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Lindsay Mast
Good morning. Today on Culture Friday, worst case, climate predictions get rolled back, but the generational anxiety damage is done.
Nick Eicher
Katie McCoy is standing by. Also today, a new family comedy starring stand up sensation Nate Bargazzi revives an old sitcom trope, one that makes dad
Nick Iker
the punchline, we're all gonna die.
Joseph Holmes
I'm right here.
Nick Eicher
And your listener feedback for the month of.
Lindsay Mast
It's Friday, May 29th. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Lindsay Mast.
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Einker. Good morning.
Lindsay Mast
Up next, Kent Covington with today's news.
Benjamin Eicher
U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached a tentative deal to extend the ceasefire and start talks on Iran's nuclear program. President Trump, though, still has to sign off. If approved, the agreement would extend the truce by 60 days. Iran would have to pull all mines from the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days and could not charge tolls to passing ships. The US for its part, would gradually ease its naval blockade and relax sanctions, letting Iran sell more oil. But Trump said Thursday he's still in no rush.
Donald Trump
I'm playing it out and we're going to see. And that's what I do. I negotiate. They negotiate. They're very good negotiators. They're crafty. But in the end, we have all the cards because we've defeated them militarily. Look, they have no navy. Their air force is totally gone 100%.
Benjamin Eicher
And the ceasefire has been shaky. On Thursday, Iran fired missiles at Kuwait, which US Central Command called an egregious ceasefire violation. That came after the US Struck targets in Iran late Wednesday, shooting down drones and hitting a control station. Vice President J.D. vance has been working on the deal's details and he said on the nuclear
J.D. Vance
piece, we're going back and forth on a couple of language points. I do think we've made a lot of progress here. It's very clear that I think the Iranians, they want to feel and they want to open the Straits of Hormuz. We want them to open the Straits of Hormuz. There are a couple of issues on the nuclear stuff, the highly enriched stockpile and also the question enrichment.
Benjamin Eicher
Iran has hundreds of pounds of uranium near weapons grade and has not yet agreed to give it up. Israeli and Lebanese military officials sit down again in Washington today for their first security talks since an Israel Lebanon ceasefire began in April. But Israeli airstrikes have intensified ahead of the meeting. World's Benjamin Eicker has details.
Kristen Flavin
Israel hit a Beirut suburb Thursday, targeting Hezbollah militants. The Lebanese Health Ministry claims at least 14 people were killed in the strikes across the south. The Lebanon based Hezbollah terror group has been firing drones into Israel. The Israeli military says one of its soldiers was killed Thursday and it will keep targeting the Iranian backed group's assets. Israel says the goal of today's talks is to disarm Hezbollah. Iran wants Israeli strikes in Lebanon to stop and wants to make that a condition of any peace deal with the US the latest Israel Hezbollah conflict began in March when the terror group fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Iran.
Benjamin Eicher
For World I'm Benjamin Eicher Inflation just hit a three year high. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that prices were up 3.8% in April from one year ago. Gas prices, of course a big driver spiking amid the war, averaging just over $4.40 a gallon today. Food, clothing and electricity prices have also swelled. Americans incomes have now lost ground to inflation for three months in a row. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant insisted Thursday that the price spike will be temporary abating once the war ends. And PNC Financial Services Group chief economist Gus Faucher sees a path to lower energy costs.
Gus Faucher
Certainly if there was a resolution to the war in Iran, if there was a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, we would expect to see energy prices decline in the summer and into the fall. Inflation is still going to be elevated, but it's not going to be as bad as it is now.
Benjamin Eicher
But he notes that the energy spike and resulting inflation could make it tough for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this year. The Department of Justice is reportedly investigating E. Jean Carroll, the writer who accused President Trump of sexually assaulting her more than 30 years ago. World's Kristin Flavin reports.
