9.9.25 Casting proxy votes, the future of conservatism, and efforts to dim the lights

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The World and Everything In It (September 9, 2025)

Overview

In this episode, hosts Mary Reichert and Nick Eicher cover three main stories:

• The complexities and controversies of casting proxy votes as Christian investors
• Ongoing debates within the conservative movement about the true meaning and future of conservatism at the National Conservatism (NatCon) Conference
• Efforts to reduce light pollution and restore natural darkness for people, wildlife, and the environment

The episode features field reporting, expert interviews, and thoughtful commentary, all with the aim of exploring how faith, politics, and science intersect with current events.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Hidden Power of Proxy Votes in Christian Investing

(07:15–16:28)

The Issue:

• Many Christian investors are unaware that their money—held in mutual funds, ETFs, or managed accounts—can be used by fund managers to cast proxy votes that frequently support social and political agendas contrary to biblical values.
• Large proxy voting firms and asset managers (such as BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street) dominate the process, often defaulting to "faith-based" guidelines that poorly reflect actual Christian values.

Notable Insights:

• Misleading Faith-Based Options:
  Ruth Poglitch, a Catholic investor, receives an offer to adopt a Catholic voting policy for her ETF, only to discover the fine print supports policies she opposes, such as pro-LGBTQ initiatives and employee benefits for homosexual partners (08:41).
• Proxy Advisory Firms' Influence:
  Tim Schwarzenberger, investment portfolio manager, emphasizes, "These guidelines have been voting in a way that is very much co-ESG... basically just using the same thing, they just throw in a couple of Catholic words here or there." (09:05, 09:39)
• Lack of Transparency:
  Jerry Boyer (CEO, Boyer Research) explains:

  “Proxy voting is one of those obscure things in finance that almost nobody understands ...but is incredibly culturally and financially important. So the way it works... if you own investments through a mutual fund or an ETF…you have given away your vote to that asset manager.” (10:38) “Those proxy advisory services have long been the subject of activism from people in the ESG and DEI movements and so they've been pulled to the left of where the country is and where most of the shareholders are.” (12:08)

• Advice for Investors:
  • Insist that financial advisors explain and respect your proxy voting rights.
  • “If they cannot tell you how you should vote or how you're already voting, including with your money...insist.” (13:13)
  • Boyer urges, “Well, be demanding clients. Make sure that your money is not being used to fight against everything you believe in.” (16:21)

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2. Defining Conservatism: Debates Within the National Conservative Movement

(16:38–22:45)

The Issue:

• The conservative movement, especially at the NatCon Conference, is grappling with internal divisions and evolving away from traditional libertarian roots.
• Key questions revolve around foreign policy (especially U.S. intervention), national identity, and post-Trump leadership.

Notable Insights:

• NatCon as a Conservative Melting Pot:
  “NATCON is sort of this United Nations of the right wing, and I think that that's very encouraging.” – David Carlson, conservative strategist (17:11, 17:48)
• Trump’s Influence:
  “There are so many overlapping aspects of the rise of Trump, President Trump's agenda, the America First movement, and the rise of the national conservative movement.” – Nick Eicher (18:14)
• Keynote Tensions:
  The movement's founder, Yoram Hazoni, calls for less in-fighting and more constructive debate:

  “This is not just a sideshow. I want to know how is JD Vance going to win the next election if what we're doing outside for four years is tearing each other apart, accusing one another of the most horrible things, smashing one another in public.” (21:49)

• Debate Over U.S. Foreign Policy:
  “Why are these our wars? Why are Israel’s endless problems America's liabilities?... Why should we accept America First Israel?” – Kurt Mills, The American Conservative (20:39)
• Looking Beyond Trump:
  “The real threat is electoral probability post Trump…Figuring out how we can continue to win without the sort of superhuman charisma that Trump has is a difficult one because the ideas are good. But sometimes elections aren't just about ideas.” – David Carlson (22:14)

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3. Efforts to Dim the Lights: Night Sky Advocacy and Light Pollution

(24:56–31:52)

The Issue:

• Most Americans no longer see the Milky Way; excessive artificial lighting is harming ecosystems, human health, and spiritual reflection.

