The World and Everything in It: March 20, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. Hi, my name is Karen Elliott, and I'm the executive director for the Rafiki Foundation. I'm recording this today from Abuja, Nigeria, and I'm excited to meet Onize Ohikere this afternoon. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! The House continues investigating the family business of President Biden. Could impeachment follow?

AUDIO: You know, I don’t use the word “impeachment” lightly. It is a very very serious charge.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday. Also today, WORLD Tour. And a story from Australia: kids stuck in foster care when the adoption system fails.

LEONIE QUAYLE: Foster care is hard. It’s messy. It’s complicated. And the gospel calls us to hard, messy, complicated things.

And we know why Johnny can’t read, but WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney asks whether we’ll do anything about it.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, March 20th. 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: Now news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Texas immigration law » The U.S. Supreme Court says Texas can enforce a state immigration law, at least for now.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick:

PATRICK: It sounds like the court has made this decision that Texas has the right to defend ourselves against this organized, mobilized cartel-driven invasion of our country.

But the state’s legal win is temporary. The court merely lifted an injunction that barred enforcement of the law while a legal battle plays out.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill back in December.

ABBOTT: Biden’s deliberate inaction has forced Texas to fend for itself.

The law allows for law enforcement officers to arrest migrants suspected of having crossed the border illegally … and for judges to order unauthorized migrants to leave the country.

Abbott argued that the founding fathers gave states the power to enforce their borders if the federal government failed to do so … under Article 1, Section 10.

But Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy disagrees:

MURPHY: It’s going to create a mess at the border. You can’t have two different immigration enforcement systems, one run by the federal government, one run by the state government.

And the Biden administration argues that only the federal government has the power to enforce immigration law.

Arguments over the law in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are set for April 3rd.

Hong Kong law » In Hong Kong, a new so-called security law is set to take effect in the city this weekend. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The law will give Hong Kong’s government, which is now under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party even more power to crack down on dissent.

The legislature rubber stamped the law Tuesday in the formerly semi-independent territory.

The new measure will add to a sweeping security law that Beijing imposed on the city in 2020. The government used the law to silence pro-democracy demonstrations and imprison activists.

International watchdog groups say the law will make Hong Kong less free and less safe for American businesses.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Pentagon officials on Ukraine aid » The United States won't let Ukraine fail. That was the message Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin delivered at Ramstein Air Base in Germany Tuesday.

AUSTIN: Our allies and partners continue to step up. And the United States must also.

Austin heard there as allies huddled to discuss further aid for Ukraine.

His remarks came amid a standstill in Washington where the House is stalled on a foreign aid package that would provide about $60 billion in weapons to Ukraine.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman CQ Brown told coalition partners:

BROWN: Russia’s plan is to wait out Western will to support Ukraine. This coalition must not let that strategy work.

The meeting comes a week after the Pentagon managed to find $300 million in the contract savings … to fund a new package of military aid for Ukraine. But Defense leaders say that won’t last long.

Government funding » On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are arguing over government funding with another deadline fast approaching to avoid a partial government shutdown.

And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged members to act quickly to prevent one.

MCCONNELL: The stakes really couldn’t be higher for American security at home and abroad.

But GOP Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis argued that Republicans need to push for meaningful change on things like border security.

MALLIOTAKIS: This is the only leverage we have is during this funding process. As you know, James Maddison said we have the power of the purse. That was given to Congress for a reason.

Many government agencies are already funded through September, but Congress is facing a Friday deadline to fund other departments including the Defense Department, Homeland Security, Labor, and HHS.

House hearing on Afghanistan withdrawal » The top two U.S. generals who oversaw the Afghanistan evacuation in 2021 are blaming Biden administration planning failures for the chaos.

Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley and former US Central Command General Frank McKenzie said they told the president that the United States needed to keep a minimum of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan to prevent a collapse. But President Biden decided to keep roughly a quarter of that number.

General Milley told the House Foreign Affairs Committee …

MILLEY: My analysis was that an accelerated withdrawal would likely lead to the general collapse of the Afghan security forces and the Afghan government, resulting in a large-scale civil war reminiscent of the 1990s - or a complete Taliban takeover.

