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Get up to $350 off with code DEEPSLEEP at eightsleep.com. Good morning. I'm Jane Pauley, and this is Sunday morning. It is an unimaginable nightmare, being captured and held hostage in a foreign country, with little or no explanation as to why. Last year at least seventy four.
Yes, 74 Americans were abducted or wrongfully detained in 19 countries. In some cases, these stories end with an emotional reunion. In fact, just this past week, Dennis Coyle, an American held prisoner in Afghanistan for more than a year, was released by the Taliban and returned to the United States. But as Aaron Moriarty will share, For families of the detained, bringing their loved ones home, can be an unrelenting challenge. When 36-year-old Elizabeth Serkoff was grabbed off the street and kidnapped in Iraq, Her younger sister Emma had to go to extremes to get her home.
My sister's been held hostage for 13 months and you don't care. But where did you find the nerve? To do that. If my sister dies in captivity, am I gonna tell myself, oh, but I was polite? The power of sisterly love coming up on Sunday morning.
From The Daily Show to the newsroom to X-Men, Olivia Munn has played a wide variety of characters, but nothing could have prepared her for the real-life role she's recently taken on. as she'll tell our Tracy Smith. No, tell me about it. I thought I was in and then You know, one wrong move and I'm out again. In the past two years, Olivia Munn has shown the world what real courage looks like, not by acting tough on screen, but by battling her real-life breast cancer and sounding the alarm for millions of other women.
I mean, you've literally saved. Lives. That was the number one goal. And then Limes, Olivia Munn, and the things that really matter later on Sunday morning. Michael Jordan retired from basketball more than 20 years ago.
but he's still putting his legendary competitive drive to good use in a sport that may surprise you. He's talking with Gail King. I'm a very competitive person. Still? Because I thought you stepped back, you wanted a quieter life.
I think I'm cursed. He's the best, but don't call Michael Jordan the greatest. There's no such thing as goat. A very rare and candid interview with a Hall of Famer. Do you like driving fast, Michael?
No, I never drive fast. About the sport he loved before basketball. I don't have the talent to do so. I'll probably run it straight into that wall, but Michael Jordan ahead on Sunday morning. Good things come to those who wait.
Also ahead this morning. Got it. Morocco gets a preview of a reinvention of cats. The Jellical Ball, now on Broadway. I won't vote for the supplementary.
Robert Costa sits down with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Comedy at its best is a human being. Plus, thoughts on the history of black humor in America from PBS's Jeff Bennett and more. On this Sunday morning for the 29th of March, We'll be right back. Among the many matters the war with Iran has complicated, negotiating the safe return of at least six Americans currently being detained there.
Securing the freedom of even one person held hostage overseas is a difficult enough task. as Sarah Moriarty discovered. Did you realize you had that in you that you would? Be able to fight for somebody as hard as you did for your sister? No.
I honestly. I was so naive when she was kidnapped. I had no idea what it would take. On March 21st, 2023, Emma Sirkov's sister Elizabeth, a 36-year-old Princeton University graduate student, was kidnapped in Iraq. She was doing fieldwork for her PhD in political science, something she had done safely several times before.
She doesn't just sit in some Ivy Tower reading books about Iraq. She believes in going and talking to Iraqis. It is part of the program's requirements that you do research in the field outside of the U.S. Elizabeth Serkoff was grabbed off the street and held for ransom by members of Khatib Hezbollah, a terrorist organization based in Iraq and funded by Iran. What authorities do you call?
It's a very good question because I had no idea. I, at that point, I was, you know, just a nobody living my life quietly in California. Emma, who got her PhD at Stanford and is married to an American, first reach out to Russian authorities for help. The two sisters, children of Soviet dissidents, were born in Russia, and Elizabeth held both Russian and Israeli passports. We are standing here in front of the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv protesting against Russian war crimes in Syria.
But Emma says the Russian government showed no interest in rescuing her sister. What they told me is that they have read her opinions online. She's a human rights activist, so she has never found a power structure she did not want to criticize. The Israeli government stepped up and seemed to be making some progress, says Emma. Until October 7th of that year.
When Hamas launched the deadly attack on Israel. And suddenly, another 250 hostages took over the headlines. As Israel struck back with the relentless bombing of Gaza, Emma feared her sister's captors might seek revenge with her life. I would go to sleep every night.
Well, sleep. I would attempt to sleep every night. and check my phone, let there not be a picture of her dead body, let there not be a video of a beheading. At that point Elizabeth Serkoff had been missing for seven months. But then I realized I have to be that responsible adult.
