The World and Everything in It: September 24, 2025

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

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

President Trump says the United Nations’ approach to problem solving is to write a really strongly worded letter.

TRUMP: … and then never follow that letter up. It's empty words, and empty words don't solve war.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk about that today on Washington Wednesday. Hunter Baker standing by.

Also today World Tour with Onize Oduah.

And later: an old American art form tapping a new generation.

STEPHEY: A lot of kids from like jazz and hip hop and and those kids that were really into that kind of started getting into rhythm tap

MAST: It’s Wednesday, September 24th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

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

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump at U.N. General Assembly » At United Nations headquarters in New York:

AUDIO: (U.N. Trump intro)  The assembly will hear an address by his Excellency Donald Trump, president of the United States of America.

On day-one of the assembly, President Trump, for the first time in his second term, addressed a gathering of world leaders.

His speech touched on numerous key concerns around the world, including mass migration. He said other nations should follow America’s lead.

TRUMP: It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders. You have to end it now.

He also addressed the war in Ukraine, and once again threatened tough tariffs to punish Russia, if Moscow does not end the war soon. And he called out the U.N. for, in his view, not doing enough to end global conflicts.

TRUMP:  At least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up. It's empty words and empty words don't solve war. The only thing that solves war and wars is action.

He also called out European allies for continuing to buy Russian oil, saying “they are funding the war against themselves.”

We’ll have more on Trump’s speech and analysis with Hunter Baker shortly.

Secret Service dismantles telecom threat around U.N.  » Meanwhile, the Secret Service says agents in New York City have dismantled a hidden telecom system that could have jammed 911 calls and thrown communications into chaos.

Authorities dismantled an underground telecom network capable of crippling cell service just as world leaders gathered for the U.N. General Assembly.

Special Agent Matt McCool says investigators uncovered 100,000 SIM cards powering several hundred servers spread across multiple locations.

MCCOOL: These devices cloud anonymous, encrypted communications between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises, enabling criminal organizations to operate undetected.

McCool also said the devices were clustered around 35 miles of the United Nations’ headquarters in New York.

Investigators haven’t confirmed it was aimed at the U.N. or New York directly but they note the network’s power and timing posed a serious threat.

Early evidence points to foreign actors and organized crime involvement.

Routh found guilty in Trump assassination plot » A jury in Florida has found Ryan Routh guilty of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump at a Florida golf course last year.

The president reacted to the news on Tuesday:

TRUMP:  It was really well handled and it's very important. You can't let things like that happen. Nothing to do with me, but a president or even a person, you can't allow that to happen.

After the verdict, Routh tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen but was quickly restrained by officers.

Routh, who represented himself in court, faces life in prison with sentencing scheduled in December.

Prosecutors say he spent weeks plotting to kill Trump. His plans were thwarted when a Secret Service agent spotted him hiding in bushes with a rifle.

NATO warns Russia » NATO leaders are sending a warning to Moscow after repeated incursions of NATO airspace by Russian drones and even MiG-31 fighter jets.

Secretary General Mark Rutte:

RUTTE:  We do not want to see a continuation of this dangerous pattern by Russia intentional or not, but we stand ready and willing to continue to defend every inch of allied territory.

The warning to Moscow comes after the downing earlier this month of Russian drones over Poland. And last week, Estonia said three Russian jets had entered its airspace for 12 minutes on Friday without authorization.

Russia has denied some incursions and dismissed others as accidental.

European Commission spokeswoman Anitta Hipper said she’s not buying it.

HIPPER: They have not just accidentally violated the airspace of human member states, Russia is testing the European borders, also prob probing our resolve.

The Alliance says Russia should be in no doubt that NATO and Allies would employ all tools to defend ourselves and deter all threats.

And a reporter asked President Trump Tuesday:

REPORTER:  Do you think that NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace?

TRUMP: Yes, I do.

Israel » Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told reporters Italy will not join France and other European countries in recognizing a Palestinian state. Not until two conditions are met.

MELONI: [Speaking Italian]

She says Hamas started this war and it continues to this day only because the terror group has refused to release all of the hostages.

Meloni says Italy can only recognize a Palestinian state when those captives are released and Hamas is excluded from any role in governance.