And General McKenzie testified:

MCKENZIE: It remains my opinion that if there is culpability in this attack, it lies in policy decisions that created the environment of August 2021 in Kabul.

It's the first time the military leaders have spoken publicly about the failures, as they describe them.

Thirteen U.S. servicemembers and hundreds of Afghan civilians died in the chaotic withdrawal.

Navarro reports to prison » Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro is now serving the first full day of a four-month sentence in a federal prison.

That’s after he defied a subpoena from the House panel investigating the Capitol riot.

Navarro turned himself in peacefully, but not quietly on Tuesday.

NAVARRO: I am the first senior White House adviser in the history of our Republic that has ever been charged with this alleged crime. And I say alleged because for hundreds of years this has not been a crime.

Former President Donald Trump called his imprisonment a disgrace.

TRUMP: They treated him very badly. The Biden administration treated him very, very badly. It’s a shame, but that’s the way it is.

Navarro maintains that he couldn’t cooperate with the subpoena because Trump invoked executive privilege.

But courts say Navarro couldn’t prove that Trump used that defense.

Trump, co-defendants appeal Willis decision » In Georgia, Donald Trump and co-defendants in a case accusing them of election interference are asking an appeals court to overturn a judge’s decision to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has that story.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Judge Scott McAfee ordered that either Willis or special prosecutor Nathan Wade leave the case after a romantic affair between the couple created the appearance of impropriety.

And it was Wade who resigned.

But the judge did acknowledge flaws in Willis’ conduct during the prosecution.

And lawyers for Trump and others are appealing. They argue that leaving the Democratic prosecutor on the case jeopardizes the integrity of the trial.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Where the Biden impeachment inquiry stands now…on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 20th of March, 2024.

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.

Time now for Washington Wednesday.

Today, the ongoing investigation into whether President Joe Biden committed impeachable offenses when he was Vice President.

Later this morning, the House Oversight committee is scheduled to hear public testimony from two of Hunter Biden’s business associates. Hunter Biden declined to come … in part because he has a court date in California in a different case.

REICHARD: That’s not the only setback for the House investigation. Recently, an FBI informant admitted to lying about Hunter Biden and his father accepting bribes from a Ukrainian energy company. Then Democrats said the inquiry was over.

But several Republicans tell WORLD that now’s not the time to stop. Here’s committee member Tim Burchett:

TIM BURCHETT: I think the public, at least our base, wants an answer, and they want to see a vote.

EICHER: The Republican majority in the House has dwindled down to a margin of two now with the resignation of Colorado congressman Ken Buck.

That means an impeachment vote is likely to fail. But Representative Greg Murphy of North Carolina says the House should try anyway.

GREG MURPHY: Truth be told, I think this has been the most divisive and one of the most corrupt presidents we’ve ever had. And you know, I don’t use the word “impeachment” lightly. It is a very very serious charge. So we’re actually trying as Republicans actually to do it the right way, as opposed to what Democrats did last term as just impeaching Trump because they didn’t like him.

REICHARD: So what has the investigation uncovered so far?

Joining us now is Michael Gerhardt. He’s an author and Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of North Carolina Law School. He testified as an expert witness during the impeachment of Bill Clinton and provided analysis of the Trump impeachments. He also testified before Congress back in September when the House Oversight Committee began its probe into President Biden.

Michael, thanks for joining us today.

MICHAEL GERHARDT: Thank you for having me.

REICHARD: Well, before diving into the details of the Biden inquiry, Would you remind us what are the constitutional grounds for impeachment?

GERHARDT: The Constitution tells us that presidents or other civil officers of the United States, and that includes vice presidents, which of course, the Constitution mentions expressly, as subject to impeachment. And they're subject to impeachment for treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors. The charges against Mr. Biden seem to be largely focused on his vice presidency, particularly in the period after he was vice president. But we're learning as we go what the charges may be, because they keep shifting.

REICHARD: What specific evidence has the House Oversight Committee been looking for in this impeachment inquiry?

