The World and Everything in It: April 15, 2025

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Nuclear talks between Iran and the U.S. may show Iran’s regime is starting to weaken.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, states take aim at junk food. Could new limits change what people can buy with federal food benefits?

MORRISEY: Where tax dollars are involved we’re incentivizing consumption of healthier foods.

And we’ll introduce you to a couple of scientists who have their heads in the sand:

CANDO-DUMACELA: The majority of species on Earth lives in soil, which is a scientific fact.

And global fertility rates are falling fast. WORLD Opinions’ Brad Littlejohn wonders whether it’s too late to turn them around?

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, April 15th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: It’s time for news now with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR:  El Salvador president at White House » At the White House on Monday, President Trump welcomed a key US ally in his mass deportation of illegal immigrants. 

TRUMP-BUKELE:  Mr. President, it's an honor to have you. Thank you, Mr. President.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele met with Trump in The Oval Office.

His country has struck a limited deal with the United States to accept and detain certain illegal immigrants from the United States, who are classified by the Trump administration as dangerous and violent.

BUKELE:  We know that, uh, you have, uh, a crime problem, a terrorism problem that you need help with, and we're a small country, but if we can help, we can do it.

Among those deported was a Salvadoran man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The Justice Department says is an MS-13 gang member, though he has never been charged with a crime.

And though he entered the country illegally, a judge had shielded him from deportation. The Trump administration says a paperwork error led to him being delivered to El Salvador on a plane loaded with illegal immigrant gang members.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling says the Trump administration must facilitate his return to the United States. But Attorney General Pam Bondi says:

BONDI:  We could give him a plane flight, but we cannot effectuate it, meaning making it happen. It was. It was a win.

Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen, so Bondi says El Salvador would have to want to send him back to the United States. But President Bukele on Monday said he has no desire to do that.

Tariffs latest / China rare earth minerals » Beijing announced it is suspending the sale of critical rare earth minerals to the United States. In response to President Trump's tariffs.

Kevin Hassett is director of the White House National Economic Council. 

HASSETT:  The rare earth, uh, limits are being studied very carefully, uh, and they're concerning and we're thinking about all the options. 

Rare earth minerals are needed for high-tech manufacturing in both the commercial and military sectors.

China produces 90% of those minerals. 

SOUND: [Cleanup]

Ukraine latest » Cleanup continues in the Ukrainian city of Sumy...after officials say a Russian attack killed more than 30 people over the weekend, including two children.

Russia insists it was targeting military sites and personnel. But Ukraine says the attack targeted civilians who were celebrating Palm Sunday.

WOMAN: [Speaking Ukrainian]

This woman says she just purchased toys to place at a makeshift memorial for the children. She says toys belong in children's hands, not at gravesites...and adds, "It shouldn't be like this."

Meanwhile, President Trump said he believed that the Russian attack against civilians in Sumy was unintentional.

He also seemingly blamed Ukraine for starting the war. 

TRUMP: Listen, when you start a war, you gotta know that you can win the war, right? You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size, and then hope that people give you some missiles.

That was in response to Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy’s plea for more missiles for its battle against Russian invaders.

Hamas hostages latest » In the Middle East, negotiations aimed at restoring a ceasefire in Gaza have reportedly ended without any significant progress.

That according to Reuters, citing Palestinian and Egyptian sources, after the latest round of talks in Cairo, Egypt.

According to Egypt's latest ceasefire plan, Hamas should release eight living detained Israelis in exchange for a 40 to 50-day ceasefire. Israel should release hundreds of Palestinian detainees, resume the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The proposal says the Israeli army should withdraw to positions it held before March 17th.

Meta antitrust trial » A massive antitrust trial got underway in Wasington on Monday. The case could force Meta —formerly known as Facebook to split off two popular apps it owns. WORLD’s Christina Grube has more:

CHRISTINA GRUBE: Those two apps are Instagram and the popular text messaging app WhatsApp. The company purchased those apps as startups more than a decade ago and built them into social media powerhouses.

The Federal Trade Commission approved those acquisitions at the time. But now the FTC says Facebook—now Meta acquired those apps to protect an illegal monopoly, viewing them as growing threats.

