This is the Daily Article podcast, published by the Denison Forum for Culture-Changing Christians.

To receive the Daily article directly to your email inbox each weekday morning, visit

thedailyarticle.com. Now here's today's news, discerned differently.

Kirk Douglas died Wednesday at the age of 103.

He was born Isser Danielovich on December 9, 1916, in Amsterdam, New York.

He changed his name to Kirk Douglas before entering the U.S. Navy during World War II.

He was the only son of seven children born to illiterate Russian immigrants.

In his autobiography, he reported that his father was a ragman, trading in old rags, pieces of metal

and other junk. As a child, Douglas sold snacks to millworkers and had more than 40 jobs in his

youth. As a young adult, he once spent the night in

jail because he had no place to sleep. He recited the poem, The Red Robin of Spring in kindergarten,

and received applause, an experience that caused him to aspire to be an actor. After graduating from

college and studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City,

he joined the Navy in 1941 and was medically discharged three years later for war injuries.

He then returned to New York City, or he found work in radio, theater, and commercials.

He became one of America's biggest box office stars in the 1950s and 60s,

eventually appearing in more than 90 movies. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in

1981, an honorary Academy Award in 1996, and the National Medal of Arts in 2002.

Douglas and his wife of 65 years donated multiple millions of

dollars to various schools and up to $55 million to an Alzheimer's treatment facility in

California. After a near-fatal helicopter crash in 1991 that took the lives of two other

men, he returned to the Judaism of his roots,

...