Listener feedback

NICK EICHER, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: Your listener feedback.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: That’s right! It’s time to hear from you—what you like, what you don’t. And, regrettably, sometimes what we got wrong.

EICHER: And you know, daily program and all, we have ample opportunity for, well, let’s let Yaël Naim sing it for us.

MUSIC: Making every possible mistake

La-la la la, la-la-la-la la la

(Every possible mistake)

La-la-la-la la, la-la la, la-la la

(Possible mistake)

EICHER: Yes, as always, we start this segment with our slip-ups, and today, we start with a misidentification.

In reporting a story that involved Dover Air Force Base, we made the mistake of locating it in Maryland. Of course, several of you wrote and called to let us know that, of course, Dover is located in Delaware.

REICHARD: The capital! Whoops! Another faux paux happened in our report on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s bid for independence.

In that story, we interviewed a Protestant believer who lives in Ukraine. We identified him as Andre Durmov. But we confused two Andres who were both sources for the story. The one you heard is Andre Murzin.

EICHER: You can listen to the corrected version on our website, world-and-everything.org. And by the way, that report provides some good context for Russia’s attacks last weekend against Ukrainian ships and waterways.

REICHARD: Many of you enjoyed our story on World War I, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis. But listener Doug Perkins said it was actually an answer to his prayers!

He said he’d “listened to the audio-book much of the summer while working in [the] yard and actually began praying someone would feature it on our podcast!”

EICHER: But even though the piece was an answer to prayer, Doug and several others noted an error. We said Lewis in 1966 wrote a defense of violence in children’s literature. Of course, that would’ve been impossible. Lewis died in 1963.

But it was 1966 when the essay was published. It appeared in a book published posthumously.

REICHARD: Now to our listener feedback line at 202-709-9595. First up, Glenn from Rochester, Minnesota, called in to say how much he likes World Tour, our weekly roundup of international news.

AUDIO: As a former radio guy myself, I appreciate the great production quality and most recently have been thoroughly enjoying the world report that is broadcast even this week. I get a great deal of news and information from you and it’s up to date every morning. Thank you so much for all you do.

EICHER: Next, a listener who appreciated Mary Coleman’s commentary on new beginnings.

AUDIO: Hi, this is Jim Edwards from Leesburg, Florida, long time listener. Love the team at World, and I just listened to Mary Coleman’s commentary on November 5th, and it was really liberating. I appreciate you guys so much keep doing what you’re doing. God bless you all and you’re really making an impact. Thanks so much.

REICHARD: OK, this next one is for you and me, Nick. Listener Beverly Jacobson said she listens daily and is a “huge fan.” But she took us to task for our banter about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s work ethic.

What we were talking about was, “people needing to tough it out and go to work [despite] the sniffles. [She said she’s the] mother of a child with a precarious health. [Their] daughter Verity is 20 months old [and she has] Trisomy 18… Like [a lot of] children in this community, a simple, common cold can land [her] child in the hospital and [she pointed out she’s] even seen little ones die due to “simple” viruses an otherwise healthy person can fight off. So [she says, if you’re sick, stay home]”

EICHER: Very good reminder, yes. And just a personal word here: my wife and I had a little girl similarly situated almost 25 years ago. She lived briefly with Trisomy 18, even lived a few months at home. So I can certainly appreciate the point. Should’ve been a little more careful there.

REICHARD: OK, one more here. We regularly hear from listeners who appreciate how much our bumper music adds to the program. That’s a tribute to producers Carl Peetz and Johnny Franklin!

Listener John Doering complemented, “their creativity and knowledge of the music world. [John] often find[s himself] laughing (and occasionally crying) in response to their art.”

EICHER: Listen, that’s the vast majority of the feedback we receive. Very supportive. Very appreciative. And really, it’s why when we asked several of you who’ve given money in the past, if you’d record special pre-rolls and messages for our end-of-year giving drive, we just had, again, enormous response.

You really do understand that it takes resources to make this program happen. It’s labor intensive and that means people’s salaries, equipment, travel.

We’re not putting a dollar figure on the drive. Instead we’re just asking you to give what you can and we’re hoping for even greater participation. So the goal is 10,000 gifts by the end of the year.

REICHARD: It’s twice the participation we had last year, but this is really good news: there are twice as many of you this year over last, so together we ought to be able to achieve that 10,000. We’re just getting started here and we invite you to visit wng.org/donate. And you can track progress online. We’ve got a little interactive real-time counter on wng.org.

EICHER: We’ll be grateful for whatever you can do.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.