Meta contends that consumers have benefited from the acquisitions, and that it faces plenty of competition.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is among those testifying in the trial.

For WORLD, I’m Christina Grube

Tennessee pastor kidnapped » Authorities in South Africa say a search is underway for Tennessee pastor Josh Sullivan, who was kidnapped at gunpoint in South Africa.

This terrifying armed abduction happening right in front of the congregation, including Sullivan's wife and young children.

Several masked gunmen barged into Fellowship Baptist Church in the Eastern Cape Province, stealing multiple phones from churchgoers and then kidnapping the pastor, and driving away with him in his own truck.

The stolen truck was found abandoned a short time later. It’s unclear if a ransom has been demanded.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: nuclear talks and the standoff between Iran and the US. Plus, states rethink food assistance programs and junk food.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 15th of April, tax day.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Up first: nuclear talks with Iran.

Over the weekend, U.S. and Iranian officials met in Oman for talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

It’s the latest twist in a long, tense standoff. Early in his second term, President Trump has signaled openness to talks, even as he tightened the screws with a maximum pressure campaign of sanctions.

So did Saturday’s meeting move the needle?

Joining us now to talk about it is Janatan Sayeh. He’s an Iranian American who researches his home country for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

REICHARD: Janatan, good morning!

JANATAN SAYEH: Good morning, great to be with you.

REICHARD: Let’s start with the backdrop to these latest talks. What’s different now compared to when President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal during his first term?

SAYEH: Iran is in a significantly in a weaker position now, following the withdrawal of the JCPOA and, of course, the maximum pressure campaign. So one thing to keep in mind is that under Biden, maximum pressure technically was not lifted. The framework of the sanctions were there, but they were not as aggressively enforced as they would have been under President Trump. Now, another key thing is that Iran is also in a weaker position. Regionally speaking, their proxies are significantly weaker. The Axis of Resistance, so called, is shattered. They don't have Syria anymore. Lebanon is significantly weaker, given Hezbollah setbacks. And of course, the Houthis in Yemen are being driven back and domestically, their economy is in a very, very fragile state, and their currency is heavily devalued, so there's a lot of leverage for the current administration in Washington to be able to utilize to get a better deal in theory.

REICHARD: Well now we hear about “indirect talks” between the U.S. and Iran in Oman. What does that mean, and what do we know about how the talks played out?

SAYEH: The most crucial point here is that Iran has backtracked a few of its statements. So originally, Tehran had mentioned that they will not join any negotiations while under maximum pressure, they eventually gave in. Then after that, they claimed that they will not directly negotiate with Trump, given his aggressive policies towards the former IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani, who was eliminated in Iraq. But again, they agreed to do direct talks as well. They indicated that they've met the US delegation in Oman. So that is all indicative of the fact that Tehran is trying to buy time, from their perspective, as long as they can drag out the process and perhaps delay a potential strike from either Israel or jointly with Washington and Jerusalem, together, they might emerge as victorious in the long run, I guess.

REICHARD: I remember hearing that Iran initially downplayed these talks by saying they’s only send low-level officials to the meeting…but then Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi showed up. What does that change and Iran’s messaging about the summit tell you about its priorities?

SAYEH: I mentioned the fact that they're vague, and at one point they might claim that they're going to speak directly, but on the other hand, the Supreme Leader continues to cast doubt on potential talks with the United States. That serves two purposes. The vagueness number one is, as I mentioned, might be appeal to the Iranian strategy of delay and causing ambiguity would further, perhaps pose restrictions on potential outcomes of the talks domestically as well. They don't want to appear weak in front of their audience. So for almost half a century, they've waived this, they waged this war against the United States, and for them to backtrack that and officially commit and submit themselves to a talk with the United States. That, in itself, is indicative of their weakness, which is why they're keeping it vague, and perhaps we're getting missed signals from this nation.

REICHARD: On the American side was the Trump administration’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. He’s been juggling peace negotiations with Hamas and Israel as well as Russia and Ukraine. What has he said about how the talks in Oman went?