GERHARDT: Well, I think the critical thing to understand at least from my perspective, is that the House Oversight Committee has been engaging in a fishing expedition for more than a year on this. I mean, they are really interested in trying to uncover something sordid about Mr. Biden. And that really goes back to 2019 when President Trump raised as part of his defense against his first impeachment that, well, Mr. Biden was the real crook at that time because of his efforts to help his son do business in Ukraine. There has been no concrete evidence yet put forward or found by the House Intelligence Committee that backs up any claims that he received bribes or engaged in any kind of mis—impeachable misconduct. In fact, Republican experts so far have said that the House has not found any evidence of impeachable wrongdoing by Mr. Biden. So that's what they're looking for, but they just haven't found it yet.

REICHARD: What about contradictions in testimony, though? I’ll mention a couple: 

Let’s go back to the 2020 campaign. Joe Biden said his son made no money from China. But in testimony, Hunter Biden said he did take money from a Chinese company.

Then there’s the text message about dad sitting next to him while Hunter’s asking for money. Followed by deposits of cash from other countries into various bank accounts.

GERHARDT: Well, to begin with, there's no reason why Joe Biden would know. He's, he's not a party to that business. And presumably, if any payments were made to Hunter Biden, they were made directly to Hunter Biden. So then the question just becomes, as far as Hunter Biden's own statement, which is made under oath, that's going to all turn on his credibility and other evidence. And the critical thing to look at is whether or not there's any evidence, not just whether Hunter Biden actually got money, but whether or not that benefited Joe Biden, and Joe Biden was aware of it. Proving that Hunter Biden his legal troubles says nothing about whether his father committed an impeachable offense.

REICHARD: Committee Chair James Comer has pointed to evidence that funds from other countries may have been deposited into shell company accounts associated with Biden family members. Just not accounts not named Joe Biden. What do you say to that?

GERHARDT: Well, there are charges that that has happened, but all the shell companies are part of the business of Hunter Biden. So we just keep coming back to that, a lot of effort to kind of expose the criminality of Hunter Biden. And he's got legal troubles and he should be held accountable, you know, where there's credible evidence for his having broken the law, but showing that Hunter Biden broke the law isn't establishing that Joe Biden committed an impeachable offense.

REICHARD: One of the witnesses Democrats have called for today’s hearing is Lev Parnas. He was an associate of Rudy Guliani. He called the impeachment inquiry a “wild goose chase” based on conspiracy theories Giuliani and others made to attack Biden. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison back in 2022 for wire fraud and false statements among other things about a different influence peddling scheme in Ukraine.

Back in September, Michael, you told lawmakers that Parnas would be a strategic witness. Why?

GERHARDT: Well, because Parnas supposedly had looked into this, and as Parnas himself later said, found nothing. Keep in mind that the first suggestion that Joe Biden had committed anything criminal, or remotely impeachable, as it related to Burisma, the company that Hunter Biden sat on their board, that first came up in 2019, again, as a defense raised by Donald Trump, in his impeachment hearings. If we turn the clock back, what we'll also find at that time is that there was no evidence. What Donald Trump had then done at that same time, was asked Rudy Giuliani and Parnas to go to Ukraine and try and find evidence against Joe Biden. They found nothing. That's why Parnas is relevant in these hearings. That's why the Democrats have called Parnas to these hearings, and what in fact is happening here as well is there's a subtle effort on the part of the House Oversight Committee to force Joe Biden to prove he's innocent, rather than put that burden on the House Oversight Committee to prove he's liable. Donald Trump said this in 2019: No one should have to be forced to prove their innocence, rather than the other way around. So if it was good for Donald Trump and 2019, it's equally good for Joe Biden in 2024.

REICHARD: You know, on Sunday House Oversight Chairman James Comer said that they are now at the point of criminal referrals, put on your prediction hat. Now, what do you think happens next?