The United States says that to recognize a Palestinian state while Hamas still holds Israeli hostages reward terrorism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

RUBIO: There should have never been any hos—why are we even talking about hostages? Why do we still have to talk about hostages at this point? There shouldn't be any. They should all be released immediately. Period. That's the president's position.

Hamas has reportedly written a letter to the U.S. asking for a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for half the hostages to be released.

European officials defend Tylenol » Health officials with the European Union are pushing back on the Trump administration’s warning on Monday that Tylenol use during pregnancy could be linked to autism.

European Commission spokeswoman Eva Hrncirova:

HRNCIROVA: The European Medicines Agency has not found any evidence linking the use of paracetamol during pregnancy and autism.

Paracetamol — better known in the U.S. as acetaminophen is the active ingredient in Tylenol

The Trump administration pointed to a review of dozens of studies in suggesting a possible link.

Tylenol maker Kenvue has strongly refuted any link between the drug and autism, claiming it is the safest painkiller a mother can use during pregnancy.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: the pending government shutdown. Plus, protecting minorities in Syria.

This is The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 24th of September.

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

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

Time now for Washington Wednesday.

Today, President Trump takes the U.N. to task.

But first, Democrats threaten a government shutdown.

WORLD’s Leo Briceno reports from the Capitol.

LEO BRICENO: With the government’s funding set to run dry on October 1, Republicans in the House of Representatives have advanced a short-term spending plan.

The continuing resolution or “CR,” would extend the government’s current spending levels through November 21—giving Congress time to work on its spending legislation for 2026.

But Democrats are refusing to go along with the plan, leaving Republicans bewildered.

COLE: I was asked to give them a short bill and a clean CR and that’s what they got.

That’s Tom Cole, the Oklahoman Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the legislators who helps write the country’s spending legislation.

COLE: And then you had the Democrat leadership decide to drop other things into it that have nothing to do with what we do.

At the heart of the issue is a policy called the Enhanced Premium Tax Credit. Under Obamacare, the government helps cover high health insurance costs for households with incomes up to 4 times the federal poverty level.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government removed that limit, allowing a wider range of Americans to get government help for healthcare costs.

That includes Claire Sachs, founder of TPAC Consulting. She came to the Capitol last week to argue in favor of the tax credits.

SACHS: Those credits are the only reason I can afford both my business and my health.

The tax credits are set to expire at the end of 2025, and Republicans are looking forward to returning to pre-COVID spending levels. But Democrats want to use the stopgap bill to force a conversation on keeping the enhanced premium tax credits. That makes a shutdown look very likely.

I asked House Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York if he thinks Americans won’t somehow blame Democrats if it does come to that.

JEFFRIES: Donald Trump is the president; he’s a Republican president. Republicans have a majority in the House and Republicans have a majority in the Senate. And we as Democrats have been very clear; that we will support bipartisan spending legislation that meets the needs of the American people

For now, both chambers of Congress are out of town, with the Senate slated to return next week. Although the House passed its clean funding extension last Friday, that measure is expected to stall in the Senate where Republicans need at least seven Democrat votes to pass the plan.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno in Washington.

EICHER: Joining us now is political scientist Hunter Baker. He’s a World Opinions contributor and a regular on Washington Wednesday. Good morning, Hunter.

BAKER: Good morning.

EICHER: Hunter, let’s play the Washington parlor game of who’s to blame for the government shutdown. Listening to Leo’s report there … I feel a replay of what I’ve seen over the years … the pretty typical blaming of Republicans. But do you think it’ll hold?

BAKER: I think that Donald Trump has the bully pulpit in a way that almost no president ever has had, and I think that he probably will argue pretty successfully that the other side is to blame. I think that the Democrats will be viewed as the ones who are causing the shutdown. But there's, there's another angle here that is critical, which is, is that the budget director is Russ Vought, and the last time I think that Chuck Schumer gave in because he did not want to submit to the tender mercies of Russ Vought, who will find ways to manage a shutdown by cutting things that Schumer and others may not want to be cut. So that's the other side of this sort of, this sort of match up.

