The World and Everything in It — April 9, 2020

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Life’s changed a lot for people around the world. We’ll hear from people on three continents including this man in France.

GIRALT: It’s normal to be fearing death. And the Bible says in Hebrews, says, we as Christians, we have been liberated from the fear of death.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Plus taking a break from lockdown and getting into the great outdoors.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, April 9th. 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: Up next, Kent Covington has today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Sanders ends presidential campaign » It is now all but official that Joe Biden will be the man to challenge President Trump in November. 

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders pulled the plug on his second White House bid Wednesday.

SANDERS: While we are winning the ideological battle, and while we are winning the support of so many young people and working people throughout the country, I have concluded that this battle for the Democratic nomination will not be successful. 

The self-proclaimed socialist took a commanding lead early in the delegate race, Biden shot ahead on Super Tuesday and never looked back. The senator noted Wednesday that he is “now some 300 delegates behind” Biden and conceded that a path to “victory is virtually impossible.”

CDC issues new guidelines for essential workers exposed to virus » The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention is easing guidelines for workers in critical industries who have been exposed to someone with the coronavirus. 

The new guidance rolls back the 14-day self-quarantine the CDC had recommended for anyone who comes within 6 feet of someone who tests positive for the virus. 

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield announced the changes at the White House last night. He said essential workers can return to work if they take certain precautions.

REDFIELD: Take their temperature before they go to work, wear a face mask at all times, and practice social distancing when they’re at work. 

He asked such workers to take other common sense precautions, such as staying home if they feel sick and maintaining social distance as much as possible on the job.

As for who is considered an essential worker, Redfield specifically mentioned first responders, healthcare workers, and “individuals [who] help maintain our food supply.”

U.S. monitoring second wave of coronavirus infections in China » The Chinese government said it passed a major milestone this week in its fight against COVID-19. But Washington remains skeptical of China’s claims. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has that story. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: For the first time since the start of the outbreak, mainland China on Tuesday reported no new coronavirus deaths. 

But U.S. officials aren’t taking China’s word for much of anything. And The Daily Beast reports that it reviewed a State Department cable noting a second wave of coronavirus cases—mostly among asymptomatic carriers. It said China reported that more than a thousand people with no symptoms were “under medical observation.” 

And the CIA has been working to get a more accurate read of the current and past coronavirus numbers in China. The U.S. government is hoping to get the real story on both the emergence of the outbreak and China’s recovery to get ahead of a possible second wave of coronavirus cases here at home. 

Bloomberg reported last week that intelligence officials sent a classified report to the White House—stating that China has under-reported both total cases and deaths. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Trump admin withholding funding from W.H.O. pending review » Also at the White House on Wednesday, President Trump announced that the United States will withhold U.S. funding from the World Health Organization pending a review. 

Some in Washington and across the globe have questioned whether the WHO is too cozy with China and whether it’s truly independent. The group has repeatedly heaped praise on China for it’s response to the coronavirus—even for its transparency. 

WHO Director Tedros Gebreyesus praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping, saying he’s shown—quote—“very rare leadership” amid the outbreak. The group also disapproved of an early U.S. travel ban.

TRUMP: They criticized me very strongly when I said we were going to shut down flights coming in from China.

Gebreyesus did not directly respond to Trump but said—quote—“please don’t politicize this virus.” And he insisted the group does not favor any nation over another.

GEBREYESUS: We see everybody equally because we belong to all member states equally. 

But the president also complained that member states aren’t equally footing the bill. He said the United States gave roughly $450 million to the WHO last year, compared to about $40 million from China. 

And Trump’s not alone in his criticism. Some have pointed to China’s successful efforts to block Taiwan from accessing the WHO as evidence of Beijing’s influence. Japan’s deputy prime minister recently went so far as to call it the “Chinese Health Organization.”

Texas sets up checkpoints at Louisiana border » Texas this week began setting up checkpoints along its border with Louisiana, which has been especially hard hit by the coronavirus. WORLD’s Leigh Jones reports from Houston, Texas. 