GERHARDT: Well, I guess you gotta put up or shut up. You know, if, first of all, I think the American people, we ought to be glad that the House and for that matter, Congress, has no power to initiate criminal proceedings. And it would just destroy our concept of checks and balances, and separation of powers. The Congress is empowered to look to try and figure out what laws it ought to make, and how to frame those laws. And so if the House has found something that it thinks pertains to criminal misconduct, on the part of Joe Biden, it can refer that to prosecutors, I should say, historically, it's it's virtually unprecedented, that Congress sends referral over to a prosecutor. And the only time House has ever come anywhere close to that was with Richard Nixon, and a special prosecutor had sent the evidence he had found over to the House, not the other way around. And I think that's the dilemma again, and Mr. Comer may have what he thinks he or what he hopes is criminal is evidence of criminal misconduct. But that's, that's his opinion. And a prosecutor has to make an independent judgment. Is it credible? And is it serious enough to bring up to initiate an investigation and possibly an indictment?

REICHARD: Let’s end with some historical context: How would you compare this impeachment inquiry with the Clinton and Trump impeachment proceedings?

GERHARDT: Well, in those two proceedings, that proceeding against Bill Clinton in 1998, and the proceedings against Donald Trump in 2019, there was evidence, there were witnesses under oath who testified, and concrete evidence that the presidents in question had committed misconduct while they were in office. If we fast forward to these proceedings, the only evidence we've got is indirect as it relates to Hunter Biden, and we have nothing comparable that relates to Joe Biden. And the Supreme Court itself said in the case called Trump v. Mazars, that it is an illegitimate exercise of power by the House to try to conduct a criminal proceeding, you know, to say, “Oh, we've got, found evidence of this crime and that crime.” It's also illegitimate, the court said, for the House to conduct a fishing expedition. So the Supreme Court, with the justices appointed by President Trump, have indicated that what the House is doing now is not a legitimate exercise of power. It's just an exercise in political theater to try and embarrass Joe Biden.

REICHARD: Michael Gerhardt is Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of North Carolina. Michael, thank you for joining us today.

GERHARDT: Thank you for having me.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Nigeria, Onize Ohikere.

SOUND: [Arabic, camera shutters]

Egypt-EU deal — We start today in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, where leaders from the European Union and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi signed an 8-billion-dollar aid package for the country.

The package includes both grants and loans spread out over four years. Egypt is in the middle of an economic crisis and already hosts more than nine million migrants and refugees.

Here’s European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

VON DER LEYEN: Given your political and economic weight as well as your strategic location in a very troubled neighborhood, the importance of our relations will only increase over time.

The EU will help Egypt strengthen its borders and stem illegal migrant flows. Egypt, in turn, will also step up gas and other energy shipments to Europe as many countries on that continent move away from Russian gas.

Niger-U.S. relations — Over in Niger, relations between the military junta and the United States worsened further over the weekend.

In a televised Saturday statement, the junta’s spokesman said Niger was suspending military cooperation with the United States. He called U.S. flights over Niger’s airspace illegal.

The comments follow high-level talks between senior officials on both sides. The U.S. delegation had raised concerns over Niger’s partnership with Russia and reports of secret deals in the works with Iran.

ABDRAMANE: [Speaking French]

Col. Amadou Abdramane says here that Niger also rejects what it calls condescending attitude and threat of reprisals from the U.S. delegation.

The United States had invested hundreds of millions in training Niger’s military and operates a major airbase in the Nigerien city of Agadez.

The junta has already suspended relations with the European Union and France.

AUDIO: [Cheering crowds]

India elections — In India, cheering crowds attend a mega rally organized by an opposition alliance in Mumbai, one day after the world’s largest democracy announced its electoral calendar.

The Election Commission of India on Saturday said the general elections will start on April 19 and run for six weeks.

Different states are scheduled to vote at different times and the country should announce the results on June 4.

India has nearly 970 million registered voters—more than 10 percent of the world’s population.

Rajiv Kumar is India’s chief election commissioner.

KUMAR: I would like parties to again appeal that please maintain decorum in campaigning and refrain from abuses and personal attacks.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and members of his Hindu nationalist party are widely expected to retain their hold on power. Modi has spent recent months inaugurating projects across the country, including a Hindu temple he opened in the northern city of Ayodhya back in January.

AUDIO: [Bus sounds]

Uzbekistan bus driver — We close today in Uzbekistan where women have started driving buses and trucks after the government lifted a ban.

Authorities last month scrapped the restrictions that kept women from driving trucks weighing more than 2.5 tons or vehicles with more than 14 people.

