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When the film It's a Wonderful Life first came out in 1946, few imagined it would become an enduring holiday classic. It received mixed reviews and was considered a box office flop. Yet here we are, some 80 years later, still talking about and watching Frank Capra's story of sacrifice, community, and love. The movie's fictional setting is said to be based on a real place, the town of Seneca Falls in central New York State. Which got our Ted Coppel wondering as the year 2025 comes to an end.
is Civility Alive and Well in Seneca Falls. As much as 6,000 tons of garbage come to this landfill each day. And what do they call it? Seneca Meadows. They specialize in optimism around here.
When you come to Seneca Falls, you get it. It's healing and it's hope. Seneca Falls claims to be the inspiration for It's a Wonderful Life. I believed in Santa Claus when I was a kid and I believed in the movie. And that, after all, is all about the triumph of kindness, civility, and hope.
Right here. on Sunday morning. Few things say Christmas in New York, like the famous Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. At the heart of this time-honored tradition is a group celebrating 100 years of mesmerizing performances. The world famous Rock Hats.
They're known for their precision and high kicks. And for falling down, as wooden soldiers sometimes do. Anyone who's ever been a rock hat has done this, and you're just a part of the legacy. I feel honored to be near a costume from the Wooden Soldiers. later.
The Rockettes. It's been more than 50 years since John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-wrote the holiday classic, Happy Christmas, War is Over. With Ono now 92 and retired, their son Sean is managing his father's remarkable legacy. He'll tell Anthony Mason all about it.
So, this is Christmas. Sean Ono Lennon wants to be sure John Lennon and Yoko Ono aren't forgotten. Do you think that's even possible? To forget about it? I do actually, and I never did before.
with a new animated short. Right out. And a documentary. He's trying to keep that legacy alive. I feel like I just owe it to them.
It's a personal thing. Sean Ono Lennon. Coming up. on Sunday morning. Ben Mankiewicz this morning has an appreciation of the life and career of beloved filmmaker Rob Reiner.
David Pogue enjoys the holiday harmonizing of Pentatonics, the group that brought a cappella into the mainstream. Faith Saley escapes the hustle and bustle of everyday life. At a surprising oasis, a monastery far off the beaten path in New Mexico. Plus Steve Hartman with Secret Santa. A performance from the Young People's Chorus of New York City.
And more on this Sunday morning for the first day of winter. December 21st, 2025. And we'll be right back. We begin this morning with senior contributor Ted Coppel. Searching for civility in the town that's said to have inspired the holiday classic, It's a Wonderful Life.
There's a little town in central New York that our old colleague Bill Geist visited 14 years ago. On Christmas morning, what better place to be than Seneca Falls, New York? The town proudly and loudly proclaims that it was the inspiration for the Christmas film classic, It's a Wonderful Life. Merry quite away. Jingle bells.
Jingle bell jingle. And every year they have this festival celebrating the occasion. I've been waiting my whole life to come up here and see this. Really? Yeah, I believed in Santa Claus when I was a kid, and I believed in the movie.
The movie has been around for almost 80 years now, but just in case you don't know the plot, Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, the sweetheart of a guy who runs a building and loan association.
Well, your money's in Joe's house. That's right next to yours. And in the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Maitland's house, and a hundred others. Just the soul of decency and kindness and selflessness.
This rabble you're talking about. They do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community.
Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? And then there's Lionel Barrymore. He's Mr. Potter who runs the big bank in town. Are you running a business or a charity ward?
Not with my money. And he's none of those things. Just tell them to bring their shares over here, and I will pay 50 cents on the dollar. In a nutshell we get to see what the town would have been like if George Bailey hadn't ever existed. Potter's Bill.
Why you mean Bedford Falls? I mean Parrsville. Don't think I know where I live? 13 wham news. It could have been a little like this.
Continued contention. A few weeks back at a Seneca Falls town board meeting, a local resident kept talking after debate had been shut down. And a board member, Frank Sinacropi, seemed to offer a drastic solution. Yeah. He was kidding, but he did tell the police chief to shoot one of the townspeople.
Bad timing. After all, this was just a few weeks before all those tourists come pouring into town. Searching for the annual festival celebrating the movie. Welcome to our town. You live here.
I live here, yeah. Yeah, it's a great place. Kevin McDonald wasn't born when the movie was made, but He lives and breathes the message. Especially this time of year, the Spirit. You can't be here and not smile.