There's no one else. If I'm not willing to see her die in captivity and I'm not. then I have no choice but to put my big girl pants on and just go into the world and fight for her. And then the first clue, this video was released on the internet. It was Elizabeth.
Prove she was alive, says Emma, but clearly under duress. And in pain. Obviously she didn't say explicitly that she that she was being uh tortured, but to me it was as clear as if she would have said explicitly. More importantly, she looked terrified. Terrified.
I've never seen her so scared in my life. My name is Emma Tsurkov. And I'm Elizabeth's sister. Emma in late 2023 and into the next year. continued to lobby State Department officials in the Biden administration to pressure the Iraqi government, heavily dependent on U.S.
aid, to find Elizabeth and negotiate for her release.
Some of your viewers might think, oh, why should the US government care about this person? First of all, she was in Iraq doing research for an elite American institution as it funded her research.
So my sister is an expert on Iraq and Syria. And the US government has benefited from her expertise. She had briefed members of Congress. But she says few in this State Department would meet with her or even take her calls. I would often hear, we feel for you, this is terrible.
We know your sister. She is so brilliant. We really hope that she comes out of captivity. But what do you mean, we hope? Don't hope, help.
Shame on you! Let my tree. Cool. Fighting for her sister, Emma says, brought out a fearlessness she didn't even know she had. In April 2024, when the Iraqi prime minister came to Washington.
So did Emma. I realized that he's not going to get enough pressure from the administration directly. And I knew that I need to try and generate attention around my sister's captivity. I decided it's uh time for some guerrilla tactics. Emma and friends projected laser messages on the Willard Hotel where the Iraqi delegation was staying.
And when the Iraqi Prime Minister attended an event Emma was in the back row. My sister's been held hostage for 13 months. And you don't care. Gave him a piece of my mind. And you should be ashamed of yourself that you're not doing anything to help her and save her.
She's innocent and you know it. It was just. Thirteen months of pent up Frustration and anger and uncertainty. He didn't want to hear it, and now I'm going force him to. But where did you find the nerve?
to do that. If my sister dies in captivity, am I gonna tell myself, oh, but I was polite? And yet her sister remained in captivity. In November 2024, after President Trump's reelection, she reached out to the new Special Adviser for Hostage Response, Adam Bowler, who lives in Nashville, where he runs a health care investment firm. In a very roundabout way.
I got his personal phone number. I think she was surprised that I picked up. And then I think she didn't know what to do. I must have had a panic attack during that phone call because I was talking at 150 miles per hour. I think.
The desperation I projected. Uh touched him? Bola promised to help, but when more months passed, Emma took another audacious step, and flew to Nashville. I show up in his house with this huge bush of pink hydranias and I realized I invited myself to their Mother's Day brunch. It doesn't sound like you regret crashing Oh.
Adam Bowler's Mother's Day event. I apologize for the rudeness of it. But I mean, it got my sister home. How was it good? On September 9th, 2025, 903 days after her sister was kidnapped, Bowler called to say that Elizabeth was finally in the hands of US officials.
He was like, Emma, we have Elizabeth on the line. Elizabeth, can you hear us? The first word she said was FIFA, it's our nickname for each other. She was like, FIFA And we're screaming at each other, FIFA, FIFA, FIFA, FIFA We're just crying hysterically and just full of joy. It was just like so, such an amazing, amazing, amazing, joyful moment.
Bowler wouldn't say what finally convinced the militia to let her go, only that he and others made it clear to the Iraqi government that Elizabeth was a priority. Whether people are critical of the president or not. Everybody can agree. I think. The President is not afraid to take action.
So nothing was traded for Elizabeth. No. But Elizabeth did pay a steep price with her health. As her sister feared, when her captors realized that Elizabeth was Israeli, she was tortured and falsely accused of being a spy. It's called the scorpion in Iraq.
They would hang off me behind my back. And they basically put a hook in the handcuffs. And raise me. She is still in such pain that when she was ready to talk publicly, She was unable to sit in a chair for an interview. Is this really the only way you can even be comfortable sitting down?
It is, basically, or lying down. How did you keep from passing out? Oh, I did pass out. uh be when the pain becomes so intense, uh it's actually A blessing, you know, to pass out. But then they would wake me up, they would pour water on me and resume the torture.
It is utterly horrific. You're in a state of. Terror. Chicken noodle soup for my soul. and finally reunited.