Notable Insights:

• Impact on Wildlife:
  Diane Knudsen, Dark Sky International:

  “If it's too bright, [fireflies] can't find each other and they don't leave their place, so they just die.” (25:22) “Songbirds...can't differentiate the difference of artificial light and natural light sources.” (26:36)

• Ecological Consequences:
  Sea turtle hatchlings and coral reef reproduction are also at risk due to altered night environments.
• Personal Reflection & Biblical Perspective:
  Knudsen relates stargazing to Psalm 19:

  “God declares His knowledge in the heavens, and it’s such a powerful way that he can communicate to us.” (27:51)

• Practical Solutions:
  Use off switches, timers, dimmers, motion sensors, and direct lighting only where needed.
  “Well placed lighting helps too. Beams aimed where needed to serve a clear purpose. Warm colored bulbs that are not too bright.” (29:13)
• Urban and Natural Solutions:
  National parks like Badlands are certified dark sky places; cities like Flagstaff, Arizona, set municipal policies to reclaim darkness for communities.
• Big Picture:

  “Not only the health of our bodies, the health of our souls, it zooms us out of our daily problems in a beautiful way that draws us out of ourselves into a connectedness over ages…” (31:01)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Proxy Voting:
  “So basically what they do for their Catholic policies, they just throw in a couple of Catholic words here or there.” – Brad Littlejohn (09:39)
• On NatCon’s Role:
  “Natcon is not really serving as a place for developing a substantive policy agenda, but it is a kind of convening where every year we sort of find out what is the Overton window within which the conservative movement can operate...” – Brad Littlejohn (21:16)
• On the Night Sky:
  “We use the off switch a lot.” – Diane Knudsen (28:41)

  “The stars haven't gone anywhere. They're not endangered or extinct. They're simply waiting for us to flip off our switches and shift our gaze.” – Jenny Ruff (31:36)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• News Update & International Headlines: 01:02–07:07
• Casting Proxy Votes & Christian Investing: 07:15–16:28
• Defining Conservatism at NatCon: 16:38–22:45
• Efforts to Dim the Lights – Light Pollution & Night Skies: 24:56–31:52
• Opinion/Reflection – Dorm Rooms & Expectations: 32:12–35:56

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Tone & Language

The episode maintains an informative, earnest, and thoughtful tone. Through interviews and first-person accounts, the hosts and guests blend personal stories, practical advice, and analysis, all centered around the intersection of faith, culture, and public life.

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This summary captures the episode’s main stories and provides direct quotes, timestamps, and clear attributions, making it accessible and insightful even for those who haven't listened.

Transcript

[Mary Reichert]

Good morning. Some investment funds are pitching themselves as faith friendly, promising to reflect religious values. But the fine print tells a different story.

[Brad Littlejohn]

So basically what they do for their Catholic policies, they just throw in a couple of Catholic words here or there.

[Nick Eicher]

Also today, the debate among some conservatives over what conservatism even means. And later, night lights. We're not only throwing off our natural rhythms, we're also playing tricks on wildlife songbirds.

[Diane Knudsen]

They'll sing to the sky glow because they can't differentiate artificial light and natural light.

[Mary Reichert]

It's Tuesday, September 9th. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichert.

[Nick Eicher]

And I'm Nick Eicher. Good morning.

[Mary Reichert]

Up next, Mark Mellinger with today's news.

[Mark Mellinger]

President Trump says he is ready to punish Russia with what he calls a second phase of sanctions. That's in response to Russia launching its largest drone attack on Ukraine over the weekend since the start of the invasion. The president also confirms he expects several EU Leaders to be in the US this week to discuss the war in Ukraine. And he says he'll be speaking to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. With peace talks stalled, Georgia Congressman Richard McCormick says it's time to put more pressure on countries indirectly funding the war by doing business with Russia like China and India.

[Jerry Boyer]

This is not just one country's problem. This is all of our problem. And if we want to end this war, we gotta put enormous pressure on these countries not to buy their energy.

[Mark Mellinger]

McCormick speaking to Fox Business. The White House's latest deadline for Russia to get serious about peace talks has come and gone. But so far, Moscow isn't facing any new consequences. In the Middle East, a bus stop in northern Jerusalem became a crime scene Monday as officials say Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the busy intersection. At least six people were killed and another dozen injured before police say a security officer and a civilian killed the two attackers. A third suspect is under arrest in connection with the shootings. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the scene.

[Brad Littlejohn]

We are now in pursuit sieging the villages from which the murderers came. And we will get everyone who helped them, everyone who sent them, and we will carry out even tougher measures.

