You've got a big day.
So you use unstoppable scent boosters to give your laundry non-stop freshness.
So no matter how long the day goes, you can't stop this power this walk this pose this strut this look this talk Your clothes will be so fresh you can confidently strut into that end of the day meeting like a boss boss boss boss boss boss bosses Let's talk business in my office Add new unstoppable beads to your wash for a 24-hour non-stop freshness so you can smell unstoppable Good morning. I'm Jane Pauley, and this is Sunday morning. As Americans salute the red, white, and blue this Fourth of July weekend. We'll be looking at a very different stars and stripes. The newspaper for America's Military Community.
The first issue of Stars and Stripes came out during the Civil War. and it's been published continuously since World War two. and while its reporters are Pentagon employees, it has historically been editorially independent. But that has recently been called into question. as David Martin will tell us.
Stars and Stripes, the newspaper for America's military, takes pride in its editorial independence. even though it reports to the Department of Defense. But now the Pentagon is out to rid the paper of quote woke distractions. What do you think the Pentagon's end game is here? I worry that the end game is that turning Stars and Stripes into a public affairs propaganda machine.
The newspaper's independence on the line. ahead on Sunday morning. Before, he was an Oscar-winning actor known for Whiplash and the Spider-Man movies, among others. JK Simmons was a struggling performer in New York, just trying to make ends meet. Happily, those days he'll tell Tracy Smith, are over.
He scored an Oscar for being the meanest music teacher ever. But it's not like J.K. Simmons hasn't known his share of tough times. Were you a good waiter? You know what?
Not very good. I worked hard. I tried to be charming. I was not organized. John, I don't respond well to threats.
You might say he's learned a few things. J.K. Simmons, later on Sunday morning. Little House on the Prairie was one of the most beloved television series of the 70s and 80s.
Now it's back in a new streaming version out this week. Faith Saley shares a behind-the-scenes look. Laura Ingalls Wilder's story of how one pioneer family went west has been beloved by readers and viewers for generations. I just don't know if there's. never not the right time.
for this story of this family and everything they strive for in life. Is universal. All right, so how's goes here? Coming up on Sunday morning, a new show takes on the big dreams of the Ingalls family. and their little house on the prairie.
Also, ahead this morning. Moroccan looks back on what's being called the wedding of the century. The Nuptials of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. Connor Knighton explores the growing popularity of listening bars where you can take in records the old-fashioned way. Yeah.
Holly Williams visits the English hometown of founding father Thomas Paine. While Robert Costa heads to George Washington's Virginia estate, Mount Vernon. Then there's the main event. Plus, a barbecue briefing from Luke Burbank. Getting a good seer.
A STORY FROM StEVE HARTMAN And more. on this Sunday morning for the 5th of July, 2026. Hmm. The Stars and Stripes, the newspaper for America's military community, traces its roots all the way back to the Civil War. but in recent months there are growing questions about its editorial independence.
as David Martin explains. Stars and Stripes has a front page like no other. We've got the two stories here, new tactics involving the drones and service members and families facing food insecurity. On a day when the headlines are dominated by earthquakes in Venezuela and Supreme Court decisions on immigration, Eric Slavin, the editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes. is putting out a newspaper for the American military.
We want to go with something that we know will directly interest our readers right away. The newspaper is part of the Department of Defense and its reporters are Pentagon employees. but it has long maintained editorial independence from the top brass. We're trying to provide independent news for the military community. An average of 1.4 million people see Stars and Stripes each day.
mostly online, although it still puts out a print version overseas. Service members who are in very remote, austere places maybe very little access to a commercial internet line. First published during the Civil War, Uh Stars and Stripes was revived in World War I under General John Blackjack Pershing. commander of American troops in Europe. It was General Pershing who said, we need a paper for American troops overseas so they know what is going on and have a sense of why they're fighting.
Earlier this year, Catherine Giordano, then the archivist of Stars and Stripes. Message from our chief. Yes. It is your paper. Gotcha.
The paper has been published continuously since World War II. It represents the free thought and free expression. of a free people. But this past January, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted this on X. We are bringing stars and stripes into the twenty-first century.
We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that siphon morale. Where did you take that to mean? I really don't know what they were referring to because they didn't explain it. We found this story from June about upcoming European concerts by the rapper Bad Bunny. whose Super Bowl half time show was panned by President Trump, is one of the worst ever.
How does that relate to the military? We have a lot of people who are newly stationed here overseas. They want to find interesting trips to take. They want to have fun. Laura Corty, the reporter who wrote that story, covers the Middle East for Stars and Stripes.
