The World and Everything in It: April 9, 2026

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

The Trump administration clarifies terms for peace with Iran.

LEAVITT: The president’s red lines, namely, the end of Iranian enrichment in Iran, have not changed.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll have a report and analysis.

Also, cracking down on Medicaid fraud.

And later, the story of a seminary founder whose violent past shapes his work in Nepal.

KASULA: If he can change my life, my notorious life, he can change you.

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on why some old ideas are making a comeback—with very different consequences.

BROWN: It’s Thursday, April 9th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Myrna Brown.

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

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Ceasefire on shaky ground amid Lebanon fighting »  The Iran ceasefire is on shaky ground as Iran on Wednesday again closed the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian leaders say that’s because Israel has increased strikes on the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran's foreign minister insists the ceasefire called for an end to the fighting there as well. But Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters:

VANCE: We never made that promise, we never indicated that was going to be the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran, and the ceasefire would be focused on America's allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states.

Wednesday was one of the deadliest days of fighting in Lebanon.

SOUND: [Explosion in Beirut]

Explosions heard in Beirut, as Israel continued targeted airstrikes against Hezbollah in the capital city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns that his country is ready to return to fighting in Iran if the ceasefire collapses. But both sides of the conflict have plenty of reasons to hope it holds up.

And with US and Iranian officials set to meet in Pakistan this week for peace talks, Vance told reporters:

VANCE:  The United States has certain demands and certain things that we want. The Iranians ha have things they can get outta the negotiation. The more that they're willing to give us, I think the more they're gonna get things outta this negotiation. The president's talked about sanctions relief.

Israel - Hamas » Meanwhile, Israel continues its strikes against the terror group Hamas in Gaza.

SOUND: [Scene in Gaza]

The media outlet Al Jazeera, which is owned by the government of Qatar, says one of its correspondents died in a targeted Israeli airstrike in his car Wednesday. Nearby residents on the scene reportedly pulled a body from the vehicle.

But an Israeli military spokesperson says Mohammed Wishah was not only an Al Jazeera journalist, but also a Hamas officer — a commander in its anti-tank unit.

Trump administration - NATO » At the White House, NATO chief Mark Rutte met with President Trump in an effort to mend fences on behalf of the alliance.

The president is not happy with NATO allies that he feels did not back the United States as they should have in the war in Iran. And he has repeatedly criticized those allies for not doing more to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:

LEAVITT: I have a direct quote from the President of the United States on NATO, and I will share it with all of you: “They were tested and they failed.”

After the president’s hours-long conversation with Rutte, Trump continued to cast doubt on social media about whether NATO allies truly have America’s back.

Rutte also met separately earlier in the day with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They reportedly discussed not only the war in Iran, but also continued pressure for other members of the alliance to step up their defense spending.

China says Afghanistan/Pakistan agree to explore deal » While Pakistan is expected to host peace talks this week between the U.S. and Iran, it’s still trying to solve a conflict of its own. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed not to escalate their border conflict — and to work toward what China is calling a "comprehensive solution."

The agreement came after seven days of Beijing-mediated peace talks in China, which concluded Wednesday. China's foreign ministry says all three nations identified terrorism as the "core issue" in the two countries' relationship.

Pakistani leaders have accused Afghanistan of harboring terrorists, who have carried out attacks in Pakistan. That helped spark the latest flare-up in the conflict in February.

The fighting has displaced roughly a hundred-thousand people, with another hundred-thousand completely cut off from aid near the border.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

Whittaker obituary » Jim Whittaker, the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest — has died at 97. Whittaker made the historic climb in 1963 alongside Sherpa Nawang Gombu, a decade after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first conquered the peak.

The achievement made the Seattle native an instant celebrity and helped spark America's love affair with mountaineering.

He told the Associated Press in a 2013 interview:

WHITTAKER: People said, well, you know, how did you feel? And I say like a very frail human being because you're just hanging on to life.

Whittaker also later served as president and CEO of the outdoor company REI.

He was a close friend of Robert Kennedy and was at his bedside when the senator died from an assassin's bullet in 1968.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: laying the groundwork for peace with Iran. 

NICK EICHER, HOST:  It’s Thursday the 9th of April.

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

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

First up on The World and Everything in It: a pause in the Iran war.

Yesterday, the Trump administration laid out details on the ceasefire with Iran, and what it will take to make headway on long-term peace.