[Mark Mellinger]

Monday's shootings were the deadliest attack in Israel since October of last year. President Trump is speaking out about last month's horrifying, apparently random murder of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte, North Carolina police public transit train. Surveillance video released this week shows 23 year old Irina Zarutska getting slashed in the neck and killed. Police say her attacker was 34 year old Decarlos Brown Jr. A man with diagnosed mental health issues and a criminal history more than a decade long. Local leaders in Charlotte are facing sharp criticism for allowing Brown to walk the streets. On Monday, President Trump weighed in, calling the suspect a madman while also offering condolences to Zyrutska's family.

[Jerry Boyer]

I just give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed.

[Mark Mellinger]

The president made those comments as he addressed the Religious Liberty Commission at the Museum of the Bible. Later, in a social media post, Trump said of Brown, criminals like this need to be locked up. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy publicly blamed local leaders, including Charlotte's Democratic mayor, as did top Republican state lawmakers, including North Carolina's House speaker, who called Zyrutska's death the cost of soft on crime. Leadership on Capitol Hill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has appointed three Democrats to sit on the new Republican panel investigating the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol. Representatives Eric Swalwell of California, Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Jared Moskowitz of Florida will be joining the new investigation. Jeffries says Democrats won't let the GOP rewrite history and whitewash the violence of that day.

[Brad Littlejohn]

Donald Trump promised that he would lower costs on day one. That hasn't happened. Why didn't it happen? Because on day one, Donald Trump was too busy pardoning hundreds of violent felons who brutally beat police officers.

[Mark Mellinger]

GOP leaders say the new probe will look into the security breach of the Capitol on January 6th and say Trump himself urged House Republicans to to launch the investigation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he is moving forward with a rules change aimed at stopping Democrats from blocking several of President Trump's nominees. The rules change can pass with a simple majority. It could clear the way for up to 100 nominees. Thune says the Democrats logjam has gone on long enough.

[Jerry Boyer]

This is simply the world's longest most.

[Mark Mellinger]

Drawn out temper tantrum over losing an election. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says the president is trying to appoint puppets to exert greater control over government.

[Brad Littlejohn]

Sometimes it's almost as if the more corrupt the better because then Donald Trump.

[Jerry Boyer]

Will totally control what they do.

[Brad Littlejohn]

It's as if he wants the Senate to confirm people willing to lie for him.

[Mark Mellinger]

The rules change would only apply to lower tier executive branch nominations, including posts with federal agencies and ambassadorships that not cabinet level or judicial nominees. Lawmakers in France have voted that country's prime minister out of office, Francois Beyrout, lost the confidence vote 364 to 194. He had only been on the job nine months. He called the vote in the hopes lawmakers would support his view that France needs to cut the equivalent of US$51 billion in public spending to rein in its debt. Obviously, that backfired. France is Europe's second largest economy now. President Emmanuel Macron will have to search for a fourth prime minister in 12 months to help manage it. Beirut warned despite the vote, the country's debt is not going away. I'm Mark Mellinger. Straight ahead, Christian investors lobby fund managers to support their values. Plus making sure more people can actually see the night skies that so loudly declare the glory of God. This is the World and Everything in it.

[Mary Reichert]

It's Tuesday 9th September, so glad to have you along for today's edition of the World and Everything In It. Good morning. I'm Mary Reichert.

[Nick Eicher]

And I'm Nick Icker. First up today, when youn Money votes against you, Billions of dollars in Christian owned investments may be working in opposition to biblical values. That's because a handful of powerful firms control how most shareholder votes are cast. World's Josh Schumacher has the story of Christians calling for change.

[Josh Schumacher]

Ruth and Rudy Poglitch have an exchange traded fund that owns shares in various companies. Earlier this year, Ruth Poglitch got an email from the investment firm that manages that fund.

[Ted Kluck]

So when I got this, my first.

[Mark Mellinger]

Thought was, oh, wow, what a brilliant idea.

[Josh Schumacher]

The email claimed that with the click of a few buttons, she could ensure the shares she owned would be supporting her beliefs at upcoming shareholder meetings without her needing to do anything else. Poglitch is Roman Catholic and the email offered her the option to sign up for a Catholic faith based policy option crafted by Institutional Shareholder Services. The document's title indicated that it would make sure her shares were voting for policies that supported her Catholic values. But Poglitch decided to dig into the details before she digitally signed the dotted line. She'd had a bad experience in the past with stuff hidden in the fine print. Even when the word Christian was involved. She says it's a good thing she decided to take a closer look again.

[Mark Mellinger]

And again and again here.

[Carolina Lumeta]

The values that they are expressing that.

[Jerry Boyer]

They will be voting on have very.

[Carolina Lumeta]

Very little to do with Catholic values.