She's based in Germany. I am working for Stars and Stripes, not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker. I am here to cover the military community. At the same time Parnell's Post appeared, the Pentagon rescinded a federal regulation directing that Stars and Stripes operate without news management or censorship. Then came this memo signed by the Deputy Secretary of Defense.
That memo asserted our independence and at the same time placed new restrictions on what we can do. asserted independence. placed restrictions. That sounds like a circle you can't square. I'm telling you what I saw and what's in there.
What was the immediate impact of that? We were barred from running comics and we were no longer to run news from paid wire services as well. that meant no more news stories from the Associated Press. which was temporarily banned from the Oval Office for refusing to go along with changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico. To the Gulf of America.
What kind of hole does that leave in the newspaper?
Well, what it means is that it's more difficult for us to cover breaking news. Two members of the paper's advisory board have filed a lawsuit accusing the Defense Department of violating the First Amendment. The Pentagon declined our request for an interview. citing ongoing litigation.
Okay, you can't run. wire server stories. You can't run comics. What's the big deal? By having a government agency say you cannot print this.
It's the beginning of saying more, you cannot print that. Or you must print this. It's editorial control. The paper's ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, a kind of editorial watchdog, wrote a column which began. Pete Hexeth doesn't want you to see cartoons in this newspaper anymore.
Did you know where you were? Poking the bear? Poking the bear in a way, but I had not at all expected That retaliation. Two weeks later, she was fired. You wrote yourself out of a job.
How do I get cited? Stars and Stripes has poked bears before. most famously with the cartoons of Bill Malton during World War two. Unshaven, muddy, wrinkled, slovenly kind of looking.
So these were the kinds of cartoons that Malden drew that soldiers loved because it depicted how war was. But the legendary General George Patton despised Malden's work. He tried to have the paper band because he wanted crisp and spiffy looking military men. General Eisenhower, who would remain a reader as President, sided with Malden. He wrote a letter to Patton and he said to not interfere.
Eighty years later, with missiles flying in the Middle East, Laura Corty keeps showing up on the front page with stories like this. about the plight of military families evacuated from the Persian Gulf. I do not feel any constraint. I don't feel like I've been stopped from covering any specific story. Do you feel like the final shoe has dropped?
I think I do feel like There could be more to come. What do you think the Pentagon's end game is here? I worry that the end game is that turning Stars and Stripes into a public affairs. Propaganda machine. Smith, who has filed a lawsuit challenging her firing, points to this passage in the Pentagon memo.
Tripes' content must be consistent with good order and discipline of the military. That's a phrase used in military court martials. They could say anything is against good conduct. I do view that as uh potentially compromising for our mission. Editor in chief Eric Slavin may have to choose between his allegiance to the First Amendment.
and his obligation to obey Pentagon orders. Do you have? red lines in your mind. Yes, I do. Give me a red line.
Well, don't run a perfectly accurate story. Run this instead. Here it is, written by the Pentagon. That would be a red line. You have a uh a sign on your uh desk.
Pick your battles. Which foxholes are you willing to die in? We need to be able to provide independent news. to service members. If we can't do that, if we were turned into something Other than that, if we were public relations, that's the foxhole.
Some gifts are simply loved. The right one becomes part of who someone is. Schiffman's Jewelers. Extraordinary jewelry and timepieces. in Greensboro and Winston-Salem.
Time for a dose of common sense. on this semi-quincentennial birthday weekend. Compliments of Holly Williams. Yeah. Lewis is a quintessential English market town.
A chocolate box kind of place, complete with its own medieval castle. But in the late 1700s Lewis was a hotbed of radical politics and even anti-monarchism. Hi, Helen. Hi. Nice to meet you here too.
The resident of this house was one Thomas Paine, an Englishman from a working class background and the author of a document that changed American history. Common Sense is a forty seven page pamphlet published in January of seventeen seventy six. Credited with inspiring the American colonists to turn their rebellion into an outright revolution. It's like a bomb going off. He kind of sees them more clearly than they see themselves.
He realizes they're ready for independence, whether they realize it or not, and he gives them the language. They've just got to reach out and seize it.
So, do you get a lot of American tourists visiting? Yeah, yeah, I do. People come here specifically wanting to come and see the house that Thomas Paine lived in before. Leano Boyle is a historian and the director of Bull House, Tom Paine's former home in Lewis, now a museum. Payne was working as a tax collector and had become disillusioned with the British Government.