Kristen Flavin
Federal prosecutors in Chicago are reportedly looking into whether Carol lied under oath. Carol says Trump assaulted her in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied it from the start. A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carol and awarded her $5 million. A separate jury awarded another $83 million for defamation the following year. Both were civil cases where a jury only has to find one side more likely than not. In contrast to a criminal case, which requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the Justice Department is said to be looking into a deposition Carol gave in 2022 about who paid for her lawsuit. Trump's team alleged that she lied about outside funding For World I'm Kristen Flavin.
Benjamin Eicher
A court near Vienna handed down its sentence Thursday to an Austrian man convicted of plotting to attack a Taylor Swift concert. The 21 year old admitted to the plot and was sentenced to 15 years behind bars. Prosecutors say he had ties to ISIS and planned to use knives or homemade explosives outside the stadium where Swift was scheduled to perform in 2024. Investigators searched his apartment and found bomb making materials just one day before the concerts were slated to start. Austrian authorities foiled the attack but still canceled Swift's three Vienna shows as a precaution. The court also sentenced a 21 year old CO defendant to 12 years. I'm Kent Covington. And coming up, Katie McCoy is standing by for Culture Friday. And later, your listener feedback for the month of May. THIS is the WORLD and everything in it.
Lindsay Mast
It's Friday, May 29th. Glad to have you along for today's edition of THE WORLD and Everything In It. Good morning. I'm Lindsay Mast.
Nick Iker
And I'm Nick Iker.
Nick Eicher
It's CULTURE Friday.
Nick Iker
Joining us now is author, speaker and co host of our Reality Check feature on World Watch, Katie McCoy. Katie, good morning to you.
Katie McCoy
Good morning.
Nick Iker
Well, Katie, I know you saw the big report in the New York Times this week, some of the most alarmist climate projections that shaped years of public debate. They are now being walked back. And this was, of course, one of those worst case global warming scenarios that influenced research papers and media coverage and policy planning and just a lot of apocalyptic rhetoric about the future. Critics, of course, had pushed back. They'd argued for years these assumptions were never especially realistic. But now that it's walked back, Katie, it seems to me the bigger issue here may be the erosion of trust in institutions. Because when Americans see experts and journalists and universities and government agencies speak with this certainty, just for years, years, and then quietly revise or retreat from those claims, what do you think it does to public confidence in our authorities?
Katie McCoy
Yeah, this was shocking and not surprising, I suppose we could say, because this isn't the first time in recent memory that we've seen major institutions backtrack on things that they have reported as indisputable fact. And I'm old enough to remember when we lived through Covid, what was it, six years ago now feels like a lifetime ago now in some ways. Well, now that's just six years. Think, though, about all the damage that was done to people in the medical community in that six years, their reputations that were destroyed. Now magnify that and I think we can get an appreciation for the scope of this New York Times article. I think about how our world is so tribal, so politically motivated that to just challenge an accepted narrative, it makes you just Persona non grata it makes you a lunatic, not worthy to be listened to. It makes you some parochial fundamentalist on the fringes of society. I also think about how two things come to mind when Professor Carl Truman described how in our world today, truth is defined by the political purpose it fulfills, not the degree to which it corresponds to reality. I think we see that at work in a lot of these narratives that suddenly get shifted. And then. We've talked about this on the show before, Nick, about how a generation of young adults has, quote, unquote, climate anxiety. Climate anxiety, things that they're seeing in the news about how we may not have a planet in 10 years. And so it's actually affecting their life choices, like whether or not they think they could actually get married or have children. Well, if you think that the world is gonna be half the population wiped out within your lifetime and the seas coming up into the shores, I mean, of course you're going to be anxious. So just think about the many ramifications of what this one narrative has caused. And now people are just quietly trying to backtrack it without considering, you know, this may have done a lot of damage to an entire generation of Americans.
