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Hurry to Wayfair.com or download the app now. every style, every home. Good morning. Jane Polly is off this weekend. I'm Tracy Smith, and this is Sunday morning.
Few people know that in the history of the United States, only one successful coup has ever been carried out. It happened in 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina, where white supremacists undertook a campaign of terror against the black community and seized power, ousting members of its multiracial local government. For a century this story has been mostly forgotten. But why? Lee Cowan will explain.
Yeah. Every once in a while, history books need to be rewritten. And in Wilmington, North Carolina, they're beginning to include. a rarely talked about chapter in its political history. It's the definition of a coup.
It was an armed overthrow and seizure of a government. How a city was stolen in plain daylight. A hair. on Sunday morning. The hospital drama series The Pit has generated strong ratings, critical acclaim, even plaudits from medical professionals who praised the show's realism.
And just this past week, it received 25 Emmy nominations for its second season. Dr. John Lapouk got a behind-the-scenes look with the man at the heart of it all, executive producer and star, Noah Wiley.
Sounds good? Is this about control? Yes, I'm wearing a lot of hats, but it's only 'cause I'm so f ⁇ ing Excited to be here and I don't want to give it up. We have our chairs. I think there's a message in putting a spotlight back on people who for a living do service and angelic work.
We go back to the emergency room with Noah Wiley. Later on Sunday morning. And now, boom, right here.
Now you're in triage. Gracie Abrams is the reigning queen of Whisper Pop, a music subgenre distinctive for its emotional and introspective lyrics. She's also picked up a thing or two about stardom from her friend and collaborator, Taylor Swift. This morning, she'll tell us what she's learned and where she's headed. I told your name.
She makes it look easy, but there was a time that getting on stage would fill Gracie Abrams with dread. I get the feeling like in my hands talking about it because I remember, but I don't have that anymore.
Now I feel like ready to run out because I know what's on the other side. From stage fright to superstardom.
So. I was so wrong, which is lovely. Gracie Abrams, coming up. Also ahead this morning. Connor Knighton tells the story behind the unofficial theme song of the U.S.
men's World Cup team, the John Denver classic, Take Me Home Country Roads. Seth Doan offers us a postcard from Tuscany, where a cherished local tradition involves racing empty wine barrels through the streets. plus Nancy Cordas on President Trump's efforts to change the architectural face of Washington and the resistance he's run into. along with a story from Steve Hartman, and more. It's Sunday morning for the 12th of July, 2026.
And we'll be back after this. Um We begin this morning with Lee Cowan and a disturbing moment in history that still haunts One American City more than a century later. In downtown Wilmington, North Carolina. stands a memorial that's Pretty easy to pass. This is the 1898 Memorial Park.
six bronze paddles stretching toward the sky. These two great stones have a brief summary of what happened here in Wilmington. The plaque is hard to read in places, not because the words have washed away, but because what they say is so hard to believe. This is the only piece of land. that is dedicated To remembering the families that were slain and taken away from us.
There are many tours that tell the tale, but Cedric Harrison says. He's determined to make it known. The first thing we have to do to solve this problem is education. One of my elders always told me, if you knew better, you do better. Not far away is Wilmington's first Presbyterian church.
Where parts of that story live too. This is a church I grew up going to. I was baptized here. Lauren Collins, now a journalist at the New Yorker Magazine. Pointed us to a stained glass window in the back dedicated to someone named Colonel Walker Taylor.
As a kid, she didn't know the stories behind men like him. But they weren't the only mysteries about her hometown, she says. I always had the sense that there was something a little off. A little A mess. Turns out that Colonel Walker Taylor was a celebrated white supremacist back in the late 1890s.
And so was the pastor. When I learned this, it was shocking and it was personal. Loving a place doesn't mean lying about it. We're lying for it. The church is making efforts to come to terms with the past.
The city of Wilmington as a whole, however, has been a bit slower. In her new book, They Stole a City. Collins unravels the darkest chapter. the only successful coup in our nation's history. Never heard about it?
Well Most folks haven't. There are people that I've asked to talk to who haven't wanted anything to do with me, but there have also been a lot of people who are ready. In 1898, Wilmington was a prosperous integrated city. Blacks and whites shared political power and leadership positions. It was a model for the New South.
