Good morning. I'm Jane Pauley, and this is Sunday morning, the first Sunday morning of spring. For many the vernal equinox means the promise of warm weather ahead, and more opportunities to go out and enjoy nature. and like so many things in our digital age, There's an app for that. as our David Pogue will explain.
This app instantly identifies plants, animals, birds, and bugs. Slender Speedwell. That's what they used to call me in high school. But behind the scenes, it's doing scientists a favor. It's a census of the natural world that emerges out of just really engaging millions of people in the nature in their backyards.
We'll take our own census in a famous backyard. Ooh, what do we have here? a margin leatherwing beetle. ahead on Sunday morning. You could say Lisa Coudreau is on the comeback trail.
The third season of her cult favorite series premieres tonight, making this the perfect time for our Tracy Smith to catch up with the friend star. And action! After more than a decade, Lisa Kudro's The Comeback is back. And it happened on the very stage where her other great show was filmed. You remember that one.
Are you in there, little fetus? In nine months, will you come greet us? I will. Buy you some Adidas. What is it like to be on this soundstage?
Okay, let's talk about that. Lisa Kudreaux and a life that's come full circle later on Sunday morning. Way back in the 1950s during the so-called golden age of television, some 20 million Americans tuned in every week to watch your show of shows starring Sid Caesar. This morning Moraka will look back at the life of the influential funny man. Joe Sid Caesar.
There was a time when watching TV meant watching Sid Caesar. Oh boy, oh boy, oh oh boy, oh boy, boy. There are these absolutely amazing sketches that no one has seen for 70 years. Sid Caesar, when he did a sketch, He was 100% in that moment. Sid Caesar, king of comedy.
Coming up on Sunday morning. Also ahead this morning. Seth Doan visits the acclaimed chef Ruthie Rogers, whose River Cafe in London is known for its food and its A-list fans. Jim Axelrod examines the Trump administration's efforts to reshape how history and science are presented at our national parks. Plus Faith Saley sits down with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.
will have thoughts on happiness from best selling author Arthur Brooks. And more on the first Sunday morning of Spring, March 22nd, 2026. We'll be back in a minute. Yeah. Mm.
Leading us into spring, we find David Pogue communing with nature. twenty first century style. Yeah. We share our planet with maybe 10 million species of plants, animals, birds, fish, fungi, and bugs.
Alright, so camera. I'm learning their names with a free phone app. called iNaturalist. Take a picture. American holly?
Like Christmas holly? Yeah. And it's weird because it doesn't have any red berries on it this time of year.
So people would go under there and kiss? Oh, that's mistletoe. Oh, my God. Help me, oh app! Scott Laurie is the executive director of iNaturalist, a non-profit.
Apparently, a lot of people use his app. Currently we have about six million people using the platform every month. Has any normal person ever made a really cool discovery? Yeah, I mean, it happens all the time. Almost every month we get a new species described.
A new species? Yeah. I mean, one of my. Favorite stories is there's this guy in the Andes, and this weasel jumped into the cabin window, right? Running around, knocking things over.
He grabs his camera, first ever photographs of these species, and they happen to be sitting on a toilet in this cabin.
Okay.
Okay.
I'm very proud to say that hashtag toilet weasel was trending on Twitter after that. But it turns out that this app has a stealth function. It can share your photos with scientists. It's not just a photo, it has a date, it has a location. Turns out that most data for most species on the planet now is coming from this little app.
There's more of that data than the scientists and the explorers? Yeah, we're getting hundreds of thousands of species a year.
So far, iNaturalist fans have made three hundred million sightings in all one hundred ninety seven countries. They let scientists see what's happening to life on Earth. Oh, I know what this is. Invasive species, lanternfly, freaking everybody out, no natural predators, taking over the East Coast. Yeah, so this is its native range here in East Asia, right?
Oh, that's right, they came from China. Yeah, exactly. You can see the invasive species coming in over time. But it's not just about species moving. It's also about species disappearing.
The best predictions now are that we're going to lose about one in three by the end of the century. With all due respect, why should we care about obscure species bugs that we've never heard about in the first place?
So analogy I like is that the Earth is this plane that we're in mid-flight. Every time a species goes extinct, that's like us popping a rivet off.
So at some point, the whole wing is going to fall off, but we don't exactly know which rivet, which species extinction is going to drive that.
So the first thing we need to do is stop popping rivets off. This app is especially fun to use with other people. iNaturalist fans do like to party.
