The World and Everything in It: May 9, 2025

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

The Pulitzer committee honors a misleading abortion story. WORLD cleans up the mess.

The Trump DOJ echoes Biden on mifepristone. And why child-centered arguments turned the tide on transgenderism.

NICK EICHER, HOST: John Stonestreet is standing by for Culture Friday.

Also today, WORLD music critic Arsenio Orteza, on the surprising sophomore album of a longtime music PR man and the punk icon whose gospel song might make you smile.

Later, wordsmith George Grant on why English plurals are enough to make your head spin.

BROWN: It’s Friday, May 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: New pope » White smoke billowed from a chimney at the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel on Thursday, drawing cheers from a crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square and signaling to the world that the Catholic Church has a new pope.

He is Robert Prevost from the United States, who becomes the first American pope in history to lead the church of 1.4 billion people.

In his first words as Pope Francis’ successor, he addressed the crowd in Italian, one of five languages he speaks. He emphasized peace, dialogue and evangelizing through missionary work.

LEO (translated): God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God.

The 69-year-old Chicago-born missionary took the name Leo XIV (14).

The new pontiff is also a citizen of Peru, where he lived for years, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop. He was elevated to the senior ranks of cardinals in January.

U.S. officials congratulate new pope » US officials were quick to congratulate Pope Leo. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce read a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a devout Catholic.

BRUCE:  I extend my heartfelt congratulations to his Holiness Pope Leo the 14th on his election as the 267th successor to St. Peter. This is a moment of profound significance for the Catholic Church offering renewed hope and continuity amid the 2025 Jubilee year.

And President Trump told reporters outside the White House:

TRUMP: To have the pope from the United States of America, that’s a great honor.

He said the White House and the Vatican have already begun discussing a meeting between the president and the new pope.

UK trade deal » Hours earlier inside the White House, the president announced a new trade deal with the UK, calling it the first of many trade deals to come.

TRUMP:  With this deal, the UK joins the United States in affirming that reciprocity and fairness is an essential and vital principle of international trade.

He said the agreement will reduce non-tariff barriers that—in his words … have “unfairly discriminated” against American products.

He added that the deal will dramatically increase access to the UK market for American agricultural products, including beef and ethanol.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined the president by speakerphone for the Oval Office announcement.

STARMER:  Really important deal. This is gonna boost trade, uh, between and across our countries. It's gonna not only protect jobs, but create jobs.

The UK says the deal will cut tariffs on British cars from 27.5% to 10% and eliminate tariffs on steel and aluminum.

China trade talks preview » And this weekend Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will lead a delegation in Switzerland for talks with top Chinese trade officials.

Trump says he expects “substantive” talks.

TRUMP:  We'd like to see China opened up so we can compete in China and, you know, give people something that they've never had, you know, access to something that'd be great for the world. It would be great for our businesses, and I think it would be great for friendship.

Trump says he believes Beijing wants to make a deal and has a lot to gain by doing so.

The New York Post reports that the Trump administration is considering a “plan to slash the 145% tariff on Chinese imports by more than half — effective as soon as next week.”

Ukraine-Russia latest » The Trump administration is still trying to negotiate a deal to end the war in Ukraine. Vice President J-D Vance said Thursday that any agreement must ensure Ukraine's sovereignty.

VANCE: I actually think it's progress that they're even talking at all—the Russians and the Ukrainians. I think it's progress that they're putting concrete peace plans on the table. But we knew that the Russians' first offer would be too much.

And it may continue to be an uphill climb. Ukraine has already accused Russia of violating its own self-imposed ceasefire. Vladimir Putin promised not to launch attacks on Ukraine for 72 hours amid Victory in Europe Day celebrations.

But Ukrainian officials say Russian forces dropped guided air bombs onto homes in Ukraine's Sumy region yesterday, killing at least one person.

New air traffic control system » The Trump administration is proposing a multibillion-dollar overhaul of the U.S. air traffic control system in the wake of recent deadly plane crashes and technical failures.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the plan will be challenging, but for aviation professionals and the flying public, it’s critical to upgrade an outdated system.

DUFFY:  To actually deliver an air traffic control system that's going to keep them safe. It's not going to have them delayed for four hours or their flights canceled. A system that works for them.

The plan calls for six new air traffic control centers, along with technology upgrades at all air traffic facilities.

Officials want to add optic fiber, wireless, and satellite technology at thousands of locations, replace radars, and increase the number of airports with systems designed to reduce near misses on runways.

