The World and Everything in It - November 16, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Legal sports betting has exploded in recent years. What will that mean for fans who struggle with a gambling addiction?

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also accusations come to light about a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Plus the 20-year journey that begins with a 70-foot tree and ends as a large family table.

And the lengths one family goes to for dinner.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, November 16th. 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: Time now for the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden signs infrastructure bill into law » President Biden sat down at a desk on the White House lawn on Monday and took pen to paper, signing the bipartisan infrastructure bill into law.

BIDEN: Despite the cynics, Democrats and Republicans can come together and deliver results. We can do this!

A bipartisan group of lawmakers joined the president for the signing ceremony.

The president said the $1.2 trillion bill means an infusion of cash for roads, bridges, ports and more.

BIDEN: America’s moving again! And your life is going to change for the better!

The White House hopes the infrastructure win will help boost the president’s lagging poll numbers. In a new ABC News/Washington Post poll of almost 900 registered voters, only 38 percent approved of his job performance. 57 percent disapproved.

President Biden will now shift his attention to pushing a separate spending bill worth nearly $2-trillion dollars across the finish line. Republicans warn the extra spending will further fuel inflation. The White House says the additional trillions in spending will actually help to curb rising prices. But even some key Democratic lawmakers remain unconvinced.

Steve Bannon indicted on contempt charges » Steve Bannon, former adviser to President Trump, has surrendered to federal authorities to face contempt of Congress charges. Bannon turned himself in on Monday in Washington D.C. as reporters shouted questions.

AUDIO: [SOUND OF BANNON]

That after Bannon defied a subpoena from House lawmakers investigating the January Capitol riot. His attorney said a lawyer for Trump advised him not to answer questions from the House panel, citing executive privilege.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the indictment reflects the Justice Department’s “steadfast commitment” to the rule of law.

For his part, Bannon told reporters Monday that he is—quote—“never going to back down.”

BANNON: Joe Biden ordered Merrick Garland to prosecute me from the White House lawn when he got off Marine One. And we’re going to go on the offense. We’re tired of playing defense. We’re going to go on the offense.

If convicted, Bannon could face 30 days to one year in prison plus fines for each count of contempt of Congress.

Democrat Beto O'Rourke running for Texas governor » Former Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke is running for governor of Texas.

O’ROURKE: And I want to win this with you and for you and for all the people of Texas.

His Monday announcement kicks off his third run for office in the last three election cycles.

O’Rourke quickly rose to national prominence in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary with a strong early showing. But he dropped out just eight months later as money and fanfare dried up.

He told supporters that flipping the red state blue will take a lot of hard work.

O’ROURKE: It's not going to be easy. But it is possible.

Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, is seeking re-election next year to a third term in office.

Jurors hear closing arguments in Rittenhouse case » Jurors in Kenosha, Wisconsin listened intently on Monday as the prosecution and the defense made their closing arguments in the Kyle Rittenhouse case.

BINGER: Under Wisconsin law, you’re not allowed to run around and point your gun at people. This is the provocation. This is what starts this incident.

Prosecutor Thomas Binger, heard there.

Rittenhouse’s lawyer, Mark Richards, said he never pointed his gun at anyone until multiple men started chasing him.

RICHARDS: He feared for his life. He feared because of the prior threats, the prior statements, and the violent acts that had been witnessed by my client.

Rittenhouse showed up in the streets of Kenosha last August carrying a semi-automatic rifle amid ongoing protests over a police shooting of a black man. Rittenhouse said he traveled to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois to protect area businesses from looters.

During a confrontation with several men, Rittenhouse fatally shot two people and wounded a third. He says it was self-defense.

Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder explained Wisconsin’s self-defense law to the jury. He said a person may use deadly force...

SCHROEDER: …only if he reasonably believed the force used was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to his own person.

Rittenhouse, now 18, faces five felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide. If convicted of that charge, he would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Earlier on Monday, the judge dismissed a misdemeanor weapons charge against Rittenhouse.