So what we're going to do here is called a bio blitz.
So we're going to split into two groups of experts and try to see how many species we can find in one hour here. A Bio Blitz is a friendly, timed competition. This one is being hosted by someone who knows a lot about nature. Martha Stewart. At her home in Bedford, New York.
Wonderful.
Well, good luck. Everybody ready? Please find hundreds. Exactly. We'll do our best.
We'll do our best. What's that one? That I don't know. Take this, the green false Hellborn. That is a stilt-legged fly.
Veronica aficionalis. That is so nice. You think somebody else collected that? There's a lot of little Veronicas growing all the way up this road. No, I think you probably discover that in North America right now.
Spiders are the funniest thing to be so scared of. That is beautiful. You have marbled orb weaver. What is iNaturalist called? My friend is a brown belted bumblebee.
Isn't that beautiful?
So that's a native pollinator.
So you're attracting all these native pollinators. I am so generous. If you don't touch them, then they keep there. antenna outside they look a little bit cooler. There's another snail right here caught in Oval amber snail.
Yeah. Hey, you know what I see in here guys? Crayfish. Crayfish? Yeah.
Oh, good. I feel like I'm nine again. In one hour, our little group had identified 458 different species. But here's some of the places where we went. Each one of these markers is an observation.
Yeah, let's see who wants.
So these are the top observers.
So whose bug's gone wild? Oh, that's you.
So you got 73. That's pretty good. And these are just some of the observations that we saw. Look at this beautiful little moth right here. This little assassin bug.
different kinds of uh snails and Butterflies. Each one of these observations will give us a snapshot of all the different plants and animals that are here and the kind of habitat that you've provided for all these species on your farm here. They had not yet said thank you. Yeah. For Scott Laurie, it never gets old.
People go like, wow, I'm actually part of the solution. By me taking this photo, I'm helping science. I'm helping us protect these species that I share the planet with. Martha Stewart would agree. I was amazed at how little you needed the app.
I mean, you knew every damn bug and leaf. But that's because I've lived here now for more than 20 years, and yet the app. really teaches me the botanical names, the biological names of the bugs and the butterflies. I learn something new every day. For many Americans, our national park system is a point of immense pride.
a reflection of our shared heritage, and an appreciation of our natural wonders. but with America's two hundred fiftieth birthday fast approaching. it's also at the center of a fierce debate. Here's Jim Axelrod. The peace and tranquility of Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco.
Home to 500 plus acres of old-growth redwoods. Make it just about the last place you'd expect to find a fight brewing. The fact that they're taking down whole groups of signs about climate change and Our nation's history is disappointing and embarrassing. While it takes a lot to anger retired U.S. Park Ranger Lucy Scott, An executive order from President Trump entitled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.
did the trick. calling for signs promoting divisive narratives and corrosive ideology at national parks. to be removed. We're going to continue to fight climate change and protect the redwood forests the best that we can. That included a sign Scott made to inform visitors climate change threatened the Redwoods.
by reducing the fog they rely on for water. a scientific fact. These are sticky tape marks from where the climate change sign was. The sign lived here happily for. almost eight or nine years and then the sign was taken down a couple of weeks ago.
just ripped off. Another sign at Muir Woods was changed to conform with an Interior Department directive. To remove exhibits that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living. The signs simply added more names to the time line of the park's development beyond just those who donated the land. The administration told us to remove the added stories.
They erased that women helped, they erased that there were Native Americans here for the longest time. They erased anything but. If Lucy Scott is dismayed, George Washington was here. He did good work here. He also thought about how he could protect his property here, and that property included nine enslaved Africans.
Alan Spears says he's flat out disgusted by the removal of signs from the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. And one, two, three, four, five. Wait a minute. They're gone. They were taken down.
Spears, a historian with the National Parks Conservation Association. took us to where Washington lived in the 1790s. And where panels from a 15-year-old exhibit about nine enslaved people the father of our country brought with him to Philadelphia. were taken down in January.
So, this is a representation of the complex nuanced nature of our history, and that's too much for some people to bear. They want a straightforward narrative that's uncomplicated.
So, rather, Then have Signs up. that threatened the straightforward, uncomplicated narrative. We'd rather have a brick wall. While a lawsuit to restore those signs in Philadelphia works through the federal courts, At the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Center in New York City, a sign mentioning things we hope never to repeat, like slavery. Massacres of Native Americans, or holding Japanese Americans in wartime camps.
is among dozens of others taken down nationwide. in response to the executive order. Sunday Morning has learned an internal government database now lists hundreds of signs, books, and pamphlets. Flagged for review.