Lindsay Mast
Well, speaking of the younger generation, I want to talk a little bit about Alex Cooper. She's a multi million dollar podcaster who's built an empire on telling young women to sleep around in their 20s instead of settling down. Here's the rub. Now, she's married and recently announced they're expecting a baby, and people are calling her a hypocrite. There was an article in the Free Press where the writer argues that Cooper is proof that women can actually have it both ways. So I want to ask you, can they really?
Katie McCoy
Okay, well, Lindsay, let me just tell you, I only recently became aware of who Alex Cooper is before today, but relatively recently, and I'm very grateful for that same. So she has built an entire brand that she has told women to avoid. The very things that she is now living in and celebrating marriage and maternity. And on the one hand, that's wonderful. I'm so glad that she got married. I'm so glad she's expecting a baby. She's celebrating that baby. That is wonderful. I mean, talk about a vibe shift, right? But she is going to represent a very small minority, a sliver even of the pie graph, of all the women who have lived exactly how she told them to live and now wake up in their 30s and want to have a steady marriage and the hope of children. You know, what's happened as a result of the hookup culture is. And we could talk about the sociological things related to pornography, divorce, fatherlessness, lower rates of marital satisfaction. All of these things are the results of hookup culture. But along with that, let's just think personally, what other relationship has God created other than marriage, where you are daily dying to yourself? You don't prepare for a relationship that was created for covenant selflessness by living a life of personal selfishness. That's incongruent. You don't just switch that off when you have a wedding. So what would be the worst thing, Lindsay, is if a young woman hears this and thinks, oh, I can live exactly how she lived. And look, the outcome is exactly what I want it to be. I hope women realize how rare it is that the outcome would lead to happiness. Everything that women like Alex Cooper do, the way that they live in their 20s, it sets them up for incredible heartbreak and frustration.
Lindsay Mast
Well, and besides the outcome, it also seems like this influencer mentality ignores the process that she may have gone through or someone who does end up where she is. But the process, the damage, whatever can happen in that mentality, that hookup culture is no longer being seen because the image is, here's the end product. And you don't have to see what I'm dealing with, mentally or otherwise, because of what I've done in my 20s.
Katie McCoy
Oh, 100%. You know, just because she got married doesn't mean that she isn't going to have some significant problems. I certainly hope she stays married. But the data is in about how the more sexual partners that you have before marriage, the less satisfied you are within that monogamous marriage. Not saying it's impossible. Jesus redeems all things, but the fact of it is, the way God created us to live is how we are best designed to live. And speaking of things that you don't see on the other side of the Instagram filter, talk about resources that other women don't have. They don't have millions of dollars. They don't have events that they put on. They don't have a staff. They don't have book deals or whatever else she has. They just have their lives. And there's a generation of women that have been told that this is the way to empowerment. And in reality, it is the way to total disillusionment.
Nick Iker
So, Katie, you can probably see we're at World Journalism Institute wrapping up week two, and maybe it's not so much the backdrop, but the droopy eyes here as we work with these young people, work hard, they have Some questions for you. And we'll kind of consider this at the end of our segment, our lightning round.
Savannah Pack
Hi, I'm Savannah Pack. I go to Bob Jones University and I live in Greenville, South Carolina. My question is America is a nation built on Christian principles, not a Christian nation. If religion were to be included in public schools, again, that is prayer before class, reading from the Bible and literature or history, should other religions or religious texts be included as well?