[Josh Schumacher]

The fine print revealed that her shares would support pro LGBT workplace policies, climate conscious initiatives that she personally didn't agree with. And they would also support granting employees, homosexual partners, the same benefits as spouses.

[Brad Littlejohn]

I know at least the last 20 years that these guidelines have been voting in a way that is Very much.

[Josh Schumacher]

Co esg Tim Schwarzenberger is an investment portfolio manager at a Christian investment firm. He says that proxy voting advisory firms have a track record of playing fast and loose with what it actually means to vote in favor of Christian values. In company boardrooms.

[Brad Littlejohn]

It's gotten progressively worse.

[Josh Schumacher]

Schwarzenberger says the proxy voting advisory firms, faith based options aren't actually all that different from their default policies.

[Brad Littlejohn]

So basically what they do for their Catholic policies, they just basically are using the same thing. They just throw in a couple of Catholic words here or there.

[Josh Schumacher]

One of the two giants dominating the proxy voting industry is a company known as Glass Lewis. It told me earlier this year that its Catholic faith based policies were crafted to reflect the values of select clients. Not necessarily every Catholic, but many Christians in the finance industry are calling for greater transparency from fund managers and proxy voting advisory firms. And they're also calling for Christians to take back control of their votes. For world I'm Josh Schumacher.

[Mary Reichert]

Joining us now to discuss this story further is Jerry Boyer. He is CEO of the investment consulting organization Boyer Research and a World Opinions contributor. Jerry, good morning.

[Jerry Boyer]

Good morning to you, Mary.

[Mary Reichert]

Well, Jerry, can you explain how proxy voting works and why do these two companies control so much of the process?

[Jerry Boyer]

Proxy voting is one of those obscure things in the area of finance that almost nobody understands and almost nobody knows what's going on inside of it, but is incredibly culturally and financially important. So it's one of those zones of low transparency but, but tremendous influence. So the way it works is if you own investments through a mutual fund or an etf, which is something very similar to a mutual fund, and these are the things that you would typically have in a 401k plan or an IRA. You have given away your vote to that asset manager, a BlackRock, a Vanguard, a State street or a, quote, biblically responsible investment company. And we need to loop back to that because just because someone says they're biblically responsible doesn't mean they're biblically responsible. So you have a vote as a shareholder, just like you have a vote as a citizen in America. We have a vote as a shareholder in a company. But when you use an asset manager, one of these funds, you are giving your vote to them and they're voting on your behalf. Well, most of them don't want to bother to learn everything that's on the ballots of companies to vote on because there's thousands and thousands. A typical portfolio might have 15 or 20,000 proposals to be voted on. So they depend on outside, quote, objective experts, proxy Advisory services. And those proxy advisory services make recommendations on how to vote, but in reality, they don't really function like recommendations. They pretty much automatically get voted, quite often according to those recommendations. Those proxy advisory services have long been the subject of activism from people in the esg, environmental, social governance and DEI movements. And so they've been pulled to the left of where the country is and where most of the shareholders are. So when your money's in a fund, you think you're just investing, but you're also voting. And what are you voting on? Yeah, you're voting on things like board members and the auditor, but you're also voting on things like abortion or divesting from Israel are puberty blockers, and on second Amendment issues or fossil fuel issues. And there's a pretty good chance, unless you're somebody who's pretty left wing, you don't like how your money is being voted.

[Mary Reichert]

You know, I recall the retired Justice Stephen Breyer saying that he throws those proxy materials right in the trash as soon as he gets them. So what advice do you have for people who don't know what to do with proxy statements?

[Jerry Boyer]

Well, I would make a distinction between people who just own directly and don't have any help from a financial advisor and people who do have help from a financial advisor. If you have help from a financial advisor, then make them help. It is endemic in the industry to just ignore this function. Often the advisors say, just throw it away. Why do the advisors put this responsibility on their investors? Because they don't know how to handle it. Well, they need to learn how to handle it. This is a vote. This is a right. This is important. This is an exercise of social responsibility or the abdication. We help financial advisors help their clients with this. So there's no excuse. So if you're just an ordinary investor and you've got a financial planner or advisor or a CPA or someone who's doing this for you, bring it up. And if they cannot tell you how you should vote or how you're already voting, including with your money, that's in ETFs and mutual funds. Well, insist.

[Mary Reichert]

You know, we heard about Catholic voting guidelines. Are there other religious value guidelines and do they have the same problems?