Women are still barred from many professions across parts of Central Asia.

Saodat Shermatova tells reporters she cried with joy when she heard the ban was lifted. She now drives an electric bus around the capital city of Tashkent.

SHERMATOVA: [Speaking Uzbek]

She says here that some passengers look at her with disapproval or question if the job is too difficult, but she doesn’t care.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Putting up the shutters for the night is a great safety precaution for any shopkeeper wary of break-ins. But the morning reopening routine ought to have a safety protocol of its own.

Consider the case of Anne Hughes over in the UK.

Early one morning a week or so ago, she was waiting for the store to open so she could get to work. The boss went in through the back door and cranked up the motor to raise the heavy metal shutters out front when they snagged Anne’s coat and started lifting her up, too.

Before she knew it, she was dangling upside down several feet from the pavement. Anne kept her cool, but she did call out to the shopkeeper: ah, little help, little help here.

Audio from the BBC:

ANNE HUGHES: And then I screamed his name. And thank goodness he came out.

Props to the boss for letting her down gently and then making her famous by posting the surveillance video, which went viral.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, March 20. This is WORLD Radio and we thank you for listening. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: caring for vulnerable children. Pre-pandemic, American families adopted more than 100 thousand children.

Last year in Australia, the number was over 200 adopted. Not 200-thousand. 200, period.

EICHER: With so few official adoptions in Australia and almost 50-thousand children in foster care, the church has a big job—and a high calling.

Here’s WORLD Correspondent Amy Lewis.

AUDIO: [Boys laughing, bouncing] We’re having so much fun here!

AMY LEWIS: Bonnie Uppill watches her three sons on the trampoline after sharing after-school snacks on the patio. Their eldest, Seth, arrived 9 years ago. It was an emergency foster care arrangement. His two brothers arrived soon after.

BONNIE UPPILL: So that is how we came to be the parents of three boys.

It’s a typically busy afternoon of snacks and trampolines and bikes and bunnies.

AUDIO: It’s a flop eared rabbit. A Lopp eared rabbit. This is our rabbit Dory. You don’t want to get near her. She loves licking. She loves to scratch. Hello, Dory. You’re allowed to pat her, but she won’t make a noise…

They’re now in permanent care that officially ends when the boys turn 18. The Uppills would love to adopt.

UPPILL: Ah, I would, I would put my hand up for that in a heartbeat. But it's not offered as an option for the mum.

Adoptions are a reflection of God’s adoption of sinners saved by grace.

But we humans don’t always do adoption well. Some adopted children suffer physical, emotional, or sexual abuse in their new family. Sometimes children are removed from their capable birth parents against their parents’ will. That’s what happened in the case of Australia’s Forced Adoption Era. A quarter of a million babies were taken from mostly single moms and adopted out to married couples.

That—among other things—eventually moved Australia in a giant pendulum swing away from adoption. Now, parental rights are extremely hard to dissolve. About a third of today’s adoptions are within step families. Overseas adoptions are rare.

Instead there’s a bloated foster care system and permanent care like Uppill’s. It’s an arrangement that carries the responsibilities of adoption but with all the requirements of typical foster care.

UPPILL: Every year, we have to do a home safety check.

A caseworker visits their home every six weeks and the Uppills take parenting refresher courses.

UPPILL: So adoption would eliminate all of that. We will just get on with our lives without having to have all those extra people. And also, it could mean that we all have the same last name.

When they first met, her husband Simon couldn’t fathom loving children that didn’t have his DNA. Then they worked in the inner-city.

UPPILL: The stories of the people that we lived amongst, basically, all whittled back down to their childhood, where they weren't loved well, where they were loved wrongly, and kind of set them on this trajectory of brokenness.

When it came time to start a family, Simon did a 180.

UPPILL: And Simon actually came and said, “We're not going to have our own kids first. We're going to foster first and then maybe add our own afterwards.”

People questioned their decision. They asked if they were infertile. There was a general unawareness of the need for loving homes—or how to support the families that provide them.

UPPILL: Yeah, and other people would have babies, and they would have a baby shower, and the church would give them a, you know, gift basket or something like that. And I got none of those things.