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: As of Wednesday, the state of Texas had more than 9,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. But Louisiana, with a population one-sixth that of the Lone Star State had more than 17,000 cases!

And Texas officials are trying to avoid a surge of new cases from the neighboring state. That’s especially true in Houston where many New Orleans residents resettled after Hurricane Katrina.

Texas is requiring anyone traveling from Louisiana to self-quarantine for 14 days. And starting this week, state troopers wearing cowboy hats and face masks set up checkpoints at the border. 

Along Interstate-10, the visitors center in Orange, Texas was closed, but the parking lot was still packed with a long line of cars at a checkpoint. Travelers from Louisiana filled out forms stating the reason for their visit and providing an address where they planned to self-quarantine. 

The state also requires two-week quarantines for those arriving at Texas airports from COVID-19 hotspots.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones. 

W.T.O. chief issues dire warning about world economy » World Trade Organization chief Roberto Azevedo warned that the world may soon face the deepest economic recession of our lifetimes. He said as the pandemic recedes, every nation will need to pull out all the stops to try to drive sustainable growth. 

AZEVEDO: Governments around the world can and must lay the foundations for a strong and socially inclusive recovery. Trade and international coordination, more generally, will be important ingredients here. 

He said “in an optimistic scenario, our economies see the volumes of global trading goods stumbling by 13 percent in 2020.” But he said if the world does not bring the pandemic under control “and if governments don’t coordinate policy responses, the decline could be 32 percent or more,” devastating the global economy. 

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: families in quarantine in Europe.

Plus, Cal Thomas on the health benefits of optimism.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD: It’s Thursday, the 9th of April, 2020. So glad you’re here with us today for The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Hey, good news, bad news?

REICHARD: I always prefer good news first.

EICHER: Right-o. Good news, I don’t have coronavirus symptoms.

REICHARD: But I’m hearing the bad news already.

EICHER: The sound you hear is the sound of strep, and I actually feel a lot better than I have in the last three or four days. Just sound worse.

Maybe I can perfect my impression of Dr. Anthony Fauci, famous for his daily briefings.

Try this…

FAUCI: It’s mitigation mitigation, mitigation. In fact, this is the minimal of what we should be doing. You know, everyone should be doing that. And everything on here, one way or the other, points to physical separation.

Mitigation, mitigation, mitigation.

[Laughs]

So, if you can live with this sound, we’ll just muddle through.

So, first up: voices from quarantine around the world, starting with Europe.

Italy’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 was January 31st, when two Chinese tourists in Rome tested positive. 

Italian officials quickly contained their own citizens when they returned from travels to China.

REICHARD: But when a man with no connection to China had to be hospitalized in February, doctors realized the illness had likely been spreading for weeks. By March 8th, all of Italy went under strict lockdown. 

WORLD’s Jenny Lind Schmitt spoke to families in Italy and two other European countries to find out what life’s been like for them.

JENNY LIND SCHMITT, REPORTER: Katie Duff-Domenici has lived in Italy for 21 years on the island of Sardinia. When authorities put the country under lockdown on March 9th, her daughter was still studying abroad in Canada. Italians didn’t take the restrictions seriously enough, so the government tightened them further. People now need a written reason to leave home. 

DOMENICI: It’s called autocertificazione It’s a self-declared certificated of why you’re out and where you’re going and what your business is. And if you don’t have it, the policemen who stopped you usually have a copy and they can help fill it out.

After her daughter made it home, the entire family had to completely quarantine for two weeks. They didn’t leave the house at all. Those restrictions have eased a bit, but there are still limits to what they can do. 

DOMENICI: We can go out for walks if we have dogs, we’re supposed to stay within 200 meters of our house. Or we’re allowed to go grocery shopping. One person from the family can go and shop. Or you can go to the pharmacy. Other than that we’re not really supposed to go out. 

Domenici’s in-laws live in the north of Italy, the region hit hardest by the coronavirus. Her 87-year old mother-in-law hasn’t left her apartment for almost six weeks. Another older relative died, presumably from the coronavirus.

DOMENICI: The worst part of it is, is not only can they not go, they can’t have a funeral, they don’t even know where her body is… because there have been so many deaths in Bergamo. 