But that wasn't the only reunion that was healing for Elizabeth. Earlier this year, she got to meet the man who helped get her home. Thank you. Thank you. It was one of the most emotionally intense experiences of my life.
I cry basically for two hours, like without interruption pretty much. It's amazing to see you in person. It's hard to explain how you look at a person who gave you life. But he's not your parent, you know? Yeah.
Thank you. Elizabeth said that you changed her life. She changed yours too, didn't she? Of course. When I came in to see her, I've never experienced something like that.
I don't always get that time with people that we rescue. Bowler keeps a permanent record of the number of hostages, that includes the Israelis held by Hamas, that he says have been released in the past year. I I think of each one. It's funny when I was with Elizabeth, she said, which one am I? Which one is she?
She could be. I don't, I said, which one do you want to be? I think she was like there, she said. Today, Elizabeth is doing rehab for her injuries. and plans to return to her studies at Princeton.
She believes her work is more important than ever.
So many of the policies of the United States and Israel and other countries. Or based on a faulty understanding of reality on the ground. I don't expect to change the world for my research, but if I can even alter policy in a small way, that would benefit millions of people. I was deprived of my voice for nine hundred and three days.
Now free, you know. I can speak up. Time now for Mohraca to let the cats out of the bag. Because Jericho's done and Jernicles do, and Jennicles do, and Jericho. When the musical Cats began its nearly 18-year run on Broadway in 1982, The cast included Ken Ard as McCavety the Mystery Cat.
When we were doing cats forty-five years ago, we were cats. We had cat-like Features we wore leotards with fur and wigs with ears and tails. But the species of cats opening on Broadway next week looks entirely different. Cat the Jellical Ball is Broadway crossbred with the once underground art form known as Ballroom. No touching.
Neither one of you Pioneered by black and Latino gay and trans people, Ballroom brought us Voguing. Let your body through the music room and other so-called categories of competition. The category is. Dynasty. The category is Runway.
The category is... Real. And it's inspired series like the drama Pose. Hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey.
Here we are. In this cats, there are no whiskers or tails, but there are plenty of fans. He's here to make the dealership.
So we can As the characters buy to impress that most revered of cats, Old Deuteronomy. played by Tony Award winner Andre DeShields. And how much of Andre de Schilles are we seeing on stage?
Well, you're not saying 100% because if I gave you all of Andre de Schilles, the theater would be on fire. If DeShields epitomizes Broadway, then his ballroom counterpart is James Lloyd Good Jr., better known as Junior LaBeja. Who was featured in the 1990 documentary about Ballroom, Paris is Burning. I knew how to act with the city. my back In my tail.
Labasia plays Gus the Theater Cat. I never could fail. What I evoke, what we evoke in this revitalization, this restoration. of cats is that we allow the audience to share their emotions. and the audience doesn't hold back.
If you know only one song from cats, it's Memory. Sung originally on Broadway by Betty Buckley. All alone in the morning. I can smile at the old days. I was beautiful.
Golden. and here by Tempress Chassity Moore. How did you even begin to approach it? It was so scary. And then you have such a song that is one of the most popular songs on Broadway.
Let the memory. Live. But I wanted to just really express the pain and the comfort and the song.
So I'm just really remembering some of the things that I went through, good and bad. And that's how I approached it. You attack, you better get back, you better cat, cat, cat. Judges, your scores. Tins across the ball!
The approach of Cat's the Jellico Ball needed the approval of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The disco beat really added to the whole thing. It's taken it to another, a different level to where the other one was. Weber wrote Cats based on the poems of T.S. Eliot.
While the original Broadway run broke records, it still Over time, the musical had become something of a punchline. Practical cascade. Pharmatical cats, pragmatical cats, fanatical cats. Because of the appalling cats movie, I went out and bought myself a little Havanese puppy. To recover from the trauma of the cats.
It was, yes, yes. I mean, it's my therapy dog on planes. I just write a note to the airlines saying, you know, reason for dog on plane and just put cats movie. And they always come back saying no doctor certificate required. What was it that you didn't like about cats the movie?
Well, is this a very, very long interview we're doing? Because it could be a very, very long list. Yes, that's Andrew Lloyd Weber throwing shade, a term that originated with ballroom. And what is the history of this? That's the class.
That's the classic. That's like somebody does something amazing. And it's also the middle finger. Not the first finger, the middle finger. Cast members Robert Silk Mason, Baby Byrne.
