The communist Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on April 17, 1975. Radha Manickam, a new Christian, watched them arrive from the balcony of his parents’ apartment. 

It was Radha’s first exposure to the Khmer Rouge. The leader of the Khmer Rouge was Pol Pot, led the most violent and brutal government in modern history. In its doomed attempt to create an agrarian utopia, between 1975 and 1979 Pol Pot’s regime murdered over 1.7 million people. Many were beaten to death or executed. Others starved to death or died of fatigue or some wretched disease. Mao and Stalin’s Communist regimes killed far more people. But no other government has destroyed nearly a quarter of its own citizens.

Today Pol Pot is largely forgotten. But he and the Khmer Rouge are well worth remembering. Because the ideas that formed the Khmer Rouge are still with us today. Also worth remembering are the stories of those who survived. People like Radha Manickam. We’ll be telling his story over the next three episodes. It is in many ways a brutal story. One of loss and grief and terror. But it’s also a story of hope and grace. And ultimately, redemption.

This series is based on my recent interviews with Radha, along with my 2016 book about his experiences. The book and this series are titled “Intended for Evil” by Les Sillars.

Audio from

The Associated Press

NBC News

ABC News

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Last week we brought you the story of Hawler Sheikhe, a Syrian woman who returned in 2023 to one of the world’s most chaotic countries on unfinished family business. She went with a Christian humanitarian aid group called the Free Burma Rangers. WORLD correspondent Caleb Welde went with them.

This week, the story of the rest of that trip. They went a year before the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS, overthrew the brutal government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria last month. But northeast Syria is still one of the most chaotic places in the world. And, as Caleb found out for himself, very dangerous.

Until Assad fell, the West had largely ignored the conflict in Syria. However this turns out, the people Caleb met there will likely remain right where they are now: stuck in a simmering conflict with no place to go.



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On December 8 the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS, overthrew the brutal government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. There’s a new regime in Damascus, but in northeast Syria a lot remains the same. It’s still one of the most chaotic places in the world. WORLD correspondent Caleb Welde traveled around the region in November of 2023 with the Free Burma Rangers. That’s a Christian aid group working in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones.

This is the first of two episodes based on Caleb’s reporting last year. Today Caleb will tell us the story of a Syrian woman named Hawler Sheikhe. She was 13 years old when ISIS roared into Syria in 2014. But when ISIS forced her to flee her home, she found herself on a journey that would eventually lead her to Christ– and beatings, bombings, and death threats.

Audio from:

CNN

Sky News

NBC News

Euronews



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Today, something a little different: it’s a series of letters Doubletake host Les Sillars wrote to his father last year. He never sent them. He doesn’t think he could.

This episode is about regret and loss. But also hope, and memory, and memories.



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Two women head to Hollywood just hoping to get on a game show and have some fun. They get on national TV and hobnob with Drew Carey. There they realize, in a most unlikely place, that everything they have is a gift.

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Doubletake correspondent Alessandra Nash visits a Christian school in Idaho that’s encouraging parents to take the “Postman Pledge.” It has nothing to do with the Post Office. The Postman Pledge is a promise a small group of parents around the country are making to each other to not let their kids use social media–not at school, and not even at home.

As one parent told us, that’s like declaring war on an entire culture.

Audio Credits:

Damon Allen

MSNBC

C-SPAN

Reliant K.

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If children are a gift from God and you really, really want them, and then you have them, how can you possibly wish that your dream never came true?

Last time we introduced D’Lynn Herting, a young woman who decided to have children via IVF. Today WORLD reporter Leah Savas has the conclusion of a story about someone who wishes she’d asked a few more questions before making some life and death decisions.



Audio Credits

“Newborn Child”/Blue Water Highway

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According to the Department of Health and Human services, in 2021 over 70,000 babies in the U.S. were conceived using in vitro fertilization, or IVF. That’s over 2 percent, and in some European countries that figure is over 4 percent. And it’s rising rapidly all over the world. And that’s raising questions about the limits of using medical technology to produce children.



Today, WORLD reporter Leah Savas has the first of a two-part story about someone who crashed into those limits: medical, emotional, and spiritual. And walked away with a lot more than she bargained for.

Audio Credits

Brave New World/Universal Television

Witness History/BBC

“Facing Fertility”/CBS

Sarah Lavonne/Youtube

Click Orlando/WKMG News

“Families lose frozen embryos in tank failure”/CNN

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Michael and Millie Shipe grew up in the era of “purity culture.” It was a big thing for about 20 years starting in the 1990s, and it focused on saving sex for marriage. There were conferences and purity rings and slogans, like “True Love Waits.”

But a lot of people say they’ve been deeply damaged by their experience in purity culture. There’s a growing genre of books by the “survivors” of purity culture. These are often bitter tales written by ex-evangelicals who use the term “deconstruction” to describe leaving orthodox Christianity.

Today on Doubletake, the rise and fall of purity culture, through the eyes of a couple who lived through some of its best features–and some of its worst. And, just a note: this episode involves relationships and sexuality. It’s not for kids.

Music/audio from:

CNN

South Park/Comedy Central

“Kiss the Girl” by Samuel E. Wright/Disney

“Someday My Prince Will Come” by Adrianna Caselotti/Disney

“I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye” by Joshua Harris

“Everyday Robots” by Damon Albarn



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WORLD Radio’s Jenny Rough was worried. Last year, her memory seemed to be slipping, and few things scared her more than descending into dementia as she got older. She also came across some recent research that tied dementia and Alzheimer's disease to a person’s ability to navigate–and Jenny has always had a little trouble with maps. Worst of all, her own mother had passed away from Parkinson’s disease a few years before.

So, naturally, Jenny went for a good long hike … and got lost.

On this episode of Doubletake we’re going to navigate—metaphorically and literally. We’ll explore the pathways of the human brain, hike trails in the Rocky Mountains, and journey along the road of grief.

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