[Jerry Boyer]

There are none offered by the major proxy advisory services other than Catholic guidelines. And let me tell you, the Catholic guidelines are Catholic in name only. They are not even voting pro life. And I've looked at these closely. I've read the guidelines in detail and I've looked at the funds that are being voted According to these guidelines, and this is something that proxy advisory services are aware of, and a lot of asset managers who say, well, we're faith based, we're Catholic based. I look at their voting record, you would not be able to tell from their voting. They're voting for proposals that are telling companies to divest from pro life states. They're voting against proposals that say to a company you endorsed Roe versus Wade, you should really count the risk of taking sides on this issue. They're voting against proposals that are trying to stop companies from paying for puberty blockers. When I look at the actual votes, none of the Catholic advisors or asset managers that I can find, the results are actually Catholic. And since evangelical Protestants are also pro life, then they're not evangelical Protestant either.

[Mary Reichert]

Assuming the average person has an investment advisor, how would that person check on his or her, say, retirement investments? And if it's voting according to his.

[Jerry Boyer]

Or her values, you would ask your advisor. And there's a high probability your advisor would not know what you're asking about. And what they're gonna do is they're gonna come back with some reassuring an answers. Let's say they're a Christian financial advisor. In reality, if you have an asset manager who is just filled up with faith language and you look at their actual voting, you can tell they're not paying any attention to it. This has been going on for decades and Christians have not been paying any attention to it. And the other side has been paying attention to it. So no one was paying attention in the past. Fine. Now you have to. I understand most people listening aren't advisors. Most of you are clients. Well, be demanding clients. Make sure that your money is not being used to fight against everything you believe in.

[Mary Reichert]

Jerry Boyer is CEO of Boyer Research and writes for World Opinions. Jerry, thank you so much.

[Jerry Boyer]

Thank you, Mary.

[Mary Reichert]

To read more about this story, look for Josh Schumacher's article in the August issue of World magazine.

[Nick Eicher]

Coming up next on the World and everything in it, conservatives debating conservatism. At this year's natcon, the national conservatism conference in Washington, speakers showed the movement is still defining itself. Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumeta has the story.

[Carolina Lumeta]

Last week, more than a thousand attendees with pockets full of business cards flocked to a Washington hotel. For natcon, they went to sessions aimed at determining what the Conservative Party position is on issues like artificial intelligence, foreign policy, and more.

[Brad Littlejohn]

NATCON is sort of this United nations of the right wing, and I think that that's very encouraging.

[Carolina Lumeta]

David Carlson manages conservative brands as A strategist with Beck and Stone, he has attended natcon for three years. In the exhibit halls, conservative institutions like the Heritage foundation and the Claremont Institute handed out their latest magazines and books. In hallway conversations, attendees discussed philosophers Nietzsche and Kant, debated whether the US Is or remain a dominant global force, and created new think tanks on the spot. Natcon has become the primary stomping ground for the conservative elite.

[Brad Littlejohn]

The vibe has changed, the energy has shifted. Natcon is ascendant in the ranks and halls of Congress and in the White House, obviously, and I think everybody's super optimistic.

[Carolina Lumeta]

This year, a record number of speakers came directly from the Trump administration, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Trade Representative Jamison Greer, and Budget Director Russ Vogt.

[Nick Eicher]

There are so many overlapping aspects of the rise of Trump, President Trump's agenda, the America first movement, and the rise of the national conservative movement.

[Carolina Lumeta]

While President Donald Trump says that he is the author of the America first ideology, Nat Khan claims the mantle of determining what counts as conservative. The first conference was held in 2019, helmed by Israeli philosopher and political theorist Yoram Hazoni. He invited then up and coming author JD Vance to discuss how the conservative movement should move away from libertarianism.

[Brad Littlejohn]

So I want to thank Yoram and David for putting together a conference like this. I think it's important for folks like.

[Ted Kluck]

Us to get together and talk about.

[Brad Littlejohn]

And think about some of the big issues, and I've certainly learned.

[Carolina Lumeta]

Vance spoke at every natcon until this year. In his opening day address, Hazoni urged the movement to adjust course for the first time in four years. Former speakers and attendees now hold influential positions in the government.

[Brad Littlejohn]

Our job is to pull together journalists, academics, think tank people, writers, people who work in the field of ideas, to bring them in together into a coalition and to hold it there to be the intellectual substrate that underpinning of this nationalist movement. That's what we do.