Not that she wanted the gift basket—just an acknowledgement that she truly was a new mom.

Leonie Quayle heads up The Homeward Project. It’s one of several Christian groups in Australia helping people start—and stay—in foster care. Particularly people in churches.

LEONIE QUAYLE: On a very real level, we need to make sure that there’s enough homes for every child who needs one.

It’s not easy. One mom admitted to Quayle that inviting someone else’s children into your home is a calling that requires self-denial.

QUAYLE: She's like... Yep, foster care is hard. It's messy. It's complicated. And the gospel calls us to hard, messy, complicated things.

But Quayle recognizes that foster care—or permanent care—is just one way to help the vast number of people in need.

QUAYLE: If you are passionate about healthy children and healthy families and healthy community, you can get involved at so many different levels.

Even though Australia doesn’t allow many adoptions—and maybe because they don’t allow many adoptions—it opens opportunities for people in the church.

UPPILL: And if you love Jesus, find a kid to mentor. And you can just love on that kid. Take them to the skate park, teach them how to drive a car, like all these things that are missing in their lives, which is namely an adult caring for them. You can be that person.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Geelong, Australia.

AUDIO: Who wants to go back to the trampoline? Me! Me. Let’s go bounce.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday March 20. 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. Up next: WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney says we know why so many students today can’t read well. What we don’t know–is whether parents and teachers will intervene before it’s too late?

JANIE CHEANEY: Anyone with an ear open to the world of children’s publishing knows there’s a battle going on between concerned parents and agenda-driven book professionals. In the March 9 issue of WORLD Magazine I reported on the raft of state laws restricting school-library access to books with sexually or politically explicit themes. Of course, the education establishment, along with publishers and authors, is pushing back hard. But I’m wondering how many kids want to read those controversial books. Or how many want to read anything.

Adam Kotsko, a theologian, writer, and teacher, is also wondering. In a February Slate article, he worries about “The Loss of Things I Took for Granted”--namely, the ability of the average college student to comprehend challenging literature. Fifteen years ago, he assigned 30-page passages every week. Now, his students stumble through 10-page assignments with no real comprehension. Rather than lively classroom discussions, Kotsko takes up valuable class time establishing basic plotlines and arguments.

Even the brightest students come to his classes with no ability to understand what an author is actually saying. Students are more likely to read with preconceived ideas of what they should take away from a text, rather than what they should be putting into it. Kotsko says it’s a problem across the board, a frustration shared by every fellow academic he’s spoken to. “We are in new territory,” he says, “when even highly motivated honors students struggle to grasp the basic argument of a 20-page article.”

He singles out the usual suspects, such as those electronic devices that college students have been scrolling since they were 10 years old—before they had a chance to develop the subtle skill of reading across disciplines. He also notes the forced shutdown of schools during COVID-19 that set students back one or two years. And then there is the decline of phonics instruction, especially since the heyday of the “balanced literacy” approach from Columbia Teachers College that influenced thousands of reading professionals.

Some of these mistakes can be corrected. In time—provided we’ve learned our lesson about lockdowns—we won’t see any more students affected by years lost to a pandemic. Smart phones are here to stay but if enough parents become alarmed, their harmful effects could be moderated. And phonics is making a comeback. Whether we can resuscitate a lost generation of readers is an open question, though.

C. S. Lewis makes an important point in his lesser-known book, An Experiment in Criticism. He argues that natural readers are few. That is, the vast population that read for pleasure a few generations ago would have more readily turned to the movies or TV if those were available. Our restless brains are always looking for occupation, and the instant appeal of TikTok acts like candy for an overindulgent sweet tooth.

Correcting overindulgence takes time and intentionality. Your son or daughter may not be a natural reader, and that’s fine. But they’ll still need those subtle skills of comprehension, best learned before they ever pick up a phone. The time to learn it is now.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

N1CK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Texas gets the green light to protect its border. We’ll talk about the Supreme Court’s decision to turn down an appeal from the feds. And, Americans escaping Haiti. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Jesus said to the disciples: “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” —John 16:31-33

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.