Still, not everyone accepted the path that Wilmington had taken, especially the former slave-owning class. Mostly, Southern Democrats. They explicitly centered their campaign around the issue of white supremacy. Literally, they had a book. how to build this white supremacy campaign.
It was not secret like it would be today. That's Tom Keith. His grandfather was B. F. Keith.
And one of the few white elites in Wilmington who pushed back. As he saw. the white supremacy campaign developed. He wrote everybody, the governor, senators.
Someone's gonna get killed.
Well, this is... Not going to end well. There was even a white Declaration of Independence drawn up. written in part by a wealthy businessman named Hugh McRae. I've been apparently in the is his great-grandson.
Do you think he was a white supremacist? By definition, yes. The scary thing that strikes you is that I'm convinced that these folks Thought they were doing the right thing. And the right thing According to them. was to purge Wilmington of all black influence, and on the morning of november tenth, eighteen ninety eight, That's just what they did.
So this is where the angry mob came at during 1898. starting with the city's only black newspaper. The Daily Record, that black-owned newspaper, was on the second floor in its own office space. they set the building on fire. And then Posed for this picture.
Every time I see it, it sends chills down my spine because there's a pride. They have this look of flushed. satisfaction It's a trophy. But that was just the beginning. The mob then made its way here.
To the crossroads of 4th and Harnett Streets. A shot rang across the intersection. And Almost immediately, three black men were dead. In the hours that followed, a cart, fixed with a rapid-fire machine gun, Advance through town with impunity, like a primitive tank firing at will. on the largely unarmed black residents.
No one really knows how many the mob murdered that afternoon, but historians generally agree the number ranges from dozens to hundreds. I love you, Grandpa. One of the victims was Joshua Halsey. A black laborer and father of four girls who, according to notes taken during the conspirators' meeting, and was singled out to be killed. It's in the minutes.
When you see that Josh. Get that does. Your great-grandparents must have walked across this bridge all the time. All the time. You see, Joshua had sued the city after his wife Sally tripped and injured herself on what was then a poorly maintained bridge.
is rightful legal action. put a target on his back. They were building a life. They owned a home. They were upstanding citizens.
So the only guilt was being black. Elaine Brown, his great-granddaughter, says he was shot 14 times in the head. as his wife Sally watched. She, like many other black women and children, was eventually driven out of town. The last piece of the murderous puzzle that day was to seize political power.
White Democrats stormed Wilmington City Hall. where its multiracial government sat. When they walked into the room, The board of aldermen had seven white men. and three black men, and when they walked out, All of those officials had resigned. Basically at gunpoint?
Literally at gunpoint. Not a single person was ever prosecuted. in part because newspaper headlines characterized the violence as whites defending themselves against a black race riot. Was the only black newspaper in town gone? there was no one to refute that false narrative.
People who were suffering. In Wilmington, in the aftermath of the coup. appealed to President McKinley and he did nothing. In the years that followed, the coup was talked about less and less, and yet it had a kind of insidious undertow that kept yanking black people away from Wilmington. At the time of the coup, 56% of the city was black.
Today? it's dwindled to only about fifteen percent. The ripples still roll across this place. Those who opposed the coup, like Tom Keith's grandfather, are still often thought of as traitors. Just ask his distant relatives.
One of my cousins, when I was about four, He's thumbing down 421.
Some old farmer picks him up, starts talking to him. Fi says, well, what's your name, son? This is Julian Keith. The guy slams on the brakes and says you're a damn Republican. Get the hell out of my car.
fifty years later. Wow. The echoes are just as strong for Humacray III. Much to his surprise.
Some see his great grandfather's participation in the coup, others. as heroic. He said your your grandfather saved Wilmington. I was shocked. We think it's then, but it's uh A lot of that is still with us.
Is there Room for forgiveness? There's always room for forgiveness. We have to start telling this story the way that it is because. We need justice and we need healing. And healing doesn't come with lies.
It comes with the the ugly truth of things. We gotta uh pluck that out. As for Lauren Collins, those odd questions about her hometown of Wilmington. have been answered. not satisfied, not understood.
but answered, Factually. I feel A part of the story. And I also feel that it's Incumbent. Upon white people like me. to know this history.
and to grapple with it and to shoulder. The full truth of it. even when it's uncomfortable. You know, recommendations can be great. Maybe someone recommended this podcast, and here you are.