MAST: Well, Hunter, the big Washington news was in New York: President Trump took the stage at the United Nations yesterday with a sweeping address that seemed equal parts boasting and warning. He claimed credit for ending what he called “seven unendable wars.”

TRUMP: And in all cases, they were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed. This includes Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda, a vicious, violent war that was Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.

He took credit for U.S. bombers having destroyed Iran’s nuclear facility.

TRUMP: No other country on earth could have done what we did. No other country has the equipment to do what we did. We have the greatest weapons on earth. We hate to use them, but we did something that for 22 years people wanted to do.

He pressed Europe to cut off Russian energy or face new tariffs. He accused the U.N. of bankrolling mass migration, declared major cartels and gangs terrorist organizations, and dismissed global climate policies as a “con job.”

EICHER: In other words … the president positioned himself as the man of action and the U.N. as all talk, no action.

TRUMP: The U.N. has such tremendous potential, but it's not even coming close to living up to that potential for the most part, at least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up. It's empty words, and empty words don't solve war. The only thing that solves war and wars is action.

So Hunter, is President Trump right about the U.N.?

BAKER: Yeah, I think that he is basically right about that. I so I'm not necessarily accepting the critique of the U.N., so much as I'm saying that it's an accurate description of the U.N., I don't think that the U.N. actually exists to solve problems. I think that the U.N. exists to be a forum for conversation. It's designed to be a place where everybody can kind of get together and talk. That is sort of a feature and not a bug. You are not really going to get together at the U.N. and act like a sort of a world legislature or something like that. It's really designed to be more of a pressure release valve, an arena for discussion. And so no, it cannot. It cannot stand up to a real executive decision maker of a very powerful country like the United States, like Donald Trump, is.

MAST: Let’s talk about what President Trump said about terrorism closer to home … he has now signed an executive order designating Antifa a domestic terrorist organization. The White House says the move responds to a pattern of violence — from Antifa markings on the bullets that killed Charlie Kirk, to attacks on ICE facilities, churches, and pro-life centers. Let’s listen to White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.

LEAVITT: Not only ... were the bullet casings inscribed with Antifa mottos in the heinous assassination of Charlie, but there have also been more examples than I could read off for you here in this briefing room today of violence from Antifa.

Hunter, Antifa lacks the organization of other terrorist groups–even the order calls it an “enterprise.” So what do you make of this order? Are there teeth behind it? And is the administration stretching the limits of how we define terrorism?

BAKER: Yeah, there's always a question of whether you're engaging in sort of a political play as much as actually having a legal strategy. People need to feel like something is being done. I mean, we had this problem after 911 to some extent, because you don't know who did it. You really wish that it was obvious which country or which organization carried out this attack, because you want to hold them accountable. And with Antifa, you know, certainly I agree that these kind of slogans relate to the kind of things that we've seen from Antifa in the past. But Antifa is, you know, sort of a loose collection of people and ideas, sort of spontaneous uprisings aimed at derailing, you know, some of these kind of right wing efforts. And so I think it's very hard to actually designate it as a terrorist organization. I think that use of that language, domestic terror organization, is an attempt to kind of bring over the existing ideas and policy that exist with regard to these sort of international or foreign terrorist organizations. You know, I think that Trump is doing what he does. He's kind of stretching to get the authority that he wants, or to, like I said, make the impression that he wants. Even if Congress were going to make laws about this, I am not sure that it is clear exactly what kinds of laws they would make because of the sort of loose, amorphous existence of Antifa, and that's by design. They don't want to be held accountable. They want to strike quickly, cause a lot of chaos and then get out of the way.

EICHER: Let’s shift gears a bit: The long-awaited Trump administration report on autism—and it put a spotlight on acetaminophen use during pregnancy. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has focused on the increase in autism diagnoses since he got the job. Here he is speaking at the White House on Monday.

Hunter, the HHS admits that existing evidence does not definitively establish causality between acetaminophen use and autism…. So how should we understand this announcement — is it a responsible warning in light of the evidence, or do you see it as overreach?