Italian authorities are talking about reopening schools after the Easter break, but Domenici says locals are skeptical.

In Germany, officials recorded the first case of COVID-19 in late January. It was quickly contained. Then came the winter school break.

PAGE: Then we have the Faschungs holidays when everybody goes skiing.

Sharon Page lives a half hour west of Munich.

PAGE: And at that point there was no travel advisory or anything. So everybody went skiing, to Austria and Italy, and brought it back. And basically Ichgl has been a nightmare.

In the popular ski resort of Ishgl, Austria, a bartender came down with the virus and kept working. From that single case, hundreds of vacationers from across Europe brought the virus back to their own countries.

Germany closed its borders on March 16th. Four days later, the government sent everyone to confinement in their homes.

PAGE: I think most people have been following the rules, but at the beginning when it was first introduced and it was also a really nice weekend, a lot of people…they were having corona parties, they called them.

Wearing masks in public is not required, but Page says that may be coming.

PAGE: It may change soon, because Jena in the East, they’ve now said  you’ve got to go with a mask to the supermarket. [husband: And Austria too] And Austria as well.

Subways and busses are still running, but to lessen human contact, riders do not need a ticket.

PAGE: In Munich on the U-Bahns, they’ve actually not reduced them too much, so that people can spread out. Not like in London where they reduced the number and they were packed in like sardines. Here they’ve tried to keep the number of trains on so that people can try and distance in the U-bahn, which is not terribly easy.

Matthiew Giralt pastors a church in Etupes, eastern France. It’s one of the regions hardest hit by the virus. His congregation has had several people infected, and some have had family members die.

GIRALT: The hardest thing is not to be able to be present with people and be at their side. Especially for a pastor, not being able to pastor people at this time. Thankfully we have a lot of means of communication. 

He sees two big hardships around him. First, loneliness, especially among older people who are already isolated. Second, fear of the future and of death. During the quarantine he sees people going to great lengths to distract themselves with work or entertainment to avoid thinking about the bigger questions of life. But that’s where Giralt says Christians have an opportunity. 

His church usually hosts an Easter service with a huge roasted-lamb barbeque afterwards. They won’t be doing that this year, but the ultimate message is still the same.

GIRALT: It’s normal to be fearing death. We as Christians we have been liberated from the fear of death. … I think it’s an amazing opportunity for Christians all around the world to share the message of the gospel about hope and about victory over death by Jesus Christ.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Lind Schmitt.

NICK EICHER: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: we continue our quarantine tour in Asia and South America.

Yesterday, China ended the 76-day lockdown in Wuhan. That’s where the novel coronavirus originated. But, as you just heard, lockdowns continue in Europe and around the world. 

WORLD reporter Sarah Schweinsberg spoke with people in India, Peru, Chile, and Taiwan to find out what life is like there.

MODI: [Address to country]

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: On March 24th, Indian Prime Minister Narandra Modi ordered more than a billion Indians to stay home for three weeks. He made the announcement just four hours before it went into effect. That caught millions of people off-guard. 

VASANTHA: What really hit India harder than the virus is the panic.

Vasantha Peter and her husband run a Christian media ministry in Bangalore, a city in southern India.

When the prime minister announced the lockdown, her husband was in another city in another state. The lockdown halted all public transportation and closed borders between states, stranding many migrant workers and travelers. 

VASANTHA: So none of the people in that state even had a hint that there was going to be a lockdown. I kept praying and I said God I hope and pray that he will be able to reach home safely. 

Thankfully, he had his own car. 

VASANTHA: He came back right in time and also at the border, he didn’t see any police.  

The country is now halfway through the lockdown. Police enforce a curfew, and people can only run essential errands. To leave a neighborhood, residents must visit a police station to apply for a pass.

India has millions of poor, day laborers. Vasantha says the lockdown is hitting them the hardest. 

VASANTHA: It’s not the disease that kills them. It’s the no food on the plate that kills people. 