Tom Paine was a radical. What did that mean? Essentially, they wanted change. They wanted parliamentary reform. They wanted a fairer deal for most people.
More democracy. Yep. Yeah. It was through those radical circles that Tom Paine met Benjamin Franklin. then living in London.
And it was Franklin who helped him move to Philadelphia, where Common Sense was published, becoming an immediate bestseller. Historians say that common sense gave Americans a new way of thinking about themselves. not as colonial subjects who had a beef with the British government, but as people who Tom Paine said could and should found their own republic. Payne wrote that one honest man was worth more than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived. In other words, Payne argued persuasively that America did not need kings.
Tom Payne gets a name check in Hamilton. Revolution, I want a revelation.
So listen to We hold these And in Lewis Payne's remembered with a mural, a statue, an alley named in his honour, a pub named after one of his later works, and even the local brew. Tom Payne Ale. At the Whiteheart Inn, Payne regularly attended a political debate club in this room. Often defeating his opponents. And is it where he honed his argumentative skills?
Definitely. He learnt. He learnt how to think here, he learnt how to debate here, he learnt how to write here. Paul Miles is a researcher who's written two books about Tom Payne and is now working with Harvard University, uncovering radical writing in what was Tom Payne's local newspaper. This is april seventeen seventy So it's the month after the Boston massacre.
And this newspaper is reporting what's going on in Boston. It's just amazing that you see all the unrest in America bubbling and boiling up. all the troubles printed without a filter in this. Miles told us you can draw a straight line from Paine's revolutionary arguments in common sense. the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence.
He kindled the War of Independence. He accelerated it. His political philosophy stands as relevant now as it did then. It dealt with the same problems, it deals with the same issues, and I think that's his signal voice. echoes down the gears.
250 years ago, that voice stirred the American public. Tompaigne told the Thirteen Colonies that their fight for freedom was universal. The cause of America, wrote Paine, is in great measure the cause of all mankind. This past week, Americans weren't just celebrating a very big birthday. The country was also focused on the world's biggest pop star and a three-time Super Bowl champion.
Mohraka takes a look at the tale of Taylor and Travis. Welcome to New York. It's been waiting for you. Welcome to New York. Call it the wedding tailor's version.
A celebration at the most famous arena in the media capital of the world. with a roster of celebrities to rival the Met Gala. And the kind of press attention normally reserved for a superpower summit. But at its core, a love story, starring Taylor Swift, the world's biggest pop star, and football player and three-time Super Bowl champ, Travis Kelsey. Do you think they're suited to each other?
Very suited. It's scary how suited they are to each other. And they enjoy how different they are. when they got engaged and Her announcement was, your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married, which is really funny. Rolling Stone writer and author and self-described Swifty Rob Sheffield has been covering Taylor Swift for close to 20 years.
What is the Taylor Swift song for this personal milestone? It's love story. We were both young when I first saw you. I closed my eyes and The song she wrote as a teenager About Romeo and Juliet. Where she rewrote the ending.
Yes, with the wonderful arrogance of a teenage poet. She thought, yeah, Romeo and Juliet, good story, but it needs a different ending. That's a song that represents her teenage romanticism that she, against all odds, has never outgrown. Shake, shake, shake. Over the past two decades, the 36-year-old has sold a hundred million albums.
Her era's concert tour grossed more than $2 billion. At this point, she's breaking her own records. But one theme has persisted from the start. Very few songwriters have written about marriage. as consistently as she has without having been married before.
The relationship started three years ago in a very public way. With the Kansas City Chiefs' tight end declaring his intentions on the podcast Travis co-hosts with his brother Jason Kelsey. I didn't get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her. You made her a bracelet? Yeah, if you're the couple recounted those early days last year on the same podcast.
I made you a friendship places. Do you want to date me? Just come outside and meet me. Just meet me once. Just give me a chance.
I was like, if this guy isn't crazy, Um Which is a big if. This is sort of What I've been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager. There probably weren't a lot of people who were fans of both Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. In a lot of American families, including mine, there were the conversations where. One faction of the family had to explain to another who this Travis Kelsey person was or who this Taylor Swift person was.
In that sense, it's a mixed marriage. Yes. And yet they've made it work because they have very similar personalities, very similar values. And because He is Willing to embrace the role of Mr. Taylor Swift in public in a way that's totally new for her.
This isn't the first time Titans from the worlds of entertainment and sports have tied the knot. Former baseball star Joe DiMaggio weds screen star Marilyn Monroe. In 1954, Marilyn Monroe and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, by then retired from the New York Yankees, wed in San Francisco. The marriage lasted a mere nine months. Of Taylors is very different to the relationship that Marilyn had with Joe DiMaggio.
