The World and Everything in It: June 2, 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.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Every morning, tens of thousands of listeners like you invite WORLD into their homes, cars, kitchens, and commutes.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: During our June Giving Drive, we're asking you to help make that daily work possible.

EICHER: If you value clear reporting, thoughtful analysis, and journalism grounded in facts and biblical truth—journalism without despair—then please consider a gift today.

REICHARD: And support the work at WNG.org/donate.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Congress works to make housing affordable...but will it?

ANTONI: This is a classic case of trying to close the barn door after the horse has already left the building.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today: Negotiations with Iran. We’ll talk with an expert on where things stand.

Later, the world’s oldest living journalist shares memories of Nazi Germany and World War II.

BINGHAM: Something was wrong, and something was in the air, something was wrong. And I walked towards it and I saw more people and commotions.

And WORLD Commentator Janie B. Cheaney on dignifying our dependence.

REICHARD: It’s Monday, June 2nd. 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 with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Iran latest » Iran fired ballistic missiles at American troops in Kuwait early Monday morning, and U.S. forces shot them down.

It's the latest flare-up in a shaky ceasefire that keeps cracking. Over the weekend, the U.S. bombed Iranian radar and drone sites after Iran shot down an American drone.

All of it plays out as President Trump warns that either Teheran will agree to a peace deal, or the war will end in a different way.

Republican Congressman Brian Mast chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He said of Iran:

MAST: Their capabilities are significantly less. So will they try to play their game? Absolutely. That's Iran. Will we prevent them? 100% we will. President Trump will.

President Trump still says a deal must prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Teheran still has its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz — squeezing the world's oil supply and driving up fuel prices.

President Trump met with advisers Friday ... but says Iran still has not made a satisfactory offer.

Israel-Lebanon » In Israel…

SOUND: [Soldier funeral]

...a funeral in Ashkelon … for an Israeli soldier killed by a drone in southern Lebanon. Twenty-one year-old Staff Sergeant Michael Tyukin (toy-kin) was killed in an attack Saturday launched by Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah. Meanwhile…

SOUND: [Activity near border]

...tensions remain high at the border between Israel and Lebanon. Bosmat Kohav is a resident of northern Israel.

KOHAV: A normal person cannot stand the crazy situation we have here. So only with drugs a person can continue on functioning here.

Early on Monday… Israel launched attacks in the southern suburbs of Beirut… accusing Hezbollah of violating the ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

NETANYAHU: [Speaking Hebrew]

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says Lebanon's capital remains a legitimate target if Hezbollah continues its attacks.

But in a statement later in the day, President Trump said both Israel and Hezbollah agreed to dial back their fighting. That came after Trump said he spoke with Netanyahu by phone, and Hezbollah through mediators.

Powell remarks » Former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is warning against political pressure on America's central bank.

Speaking at the JFK Presidential Library overlooking Boston Harbor, Powell called the Fed's independence a "priceless asset."

He never mentioned President Trump by name — though Trump routinely criticized him over interest rates.

POWELL: If any administration finds a way to remove Fed officials over policy differences, then future administrations will do so as well. The public would lose faith that the central bank will make decisions based only on what's best for all Americans. The Fed's credibility would be lost.

His remarks came as he accepted the JFK Profile in Courage Award.

Powell stepped down as chair in May, replaced by Trump's pick, Kevin Warsh . But Powell made an unusual move, keeping his seat on the Fed's board through 2028. He's the first outgoing Fed chief to do that in nearly 80 years — which keeps Trump from filling the seat.

For his part, new chair Kevin Warsh says he'll keep the Fed strictly independent.

Reconciliation bill update » The Justice Department’s controversial proposed fund to compensate victims of alleged political targeting is on ice for now.

WORLD’s Harrison Watters has more from Washington.

HARRISON WATTERS: The Department of Justice issued a statement on Monday saying it “disagrees strongly” with a recent district court ruling. That decision blocked the DOJ from launching the nearly $2-billion-dollar anti-weaponization fund.

While critical of the ruling, the DOJ says it will abide by it. This comes after Senate Majority Leader John Thune delayed a vote on funding for immigration enforcement agencies until the White House addresses concerns from members about the fund.