BAKER: It's a really good question. And you know, unfortunately, as with everything else I have said today, you have the intersection of the political with whatever is the kind of on the ground reality of the thing. When Trump won the election, one of the things he said was, let Robert Kennedy do whatever he wants. And what Kennedy wanted was to run HHS, and we know that he has had these kind of ideas about autism, about vaccines, and Trump is letting him run that agency, and he is letting him do the things he wants to do. You know, one physician that I talked to, though, said, and I think a lot of us realize this is that correlation is not causality, and probably nearly 100% of pregnant women may use tylenol trying to control fever if they have it, and we certainly don't have anything like that level of autism. So this is something that I think has been studied, but we're just going to have to find out more. I am given pause in my skepticism by the by the presence of Jay Bhattacharya, because he was a really responsible voice when it came to COVID, and he was willing to stand up in front when they were kind of having this press conference. So maybe there's a there, there.

MAST: One more story I’d like to run by you Hunter.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of President Trump on what he’s referred to as the swamp or the deep state the court said he does have the power to fire the last Democrat still on the Federal Trade Commission. That decision strengthens the President’s control over these agencies set up to operate independently of politics. So what kind of independence do you think the Founding Fathers would have wanted for these kinds of agencies?

BAKER: Well, there are issues in both directions. First of all, the Constitution says that the President has the executive power, right? The executive authority is authority is vested in the President, that, having been said, it is also the case constitutionally, that Congress is really supposed to be the engine of policy. Now what you have with these old sort of independent agencies that are the product of what was then sort of expert thought about bureaucracy during the 20th century. You know, FTC, FCC, FDA was the idea that we can have experts who will run these agencies. We will insulate them from politics and a very idealistic kind of view of the thing. I think that what we have seen is probably not that that has been borne out, that they have not, in any sense, been free from ideology. And so then the question is, well, do you want to see the President have much greater authority? Because the President is the one who's accountable in the government the way it runs in the United States today, and what we've seen from the Supreme Court so far is that they seem to want to settle that question, and I would not be surprised if they don't go back to the Constitution vest the executive authority, authority in the President of the United States.

MAST: So a theme I’m picking up is there’s a lot of tension between different branches on the function of authority in the government and getting things done. Do you see this as evidence of the government working or NOT working?

BAKER: ​​Yeah, there are so many answers to this, okay. I mean, so, so in the first place, the United States government is constructed to be very difficult to operate. Okay? It is made that way. I've always told students, it's like an engine with sand poured in it, and that is by design, the founders did not want to see a sudden mania or a sudden passion sort of possess the government and then result in a lot of action. What they wanted was, was to make it where it was difficult to do things and you would need a lot of consensus in order to do it. For example, you might notice that the entire United States government is never up for election, right? There's only 1/3 of the Senate up for election at any point of time. And you also have this government that is constructed to resemble other forms of government. So a president like a monarch, the Senate like an aristocracy, the house like a democracy, right? And so they're they're mixing, they're matching. They're putting all this, all these obstacles in the way. You know, the veto, the house originating things, the Senate considering things. And so I. Think that what has happened is, is that we have a totally forgotten why they did that. B, we're very frustrated with how difficult it is to get things done in the federal government. And so we are moving more and more toward kind of trying to have a system like other nations. And if you do that right, then it's all about just getting enough power to act. And I think that the big problem is, is that, is that, generally speaking, the sides are constantly worried about gaining support and suppressing support on the other side. And they're so focused on that that there are very few people who are actually focused on governing. So to me, that's that's the issue, isn't. Nobody really wants to govern. Everybody wants to campaign all the time.

EICHER: They want to because they have to.

BAKER: That’s exactly right!

MAST: Hunter Baker, North Greenville University Provost and World Opinions Contributor, thanks so much!

BAKER: Thank you.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Up next, a World Tour Special Report.

Today, Syria’s interim president is set to become the first leader from Damascus to address the United Nations General Assembly in almost 60 years. But is he truly leading Syria in a new direction, or whitewashing violence against religious minorities?

Africa Reporter Onize Oduah has the story.

IBRAHIM: We really want to hold him accountable to to what promises he has been giving, and he's going to give.

ONIZE ODUAH: Morhaf Ibrahim is a cardiologist in Florida, and an Alawite from Syria. After the fall of the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad, Dr. Ibrahim joined other religious minorities to found the Alawites Association of the United States.