Michelle Morgan is the author of nine books about Marilyn Monroe. Travis seems to be very, very supportive of Taylor's career. And Joe DiMaggio, on the other hand, he wasn't particularly supportive of Marilyn's career. And he thought that she, once they got married, she would give it all up and stay at home and become mother to his children and make his dinner. And then that didn't happen.
While the couple were visiting Japan, Monroe was asked to entertain American troops in South Korea. 13,000 Marines moved it up as a now glamorous Marilyn steps front and center. And afterwards, she said to Joe. Joe, you've never heard such cheering in your life. And he said, Yes, I have.
And at that point, I think things started to turn for them because It wasn't really very supportive of him to do that. They had a very private wedding, and the only detail that the press could find out at the time was that when they went on their honeymoon, he specifically requested a room with the color television, leading. all red-blooded boys of my dad's generation to wonder why a guy spending his honeymoon with Meryl Monroe would want to watch television. That's not the case with Taylor and Travis. Yes!
Two people more than comfortable being on TV. And thank you so, so much for having me, you guys. Rob Sheffield says this is a fairy tale ending not just for the newlyweds, but also for their millions of fans. For her to finally have this kind of over-the-top celebration of a true love relationship. is something that I think a lot of people are vicariously very happy about.
From the very beginning, people loved this boyfriend. People loved that she had this suitor who was willing to pursue her and is now very happy to be Taylor Swift's husband in the public eye. That's what any fan would have wanted for her, would have wished for her. To Connor Knight now, and an invitation to just listen. And we're going to ask that when we drop the needle, We refrain from any conversation.
This is a listening environment. Seattle's Shibuya Hi-Fi is a listening bar. While guests can chat and sip cocktails in the lounge, they then leave their drinks and their shoes behind as they settle into the backroom to enjoy full-length albums in a communal setting. An evening might feature anything from Bjork... To David Bowie.
I love David Bowie because I've got Oh my gosh. My Bowie tattoo. I had to be here. It's the closest thing I could get to a David Bowie concert. These curated sessions, around 80 a month, regularly sell out.
People are buying $20 tickets to listen to albums they could hear at home for free. That seems to me to be something that people are really rediscovering: that pleasure. and the beauty. of focus and intentional listening. Quinton Ertel is the co-owner of Shibuya HiFi, which takes its name from a neighborhood in Tokyo.
In Japan, listening bars, often called jazz kisses, started gaining popularity back in the nineteen thirties. But similar venues have exploded in the US in recent years, popping up everywhere from Minnesota, to Missouri. to Colorado. There is a new wave of like these kind of listening bars, especially in the West. Oh cool.
Artist and engineer Devin Turnbull designs high-end handmade audio equipment for his company Ogis. while his speakers often end up in private living rooms. He's also created larger public listening rooms. The Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York is currently showcasing what Turnbull has deemed his Hi-Fi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3, installed in what was once Andrew Carnegie's private library.
Pursuit is a really important part of the title. I am not here to say that I've made the ultimate sound system. This is about my pursuit as a builder, as someone who's passionate about. building audio equipment and listening to music through it. Turnbull works out of a warehouse in Brooklyn's Navy Yard.
His interest in all things audio traces back to an early age. My mom, I don't know, always told me that I used to just crawl. to the living room and just sit in between the speakers and just kind of do this for like a long time. The shift to digital music, first MP3s and later streaming, meant that people suddenly had access to millions of songs they could listen to everywhere. But what was gained in quantity was lost in quality.
But I realized that I was really like losing touch with the way of listening to music that was moving emotionally for me.
So Turnbull immersed himself in DIY audio culture, spending time in Japan, sourcing old parts, and building custom equipment. Do you see it as a craft? Absolutely, it's a craft, yeah. I mean, I see it as a folk art, making the kinds of things that I love making. Good job.
In speaker building workshops, Turnbull's attempted to get younger listeners thinking more about all aspects of sound. The speaker turns electric energy into vibrations. That's what we're doing here. When designing a listening room, it can be just as much about ensuring the quality of the experience as it is about the quality of the sound. You know, as much as the way it looks is important, just the smell and the light and everything, the comfort of the seat, that all contributes to the experience.
Um This can all feel very low-tech and old-fashioned. People sitting around listening to records? But for attendees like Brandon Stalling, That's the point. Yeah. Okay.