It's on a bridge just like this one that director Frank Capra brings his hero George Bailey. to the brink of suicide. That fellow down in the water is actually an angel. Who, by keeping George from suicide and getting him to perform this heroic rescue, will earn his wings. Locals believe it's based on a real rescue in 1917.
Somebody tried to end their life here. And he was on one of these shores and jumped in to save her, got her to shore, and then he succumbed. He was an immigrant from Italy. We have a heroes celebration in April. To honor him.
Kind of ironic, isn't it? In these times with. What's happening to immigrants? It sure is. But when this reporter visits the local cafe and talks about immigrants today, people being rounded up.
And sent overseas. Not necessarily back to their own countries. Yeah. You poor thing, you're going to have a hard time this weekend because everyone I've met today is going to focus on the positive. No, that's fine.
I got no trouble with your focusing on the positive. I'm just not going to make it that easy for you. You're focusing on the positive, and I'm seeing a country. It is getting caught up in the negative. You can't ignore that.
When you come to Seneca Falls... You get it. It's healing. And it's hope. I think that's one of the reasons we're so drawn to this movie, just to get ourselves back to kindness again.
It's an inescapable message, even from Jimmy Hawkins and Carolyn Grimes. They played two of the Bailey children, Tommy. Excuse me. And Zuzu. Zozo!
Zozo, my little ginger snap! How many lines did you have in the movie? Do you remember? Not many. Not many.
And yet people hold on to you. Yes. What is it they're holding on to? It's that line she says at the end. What's that?
Daddy, teacher says every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings. And everywhere she goes. Right. Come on. I believe it.
Oh, do you? Oh, I do. I'm sorry. Are you a cynic? A cynic?
I don't think you can be in my line of work for as many years as I have been without becoming a bit of a cynic.
Well, for example, Amid all that joyful spirit of kindness and civility, hanging over Seneca Falls at this time of year. There is also that. just looming over the edge of town. You're looking at Seneca Meadows, which is the largest landfill in the whole northeastern United States. Bill Lutz has a plant that packages bottles and containers for wineries and breweries.
In the shadow of Seneca Meadows. That hill is filled with all kinds of garbage and toxic chemicals and vapors that come off it on a daily basis. We have a hard time not only retaining employees but attracting new employees. It's definitely a challenge to try to get people that want to move here and it certainly affects our business. Not surprisingly, Seneca Meadows told us they are a good neighbor who consistently meets or exceeds safety standards and regulations.
In fact, That's part of their argument for why they should be allowed to expand. It was flat land not too many years ago.
Now they're moving to an expansion that would have taken another 15 years and another 70 feet higher.
Now, isn't that just the kind of thing that would have driven Jimmy Stewart's character, George Bailey, nuts? You spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money.
Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter. You've got uh plenty of money, lawyers, to keep it going. It's a big Texas company, and uh. They want to continue to grow it because they can do it here in a small town.
In fact, that's what we have downtown. a small town with a museum about a movie.
Well, part of a movie. People don't really want to remember the other half of the movie. what could have happened to the town. Yeah. Right?
Yeah. This is Anwe Law, who created the It's a Wonderful Life museum in town. People want to go back to simpler times. This reminds them of that and gives them the opportunity to do that for a short period of time. What are we seeing today?
Are we seeing a reflection of George Bailey's world or are we seeing a reflection of Mr. Potter's world? Oh, that's awfully Touchy. It's Trying to be Mr. Potter's world, I think.
But I think there's enough George Baileys out there that it's going to balance their direction. You once called me a warped, frustrated old man. Mr. Potter, our villain in the movie, seems to go unpunished, although Harold Buchholtz, a student of the film, sees a greater message. We're a little bit surprised when George Bailey has his life back.
Yeah! He's so excited to be alive again. As he's running home, he stops by the bank and bangs on the window. Christmas, Mr. Potter!
His arch enemy. And I think if we choose to accept that, that's ultimately Capra's challenge to us. Love your enemies. You will be richer, and the community will be richer if you can find a way to do that. To my big brother, George.
The richest man in town. It's a picture-perfect Hollywood ending that endures as a message to our better angels. We have a happy ending. Yes. Reality doesn't always go that way.
White Angel? Depends if you believe. We all have a calling. And there's this need for people to come together, and there's this need for people to care about each other and help each other. And this movie prompts that in people because that's within them.
It's a spotlight on what we could be. Exactly. On what we can be. And we all really want to be. And want to be, not necessarily what we are.
Yeah. I'll settle for that. Look, Daddy. Peter says, every time a bell rings, an angel gives his wings. That's right.
