Listener Feedback

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, January 26th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Up next, listener feedback — two months’ worth — December and January. We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s dive in. We start today with a handful of corrections:

December 14th we misidentified the government agency known by its initialism DEA. Spelled out, it’s the Drug Enforcement Administration.

BROWN: January 15th we reported that voters in Taiwan elected the pro-democracy candidate. Of course, all the candidates are pro-democracy. We should’ve clarified that the victor in the race was the candidate most firm in opposition to China which is not pro-democracy.

EICHER: And last, we have made errors in making “chapter” delineations for the Psalms.

A listener who’s a pastor. Jeremy VanDelinder wrote this note: “Each Psalm is an individual unit, so the plural should only be used when referring to several or to the collection as a whole.” The book of Psalms, in other words. “Additionally, there are no chapters in the book [of Psalms].” So if we’re referring to the 100th Psalm, it’s simply Psalm 100.

BROWN: Now on to some listener feedback. Garrett Miller and his wife appreciate the program and are encouraged by it every day. But they were puzzled by a choice we made in this year’s obituaries on religious leaders.

GARRETT MILLER: We were surprised that Tim Keller was left off the notables list and wondered why such a great, powerful and positive voice who cared for the shepherding and also the teaching of the church locally and universally was left off.

So here’s how we choose whom to include:

In our year-end obituaries, we highlight lesser known people we didn’t cover in the program throughout the year. When Tim Keller died, we produced an entire segment honoring his life and legacy so that’s why he wasn’t included in the roundup.

EICHER: If you’d like to hear the interview we did on Keller’s legacy we’ve included a link in today’s transcript.

https://wng.org/podcasts/seek-not-great-things-for-yourself-1684964623

Our next comment is from David Nissen of Sioux Falls SD. He was concerned by our light-hearted story of the twins born in different years: one on December 31st, and the other on January 1st. In that story we heard the parents jokingly concerned about getting only one tax deduction, but in the end the mom said her twins were “cute and healthy,” and we added, “that’s what matters.”

BROWN: David writes: “I'm not trying to be harsh, but those of us who have children who are not healthy hear words like these and what we hear is, ‘cute and healthy are most important and valued above other qualities our children have or don't have.’ The premise is false. Cute and healthy are not all that matter.”

EICHER: David of course you’re absolutely right. And of course that was not at all what we meant to say. But we can always be more careful with our words, so thank you for the challenge, and would you forgive us for a poor choice?

BROWN: Our next comment is a concern of another sort. This time regarding our December 18th History Book on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In that story we used an AI generated male voice to speak words written by GK Chesterton.

CHESTERTON: The Christmas Carol is a happy story first because it describes an abrupt and dramatic change…

Listener Jacob Young was not impressed.

JACOB YOUNG: I just wanted to let you know that I would certainly prefer to hear a real person's voice reading quotes like that regardless of the audio quality or vocal talents of the person reading it…it's really important to me to hear a real person's voice on podcast and I imagine a lot of other listeners would feel the same way.

Our Executive Producer Paul Butler produces History Book each week. He wrote back to Jacob—assuring him that we would not use AI in this way again. Adding that in the future, if we should happen to use AI-generated voices, we will clearly identify them as such.

BROWN: And finally this morning, listener Stefan Bucek had fun with this message for Johnny and Carl after Bonnie’s feature on the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue.

STEFAN BUCEK: On the January 9th podcast. After the kicker, there was a very strange silence. The hosts introduced themselves but there was no customary music bed. I thought to myself. Well, that's weird. The guys who stay up late to get the program to us early sure must have needed their sleep because they missed that one.

But as the report which followed got started and I heard the signature clarinet glissando which opens Rhapsody in Blue. I knew what I had thought was a dreadful mistake, was intentional. What a surprise. Instead of musically clouding our minds, they determined that the only melody that would occupy our thoughts was from the genius of Gershwin. Thank you WORLD for this segment which paid proper tribute to one of my favorite American compositions. And to Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz, thanks for being so sneaky.

Thanks to everyone who wrote and called in this month. We’re grateful that you listen, and that you take the time to provide thoughtful feedback.

EICHER: And thanks to everyone who has left comments and ratings on Apple iTunes. If you have comments to share with us you can send them to editor@wng.org. And if you’re writing, why not take a moment and record your comments on your phone and send those along as well. We’ve included instructions on how to do that on our website: wng.org/podcasts

And that is our listener feedback.

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