Katie McCoy
Great question, Savannah. This is a perfect example of how culture and law have an inextricable relationship. So from the founding of the United States, we were predominantly a nation made up of Protestant Christians, yes, Catholics and yes, Jewish Americans, but predominantly Protestant Christians. And so that Protestant Christian moral ethic formation was brought into the school system as a way of forming well adjusted, prepared citizens. And then in 1962, that all changed when the Supreme Court ruled that it violated the establishment clause and that by teaching a specific religion in public schools, it violated the first Amendment principle that Congress should not establish a religion. So now, since it is unconstitutional to teach one religion, if one religion were to be taught in the public school system, yes, all of the others would have to as well. Now, as I understand it, there are. There may be education almost like sociologically or from an anthropological perspective of what different religions teach, but we do not have any religious education in the school system today. Shout out to homeschooling parents, to classical Christian schools, to cohorts. And then also, fun fact, you can nerd out on this policy, but in the big beautiful bill, there is something called the federal school choice tax credit, which allows people like you and me can take a portion of our taxes and tell the government where we want those tax dollars to be applied. And those tax dollars could go to supporting scholarships for children who want to go to Christian schools. So you can start googling that on about how to do it. But this is one of the reasons why we have things like school choice initiatives, vouchers, and tax credits is to remedy the very problem that you've brought up.
Eliza Abedi
Hi, I'm Eliza Abedi and I go to Union University and I'm from Concord, Vermont. I was just wondering how you would recommend we talk to a friend who is having an ideology shift towards the progressive side and claims to be a Christian.
Katie McCoy
Well, this has to be really painful. The first thing I would do is keep the dialogue open and keep asking that friend a lot of questions, like how long has he or she been feeling like this? What has caused it? You know, a lot of times it is. People feel torn between the faith of their childhood and what they know Scripture teaches. And then also another relationship. Could be a friend, could be a family member. Sometimes it is dealing with the hard realities of what scripture teaches, particularly about human sexuality. And so having conversations about similar to the one that we just had about Alex Cooper and looking at, you know, are people really better off living just completely according to their feelings or did God design us for something more? I would encourage you first, keep that dialogue open, keep asking questions, keep praying for her, and then also shout out to ministries like our friend Alyssa Childers. She's got a ton on progressive Christianity and I cannot recommend a better source.
Eliza Abedi
Hi Katie, this is Tyler Stillson from Bend, Oregon. I went to Colorado Christian University. Do Christian universities have an obligation to mandate student attendance in chapel and Bible specific courses? I've heard the perspective that this approach benefits students in their faith walk. I've also heard the opposite. Is it the role of universities to mandate these things in pursuit of discipleship? Or is discipleship the obligation of the church? Thank you.
Katie McCoy
So I went to a really good Christian school and we did have mandatory chapel attendance. And I'll just be honest, I kind of sat my way through a lot of it. Thankfully we didn't have smartphones like that as we do now, or else I probably would have been like streaming Instagram. Unfortunately, a lot of chapel attendance for college kids is just sitting and enduring. I can, however, tell you that there are a few standouts and those standouts have stuck with me today of deep spiritual lessons that met me when I was at a point when I didn't know what my future was going to hold. And the Lord really used it in deep ways in terms of whether a Christian school should or should not mandate. There's no law on it obviously in Scripture. I think the real question is how do Christian universities best form the intellectual and spiritual discipleship of their students? And that can include chapel. It could include more integrating theology into their courses. So it's a good conversation worth having. I don't think there's one right or wrong answer.
Nick Iker
Katie McCoy, author and speaker and co host of World Watch's Reality Check. Katie, great to talk with you.
Katie McCoy
Always good to see you guys.
Narrator/Announcer
Additional support comes from St. Dunstan's inviting young men into the building arts and the adventure of holiness on a Blue Ridge Mountain Farm. Essence stdunstonsacademy.org From WatersEdge, today's investment Tomorrow's thriving churches 3.25% APY on demand watersedge.com invest and from Pensacola Theological seminary preparing students to preach God's word. Go pcci Eduardo, start seminary.
Nick Eicher
Today is Friday, May 29th. Thank you for turning to world radio to help start your day. Good morning, I'm Nick Eicher.
Lindsay Mast
And I'm Lindsay Mass. Coming next on the World and everything in it, a new comedy aimed at families. Famously clean comedian Nate Bargazzi stars in the Breadwinner, which hits theaters this weekend. The film has been marketed to families as a clean, safe entertainment choice, but world reviewer Joseph Holmes says despite its wholesome ambitions, this one may not deliver.