WORLD’s Lindsay Mast has the story.

LINDSAY MAST: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth started the day declaring Operation Epic Fury a capital ‘V’ military victory.

HEGSETH: We finished completely destroying Iran's defense industrial base, a core pillar of our mission objective. They can no longer build missiles, build rockets, build launchers or build drones. Their factories have been razed to the ground, set back in historic fashion.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine detailed the damage inflicted by the U.S. efforts, saying they set Iran back years.

CAINE: CENTCOM forces destroyed approximately 80% of Iran's air defense systems, striking more than 1500 air defense targets, more than 450 ballistic missile storage facilities, 800 1-way attack drones storage facilities, all of these systems are gone. We've devastated Iran's command and control and logistical networks, destroying more than 2000 command and control nodes and degrading their ability to target U.S. and friendly forces.

Hegseth also pointed out the leadership losses:

HEGSETH: The previous Iranian supreme leader: dead. The supreme National Security Council secretary: dead. The Supreme Leader, office, advisor: dead. The Supreme Leader, Military Office Chief: dead, the defense minister: no longer with us. The IRGC commander: dead. The Armed Forces General Staff commander: dead. The intelligence Minister: dead. The IRGC Navy Commander: no longer here. The IRGC Intel chief: dead. I skipped over a bunch, and I could go on and on and on.”

He said Iran has little left to leverage, and echoed a social media post from the President.

HEGSETH: Iran begged for this ceasefire and we all know it. Iran wants this to happen. They’ve had enough.

But both sides have demands as they come to the table, and some seemingly in direct conflict.

Iran’s list includes coordinating the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, war reparations, sanctions relief, and a binding UN resolution. The President called it a “workable basis on which to negotiate.” But it also includes a demand that Iran retain the right to enrich uranium–a key step in potentially producing a nuclear weapon.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:

LEAVITT: The president’s red lines, namely, the end of Iranian enrichment in Iran have not changed.

She also pushed back on the idea of the President accepting an Iranian wish list as “absurd.”

LEAVITT: The President will only make a deal that serves in the best interests of the United States of America, and he and his negotiating team will focus on this effort over the next two weeks, so long as the Strait of Hormuz remains open with no limitations or delays.

Caine made the stance of the American military plain:

CAINE: Let us be clear: a ceasefire is a pause and the joint force remains ready, if ordered or called upon.

Leavitt said talks are scheduled in Islamabad, Pakistan. The U.S. will send Vice President J.D. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Special Peace Envoy Jared Kushner for the talks scheduled to begin Saturday morning.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Joining us now is Janatan Sayeh, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Born and raised in Tehran, he brings a unique perspective to the complex web of Iranian domestic politics and its global threat network. Good morning.

JANATAN SAYEH: Good morning. Great to be with you.

EICHER: Well, listen, I’ve really been looking forward to talking with you ever since the news broke late Tuesday night of a ceasefire in place.

Of course, we are already seeing reports of continued attacks in parts of the region—even a good bit of disagreement about what the deal actually covers.

So let me ask you this: when you see something like this, where both sides are able to come out and claim victory, what does it usually say about how genuine or stable it might be?

SAYEH: I don’t think anyone was surprised that both sides were looking to de-escalate. They had an incentive.

But that said, when I look at the two demands—and here, we’d be comparing the 10 points from Iran versus the 15 that were proposed by the United States—I cannot identify any overlap. I see contradictions after contradictions.

So to phrase this as a stepping stone, or the first building block for long-term peace, might be over-exaggerating the content of it. And as we’ve seen so far, Tehran is again blocking the strait, and the rhetoric is far from de-escalation.

EICHER: Well, is there anything that you see right now—anything that you can imagine—that would give you confidence that this would hold up, that we might actually be done here?

SAYEH: As much as I’d like to be optimistic, it is challenging.

But perhaps one way of looking at it is maybe Trump does not even want a long-term deal with Tehran. Perhaps a ceasefire that would last for months or years—until he’s out of office—would theoretically suffice, because he says that the main challenge with Tehran was the nuclear program, and he’s destroyed it—or so he claims.

But that said, he’s a dealmaker. He wants to go down in history, so he has an incentive—but he’s not as desperate for a long-term deal.

EICHER: Well, Janatan, I’d like to go back to something that you said earlier—looking at the terms each side is staking out.