That's right. Yeah. Talk about a group that needs no introduction. For generations, holiday revelers have gotten a big kick out of Radio City's Christmas Spectacular featuring. The Rockats.
Yeah. If you've been And you've seen them. The memories never fade.
Now Okay. If we go back in time, it's now 1959. Janie's up there. from Indiana. That was my first visit to Radio City Music Hall.
I would have seen the Rockats for the first time. It's unforgettable. The Roquettes are celebrating their 100th year. Yeah. In 1925, a troop of 16 dancers in St.
Louis. called themselves the Missouri Rockets. In 1932, they performed for the first time at Radio City Music Hall in New York City's new Rockefeller Center. Mm-hmm. And the following year, as the Rockettes starred in the first Christmas Spectacular.
as they have every year since but twenty twenty due to the COVID pandemic. Do you have checklists? That's just like Santa. I've got lots of lists. Executive Jessica Tuttle oversees the Christmas Spectacular and the Rockettes.
There's a certain point where everything falls into place and we all get into our motions, whether it's the people who are scanning tickets or it's the dancers backstage. We all know what we need to do. Precision is what defines the rockets. And to be precise, The high kicks of the kick line are eye-high. That's ridiculous.
That's a long time ago. That is awful. That is off. The leg still goes out. We've seen it.
We have seen it. High kick. Incredible. At my audition, she said, You're toady, you're I, and I, the girl next to me, was kicking high, and I said, Well, I can kick that high. I am not going to do that, too.
Julie Branham was a rock hat from 1988 to 2002. And seven and eight. Today she's the company's choreographer and director, the first former rocket to hold the job. Oh shit. It's easier to kick your face sometimes than it is to kick the way the rockets do, which is you have to control it to go to the same spot every time.
So it's about hitting that mark with your chin lifted, of course. And to make it look easy as well. Yes, and not move anything in your upper body. Every year between eight hundred and a thousand dancers audition to be a ruckette. For the first sixty years only a certain type made the cut.
For the raquettes that I would have seen and grew up seeing television. Oh did all look alike. It was one line and they all looked the same and that was part of the concept. I think the precision comes for us is through the dancing. It's we're dancing precisely, but it doesn't mean that there's a different Height ranges, there are different body types, there are different hair colors, there are different skin colors.
While change takes time, Branham says change has come. You didn't see little girls that look like you. No.
Now just find your account three and hold here. This is Danelle Morgan's 20th season as a rocket. Eight and she's also a dance captain and assistant choreographer. I wouldn't necessarily say that becoming a Radio City racket was a dream of mine. And it's likely because I didn't see many who looked like me on this.
It might not even have been a possibility. And I think it's just an incredible testament to the evolution of this incredible company. And so really dig into sitting into the hips with the... I auditioned three times. It took me a while to get here, but...
It's been the most incredible journey being here and it truly feels like a gift. A veteran in her seventh season, Sidney Mesher is especially proud to be a rocket. I was born without my left hand. I do identify as visibly disabled and seeing disability on stage is very important and it is the honor of my life to do it every day during the Christmas season. Julie, when Sidney would have auditioned, you must have been here.
I was. I did see her audition, and I'm like. there's no reason not to hire her. She can do the job. And that's what I always look for, talented dancers.
This has definitely been a goal of mine as well as the company, to make sure that people have the means. If they want to be here, we can provide those means so that they can get here and we can train them and teach them how to do this. You were saying when you started as a dancer, there wasn't anything. There wasn't all this no, and somebody would yell out, go to the imaginary dotted line, and I'd say, where do you imagine that is? I don't know where it is.
Achieving mathematical precision. is a mathematical problem. Wha where where does math come into it? Our stage is a giant piece of graph paper. There are lines and numbers every two feet in every direction, and that's how we keep the lines straight.
so you can see the patterns and the formations. and the athleticism required of today's Rockets. is more intense than ever before. Julie, would you have made the cut today? No, I would not.
I'm pretty sure. I would say back when I was a rocket, we'd say, here comes, we're changing formations, watch us go. And now they happen in, you blink, and we've changed formations. and changing costumes too. Eight times a show.
This is a very small room. How many rockets are in here during a change? In one change, we will have 18 rockets, so that's half the line. And how long do you have to do this change? Our fastest is 78 seconds.