Joseph Holmes
There's a reason American Christians gravitate towards old fashioned and safe movie material. We tend to be more family oriented than our peers, especially today, so we enjoy media that we can safely watch together. The new family comedy the Breadwinner is headlined by probably the biggest clean comedian working today, Nate Bargetzi, and is clearly targeting exactly that viewer. It's built around the oh so familiar trope of the inept father trying and failing to do the mom's job while she's away. Unfortunately, it's also another example of how safe doesn't always equal good and of how just because something is old fashioned doesn't mean it's safe.
Lindsay Mast
I think I might really have something.
Nate Bargetzi
If doing this makes you happy, you have to go for it.
Katie McCoy
This is a big opportunity. I'm going to give you an offer. But Nate, you have to stay home and take care of the kids.
Nate Bargetzi
Yeah, I could do that.
Katie McCoy
Really? We're all gonna die.
Nate Bargetzi
I'm right here.
Joseph Holmes
Bargetzi plays Nate Wilcox. He, along with his three children, consider wife Katie, played by Mandy Moore, the ultimate mom. She manages their comically chaotic household with equal parts efficiency and love, and everything runs perfectly. But when Katie's household invention leads to a once in a lifetime deal on Shark Tank and takes her on a prolonged business trip, Nay has to figure out how to keep the house from falling apart.
Katie McCoy
Are you sure you can handle this?
Nate Bargetzi
I'm the top salesman at the dealership. I think I can handle a month alone with the girls. You act like I'm a blow the house up.
Katie McCoy
Bye, dad. The front door is locked.
Nate Bargetzi
There's a window in the back. We'll crawl through that.
Joseph Holmes
I'm a fan of Barketzi and I think he's due to headline a Hollywood film. And I can appreciate what the Breadwinner was trying to do. It's been a while since we've had a comedy about families that families can watch together. And although the comedy is familiar, it has the potential for some new Twists in a time where women are working more and dads are staying home more. You see bits of this in how Nate Wilcox has to lie to his wife when he tells her he doesn't mind the fact that their roles have reversed. Something a sitcom dad from the 50s wouldn't have necessarily had to do. The problem is the movie isn't very funny. Regrettably, a big part of it is Bargetzi's casting. His understated style of comedy doesn't mesh well with the cartoonish gags that dominate the majority of the breadwinner's runtime. In his stand up routines, Bargetzi excels at delivering jokes with wholesome, deadpan self awareness. When the film lets Bargetzi play that way in the film, it works. But far too often he has to play a dumb dad who's so clueless and incompetent he's basically a Looney Tunes character. A character that doesn't fit with the version of himself that he plays. Far better.
Katie McCoy
Dad, you're going the wrong way.
Nate Bargetzi
To your school.
Eliza Abedi
To any of our schools.
Katie McCoy
Do you not know where our schools are?
Joseph Holmes
I'm not going along.
Lindsay Mast
What?
Nate Bargetzi
Give me the phone.
Joseph Holmes
But the problems wouldn't have been solved if they had just hired a different comedian who fit the material better because most of that material is too tired and cliche to generate any laughs. The film also features a legitimately good cast of Hollywood comedians like Kumail Nanjani, Zack Cherry, Nick Nolte and Colin Jost. But they also feel hemmed in by the material, getting most of their best moments in the rare instances where they get to play to their comedic strengths. Also, the film can be preachy with its life lessons. Like a bad Christian film, we see Nate and Katie teaching their daughters consent in hugging and later Nate has to learn all kinds of heavy handed lessons about what being a better and husband and father is like. Unlike those bad Christian films, however, none of these lessons are necessarily tied to a Christian worldview.
Nate Bargetzi
I'll get two weeks of T shirts and two weeks of underwear.
Katie McCoy
What happens after two weeks?