Austria locks down the unvaccinated » Austria took what its leader called a “dramatic" step on Monday, implementing a nationwide lockdown for those who are unvaccinated against COVID-19. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The lockdown applies to people 12 and older who haven’t been vaccinated or recently recovered from COVID-19. They are prohibited from leaving their homes except for basic activities such as work, school, or grocery shopping.

The lockdown will last until at least Nov. 24th.

Officials say police will be stepping up patrols. Violators could be fined up to almost 1,500 euros. That’s more than $1,600 dollars U.S.

Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg called it “a dramatic step.” It will impact about 2-million people. He said—quoting here—“My aim is very clearly to get the unvaccinated to get themselves vaccinated and not to lock down the vaccinated."

He said more vaccinations is the only way to curb the regional surge of the virus.

About 65 percent of Austria's population is fully vaccinated.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: betting on pro sports.

Plus, the arduous task of putting meat on the table.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 16th of November, 2021.

Thanks for joining us 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: taking a gamble.

If the advertising during your favorite sports viewing isn’t evidence enough, there’s a new game in town—legal sports betting. Once relegated to Nevada casinos or illegal sportsbooks, sports betting is now legal in more than two dozen states. And it’s expected to become a multi-billion-dollar industry.

WORLD correspondent Bonnie Pritchett talked to several people watching the odds to see how it will all play out.

GAME 3 WORLD SERIES 1936: [bat crack] There it goes long, deep into center field. Going. Going. A home run. A home run. Lou Gehrig…

BONNIE PRITCHETT, REPORTER: Cheers and groans over a homerun, touchdown, or goal aren’t coming only from fans emotionally invested in their team’s performance.

They’re also coming from sports enthusiasts who have a lot more riding on the game than bragging rights.

CAESAR: We. Are. Caesars. [CHEERS]

JAMIE FOXX: Now you’re winning with the king of sportsbooks.

Sports betting is as old as sports itself. It was illegal in 1919 when eight Chicago White Sox players took bribes to throw the World Series they were favored to win. That earned the team a new name—the Black Sox.

Betting remained illegal until three years ago when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act unconstitutional. The high court’s decision gave the remaining 49 states the right to legalize sports betting.

And they did. In spades.

According to the American Gaming Association, 29 states and the District of Columbia have legal sports betting. Five other states have passed or drafted legislation to legalize it.

MILLER: I think that people thought it would explode if the Supreme Court issued the decision that it did.

That’s Keith Miller. He’s a law professor at Drake University. He’s also a visiting professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where he teaches on gaming law and sports betting.

MILLER: However, I don't think people really measured the the mega tonnage of the explosion ahead of time very accurately…

The onslaught of advertising shows just how explosively popular sports betting has become.

John Sweeney is the head of advertising specialization and director of the Sports Communication Program at the University of North Carolina. He called the scramble to gain market share a modern-day Gold Rush.

SWEENEY: What you're seeing is major players saying we're going to establish a beachhead. And will it end up with five of them each having 20 percent and blasting each other all the time? Or will it end up that bet MGM has a particularly easy way of working, plus a particularly memorable campaign…

Viewers could once tune out annoying ads. Not anymore.

During Game 2 of the World Series, one of the commentators mentioned the winning odds if the Atlanta Braves catcher hit a home run. And Casino operator Bally purchased the naming rights to Fox Sports regional.

WOMAN: So, get ready. Gear up. I hope you’re as excited as I am and I will see you soon on Bally Sports.

Integration of advertising into the games makes it almost impossible to avoid seeing or hearing them.

SWEENEY: These are integrations, shoe contracts with universities, they’re integrations into the programming itself.  I mean, one of sports biggest qualities is most people like to watch games live. So, commercials still work. But even there, they're being integrated all over the place.

The ads are not only inescapable on broadcast and cable programming, they’re in the apps fans use for streaming live games. And there, pop-up ads promote live betting throughout the game.

And that’s a problem for some sports fans.

Keith Whyte is director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. He expects calls to its help center to double by next year.

WHYTE: We believe that the rate and severity of problems is going to increase in the United States due to this expansion and due to the lack of prevention mechanisms built in…

The National Football League recently announced a three-year, $6.2 million contribution to the NCPG.