To sit and be quiet, it's a lost form, it's a lost art. To have a space to sit and just wonder and be in your own thoughts and be able to sit quietly and just let the music kind of take you on that ride. I think that's the type of journey that needs to happen a lot more. A space devoted to listening. Whether it's in a museum or a bar, is also a chance to sample a sound system that might otherwise cost tens of thousands of dollars to own.
Turnbull has already started thinking about what installation number four might look like. I mean, I just love making this stuff. When my hearing is gone and my hands are shaky, I'll still be messing around with circuits and speaker enclosures and I just love the process. Steve Hartman this morning catches up with an old friend.
Okay. 28-year-old Rishi Sharma is about to document a rare encounter. May come in? An actual World War II veteran. with a story to tell.
I'm Rishi Sharma and I'm here to interview you.
Okay. For the last 10 years, I've been on the mission to interview every single World War II combat veteran. And I've quite honestly spent every single day of the last 10 years doing that. Amazing. I first met Rishi in twenty sixteen.
Just out of high school, he was already deeply interested in World War II books. but was just beginning to realize the living history all around him. There are real superhero World War II vets out there. and I want to meet them.
So, Rishi started driving around his Southern California neighborhood every single day to record interviews with these vets. He then expanded his outreach. This is a map of all the places that I'm planning to go to. This is a multi-year trip, right? Oh, yeah, I'm going to be on the road for years.
It's now been 10 years. This looks really good. Today, he's interviewing 100-year-old Marine veteran Nils Moekler of Yorktown, New York. Nils was a combat intelligence scout. His first battle, one of the bloodiest in Marine history.
and one of the most inspiring. Iwo Jima. Like what did it mean to you seeing the American flag being raised?
Well The hair on my arm still stands up when I think about it, how beautiful it was. Rishi's project is funded by donations. The recordings are hosted online and given to the families. I thought I was gonna die.
So far, Rishi has done 3,000 interviews and counting. I'll never forget landing on Omaha Beach. although counting much more slowly now. When I first met Rishi a decade ago, there are about 700,000 World War II veterans still alive. Today only about thirty thousand remain.
And Rishi says when they're all gone, probably in the next decade or so. America will lose a lot more than just a bunch of old war stories. Because for so long they've been the moral compass of our society. Just the advice that they impart silently steers the ship of this country. This weekend, we get to celebrate 250 years as a nation.
and Rishi reminds us that is not by accident. It is thanks in large part to the foundation. to that generation of sacrifice and moral clarity. we call. The greatest.
God bless you. Thank you so much for what you went through for our freedoms. Yeah. Yeah. We see you, the one behind the camera?
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Something there It means so. Spider-Man wasn't attacking the city. He was trying to save it. That's slander. It is not.
I resent that. Slander is spoken. In print, it's libel. You don't trust anybody, that's your problem. I trust my barber.
Few actors working today have had a career as widely varied and widely respected as J.K. Simmons. No surprise, then, that the Academy Award winner has a few new projects in the works. And he's discussing them with Tracy Smith. What are your memories of this neighborhood?
It's a different neighborhood at night. And it was a different neighborhood in the 80s. Like so many New Yorkers, Jonathan Kimball Simmons was born elsewhere, but this is home.
So you still come here to have a little bite? Often. Yeah. And like so many New York actors, he once weighted tables here at the legendary Joe Allen. Were you a good waiter?
You know what? Not very good. I worked hard. I was pleasant, you know. I was, I tried to be charming.
I was not organized. This would have taken me like five trips to set up. And the butter would already be melting by the time I got it in. Isn't it funny that someone who's so organized and can memorize lines Can't do this. It's weird how the brain works.
It's a very different thing and how the brain doesn't work. Yeah. Yeah. His brain works just fine, thank you. It's good to see you two back together.
You were always the best of the bunch. Simmons stars in the Westies, a new series out next week on MGM Plus.
Now, this job I got for you is not gonna be easy, but uh. Pays a tidy sum. It's about the Irish-American mobsters who ruled the west side of New York in the 80s, and Simmons plays the boss. The Italians outnumber us about 100 to 1. He's tough.
Keep out of house kitchen. Smart and bad to the bone. Deacon Cella. He's been mouthing off. What else is known?
Well, well. I need him silenced. Understood. I gotta spell it out. Are you comfortable in those shoes playing kind of the bad guy?
I just love going back and forth and doing something different from whatever I just got done doing. And if there's.
something I can latch on to. other than just pure evil if I can find The humanity in the guy, somewhere, then yeah, I love playing those kinds of guys. Simmons spent years playing those kinds of guys and more. You want a staff job, and you want a staff job. Anyone care about what I want?