This iconic costume design by late director Vincent Minelli has been used since the Rockettes first performed the Parade of the Wooden Soldiers in 1933. Oh. Anyone who's ever been a rock hat has done this, and you're just a part of the legacy. Yeah. The legacy of being the Rockettes is the timeless appeal that fills a 6,000-seat theater.
four times a day, seven days a week at Christmas time. It's so special. People come here with their family. It's a part of their tradition and to be a part of that is so magical. I can't help but that in 1959 that little girl up there, you know, she's on the stage.
With rockets. With real rockets. We're all still grappling with last weekend's deaths of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle. In the aftermath of this terrible tragedy, our Ben Mankowitz offers an appreciation. of Reiner's unparalleled career and life in the movies.
Rob Reiner entered America's collective consciousness in 1971, playing Mike Stivick. Archie Bunker's son-in-law and politically liberal Foyle. On all in the family. It's getting like politics in America's only for the rich. Who's been feeding you that commie crap all?
President Eisenhower said that. He did not. Eisenhower was a great president who never said nothing. Even then, Reiner knew that as good as he was in front of the camera, He wanted to direct. My name is Marty DeBergey.
I'm a filmmaker. His featured debut as a director came in 1984 with This Is Spinal Tap. If you can see, the numbers all go to 11. Look, right across the board, 11, 11, and mostly. Amps go up to 10.
Exactly. a parody of a documentary. that delivered one of the funniest scenes in movie history. What we do is if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Put it up to 11.
11, exactly. One louder. Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top? number and make that a little louder. These count you eleven.
Spinal Tap began an extraordinary run that rivals the best directors in Hollywood history. Seven classic films in just 11 years, each standing the test of time. each possessing some piece of authentic humanity. My dad said it, I'm no good. He doesn't know you.
And stand by me. an aching moment of friendship between two boys. He just doesn't know you. It's way less. Yeah.
Yeah. He hates the guns. Yeah. Yeah. In the Princess Bride, a combination of everlasting love.
Thawnboy. Fill these with water. Please. As he wished. My name is Inigo Mantoya.
And revenge. You killed my father. Prepare to die. Three of the movies Reiner made during that run of success contain scenes so perfectly shot. They've become part of our shared cinematic language.
Are you okay? Oh Oh my god. First came the diner scene. in when Harry met Sally. Ooh, oh god.
Oh, Uh The scene required Meg Ryan to mimic a woman faking an orgasm. After one take, Reiner went to Ryan and explained what he wanted. Yeah. Louder. Yeah.
more hand movements. More table bound. Oh. Oh God. The button on the scene from Reiner's mother, Estelle.
I'll have what she's having.
Next came Kathy Bates, giving an Oscar-winning performance in Misery. No.
For the hobbling scene, Reiner gives us James Kahn's perspective, tied to the bed, looking up at the benevolent mania of Kathy Bates' face. The operation was called hobbling. As she explains the history behind the horror she's about to meet out. Whatever you think I'm not doing. Please don't do it.
Yeah. And he forgot. Shh. Darling, trust me. For God's sake.
It's for the best. Finally, in a few good men, Reiner did the seemingly impossible. Directing Jack Nicholson to a performance as memorable as Chinatown, one flew over the cuckoo's nest. with a shining. You snotty little bastard.
Your Honor, I'd like to ask for a recess. I'd like an answer to the question, Judge. Reiner gave us a courtroom drama for the ages and Nicholson an opportunity to shine. in front of a new generation of movie lovers. You want answers?
I think I'm entitled. You want answers! I want the truth! You can't handle the truth! The truth about Rob Reiner is that for many Americans, his politics were as well known as his films.
but not always as popular. A fierce critic of President Trump, there's no doubt millions of Americans disagreed, many strongly, with Reiner. But here's the thing we can all understand about him. Rob Reiner was a patriot. an American who believed deeply in humanity.
who believed in trying to make his country work as well as possible. for as many human beings as possible. You can see that aspirational political nature. in the last movie of his remarkable run. The American president.
You want to claim this land's the land of the free? then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest.
Now, show me that. Defend that. Celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free. There's no easy way to process the family tragedy that took Rob and Michelle Reiner.
It is awful. Period. The sense of loss is heightened by Rob's lofty standing in Hollywood. In a business that can induce backstabbing and produce enemies, Rob was nearly universally loved in the entertainment industry. I didn't know him as well as I would have liked, but he always made me feel like we'd been pals for decades.
His character was defined by his kindness, his humor, His compassion. by his own humanity. Those are the qualities that all of us love in his movies. Films that maybe, in some small way, can help us find something that unites us. in these unbelievably fractured times.