Clearly they’re not anywhere near close to one another. But in some sense, I have to say, I’m kind of surprised by the position Iran is taking. After what has been a punishing month militarily, they’re still making very sweeping demands.

So if you take the nuclear issue—the U.S. is saying no enrichment, that’s a red line. Iran insists on the right to enrichment.

How do you square a circle like that?

SAYEH: You’re right to find Iran’s demand, frankly, outrageous. They’re getting, if I may say, greedier or more ambitious with their demands.

As to how you can straighten that out when it comes to the nuclear agreement—listen, Tehran time and time again has said enrichment is their red line.

Now, if they think they can survive another bombing campaign, what is stopping them—or what is really compelling them—to negotiate on that?

So if I’m sitting there as a regime official in Tehran, every once in a while we get attacked, but we survive it. Then the U.S. asks for a deal, we reject, and it turns into again cat and mouse.

I don’t have an incentive to offer compromises. It comes down to the real threat, which is not bombs, but the Iranian people. So long as there is not internal unrest, the Islamic Republic does not feel threatened.

 EICHER: Well, let’s step back from the negotiations. They haven’t even begun yet—not until Saturday anyway.

But I think the bigger question is: what has this war accomplished?

To me, it seems that it’s accomplished quite a bit—but five weeks of very heavy fighting, very one-sided heavy fighting. Do you think that anything has actually been solved at this point?

SAYEH: No—but postponed, yes.

So I would say there are three main pillars that have been greatly implicated in the war.

Number one, nuclear. There hasn’t been much reporting on it, but Israel and American strikes actually did go after other nuclear facilities—heavy water reactors. And again, it was really building on the successes of Operation Midnight Hammer.

But more important than that were the ballistic missile capabilities. So when Israel and the United States combined—taking out about 20,000 targets, most of which have been missiles—in addition to that, they’ve depleted Iranian stockpiles.

So of course, the Islamic Republic militarily is nowhere near where it was months ago.

And third, which is very interesting, is specifically Israeli operations—not American—that have been taking out the repression infrastructure, internal security of Iran like never before.

I look at all these bases that were used to brutalize Iranians—one of them was actually a police station that I was detained in in 2009. I see it destroyed.

But that said, this apparatus has lost its infrastructure—but the forces still remain.

So I would characterize these three things as the main short-term achievements—but none of which are resolved.

EICHER: Well, let me ask about the people of Iran.

You said earlier that so long as the people don’t rise up, the regime feels no threat. What about this call from the U.S. to the people of Iran to rise up? How does that happen with a deal being worked out with the regime—and the people having no representation at the table?

SAYEH: You’re right to point that out.

Because ultimately, the main leverage against the regime is millions of Iranians—the majority of the population—that want to see this regime gone.

It would be certainly disheartening if a meaningful ceasefire were to be reached, or if there was actually an agreement enacted between Tehran and Washington.

And the main challenge with that is just demoralization.

So Iranians were massacred in January—about 40,000 people within 48 hours. But the hopes were still high once the war started, meaning there’s still anticipation that there might be some way that America would facilitate the conditions for Iranians to rise up.

But if he’s prioritizing opening up the strait over neutralizing the main threat from Tehran, Iranians are going to lose that hope—and apathy is the most dangerous thing.

We’re not going to see a rally-around-the-flag effect. Iranians are not going to all of a sudden support the regime because America abandoned them—but they’re going to become pessimistic and nihilistic.

They’re not going to mobilize—and that’s going to be the main challenge when you’re engaging with Tehran: losing that leverage.

EICHER: Well, Janatan, you are from Iran. I know you maintain contact with people inside the country.

Before we go—what are you hearing?

SAYEH: That the terror machine continues to operate.

A couple of weeks ago, they started public hangings again for political crimes—and this is something I witnessed growing up there too. And executions are on the rise. We’re hearing numbers as high as 500 within two months since January 2026.

So all the signs are pointing at a regime that’s going to consolidate power even further.

If this war fails to somehow get systemic change, we’re going to see an Islamist version of North Korea in the Middle East—and it’s the most dangerous combination of two ideologies.

EICHER: Janatan Sayeh, Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Thanks for talking with me.

SAYEH: Thank you for having me.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next, investigating Medicaid fraud.

Last week, an Indiana autism center told employees it would close in May, after the state blocked it from participating in Medicaid.

The Wall Street Journal in March found that

Piece by Piece Autism Centers over-charged Medicaid for autism therapy services.