IBRAHIM: The atrocities which started happening against against Alawites in Syria after the fall of that Assad regime, made us establish this organization to advocate for their rights, for their dignity and for their protection in Syria.

Syria’s interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, led the largest rebel group to overthrow the Assad regime. He previously fought alongside Al Qaeda and was designated a terrorist by the United States. He’s since promised to clean up his act and the reputation of Syria as well.

TABLER: In 1979 Syria was among the founding members of the State Sponsor of Terrorism list.

Andrew Tabler is a Senior Fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and former senior adviser for the U.S. Department of State. He told Washington producer Harrison Watters that U.S. concerns about Syria’s support for terrorism and atrocities against civilians go back a long way. Over the years, the U.S. has increased its sanctions on Syria to choke off supplies and resources enabling the government’s actions.

TABLER: The most powerful sanctions were added to Syria in 2020, when I was at the State Department and those that was what's called the CAESAR Act or law.

The sanctions limit Americans and those who do business with America from investing in Syria.

TABLER: And it's the main now focus of the al-Sharaa government, because it restricts us investments and other investments into Syria to rebuild the country.

President Donald Trump met with al-Sharaa in May, and promised to temporarily suspend sanctions.

TABLER: I think that was the intention of the president, was to allow Gulf allies to invest in in Syria. So, you know, I think there's that for the the al-Sharaa government is arguing, no, that's not enough.

President al-Sharaa wants to see all sanctions permanently repealed. But it’s up to Congress to repeal them.

TABLER: There's a proposal by Representative Joe Wilson to repeal Caesar outright, one line in the NDAA…the National Defense Authorization Act.

Another bill introduced this year would link lifting sanctions to protecting the rights of religious minorities. And advocates say that while it’s more complicated, Syria needs the accountability.

BROWNBACK: We’ve got to get it done now. And I’ve lost these fights in the past…

Sam Brownback is the former U.S. Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom. Earlier this month, he spoke at a press conference on Capitol Hill with Dr. Ibrahim’s organization.

BROWNBACK: I was involved in the fight to get religious minorities protected in Iraq, and we lost that fight.

After U.S. forces left Iraq, Islamic State fighters killed thousands of Iraqi Christians and Yazidis and displaced hundreds of thousands more. With Syrian fighters linked to the government attacking minority communities over the summer, Brownback says something similar could happen again.

BROWNBACK: And you will see yet another ancient Christian community run out of another Middle East country. There's very few places that any of the Christian minorities are left.

But if the U.S. could push Syria to take steps now to protect religious minorities, Brownback and others say this could be a different story.

With Syrian President al-Sharaa set to address the UN General Assembly, Andrew Tabler is watching to see whether he addresses Washington’s priorities.

TABLER: That concerns particularly the peace treaty and process with Israel, now known as the Abraham accords process…The administration has a related proposal on the table concerning the stabilizing the situation in southern Syria with the Druze population, to incorporate those areas into the interim government.

Dr. Ibrahim with the Alawite Association is doubtful that the former terrorist turned statesman means what he says about democracy and freedom in Syria.

IBRAHIM: I think he's very good at nice words and nice gestures, but actions on the ground actually giving everybody different impression about what's going on.

That’s this week’s World Tour, I’m Onize Oduah.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Have you ever felt compelled to extend your sincerest contrition in the most magniloquent, sesquipedalian terminology conceivable?

Turns out it's hard to say I'm sorry, literally. Science proves it. According to Dr. Shiri Lev-Ari of the University of London ... when you use bigger words in your apology, your remorse sounds remarkably more remorseful. This is from the Mornings with Simi podcast:

LEV-ARI: I showed people versions of apologies that basically said the same thing, but with different words. So for example, ‘my action didn't reflect my true self’ versus ‘it didn't represent my true character.’

Same meaning, bigger words. So the next time you mess up, you could supersize your vocabulary—because, according to the good doctor, that’ll supersize your apology.

Or maybe, on the principle that love covers a multitude of sins, ask God to supersize your love for those you offend.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 24th.

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

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a uniquely American art form.

MAST: When most of us think of tap dancing, we probably picture black and white movies from the golden age of Hollywood. Singin’ in the Rain. Ziegfeld Follies. Stars in shiny black shoes on elaborate sets.

