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Lindsay Mast
Good morning. Republican Trump critic Thomas Massie loses his seat after repeated clashes with the president.
Nick Iker
That's ahead on Washington Wednesday. Hunter Baker is standing by. Also today, complications that make fighting Ebola even harder. And later, in South Georgia, two brothers mourn what the wildfires took away, put
Austin or Ashley Deloach
in the Lord's hands and thank him for it all the time. We had it. Thankful for the memories.
Nick Iker
And world commentator Janie B. Cheney on the parenting trend from resilience to reliance.
Lindsay Mast
It's Wednesday, May 20th. This is the world and everything in it from listener Supported World Radio. I'm Lindsay Mast.
Nick Iker
And I'm Nick Iker. Good morning.
Lindsay Mast
Up next, Kent Covington with today's news.
Kent Covington
President Trump says another military strike on Iran could be just days away if a peace deal does not come together with Tehran quickly. He said he called off strikes that had been set for yesterday after Gulf state leaders appealed for more time to negotiate.
Austin or Ashley Deloach
They called me over the last two
Hunter Baker
days to say they made a lot of progress because we have them negotiating with us and primarily Saudi Arabia, Qatar, uae, Kuwait, a little bit Bahrain and some of the others. And we have them negotiating with the world.
Kent Covington
He says they are all working together as a team in an effort to end the war. Trump says Iranian leaders have insisted that they do want a deal but then drag their feet.
Hunter Baker
I hope we don't have to do the one, but we may have to give him another big hit. We may have to give him another big hit. I'm not sure yet.
Kent Covington
An Iranian official says Tehran will respond firmly to any new American attack. Vice President J.D. vance told White House reporters.
Nick Iker
I will not say with confidence that we're going to reach a deal until we're actually signing a negotiated settlement here.
Kent Covington
And I think that it's ultimately up
Nick Iker
to the Iranians whether they're willing to meet us.
Kent Covington
The Senate on Tuesday advanced a Democrat led resolution that seeks to force Trump to end the war. It advanced on a vote of 50 to 47 after Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana switched sides following his recent primary loss. Meantime, investigators have traced Sunday's drone attack on a nuclear plant in the United Arab Emirates to Iraq and likely to an Iran backed militia. World's Kristin Plavin reports The Baraka plant
Kristin Flavin
is the Arab world's only nuclear power station and it powers a quarter of the uae. No one was hurt in the strike and no radiation leaked. The UAE Defense Ministry says all three drones came from Iraq. Saudi Arabia has since intercepted three more from the same airspace. No group has claimed the attack, but Iran and its proxies were suspected from the start. Sunday's strike is the latest in a string of attacks on the UAE during the war. Iran backed forces have targeted the Emirates because it's a close US Ally and hosts Israeli air defenses and personnel. For World I'm Kristen Flavin.
Kent Covington
On Capitol Hill, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended a new $1.7 billion compensation fund at his first Senate hearing on Tuesday. Blanche calls it an anti weaponization fund for victims of political targeting by the government, but Democrats describe it differently, deriding it as a self dealing political slush fund. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen grilled Blanch
Nick Iker
Will individuals who assaulted Capitol Hill police
Kent Covington
officers be eligible fund? Well, as it makes plain, anybody el just let me know if they're eligible for the fund as as as was made plain yesterday, anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they were victim weaponization, blanche said. Furthermore, the fund will not be limited only to those who feel they were targeted by the Biden Justice Department, but rather it will be open to anyone with a credible claim. A five member commission will decide what defines a credible claim and set the rules for who gets paid and how much, but the members of that panel have not yet been appointed. Long Island Railroad trains are running again this morning along the country's busiest commuter rail system after a three day strike ended at the bargaining table. A new four year deal gives workers raises totaling about 14% plus a $3,000 lump sum payment. Kevin Sexton is vice president of the Engineers union.