I do. Shut up. it out. Like the bombastic boss in the Spider-Man series, and the guy in those insurance ads. But sometimes you just want a little help.
At 71, he says that for most of his career, he played characters older than he actually is. And as a married father of two, that carried into real life. We didn't get married until I was 41. And Joe was born when I was 43. Oh, wow.
So, I mean, I would have him in the baby Bjorn or whatever at the grocery store when he was a... a little like six months or whatever and the checkout lady would say, oh, you got the grandson today. And I go. Sure. But he's not exactly grandfatherly here.
Start counting. Five, six, seven. In four, damn it, look at me. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Was I rushing or was I dragging?
As the brutal band leader in the 2014 sensation Whiplash with Miles Teller. Rushing or dragging?
So you do know the difference! The film was shot in only 19 days, and Simmons says it was intense, but only when the cameras were rolling. What were you guys like between takes? Total idiots. talking sports and you know giving each other a hard time and you know miles just being miles and me being My dumbass self.
He was also brilliant, and he earned an Oscar for his performance, and maybe should have won another for Best Acceptance speech. Call your mom, call your dad, if you're lucky enough to have a parent or two alive on this planet. Column. Don't text, don't email, call them on the phone, tell them you love them and thank them and listen to them for as long as they want to talk to you. Thank you.
Thank you, mom and dad. When you said, please call your mom. call your dad. Do people thank you for that? They do.
Yeah, and I heard, I mean.
So many stories of like people who were estranged. And because some, you know. random bald white guy on a on a stage, you know. said call your mom, they called their mom or they called their dad or they and you know like really dramatic stories of reconciliations. Thank you.
Because I said that. I'm picking Valentine, cause on the morning line, the guy has had him figured in five to That Oscar was a long time coming. In a 50-year career, J.K. Simmons has created more than 200 characters on stage and screen. From a singing guy in Guys and Dolls, To a shredded Santa Claus with Dwayne Johnson.
We work for the kids, Cal. We do it for them. But it seems like the biggest challenge of his career was just surviving back in the day in 1980s New York when he was young, talented, and starving. Were you living in some sketchy apartments? I mean, you know.
Get a single. Not unsafe. But you know, yeah, roaches. Rodents. You know, it was New York City on a budget.
And he might have given up. Were it not for another acting pal, Greg Edelman. Like, I couldn't get a waiter job. And I was going broke. And um You know, we're just hanging out, talking and...
maybe watching a game or whatever we did. He left. And the next morning when I got up. I thought he left me $100. Um Which I needed.
40 years on, it still means everything. Ah! What kind of line of work are you in, Jinx? Of course, now he's got his pick of projects, including the film Heart of the Beast out in September. He co-stars with Brad Pitt as a character who he bumps into.
Okay, fair enough. Character in every sense of that word. Oh, I love it. Do you like character actor? Yeah, you know what?
I mean to me that's always just been like a an actor who's like not super handsome. That's basically what that means. I know you think you're pulling off some grand illusion here, but. Let me tell you something an old man knows that you don't. The truth.
Always comes up. And the truth about J.K. Simmons is pretty simple. He spent a career showing us what a character can be, and he has plenty more to do. When you look at all you've done and all you're doing now and getting ready to do, what do you think?
It's crazy. It's crazy to think back on. you know, the nervous guy at the Big Fork Summer Playhouse being such a terrible actor. I'm starting to learn. how to channel what's in here.
more intelligently. And I'm grateful every day. and trying to Enjoy. Yeah. All of it.
Like a lot of us, Luke Burbank this weekend is firing up the grill.
Well, it's summertime again. A chance for adults to kick back, kids to run through the sprinkler, and me to suffer my greatest yearly humiliation ritual, pretending I have any ability at all to operate the barbecue. Look, I'm a pretty lousy cook as it is, but most of the year you wouldn't know it because I don't invite people over to stand around the stove and watch me boil pasta.
Meanwhile, the barbecue, especially as a guy, has somehow been designated the entertainment for the afternoon. First, there's the analyzing of the meat. What has it been marinating in? And for how long? And let me guess, Gary, you've got an entirely different system that you use that's worked out pretty well.
You don't say. Then there's the grill itself. What kind of fuel are we using? Heaven forbid, it's propane. Oh, how interesting, Dave.
You like to burn tiny chips of hickory, only found on the north slopes of the Canadian Rockies because of the flavor it infuses.
Well, we are going to go with charcoal and the flavor of too much lighter fluid. since I don't really know how much to use. Then there's the main event, the meat sitting over the flame. Are we getting a good sear? How long has it been on?