No word yet on an exact price tag.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: John Stonestreet and Culture Friday. Plus, Word Play with George Grant.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday the 9th of May. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

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

It’s Culture Friday. Joining us now is John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center and Host of the Breakpoint Podcast. Good morning.

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

EICHER: This week a Pulitzer Prize went to ProPublica for a story claiming that pro-life laws are causing doctors to let pregnant women die—because they’re afraid they’ll be prosecuted. The article made national headlines and even shaped talking points for Vice President Kamala Harris … in her unsuccessful campaign for president.

But is that prize-winning story true?

WORLD published a very strong, very detailed rebuttal by Leah Savas when the piece first came out last year. And now that ProPublica’s misleading story has been honored as “public service journalism,” we think it’s important to revisit specifically what ProPublica got wrong—and what’s actually happening in states with strong pro-life protections.

A spoiler: Doctors are still treating women. The law still allows doctors to treat women. And these scary stories about women not being treated aren’t what they seem.

John, the doctors Leah spoke to say they have no hesitation about treating complications like miscarriage or sepsis. But the media narrative is that doctors are paralyzed by fear, and as narrative, it worked. But journalism isn’t supposed to “work” that way, it’s supposed to tell the truth. I think we did our part on truth-telling, what do you think is the part of pro-life activists?

STONESTREET: Well, I think a big part is not to believe this narrative of inevitability. This is the overarching narrative that drives progressive ideas and always has: that this is the way the culture is inevitably headed, and whatever takes us further that way, then, is something that can’t really be argued against, and that’s a really paralyzing thing.

Think of how many times we’ve been told, “This is the way it is.” And it turns out that it’s not the way it is. Besides, to claim to be on the “right side of history” is something that no one can ever claim unless you have the bird’s eye view of biblical revelation that tells you where history is actually headed overall. But that, to me, is what’s at work behind this.

The other thing that I think is at work in this is that when a movement—or a set of ideas—runs out of any fundamental arguments, they run out of any rationale, then the most effective thing is to sow confusion.

That’s really what this journalism is, what the media reports have been. We know that’s true from some of the higher-profile cases that also made the same claim during the last presidential campaign, which turned out to be exactly not true. It turned out that none of the details backed the conclusion that was basically announced as settled. So confusion can take the place of argument in the public imagination, and that’s what’s happening on the pro-abortion side right now.

Pro-lifers need to commit themselves to a couple things. Number one is never going along with lies and not going along with confusion. We have to continue to bring clarity as much as possible, and this will be an example of that, unfortunately, for a long time, I think.

BROWN: Let’s talk about a fresh take on how the transgender movement lost cultural ground—and what it teaches us about winning the next fight. Writing in WORLD Opinions, Katy Faust argues that it wasn’t appeals to religious liberty or free speech that stopped the momentum of the trans movement. It was something deeper and more visceral: child protection. From Chloe Cole’s personal story to swimmer Riley Gaines to parents speaking out—Faust says the trans domino is falling because people finally saw the harm. And now she’s asking: could the same strategy be key to restoring marriage?

Question: Do you agree with Katy Faust that child-centered arguments—not appeals to religious liberty—turned the cultural tide on transgender ideology?

EICHER: (Laughs) You asked me whether or not I agree with Katy Faust, to disagree with Katy Faust is a scary prospect indeed. But she and I have had this conversation on a number of levels, so I’m happy to speak into it.

There’s no question that the personal stories of harm, primarily to minors or to young women, were the things that made everyone go, “Wait a minute. I did not sign up for that. That went too far.”

I think one of the differences here is that the harm is obvious. But I also think, too, that there’s a little bit here that needs to be corrected. Namely, the idea that a group of people got together in a strategy session and said, “I know how we’ll beat gay marriage. We’ll do it through religious liberty.” Now maybe some thought it was going to be a winning strategy to push back, but my recollection of the events was that we basically faced a fundamental cultural redefinition of love and marriage and its relationship to what it means to us as human beings, and we basically had nothing to stand on.

Part of this was the fault of the church not doing Christian worldview. In other words, we talked about how to do marriage, but not really what marriage is, and that’s where the whole conversation culturally kind of took us.

The conversations about religious liberty had much more to do with defense than offense. This wasn’t a strategy of trying to push back on same-sex marriage. This was more, Jack Phillips was accused of bigotry and discrimination, wrongly, and the state went after him for 13 years. There was an attempt to force people to comply, and in that case, what are you going to do? You’re either going to not stick with him, or you are going to stick with him.