Hunter Baker
We're pleased to announce that the parties have reached an agreement. Due to the nature of the negotiations, we cannot discuss the specific what I can say is we are looking forward to our members getting back to work
Kent Covington
and doing limited service. Started at noon on Tuesday with a full schedule back by evening rush. Long Island Railroad President Rob Free the deal was a failed deal for the
Hunter Baker
employees, but it also ensured that we
Nick Iker
maintained our financial stability that we're not going to put a burden on our
Kent Covington
riders or the taxpayers.
Nick Iker
So it's a good deal. We're happy with it and we're happy to run trains.
Kent Covington
Union members still have to officially sign off on the deal in the coming days. A big upset in a GOP primary election in Kentucky as eight term incumbent Thomas Massie conceded his US House seat to President Trump's hand picked challenger. World's Travis Kercher reports now from the Congressman's official watch party in Kentucky.
Travis Kercher
Massey Hundreds of Massey supporters packed the Cincinnati Airport Marriott here in Hebert, Kentucky Tuesday night to await the results of a hotly contested US House race, but it soon became apparent that the eight term congressman would be surrendering his seat.
Hunter Baker
I did get the call through though. I have called and conceded the race. We've been honorable the whole time and we're going to stay that way.
Travis Kercher
He lost to Ed Gow Rhine, a former US Navy SEAL who had President Trump's full support. The President had criticized Massie first for voting against what Trump called his big beautiful bill. Massie said it added trillions to the national debt and for forcing a vote on a bill requiring the release of the so called Epstein files. I spoke with many Massey supporters who say they saw him as a Republican who kept President Trump accountable to his campaign promises.
Hunter Baker
I don't support that whatsoever, although I do support Mr. Trump's policies. I wish he'd get back into the MAGA line and do what he said that he asked, that he told everybody that he was going to do. You know, the fraud that Mr. Massey talked about, the national debt, he talked about corruption in Washington, D.C. ed Gow
Travis Kercher
Rhine, for his part, told the GOP faithful that he intends to help the president fulfill those promises.
Hunter Baker
I will serve this district, my party and my nation with that same audacity to make a difference for them, their families, our district, our party and our nation. God bless America. Thank y'.
Nick Iker
All.
Travis Kercher
Reporting for world, I'm Travis Kercher in Hebron, Kentucky.
Kent Covington
Meantime, in Georgia, Congressman Mike Collins was the leading vote getter in a Republican Senate primary race as the GOP vies to unseat incumbent Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff. But Collins did not top 50% of the vote, and by Georgia law, that means he'll head to a runoff election on June 16. As of early this morning, it was still unclear who Collins will face in that runoff as the race for second place was still too close to call. I'm Kent Covington. And coming up, Hunter Baker is standing by for Washington Wednesday. And later, Janie B. Cheney on the generational swing from resilience to reliance. This is the World and Everything in It.
Nick Iker
It's Wednesday, the 20th of May. Glad to have you along for today's edition of the World and Everything in It. Good morning, I'm Nick Iker.
Lindsay Mast
And I'm Lindsay Mast. First up, Washington Wednesday and a full plate of politics today. Joining us is Hunter Baker, political scientist and and commentator for World Opinions. Good morning, Hunter.
Hunter Baker
Good morning, Hunter.
Lindsay Mast
Republicans were watching my home state of Kentucky closely last night as Congressman Thomas Massie faced perhaps the most serious political challenge of his career. No doubt about that now, but things just went from bad to worse for him after repeated clashes with President Trump. And that comes just days after Senator Bill Cassidy lost his Republican primary in Louisiana, following years of tension with Trump after Cassidy's impeachment vote back in 2021. So what do you say, Hunter? With Massie out, what larger story are we watching inside the Republican Party right now?
Hunter Baker
If we were to go back, I don't know, 20 years, 25 years, one of the things that we would see Republicans saying over and over again would be the Republican Party is a big tent. It's a big tent party. And the reason that that would be said is because of the understanding that that politics is fundamentally about addition, not subtraction. Typically, you want as many allies, as many friends, as many fellow travelers as you can accumulate, and that's how you build a really big party and win victories. But the other thing you can do is you can have a smaller party with greater intensity. And it seems like that has been the choice that Donald Trump has made over and over again. And there's also, of course, the fact that he does not take slights or challenges. You know, it's a little bit like a prison yard. The idea that allowing someone to challenge you successfully means that you might die in your sleep. And so you got to take out your enemies. You got to show them who's the boss.