Some of that history may be might make people who are visiting these sites think critically. And I think that's the concern from people on the side who want to restore truth and sanity. I think they just want. A really sterilized experience for people when they come to places like national parks to learn. Sterilized.
Whitewashed. Sterilized, whitewashed. Um controlled, censored. All those words apply. The Interior Department told us in a statement: the liberal media, including CBS, remains more focused on theatrics than sharing the diligent work of the Department of Interior.
to ensure truth and sanity are restored at our nation's monuments. We reached out to more than 30 Republican senators and House members. None would go on camera to discuss the issue. of problematic signage. You can't only focus on the warts.
And then you can't cherry-pick. Brenda Haffera with the Heritage Foundation supports the review of the park's signs. At Washington's home, where an entire exhibit focuses on his enslaved household staff, Haferis says that doesn't leave enough room for the first president's achievements.
So for you it's a matter of balance. Proportionality, yes. And that a wildlife center is not the place to discuss racism. I think it's very important that not everything is political. that if we're going to a wildlife center we're learning about wildlife.
And that it's important for our country to have those opportunities, to not be provoked to make everything political. Is taking us back to a past that really didn't exist. Chuck Sams was the director of the National Park System under President Biden. and a defender of the sign writing process That can take up to 18 months. You want to make sure you're telling the most truthful story you possibly can with the best scholarship that's available.
This isn't a bunch of. Liberal Park Rangers shooting from the hip with what they feel. It's not about feeling. It's literally about what is the scholarship behind this, and can you back that scholarship up? The facts are important.
All the facts, says this man who once oversaw our national parks. and their mission. To educate? Illuminate and inspire. We have to self-examine in order to make sure that this experiment of our democracy, of our union, can only grow stronger.
America has always strived to be better. And we can do that by learning from things that we do well. and also those things that we didn't do well. At any of our 433 national park sites, visitors can now scan a QR code to report signs or brochures. they consider problematic.
But as we head to our nation's two hundred fiftieth birthday, people like historian Alan Spears wonder why anyone interested in a more perfect union. would want to. If you are thinking about visiting national parks, but you don't want to tackle any of these large issues that make you think critically about race and slavery and gender and other things like that. You know, there are hundreds of thousands of places in the United States where you can go, knock yourself out at six flags. But don't ruin it for the rest of us who have come to rely on national parks as places where we can go for that learning.
We want to maintain their ability unimpaired to be able to talk about the full scope of our history, wonder, warts, and all. Happy Friday's Day to you. Happy Friday's Day. Oh, sing it as if you meant it with some feeling. Of all the comedy legends who have graced American television over the years, few have been as funny and influential as Sid Caesar.
Here's more rockca. No. All amateurs do this trick. This is a very famous trick, Professor. I remember this.
You say, abra cadabra, and the Coke bottle disappears. If you had a television set in the 1950s, there's a better than even chance that each week you were watching comic Sid Caesar. What are you doing that with my lungs here? That's all I have! I don't think there's anybody comparable now, and I don't think there's ever been anyone comparable.
David Margalick is author of When Caesar Was King and And he was. As many as 20 million people tuned in to Caesar's live weekly variety series, Your Show of Shows. If you had a store that was open on Saturday night... or you were staging live shows on Broadway, you were very unhappy with your show of shows. and you complained to NBC about it.
the whole culture really changed. and get a load of Caesar's writing staff. Mel Brooks Carol Reiner Larry Gelbart. Woody Allen and Neil Simon all wrote sketches for Your Show of Shows or later on Caesar's Hour. Here's Neil Simon.
He picked maybe the best group of writers, I think, that ever appeared on one show together, almost everyone. Who came out of that show, went on to write theater and films and television and be successful in all of them.
So much has been said about Sid Caesar's writers, all these future legends, but I'm not sure that Sid Caesar's talent has really been. All that appreciated. And in a way, he's been eclipsed by his disciples. Which is why it's time to put the spotlight back on the guy who brought them together. Pig, calf, animal, calf, monster, calf, gorilla, chop, save yourself.
Sid Caesar, when he did a sketch, He was 100% in that moment. He was totally committed to it. Do you think he was a great actor? You know, acting to me basically is pretending you're someone else. In that sense, he was certainly a great actor.