While the DOJ does not plan to appeal the court’s decision, Democrats want to push Republicans to vote on the future of the Anti-weaponization fund. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer:

SCHUMER: If Republicans try to force through their reconciliation bill again, the first amendment I will offer will be to ban the slush fund permanently and forever.

WATTERS: The U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia will hear arguments about next steps in the case next week.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters, in Washington.

Ebola update » In Kenya, hundreds of young protesters have marched on the gates of an air base, vowing to block an Ebola quarantine center for foreigners.

Kenya has never recorded a single case of Ebola. But the virus is tearing through neighboring Congo — the DRC — and Uganda, and locals in the town of Nanyuki say their country shouldn't take in sick outsiders:

AUDIO: We do not have any history of Ebola here. Why are they not doing it in the DRC? Why are they not doing it in Uganda? Why, why must they bring it here? So we are saying we want that facility taken out of our town. We want it taken out of Kenya.

The U.S. wants to send Americans exposed to Ebola overseas to the base at Laikipia— and is pledging nearly $14 million dollars to Kenya's Ebola defense operations. Kenya's health minister says the center would serve everyone, not just Americans. But a Kenyan court has frozen the plan and a legal challenge is still pending.

Across the border, Congo has now confirmed nearly 300 cases — and more than 40 deaths — from a rare strain of Ebola with no vaccine or cure. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a global emergency.

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up, how the latest moves in the dance with Iran are affecting the country’s citizens. Plus, the world’s oldest living journalist recalls the holocaust.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Monday the 2nd of June.

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.

First up: The cease-fire may be holding in the Middle East—but the peace process is looking increasingly fragile.

REICHARD: Israel is threatening new military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran is warning of retaliation if Israel makes good on that threat.

Oil markets jumped yesterday on reports that Tehran could pull back from negotiations and take a harder line on the Strait of Hormuz.

And President Trump is reportedly pressing Iran with a tougher version of a proposed peace framework.

EICHER: To help us sort through the latest developments, we're joined again by Janatan Sayeh of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Janatan, good to have you back. Good morning.

JANATAN SAYEH: Good morning to you. It's a pleasure to be back on.

EICHER: Well, help us make sense of the moment. The shooting has slowed, but the diplomacy appears to be getting more complicated. How close are we to a genuine settlement, how close are we to another round of escalation, and is it premature in your view to take the diplomatic route?

SAYEH: You're right to point out that the shooting has slowed down, but it never stopped. So not sure if the term ceasefire is even applicable as much as maybe a better term would be de-escalation in this context. I would say this is the closest we've ever... gotten to a potential deal, which does not mean we're close to one necessarily right now. I think the rhetoric coming from the two sides was relatively more optimistic. But ultimately, any negotiation with Tehran follows the same playbook that initially they express their willingness to cooperate on the big picture. They reassure us verbally in every possible way. They are very skilled diplomats. But as soon as it's about details and actually putting something on paper, we all of a sudden see Tehran actually try to, to backtrack what is ultimately said. No necessarily new patterns there, but what stood out is how the president mentioned that even if there's no deal reached, he's okay with the status quo, maintaining the blockade, maintaining the pressure, but again, expresses a lack of willingness to re-engage kinetically. So that just tells you that Washington thinks time is on its side, and Tehran might be thinking the same thing.

EICHER: So who do you think has the genuine leverage here? It's always been believed, I think, at least from our side of the ocean, that it's the U.S. But could it possibly be Iran that has the leverage? What do you think?

SAYEH: The issue here is defining success for the two sides is vastly different. Tehran's bar for success is simply survival, being able to see another day, rule its people the way it does brutally, and of course, export terror. And ideally, it would have access to its frozen funds, so it would be further emboldened. On the other hand, the bar for victory for President Trump is much, much higher. Of course, he wanted to get a better deal, secure the Strait of Hormuz, and go beyond that and actually achieve peace in the Middle East. And Tehran, knowing that, knowing that the president's desires are more than just a simple MOU, Memorandum of Understanding, which is not even a deal yet, that's why they're trying to ensure that any peace agreement would also include the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group. The idea here is that they know Trump wants long-lasting stability in the Middle East, and whatever obstacle they can provide, they will. And now they're tying any deal with Tehran to Israeli attacks in Lebanon. which is, on paper, it sounds a bit far, but once you understand Tehran's strategy, it makes sense for them to be maximizing their demands because they think they have more leverage.