Austin or Ashley Deloach
And.
Hunter Baker
And Donald Trump is doing that, and he's doing it well into his second term.
Nick Iker
Well, Hunter, it's interesting you should say that, because I want to take a turn from the election results themselves to how the campaign was fought. The one thing I did not expect in the race in Kentucky is that the argument was not Trump versus anti Trump. Massie was very anti Trump, but in the campaign, he was not. It was a fight over who represents the truest version of Trumpism. Is that what you mean by this prison yard thing, or is that different?
Hunter Baker
I think that that is a big part of what I mean. I mean, Trump has transformed the party. There's no question about that. I can remember in 2016 when he first sort of announced himself, and I thought that he might be kind of a novelty candidate. You know, somebody who would be a celebrity who would make some noise, but ultimately who would not matter. You know, the real politicians would assert themselves and, you know, somebody serious would be elected, and it didn't work out that way at all. He went from being somebody who was a primetime TV star on NBC with Celebrity Apprentice, and, of course, his long history of developing prime real estate to Being not only the Republican nominee, but improbably the President of the United States. And he has chosen not just to sort of be happy that he got the job, but instead to go for a long term play. He is trying to transform the GOP in an enduring fashion, such that people don't just sort of outlast him and then take the GOP back to its truer self or something like that, but instead that it will be a Trump Party henceforth, and he's taking steps to ensure that.
Lindsay Mast
Hunter, when you step back, does this kind of politics energize voters or is it the sort of thing that eventually exhausts them?
Hunter Baker
It's a really good question, and I think it just kind of matters who you are. I can remember teaching community college American government years ago, and I would sometimes despair over how hard it was to get young people interested in politics, in the civics of their own country. Well, that is much less of a problem now. I mean, when Donald Trump is president, I think a lot of people are paying attention who didn't pay attention before. So in that sense, he energizes voters. Now, if you're sort of a connoisseur of politics and, you know, and maybe you're looking for a better label or a better year, it can exhaust you. But there's no doubt that there are a lot of people who are energized, right and left.
Nick Iker
I wonder, with the decision yesterday of the President Hunter to back Attorney General Ken Paxton in Texas over the incumbent Senator John Cornyn, I wonder what the practical meaning of all politics is local is anymore. It seems that more and more the races are national in character. And so with so much on the line in the fall, why would the president want to go with the more difficult to elect Ken Paxton over the safe, you know, he's going to be reelected.
Hunter Baker
John Cornyn, why, you're exactly right that politics have become not terribly local, certainly when we're talking about Congress and the midterms and that instead we're seeing race after race become nationalized. And in particular, Texas. I mean, Texas is kind of the, the golden prize, the brass ring that the Democrats are always hoping that they can grab. You know, it's a state that they used to win. They used to always win Texas. You know, every now and then you might get a Republican governor or something like that. But after George W. Bush, Texas became a solid Republican state. And so you're right. You would ask the question, why not Cornyn? Cornyn has never lost a race before, and it seems like he would just roll on to victory. And all I can conclude is the philosophy that Donald Trump has that is stronger than any other, that stronger than any agenda he has, is loyalty to Donald Trump. And he perceives that John Cornyn has been less loyal to him than Ken Paxton. In fact, Tim Scott, senator from South Carolina, apparently he called Trump 30 minutes before this endorsement and tried to talk him out of it.
Nick Iker
Really?
Hunter Baker
Yes, that was reported and apparently failed. And basically, Trump just concluded that Ken Paxton was the guy who has his back, and that's who he's for.