Look at Milton Burrell. Is that red buttons? It is. Stand-up comedian and actor Robert Klein was nine years old in 1951 when his family got their first TV. We had to get the thing.
uh ready for the show of shows. which was the first show we ever saw because it was so much classier than Then Milton Burrell hits the Milton Burrell Show. Milton Burrell, the other early TV comedy superstar, was all shtick. Burr already had worn out a little. This was spectacular.
This was... A Broadway review brought to television. What distinguished that? It was. more sophisticated and one could say intelligent in its silliness.
That's it. Down over here. With Caesar and his co-stars, including the great Imogene Coca, you got parodies of Hollywood classics like From Here to Eternity. Yeah. A pantomimed marital spat to the score of Beethoven's Fifth.
That's Nanette Fabray. You need a shine.
Okay, Sarge. Where you going? And a range of sharply drawn characters opposite writer/slash straight man Carl Reiner. Didn't anyone ever teach you how to make a. G.I.
Not? It's supposed to be tight Yeah. He was an accomplished saxophonist, right? Ah Do you think there was a kind of musicality to his talent? There's music in everything he did, and not only musical sketches.
There's a kind of rhythm. Once again, gentlemen, let me... One of my favorite sketches was the pickle sketch. He didn't get his lunch. He's a boss.
We must be. The pickle was this way and this way and this way. And if the timing's off, it's not funny, right? That's right. There was a rhythm to it.
Why are we here and why is there a plate of sturgeon in front of us? We taped at the legendary restaurant Barney Greengrass on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Barney Greengrass represents a milestone in Sid Caesar's career. He told me when I interviewed him. That when he knew he could come to Barney Greengrass and have as much sturgeon as he damn well pleased, even though it was $5 a pound, he knew that he had really arrived.
A rare pleasure for a man who didn't seem terribly happy. He was an angry man. He often talked about his childhood. Caesar was the fourth. and final and maybe unwanted son of an unhappy marriage.
Caesar's parents ran a luncheonette in Yonkers, New York, where they Young Sid learned to mimic the accents of the European immigrants who ate there. Miramir Afghanwald Ubis the slickest man of all. Look, they have the best wines all uh Okay. Excuse me, my monsieur. You will pull over the dance-door.
Okay.
But thirty-nine episodes a season took its toll. Caesar started drinking early. and became an alcoholic. And when the alcoholism and the strain of the show kept him up, he started taking pills to knock himself out at night. And tastes had changed.
When Sid Caesar debuted on the small screen, television set owners were disproportionately wealthier and more educated.
So inexorably, television spread into areas where Caesar's comedy was not going to be as appealing. And when the audience became less highbrow, people thought that Caesar was talking down to them. And they actually resented him. The death knell was sounded by band leader Lawrence Welk over on ABC. Very wonderful fellows.
Now, here's a wonderful pair. By golly, you came through real wonderful. And now we bring you our very wonderful accordionist. Welk drowned him in the ratings with his champagne music, despite Caesar's best efforts. Sandy, that was wonderful, just wonderful.
Just wonderfully wonderful. Wonderful.
It's amazing to watch Sid with his fangs exposed. Ladies and gentlemen, the star of your show and shows is Caesar. Caesar's reign had lasted less than a decade. You know, a lot of people know him. the guy who Played the coach in the movie Greece.
I think you're gonna like baseball. It's not that much of a contact sport. This is a great pity that that's the only thing that people know. Come on, let's play! Caesar was really through by the early 60s.
He was barely 40. He was barely 40. And. The comic community tried to keep him going. Sid Caesar eventually got sober and died in february twenty fourteen at the age of ninety one.
Here's the man himself on Sunday morning. When I finally made friends with myself, That's when I can enjoy life. everything became easier. Few can serve up fabulous food and juicy celebrity stories like Ruthie Rogers, the chef and owner of London's celebrated River Cafe. She's dishing with our Seth Doan this morning.
Yeah. This bustling London restaurant has kept its Michelin star since the late 90s.
So look, we've got some. Is auditor. Produce deliveries or part menu planning. There'd be also good raw. Yeah.
Because they're really crunchy.
Okay.
Part quality controls. Maybe a bit early for Zucchini. What do you think? And Ruthie Rogers is not just co-founder, owner of Cecilian Pecorino, and chef of the River Cafe. You come up with a menu daily or almost daily.
Every meal. Rogers is maestro of this Italian restaurant, Conductor.
So you know that we've changed the menu of it, yeah? Yeah. And on the floor of her blue-carpeted, celebrity-filled world, Connector. I love talking to Mike LuShawn. That was really spontaneous.