[Carolina Lumeta]

In the first eight months of the second Trump administration, conservatives have differed over several key policies. After the United States bombed Iran's nuclear capabilities, some conservatives praised it as a smart decision to aid Israel and cripple a foreign adversary. Others said it was hypocritical to promise no new wars and then bomb another country. So Hazoni and the NATCON organizers decided to include balanced perspectives on the panels this year and to showcase the range of conservative thought. The fault lines appeared on the first day. During a breakout session titled America and the Israel, Iran War, Northeastern University professor Max Abrams argued for what he calls a realist position. US Intervention I'm not going to say.

[Brad Littlejohn]

That we can just wash our hands of any concerns about the Iranian nuclear program. That would be absurd. But. But it's weaker. It's much weaker than it was had there not been an intervention.

[Carolina Lumeta]

His fellow panelists argued defending Israel is not in America's best interests. Kurt Mills is the executive director of the magazine the American Conservative.

[Brad Littlejohn]

Why are these our wars? Why are Israel's endless problems America's liabilities? Why are we in the national conservative bloc, broadly speaking? Why do we laugh out there of the room this argument when it's advanced by Volodymyr Zelensky, but are slavish hypocrites for Benjamin Netanyahu? Why should we accept America First Israel?

[Carolina Lumeta]

While the debate grew heated at times, most natcon attendees said it's more important to wrestle with these questions than to avoid them. Brad Littlejohn hosted a table in the hallway for the conservative economics think tank American Compass. He is also a world Opinions contributor.

[Brad Littlejohn]

Natcon is not really serving as a place for developing a substantive policy agenda, but it is a kind of convening where every year we sort of find out what is the Overton window within which the conservative movement can operate until the next Netcon.

[Carolina Lumeta]

While conservatives cheer Trump's election win, they're also thinking about 2028 and what a unified conservative movement should look like then. In his speech, Hazoni urged conservatives to debate issues without personal attacks.

[Brad Littlejohn]

This is not just a sideshow. I want to know how is JD Vance going to win the next election if what we're doing outside for four years is tearing each other apart, accusing one another of the most horrible things, smashing one another in public.

[Carolina Lumeta]

Brand strategist David Carlson says answering that question will take more than simply articulating the right ideas.

[Brad Littlejohn]

But truly, I think the real threat is electoral probability post Trump, whether he runs for a third term or whether he doesn't, he will one day no longer be running for president, and confronting that is paramount. Figuring out how we can continue to win without the sort of superhuman charisma that Trump has is a difficult one because the ideas are good. But sometimes elections aren't just about ideas.

[Carolina Lumeta]

Reporting for World I'm Carolina Lumeta in Washington.

[Ted Kluck]

Additional support comes from Cedarville University, Equipping.

[Mark Mellinger]

Students for Professional Excellence and Gospel Impact Cedarville.

[Ted Kluck]

Edu World from the Masters University, Equipping.

[Mark Mellinger]

Students for lives of Faithfulness to the Master Jesus Christ Masters.

[Ted Kluck]

Edu and from Ambassadors Impact Network, where.

[Mark Mellinger]

Entrepreneurs can discover faith aligned funding opportunities. [e-mail].

[Mary Reichert]

Imagine a sea of fiery hair, thousands of redheads filling the square in the Dutch city of Tilburg. Every year they gather for the Redhead Days Festival.

[Jerry Boyer]

I have two children and four grandchildren with red hair.

[Mary Reichert]

Yeah, the teasing. Well, it's a little funny now, but not back in the day when I was in school.

[Carolina Lumeta]

I remember kids would say, I'd rather.

[Mark Mellinger]

Be dead than red in the head.

[Mary Reichert]

Oh, well, now they're leaning into it and celebrating.

[Nick Eicher]

And it can be a dream to.

[Mark Mellinger]

Be once in your lifetime in a.

[Nick Eicher]

Group of thousands redheads just like you.

[Mary Reichert]

The weekend brings music, food, even makeup tips. And the highlight, a giant group photo. So many redheads in the picture, I think we can fairly call it one big ginger snap. It's the world and everything in it. Today is Tuesday, September 9th. Thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Mary Reichert.

[Nick Eicher]

And I'm Nick Eicher. Coming up next on the World and everything in it. When the stars disappear. Have you ever looked up at night and realized you can't really see anything? For most Americans, the Milky Way is invisible, not because it's gone, but because we've washed it out.

[Mary Reichert]

Some advocates say it's time to flip the switch on light pollution. World's Jenny Ruff reports.

[Diane Knudsen]

They have to have night. They have to have darkness to find each other.