Lindsay Mast
You know, Hunter, Democrats are increasingly talking openly about structural issues, things like changes to the Electoral College, expansion of the Supreme Court, and statehood for Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Conservatives hear that rhetoric and argue the debate is shifting from winning elections under the rules to rewriting the rules themselves. So here's my question. Are both parties increasingly treating institutions not as neutral frameworks, but as instruments of political survival?
Hunter Baker
There's no doubt about that. You know, you listed off a few things. Of course, there has been the talk about getting rid of the Electoral College. Well, you'd have to change the Constitution first, and that's a pretty big lift. Expansion of the Supreme Court, that would be easier because the Constitution does not require nine. There have been fewer, for example, in the past, as opposed to more. The one that really riles me up is when we talk about statehood for Washington, D.C. i mean, you cannot. You cannot make the seat of government a state. You just can't do that. And to me, it just betrays this incredible sort of unawareness of the fundamental issues that sort of exist in constructing a national government. The idea that you would do that, Puerto Rico is a little bit of a different story. But, yes, everybody, this is the postmodern problem. When you think about postmodernism, it's the idea that there really is no capital T truth. But instead, it's just kind of. Just kind of comes down to power and narratives that are in a competition with each other. And I think that both sides are sort of embracing the idea that power is what ultimately matters. Yes. Are Republicans sometimes guilty of this? I would certainly argue that Mitch McConnell stretched things a little bit when Justice Scalia died in the final year of President Obama's term. You could have had a pretty good procedural expectation that President Obama would have the opportunity to make that appointment, and that was held up. But the Democrats are now turning that particular procedural move into a potential excuse for absolutely packing the court. In fact, they refer to what McConnell did as packing the court. It's not that. No, he wasn't. He wasn't adding to the number in the court. Right. He was basically saying this election is about this seat, and whoever wins this election is going to get the seat. But the discussion of court packing has become extremely common, and I think that it may turn into a fight in the future.
Nick Iker
All right, Hunter, one lighter subplot, because this has been heavy stuff. We're talking about civics, we're talking about the Constitution. But now we need to talk about the briefing room at the White House. Vice President Vance got his turn as the spokesman for the president at the briefing podium while Caroline Levitt is on maternity leave. Conservatives immediately started to compare the performance of the vice president to Marco Rubio's recent appearance behind the podium. So what do you think? Are we quietly watching an early audition for the post Trump generation of Republican leadership? And do you think this is the question? Do you think that Trump enjoys running a real version of the Apprentice from the Oval Office?
Hunter Baker
I have to say that I think that Caroline Levitt's maternity leave has been one of the greatest things to happen in American politics in my lifetime. You know, this situation where we get to have Marco Rubio running that briefing and then JD Vance doing it is just really interesting. You get to watch these two individuals kind of displaying the skills and the intelligence that they have. And Marco Rubio was really amazing. And he was helped by the fact that it was primarily about foreign affairs, with which he is, you know, constantly involved as secretary of state. But I thought that JD Vance looked pretty good. It reminded me of his debate with Tim Waltz and J.D. vance, even though he's kind of the, you know, he's famous, the hillbilly elegy author. And so you think of him as this sort of rural country guy. He is highly intelligent. He has that Ivy League education at law school and a lot of experience. And, you know, he comes across as a guy who knows what he's talking about.
Nick Iker
All right. Hunter Baker is provost at North Greenville University. In addition to all of the above accomplishments. Hunter, thank you. We'll see you next week.
Hunter Baker
Thank you.
Lindsay Mast
Coming up next on THE World and Everything In It World Tour, an Ebola outbreak that started in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has piled on to the problems of a country that has faced years of violence and and unrest.
Nick Iker
This Ebola strain has a very high rate of death in some places, killing every other person infected. So far, more than 130 people have died. Hundreds more have become ill. The strain itself is rare, and that's complicating the response because treating it means going back to the basics. World Africa reporter Onise Adua reports.