Dudley Joseph Jr., Dava Huesca, and Sidney James Harcourt taught me more of the language of ballroom. But this is a sign of approval. Yeah, basically. I hate that. That's it.
But to truly gain their approval, I had to learn to walk the runway. Wrist. Risk Rotate the wrist. You give it a large girl. Are there any kicks involved?
No, silly because Ooh, Okay, now hold on. We might have to add a cake in this, okay? I think we have to add a cake. You girl Benji hyperextended. Choreographers Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles put me through my paces.
And one, two, a three, a four, and your five, a six, your seven, and eight, and your one, a two, a three, and four. And a hey girl, a bad girl. I'll see you later, girl. Leg. Yes.
And then she gave one fashion. Whether in rehearsal or on the actual stage. Same piece of cat. Ken Ard says the experience of this Broadway ballroom hybrid can be reduced to one word. This is just a room full of joy and that's what people come to experience.
When they leave out the stage door, people are singing, they're crying. It's a religious experience for people. It's just about sheer joy. I think maybe we've taken this as far as it goes. Let's not ride it till the wheels come off.
I like you, Coop. A lot.
Okay. Ow. Maybe too much. Your Friends and Neighbors is just the latest project for Olivia Munn. The X Men and the Newsroom actor has proven her versatility, but as Tracy Smith tells us, nothing prepared her for an off-screen role she never saw coming.
Here's how I describe Asian markets to people who haven't been. I'm like, you take a regular supermarket. and then tweak every single detail. At 99 Ranch Market, one of LA's biggest Asian food stores, Olivia Munn was on a kind of scavenger hunt. And then limes.
Lime. She was making pho, the Vietnamese soup, using her mother's recipe. Oh wait, we need to get noodles, so might as well go to here. My mama sent me a picture, but this is the kind of noodle that we're looking for.
Okay. But a few things on her shopping list were a bit lost in translation. And then we need to get cinnamon sticks, star anise, galangal, which I don't even know what that is. This one we have to ask somebody. Still, if you ask anyone about Olivia Munn, her cooking probably won't be the first thing that comes to mind.
I know the kind of mutants you're looking for. And I know where to find them. She's a superhero on screen and off. More on that later. His office.
No exaggeration. Was a garbage can. She's a former Daily Show regular who can still make Jon Stewart laugh. John, you know this, but you are like a. Like a small big brother to me.
And now she's a devious divorce in the Apple TV series Your Friends and Neighbors.
So there's a part of me, a disturbingly large one, that is relieved that he's dead. But I mean, Keely, I'm feeling guilty as f about that because. He's the father of my kids, for God's sake. I mean, what kind of person does that make me? She's manipulative.
She's manipulative and she is looking out for herself and she's really not someone that you should be trusting. I'm in. That was fast. The show is about hedge fund manager Andrew Cooper, played by John Hamm, who loses his job and makes ends meet by stealing from his rich and often obnoxious friends. I'm a simple man.
I think both of us know that's not true. And starting this week with the premiere of season two, James Marsden plays the guy who shakes up everyone's life. Come on, let's get you a drink. Oh, thanks, but I just wanted to stop by and congratulate you. I'm not staying.
It's a great role for Munn, but it's one she wasn't sure she even wanted. I wasn't going to act anymore. I didn't want to be in front of the camera. Why is that? I just I I didn't want to Be exposed anymore.
Even if it was like really complimentary and really nice, I just felt. Like I just needed to To retreat. And when you know her story, it's not hard to see why. In April 2023, Olivia Munn was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. And if that wasn't frightening enough, she'd had no symptoms at all.
She only found out after taking the lifetime risk assessment test. It's just a free online Q ⁇ A. It takes minutes to take and get your score and it tells you your chance of getting breast cancer in your lifetime. And anything above 20% is considered high risk and I was 37.3%. And you had no symptoms.
No symptoms. And I had a clear mammogram and a clear ultrasound. But once further tests confirmed the cancer, she fought back with everything she had. I decided to get a double mastectomy and I also got an opherectomy and a partial hysterectomy.
Now your score is zero.
Now my score is zero, yes. I've gotten lots of DMs and questions about my breast cancer timeline. But instead of recovering quietly, she sounded the alarm, posting online about her cancer and telling everyone who'd listen about the risk assessment test. And it worked. In the years since Olivia Munn started sharing her story, the number of women taking the test has increased by 4,000%.
I mean, you've literally saved. lives. Knowing that it's really changed so many people's lives, it's been Um the most amazing thing. There's no way I could have ever predicted it. Still, she didn't necessarily set out to be a hero.