REICHARD: Janatan, we spend a lot of time talking about the Iranian regime.But we don’t want to forget the Iranian people, so help us understand them. How are ordinary Iranians viewing this moment?

SAYEH: So we just saw the Internet be reinstated, at least partially. Of course, the access is not what it used to be. But this was the longest Internet blackout in Iranian history. And the first opportunity that ordinary Iranians were given to connect themselves to the outside world was to post footage of the brutal massacres going back six months now in early January, tells you really the mindset on the ground is still grieving. But that said, I think a lot of morale was to an extent crushed when they did not hear back from the president who had promised originally that he would call on Iranians to take to the streets. And now we see shift in Washington's policy, trying to actually appease the regime or somehow work with them. That really does not send the right message to the average Iranian. But then again, they're watching the back and forth between Tehran and Washington really closely. This is not to say that they've lost all hope, but time continues to be of essence. They're still holding up. And of course, they are the first to pay the price as soon as there's any form of escalation, unfortunately.

REICHAARD: Now, you're both Iranian and an American. Do you see the American people as having the kind of resolve it'll take to take down a regime like those in power in Iran?

SAYEH: Without a doubt, and I see so many parallels. When the Iranians were taking to the streets numerous times, when I speak to my American friends or policymakers, they see a lot of similarities between what the Iranians are going through right now and what really gave birth to the nation of America in a sense that the idea here is simply fighting for freedom. There's not necessarily a radicalized ideology behind it. It's about true sovereignty and it's about fighting for freedom. And I would say the ordinary Iranians also see the life in the way. They see how Americans live their lives wholeheartedly think they try to model their future governance more so after an American model as opposed to, let's say, European or like a regional model. So I think the two sides really, when it comes to the people, they have such a thorough understanding of one another as to whether they have the willpower to endure maybe more economic blockade and maybe higher oil prices. I mean, of course, because ultimately this might be a short-term struggle for something that would be so long-lasting. Once you actually are able to have the transition of power in Tehran, the implication of that would simply go beyond just a simple short-term gas price increase.

EICHER: Janaten Sayeh is with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, focusing on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional influence. Janaten, once again, thank you.

SAYEH: It was a pleasure joining. Thank you for having me.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Making housing affordable again.

Lawmakers are back in session this week, and on the table is a bill to cut some red tape on building new homes and make it easier for some buyers to get loans.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s up to the Senate to review changes from the House before sending it on to the president—with strong bipartisan support in both chambers.

WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more from Washington.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: The 21st Century Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream, or ROAD, to Housing Bill enjoys the broad support of Congressional Democrats, Republicans, and the White House.

Francis Torres, a housing expert at the Bipartisan Policy Center, says housing affordability is an issue most lawmakers from both parties can get behind. Getting the House and Senate to agree is a different story.

TORRES: Usually in Congress, right, in D.C., you see a lot of partisan polarization. In this case, it's much more so a case of difference between the chambers.

Overall, both chambers agree on the core policies. They want to incentivize more home building through grant programs, relax some environmental review requirements, and make federal-backed mortgages under $100,000 more accessible. But differences that have kept the bill from reaching the president’s desk remain.

One is a policy that would ban institutional investors from owning more than 350 single-family rental homes. The Senate version calls for firms to divest within 7 years, while the House version dropped that requirement.

ANTONI: This is a classic case of trying to close the barn door after the horse has already left the building.

E. J. Antoni is Chief Economist at the Heritage Foundation. He says the housing market has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Interest rates then were so low that investors snapped up housing. But as rates have climbed, the pace has slowed. Additionally, the legislation itself has changed since President Donald Trump first asked for it.