SAYEH: He saw them as constructive. But the point here is that, from a Trump administration standpoint, they are looking for a foreign policy win. I think they were hoping for better results coming from Ukraine when it comes to Hezbollah in Lebanon, that could be seen a success. But ultimately, you know, Hezbollah was defeated more so than it gave into the negotiations. So when it comes to the Iran issue, I think they have every interest to de escalate with, with the Iranians hoping perhaps for a potential deal. But the crucial point here is that they ought to leverage Tehran's weaknesses and push for the dismantle of the nuclear program, and the perhaps the worst case scenario would be if we see a repeat of 2015 where the regime basically got sanctioned relief for not even dismantling its nuclear program in its entirety.

REICHARD: Janatan, what do you see as the upside and downside for these talks taking place?

SAYEH: Well, on the upside is that we are putting the ball in Tehran's court. We're letting them know that military confrontation is not our number one choice, but if that is what needed for us to secure our interests and have a stable region, then that's something that Washington can pursue. Now the downside is that, of course, we don't want to play into Tehran strategy of delay. We want to make sure that number one we can pursue something that's concrete in a short span of time, because Time is of essence, Tehran is a nuclear threshold at this point, but most importantly, not to give into another deal that Tehran was able to achieve in 2015 The idea is that limited centrifuges are not going to halt Tehran's ability to enrich uranium in undeclared sites, and a dismantlement would actually, in fact, achieve that for for the United States.

REICHARD: Another round of talks has been scheduled for this weekend in Rome—interesting timing there for Easter weekend. What will you be watching for?

SAYEH: Specifically, as to what the two sides will be discussing, whether they both find it concrete or not, and whether Tehran is in fact, able to get concessions throughout the talks. That would be number one to make sure that Tehran doesn't get sanction relief, while just for, uh, joining the negotiation table. But most importantly, whether we're moving forward with dismantlement, whether there's any word of that or we're still going to discuss the amount of centrifuges and what, to what percentage Tehran can enrich uranium.

REICHARD: Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst studying Iran for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Janatan, thanks for your time!

SAYEH: Great being with you. Thank you for having me.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: subsidies for junk food.

Policymakers around the country are looking for ways to eliminate junk food from federal food benefit programs. And they want sugary items crossed off the grocery list for good.

But it’s a long road ahead to change the diets of many Americans—and it’s not necessarily going to happen with the SNAP of the fingers.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Just a quick note: SNAP is a term you’ll be hearing throughout this story. It’s an acronym for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is what we used to know as federal food-stamps administered day-to-day at the state level.

WORLD’s Addie Offeriens wrote this story. WORLD Radio’s Anna Johansen Brown narrates.

MORRISEY: We’re here today to talk about some very serious issues impacting West Virginia and our country. There’s no way around it, West Virginia ranks at the bottom of many public health metrics.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: At the end of March, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey announced the public health changes his state is planning to make. The governor spoke at a school from behind a lectern with a sign reading ‘MAHA Starts Here.’

MORRISEY: We lead most of the country in obesity stats, heart disease, diabetes. That’s the bad news. But we have good news. We have the power to change it.

One of the governor’s goals is to limit welfare funds going to unhealthy food items. Specifically, he wants to remove soda from the list of items eligible for purchase with SNAP in his state. Morrisey intends to file a waiver with the federal government requesting that change.

MORRISEY: Where tax dollars are involved we’re incentivizing consumption of healthier foods.

SNAP recipients may soon be leaving soda and candy on grocery store shelves in Idaho as well. The Idaho Legislature passed a bill on March 31 requiring the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to request a waiver from the federal government. That waiver would allow the state to prohibit the use of food stamps to purchase soda and candy. Governor Brad Little is expected to sign the bill.

PERKINS: There's a lot of people that are pretty, pretty worked up and not happy about it.

Tyler Perkins is the executive director of the Idaho Falls Rescue Mission. He says many of the homeless individuals who arrive at the mission receive SNAP benefits.

PERKINS: I have countless stories of people who have come to us for either shelter or another service, and soda and candy is a large percentage of their diet. And how that can lead to a lot of health problems, can lead to a lot of irresponsible spending.