Lisa Olivia Munn was born 45 years ago in Oklahoma to a Caucasian dad and a Vietnamese mother of Chinese ancestry. She got a degree in journalism, but set her sights on Hollywood and started her showbiz career hosting a cable show that was Well, nothing like you'd see on PBS. By 2012, she'd cleaned up her act. Please translate exactly what I'm asking and exactly what Mr. Tanaka is answering, including what I'm saying now, because I want him to be aware that he's being misrepresented.
And learned how to handle Aaron Sorkin's rapid-fire dialogue effortlessly. I was talking really fast, and then the director came up to me. And I was like, hey, can you just slow it down a little bit? And then Soar could hear. And he goes, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no, go faster. No, go faster. Go faster. He's like, that means I can get more words in her mouth. Two guys in clip-on ties are like, come on, son, do the right thing.
Sign here and you'll be an English major. I was like, okay. In 2021, she started dating someone who also had a way with words, comic superstar John Mulaney. They were married in 2024. What's it been like to have John by your side through all of this?
There's no better person in the world to me than my husband. He wanted to come to every single doctor's appointment. He had his little notebook. You know, he's got his notebook that he writes all of his ideas for jokes and anything that comes to him through the day. You know, you turn halfway through it and there's all these notes about, you know, cancer and hormone therapy and you know, everything that you could imagine that I need to know, he was there.
Having the humor to go through it and having someone who's so funny. It really It just lightens everything. Oh my god. Their son Malcolm is four. Daughter May will be two in the fall.
And she likes to wear it like this. Like this. They are her world.
So I came up with this expression as a reminder of how life can change in an instant. They say it's not the Christmases and the birthdays and the New Year's that we remember. Like life happens on a Tuesday. It just happens. and you cannot expect it.
And so every day you should just be so present. and grateful and Put your phone down when you your kid says, mommy. This is what life is made of. It's all these tiny little moments. And once you are faced with the possibility of death and not being here.
Next. For me, all I wanted were the little moments. This is so fun. And thanks to Olivia Munn and her openness about her health, countless other women can have a few more little moments too. How are you?
I'm doing good. I'm doing good today. The medicine you have to take afterwards is Sometimes so exhausting. With that, I think that I'm so lucky. I don't look at it like, like cancer has taken these things from me or It's unfair that I have to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life.
I know that I am lucky to be here, and I am so lucky that I'm in this chaos and that. I haven't slept in a few days, and that I'm exhausted. It's a true privilege to just be alive in the world. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop.
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Michael Jordan became famous the world over for being a legend on the basketball court. And while his playing days are over, his drive hasn't diminished one bit. as our CBS Mornings colleague Gail King found out. I've waited 10 years for this interview, but it is worth it to me, Michael. I just want you to know how much I appreciate it.
Let's go, Cap. Good things come to those who wait. We met Michael Jordan at the Phoenix Raceway. But his need to compete is as fierce as ever. The joy of Seeing competition, right?
I'm a very competitive person. Still? 100%. Still? 100%.
Why? Because I thought you stepped back, you wanted a quieter life. I think I'm cursed. I'm cursed with this competitive gene that anything that I do, if it's getting dressed, I gotta get dressed before my wife gets dressed. Or I gotta get dressed, you know, those types of things.
I'm cursed. He's moving up. He's moving up. Yes, Michael. We're gonna watch it too.
The billionaire businessman and Hall of Fame basketball player changed one sport Now he's changing another. He is the co-owner of 2311 Racing. a top NASCAR Cup Series team. NASCAR.
So take us back why this sport means so much to you. Is it family memories? What is it? I think it's more family memories. My father actually, you know, he was a die-hard mechanic.
He used to work on all the neighborhood cars. I think it gravitated into his love for cars and he likes driving fast. My mom likes driving fast. Do you like driving fast, my dear? No, I never drive fast.
He says with a smile. Reddick to the top side. He's got help. Tyler Reddick does go fast, very fast. The 23-11 racing driver began the season with a record three wins in a row.
Tyler Reddick comes to the line. Wow. A shower of sparks behind him. Tyler Reddick, two in a row. Yes, not since 1949.
The repeat for Tyler Reddick.
So, what's it like having MJ as a boss? Oh, yeah, domination ball gates. Hey, good job, dude. The insight and knowledge he's able to share with us from his experiences, one, motivate the hell out of us. You're ready to run through a wall, first off.