Nate Bargetzi
We throw all this out and stuff start over.
Joseph Holmes
In fact, some of those messages that the film preaches are problematic. The breadwinner is constantly promoting the loser dad cultural myth by showing us and telling us how much better Katie is than Nate as a spouse, husband and person. At every turn we're told how bad Nate is at being a good parent. And his character development is all about learning to admit he needs to follow and learn rather than lead. We tend to downplay the harm of this myth because we're so familiar with it. We see it with Homer Simpson and on the show Everybody Loves Raymond. But given how much damage seeing dads that way has done to marriages and families, it's not something that we should just ignore. If the film were more entertaining, it might be worth watching and discussing, but given how dull it is, it's hard to justify.
Nate Bargetzi
It makes it look so easy. This has been the hardest I've ever worked in my life.
Katie McCoy
I know this is hard. Growing into new roles like this could change our lives.
Nate Bargetzi
Trust me, I'm not going to let your dream die.
Joseph Holmes
Christian families are right to look for wholesome movies that the whole family can watch together. Hopefully filmmakers will start making better ones soon so families don't have to settle for movies like the Breadwinner. I'm Joseph Holmes.
Lindsay Mast
Good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Lindsay Mast.
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. Time now for listener feedback for the month of May. Laura Devine from Tacoma, Washington wrote in about Myrna Brown's May 14 story on the year long project of a recently graduated Colson Fellow.
Joseph Holmes
I was so convicted and inspired by Chris Smith and how she wanted to work with young women in her church and she did not give up when it was a little hard getting connected. I personally was neither persistent nor faithful when God called me to do something very similar. So thank you so much for sharing the story. It was something I really needed to hear.
Lindsay Mast
Nathan Howell from Amarillo, Texas heard Mary Ryrd's interview with JP Degan and had a different perspective on the topic of the church's support for marriage.
Nathan Howell
I liked how the story focused on how many divorces can be prevented through the church's involvement. This is good in actively fighting the culture of divorce. If a marriage is really worth saving, then even those outside of any marriage should help their friends to fight for it. But I confess that I feel forgotten in all these discussions. I got divorced over 10 years ago by no choice of my own. I tried to stay married to my wife in all the ways I knew how through two years of trying. So I just wanted to say that there are many people like me who know that our lives are not forever stained by divorce. Yet it does not seem that there are many in the church who acknowledge this, at least not openly. I would simply like more people to understand and to care for the divorced around them, to hope for their satisfaction in life following Jesus the best way we know how from a place of brokenness.
Nick Eicher
Sarah Driesy shares a personal connection to the Milton Hershey history book we aired May 11.
Sarah Driesy
My great grandfather was a lead farmer on one of his farms and then both of my grandparents as teenagers worked on Milton Hershey farms and all of them would have known him well and met him. Of course, since I was born 40 years after he died, I never met him, but he is very much a part of my family history, so I wanted to share that. Most people know about Hershey park, but they don't know the man that made it. And he and his wife, not being able to have children themselves, dedicated their life to doing good to orphans and then their legacy, all their inheritance went to bettering the lives of disadvantaged children. So he's a wonderful man to highlight and thank you for doing that.
Lindsay Mast
Finally, just one of many messages we received after Myrna Brown's interview with Iranian American pastor and author David Nassar. It aired the last Saturday in April, so it came in after listener feedback last month, but we think it's worth sharing. Here's Neil Cummings from Rexford, New York, who captures the gist of the feedback we got.
Neil Cummings
Myrna, I have to tell you, that was one of the best interviews I think you've ever done, perhaps even your magnum opus. Thank you so much for your diligence and your way of interviewing. And thanks to God for David Nassar and being a great person to interview and thank the Lord for the way he redeemed David and the way David and his family have been changed by grace, mercy and power of God. Thank you so much for your faithfulness, Myrna. Always appreciate listening to you.