When is it time to flip things? Oh, you would have flipped it much earlier, Bryce, but you're also good with me doing it my way, even though it's probably going to end up drying things out too much. Thank you for that. Look, if I wanted to cook performatively, I'd try out for Top Chef or get a job at Benny Hana. I'm just a regular guy at his house trying to enjoy one to eight beers while not singing off his eyebrows with an open fire pit.
I only operate a few times a year. You know, now that I think about it, why don't you guys take it from here? You seem to have a lot of opinions on the process. I'm gonna go grab beer number nine and see if that sprinkler is still going. It's Sunday morning on CBS, and here again is Jane Pauly.
TV viewers of a certain age, of course, remember Little House on the Prairie. The Beloved Series starring Michael Landon.
Well, it's back. And Faith Saley has a preview. I hate being inside all day when the prairie is right out here. It's maybe not by accident that a new adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's semi-autobiographical book series Little House on the Prairie returns to screens this summer, the 250th anniversary of the country's founding, says showrunner and writer Rebecca Sonnenshine. A lot of people consider them children's literature.
But I really do think they're really... About sort of how America became America. She says, Little House on the Prairie is about our country's big dreams. It's all about myth-making. You know, our culture is really wrapped up in the stories we tell about ourselves and.
You know, the Ingalls in the book, they told stories all the time. and they sing songs that tell stories. The violets were blowing and the springtime grass was fresh and green. The new series, a joint Netflix CBS Studios production, follows the trials and tribulations of the Ingalls family. Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls and Skywalker Hughes as her sister Mary.
Crosby Fitzgerald plays Ma, Luke Bracey as Pa. What do you think music means to the Ingalls family? It's like one of the only things they have. Other than each other. They couldn't really do a lot on the prairie.
There weren't a lot of available activities other than go farming. It's just a tradition. I mean, the songs have been passed down. It reminds them of the home they left. It is something that they probably taught the girls.
Music gives them hope. I think as well, it's one thing that can't. be taken away from them.
Alright, so Alice goes here. Garden here. You could say, hope for a better life drives the Ingalls family by covered wagon on their perilous journey from Wisconsin West to what was then Osage Territory. What do you think? My sister said I was a fool to leave everything and everyone I ever knew and follow you into the dark.
Here we are. They look like sturdy little animals. They are. We made a good trade. Fans of the beloved 1970s television show with Michael Landon might not remember how much actual danger and suffering the family experienced.
Yeah. The new show was shot in Manitoba, Canada, which provided the big sky and raging rivers. Good. Laura's in a life or death situation every single day. She helps and protects her family every day, and in those times, in that century, As a girl too?
it's hard, but she stays strong throughout it. And I think a lot of people admire her for that, and I think that's part of the reason that all the books are so popular. Laura Ingalls Wilder once said, all that I told is true. but it is not the whole truth. North Star?
Was that very quote? Joy Gorman Weddles, the show's executive producer, rediscovered the books, reading them with her family during the pandemic. There's so much to piece together that Laura lived through that could never have been covered completely in the books and could never have been covered in the original series. And there's so many characters who. didn't have a voice in the originals that could now.
Spring rains make for fast waters. The show brings us into the lives of characters from the books that weren't fully explored, like Dr. Tan, the book's black doctor. Keeping it dry as best you can. Their neighbor, Mr.
Edwards, is a battle-scarred Civil War vet. I'd like to help you build your house. Those girls are gonna need a roof over their head before the snow's coming. Or the wolves. The Ingalls' other neighbors, who strike fear in Ma, are an Osage family.
Why shouldn't we? There are some critical voices that say, oh no, the show is woke, whatever that means to those critics. Did you have a sense? that this show would be any kind of fodder for culture wars? I knew that there would be controversy around how this is done.
I just think that it doesn't help us to look back any race The literature or erase the mistakes. It helps us to look at them through a new lens. in a way that welcomes new readers and welcomes new viewers. And it's that kind of expansive feeling of community that Alice Halsey says Little House is all about.
Sometimes adventure doesn't just come in easy forms.
Sometimes you have to face a lot of danger. But they'll be rewarded at the end. With new friends, new family. That you didn't know would be there at the start. Maybe it leads to another world.
That hopeful sentiment strikes at the heart of this little house. Hope is everything. It was the only thing. The thing I love about Charles is He's always asking the question, What if it's great? And that's a wonderful way to look at life.