Mission residents receive three meals a day plus snacks, so staff members ask clients to drop their benefits when they arrive.

PERKINS: We believe we have a responsibility to provide what is necessary and healthy and move someone in a sustainable, healthy direction. So for us, it means helping people immediately deal with that addiction. And for a lot of people, it is like soda and candy and junk food is a real addiction.

Their goal is helping clients get back on their feet and be able to stay off welfare.

PERKINS: If we do our jobs well, people won't be getting back on SNAP.

But Perkins acknowledges it can be difficult for formerly homeless individuals to surrender the benefits they’ve relied on. And he points out that many of their clients have never been able to afford healthy food and don’t know how to cook wholesome meals.

PERKINS: There's a component in there that we're trying to be sensitive… It needs to be done with a lot of grace.

Idaho’s bill defines soda as any nonalcoholic beverage that contains natural or artificial sweeteners. But it does not include beverages that contain milk, are more than 50% fruit or vegetable juice, or require preparation from a concentrate. The bill also contains a detailed definition of candy. A similar Iowa bill lists what types of food would be eligible under SNAP instead of items that would not.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. says the federal government supports these types of bills. He spoke at the event in West Virginia with Governor Morrisey.

KENNEDY: The message I want to give to the country today and to all the other governors is get in line behind Governor Morrisey and apply for a waiver to my agency and we’re going to give it to you.

But critics of these efforts argue restricting what types of food SNAP recipients can buy strips them of dignity and autonomy. They also worry it may discourage grocery stores from accepting SNAP dollars.

ANGELA RACHIDI: I am sympathetic to the argument that legislators or lawmakers should not necessarily be the ones determining what specific products have a health benefit

Angela Rachidi is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She understands the concern, but thinks it’s overblown.

RACHIDI: That said, I think there are certain products that are clearly harmful, and to me, lend itself to restrictions.

She notes that grocery stores already have to restrict certain products from SNAP dollars—things like alcohol and paper goods—and are able to do so easily.

RACHIDI: Sugary beverages have no nutritional value. It also does nothing to satisfy hunger, which is the point of SNAP.

Over the past few weeks, several conservative influencers on X simultaneously began posting talking points about how SNAP restrictions are government overreach. They also referenced President Donald Trump’s love for Diet Coke. Many of the posts used similar language and phrases.

The soda lobby group the American Beverage Association denied authorizing or paying for a coordinated campaign. But Rachidi says she wouldn’t be surprised if Big Soda is behind much of the opposition.

RACHIDI: In 2015 I testified in front of Congress on restrictions. And after that testimony, I got a call from a beverage lobby wanting to know if I had interest in writing about not favoring restrictions, which I thought was very strange, because I just testified in front of Congress in favor of restrictions. So that was pretty eye opening.

Roughly 1 in 8 Americans receive SNAP benefits and the most recent available data from the United States Department of Agriculture shows they spend the greatest portion of their benefits on soft drinks.

RACHIDI: And I definitely think there is kind of a behind the scenes push among beverage and grocery lobbies to not have these laws put into place. We're talking about billions, billions of dollars every year for an in federal, federal dollars that can only be used in their stores. And so you start to put restrictions on that. I can see how that would make these businesses nervous and that they would want to try to avoid that.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: During a Fox News live shot last week outside the West Wing, White House correspondent Peter Doocy was mid-sentence when a rather unwelcome, unsanitary guest interrupted regular programming.

DOOCY: A bird just landed on my head! (LAUGHTER) I did not like that at all! That’s probably so….dirty!

No doubt about that. The bird flew off. But Doocy kept his cool—feathers only slightly ruffled.

Later that day, inside the White House:

LEAVITT: I also understand there was a mouse in the briefing room earlier today …

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

LEAVITT: … so I’m hoping somebody it doesn’t run up here and distract me.

So—one bird, one mouse. No word yet on whether a cat has been cleared for credentials to provide a little natural order around there.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 15th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Listening to the land.

For most of us, dirt is just something we dig in to plant flowers or rinse off after we do. But for a few researchers, it's the key to a healthier future. And what they found is there’s a relationship between the soundness of the soil and the sound of the soil.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy talked to some researchers trying to understand what’s going on below the surface.