And he just loves food. And we were within 10 minutes, we were just talking and talking and talking. And I what could be dismissed as name-dropping. And when Tina Fay came with her husband, we is for Rogers just genuine chat about people in her orbit. I mean, you know, to have Francis Ford Coppola, or he used to come here quite often, he lived near here.
He really was honest and open. We both have sons who died. My son died when he was 26. And so we talked about that. You know, we talked about how.
you know, when when I was told about the death of my son and everyone came home, I said, could somebody put some tomato sauce on? I need to smell something cooking. Which was not because I was hungry, but it needs to feel a sense of continuity. And comfort. And comfort.
Those talks, she always asks about comfort food, have been compiled into a new book, Table 4 at the River Cafe. Featuring folks including Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, and surprising Lynx, Martha Stewart, Mel Brooks, and Frank Geary had mothers who kept live carp in the bathtub to keep it fresh before it became dinner. When you look through the lens of food, and you talk to people, you find memories that you might not have found otherwise. I think if I had said to Paul McCartney, I'd like to do an interview with you about the Beatles, or if I'd said to David Beckham, can we do an interview about football? They would have said, Ruthie, you know, we've kind of been there and done that.
And I looked at all these photographs of people and there's a lot of affection going on. And then I looked at the one of you and me. I love that picture. The book is born from her podcast, a COVID-era desire to connect over food.
So tell me more about the new restaurant. Chef Jamie Oliver came to record, despite trying to open a restaurant on the same day. I love her so much. And she has like hundreds of me, like hundreds of people. She's quite a connection.
Maybe I'm opening a restaurant today. I've got 100 people that need me. Ruffy phones up. I'm here. What do you need?
She goes, I need you up a mountain, Timbuktu. I'll be I'll be there with bells on. After all, the American-born Rogers and her late business partner Rose Gray hired Oliver early on. Then a documentary shot here led to him being discovered. I'm going to give that to Theo and he's going to finish it with a little bit of parmesan.
Turned into a star as the naked chef. Every day when I'm cooking, I'm thinking, how do I do this? What's the best way to express this for this audience at this price? And there's always Rose and Ruthie. Really?
Yeah, yeah, there is. You're not just saying that because you're sitting here at the day. Her late husband, Richard Rogers, who along with fellow architect Renzo Piano, designed Paris's Pompidou Centre, needed a canteen in his new London architecture firm.
So we thought we'd open a little cafe here. If I just remember, I said to Richard, you know, Maybe I'll do it.
So she phoned her friend Rose Gray and they began with six tables serving a simple lunch. You had no real cooking background at all? Only home, domestic. The pressure's on. Sean Wynn Owen is one of the executive chefs now.
Coming to the River Cafe where there's two women, there's Rose and Ruth. and to see how you could run a kitchen. with what Ruthie always says, hope rather than fear. She showed us how their lemon tart is finished in the wood-burning oven. It's also fun.
Yeah. There's a bit of drama to it. Exactly, just like the River Cafe. It's been on the menu for most all of her 26 years here.
Well, maybe another second on that one. She's relatively new. People stay here a long time. Managers Vashti Armet and Charles Pullen have been here 31 and 35 years. There is a spirit, a sense to the past.
I think it starts from Ruthie and then it comes from the staff who work here and it all rubs off on each other. And so when people come in, hopefully there's always a sense of that excitement. You're lucky to get a table, luckier if you're not paying the bill in this restaurant which feels a bit more like a salon of the 17th century, a place filled with personality and personalities. She pulled English soccer legend and sports broadcaster Gary Lineker into the podcast. She'd run into him eating the night before.
I've never cooked in my life. Until ten years ago. And I'm ancient now, obviously. And since I was standing there, well, I've just been joined by Seth. Ruthie Rogers is always pulling up a chair for someone.
The connections, I think that connecting is huge. That's why I love a restaurant. Nice to see you. And that's why she believes restaurants should be on any list of what makes a city like London great. This is really good, isn't it?
Yeah. Smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding you? Smelly cat, smelly cat, it's not your fault. It's Sunday morning on CBS, and here again is Jane Pauley. Most TV viewers know Lisa Kudreau as Phoebe from the classic sitcom Friends.
But as Tracy Smith tells us, Kudreau keeps coming back again and again and again. to another much beloved character. Yep, you're good. After 40 years in showbiz.