Whyte is grateful for the help. But the offering is a tiny fraction of the estimated $270 million the NFL will make just this season in sportsbook advertising.

Whyte thinks all sports leagues, states, and gambling corporations should dedicate at least 1 percent of gambling proceeds to problem gambling prevention and recovery programs.

The unanticipated and unbridled embrace of legal sports wagering even caught Whyte off guard. So, he’s not sure how effective an aggressive “Gamble Responsibly” campaign will be.

WHYTE: We certainly believe that without aggressive campaigns, the rate and severity of gambling problems will likely increase in the United States. So, I think these efforts are a good start. But fundamentally, these are only one piece of a comprehensive public health campaign…

Law professor Keith Miller says there’s probably only one thing that could curb the insatiable appetite for all that glitters.

MILLER: If there were a major betting scandal in the National Football League. You know, that's the sort of event that could change public attitudes very quickly…

Like it did in 1919.

AUDIO: [CROWD. BAT CRACK. CHEERS]

The film 8 Men Out portrays a fictionalized account of the Chicago White Sox betting scandal that led to 8 players, including slugger Joe Jackson, being banned from the game for life.

KIDS VOICE: Who’s Joe Jackson?

MAN: He’s one of the guys who threw the Series back in ’19. One of them bums from Chicago, kid. One of the Black Sox. [CHEERS]…

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next: What is a young man worth?

Before we go any further, I want to mention that some of the things we will discuss over the next 6 minutes or so may not be suitable for younger listeners. If that is a concern, please take this opportunity to skip ahead, and you come back to it and listen later.

This story has to do with unpleasant and serious allegations.

Retired judge Paul Pressler enjoyed a successful and high-profile career in the Texas judiciary. He also held numerous leadership positions in the Southern Baptist Convention and he was even considered for a position in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: But accusations against Pressler bubbled under the surface for years. When they finally came to light, they highlighted the difficulties of addressing the abuse of boys in the church.

Lynde Langdon is WORLD’s Digital Editor. She’s been following this story for months and recently co-wrote an investigative article on Pressler titled “What is a Young Man Worth?” You will find that on our website, WNG.org. And she joins us now to talk about the story. Lynde, good morning!

LYNDE LANGDON, DIGITAL EDITOR: Good morning, Mary.

REICHARD: Well I know you’ve been a little under the weather and have been gargling salt water all morning in preparation for this interview. So thanks for being a trooper!

LANGDON: Thanks for having me, Mary. This is such an important story.

REICHARD: Tell us a little bit more about who Paul Pressler is—his career in the judiciary and in the church.

LANGDON: Well, Judge Paul Pressler is now 91 years old, but the story starts in 1978 when he was in his late 40s and he was a Texas appellate judge in Houston. He was very involved in local politics. He was a member and president of the Council for National Policy and at one point considered for a position for the head of the Office of Government Ethics under the first President George Bush. On top of that, he was a powerful lay leader in Houston-area Baptist churches and a key driver behind-the-scenes of a movement known as the conservative resurgence. That movement during the 1980s and 90s led the Baptist laity to replace many seminary and denominational leaders with people who had a commitment to Biblical orthodoxy and inerrancy.

REICHARD: Now, with regard to his potential nomination to head the Office of Government Ethics. What happened there? Why wasn’t he ultimately nominated?

LANGDON: Well, in his memoir, which came out in 1999, Paul Pressler said he withdrew from consideration because he didn’t want to expose his family to what could have been a nasty confirmation process. But we found documents that showed the administration excluded him from consideration because an FBI background check found what they called “ethics problems.” And at least one key Southern Baptist leader—that’s former seminary professor and denomination president Paige Patterson—was aware that those “ethics” problems involved allegations of homosexual behavior against the judge.

REICHARD: Okay, so WORLD first learned about the allegations against Pressler because of a 2017 lawsuit. Tell us about that.