Now, should we have been louder and clearer about the inevitable and potential harms to children because of changing and redefining marriage? The answer is absolutely yes. The entire history of redefining marriage has gone along with this myth that was stated in various ways that turned out not to be true—which is, "Ah, the kids will be fine," whether we’re talking about cohabitation or no-fault, divorce, or same-sex marriage. No, the kids aren’t fine. They haven’t been fine for a long time, and we should have had some more, I think, ammo in that arena to push back on it.

But the conversations over religious liberty, those were just trying to stand up for these people who are being targeted. And to me, should more have been done in the child protection arena? I’m with Katy 100%. I’m not going to fault those who stood in the arena and argued based on religious liberty and free speech, because that’s where the attacks were directed. That was defense, not offense.

EICHER: John, WORLD reported that Colorado’s Democratic super‑majority just hustled the “Kelly Loving Act” through the Senate. We’ve talked about this before. Looks like they’ve stripped out the egregious custody clause. But the measure still makes so-called “misgendering” and “dead‑naming” civil‑rights violations statewide. Were you encouraged, though, that more than 700 citizens—many parents and pastors—showed up to oppose it? You’ve been critical of some of the bigger institutions staying above the fray, which is why I ask.

STONESTREET: Yeah, I mean, it is better that they showed up than if they didn’t. The cynical side of me wants to say, you know, “too little, too late.” There was a time to do this, and it was upstream from this kind of crazy language. The stripping out of this egregious child custody clause is certainly it makes it better.

But this is deadly, you know? You take out half the cyanide in a poison cocktail, it still might be enough to kill you—and this is enough to establish a beachhead of state power and state control, not to mention establish a lie in the social fabric of the state, that will enable all kinds of other evils.

Once you give up this ground, once you have a state that lies and actually then penalizes others who refuse to lie, or at least to suppress dissent, it’s just not clear what comes next.

The sad part of me says a whole lot’s happened in the last 15 years to get to the point where this many citizens—and we’re not even talking about the petitions that were signed and the other official testimony that was given from very influential and powerful people—and basically we got a pat on the head, a push through the house and and now it sits on the desk of Governor Polis. It doesn’t bode well for the future of being able to hold the next thing back.

BROWN: There was a small story this week that I’m sure is on pro-life radar screens: Evidently, the Trump Justice Department took a position identical to the Biden DOJ. It has to do with a lawsuit by three Republican-led states to restrict access to the abortion drug mifepristone. The Trump administration said the judge should toss it out on grounds that the states lack standing. So it’s not a pro-abortion filing, necessarily, but it kind of has the same effect. Does this concern you?

STONESTREET: Yeah, it does, really on a number of levels. This is the sort of gaslighting that we talked about earlier, saying it’s about restricting access to the abortion drug Mifepristone. No, it’s actually about restoring restrictions that existed prior to COVID. In other words, the Biden administration had so increased its access and availability.

I mean, removing common-sense restrictions, like a doctor’s visit before, a doctor’s visit afterwards, needing a prescription, and doing it instead over the phone, mail order, that’s what these states are pushing back against, and rightly so.

So why did the Trump DOJ take the same position as the Biden DOJ? I think it’s one of two things. It’s either the fact that during Trump’s presidential campaign, he basically said, "This is all I’m going to do on life. I did what I did, which is to remove Roe, and now it’s up to the states, and we’re going to get out of the way of this." He specifically, when asked, said he was not going to do anything about Mifepristone and its availability. So he’s basically keeping his campaign promise, which wasn’t a pro-life campaign promise. We talked about this on this program that really Trump’s language in this was really pro-choice. Of course, the Democratic position was was full-on pro-death.

The other possibility, and I think about this because of a recent interview with Marty Makary of HHS by PBS where he was asked about this, and he said, "Look, if more data comes in, then I have to take that seriously and follow where the science goes."

Well, more data did come in. There was a remarkable study by EPPC, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, that was the largest look at Mifepristone that we’ve ever seen using insurance data, which was significant as well, and found that this was indeed harmful for women.

The big principle is this, somebody’s not right or wrong because he’s our person. People are still under a moral law, and they have to be judged by that moral law, and we have a responsibility as Christians to call balls and strikes. The Trump Department of Justice is absolutely wrong on this. Mifepristone is something that kills babies and does it in a way that harms women. This is not something we can ever be okay with, and we can’t suddenly think that, you know, Trump’s position on this is right.