But then, two, hearing a champion, a winner, a legend. Tell you these things, and it's like, oh, wow, we're not that far off. They're athletes, they're great athletes. They have to think real quick, going at 190 miles an hour. And to me, that was intriguing enough for me to kind of dive in and understand it from an athlete standpoint.
Who will get there first? Hamlin on the outside and two close to call. Jordan founded 2311 Racing in 2020. To the checkered flag, Denny Hamlin has won the Daytona 500 with legendary driver Denny Hamlin. Checkered flag is waving at the start-finish line.
New Medano is going to get turned. Danny Hamlin across the line. How did this partnership come about? I saw an article that wasn't true. It says Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan are looking to purchase a NASCAR team.
It wasn't true? No. But I saw the article, sent it to him. He says, not real, but if you want to make it real, let me know. Did you guys know each other?
Yeah, so we had had a friendship for about 10, 12 years.
So I said, you know, I think owning an NSCAR team is the right move for me. I just need the right partner. And of course, I say, Well, here's this opportunity. He says, I'm in. NASCAR, America's premier auto sport.
Cars of the makes you or your neighbor are driving, competing in a 160-mile grind at Daytona Beach, has been privately owned and operated since 1948 by the France family. I've been a fan. It's not like I just woke up and said, you know what? I'm gonna go and I'm gonna attack NASCAR. No, I've been a supp a supporter of NASCAR for a long period of time.
But I was focused on what I was doing, which is basketball.
Now when I got into NASCAR, I can see how things was operating. It was lopsided. It was wrong. The sport was not set up for success long term for the individuals that's involved in the sport.
Now, up top, Yeah. You know, they can make a good living. They were making a good living. Jordan sued, saying NASCAR was being run like a monopoly. controlling what tracks were used, what supplies for cars were allowed.
and that better terms were needed in the charters to enter races. When I read that Michael Jordan is going to take the stand, That got everybody's attention. Were you nervous? Oh yeah, I was definitely nervous. Were you nervous?
Don't get me wrong. I mean, I was nervous. Any courtroom makes me nervous because that's not where I want to be, really. Yes, it is. 100%.
But I was all in. I was going to win. Only way this sport's going to grow is we have to find some synergy between the two entities. And I think we've gotten to that point. In a groundbreaking settlement, NASCAR agreed to give teams evergreen charters with improved terms.
This fight was needed. And if I got kicked out, at least I made people aware that. Change needs to happen in this sport.
So I went in with the idea that even if I lost, I won. He did not lose. Still winning doesn't come easy. It comes with sacrifice. Yes.
You're going to sacrifice something. Yes. It's infectious. You know, you win, everybody's happy. When you lose, there's a sadness, which is necessary.
People say at this level, you learn more from your losses and your wins. You agree? Yes, without a question. Is there a downside to competition, to being this competitive? I think it can take its toll on relationships.
Do you think? I'll just look inside yours quickly. I look at the cars. Have you ever even been in a car? It seems like your body wouldn't fit in a car.
I can't. I can't fit.
So you've never been in a car and never driven? No. Do you want to? I would probably try to go as fast as Danny Hamlin and some of these other guys knowing I don't have the talent to do so. I'll probably run it straight into that wall, but that doesn't change my desire.
I love the sport. He's not driving, but Jordan is clearly a main attraction. It's an immersive multi-day festival atmosphere. There's no other sporting event like it. With fans getting up close, I mean very close.
Jordan is still getting used to that. I'm not really this show. Even though, as of late, I've been in the forefront a lot more than I probably anticipated, but I think the sport needs it. When I say I wanted to retire and get to acquire life, I wanted to get away from basketball in terms of what I represented in that arena and how big I've gotten, and it was such a huge huge burden for me. Here, I'm not in that same Real still not the same as me playing in Chicago and those types of things.
But it's something that. that I think keeps me Alive. When you say burden, what do you mean burden? The burden of living a certain way, trying to maintain whatever everybody's perspective is for you, that is a burden. Then at some point in time, you say, I'm tired of doing that.
Nothing left to prove. Nothing at all. Is there a teeny, tiny part of you that misses basketball that misses? Oh, yeah. Oh, 100%.
It's not just a teeny, it's a huge beast. But I've compensated that feeling. through NASCAR. That urged to dream. That if I wish I can still pick up a basketball, you would.
Oh, I would love to do that. You would. Believe me. My competitive juices is here. Yeah, I would definitely love to do that.