LANGDON: That lawsuit was filed by a young man who met Pressler sometime around 1980 when he was a teenager and when Pressler was an appellate court judge. And he claimed that the judge began sexually abusing him when he was 14 years old, and that that abuse continued into his adulthood. Now the man, Duane Rollins, is suing not just Judge Paul Pressler for abuse, but also he’s suing a group of other people that he says should have taken steps to protect him when he was a vulnerable teenager. That group includes Paige Patterson, who was a seminary president and one-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Also First Baptist Church of Houston, and the convention at large.

REICHARD: And what other accusations have surfaced since then?

LANGDON: Well, Mary Jackson and I discovered accusations from three other men against the judge—one of them before Duane Rollins allegedly met the judge, and then there were two more in recent years—in 2012 and 2016. Now, those allegations don’t involve rape, but the young men say the judge either molested them or made unwanted sexual advances toward them, and those encounters had long-lasting effects on their lives.

REICHARD: Lynde, how has the SBC, the Southern Baptist Convention, responded to these accusations and to others? How are SBC leaders handling this?

LANGDON: Well, the Southern Baptist Convention is named as a party in the lawsuit against Paul Pressler, so its representatives have been limited in what they can say. But the lawyer representing the convention pointed out to WORLD that the convention did not have the ability or the duty to control Paul Pressler’s actions. And that defense stems from how the Southern Baptist Convention is structured, where each church has local autonomy and authority over its decisions. They’re not bound by the policies of the church. But survivors of sexual abuse in Baptist churches are pushing back against that defense. They’re saying that these Christian leaders need to do more to protect the vulnerable, especially in cases where you have someone who has known allegations against them. And at the convention’s meeting this past summer, delegates approved an independent investigation into ways the denomination’s leaders can do better with that.

REICHARD: Unfortunately, stories of this kind of abuse in church settings are becoming more and more common. What makes this particular story stand out?

LANGDON: When Mary Jackson and I started looking into this story, we were aware of many allegations both in secular and religious circles of sexual abuse against women. And women, in light of the #MeToo movement that started in 2017, have become key advocates for the survivors of sexual abuse. Our report looks at some of the things that have kept male survivors from speaking out as well. And that includes some of the stigma of male-on-male sexual violence despite how prevalent statistics say that it really is.

REICHARD: Lynde Langdon is WORLD’s Digital Editor. Lynde, I hope you can get a cup of hot tea and rest up!

LANGDON: Thanks, Mary.

NICK EICHER, HOST: One of the fundamental rules of golf is that you must play the ball from where it lands.

But there are exceptions. For example: if playing the ball where it landed would require you to pry it from the jaws of an 11-foot alligator, you’re off the hook. Seriously.

Keith Williams was playing in a tournament in Gulfport, Mississippi when his ball landed near a pond at the 12th hole.

That’s when a nearby alligator picked it up.

AUDIO: He ate it! (laughs)

Thankfully, the U.S. Golf Association's rules have a provision for a situation like this.

I’m quoting here: “The player may take free relief by playing a ball from a different place, such as when there is interference by” a hungry alligator mistaking the ball for an egg.

REICHARD: It doesn’t say that.

EICHER: Lawyers. Alright, a paraphrase there. Here’s the black-letter version: “when there is interference by an abnormal course condition or a dangerous animal condition.”

REICHARD: Okay, I like your version better.

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

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, November 16th. You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we are so glad you are!

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

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

Before we get to our next story, I want to talk to you for just a minute. If you listen to this program and like what you hear, would you consider supporting it? Now, this is for you if you’ve never before supported us. We’ve designated November as the month to encourage first-time givers.

So if I’ve described you, would you consider becoming a supporter of sound journalism grounded in God’s Word?

EICHER: Nobody expects you to go it alone. We have a longtime supporter who’s offered to match every new gift—dollar for dollar—up to $40,000, and essentially double your impact just as an encouragement to you to make a first-time gift.

So we’d be grateful if you’d visit WNG.org/donate, thank you!

REICHARD: Well, Thanksgiving is just around the corner. For many of us, early memories of the celebration include parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and lots of cousins all gathered around a make-shift table.

EICHER: And don’t forget all the food that has to fit on it too.

REICHARD: Okay, sure—of course! But you’re with people—you see lots of faces gathered around the table, joining together to celebrate God’s bounty.