NICK EICHER, HOST: In the year 2023, the Center billed the government about $340,000 per child. That’s ten times the average rate.

All this comes as the federal government is taking a more systematic approach to exposing improper payments and pushing states to do better oversight.

WORLD’s Harrison Watters reports.

HARRISON WATTERS: Sarah Addison is a behavioral clinician in Indiana working with people with special needs including autism.

She says she typically helps individuals work on their social skills.

ADDISON: A lot of times, people who are on the spectrum struggle with making eye contact. They have a hard time understanding timing, what to say, when to say it, staying on topic.

Clinicians use ABA, or applied behavioral analysis , to coach clients: reinforcing positive behaviors and avoiding those that interfere. Therapy typically involves multiple sessions over long periods of time.

ADDISON: The first year you're just spent building trust and building a relationship, and very often, you don't really see the results till maybe, like, year two or three.

All those interactions count as billable activities for reimbursement by Medicaid, which provides health coverage for low-income and disabled Americans. The program is jointly funded by state and federal dollars, and allows states flexibility in how to distribute the money. Medicaid requires documentation in order to pay providers for their services.

ADDISON: The note should be reflecting what you worked on that is linked to the plan, like the behavior support plan. So you can't just say, “Oh, we went out into the community and we had coffee.”

But a growing number of ABA providers have been doing things just like that according to data from the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, or OIG. Kimberly Kennedy is Assistant Regional Inspector General.

KENNEDY: ABA services has steadily increased since federal coverage guidelines were issued in 2014, with nationwide spending on these services increasing by almost 300% between 2019 and 2024 alone.

Following that Medicaid expansion in 2014, the federal government’s allocation has grown, incentivizing states to increase enrollment for additional federal dollars. That brought a surge in home- and community-based spending for Medicaid. It helped many people receive care at home, but also opened the door to improper payments.

Chip Kahn is the former President of the Federation of American Hospitals and a visiting senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He says the smaller scale and niche services make the program vulnerable to fraud.

KAHN: People can start businesses and either find names or use some method to actually, you know, frequently submit claims when they didn't provide any services.

Abuse and waste are harder to pin down, because they take advantage of gray areas in the law to maximize payouts.

Starting in 2024, the OIG audited Indiana’s fee for service autism program—looking at a sample of 100 payments made in 2019 and 2020. Auditors have also scrutinized Maine, Wisconsin, and Colorado. Kennedy says the results are troubling.

KENNEDY: Each of them found that nearly all of the sample enrollee months were either improper or potentially improper.

Many providers failed to meet the requirements for documenting their services. Or they claimed more hours than they actually worked with clients. Some even lacked the right credentials to bill Medicaid in the first place.

KENNEDY: The improper payments that we were able to determine for those reports, they ranged anywhere from 18 and a half million in projected overpayments in Wisconsin to approximately 77 million in Colorado.

That’s double Colorado’s personnel budget for 2025.

The OIG recommends states refund the federal government for its contributions that covered improper payments. So far, none have complied, though Indiana is reviewing its Medicaid payments. It’s now up to CMS—the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid—to enforce the recommendations.

In Minnesota, reports of fraudulent autism and daycare centers led CMS to halt more than $200 million in Medicaid reimbursements back in January. Minnesota responded with a plan to address fraud, waste, and abuse, and CMS gave the greenlight in March but it’s waiting to see Minnesota’s next steps before it makes deferred payments. In the meantime, the state has passed those costs onto healthcare providers.

During a Congressional hearing in January, autism care provider Jennifer Larson explained the challenge of healthcare disruptions for children who need treatment.

LARSON: As Medicaid payments are delayed due to prepayment review by an insurance company that is in the business of denying claims, providers are reducing hours, cutting staff and starting to close Loss of services can erase years of progress in weeks, and abrupt disruption of services can cause lifelong consequences in these children.

While millions of dollars are at stake, Assistant Regional Inspector General Kennedy says the audits reveal a more fundamental problem.

KENNEDY: The lack of details in the supporting documentation make it unclear if the children are actually receiving high quality therapy services or daycare services.

For clinicians like Sarah Addison in Indiana, the priority continues to be giving individuals with autism consistent coaching and doing due diligence to document how it’s going.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters.

NICK EICHER, HOST: In baseball, a pitcher can have a no-hitter going and still be in serious jeopardy.