Hopefully, you bring us luck. Michael Jordan is 63 and wears many titles, though there is one he would prefer not to hold. Is there room for more than one goat in basketball? There's no such thing as a goat, you know, to me. Not to me.
Yeah, it's only because I think we learn from other athletes, we progress the game. To say that one is better than the other is not really right. Let's end with this, Michael. You've done so much. Are you satisfied with your life's work and legacy?
Yes. You are. I am. I wouldn't change a thing. I live with my mistakes, I live with all the lessons that I've learned.
And I've been blessed with friendships, with partners, with teammates, coaches, whatever. I would not change a thing. And what a feeling. If it ends today. You know, I will have a smile on my face, 100%.
Back in the 1990s, a wave of popular sitcoms starring black Americans introduced new voices and new perspectives to television. But the history of black comedy goes back much further. Thoughts now from Jeff Bennett, co-anchor of the PBS News Hour. and author of the new book, Black Out Loud. There was a moment in American network television when something extraordinary unfolded, though viewers watching at home rarely thought of it that way.
My parents loved me. On nearly any weeknight in the 1990s, you could flip on the TV and find Martin living single. My life got flip turned upside down. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, a different world aboard in living color. Those shows were hilarious and endlessly quotable.
But what made that moment so extraordinary wasn't just the laughs, it was the range of black life suddenly visible on American television. You tell them to come see me, come see Shaday. Moving from one show primarily carrying that weight. Hello, this is a Hutchstable Residence. to many shows sharing it.
Week after week, millions of viewers were invited into dorm rooms, family homes, workplaces and friendships that felt vibrant, specific, and human. The characters were messy, funny, ambitious, romantic, sometimes ridiculous, and unmistakably real. This is between Ron and his daddy. Are you saying this is none of my business? Oh wow.
There you go.
Now there had been black lead sitcoms on TV before, but this was different. Yeah. Now black writers, producers, and showrunners were shaping those worlds from the inside with an authenticity audiences could feel. Oh Lord, there they go again. For many black viewers, those shows felt like recognition.
They reflected rhythms and relationships that were familiar. For others, they offered something just as powerful, a sense of familiarity with lives and experiences they might not have encountered before. Would you please sit down? We're busy now. Oh, honey, we're about to get very busy, honey.
But that moment in the 1990s didn't appear out of nowhere. It was the latest chapter in a much longer story about black comedy in America. At the start, black performers had to navigate the confines of minstrelsy, a form built on degrading caricatures of black life. Yet artists like Burt Williams used wit and timing to bend the form. bringing humanity to characters long reduced to stereotype.
Over time, black comedians continued pushing those boundaries through vaudeville stages, nightclubs, and television. Comedy became a space where difficult truths about race, class, and American life could break into the mainstream through laughter. One of my great-great-grandparents was white. I'm sure of it. Because I know I didn't look like this when I came from Africa.
By the time the 1990s arrived, those generations of performers had helped create the conditions for something new. The result was something larger than entertainment. Those shows broadened the cultural imagination. As someone who grew up watching them sitting beside my brother in our living room, I didn't realize at the time that I was witnessing a cultural turning point, but looking back now, it's clear that the laughter carried something deeper. As a journalist, I've spent my career asking powerful people tough questions in pursuit of the truth.
But long before I did any of that, I learned something essential about truth from people whose job it was to make me laugh. Comedy, at its best, is how a society talks to itself about things it isn't ready to face directly. Humor lowers our defenses.
Sometimes culture moves a country forward not through political arguments or debates, but through punchlines, making connection unavoidable. Not sure how to tackle your taxes? Are you sweating the small print? you may be experiencing FOMU. the fear of messing up.
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Details at Lowe's.com slash terms. Subject to change. As chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is at the center of some of the most critical debates in the country just now. He's in conversation with Robert Costa. For 47 years, Iran has been known as the bully of the Middle East.
But they are not the belief. any longer. President Donald Trump's decision to launch strikes against Iran has won support from most Senate Republicans. I think that they are achieving great success with what they've done so far. I think they're more unified probably for war than just about anything else.
But I did two big mailings to a bunch of people. But Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is the lone exception. The chairman of the Homeland Security Committee says Trump should not have acted without congressional approval. He's not allowed to start any military action unless it's Authorized or an imminent attack. If it's not imminent, it's not authorized under the Constitution or the War Powers Act.