In Peru, authorities began enforcing a nationwide quarantine in March. A week ago, they also implemented a 6 p.m. curfew. Tiffany Simmons and her husband are missionaries in Pucallpa. She says soldiers and police are strictly enforcing the new rules.

SIMMONS: You can get fined. You can also be taken to the police station. 

One person per household is allowed to run errands and everyone must wear a mask to enter a store. Men can leave home on Monday, Wednesday and Friday… 

SIMMONS: And the woman can go Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. 

No one goes out on Sundays. Simmons says the measures are strict but necessary. 

SIMMONS: They know that we could not handle it here. The hospitals, the clinics, we just don’t have the supplies to handle this kind of a crisis. 

In Santiago, the capital of Chile, the government has taken a more surgical approach. Two weeks ago, it closed all non-essential businesses and issued a countrywide 10 p.m. curfew. 

But officials have only mandated stay-at-home orders in certain Santiago neighborhoods with higher infection rates. 

Jim Hurley and his family are missionaries who just happen to live in one of those boroughs. 

HURLEY: We have a list of six or seven things that are allowed to leave our house for but only one person from the house can leave. I’m limited to leave twice a week for groceries, and it’s like a four hour window. 

And his five children can only leave their apartment once a day for 30 minutes. 

HURLEY: Usually what we do is hop on our bikes and ride back and forth and throw the frisbee around a little bit. 

One benefit to the city’s reduced hustle and bustle? The air quality. 

HURLEY: We have never seen more consistent blue skies.

One country that hasn’t closed businesses or public spaces is Taiwan. There the government has limited community spread by closely monitoring and testing anyone who has had contact with a COVID-19 patient. 

Christina Chung lives in Taipei and works for an American pharmaceutical company. She says life is largely continuing as normal, but people are taking precautions in public.

CHUNG: Everyone must, must wear mask. Especially when you are going to enter into any places. But when you go outside and you can take your mask off. 

But Chung worries that if the public lets down its guard too quickly, new infections could emerge. Last week, Taiwan celebrated a public holiday. 

CHUNG: I can see from the news there are so many people, pack and packs of people. Some of them wearing mask, some of them did not wear mask. So we don’t know if there’s any infection in between them.  

Afterwards, the government asked everyone at the gathering to self-quarantine for 14 days.

As worldwide quarantines drag on, governments everywhere are weighing the health risks against the mounting economic damage. Vasantha Peter says as difficult as the shutdowns have been, churches are helping to make the hardships a little easier to bear.

VASANTHA: Mothers with babies or elderly couple or anyone. They are asking them if they need any grocery. My neighbors who needed eggs and milk so one man from the church comes by to give them early morning eggs and milk. I think church is definitely stepping up and taking care of their community.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

NICK EICHER: When staffers at a veterans’ home in Lebanon, Oregon rolled Bill Lapschies outside in his wheelchair last week—a small group of family members was waiting to greet him.

AUDIO: Love you! Love you, dad!

All were practicing social distancing, but they didn’t want to miss their chance to celebrate. 

They brought chocolate birthday cake and balloons.

His daughter, Carolee Brown told local tv station KGW8…

BROWN: It’s an extra special day; not exactly how we planned to celebrate his birthday.

It was an extra special day for two reasons: First, Bill Lapchies was celebrating birthday 104! That’s a big deal. But here’s a rival big deal: He’d just earned a clean bill of health … after recovering from the coronavirus! 

And that makes Bill Lapschies the oldest known coronavirus survivor.

Asked how he beat it, he laughed and said “oh, it just went away.”

World War II vet, no sweat. It just went away!

REICHARD: Happy birthday, Bill! And thank you for your service!

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER: Today is Thursday, April 9th. 

You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we are so glad you are! Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Well, if you’re like many people these days, cabin fever has set in. One way to help yourself is to get some fresh air and step outside. Nature is still open, even if some campgrounds and parks are closed right now. 

Stay-at-home mandates explicitly permit hiking and walking outdoors. Go to a local trail, and hike only with people who are already in quarantine with you.

WORLD Reporter Jenny Rough recently met a man who teaches hiking and backpacking skills for those heading into the great outdoors.