ANTONI: There are loopholes in here with accepted purchases that kind of, I think, really take the teeth out of this section. So again, I just don't see this as really being helpful at all.

Antoni and other economists say the bill also tries to make it easier to afford existing housing rather than increasing the amount of housing available. Essentially, it tinkers with demand when it should be trying to increase supply.

Norbert Michel is a finance expert at the Cato Institute.

MICHEL: If you make it easier to get loans, if you make it easier to get insurance and all these things, you are going to increase the price. You're going to make it less affordable.

Michel says those who stand to benefit the most from this bill are the politicians.

MICHEL: Housing prices nationally, they peaked in 2022. So if everything goes as planned, you pass the bill, and you start campaigning for midterms, and you're going to be able to see national housing prices still kind of coming down a little bit.

Antoni at the Heritage Foundation says government involvement could create more problems than it solves, but enforcing immigration law could actually move the needle in the right direction.

ANTONI: When you add 10 or by some estimates, 20 million people, to the housing market… That is a large increase in the demand for dwelling units. Increasing demand increases price.

If the Senate accepts the House’s edits to the bill, it could go to the President’s desk as soon as this weekend.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next: our continued coverage of Supreme Court opinions.

Legal correspondent Jenny Rough has two for us today, both of them centering on arbitration.

JENNY ROUGH: Arbitration is an alternative way to handle legal conflicts. Instead of going to court, a neutral third party reviews the case in a private proceeding and makes a final decision. And each term, the Supreme Court usually hears cases related to that process. In doing so, it interprets a body of law known as the FAA, the Federal Arbitration Act. This year the court heard two: Jules versus Andre Balazs Properties and Flower Foods versus Brock.

I’ll start with Flower Foods.

Flower Foods produces baked goods. It contracts with truck drivers to deliver its products to states across the country. Angelo Brock is one of those drivers. He picks up baked goods from a warehouse in Denver and delivers them to grocery stores throughout Colorado. He never crosses state lines.

Brock filed a lawsuit over pay and wanted a federal court to hear that dispute even though he signed an arbitration agreement. He argued he falls under an exception to the FAA that exempts interstate transportation workers. But Flowers argued the exception does not apply because Brock does not cross state lines. That prompted Justice Samuel Alito to ask this hypothetical at oral arguments:

JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO: Suppose a company structures its delivery so that Driver 1 drives 10 hours on an intrastate leg. Then Driver 2 drives one minute across an interstate border. Then Driver 3 completes the journey with another 10-hour intrastate drive. Each driver uses a different vehicle. Is Driver 2 the only person covered by the exemption?

Brock does not even do that. He picks up his goods from a warehouse and has no interaction with other trucks that do cross state borders. Even so, the court agreed with him that he is engaged in interstate commerce. In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court said that when goods are destined for states across the nation, the drivers play an active and necessary part of that process.

ADAM UNIKOWSKY: Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the court.

In the second case, Adrien Jules was fired from his hotel job. He sued in federal court alleging unlawful discrimination. Because his lawsuit involved federal law, the federal court had jurisdiction to hear the case. But the court stayed the case pending arbitration. Jules lost. In fact, the arbitrator ruled he owed his employer over $30,000 for misconduct during the arbitration. The hotel asked the federal court … where Jules originally filed his lawsuit … to confirm that arbitration award. But Jules argued the federal court now lacked jurisdiction because there was no longer a federal question. The federal law issue had been resolved in arbitration.

Here’s Justice Clarence Thomas questioning Jules’ attorney about that reasoning.

JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS: Your client brings the federal case, right?

UNIKOWSKY: Yes.

THOMAS: The court then enters a stay so that the arbitration can take place?

UNIKOWSKY: That’s correct.

THOMAS: The arbitration then is decided, and the parties come back to that very same court to confirm the arbitral award?

UNIKOWSKY: That’s correct.

THOMAS: And you’re saying now that the jurisdiction of the court that you invoked is inadequate to decide this.

UNIKOWSKY: That’s correct, Your Honor.

No, that’s incorrect, the unanimous court said. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that if the court had jurisdiction to hear the original dispute, it retains jurisdiction to decide if the arbitration award resolving that dispute is valid.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough.