For Paul, this moment is testing whether Congress, now in Republican control, will assert itself. as founding father James Madison intended. When people look at all of this, are they seeing Congress functioning as a co-equal branch of government when it comes to foreign policy and war powers or not? Not. Madison said that we give the legislature certain powers and the president certain powers, and as each tried to grasp for the power, they would check and balance each other.
I don't think our founders ever imagined our current Congress that is completely lacking in ambition. Um, they don't check the president. As for checking Trump, Paul started doing that more than a decade ago when they had competing White House bids. His visceral response to attack people on their appearance, short, tall, fat. Would we not all be worried to have someone like that in charge of the nuclear arsenal?
Mr. Trump. I never attacked him on his look, and believe me, there's plenty of subject matter right there, that I can tell you. Since then, they've mostly patched things up. But the Senator isn't afraid to break with Trump.
especially when he feels hawkish advisers are in the President's ear. I think he was misled by some of the more aggressive people. His basic instincts have been for less war. What could be the political and economic costs should this war escalate and continue?
Well, the economic costs are very clear. In the political landscape, I think the longer this goes on, the less likely Republicans are able to hold on to the House and the Senate. Paul believes congressional Republicans could face another reckoning soon. as the administration requests additional funding. I won't vote for the supplemental because I don't want the war to continue.
Most people will accept the argument and say, oh, you can't. Quit funding them, they're over there, they're in the battle, we can't fund them. But actually, if they weren't funded, they'd be brought home. You need to get here at least six hours early because we thought four hours would do it. Closer to home, a partial government shutdown continues overfunding Homeland Security, snarling air travel and causing TSA workers to go for more than a month without pay.
Many in our workforce have missed bill payments. received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut off. On Friday, President Trump signed an order to pay TSA. This should never happen. This is a stupid way to run your government.
But the government, Paul says, will keep facing fiscal standoffs. We're going to have another one of these in six months. You know, the spending will expire come the end of September.
So I'm not against the fight. In fact, I want to make the fight such that we're fighting over the increases and not the salaries.
So help me God.
So help me God.
Making things even trickier on the homeland front. Paul's testy relationship with President Trump's new pick to run DHS. Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen. Haven't heard I misspoke? Paul opposed his nomination over character and Mullen's response to a 2017 incident where Paul was assaulted.
So you're jolly well fine, and you want the American public and the people up here to vote that may or may not vote for you to know that you supported the felonious, violent attack on me from behind. I did not say I supported it. I said I understood it. There's a difference. Have you had a conversation with Secretary Mullen since he was sworn in?
I have not. And, you know, we'll operate in a professional manner as time goes on. A guy like Massey, his poll numbers are showing he's at 6% approval rating right now. And we call him Rand Paul Jr. because he never votes for the Republican Party.
Another flashpoint with Trump, Paul's support of embattled Kentucky Congressman Tom Massey. a Republican critic of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files. I've not seen any arrests from the revelations. In the Epstein files, you can like Donald Trump and Thomas Massey because they represent a lot of the same things, but Massey represents an independence of spirit that I think you want in your legislator. If you want a rubber stamp, we could just have AI.
Paul's Maverick streak follows in the footsteps of his father, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian hero and three-time presidential hopeful. Our campaign is all about Freedom. prosperity and peace. And with 2028 just around the corner, Senator Rand Paul isn't ruling anything out. There was recently a headline in the Washington Examiner.
Rand Paul sounds like he's running for president. Yeah, I don't know yet.
So maybe they know something. I don't know. We're thinking about it, and I would say 50-50. We'll make a decision after the election. But I'm not going to do it just to do it.
It would be, one, because we need to have a free market wing, we need to have a free trade wing of the party who's not eager for war and tries to at least explore diplomacy as an option to war. Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. I'm back. I'm really back.
School spirits returned. Why am I here, blunt dead? Disruptions on this campus will not be tolerated. If I look crazy, it's because that's how I feel. I don't know how to live in two worlds.
Secrets lurk. There are others beneath the surface. They're not like us. We need to get out of here.
Now. School Spirits new season now streaming only on Paramount Plus. CBS Sundays, its three incredible heroes on one unmissable night. The night starts with a new era of Yellowstone in the CBS original Marshalls. Casey Dutton is back and bringing Range Justice to Montana.
Then Justin Hartley stars in TV's number one show, Tracker. When your loved one goes missing, he's the man for the job. Followed by Morris Chestnut as the world's best dock detective in Watson. Marshalls, followed by Tracker and Watson, CBS Sundays starting at 8-7 Central and streaming on Paramount Plus.