JENNY ROUGH: Hi, Bruce.
BRUCE MARTIN: Hey!
ROUGH: How are you?
MARTIN: How are you?

JENNY ROUGH, REPORTER: Seven hikers greet each other at the Walls of Jericho trailhead in Estillfork, Alabama. It’s mid-March, and the CDC has just recommended gatherings no larger than 50. The small group greets each other with elbow bumps and foot taps—or a far-away wave. 

MALE HIKER: Everyone keep your distance. Perfect!

Backpacking guide Bruce Martin shares the plan: Hike three miles to a camping site, set up tents, then hike on to waterfalls before returning to camp to spend the night. 

First, he outfits each hiker with a backpack full of gear.

MARTIN: Here’s two food kits if you want to put one in yours and one in hers. So you’ve got a cook set right there and fuel. You have your headlamp.

Tent, sleeping pad, water filtration system, and emergency supplies, like a first aid kit. But what’s considered an emergency supply might depend on the person.

MARTIN: And coffee? Are you all coffee drinkers? We’ve got Ethiopian, we’ve got, or six-bean espresso. 

The pack weighs about 30 pounds with a full 2-liter water bladder. 

MARTIN: The biggest thing is, keep the weight on your hips. You don’t want your shoulders to feel the weight because after an hour in, they’ll start hurting. 

Once adjusted, it’s time to walk into the woods.

MARTIN: Alright, let me pray for us and then we’re going to hit the trail. God, thank you for a beautiful day to enjoy You and enjoy each other and this incredible creation. I pray that… 

AUDIO: [Footsteps on trail]

The dirt path winds past maple and hickory trees. Trillium wildflowers hint at the coming spring. On the trail, it’s easy for hikers to keep a 6-foot distance from each other. Martin gives lessons along the way. Like how to navigate by the red trail blazes painted on trees. And “Leave No Trace” principles:

MARTIN: They say, take nothing but pictures so you’re not taking stuff out of the wilderness, you know, back home, unless it’s trash. 

Martin first started bringing hikers on his Born2BeWild trips in 2003, after reading John Eldredge’s book Wild at Heart. 

MARTIN: I wanted to take men in the wilderness so that they could connect with other men and with God. There’s a lot of times when I’m in the wilderness with people they’ll experience sometimes profound things with God that don’t happen maybe in the suburban environment that they’re normally in. 

Over the years, more and more women signed up. Like Whitney. She started hiking for health reasons after a medical diagnosis. 

WHITNEY: Five years ago I was diagnosed with an autoimmune. I was looking at disability at 26. Because I also got RA, the other one is called orbital myositis

Hiking has helped her lose 96 pounds. And she found nature to be a balm for the soul.

AUDIO: [Babbling brook]

Martin says the outdoors is healing, the place God made for people.

MARTIN: When God created the heavens and the earth, and He made man and woman, He didn’t put them indoors. Isn’t that interesting? They lived outdoors in a garden. Watch yourself here; this looks slick. So my philosophy is we were made for the outdoors. Houses are like this temporary thing. Nice when it rains. 

Rain is in the forecast. At the campsite, each hiker spreads out to set up a tent with a rain fly.

MARTIN: On this one, you want to stake everything down first in four corners. OK, so, corner, corner, corner, corner, in an X.  

Blow up a sleeping pad:

AUDIO: [BLOWING AIR INTO A SLEEPING PAD]

And batten down the hatches:

AUDIO: [ZIPPER ZIPPING RAIN FLY]

Then it’s off to the waterfalls.

The Walls of Jericho are sheer limestone cliffs where water gushes off the edges and drops into a canyon. It requires rock scrambling. 

FEMALE HIKER: Throwing my trekking poles up.
MARTIN: You can see how high we are when you look way down there.

In John 21, Jesus gathered His disciples around a fire on a lakeshore and taught them the ways of the kingdom. 

Back at camp, with bellies full of pasta, the hikers also circle a campfire to learn from Jesus. Coronavirus is on everyone’s mind. So the passage Martin picks is Mark 4, the story where the disciples are in a boat and become afraid during a violent windstorm. Jesus says, “Peace! Be still.” And the wind calms.