Onise Adua
In Congo's Ituri province, shops and supermarkets have set up the familiar hand washing stations, including hand sanitizers for customers. This marks the 17th Ebola outbreak in Congo since 1976. Health authorities in Congo first confirmed the outbreak in Ituri on Friday. Ebola is a highly contagious virus that spreads through bodily fluids. The virus can cause fever, fatigue, vomiting and bleeding. The current strain, known as the Bundibuyo variant, has no approved medications or vaccines. Samuel Raja Kamba is Congo's health minister. He says this variant has a fatality rate as high as 50%. Health authorities have confirmed infections in the eastern city of Goma and west of the country in Kinshasa, the country's capital. Neighboring Uganda has also confirmed infections. Rafael Mohima Kasali resides in Goma. He says he's afraid because he has children in school who could bring home the infection. At least one American missionary doctor has also contracted the virus. Dr. Peter Stafford was treating patients in northeast Congo when he got infected. The United States is working to move Stafford and other high risk Americans out of the country. The World Health Organization on Sunday declared the ongoing outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. That means it's considered a public health risk to other nations but doesn't yet rise to a pandemic level. Relief teams have sprung into action. Robert Batuza is the program director of the World Relief Team. In Congo, he says activities and business operations have slowed.
Robert Batuza
In Goma, there are very few people on the roads. In markets, there are fewer people than usual around this time.
Onise Adua
The outbreak comes as ongoing violence could threaten the medical response. Late in April, armed rebels killed at least 69 people in Ituri province and in Goma. A rebel group known as M23 still controls the city after a rebel offensive last year displaced hundreds of thousands of people. But Batuza says health workers can still access many of the affected areas.
Robert Batuza
The epidemic spreads beyond the various towns into areas that are controlled by big rebel groups and that have not been accessible for a very long time. It's going to be very difficult to control it.
Onise Adua
Health authorities have deployed response teams and emergency support. Doctors Without Borders has said it is working with the Health Ministry to assess needs and respond to. Batusa was also involved in the response in Ituri during the last Ebola outbreak. This time, he says, they're trying to reinforce the strategies and messaging that helped the last time. The World Relief Team so far is supporting health facilities with protective equipment. They're also working through their 38 partner churches to assist more people.
Robert Batuza
We have sent all preventive messages that have been shared so far by the minister of Health to our different sub offices to reinforce infection prevention and control measures like hand washing, station temperature screening at all our sub offices and also in those groups where they meet.
Onise Adua
But without any vaccine or medications for the current outbreak, Batuza says much of their efforts will rely on education and community engagement.
Robert Batuza
Passing on the messages about hand Washington how to handle the dead in the community Breaking the cultural norms of handling the sick and the dead.
Onise Adua
That's this week's world tour. I'm Onizia Dua in Abuja, Nigeria.
Kent Covington
Additional support can comes from Reformation Bible College, where theology shapes every calling. More@discover.reformationbiblecollege.org Ride to Freedom Three friends, one simulation trapped in history during the Freedom Rides now on all major platforms or eyewitnesspod.com and from Peace International, serving South Sudan's refugees by educating children, empowering women and equipping pastors. Peaceint.org.
Nick Iker
A run to the grocery store in Western Australia turned into a full on amphibian encounter region. Reese Smoker was getting dinner ready for friends when he spotted something unexpected inside a sealed bag of lettuce he'd just bought. You got a pet frog for $1.99. Allow me to translate. You see, we Americans and Australians were separated by a common language. What the friend meant was this. Congratulations, mate, you just bought a pet frog for less than a buck and a half. And there it was, a live frog tucked among the lettuce that he was about to chop. Bro, there's a frog in the lettuce.
Janie B. Cheney
He's one of the most relaxed Australians you'd ever find.
Nick Iker
Reports suggest the group kept that meal fully vegetarian, meaning they set the frog free at a nearby pond after naming him Greg. So I'm imagining here if frogs could talk old Greg telling a story. Remember the time he was enjoying a salad when he almost became the main course? It's the world and everything in it.
Lindsay Mast
Today is Wednesday, May 20th. Thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Lindsay Mast.