JAKE ROBINSON: We're just heading down the hill now.

MARY MUNCY: Jake Robinson and his team are walking through the Australian bush near Flinders University, listening for loud soil.

ROBINSON: We're looking for insects really.

Robinson is a microbial and restoration ecologist: Basically, he studies microorganisms and how to restore damaged ecosystems. Right now, he’s doing that with sound. As a general rule, the louder the soil, the healthier it is.

ROBINSON: We'll go out, gather our equipment, head to the field, and, yeah, put the probes in the ground, set the recordings up, and gather the data.

So far this morning, they’ve tried a field and a termite mound, and it’s been pretty quiet.

ROBINSON: Let’s try near the lake.

CHRIS CANDO-DUMACELA: Yeah, there’s water there.

ROBINSON: Let’s do it.

That’s Chris Cando-Dumancela. Another researcher. South Australia is in the middle of drought, which means there’s lots of stressed and quiet soil.

ROBINSON: We're gonna place our probe under a rock. Now, it's a bit more… the microclimate is a bit more moist.

They put their headphones on and wait:

CANDO-DUMACELA: Still rather quiet.

ROBINSON: Still rather quiet here.

CANDO-DUMACELA: What am I hearing? A duck.

ROBINSON: The underground duck.

CANDO-DUMACELA: There are some different I reckon there's some subtle pops.

Maybe some clicks too.

CANDO-DUMACELA: There's no orchestra, but there's a couple of couple of instruments going.

Those instruments are mostly invertebrates digging, pushing, or skittering across the soil.

CANDO-DUMACELA: The majority of species on Earth lives in soil, they've literally formed the soil and creating all sorts of complex habitats.

Soil sound research is new. Cando-Dumancela, Robinson, and their team were some of the first people to publish a paper on it a few years ago.

They found that in general, when soil is healthy, it generates a diverse soundscape, full of pops, clicks, and sometimes slithery worm or snail sounds.

Back in the lab, Cando-Dumancela, Robinson, and other researchers try to figure out how to use that knowledge to help stimulate healthier soil.

ROBINSON: A bit like going to the doctors, where they might put a stethoscope on your chest, listening to your heart and your lungs and, you know, give you some health diagnostics. We're kind of trying to do the same thing for soil.

They’ve discovered that while loud soil is generally healthier than quiet soil, it isn’t necessarily the healthiest. Loud soil might just mean there are too many ants or too many worms. They have to analyze the types of sound to determine which species are actually there.

Often they sort through them with an algorithm, but you can hear worms pushing soil as they move.

ROBINSON: We're getting quite good at actually telling the difference between, say, a snail, compared to a worm, compared to a millipede, compared to a spider.

By some estimates, 40 percent of the world’s soil is degraded—meaning reduced biological or economic productivity—and just about all of life depends on that soil in some way, whether for food, a home, or both.

Sometimes the degradation happens through bad farming practices or things like noise, light, and chemical pollutants.

ROBINSON: It essentially changes the composition of the microbiome in the soil.

If soil’s microbiome is damaged, Robinson says there are a few ways to try to repair it.

One of those is trying to build up organic matter through compost or other natural soil amendments, and it’s possible that culturing bacteria to implant into the soil could work, too.

ROBINSON: Another experiment of ours is actually playing sounds to microorganisms, and it stimulates their growth.

One organism they’re working with is fungi that stimulate the growth of plants.

ROBINSON: We just experimented with a very kind of monotonous, monotone sound. It was eight kilohertz at 80 decibels. So that's the kind of the volume, the power of the sound, which is similar to a kind of urban street volume.

They’re not sure why, but it worked.

ROBINSON: Someone's put forward the hypothesis that fungi, fungi are the first things that colonize dead wood, you know, when trees fall in the forest. So they think they might have evolved a mechanism to detect the vibrations of trees hitting the ground so that they can then colonize those logs.

Other people think it might be about the same frequency as rain hitting the ground.

In any case, now they’re experimenting with different frequencies and volumes to see if they can stimulate more growth or even find sounds that inhibit pathogens.