NICK EICHER, HOST: For thousands of years, man has relied on pigeons to carry messages across battlefields, continents, and cities.

And for about a century, scientists have been trying to figure out exactly how they do it.

Now researchers say they may have found an important clue in the liver.

Meaning that if true, pigeons navigate by the gut.

Scientists found iron-rich immune cells there. Right next to nerve fibers. When those cells were temporarily taken out, the birds had a hard time finding their way.

The findings do not solve the mystery completely.

But still, it is one more reminder that even the most familiar creatures still have surprises. Who'd have thought the common pigeon comes with a pretty sophisticated built-in GPS?

And we're only now beginning to understand it.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, June 2nd.

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: a journalist with more than a century of perspective.

AUDIO: And now here is Walter Bingham… I am Walter Bingham. It’s my pleasure to have your company for the next hour…

Born Wolfgang Billig, Walter Bingham is a survivor of Nazi Germany and a frontline veteran of WWII.

AUDIO: The subject matter discussed here is of extreme importance to the future of our country…

He’s also 102 years old, and until recently, he hosted the weekly Walter’s World on Israel National radio and The Walter Bingham File on Israel Newstalk Radio. He also writes opinion pieces on current events for the Jerusalem Post.

That earned him recognition from Guinness as the World’s Oldest Journalist.

REICHARD: Bingham was born into a Jewish family three years before Hitler came to power. During that time, the German economy was in shambles. The Versailles Treaty left 6 million men unemployed, many were disillusioned soldiers.

After Hitler was elected, Bingham suffered the consequences of Nazi-antisemitism in school, so he began attending a school started by the Jewish community.

BINGHAM: They needed teachers. Best professors, finest education possible: book keeping, physics, chemistry…

As a nine-year-old boy he witnessed a bookburning in his hometown of Karlsruhe. Books by or about Jews were blacklisted and burned. Libraries and private citizens handed over their forbidden books. The atmosphere was delirious, people were singing and throwing books into the fire.

BINGHAM: A German novelist—Heinrich Heine—said 80-something years before that book burning, “if they burn books today, they’ll burn people tomorrow.”

Bingham received an additional year of education at a local school for Jewish children in Ma nnheim. During that time, his father was arrested and sent to Poland. After the war, Bingham found out he had lived in pigstyes and cowsheds, until he was eventually sent to the Warsaw ghetto, where his father died from sickness.

BINGHAM: One morning I noticed something was wrong, something in the air, something was wrong. And I walked towards it and I saw more people and commotions. And I got to the synagogue and it was Kristallnacht. 

EICHER: Kristallnacht, the night of November 9th, 1938, when Nazi mobs unleashed violence on the Jewish community, burning more than 14-hundred synagogues, vandalizing thousands of Jewish businesses and homes, killing 91 Jewish people.

That night, Bingham called his mother and said: “I want to come home.”

It was in this hostile environment that Jewish organizations began contacting charities in the UK:

BINGHAM: Do something for our children. Please, can you help our children?

From December 1938, after Kristallnacht until the war broke out 10,000 Jewish children went to England with the ‘Kindertransport.’ At 15 years old, Bingham was one of the oldest.

He tried immigrating to Palestine, but after the British government denied that request, Bingham enlisted in the British army to help fight Nazi Germany. To prevent being discovered as a Jew he changed his name.

The next day it was time for a rollcall:

BINGHAM: He called, “Driver Smith” Sir! Driver Brown, Sir! Bingham! No answer. Driver Bingham! No answer. And then, excuse the language, he pointed at me with a smirk and he said, isn’t that your bloody name?!

REICHARD: In June 1944, he landed on the beaches of Normandy as an ambulance driver and saved many lives. For his extraordinary action, he was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field by King George VI. Towards the end of the war, he was sent back to London to train as an intelligence officer:

BINGHAM:  You immerse yourself in your work, and that is what I did. I was in intelligence work. I did the best I could.

At 80 years old, Bingham immigrated to Israel. He told the IDF he wanted to help defend his new homeland:

BINGHAM: I’m an experienced soldier, but they wouldn’t take me.