[Jenny Ruff]

Diane Knudsen is talking about fireflies or lightning bugs. They mate by flash signal.

[Diane Knudsen]

So you might have a long flash and then a break and then a long flash. And those are the males out above flashing at the females. The females are in the grass flashing back if they see the signal that they like.

[Jenny Ruff]

Knudsen is the former board president of Dark Sky International. That's an organization that works to restore the nighttime environment to communities. She says light pollution can cause real problems for fireflies.

[Diane Knudsen]

If it's too bright, they can't find each other and they don't leave their place, so they just die.

[Jenny Ruff]

Out of the 18 threatened firefly species in North America, researchers have linked 17 to Allen artificial light at night. And it's not just fireflies that are at risk. Sea turtle hatchlings become disoriented by coastal lights and struggle to navigate their way to the ocean. A research project on coastal ecosystems found that coral reefs in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf are spawning outside their reproduction times, drastically reducing their chances of survival.

[Diane Knudsen]

Songbirds. They'll sing to the sky glow, thinking it's the sun rising at 2am when it's nighttime, because they can't differentiate the difference of artificial light and natural light sources.

[Jenny Ruff]

Even vegetation becomes confused.

[Diane Knudsen]

You'll see flowers and trees that are impacted if they're under a street light. So with trees, they might not lose their leaves in the right season. Like maybe one side of the tree is de leafing, getting ready, and the other side is not flowers. There's flowers that only bloom at night. We have night pollinators. So if the flowers aren't blooming and opening at night, the pollinators can't get to them.

[Jenny Ruff]

Our excessive use of lights and screens affects our own circadian rhythms. It's a major contributor to sleep deprivation. So Knutson is on a mission to help communities reclaim the night sky. She loved stargazing as a child, looking.

[Diane Knudsen]

Up at the stars at night, wondering where we belong and what our role is or place in the universe. And it offered a real broader perspective of wonder and joy.

[Jenny Ruff]

It brought to mind Psalm 19 God.

[Diane Knudsen]

Declares His knowledge in the heavens and it's such a powerful way that he can communicate to us and connect with us and so just enjoying that gift that he gives us of beauty.

[Jenny Ruff]

But the night sky is disappearing from our view. Knudsen noticed the seriousness of the problem when she worked at Wind Cave national park in South Dakota. During night sky presentations, we could see.

[Diane Knudsen]

The light pollution from rapid city, over 60 miles away.

[Jenny Ruff]

Knuthin defines light pollution is light that does not originate from the sun, moon, stars or other natural sources. On a clear night, we should be able to see about 4,500 stars in a city. It's more like 30. That motivated her to make personal changes in her family.

[Diane Knudsen]

We use the off switch a lot.

[Jenny Ruff]

And raise awareness in her community. When she ran a business in Rapid City, she purposely used timers and dimmers and didn't feel the need to advertise.

[Diane Knudsen]

At 3am our signage would not be lit up at night.

[Jenny Ruff]

Business and commercial lighting aren't the only culprits. The trend of landscape decorating contributes to the problem too.

[Diane Knudsen]

People are decorating their sides of their houses with light, their trees, their flower beds, their gardens, their yards just to make dress it up with light.

[Jenny Ruff]

Knudsen recommends turning off those lights or using motion sensors. Well placed lighting helps too. Beams aimed where needed to serve a clear purpose. Warm colored bulbs that are not too bright.

[Nick Eicher]

A lot of lighting is just really unnecessary. It causes problems.

[Jenny Ruff]

Ed Welsh is a ranger at Badlands national park in South Dakota. During a night sky program at the amphitheater, Welsh explained how to find the Milky Way.

[Nick Eicher]

Sagittarius is another fun one to point out. We always point out the teapot because teapots are easier to see and recognize because they're real. But if you see the smoke coming up from the spout of the teapot, you gotta Milky Way.

[Jenny Ruff]

80% of people who live in North America can no longer see it. At Badlands, you can. The park has committed to certain education policies and protections. For example, the outdoor path to the amphitheater at Badlands was illuminated with with red lighting. It doesn't mess with night vision white light, it resets.

[Nick Eicher]

Sometimes it takes people 20 minutes to re acclimate to a dark sky.

[Jenny Ruff]

Many national parks are certified dark sky places.

[Diane Knudsen]

It's really difficult to find a pristine, unaltered night environment.

[Jenny Ruff]

There are also certified dark sky cities. In 2001, Flagstaff, Arizona was named the first. The dark sky program also certifies towns and municipalities. Knudsen says that's the ideal. Instead of the need to drive to a far off place for a spectacular.