And uh, one, two, three. Yeah. Did it? Bye, bum, bum, bum. They're singing our song.
If you've heard any holiday music this season, chances are you've heard Pentatonics, the group who brought a cappella to the pop charts. As David Pogue tells us, their Christmas songs are a holiday staple performed in perfect harmony. Uh A cappella means singing without instruments. But we've come a very long way from this. To this.
We've come too far together. This is Pentatonics. An a cappella quintet that's won three Grammys and sold 10 million albums. YouTube fans have played their videos more than 6 billion times. Mm-hmm.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We've just blended together throughout the years just because of how long we've been together, you know? And three of the singers, Kirsten Maldonado, Scott Hoying, and Mitch Grassi, have been together a very long time.
Mitch and I were in a show together when we were 10. I met Kirstie in Freshman English when we were 14. At their high school in Arlington, Texas, they formed a trio. SAP They were a soprano, a baritone, and a counter tenor. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
See, that's really hard to find. It is incredibly high, and it got made fun of a lot while I was growing up. Really? Oh, I mean, of course. Yeah, growing up in Texas.
You know, it was very different and it w it's a little feminine, so it was like. Get him out of here. Our different timbres make such a specific sound. Of silence. When the frequencies of our voices come together, like they all play such a vital role.
When they're all together, it feels like this hug. It's really magical, actually. In 2011, they decided to try out for NBC's a cappella competition show, The Sing-Off. But when they learned that bigger groups had better chances, so good and it's easy on a wall this year, they added a bass, Avi Kaplan, and wanted to add a beatboxer.
So in an act of desperation, we literally went on YouTube and typed in beatboxers. The first video to pop up was a video of Kevin playing cello and beatboxing at the same time. It was Kevin Olusola, cellist, singer, beatboxer, and pre-med student at Yale. You were pre-med and quit to become a musician? Imagine that.
What should your parents have to say? It was a great class to grid of my parents. It was definitely not the plan. Pentatonics from Arlington, Texas. They not only made it onto the show, Ba da da.
They won the grand prize. $200,000 and a record deal. But within a month, the record company dropped them. They asked us, hey, w will you guys put any instrumentation behind what you all do? And we said we literally just won an a cappella T V show.
We were just like, no, we don't like that idea. And they were like, okay, the Moldrum. Instead, they turned to YouTube. And within a year, they had 4 million subscribers. The video that probably really broke us in terms of the industry would be Little Drummer Boy.
And he's smiling. And be fur up a bump. It went to top 10 of iTunes for four weeks. The higher the pentatonic star ascended, the higher. the harder they worked.
Did we make a Their behind-the-scenes sixth member, co-founder and producer Ben Bram, wrote ever more spectacular vocal arrangements. Petatonics released three albums in 2014 alone. and toured for nine months every year. You never got to recharge and be at home or see your friends or your loved ones. Like, it was like really, really brutal.
So brutal that in 2017, Avi Kaplan made a stunning announcement. I've decided to take a step back from Pentatonics. He didn't really want to tour that much. He didn't love the tour life. And we were.
in our prime and like really wanting to tour a lot. After a nationwide search, Pentatonics found its new base, a Pentatonic super fan from Maryland named Matt Sali. And so, to be able to come into the group and to be able to continue its legacy was something that I cherished very deeply and I took very seriously. Did you already know some of the repertoire? I knew everything.
I like learned every song, every bass part of every song. And we were so excited and relieved and grateful that, like, Oh, we can see the vision for the future. We can keep this going. And they did keep going. I'm not sure.
He does that songs made. This is my wife, Carol. Hello, we come a caroling among the leaves so green. Nope. That is weird.
You guys have been together, living, traveling, working for years. You can't tell me there aren't things about each of you that drive others of you crazy. Oh, what? Do we have time? There's a lot.
There's a lot. We kind of left out that. None of us are super reactive. We all have like crazy egos that are like getting in the way of like being able to communicate clearly with each other. But after 14 years in the spotlight, change was inevitable.
You know, everybody's now starting to get married, have kids.
So now, what do we want in this stage? What they wanted was to focus on Christmas. On the 11th day of Christmas, my true love can't join me. Five of their last six albums have all been Christmas music, and their tour is decidedly a holiday show. Gentlemen.
And recently, there's been an even bigger change. I really loved the new album, Christmas in the City. Thank you. I did notice a glitch.
Okay. It's not a cappella. We could be celebrating Christmas in the city. What's going on about that? You know, I feel like it was time to...