Back in the field, Robinson and his team are done listening for today. They pack up their equipment and hike back to the university.

ROBINSON: There's a lot of symbiosis going on between the invisible and the visible world.

CANDO-DUMACELA: The knowledge we're getting out of this has completely changed the way that I speak to people about soil.

They say most people think of soil as dead… Something to build on or maybe play in, but Robinson says that besides the invertebrates, there are microbes in the soil that we can’t see or hear without equipment.

ROBINSON: We're kind of just, you know, highlighting the fact that soil is actually a living conglomerate of life.

Something Robinson says should be stewarded, not dominated.

ROBINSON: If you think of it more as like your family, I suppose then you know, you kind of have a responsibility to help each other out.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 15th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, WORLD Opinions contributor Brad Littlejohn on falling birthrates worldwide—and the consequences of a shrinking population.

BRAD LITTLEJOHN: I was recently in Budapest for a gathering sponsored by the Danube Institute on “Family Formation and the Future.” At the opening reception, I found myself chatting with the ambassador from South Korea. A country with a birth rate approaching 0.7 per woman. He admitted that the country’s military is already struggling to fill its ranks. Korea’s military-age population is set to plunge by nearly half in the coming years. Indeed, even if South Korea does not fall prey to a foreign invader in the coming decades, it is not hard to imagine a bleak future: its social security and healthcare systems certain to break down, its people to grow poorer, its cities to become wastelands.

Such a future seems plausible for most of the world…at least according to Louise Perry, author of the haunting essay, “Modernity’s Self-Destruct Button.” She writes that the data seem clear: Once societies pass a per capita income threshold around $10,000 per year, they begin to lose their will to reproduce themselves…children simply get in the way of too many material pleasures. Economist Catherine Pakaluk of The Catholic University of America put a finer point on this theory: before modern technology, children were extremely useful to many human ends. Now, for any individual couple, they serve little purpose except emotional fulfillment. For many, that itch can be scratched by just one child—or perhaps even a dog instead.

Do we dare then accept that the desire to bear children is unnatural as Pakaluk suggests? Or that humans will avoid it unless economic incentives drive them to it? I don’t think we need to concede such dire conclusions, even if large families will be the exception, not the rule, in a technological age. For the reality is that when two people truly give themselves in committed love to one another, they have a natural desire to see this love bear fruit by bringing new life into the world. Brad Wilcox, a sociologist from the University of Virginia, pointed to consistent evidence that recent declines in birth rates are driven almost entirely by declines in marriage. Why? Wilcox candidly asserts because there are so few good men to marry these days. Far too many men lack the self-discipline to work hard and provide for wives, the strength and grit to protect them, and the focus to pay attention to them. Big Tech and rampant pornography have only made matters worse. Part of this is simply a feedback loop; society attacked masculinity and gave men an excuse to check out, so today’s young men have grown up without strong male exemplars. And now they’re in danger of passing on their warped habits to the next generation—if there is a next generation.

With so many and such complex causes, the birth dearth might seem to be an insoluble crisis. That said, there is some evidence from places like Hungary, that aggressive government spending aimed at pro-family policies and messaging can at least nudge birth rates modestly higher. But above all, attitudes are shaped through examples. But above all, attitudes are shaped through examples–for instance, J.D. Vance’s very public celebration of his own children in recent months. Such examples could subtly encourage more people to give parenthood a try. And introducing common sense regulation into our corrosive tech regime is a must, if we are to raise children capable of raising their own.

Above all, a revival of faith is critical. All the data shows that religious families are far more likely to bear children, because they grasp the essential goodness of humanity and that there is more to life than personal pleasure. Thankfully, as the recent Pew survey suggested, the long decline of faith may not be predestined to continue. Cultural trend lines can actually go up as well as down. Is it too much to hope that the trendlines toward demographic winter may yet be reversed as well?

I’m Brad Littlejohn.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: House and Senate negotiators have agreed on an outline for President Trump’s budget priorities, but disagreements remain over spending cuts. And, a trailblazing folk group comes full circle with its newest album, going back to where it all began. We’ll have a review. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

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: “O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!” –Psalm 97:10-12

Go now in grace and peace.

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