MARTIN: In Christ we have peace all of the time, even if we have very not peaceful circumstances. Guys, you realize when we got up this morning, even though there’s a pandemic sweeping the globe, we live right now in an unshakeable kingdom. So, I would ask you to reflect, you know, this weekend. Just look into your heart of hearts. Is there anything that you find yourself afraid about?

It’s a deep thought to ponder at night inside a dry sleeping bag as a light rain falls on the tent. 

AUDIO: [LIGHT RAINFALL]

In the morning, it’s still raining—hard. 

AUDIO: [HEAVY RAINFALL]

Martin suggests walking in silence and solitude on the trail back to the parking lot. When the weather is nicer, he sends hikers out on a one-hour solo retreat to be alone with God. 

MARTIN: We were created to commune with God, not just through text, but by His Spirit. He literally lives in us.

For the first 15 minutes of solitude, Martin says, your mind will run and be all over the place. But at some point, you settle in.

MARTIN: But here’s why I love the wilderness. It’s quieter out here! There’s something, about the wilderness that just creates an environment where it’s quiet enough to hear the whisper of God. And often it is Him telling us how much He loves us and cares for us.

Even a short day hike is good for the body, mind, and soul. If you want to sleep outdoors but find campgrounds closed, consider what some families are doing: camping right in their own backyard. When you do head outside, hike responsibly. Go to a nearby, non-congested area. And use your time in nature well.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough, from the trail in Estillfork, Alabama.

NICK EICHER: Today is Thursday, April 9th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Nick Eicher. Cal Thomas now with a word of optimism.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Proverbs 17:22 says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.”

Everywhere you look—from newspaper headlines, to TV “alerts,” to people wearing masks in public places—there is hardly any news that isn’t negative. We don’t see many stories about people not getting the coronavirus, or interviews with those who have recovered from it. The negativity epidemic produces its own kind of infection.

In a 2016 Forbes article, neuropsychologist Dr. Fabian van den Berg warned that constant negativity causes stress. He wrote of the relation between stress and bad health. Quoting now: “If you constantly experience negative emotions, you will be subjected to stress and more sensitive to stressful situations. Being positive is the best defense against stress…” End quote. 

So stress can harm our immune systems, while a positive attitude may have immunological benefits—along with washing hands, practicing social distancing, staying home as much as possible and wearing face coverings.

One person who is making his own contribution to reverse the trend toward negativity is Mike McCarthy, a WTOP contributor and editor of DC Magazine. From Washington, D.C., a video he created called “One Day Soon: 25 Reasons for Hope,” narrated by his daughter, Annie, shows scenes of life before the shutdown.

Mike writes: “I wanted to remind my friends and family that amid all of this rotten news we see and hear each day, we have something to look forward to and never take for granted again.”

He’s right. We take so much for granted, including health, prosperity, and freedom. To have all three under attack should prove we can never assume they can’t vanish in a moment.

There’s another “Annie” who with her optimistic spirit helped America get through the Great Depression and World War II. The 1977 Broadway musical inspired by the comic premiered during double-digit interest rates, and double-digit unemployment. Annie sang a song that was the epitome of optimism. 

If you don’t remember it, here’s a clip from the 1982 film: 

ANNIE: “The sun’ll come out tomorrow, so you gotta hang on till tomorrow. Come what may! Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow. You’re only a day away.”

There are many other songs that promote optimism and confidence. Think “Gray skies are gonna clear up, put on a happy face” (“Bye Bye Birdie”). Even Elvis Presley sang: “I’ve got confidence, God is gonna see me through. No matter what the case may be, I know He’s gonna fix it for me.”

Let’s “accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.” We’ll feel better and it might have a side effect of boosting our immune systems.

I’m Cal Thomas.

NICK EICHER: Tomorrow on Culture Friday, John Piper brings some strong theological thinking on our coronavirus fears.

And, Megan Basham reviews a new film about Jesus, especially for Easter. 

That and more tomorrow. 

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD: 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.

For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 

Go now in grace and peace.

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