Nick Iker
And I'm Nick Icker. Next up on the World and Everything in it losing a place to call home. Communities in South Georgia are working to piece life back together after wildfires last month destroyed the greatest number of homes in state history. About 120World's Mary Muncie paid a visit to one of the families affected Every
Janie B. Cheney
December, when brothers Austin and Ashley deloach were young, they cut a pine tree down and brought it to their mother for a Christmas tree. But one year, Ashley says they branched out.
Ashley Deloach
This particular Christmas, I don't remember what year, but we got Mama a cedar tree about 5ft high, 6ft high, and Carrie's in that front room and she put it, she put by the fireplace and that was a Christmas tree.
Janie B. Cheney
All of the relatives came and stacked presents a few feet high under it. At night they dragged mattresses to wherever there was room, leaving most of the floor full of sleeping cousins.
Ashley Deloach
Mama liked to cook. She cooked for 50s as quick as she would. 5.
Janie B. Cheney
After Christmas, she planted the tree by the porch. For years, the tree provided shade for the family. Now it's blackened and bare. Austin points to a swath of brown pine trees to the south.
Austin or Ashley Deloach
And the fire was coming right through the right sides, right yonder to the right. See that gap in yonder about a mile in there? You could see it way above the trees. It was 40ft high, about a mile off when we left.
Janie B. Cheney
The brothers split their childhood between this house and a newer one a few hundred yards away. Austin's grandfather built the older house in the 1920s. They call the property the home place. Ashley and Austin moved away after high school and built their own families. But they kept coming back for their mother's big family meals.
Austin or Ashley Deloach
They didn't have a bunch financially, very little, to tell you the truth, either one of them. But they had a lot of love for the family and their mother loved to cook.
Janie B. Cheney
The houses are surrounded by farmland and pine trees. No one has lived in either house for years, but the brothers still come here regularly, including when the fires broke out.
Austin or Ashley Deloach
We put a sprinkler up here on top of this house and me and Ashley's boy, we went down there and mowed some.
Janie B. Cheney
The fire department sent firefighters and tankers. The brothers stayed until about 12:30 in the morning. Austin thinks the tankers saved the newer House. But 45 minutes after the brothers left, they learned their grandfather's house had burned.
Austin or Ashley Deloach
It was an a frame house set like this. And then on the back end of it was the kitchen.
Janie B. Cheney
Now it's a pile of twisted sheet metal with two brick chimneys sticking up on either side. Ashley and Austin walked past the frames of a mule drawn plow and a tractor. After Ashley got the call that the house had burned, he tried to go to bed.
Ashley Deloach
I didn't cry really at the time, tried not to, but I couldn't keep from thinking from one story after another after another till about 5 o' clock in the morning, just like he'd been talking when one got to the end. And I think about that and I prayed to the Lord to stop me from thinking about anything. And finally about five o', clock, he heard me, I reckon, and I got some sleep.
Janie B. Cheney
They may not live in or visit the home place as much anymore, but it held family history. The brothers hope to keep their memories alive and maybe create a new home place.
Austin or Ashley Deloach
I've been all the way around the gamut what you could do get mad and this, that and the other get aggravated and this, that and the other. But I finally put in the Lord's hands and thanking him for it all the time we had it and,
Lindsay Mast
You
Austin or Ashley Deloach
know, thankful for the memories, you know, a bunch of them.
Janie B. Cheney
The fires that took the house and more than a hundred others are almost completely contained now, but they'll likely keep smoldering until there's a big rain. The next step for the family is to start slowly cleaning up. Reporting for world I'm Mary Muncie in Clinch County, Georgia.
Nick Iker
Good morning. This is the World and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Nick Iger.
Janie B. Cheney
And I'm Lindsay.
Lindsay Mast
A lot of Americans look back fondly on the childhood of the 1970s and 80s. Kids riding bikes until dark, solving problems on their own and learning independence the hard way.
Nick Iker
But many of those same children grew up determined to give their own kids something different. More protection, more guidance, fewer risks. World commentator Janie B. Cheney says that generational swing may help explain some some of the parenting debates we are still having today.