And that's what he thinks of when he thinks of his family. He wants the best for them. He just wants to sit there and go, imagine if this is great and my family's having a great time and my family's happy and my family's healthy. And I'll come to you. Maybe better put in the girl's favorite song from the show, Always Hope.
Oh, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad. Oh, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad. Though father and mother, and I should get mad. Oh, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad. Gorgeous.
Okay, so It's an American tradition dating back more than 230 years. The swearing in of new U.S. citizens. The ceremony took place yesterday at George Washington's Virginia Estate, Mount Vernon. Mm.
We went to Mount Vernon because, with the nation marking its 250th birthday, It's hard not to wonder. What would George Washington think about today's United States? Robert Costa went looking for answers. Yeah. George Washington's Mount Vernon, perched high above the Potomac River in Virginia, just south of Washington, D.C., is more than just the home of our first president.
It's a place of pilgrimage for millions around the world. The most visited historic house in America. We came here to get a sense from visitors where we are as a country. Welcome to Mountain Blunting. Do you feel it's important to come here as we mark 250?
to be a citizen, to remember history. I'm a firm believer that if we don't know our history, we're liable to repeat it.
So if we do not remember the great sacrifices that our founding fathers made and their core beliefs, what they stood for, That's how our country falls apart. Being an American is so important to me because. It gives me like the confidence and courage to know that I can do what I want when I grow up because a lot of others don't have that opportunity that I do have. What does it mean? for you to be a good citizen.
Mmm, that's a good question. I think just Being there for people, whatever it looks like, if somebody needs a helping hand, I think just. In the smallest ways, or in the biggest ways, just being a leader and standing firm on what you think. Besides offering tours of the estate, Mount Vernon boasts a new education center filled with historic documents and artifacts, including, of course, George Washington's dentures. Just to set the record straight, they were not made of wood, but rather animal and human teeth.
At the time, teeth were commonly purchased and extracted from enslaved people. This is a critical place for people to understand what America is and where it comes from. It is the home of the father of our country. George Washington's the critical figure that wins our war for independence. But he didn't write his own autobiography.
Mount Vernon is the place that's his autobiography. Authentic objects are a big part of bringing this to life for the visitors. Doug Bradburn is Mount Vernon's president and CEO. And author and historian, Bradburn has a unique take on Washington's relevance today. He would recognize the world, the political world we live in, as a highly polarized one.
He had that in his own cabinet. But he would also be frustrated that we hadn't been able to rise above the petty squabbles of his own time in the sense that you have these brilliant people who all believe they're patriots. believing the other side are the enemies of the country. You know, and he would very much try to dissuade us from turning each other into enemy aliens.
So he would be enthralled, he would be frustrated, and he would be just like all of us are, hoping that we could do better. Things weren't perfect here. President Washington. Was in many ways the consummate leader, but there were also slaves here at Mount Vernon. Not everyone was free at the founding of the country.
Right. There's still lessons to be learned from General Washington or not? Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think it's just about just being a better human and just putting ourselves in other people's shoes and just thinking, like, is that something we would want to do or would we want to be treated that way or live in those type of conditions?
You have to wonder, what would President Washington make of all of what's happening in America today? I think you would love to see just the mix of people you have here, people from all over the world that have come and joined our great country. I think we should expect that in a country that pulls people in from everywhere that are going to have differing viewpoints. I think that would be something that as hard as it is for us to deal with on the day-to-day or as tough for us to see, that's the beauty of what we have as well, is that we have these differing viewpoints that come together to create something great. When did you come to the United States?
I came here in 1980. Um When I came here at that time, I don't think America was ready for Philippines because no one really knew about Philippines. In the Filipino-American community, do people talk about George Washington and what he means to the country? Oh, yes. You know why?
is because that's one of the questions. on on how to become a US citizen. Who was the first president? And you passed it with flying colors. Yeah, of course.
Of course. What would George Washington have made of everything that's going on today? Yeah. I don't know. I think he'd.
He'd have a lot to say. I hope that he would have some guiding words of wisdom. But you know, we've kept the American experiment going for 250 years, so hopefully. And he'd be a bit proud, too. Whether you have your problems or not, we're here.
Exactly. Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. Criminal Minds Evolution is back on Paramount Plus. Do you think it's possible to discern some hidden pattern shared by all serial killers?
With a new killer each week. I see those wheels turning. When a copycat killer emerges, the BAU will form a dark alliance with a familiar foe. Elias, would you help us? This season, evil is contagious.
Once it starts, it can't be stopped. Criminal Minds Evolution. New season now streaming on Paramount Plus.