[Diane Knudsen]

Sky, it's that backyard access that is so enjoyable when you can actually just go out in a place near you.

[Jenny Ruff]

In addition to enjoyment, dark skies will help the environment and wildlife, even human health. Not only the health of our bodies, the health of our souls, it zooms.

[Diane Knudsen]

Us out of our daily problems in a beautiful way that draws us out of ourselves into a connectedness over ages. The heritage and culture of how people navigated the seas by constellations and we used it as our map and we're just less connected to nature, less connected to one another. That when we step back a bit, it zooms us out and gives us a lot bigger perspective.

[Jenny Ruff]

The stars haven't gone anywhere. They're not endangered or extinct. They're simply waiting for us to flip off our switches and shift our gaze. Reporting for World, I'm Jenny Ruff. In Badlands national park.

[Jerry Boyer]

We talked about.

[Nick Eicher]

How far away that is. Today is Tuesday, September 9th. Good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Nick Eichert.

[Mary Reichert]

And I'm Mary Reichert. Up next, World Opinions contributor Ted Klock reflects on dorm rooms, interior design and unrealistic expectations.

[Ted Kluck]

When I moved into my college dorm room in the mid-1990s, I arrived with a couple of bags of clothes, a few posters, an old black and white television, and a few pieces of wood to build a bunk bed. We all lived in the same rectangular cells and used the same utilitarian community bathroom down the hall. It was absolutely disgusting. Most of the time. Our rooms each bore some semblance of our Personalities, but were nothing special. And I went to college with rich kids. We all had the same university issued desks, the same university issued analog phone, and a closet. If you were really clever, you'd put the TV in the closet to save space and situate your gross futon underneath the bunk to create a so called study area where we really just played Bill Walsh football on a Sega Genesis. Needless to say, nobody went to our university for the nice rooms. The utilitarian aesthetic was part of the charm. It had a bit of social strata leveling effect. Whether your dad was a renowned vascular surgeon, a pastor, or a mechanic, your room was basically trash. In this regard, my college experience was a lot more like my Dad's in the 1960s than my son's who just graduated. Many of his classmates operated under the spell of dormfluencers. They give out advice, selling dorm related products of all kinds and even doing personalized design appointments to help teens and their parents stave off institutional blase, creating the dorm room of their very special dreams. What happened after my generation went to college in gross dorm rooms in the 1990s was that we got married, had kids, and then set about spoiling them rotten. We wrapped them in existential bubble wrap, making sure they never failed, they were never hurt or disappointed. They always got as and apparently surrounded by awesome dorm rooms in return. We now throw up our collective hands in exasperation when they call us sobbing after some big meanie of a professor has the absolute audacity to give them a B. You see, what my generation has done with its obsession of perfecting the imperfect dorm room is create an expectation in our children that their college experiences will be perfect. Even though the very thing that was charming and noteworthy about our own college experiences was the fact that they were fabulously imperfect. We had bad dates, our outfits were tacky and dumb. We didn't love every professor, and the professors in turn didn't always love us. We got bees sometimes and lived to tell about it. Our comforters didn't match the upholstery on our garage sale futons and it didn't matter. Also, our parents basically didn't care because what they sought to build in us was a sense of independence, which they rightly thought might serve us a little in the years to follow. And because the rooms themselves weren't perfect havens of rest, we were forced to actually interact. And for most of us, those interactions were, in the end, the most valuable thing we got out of the four year experience. Because of the communal bathrooms, I would always pause to flex my triceps in the skinny mirror belonging to a theology major in a dorm so neat you could eat off the floor. I figured I should actually say hello to him one day. And we've been talking pretty much non stop for the last 30 years. Because college in the 1990s wasn't an exercise in customer service, it actually served us with best friends, character and a little grit. I'm Ted Kluck.

[Nick Eicher]

Tomorrow, Washington Wednesday, Hunter Baker will join us. We'll get his perspective on the Senate confirmation log jam and other Capitol controversies. And the Savannah Bananas Minor league baseball. Fun to watch, fun to say. We will meet one of the ballplayers who is mixing viral stunts with a deeper message. That and more tomorrow. I'm Nick Eicher.

[Mary Reichert]

And I'm Mary Reichert. 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 psalmist writes, and now, O sons, listen to me. Blessed are those who keep my ways, hear instruction and be wise and do not neglect it. Verses 32 and 33 of Proverbs, chapter 8. Go now in grace and peace.