Just ask the Portland Sea Dogs about that.

The other night in a Double-A game up in coastal Main, Sea Dogs pitchers gave up eight runs in a single inning—without allowing a hit.

Eight runs, no hits.

How is this possible?

Well, if you ever had a kid in Little League, you may remember something like this

Eight walks
four wild pitches
a couple of hit batters
and a sacrifice fly.

By the time the first hit finally came, two more runs scored.

Ten runs in the inning.

A reminder: you can avoid a hit and still get hit hard.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, April 9th.

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

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: political upheaval in Nepal—and a pastor whose own history gives him a unique voice for a new generation.

Nepal is a country of 30 million people. It has seen months of unrest, with youth-led protests and new political leadership taking shape.

BROWN: As the country adjusts, one Nepalese pastor is urging young Christians to stay grounded—drawing on a past that nearly took him in a very different direction.

WORLD’s Lauren Dunn has the story.

LAUREN DUNN: Thirty-nine-year-old Suraj Kasula spends a lot of his time praying with students at the seminary he founded.

KASULA: Let's pray. Our gracious heavenly Father, we come before the throne of grace as we are given an access in and through Jesus Christ…

He also teaches and translates for Westerners who come to speak.

KASULA: [Translating] Kent: Don’t confuse busyness with depth with Christ. [Suraj translating]

But years ago, he never would’ve pictured this life for himself. When he was about 16, he started a gang.

KASULA: We never kidnapped people, but we would go and ask money, and if they don't give, we'll, we'll show them our weapons, and they would be afraid, and they would give money, you know. So that's how we did it. And I had no regret at all, no repentance at all. I was enjoying and as I said, you know, I thought I was doing right? You know, I was in total darkness and chaos.

Kasula was raised in an orthodox Hindu family and still has a lot of respect for Hindu people, but he says he got an impression about the faith that led him toward violence.

KASULA: Whenever you see the deities, and whenever you see Hindu deities, you will see like slaughtering demons, you know. So I got that impression, and I wanted to start a gang, and I started a gang.

It was a small gang—Kasula says about 20 people, mostly cousins and friends. The members often fought with other gangs. His family and neighbors became fed up with his violence and turned to their Hindu gods to try to change the situation. But to no avail.

KASULA: I remember their parents would be very angry, and they would, they would worship their god and appease their god, sacrifice to their god, saying, ‘Let Suraj die. Oh, god, kill him fast, because he's ruining my children's life.’

The authorities arrested Kasula once for a weapons offense and a second time for violence against police officers. Officers beat him up and imprisoned him for a few weeks, but they couldn’t change Kasula. It seemed like nothing could.

KASULA: No policemen, no constitution, no law, could bring me to repentance. But this foreign god, cow-eating God came, and I hated him a lot.

Then a Christian invited Kasula to church. Kasula was fascinated with Western rock music, so he decided to go to hear the guitars and drums. He also heard the gospel, which he resisted. But he kept coming back, and one day…

KASULA: And I realized, this is Christian God. This is not only a God who loves me, but who died for me. And I had to surrender my life, and I repented all my sins. I repented, and I knelt down that night for the first time, I cried like a baby. And then I said, Lord, I need you. You can only save me. You can only save me. You can be my Lord. And I accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. And I became Christian that night and that instant like this.

Kasula stopped fighting. He became a Christian—and he was all in. He went to Scotland for nine years to study in seminary before returning to Nepal. In 2017, he started Bhaktapur Theological Seminary in the nation’s capital, Kathmandu. The school offers a bachelor’s degree in theology as well as shorter theological courses.

The school has challenges: It doesn’t have dormitories yet, so students have to live in Kathmandu to make attendance feasible. And the seminary is still building its library—Kasula says it’s hard to get good Christian books in Nepal and expensive to ship them in.

Kasula is stocking the library for students like 29-year-old Santosh Tamang. Tamang says Kasula doesn’t keep his past a secret.

But it doesn’t phase Tamang. And, if anything, Kasula’s story makes him more accessible to the students.

But there are challenges outside the school, too: Students are entering ministry in a different Nepal than what Kasula grew up in. The country cracked down on gangs in the years after it instituted its 2015 Constitution.

Last September, Nepali youth turned out in big numbers to protest government corruption. It started peacefully, but then police started firing real bullets.

Kasula cautioned his students from joining the demonstrations.