EICHER: Yes. His provision of turkey. And dressing. And pie.

REICHARD: And the green beans supreme that nobody at my house eats. Well, over the next two days, WORLD’s Julie Spencer has a story for us about a unique table big enough to hold lots of family—and food—just in time for this year’s Thanksgiving feast.

JULIE SPENCER, CORRESPONDENT: On a foggy fall morning in El Dorado, Arkansas, the Williamson family of six is awake and making breakfast. Brent Williamson sits at the family table, holding the day’s first cup of coffee in his hands. He’s dressed for work as a forester in South Arkansas.

BRENT WILLIAMSON: I love wood and natural things...

On the table is a copy of A Sand County Almanac, written in 1949 by Aldo Leopold. It’s a classic conservation book in the foresters’ canon. Williamson begins reading:

BRENT: Here’s an excerpt: “Then on a crisp winter’s day we laid a newly filed saw to its bastioned base. Fragrant little chips of history spewed from the saw cut and accumulated on the snow before each kneeling sawyer…”

His wife of 16 years, Katie, is getting ready for a day of homeschooling. She reads from a book of her own—a yellow leather-bound journal filled with notes.

KATIE WILLIAMSON: Before we were married we made a little notebook of things that we wanted in our house and one thing that I found from 2004 was a rectangle table that would seat between 10 and 14 people.

And why did they want such a large table? 

KATIE WILLIAMSON: The atmosphere or the culture or the legacy of our family is to love being together and love allowing the Lord to be in our midst.

For years, they just didn’t have the space. But that changed three years ago, when the Williamsons moved into their current home with a huge dining room. Soon after, Katie started looking for that dream table, but couldn’t find one anywhere.

Then Brent remembered a load of lumber he put in storage nearly 20 years ago. The wood of a 70 year-old honey locust tree, the largest he’d ever seen.

BRENT WILLIAMSON: The first timber sale I ever conducted for a landowner was a marked hardwood sale north of Des Arc, Arkansas, and this was one of the trees. I saw them sawing some of the honey locust and said, ‘Hey, I wanna buy some of that lumber off of ya.’

So now they had the space and the lumber for the table, they just needed someone to build it.

KATIE: At the Farmers Market is where I met him. I knew right off. When we talked, he referenced the Lord...

Stuart McClendon is a Bible teacher, retired lawyer, an octogenarian, and a master craftsman. Brent brought him the honey locust boards and their hopes.

MCCLENDON: He said, “We want a 12 foot table.” I said, “Wow.” So he brought the whole load of boards over here, stacked them everywhere. I didn’t pay any attention. A couple of days later I pulled one of the boards down and it was nine feet long. Wasn’t any 12 foot boards! So that was, that was the beginning of the disaster.

McClendon called up Ray Cook, another master carpenter and friend from Shreveport, Louisiana to help him with the table. The two men have known each other for forty years—since the days McClendon led Bible studies at the children’s home where Cook grew up.

AUDIO: [GRAVEL ROAD]

McClendon’s shop is on a curving gravel road in Calion, Arkansas. Cows stand in the field across the road munching grass—oblivious to the loud sounds of planers, saws and drills coming from the shop’s open door.

AUDIO: [PLANER]

McClendon and Cook sit side by side under whirring fans and describe the trials and errors of making the table.

COOK: He initially thought the table was gonna be a 12 foot table out of straight boards, then they brought 9 foot boards—we have no board stretcher. And then Brent came up with the idea of the herringbone and it looks good but—it’s just a lot of thinking. We’re limited on the wood.

The dense wood of the honey locust tree varies from a creamy yellow to a swirling shade of pale red. The beauty inside the tree is hidden underneath a cracked and spotted bark covered in eight inch thorns. This tree has an attitude.

MCCLENDON & COOK: We would put a piece in there and it would look good and then we would have to redo it. It would develop a crack or it would twist overnight. I mean, after we had worked with the wood, overnight it would change on us! I mean, weird stuff.

The two men were often “hard-pressed on every side,” but they stuck with it.

