Columbus, Korea, and a Crossroads- with Bill Federer

A pastor jailed, newsrooms warned, and global power pressing in—when we sat down with Bill Federer, the story out of South Korea sounded less like headlines and more like a playbook. We walk through raids on churches, lawfare against dissent, and how technology vendors, rare earths, and diplomatic gaps create a pressure cooker most outlets won’t touch. The pattern will feel familiar: intimidate the press, criminalize opponents, and move fast before anyone can organize a response. That’s why we talk openly about leadership pipelines and why equipping young people and citizens with constitutional literacy and moral courage isn’t optional—it’s survival.

From there, we pivot to a Columbus most people have never met. Not a caricature, but a navigator shaped by Marco Polo’s Travels, a misread of Arabic miles, and the closing of overland routes after 1453. Bill takes us from the Mongol court to a Genoese prison cell, from hurricanes that destroyed fleets to a slow gold ship that changed a reputation, from Arawak hospitality to Carib cannibalism, from political jealousy to chains, from the naming of Trinidad to a predicted lunar eclipse on a stranded beach that bought another chance. It’s vivid, human history—messy, consequential, and resistant to propaganda.

What ties Seoul’s silence to the fight over Columbus Day is the struggle for narrative power. If you can sour a people on their past, you can sell them any future. We push past the one-note takes to hold competing truths at once: genuine indigenous suffering, undeniable transformation across hemispheres, and the constant tension between greed and the gospel. Listen, share with a friend who loves real history, and if the conversation moves you, leave a review and subscribe so we can keep bringing you candid, well-sourced stories that sharpen your mind and steady your heart.

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