It’s the first time he feels at home in a country.

BINGHAM: Now, when I leave this country, Jerusalem is like a magnet for me, a magnet, it pulls me back.

EICHER: On October 8th, 2023, a day after the Hamas invasion into the southern Israeli border communities, he went to Germany to recreate the Kindertransport. He left with a very heavy heart.

BINGHAM: In Amsterdam, we couldn’t get out of the railway station because there was a demo, Free Palestine. We had to wait, so we experienced that.

Bingham compares the current climate with the pre-war period that he lived through.

BINGHAM: I used to say, it is equivalent to the 1930s, but now I say: “it is equivalent to 1938 - they are burning synagogues, attacking Jews on the streets.”

I am advocating to Jews around the world, come here while you still can with your possessions, before you have to run away with only a small suitcase like I did.

Bingham’s advice for the younger generation:

BINGHAM: Look, never forget. You can’t forget. Learn from the past, remember the past, but learn from the past. If you don’t know your past, you will never understand your life today and your future.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Advances in medicine have helped many Americans live longer than previous generations could have imagined. But longer life often brings with it challenges we do not like to talk about. WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney considers one of them—and what faith has to say about it.

JANIE B. CHEANEY, COMMENTATOR » My mother used to say when it was her turn to go, she didn’t want to linger. She had done some adult caregiving in her later years and listened to the querulous complaints about relatives and bathroom issues, and didn’t want to be like that. “Don’t let me be a burden,” was her prayer.

As she was sinking under some neurological failure that was never defined, Hospice entered the picture. My sisters and I organized our schedule for one of us to be with her at all times, and we were prepared for months of rotation. But we didn’t get months. I think Mama just stopped fighting and died within a couple weeks after coming home from the hospital.

If I had my choice, that’s how I’d like to go: passing away peacefully after a short illness, surrounded by family who were not so exhausted by caregiving they were halfway relieved. But what if the Lord intends, for some inscrutable reason, that I should become a so-called “burden”? “That’s my worst nightmare,” you might think.

It’s everyone’s worst nightmare. And, as I heard a doctor say recently, it’s the nightmare almost everyone should expect. Our modern miracle medicine age has firewalled many of the conditions that used to finish us off in our fifties and sixties but it hasn’t yet figured out how to replace deteriorating cartilage or bones or energy levels. The longer we live, the more body parts are going to quietly and resolutely break down.

In her book The Dignity of Dependence, Leah Libresco Sergeant examines how our modern American system isn’t set up for human vulnerability. Instead, it sets up an idol of autonomy. Autonomy is part of the American ideal, after all: to be free to make your own choices … with certain limitations. In earlier decades, when the medical field wasn’t so advanced nor the safety net as expansive, human vulnerability landed in the average American’s lap several times during a life span, whether Aunt Maisie’s chronic illness, Grandpa’s stroke, or Sister’s rheumatic heart.

Today those situations are often out of sight. Dependence is seen as a problem to be avoided at all costs—rather than, as Leah Sergeant reminds us, the very definition of life. Full autonomy is a myth. All humans are dependent. Even in robust health, we’re dependent on food distribution and the energy grid and highway maintenance. All humans are a burden at the beginning of life and at the end, and often in between. But we’re also made to be burden-bearers.

Sergeant advocates what she calls a “reality-based system” that aids caregiving rather than stigmatizing or restricting it. But more than that, we need a heart change, starting with our own attitude about dependence. If God wills that I be a burden to my son or daughter, let me be a gracious one. If God decides that this is how I glorify Him in death, let him have my full cooperation. It may sound morbid, but these are things we need to be thinking and praying about, all the more as we look toward the end.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: A reminder, we’re in the June Giving Drive, and we need your vote of confidence in the work of WORLD. WNG.org/donate.

Tomorrow: Hunter Baker will be here to talk politics on Washington Wednesday. And, a modern effort to preserve ancient Biblical manuscripts. That and more tomorrow. 

I’m Mary Reichard.

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, “And Agrippa said to Paul, ‘In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?’ And Paul said, ‘Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.’” —Acts 26:28-29

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.