COOK & MCCLENDON: It’s been a challenge but we like it—we’re not gonna quit. That’s what we told them last time they were here. We are committed. We used Psalm 15, verse 5—he who swears to his own hurt and changes not. I said, “We’re committed to this thing—don’t think we’re going to throw up our hands and leave.”

After weeks of painstaking work—and a few disagreements—they finished piecing the table top. Again, Stuart McClendon:

MCCLENDON: We have been growing spiritually—because we have not always agreed on how to do it or when to do it, and it’s been an experience in relationship. I have matured—I have learned so much from Ray about details, real fine details in doing a beautiful piece of furniture.

Ray Cook says he’s learned just as much from McClendon—if not more.

COOK: It’s been good though...he’s very spiritual. I’m in recovery...when i can’t get to a recovery meeting he’s just very uplifting

After several coats of finish and a few weeks’ drying time—the table is ready for delivery. But there is another challenge. This table weighs 600 pounds.

MCCLENDON: Hold the phone, Jones!

How will they get this quarter-ton labor of love out of the workshop in the woods into the Williamson family home? Join me tomorrow to find out.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Julie Spencer, in El Dorado, Arkansas.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, November 16th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Ever wonder how sausage is made? WORLD commentator Whitney Williams tells all.

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, COMMENTATOR: On top of my family’s spaghetti, all covered with cheese, sits ground Italian sausage with quite a story.

AUDIO: [Driving on dirt/rock road]

Chapter one opens on a long dirt road in Throckmorton, Texas. I do a 360 degree scan of the area and spot no homes, cars, or signs of civilization, aside from an abandoned barn in the distance and enormous white windmills.

After a three hour drive with our 15-year-old four-wheeler in tow, we near the entrance to our hunting lease. My in-laws made the same trip, but with much more precious cargo. As we near their grey Chevy Silverado, I spot my three little boys in their backseat and smile.

My husband puts the truck in park, gets out, and makes small talk with his dad, even though we just saw them this morning. I get out of the passenger side of our truck to unlock and hold the gate open.

AUDIO: [Sound of gate creaking open, driving through]

Nana, Pawpaw, and my boys drive through slowly, windows down, giggling as they tell the herd of cows before us to “mooooooove.” Next, my husband drives through, offering me a halfhearted cat call as he passes by. I smile and latch the gate behind him.

Chapter two begins in a homemade wooden hunting stand just big enough for the five of us. It’s just before dark: AKA “Pig Thirty.” Daddy’s looking through his binoculars and I’m trying to keep three little boys still and quiet to avoid getting “the look.”

AUDIO: [Boys whispering]
Dad: Hey, can y’all ever just sit still for 10 minutes and be quiet so we can enjoy the sounds of nature?

After about an hour and a half of squirming and shushing, we call it a night.

The next morning my husband has a wild hog down faster than you can call suuueewwwwiiiiiieee.

AUDIO: [Walking through tall grass]

We walk through the tall grass to take a closer look.

AUDIO: Yeaaah. Pretty nice ‘en, pretty nice ‘en.

We each take a hold of a hoof and load the 250-plus pound hog on the back of the fourwheeler. We both get on and despite his foul smell, I keep a tight hold on him as we bump through the field toward our truck. I hold onto the hog, too.

AUDIO: [Sound of dressing hog]

My husband gets out his knife and gets to work. He has the backstrap, hams, and shoulders on ice within 10 minutes. We leave the rest for the coyotes. The Lord knows this girl can’t take another mount in her house.

AUDIO: [Sound of meat grinder]

Chapter three: Grind time. On a table in the garage, covered with a plastic tablecloth, sits a commercial-grade meat grinder. My husband cuts the meat off the bone with a knife that rivals Crocodile Dundee’s and we start feeding the pieces into the grinder. Once we’re done, we mix in Italian sausage seasoning with our hands, and put it all through the grinder again. Then we bag it, tag it, and freeze it. And that, my friends, is how the sausage is made.

I’m Whitney Williams.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: rising energy prices. They’re going to make traveling and staying warm a lot more expensive this winter. We’ll find out how the Biden administration plans to deal with the rising cost of living.

And, World Tour.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, 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.

The Lord says: Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

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.