Evolve and do something new. If you put limits on your artistry, then you won't grow. But you're not abandoning the acapella. Absolutely. Never.
Whatever the weather cause we believe. Love each other. What has been the pentatonics effect? A cappella on commercial music. I think we've made Harmony.
and singing I feel like we've been part of what made it cool. There's like over 1,200. Like a cappella groups in colleges now. Before, people would either say maybe it's nerdy or like not cool or whatever. Pentatonics really gave the choir kid A voice, a platform to feel seen.
One of my favorite parts of our show is when we do one mic. Five voices. It's so vulnerable. I'm glad you mentioned that. Would you do us a crazy favor?
Oh my god. Would you be willing to sing something? Just like this in this room, sure. Christmas to you. Five old friends.
Five voices. And one sweet sound. Oh the children Bunk. Their favorite time of year Bum bum bum bum snow In the air. There was everywhere to the shed bells.
Another of our Sunday morning Christmas traditions. Steve Hartman with a story in the holiday spirit. Let me go see this next patient. Dr. Michael Zollikoffer's next patient came in for congestion and she will definitely breathe easier this holiday season.
Good. Thanks to Dr. Z's new helper. I'm Dr. Claus.
As in Santa Claus. One little prescription that I think. may make your Christmas just a little bit better.
Okay. Four crisp hundred dollar bills. Look at that. I don't even feel congested anymore. Yeah, that's why I'm here.
As you may have guessed, Doctor Claus is actually Secret Santa. that anonymous wealthy business man who every year goes around the country handing out hundreds of hundred dollar bills to random strangers. This year, he decided to come to Baltimore, Maryland. Let's listen to my sweetie. After seeing a story I did about Dr.
Z, about how he never takes a real vacation and doesn't even care if you pay or not.
Now, I'm going to see you no matter what. You walk in that door, you will be seen. You bring your grandma with you. I'm going to see her too. Yeah, I mean, what an amazing individual.
a physician who practices medicine. The way it was meant to be practiced.
So, as a thank you to Dr. Z for all he's done. Secret Santa made him an elf. Put those in your pocket. Loaded him up with Benjamin's.
You watch what I do. And then together, they set out to just give away about $10,000. Oh, my goodness. Is that real? Yes, baby.
They found people inside grocery stores and outside food pantries. I see you, brother. They helped total strangers and lifelong customers. Look at this. This is one of my patients right here.
I'm Secret Santa. I love it. Dr. Z has always been a giver. But he says this felt way different.
This going out into the community for the sole purpose of spreading unconditional love. It's too good. And that's the beauty of what this is about. It wasn't just the money. It's beyond description, folks.
It's beyond description. This is a senior center, right? Yeah. At their last stop, they met a guy named John Hancock. It means a lot when you can help people.
John said he planned to use his gift to feed hungry people in his building, as he's been known to do. Oh my goodness! I know Dr. Z said that spreading unconditional love is a feeling beyond description. Thank you, bruv.
But moments like this sum it up. Pretty well.
So the silly. It's Christmas. For a weekend. Before strong. Happy Christmas war is over.
Among the most enduring musical collaborations of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Another collaboration, their son Sean, who's talking with Anthony Mason. What part of the whole musical creation process do you like the most? Because you do it all of it. Yeah, well that's easy.
I love writing and recording, and I hate finishing. Sean Ono Lennon has had a versatile career as a musician, producer, and songwriter. With his mother Yoko Ono, now in her nineties, he He's added a new job. You're effectively the custodian of your dad's legacy now. Yeah, technically, but you know, obviously the world is also the custodian of his legacy, I would say.
Super I'm just doing my best to help. Make sure that the younger generation doesn't forget about the Beatles and John and Yogo. That's how I look at it. Do you think that's even possible? To forget about it?
I do actually, and I never did before. So this is Christmas. For his parents' classic, Happy Christmas, war is over. Lennon looked for new ways for the song to be heard. And what have we done?
So I wanted to see if I could get that feeling of Maybe it sounds like you're hearing it again for the first time, or at least in a new context, in a way that you'd pay attention, as opposed to, oh, there it is on the radio again. Lennon collaborated with former Pixar animator Dave Mullins to make a short film.
So we came up with this idea that two soldiers would be playing chess on opposite sides of a war. I'd also read an article that there were sort of heroic messenger pigeons from World War I and World War II. This is actually the pigeon that starred in the film. She's kind of let herself go to the audience. That's too bad.
It's a bit sad.