Or more recently, the animated penguins from the kids’ movie Happy Feet.

EICHER:  Tap dancing may not be center stage anymore. But is it dying out—or just hiding in plain sight?

WORLD’s Elizabeth Russell reports.

AUDIO: [Scene from Happy Feet]

ELIZABETH RUSSELL: When Happy Feet came out in 2006, it sent a wave of aspiring young dancers flocking to classes across the country. Even without the animated incentive, tap dancing is a rite of passage for most young dancers.

STEPHEY: All right, so that's going to be a brush, step, brush, step, brush, step, brush…

About 30 students take tap dancing classes at Adagio Academy of the Performing Arts. But about 80% of Adagio students focus on learning more popular styles like ballet and hip-hop.

STEPHEY: I think sometimes they just think you're just shuffling your feet around really fast, and how hard could that be? And then you get them into a tap class, and they're like, oh, wait a second, it actually is kind of hard.

Jes Stephey owns the studio in Charles Town, West Virginia. She said most people don’t appreciate the skill that goes into tap dancing. Most dance styles are more about the visual aspect. But in tap, the sound is most important. Metal plates on a dancer’s shoes click and tap along with the music or layer other rhythms on top of it.

STEPHEY: I think what people don't understand is that tap isn't just dance, but it's music at the same time, like your feet are literally a percussion instrument.

The term “tap dancing” didn’t become popular until the 1920s, but the style itself began to form even before the United States was a country.

SIEBERT: Basically, it's the dance and music that originated when enslaved Africans were brought to the U.S. and deprived of their drums and how that music and dance interacted with the music and dance of other immigrant groups, especially the Irish.

Brian Siebert is a dance critic, historian, and author of What The Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing. He’s also an amateur tap dancer. He said tap formed a huge part of early American entertainment, from minstrel shows to vaudeville. It hit its heyday in the 1930s and 40s, when just about every movie and Broadway show boasted some kind of big tap number.

AUDIO: Good mornin’, Good mornin’ (sounds of tap dancing) etc…

But that popularity in the past might have a downside today.

SEIBERT: In movies and most Broadway shows now, the only time they use tap dancing is when they're referencing that era. Even though tap can be done and is done to every kind of music, and it is developed alongside jazz and funk and hip hop and all of the different rhythms of the African diaspora around the world, all of that has been incorporated by tap dancers and is. But in the popular imagination, it's mostly still associated with a certain time, a certain kind of music.

But Seibert doesn’t think tap is dying. Although professional tap performances are still rare compared to other styles, he’s seen more of them hit theaters and festivals in the last decade.

SEIBERT: Actually, I think tap is in better shape than it has been in recent decades. I think it's on an upswing recently.

Even though professional dancing is a much smaller pool than students and amateur dancers, a 2020 survey of dance teachers reached a similar conclusion. All 338 teachers who participated said their tap class enrollment was holding steady or increasing.

But because tap is less popular than other styles, Jes Stephey said dance schools have a hard time finding qualified teachers. Over half the teachers from the survey agreed with her.

STEPHEY: It's definitely harder to find tap teachers than it is a lot of other styles, contemporary jazz, hip hop, things like that you can find.

To draw students in, Stephey and her teachers at Adagio use a lot of popular music and focus more on rhythm tap. It’s less choreographed and formal than a Broadway style.

STEPHEY: Rhythm tap is really about the rhythm of it and what kinds of sounds you can make with your feet, more than the whole body style of it, right? And so I feel like that pulled a lot of kids from like jazz and hip hop and those kids that were really into that kind of started getting into rhythm tap.

The night I visited the studio, an adult tap class warmed up to “September.”

AUDIO: We’ll start flap heel. 56, 5678…

Later in the class, they danced to songs by Beyoncé and from the Newsies musical.

Popular music can help tap reach a new audience. But Stephey said seeing more examples of the dance in media might be the best way to revitalize it.

STEPHEY: So when Happy Feet came out, for sure, there were a lot of kids that wanted to tap and be just like the penguins in Happy Feet. I think the more they're exposed to it, the more they're willing to try it.

AUDIO: [Sound of class tapping]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Elizabeth Russell.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 24th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher. 

