Listener Feedback: October 2024

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, October 25th. 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. Before we continue our program, just a quick note about our next WORLD Journalism Institute course…our annual Mid-Career Course will run from March 2nd to March 8th, 2025. The application deadline is fast approaching.

The mid-career course is for both novice and experienced writers in age ranges from the mid-30’s and up. Maybe you’re looking for a new career or perhaps hoping to get back into the workforce after raising a family.

BROWN: I attended the WJI Mid-Career program in 2018, after being in network affiliated television and journalism for 30 years. It’s a wonderful course for anyone hoping to hone their journalism skills while reporting with a Biblical worldview.

EICHER: WORLD covers the cost of most meals, housing, and tuition through donor-funded scholarships. AND you have the opportunity to have your work published on WORLD platforms.

BROWN: Applications are due next Friday, November 1st. Visit wji.world and look for the Mid-career program information to submit your application. Again, that’s wji.world.

EICHER: Now it’s time for Listener Feedback. Today something a little different. We got a lot of voice mails this month, and a few of them are rather lengthy so we’re going to spend less time on the setup, and more time listening. We’ve edited each of them for clarity and length so you can hear as many in as possible.

Our first comes from listener Mike Dorrity from South Carolina. He got in touch with us about a story by Leah Savas October 3rd disproving the accusations that doctors aren’t caring for women after miscarriages.

And when John Stonestreet further set the record straight a few days later—our listener was prompted to make this comment:

MIKE DORRITY: Thank you so much for that reporting. I think it's absolutely accurate and I can confirm that that is true on the ground.

I'm an emergency physician in South Carolina. I can honestly tell you that our care of women has not changed a single bit since our law has passed. In fact, during the crafting of that legislation, several OBGYNs in our system came to leadership and came to the Ethics Committee of which I'm a co-chair and we talked about this at length.

I ended up actually speaking with one of our senate co-sponsors of the legislation and he assured me the intent is not to interfere with emergent care but strictly to outlaw elective abortion.

So care of women in emergency situations should not and has not changed a single bit.

And I know you all were very gracious in your reporting, but to physicians who would act out of fear, I would say, and I would counsel them “to do your job.”

You need not be concerned over what some misguided and uninformed prosecutor might do. And if that's how you're gonna act frankly, I would prefer that you do something else and not be around me or my family if we needed your help in an emergency situation. That sounds pointed and blunt, but I think it's time to call some of these people out. Nevertheless, thank you for y'all's gracious reporting. Keep up the good work.

BROWN: Next, reaction to another story on the Lifebeat. October 16th, WORLD’s Emma Freire reporting on a movement gaining momentum: so-called “pronatalism.” Listener Tom Lovin is a father of five:

TOMMY LOVIN: I was so jarred by the movement's surface level approach that children can be some type of answer to a political problem and a societal problem when the calling to be parents is so much bigger than that.

Really what pronatalism doesn't recognize is that being a parent is a high calling, and it's an answer to the creation mandate that we as parents introduce God's most favored part of creation, humankind into the world. We help to create and disciple and inspire a generation of people who are made in the very image of God.

That's our calling. When we're faithful to that calling, and that blessing as parents then will naturally see the political and societal issues begin to slowly turn around toward the truth. But we won't see that shift if we only begin on the surface issues that pronatal is focusing on.

We’ve seen these sorts of movements within our society. Recently, we get obsessed with the ethics around us and not the deeper powerful moral issues that are created when people begin to wander away from God and try to solve things on their own. So again, thank WORLD for helping us think and for bringing these powerful current issues to the forefront. Really appreciate you guys.

EICHER: And now for something completely different: After this past Monday’s Legal Docket on the conflict between San Francisco and the Environmental Protection Agency, we heard from a professor of environmental engineering:

NATHAN HOWELL: Yeah, this is Nathan Howell. And I was calling in regards to the story about the wastewater and water quality issues around San Francisco. And I thought it was a really interesting story that I didn't, didn't know that much about and I'm, I'm glad that y'all covered it.

So I think it's important that y'all explain the difference between separated and, combined sewers, because the combined sewer design is, is a much older design.

In the south where I live, there are separate sanitary and storm sewers.

In the story that, that you all presented you all rightly said that the San Francisco Wastewater Treatment plant sometimes gets overloaded during rainy times. And it's because places like San Francisco have a combined sewer where they, where they put both of them together.

And so it has to hold water or discharge water that's less than fully treated to the Bay.

And it, it's one area for San Francisco that would be probably difficult for them to adjust in terms of improving their infrastructure. But that would be one really big way to help with their water quality problem would just be to switch to having a storm sewer and having a sanitary sewer or having green infrastructure for stormwater and a separate smaller system for sanitary sewer water.

Thanks for what you are doing. I appreciate your time.

BROWN: And time for just one more:

STEVE BLOOM: This is Steve Bloom from Bainbridge Island, Washington. I've been listening since the beginning of your show many years ago.

I especially love the WORLD history book segments and I have been so impressed recently with the work that Caleb Welde is doing his piece this week on George McDonald was excellent.

I went from knowing very little about George and his impact on history and on the early formation of the US to having a great amount of context and understanding of the role that he played and the way that the Lord used him.

I look forward to future WORLD history book segments as well as your program in general as it keeps me informed and excited about what God is doing in the world.

Thank you very much.

Thanks to everyone who wrote and called this month. We’re grateful for the time you give to listen each day and for your feedback.

If you have a comment to share you can email editor@wng.org. You can include an audio file attachment to your email and we’ll consider it for air. You can even phone it in at 202-709-9595.

EICHER: And that’s this month’s Listener Feedback!

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