Now she's in Washington Square Park. New York City is a brutal place. Yeah. The eleven-minute film, now on YouTube. won an Academy Award last year for Best Animated Short.
How did it feel to get an Oscar? It felt like a Miss Universe pageant or something, and I had won, and I was just standing there kind of crying, you know. He used the moment to shout out his mom.
So could everyone please say happy Mother's Day, Yoko! Happy Mother's Day! My parents gave me so much. that I think it's the least I can do. to try and support They're a legacy in my lifetime.
I feel like I just owe it to them. It's a personal thing. In your view, what is their legacy? Peace and love. Yeah.
But it's not just peace and love, it's an attitude. towards activism. that is done with humor and love. An attitude visible in the new HBO documentary One to One about John and Yoko's nineteen seventy two Benefit concert at Madison Square Garden. Apathy, isn't it?
And that we can do something. And it's an important concert because it's the only concert. Your parents did together, right? It's the only full-length concert. Certainly, the only concert I think that he played a Beatles song to.
Because I think he was just in a good mood. Got it. Yeah! The concert occurred during Lennon's first years in New York, when he was fighting a bitter deportation battle with the Nixon administration, in part because of his anti-war activism. People say their phones are bugged.
First of all, I thought it was paranoia after I've been reading all these, you know, the conspiracy theory books. You can hear things going on on the phone every time you pick it up. People clicking in and out.
Okay. They found these phone calls that my parents had recorded of themselves, which interestingly was a response to the FBI tapping their phones.
So they thought, well, we need to tap our own phones because if they try to say we said something that we didn't say, we'll have our own record of it. It's a real timepiece. Because it catches your parents at this kind of critical turn they make. Yeah. And you know, it's my origin story actually.
Yeah. If you think about it. They came to New York and You know, that's... The only reason I exist Julia! Do you see something you maybe didn't see before?
Or have you seen it all before? I hadn't seen all of the home video footage in one to one. I hadn't heard those phone recordings before. It's like getting more moments to spend with my dad. I've forgotten the rest.
Okay, should we stop?
So actually for me, on a personal level, it's It just really means a lot. Lennon produced the music, also released as a boxed set, He's working on his own new album, too, his third with the Claypool Lennon Delirium. Which is kind of a. Whimsical Prague rock experimental psych band. It's fun.
You took it up to be an adjuster to take for me Lennon and James McCartney, Paul's son. Have also been working on a new song with Zack Starkey, Ringo Son. Kindling hopes, the children of the Beatles. Mike Unite. Has anyone ever like offered you a gig to all play together.
Sure. Um I think people ask for that a lot, but I do think that would be ridiculous. But the reason you know, the reason Zach and James and I made a song together is not because we're trying to redo the Beatles. It's just because we like each other. We're not going to do it because of some expectation or to like fulfill anyone's expectation of What we should do.
It has to be natural. Sean Ono-Lennon takes his new responsibilities. very seriously. I think the Beatles music and John and Yoko's legacy is something important for the world to kind of cherish. and be reminded of.
So that's how I see my job. How's your mom doing, by the way? She's good. I mean, you know, she's ninety two, so she's slowed down a lot and she's retired. That's why I'm kind of trying to trying to do the work that she used to do.
That's why I feel a lot of pressure actually to do my best 'cause 'Cause she she set a high standard for the way that she dealt with my dad's music. And the Beatles stuff. She's always been. Very singular, and I think my dad. Was less so.
He had Paul to write with. And then he was hoping that my mom would kind of be a writing partner. And I just think it's really funny that there's probably only one person in the world who would turn down John Lennon as a writing partner, and that's my mom. That's probably why he liked her. Yeah, exactly.
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This is a real good story about Bronx and his dad Ryan, real United Airlines customers. We were returning home and one of the flight attendants asked Bronx if he wanted to see the flight deck and meet Catherine Andrew. I got to sit in the driver's seat. I grew up in an aviation family and seeing Bronx kind of reminded me of myself when I was that age. That's Andrew, a real United pilot.
These small interactions can shape a kid's future. It felt like I was the captain. Allowing my son to see the flight deck will stick with us forever. That's how good leads the way. After a busy year, who doesn't feel the urge to unplug?
Faith Saly takes us to an off-the-beaten path oasis that's a haven for anyone. The silence here is deafening. No sirens, there's no electrical buzz or anything, you have no cell phone connection here. Thirteen miles down an unmarked dirt road, quietly sits the monastery of Christ in the desert. along the Chama River in northern New Mexico.