KASULA: Well, I suggested them, you can morally support them. You can write on social media against the government. You can put your view, but it would better not to go to the protest because, you know, yeah, because the police were shooting the real bullets, not the rubber bullets. So, so I really warned them not to go.

Students at the seminary did not participate in the protests. But some found the protests unavoidable. Tamang was teaching music lessons at a school for teens near where protests broke out.

TAMANG: I was backside of that Parliament building. So there were some peoples were running on that day.

Kasula worries how the younger Christians’ distrust of older generations and government will affect the Nepali church. But he trusts that God is still working in young people.

KASULA: Jesus is alive. If he can change my life, my notorious life, he can change you.

In September, Tamang will graduate from the seminary as part of a class of about 25. He plans to serve as a pastor in Kathmandu. Beyond what he’s learned in books and classes, he’s also walking away with inspiration from Kasula’s life.

TAMANG: He can make any people humble for his ministry.

Just as he did for a former gang leader years ago.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Dunn in Kathmandu, Nepal.

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

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Finally today, what happens when a generation encounters big ideas for the first time?

WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says it depends on which ideas—and how well we understand them.

AUDIO: “4-3-2-1, booster ignition. And liftoff! The crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon. Humanity’s next great voyage begins”

CAL THOMAS: Watching the excitement around the Artemis II mission—sending astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years—you can see something happening.

AUDIO: “See the plume? Go, go, go! Yes! Woo-hoo! Go! Go! Hahahaha!”

For a lot of younger Americans, this feels new.

The last men to walk on the moon did so in 1972.

CBS “Man on the moon! We copy you down, Eagle. Houston, uh, Tranquility base, here. The Eagle has landed. Roger, Tranquility, we copy you.”
That is more than two generations ago.

So the power of a rocket launch, the risk, the sense of national purpose—for many, it is being discovered for the first time.

And that got me thinking.

There is something else being embraced today—also by people who have never experienced it firsthand.

Socialism.

In places like New York City, and among national political figures like Bernie Sanders, the idea is gaining traction—especially among younger voters.

But many of those voters have never lived under it. They did not grow up during the Cold War.
They have not seen what socialism looks like in practice.

What they hear is that it is “fair.” That it redistributes wealth. That it corrects injustice.

What they may not see—is that the wealth being redistributed was created by something else.

Capitalism.

A system they are often taught to distrust, even as they continue to benefit from it.

AUDIO: But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this?

I remember a different kind of national moment.

AUDIO: We choose to go to the moon. … We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things—not because they are easy, but because they are hard! Because that goal …

As a young reporter in Houston, I covered the space program in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

It grew out of a challenge from John F. Kennedy—to put a man on the moon before the decade was out.

And the people who answered that call—
they really were what Tom Wolfe later called “the right stuff.”

I met astronauts like Alan Shepard and John Glenn.
I spent time in Mission Control. I watched launches.

And even as the Vietnam War divided the country, the space program brought Americans together.

AUDIO: This is the crew of Apollo 13, wishing everybody there a nice evening …

Then came Apollo 13 mission.

At first, the networks barely paid attention.
Another launch. Another mission.

Until something went wrong.

AUDIO: OK Houston, we’ve had a problem here. This is Houston, say again, please. Houston, we’ve had a problem.

An oxygen tank exploded. Power failed. Life support was at risk.

AUDIO: OK stand by 13, we’re lookin’ at it.

And suddenly, the whole world was watching.

Even Congress called for prayer.

It is hard to imagine that happening today.

We are hearing again that space exploration costs too much.

That we cannot afford it.

But we have managed both before—investing in big ideas while addressing economic challenges at home.

And that brings me back to socialism.

There is a saying that capitalism raises all boats.

Socialism tends to do the opposite—or at least keeps those boats from going very far.

If you have never lived under it, you owe it to yourself to learn what it actually does—not just what it promises.

Talk to people who have experienced it.

Read their stories.

As for space—exploration is part of who we are.

And with new technology, we are likely to go farther than ever before.

So here is a suggestion for the next generation:

Put down the phone for a minute.

Look up.

And learn—about promises, and realities.

For WORLD, I’m Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet joins us for Culture Friday. And, from a galaxy far far away, Maul, Shadow Lord premieres on Disney+. Collin Garbarino reviews the new TV show. 

That and more tomorrow. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

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 Bible says, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” —Psalm 91:1, 2

Go now in grace and peace.

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.