Now, what if I had nothing to say? That's all right, we'll survive. Lisa Kudreaux has plenty to talk about. Sitcoms are back. How's that?
That's the name of the show. Such a good hook, too. You know, because you can say it so many different ways. How's that? How's that?
It's just so good. Her series, The Comeback, is the story of a faded sitcom star, Valerie Cherish, who signs on to a reality show about her attempts to stage, well, a comeback. WHY NOT! WAIT THER You alright, Phil? Uh-huh.
Looks like it perfect.
Well, it's equal parts funny and cringy. Yeah. And so's the show's backstory. Good.
Okay, yeah. I think that was the one. Right, Polly? That was a good one. I like the first one.
Come on, do you? Why'd I do all those other takes? Because you like throwing yourself on the ground? The Comeback, created by Emmy winner Kudreau and former Sex in the City boss Michael Patrick King, premiered in 2005. It was canceled after one season.
Oh, I don't need to see that. But became a cult favorite.
So the show was revived for a second season in 2014. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to my trailer on the studio lot. Come on in. After that, it was shelved again.
But now. Valerie, come back! A dozen years later, it's back for season three, starting on HBO tonight. No, I didn't lie. No, I couldn't tell you because the studio told me not to.
We went to a taping at Warner Brothers in November, and it was clear that even after a decade away from Valerie Cherish, Lisa Kudreaux hadn't missed a step. How does it feel to be back in Valerie's shoes? Oh, fine. Yeah, I'm unsettlingly comfortable in Valerie's shoes. But some things were missing.
Brad, what are you doing here? Actor Robert Michael Morris, who played Valerie's loyal hairdresser, Mickey, died of cancer in 2017. and after that Kudro thought the comeback was over. It was a no. for me because I don't know how to do it without Mickey.
Yeah. Mm-mm. Don't know how to do it without Mickey. No. No, no, no, no, no, no.
But eventually she and King figured out a way to do a third season and honor Mickey, all while tackling issues like AI and a rapidly changing T V world. Among the new faces on the set, a tech guy played by Kudreau's real life son, Julian Stern. Stop. Taking it out on me. What was it like to have Julian on set with you?
Oh, it was heaven. It's my baby. He's a grown man and beard and you know, like but still. I was nervous for him, his first like the table read. You know.
But he was great. Seems Julian's been on a TV set before. When her friend's character Phoebe was pregnant, Lisa Koudreau was actually pregnant with Julian. What's more, the comeback is being shot on Warner Bros.
Soundstage 24, the very same set where most of the 236 episodes of Friends were filmed. What is it like to be on this soundstage?
Let's talk about that. She says she can't remember the exact layout, but she can still feel her way around. Right there, that's where, you know, the window was. You'd look at Ugly Naked Guy. Right here.
Right there. And I just can't figure out. Rachel's bedroom and Monica's bedroom, are they this far over? I don't think so. I don't think we used this much.
Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I can't figure it out, but this is it. Is there something special about that being in the same place? Yeah. I know.
On different levels. It definitely is. We got some time.
Okay, should we get some coffee? Sure.
Okay.
Where? Yeah. We finished up friends, which was one of the biggest things in my professional life and life period. And now I'm Finishing up. The comeback.
trilogy. same place where I finished the other most important thing.
So yeah, that made me a little emotional. A little. I say a little. Yeah. Maybe more than a little.
Maybe more. Emotional. It did, yeah. Yeah, I mean that's amazing. Maybe my nose is running now.
I don't cry, but my nose runs. I mean, I never went through that period of, no, no, I don't want to talk about friends, I have to move on, and I want to play other characters, and no, you have to know me from, no, no, that's fine. And why is that? Because friends gave me everything. It just did.
And I loved being Phoebe. I loved the whole experience. And it's fine if all you know that I've ever done is friends, how could I not be okay with that? You been working out?
Well, I try to, you know, squeeze things. Of course, some of the memories are bittersweet. Castmate Matthew Perry died in 2023 from a drug overdose at age 54. Oh, oh, oh, Channel! During the 2021 Friends Reunion special, Kudreau admitted she rarely watched the series.
But after Perry's death, she said she found solace in old episodes. You started watching the show for kind of comfort? Yeah, well, I haven't watched it. I think I was self-conscious if anyone walked by and saw me watching my own show. It embarrassed me.
But then when Matthew passed away, there were marathons and I watched it and it really did comfort me.
So I very recently Just started watching Friends. Before going to bed, because I didn't see all of them.