Lindsay Mast
You may have noticed that fashions in child rearing change. When I was growing up, few moms left home for work, and daycare was barely a word, much less a political issue. But depending on who you talked to, mom was either a happy housewife like Laura Petrie, or a frustrated domestic prisoner like Betty Friedan. The truth was probably somewhere in between. But homes were generally stable, divorce rare, and kids came home to at least one parent after a long summer day, figuring out what to do with themselves. By the mid-70s, there had been a mass exodus of moms from home. Divorce rates hit the ceiling, daycares bloomed like lilies, and kids old enough to make their own peanut butter sandwiches routinely came home to an empty house. It was the era of the latchkey child with no dinner until mom got home at 6. What did they do in the meantime? According to the experts, they spent tons of unsupervised time becoming resilient Gen Xers and their parents, too, will reminisce about getting lost and finding their own way home, building fires in a vacant lot or spending all afternoon at the pool without sunblock, or going on road trips unrestrained in the backseat. We're lucky we made it out alive, they'll say with an undertone of nostalgia for their free range childhood. So you might wonder why such resilient kids went on to raise a generation seemingly less able to handle setbacks, live with boredom, form lasting relationships, or take a risk. For sure, plenty of millennials have launched into adulthood successfully and have even started families of their own, determined as all generations are to avoid their parents mistakes. Still, there has been a trend noticed among workplace supervisors and college professors that younger generations tend to rely on parental help to make decisions more than their elders did. It didn't begin with a smartphone. Twenty years ago, parents were giving flip phones to their fifth graders so they'd be only a few push buttons away from instant communication. By the time those kids were in college, their professors noticed they had barely left the classroom before flipping open their phones to tell mom they just got out of class and what to do with the sour milk or a canceled debit card. Helicopter parenting was becoming a thing. If Gen Xers grew up with such resilience, why couldn't they raise their children in the same mold? Could some of them be overcompensating to supply what they themselves missed? There's no guaranteed path to raising a responsible adult. But responsible adults are not formed by benign neglect or diligent hovering. In the 1970s, while marriages were falling apart, we heard that kids would be able to adapt to whatever seemed best for the grown ups. God made children to be adaptable to circumstances in the fallen world, but also to be trained up in the way they should go by wise, diligent counselors who were themselves formed by the word of God. Our kids will answer for their own mistakes. But for best results, aim for resilience coupled with wisdom. Foreworld I'm Janie B. Cheney.
Tomorrow, how one woman is a alerting corporate America to the harms they underwrite when they back gender ideology. We'll have her story. And World's music critic Arsenio Orteza looks back at the career of the late singer songwriter Dave Mason. That and more tomorrow. I'm Lindsay Mast.
Nick Iker
And I'm Nick Eicher. The world and everything in it comes to you from World Radio. World's mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires the Bible records the words of King Saul, he said to David, you are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me in your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. Verses 17 through 19 of 1st Samuel. Chapter 24. Go now in grace and peace.
Podcast Summary: The World and Everything In It – May 20, 2026
Episode: Victory for Trump-backed challengers, the Ebola outbreak, and losing a homestead
This episode of The World and Everything In It dives deep into shifting dynamics within the Republican Party following Trump-backed victories in primary elections, covers the emergence of a deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and tells the compelling story of a South Georgia family dealing with the loss of their ancestral home to wildfires. The team also explores the generational shift in parenting from resilience to reliance and provides insightful commentary and field reporting throughout.
Washington Wednesday with Hunter Baker
Thomas Massie Defeated in Kentucky
Party Dynamics & Trump’s Influence
Loyalty as the Deciding Factor
Institutional Shifts in Political Tactics
Future GOP Leadership—‘The Apprentice’ in the Oval Office?
Iran Tensions ([01:01]–[02:40])
Attack on UAE Nuclear Site
Senate Moves to End War
Labor News: Long Island Railroad Strike Ends
Georgia GOP Senate Primary
This summary captures the substance and emotional weight of the episode’s major topics, organized for both clarity and depth.