I’m not sure it’s Trump’s position on this. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. But it is really concerning here, because this isn’t hard. By the way, check out Sen. Josh Hawley’s letter to the DOJ this week, calling for them to make a different decision. Very well written, I think, gets to the heart of the matter, worth the read.

EICHER: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and Host of the Breakpoint podcast. Thanks, John See you next time.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, May 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: Musical sequels you may not have seen coming.

Too many stories emerging from the music world predictably reinforce progressive mainstream-media tropes. And, well, those that don’t, you don’t hear about.

BROWN: WORLD’s music critic Arsenio Orteza insists, it’s the unpredictable that’s always more interesting.

ARSENIO ORTEZA: Music fans did a double take last year when an album called So Far, So Good showed up bearing the name Lance Cowan: Why? Because for more than 30 years Cowan has been a music publicist. And music publicists don’t become recording artists any more than Hollywood agents become actors. Music publicists especially don’t become recording artists capable of making a country-inflected, singer-songwriter album that’s as good as any that they promote. Cowan, however, did just that.

MUSIC: [Excerpt from “So Far, So Good” by Lance Cowan, So Far, So Good]

That’s So Far, So Good’s opening track. Musicians often lead with their strongest song, so skeptics might’ve expected the rest to trail off. But if they did, they found their expectations dashed. The succeeding sharply etched character sketches and vignettes packed subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) emotional wallops. And while some of Cowan’s subjects were sad, none were dark or haunted—not with Sam Bush’s mandolin and Dan Dugmore’s pedal steel on the tracks. And just when you thought that you’d settled on the one song that would perfect your next singer-songwriter playlist, another would come along to make you reconsider.

MUSIC: [Excerpt from “Lost and Found” by Lance Cowan, So Far, So Good]

Cowan’s past clients read like a “who’s who” list, from the Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor to the Elvis Presley alumni Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana. Cowan’s current clients include all three of the Flatlanders, individually and collectively.

MUSIC: [Excerpt from chorus of “Wildfire."]

Cowen’s clients also include the folk-country artist Michael Martin Murphey, whose 1975 crossover hit Wildfire—a fantasy epic about a ghost horse—charted number one on the adult contemporary chart and made Murphey a household name.

Now Cowan is making a name for himself. If he’d never made another album, he’d already be something like the Shohei Ohtani of music—a two-way player in a game in which being a one-way player is hard enough. Besides, the phenomenon known as the “sophomore slump” is real. Or as an old saying goes, “You’ve got your whole life to make your first album but only a year to make your second.” It’s a way to explain why albums that come right after successful debuts are rarely as potent. But just one year after So Far, So Good, Cowan has made another album. It’s called Against the Grain. And not only does it avoid the sophomore slump, but it’s even better than what came before. The mid-’70s country-rock instrumentation and vocal harmonies remain. And now they’re put at the service of hooks that would’ve embedded themselves in the top 40 back when millions were checking into the Hotel California.

MUSIC: [Excerpt from “One More Chance” by Lance Cowan, Against the Grain]

The warm critical reception greeting his first album buoyed Cowan’s confidence as an artist on Against the Grain. Before, he thought that he had the singer-songwriter goods; now he knows he does. His music is still on the mellow side, but on “The Ragged Edge of Nothing” he’s not afraid to rock a little harder. It’s a song of plain-spoken regret about a once strong relationship that’s entering its final stages of dissolution. And if Neil Young hears it, he’ll probably wish he’d written it first.

MUSIC: [Excerpt from “The Ragged Edge of Nothing” by Lance Cowan, Against the Grain]

Another fascinating story that’s getting a sequel is that of the German singer Nina Hagen and her album Personal Jesus.

MUSIC: [Excerpt from “Personal Jesus” by Nina Hagen] 

First released in 2010, the album has just been re-released in a 15th-anniversary edition with one extra track. Normally, such a minor occasion and one extra song wouldn’t be worth discussing. But the original story behind the album is so good that any excuse to revisit it will do. Hagen, you see, had for years been one of music’s most extreme eccentrics. Part punk, part performance artist, and thoroughly histrionic, she seemed to have polarization as her main goal. But in 2009, she was baptized in a Protestant Reformed church.While still eccentric, the music she made in the aftermath sounded surprisingly sincere. She even added lyrics to the title cut, a Depeche Mode cover, undercutting the irony of the original.

As for that new bonus cut …

MUSIC: [Excerpt from “I Am Born to Preach the Gospel” by Nina Hagen]

… it’s a cover of a song that Washington Phillips recorded in 1928 called “I Am Born to Preach the Gospel.”