So you don't know what happened in some of the episodes? I kind of do, but it's a surprise. Yeah, no, it's a surprise.
So you when did you start doing this again where you watch it before you go to bed? Like this last month. Oh wow. Yeah yeah really recently. Will there ever be another reunion of the caste?
I don't know, I don't think so. You never know. Like... why or how maybe it would Makes sense. I don't know.
Right now I don't think it does. Valerie Cherish? That's me. Right now, Lisa Kudreau is focused on the comeback and Valerie Cherish, yet another iconic character that audiences just can't seem to let go. Are you coming?
You're taking it all in?
Okay.
Obviously, you've revisited Valerie. Could you revisit? Phoebe? I don't know. That's a good question.
But it's not out of the realm of possibility. It's not out of the realm. I'll just do things I did before. You know. CBS News contributor Arthur Brooks is the author of a new book, The Meaning of Your Life, Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.
This morning he's charting an unlikely path to happiness. Human beings have an amazing ability to solve problems. Usually, that's great. But not always.
Sometimes we solve little problems but accidentally create major crises in the process. A case in point is boredom. We hate it because, well, it's boring.
So we solved it. Unfortunately, in the process, we lost a lot of the meaning of life. Let me explain. Throughout all of human history, boredom was just a part of life. We went to work in the factory or on the farm, and a lot of that time was, well, pretty boring.
But here's the thing. That made our brains work properly. When you're bored, a set of structures in your brain turns on called the default mode network. This is what you use for mind wandering, abstract thinking. and considering the meaning of your life.
In the last 15 years, we've all but gotten rid of boredom. And you know how. The average person looks at his or her phone 205 times a day. But that also means the default mode network stays off.
So we never think about life's big why questions. Over time, this creates a sense of emptiness, a lack of purpose and significance. This can lead to anxiety and depression. To reintroduce yourself to the meaning of your life means to learn to manage your devices and not let them manage you. That requires living with a few simple rules that introduce more silent spaces into your life.
Go for a walk each day without your phone. Work out without headphones. Create a phone-free zone at mealtimes. Put away the phone an hour before bed. and keep it out of the bedroom.
At first, this will be hard. Because the moment you're a little bored, you'll reach for the device and feel a little twinge of disappointment. But don't worry, it gets easier with practice. It will take about two weeks, but you'll find a richness you haven't felt maybe in years. you'll be calmer and more at peace.
This is how you'll know your brain is working the way it was designed. people will notice the difference. and ask your happiness secret. Just tell them that your life got more interesting. Why?
Because you allowed yourself. To be bored. Cory Booker has represented New Jersey in the United States Senate since twenty thirteen. But the Democrats' political career began back home in the Garden State on the streets of Newark. He's in conversation with Faith Saly.
I sound he is the best mayor ever. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Appreciate you so much. Love you, man.
Thank you for that. Oh, my God. Do you have a crystal ball? Is he going to run? You got no choice.
There will be no announcement here. New Jersey Senator Corey Booker hasn't been the mayor of Newark since 2013. But when he walks around his neighborhood, you'd never know it. How did you know that you could go right up to your senator and give him a hug? Because it's him and he's always like that.
You're still the mayor, no matter what. The best compliment people give me is when they call me mayor. I love this picture. Booker's parents, who were IBM executives, raised him and his brother in the predominantly white suburb of Harrington Park, New Jersey. He played football at Stanford on a full scholarship, attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, where our paths cross briefly, and graduated from Yale Law School.
This is home. When it came time to put down roots, this is the community that saw things in me. I didn't see him myself. At 29, he became the youngest person ever elected to the Newark City Council. But he quickly grew frustrated.
I literally was on the verge of quitting because I couldn't get anything done in City Hall.
So he took a different approach. Wherever there's a problem, Booker moves next door. Last summer he pitched a tent in front of a crime-infested housing project to get more police protection. The city was shamed into action. This is a Newark institution.
That success fueled his desire to run for higher office. You ran for mayor of Newark in 2002 and you lost. If you were going to have a spectacular failure, my best advice is to have a documentary team there to capture it. Make every politician live in the worst neighborhood and their city got guaranteed the city would turn around a lot quicker. Your opponent, Sharp James, called you.
Oh, and these were meant as insults. Let's be clear. You were white. Gay, Jewish, Republican. Yes.
That's why I sometimes look at Trump's outrageousness and saying, you don't know anything about hard-nosed politics of insult. You were forged in the fires of Newark. I was forged in Brick City. Newark is the toughest place in politics ever. After serving two terms as mayor, New Jersey sent him to the Senate.