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Up next, letting go at the dorm room door. WORLD associate correspondent Rachel Coyle marks a family milestone—settling in her daughter for freshman year. That move-in day looked a lot different from her own first trip to campus 30 years ago.

AUDIO: “Congratulations you’ve got one coming to college. First one?…”

RACHEL COYLE: Last month, my husband and I dropped our oldest off at college. I couldn’t help thinking back to thirty years ago, when my parents dropped me off.

VHS TOUR: Ok, so here we go…

That’s me in 1995, my first year of college.

VHS TOUR: This is my room guys! This is it. This is what a dorm room looks like…

I borrowed a video camera to make a VHS tour of my college dorm for my family. Our mini-van added 1600 miles to the odometer—one way—on our 24-hour-drive from Florida to Minnesota. If our seatbelts became bothersome we were allowed to unbuckle and relax. My dad had just one rule: wait until he’s cruising at least 55 mph. No DVD player. No iPads. No smartphones. Besides fighting over which cassette tape to listen to, my 3 younger sisters and I had to entertain ourselves the whole 3 days there.

My parents dropped me off at college with a pre-paid calling card, a book of 32-cent stamps, and a papasan chair. Calling collect was for “emergencies only.” School materials consisted of paper, pens, and pencils. I may have had a Discman portable CD player and definitely had a radio. As far as technology goes, that was it.

Today, it’s a lot different.

MONTAGE: If you’re a student juggling classwork…are you an incoming college student looking for what you should take notes with? … I have 5 of my favorite pairs of headphones…today I am finally getting around to showing you…

Besides paper, pens, and pencils, she had to bring her smartphone, laptop, WiFi speaker, ear buds, Bluetooth headphones, and at least 5 different chargers. Our drive was just 8 hours long and I’m only a little embarrassed to admit it involved several hours of movies on our DVD player…and a few games on the iPad and streaming Adventures in Odyssey.

We had it easy compared to 1995. Except everyone had to keep their seatbelts on.

WELCOME WEEK AUDIO: You can go ahead and grab your welcome bag…Welcome!

At the school, a group of college kids full of youthful energy unloaded our van, whisking everything into our daughter’s dorm room.

SIBLINGS: OK, here we go…

Her siblings helped unpack while she directed where to put each item.

ELIANA: You can put that in the kitchenette…

At one point I leafed through some material in her welcome packet and a small card fell out. It was one I hadn’t expected, titled “Active Shooter Preparedness.” It startled me. That was something my parents didn’t have to think about 30 years ago—and I didn’t either. It suddenly felt daunting to leave my daughter in a place that had to have a plan for such kind of danger.

I didn’t anticipate her response to the card, she told me later:

ELIANA FACETIME CALL: I'm used to it, I'm used to hearing about it, I'm used to preparing for it...It doesn’t make me feel unsafe that we have to have it. It makes me feel safe that we do have it.

But the truth is, wherever our kids are, it’s God who keeps them safe. Not us. He doesn’t make mistakes. Even when painful times come and we don’t understand His plan, He’s still good. Fear doesn’t change anything.

As I left my daughter’s dorm room I sent up a prayer for her safety, one I continue to pray for all of my children. As parents, it’s up to us to model what it looks like to keep giving our fears to the Lord and trust in Him no matter the outcome.

ELIANA FACETIME CALL: Hi! How are you? I’m great…

Our college drop-off goodbyes this year weren’t quite as emotional compared to when I went to college. It’s comforting to know we can call, text, audio message, FaceTime, email, use social media, and yet, while technology makes it easier to keep in touch than it used to be, it’s not the same as being together.

WAYNE WATSON: THE CLASS OF 1995

When dropping a son or daughter off at college, military boot camp, a gap year program, or anywhere else, as parents it’s hard to say goodbye. And that will never change, whether it’s 2025 or 1995.

I’m Rachel Coyle.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: modern computing takes a lot of power and infrastructure. While many want the benefits, municipalities are telling data centers, not in my back yard: NIMBY for the age of AI. And, renewed efforts to reclassify marijuana: critics warn it sends the wrong message, that pot is harmless when it’s not. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

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, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” —Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14

Go now in grace and peace.

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