally it's just naturally a magnet for innovation and investment anyway

No, I don't really know.

I think that our laissez-faire perspective can definitely be a boom.

We have quite a few fintechs that are coming to market that are trying to fill every need and every part of the tech stack, every part of or offer every type of financial service that a customer would want.

It's great.

At the same time, there are certainly some back office needs that are neglected when you do this.

The fact that Singapore is funding, for example, AI adoption could be very useful here in the US when dealing with AML CFT, for example, I don't think that there are any companies that want to spend quite a lot of resources on addressing their AML concerns or AML regulatory obligations, but it is vitally important.

How big a deal is this? Is this just like a footnote, or is this actually a real shift in thinking and approach?

well

okay the gift came out and did very well yeah and we went to europe and we were kind of one of the first american guitar bands to go to europe and you know in 88 89 there was a big shift happening over there like mud honey had been over there yeah tad Sonic Youth, Dinosaur.

And so we were sort of in this first wave, you know, this pre-Nirvana thing.

And we got signed, you know, we got back from our first European tour and we got signed, you know, there was sort of a feeding frenzy to sign us in the States.

And at that point, the only bands that had gotten signed to a major were Dinosaur and Sonic Youth.

I don't think Soundgarden even had their deal yet.

So it was very, we were just like, oh my God, you know, it was nothing we'd ever aspired towards and nothing we ever thought could possibly happen to a band like us.

that's

When did you find out about Dominic being able to put the potential of him coming back? And what were those talks like with Dominic? And how did it all come together?

Yeah, I think what we do as our staff does a tremendous job is we stay close to all of our guys.

You know, we have guys leave every year.

It's just the nature of the business.

And, you know, and so those guys come back.

And even when they leave, go in the portal, they stay and work in our gym and stuff like that.

So, you know, when Don went in the portal from Iowa State, you know, obviously we reached out, you know, hopeful, you know, that something could happen.

So how does Dom fit into this roster that you currently have now at UVU? How do you see him, where do you see him at and his style of play fitting in with some of these other guys that you have this year coming up this season?

But like, what was the first like thing that cracked your belief system where you were like, I don't know if I've been following the right path.

I know exactly when it happened.

And it's just been upon reflection over the last six months, really codifying, you know, what happened in my life? Cause it took many, many years.

I didn't, I didn't, I wouldn't call myself an agnostic atheist, which is how I describe myself now until maybe two years ago.

Okay.

So recent and all the time before that, I was trying to hang on to Christianity and certainly hang on to Jesus.

But back as far as 2005, so 20 years ago, where the seeds of my deconstruction happened, where it was at Princeton, I went to Southwestern Seminary, which is a Baptist theological seminary, and basically it's an indoctrination school.

Yeah.

All right, Todd, so can you take us all back and tell us, before you were a pastor, who was Todd Phillips?

Wow, before I was a pastor.

So I didn't grow up in the church at all.

I have very little background in who God is or what he might have offered through any specific or particular religion until I was 24 years old.

And so I didn't grow up with any kind of religious background or understanding.

The The year that really changed for me was when I was 24.

I was actually going through what I would call an existential crisis.

I just have a personal relationship with Jesus.

What are some ways other states and tribal nations have tried to regulate prediction markets? What does it look like to regulate the market?

That's a fantastic question.

So I think it's important to take a step back and ask what these things are.

Prediction market is not actually a legal term.

They are derivatives exchanges that are regulated by, again, the CFTC at the federal level.

And in the 1970s, Congress made a decision that said, we want the CFTC only regulating these things.

We don't want states to regulate them.

Can you just explain again the difference?

You've tri- like, you mentioned something about trying to even rig something up to record in the studio.

I did.

[laughs] Uh, just quickly, I rigged, I kind of invented this perch for my elbow that attaches to the top of a mic stand so it'll hold my arm up, so I can put in the hours in the studio, and it was, you know, semi-successful.

It, it, it, s- uh, whatever.

It didn't quite work.

But I should say, I've got this condition, this really rare, almost unheard of thing called Parsonage-Turner SyndromeIt struck me about a year ago, beginning of April a year ago, and, uh, you know, just briefly, it starts with this unbelievable pain, and then my arm dropped to my side, and I could hardly lift my arm for six months.

And now I'm in a different phase of it, uh, where I can get my arm up kinda horizontal, but I can't put it an hour, I can't play a bass for an hour.

No, yeah