I rise. Last year, Booker spoke on the Senate floor for a record-breaking 25 hours and five minutes. He called out the Trump administration, making a passionate appeal to his Senate colleagues, giving voice to everyday Americans. This is a moral moment in America. How did you prepare?
A lot of prayer. Physically, I knew I needed to fast.
So you didn't eat for how many days? Three days. And then didn't drink for over 24 hours beforehand. That I had cramps, I had numb feet, and even at the end of 25 hours. My friend, Madam President.
I told my chief of staff I could go longer. I yield the floor. I am fired up. You got angry at your Democratic colleagues, too. You've called them complicit.
I want us to call out the corrupt system. A lot of the bad things we're talking about didn't start with Donald Trump. Your critics call your record-breaking stand a stunt. Yes. I think that if you don't have critics in life, you're not doing anything of substance.
I think Democrats are the worst communicators sometimes. Frankly, Donald Trump is a master's class of communication. I don't like what he says, how he says it. But Democrats, I think the political science word is we suck at communicating. There's no bystanders.
Which is why Booker is expressing his hopes in a new book out this week. In it, he encourages Americans to stand together, reminding us of our shared virtues. We, the people, are the heroes this country needs. And the whole story of America is a story of. Ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things in the cause of our country, in service of their neighbors, loving their neighbors.
And love is sacrifice, service, kindness, and grace. Our country is full of that. Do you hear people say, is this guy for real? I heard that when I ran for president the first time a lot. The ideals of love, the ideals of empathy.
At this point when we have meanness and cruelty elevated to the highest office in our land, I'm going to do everything I can to match his frequency of hate with a frequency of love. As much as he strives to create community, I'm going to say I love you, sir. The senator is not without his detractors.
Some on the left have been critical of what appears to them to be your unconditional support of Israel. Look at what I'm doing. I'm the senator right now leading the fight, for example, about settler violence. in the West Bank. This is an issue that Unfortunately, People think is binary.
As somebody who has been working to get humanitarian aid to Gaza, to me this is about saving lives, ending the nightmare. There will never be Israeli security. without Palestinian autonomy. There will never be Palestinian autonomy. Without Israeli security.
And as the standoff in the Senate continues over US involvement in the war with Iran, Booker is calling for hearings and accountability. Do you think this war is unconstitutional? I know it's unconstitutional because the fair reading of the Constitution. Only the United States Senate has the right to declare war. The president can defend the country if there's an imminent threat.
And he has not been able to show what was the imminent threat he was trying to stop. Presidents have taken us to war without resolutions. What is Congress doing about this?
So here we have it in the worst I've ever seen it. We are allowing our president to declare war, to demand a surrender and not come to Congress.
So Americans are going to hear you say that and say, okay, what are y'all doing about it?
So to me, this is a good trouble moment. How can we shut down Senate business as usual. and force hearings. This past week, Booker has been the face of his party's resistance, so far unsuccessful. And he's also been pushing a bill to help Americans lower their federal income tax.
Politics aside, the 56-year-old has plenty to smile about. Last fall, he married Alexis Lewis in an interfaith ceremony. I didn't just wait for the right person to come along. I think what I now realize is I had to become the right person. And it's just been two years of utter magic.
This fall, he's up for re-election in New Jersey, but he's already thinking about what comes next. We saw a man on the street yesterday with socks that said Booker 2028. Will people be wearing those socks in 2028? I am going to be, I'm telling you right now, a part of the fight in 2028. It's time for another sort of big moment in America for us to seize, reclaim, and redeem the dream of America.
What I'm doing as a part of that, I'm not sure yet. This is in a moment of America decline. This is the moment in that chrysalis of darkness that we were about to emerge again and soar to new heights. Thanks for listening. I'm Jane Pauley.
Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. Hey, it's Howie Mandel, and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my Howie-Do-It gaming team take on Gilly the King and Wallow 267's Million Dollars Gaming in an epic Global Gaming League video game showdown. Four rounds, multiple games, one winner, plus a halftime performance by multi-platinum artist Travi McCoy. Watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match against NEO right now at GlobalGamingLeague.com. That's globalgamingleague.com.
Everybody games. I'm back. I'm really back. School Spirits returns. Why am I here?
I'm not dead, right? This place is an absolute death trap. We need to get out of here now. School Spirits new season now streaming only on Paramount Plus.