Nick Eicher
And that's listener feedback for the month of May. Time now to name the crew who helped with this week's programs. Jenny Ruff, David Bonson, Maria Baer, Cal Thomas, Lauren Canterbury, Mary Munsey, Hunter Baker, Daniel Serr, Mary Reichert, Lauren Dunn, Daniel Darling, Katie McCoy, Joseph Holmes and Josh Gagne. Thanks also to our breaking news crew, Kent Covington, Steve Klosterman, Travis Kercher, Daniel Devine and Christina Grube. And thanks to the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early tech producers Benj Eich and Carl Peetz. Harrison Waters is Washington producer, Kristen Flavin is features editor. Emma Eicher is assistant producer. I'm executive producer Nick Iger.
Lindsay Mast
And I'm producer Lindsay Mast. 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 says when we heard this. We and the people there urged the him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, what are you doing? Weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, let the will of the Lord be done. Verses 12 through 14 of Acts 21 Myrna's away today. I can't quite say it like she does, but y' all know what to do. Sunday's coming. Let's go worship in a Bible believing church on the Lord's Day. Go now in grace and peace.
This episode of "The World and Everything In It" explores the consequences of climate change narratives and institutional credibility ("Climate warnings and credibility"), reviews the new family comedy "The Breadwinner" starring Nate Bargatze, and shares listener feedback on stories and features aired during May. Main hosts Lindsay Mast and Nick Eicher are joined by regular contributors, including cultural analyst Katie McCoy and film reviewer Joseph Holmes.
US-Iran Ceasefire & Nuclear Talks (00:52–02:20):
Israel-Lebanon Tensions & Talks (02:20–03:25):
Inflation Update (03:25–04:19):
E. Jean Carroll DOJ Investigation (04:38–05:26):
Vienna Concert Attack Foiled (05:26–06:35):
Host: Nick Iker | Guest: Katie McCoy
"This isn’t the first time in recent memory that we’ve seen major institutions backtrack on things that they have reported as indisputable fact... magnify that and I think we can get an appreciation for the scope of this New York Times article."
"She has built an entire brand that she has told women to avoid… the very things she is now living in and celebrating." (10:43)
"You don’t prepare for a relationship that was created for covenant selflessness by living a life of personal selfishness. That’s incongruent." (11:50)
Host: Joseph Holmes
"His understated style of comedy doesn’t mesh well with the cartoonish gags that dominate the majority of The Breadwinner’s runtime." (24:10)
"Christian families are right to look for wholesome movies... hopefully filmmakers will start making better ones soon so families don’t have to settle for movies like The Breadwinner." (26:36)
Chris Smith’s Service to Young Women (27:16):
Church Support for the Divorced (27:46):
Milton Hershey Feature (28:47):
David Nassar Interview (29:45):
"Thank you so much for your diligence and your way of interviewing. And thanks to God for David Nassar and being a great person to interview..." (30:04)
Katie McCoy on Truth and Institutions (07:55):
"Truth is defined by the political purpose it fulfills, not the degree to which it corresponds to reality."
On Instagram Culture (13:23):
"You don’t prepare for a relationship that was created for covenant selflessness by living a life of personal selfishness. That’s incongruent." —Katie McCoy
Joseph Holmes on ‘The Breadwinner’ (24:10):
"...his understated style of comedy doesn’t mesh well with the cartoonish gags that dominate the majority of The Breadwinner’s runtime."
Listener Feedback on Redemption (30:04):
“Thanks to God for David Nassar... the way David and his family have been changed by grace, mercy and power of God." —Neil Cummings
This episode tackles the impact of shifting expert narratives and cultural trends on generational outlook and credibility, urges discernment about media and influencers, and offers practical advice for young Christians wrestling with faith and society. Family entertainment is sharply critiqued for unhelpful stereotypes. Listener feedback highlights both the challenges and inspirations drawn from recent stories, anchoring the episode in real-world experiences and gratitude.