MUSIC: [Excerpt continues from “I Am Born to Preach the Gospel” by Nina Hagen] 

As you can tell, it’s cut from the same cloth.

I’m Arsenio Orteza.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, May 9th. 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.

We’re just a few days away from our annual two-week journalism intensive course for college students and recent graduates held again this year at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa. We’d love to invite you to pray for these 32 students, and all the WORLD staff and instructors that will be building into their lives later this month, thank you.

EICHER: Before we wrap up our program today, one more opportunity to let you know about: The Cordell Prize, speaking of young journalists. It’s a writing competition for journalists between the ages of 18 to 29, those who are particularly interested in reporting on the angle of faith and suffering.

We’re looking for published stories from the last year that highlight individuals overcoming adversity while remaining steadfast in their Christian faith. Publication can be from a student or local newspaper, or online publication.

The piece needs to be at least 2,000 words and written in AP style.

There are generous monetary prizes for the top entries from $500 to $2,500.

Cordell Prize submissions due by the end of this month, May 30th. Visit wng.org/cordell for more information.

We’re waiting for your entries.

BROWN: Finally today, the perils of plurals on Word Play with George Grant.

GEORGE GRANT: English has become the world’s default lingua franca, the international standard for commerce and communication, spoken in more than a hundred countries around the globe. Even so, it remains one of the most difficult languages to master.

English has a vast vocabulary of more than a million words including a whole host of peculiar idioms, phrasal verbs, slang terms, and variable intonation and pronunciation patterns. Its grammar is exceedingly complex and riddled with irregularities, oddities, and exceptions. There are homonyms: words that are spelled the same and sound the same but have different meanings. There are homophones: words that sound the same but have different meanings and different spellings. There are multinyms: words that sound the same but have more than two different meanings and spellings.

Part of the reason for this is that English is a polyglot language. It has borrowed words, phrases, and structures from multiple languages, ancient and modern: Greek and Latin of course, but with heavy doses of French, German and Norse. And then, there are all the old holdover words from Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Old English, and Middle English.

Sorting out singulars and plurals in English can be particularly confusing. Most singular nouns can be made plural simply by adding an S at the end of the word: pens and pencils, papers and journals. But there is a dizzying array of complex exceptions to that simple rule.

The plural of mouse is mice. The plural of goose is geese. The plural of louse is lice. But the plural of moose is not meese. We have man and woman but not mans and womans. We have foot and tooth but not foots and tooths.

Some words have identical singulars and plurals: sheep, deer, jeans, chalk, swine, police, chassis, species, and pajamas.

But there are innumerable other plurals that are even more complicated. Multiple data points are datum. Multiple agenda items are agendum. The plural of criterion is criteria. The plural of medium is media. Several stratum are strata while more than one appendix are appendices and more than one axis are axes. The plurals of cactus, focus, and radius are cacti, foci, and radii while the plurals of hoof, wife, and knife are hooves, wives, and knives. Awkward plurals one and all.

Is this as perplexing a phenomenon for you as it is for me? Imagine trying to learn English as a second language. Then, does it become something more like a perplexitude of phenomena? Well, my hypothesis is “yes it is.” But perhaps it might be better to say that my hypotheses are “yes they are.”

I’m George Grant.

NICK EICHER, HOST: All right, if the plural of mouse is mice and goose is geese, then the plural of The World and Everything in It is the team that makes it happen. And we thank the Lord for them. I hope, as I acknowledge each by name, that you will too:

David Bahnsen, Leo Briceno, Anna Johansen Brown, Will Fleeson, George Grant, Kim Henderson, Ted Kluck, Carolina Lumetta, Onize Oduah, Addie Offereins, Arsenio Orteza, Mary Reichard, John Stonestreet, Cal Thomas, Carl Trueman, and Steve West.

Thanks also to our breaking news team: Lauren Canterbury, Kent Covington, Christina Grube, Travis Kircher, Steve Kloosterman, and Lynde Langdon.

And thanks to the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early. Benj Eicher and Carl Peetz, with assistance from Johnny Franklin.

Harrison Watters is Washington producer, Lindsay Mast and Leigh Jones are our feature editors, Paul Butler is executive producer, and Les Sillars our editor-in-chief. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1st Corinthians 13:11, 12

This weekend let’s not neglect to meet together, but encourage one another. To put it simply…

Get yourself to church on the Lord’s day.

And Lord willing, we’ll meet you right back here on Monday. Go now in grace and peace.

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