The monastery is home to 15 monks. Uh some livestock. And a guesthouse for people looking for a little quiet in this turbulent world. The silence allows you the opportunity to hear. that which you are to hear.
Okay. The sound of bells. and the sound of voices chanting. Seven times a day. Right.
When you chant. That is prayer. And what any monk probably aspires to do is that He doesn't want to just chant the psalm, but one day he wants to be the psalm. He wants it to be a part of who he is and his being. This part of the world has always drawn people seeking.
It drew artist Georgia O'Keefe to settle just down the road. And in nineteen sixty four it drew Father L. Red Wall, a monk, to found a Benedictine monastery here. Famed architect and furniture maker George Nakashima designed its church. When we visited, Brother John Chrysostome was our guest master.
We're going to be transporting Lenins back and forth. Welcoming us among this order of Benedictine monks. As guest master, I keep this rule. Basically, we are to treat guests as if they are Christ. The brother happens to hold an undergraduate degree from MIT, an MBA, three more master's degrees, and a PhD in political science.
Monastery? He was a professor and I was an investment banker for a while, so I mean that's not a very peaceful existence even in the best of times. But it was on a pilgrimage, the famous Camino de Santiago, that Brother Chrysostome heard a voice calling him here.
So Anyone can visit for a suggested donation and a willingness to participate in this silence. Here, the monks followed the rule of Saint Benedict. Ora et labora, Latin for prayer and, well, work. Which of course you'll find on YouTube. Posted by Brother David.
Early. Abbott just finished. Cleaning the church. gave the floor a good wax.
So the gist of the message is, in everything that you do, The work may be a is for God. God bless everyone. When Charles Osgood reported on the monastery in the 1990s, the monks had just begun working with a new invention called the Internet. Or click OK, it'll do it. Brother Aquinas directs the union of inner space with cyberspace.
And guests Mary and Joseph Roy from Washington State have found something here a five-star hotel cannot offer. Sun on the red rocks and the river Chama flowing by. It's a good way to listen to God, to listen to nature. What do you think you can take away from your visit here? For me, being more aware of listening to that of God in each person as we talk, as I experience.
their story and their life. You can sweep like this. The monks ask guests to help with the running of the monastery, if they can. Mirrors and windows? And Brother Chrysostome says their guests' presence is fundamental to the monks' calling.
We need the world as much as the world needs us. Don't think we're escaping or moving away from the world because we don't need the world. We need the world. Do you need the world because it helps you feel like you're fulfilling what God wants you to do? I guess it harkens back to the Desert Fathers, the early monks who Lived in the Egyptian desert.
You had monks living these holy lives, praying and lives of asceticism and foregoing eating. It was remarked once: like, okay, you're doing all this, but who? Whose feet will you wash out here in the desert?
So you're doing these things for someone as well. And with someone. I was struck by the fact that you ask no questions of anyone who wants to become a guest here. No.
You just show up as you are. And you're not required to do anything while you're here. You're just required to be. You can pray with us if you want, you can eat with us if you want, or you can hike. We ask that, you know, maybe If you've chosen to come here that you spend some time with us, getting to know the community and the place, but Our schedule is not your schedule.
Maybe the quiet of places like Christ in the desert isn't an end in and of itself. But by making space for a little silence, You hear your calling. a little louder. One thing you'll notice that we are in a canyon.
So we're at 66 hundred feet above sea level right now. And so these hills and the cliffs Stretch another thousand up and everything. And these are all false horizons. Basically, when you get up to the top of these, hills or what do you think is at the top. You're just beginning to go up.
It continues on.
So this is a false horizon. This is not the top. It's just the beginning of something which is even higher. Perhaps a lesson for all of us. on our own spiritual journeys.
Now, a performance from the Young People's Chorus of New York City. with a new twist on a Yuletide classic. What are we gonna do? The mouth. What are we gonna do?
Deck the heart with boughs of holly, fa la la la la la la. Tis the season to be jolly, don't we now or gay a barrel for the law the ancient you tie carol for the la la la la la la la. See the blazing you before us. Tell the law of hostels with us. Tell hostels with the holes.
Deck the holes with boughs of holly. Tis the season to be jolly. Don't we now or gay a carol deck the holes with bows. Bows up all the tis the season to be jolly. Don't we now are gay?
Peril, deck all the bows of hall. Tis the season to be jolly. Don't we now are gay? Peril. Deck all the bows of all.
Tis the season to be jolly. Follow, follow. What have we got a deck? Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning.
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