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And although their run has ended, the team's impact lingers on. They've introduced a new audience to their unofficial theme song. our Connor Knighton took a closer look at this John Denver classic. Ah Almost heaven. West Virginia The first line of John Denver's song Take Me Home Country Roads calls West Virginia almost heaven.
And when you're up in the mountains, that description can feel pretty accurate. But these winding country roads were immortalized by someone who had never driven them. Take me home. Had you ever been to West Virginia before you wrote the song? No.
Well, in my dreams, the melody is.
Songwriter Bill Danoff, along with his then-girlfriend and bandmate Taffy Nivert. Played a rough draft of country roads for their pal John Denver after a gig one night in Washington, D.C. John's biggest contribution to anything at that point was just his enthusiasm.
Well, let's finish it. you know, at one o'clock in the morning, one thirty, you know, let's let's let's get it. The three stayed up late collaborating on the version that hit the airwaves 55 years ago. When it came out in 1971, you know, the Vietnam War was... was really rocking.
We had hundreds of thousands of troops over there, so coming home was a big, big deal. I hear a voice in the morning hours. She calls me the radio mile. It was a song about home. Just not Danoff's home.
You're from Massachusetts. Could it just as easily have been almost heaven, Massachusetts? Yeah, except I didn't like that word. West Virginia sounded good. And, as it turned out, a lot of other people thought so too.
The song was John Denver's first hit. And despite some questionable geographic accuracy, the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River in the lyrics are barely within the state's borders, West Virginians embraced it in a big way. Yeah. John Denver, the Mountain State's adopted favorite son, paid a special visit to the campus. Tebby drops, Tebby throws down the left sideline, he's got a man and that pass is caught.
Here he is. Students at West Virginia University sing the song after victories. It's a staple at wedding receptions. But the enduring appeal outside of the state has been more surprising. From television's the office?
To the Play Sorry. I like that song. You're good. You're good. to Germany's Oktoberfest.
The song is known throughout the world. Throughout the World Cup, it was the anthem of the US team.
So we can think about the song as being about any place. It names West Virginia, but it doesn't have to. West Virginia University Assistant Professor Sarah Morris has written about the global impact of country roads. People take the song and reappropriate it so that it's about the place that's home to them.
So they just swap in their own geographic references. Change the geographic references, change the lyrics, change the location, but it doesn't really change the song and it doesn't change the meaning of the song. This Toots in the Maytols version was a hit in Jamaica. Where's it? In Hawaii, it's West Makaha.
O Moncala Te home for France? And I'm falling. Who the ball? To Brazil and his time. There are countless reinterpretations.
Can I meet you? The song is hugely popular in Japan. The plot of the anime film Whisperer of the Heart centers around a teenage girl who translates country roads. The feeling of longing? of homesickness is universal.
It's the rare song that isn't just singing about something, it's causing it. Country star Brad Paisley grew up in Glendale, West Virginia. See you. He's been playing country roads ever since he learned to play guitar. But the song gained new meaning for him when he left for Nashville.
I think once you move away, the song takes on way more Just character and depth. You hear that on the radio when you're not in West Virginia. Like you hear that in your car, and it comes on, and you hear that iconic acoustic guitar part. Mm. Driving down the road, I get a feeling that I should have been home yesterday.
Uh Leaving and homecoming has always been something that West Virginians have experienced. But we've been at a loss in our population. Since 1950.
So I think it's a perennial mood for West Virginians. Including This one. I grew up in the capital city of Charleston. I learned to ride my bike on country roads. I left the State after high school, but I'm still nostalgic for it.
It's like the song says, all my memories gather round her. One of the things that I've been thinking about is a Welsh concept called Heriath. this deep longing for some place that you can't white name. It's home, but maybe more. It's maybe a place that you've never been, or the home that you've only dreamed of.
This deep pull toward place. Those thousands of fans and stadiums thousands of miles away from the mountain state. We're not necessarily singing about West Virginia. They were singing about home. The place really is immaterial.
It's the place I belong. I think that's the key line. That's what people are looking for in their lives. Steve Hartman is here to remind us that sometimes it truly does take a village. Not many kids crave connection more than this four-year-old named Roman.
Pass by his house in Concord, North Carolina, and he will surely greet you with a wave and a hay. He wakes up every day excited to say hi to somebody. Like that's the first thing he wants to do. And yet, his mom, Anna Butzloff, says for the longest time, Roman's cheeriness belied an inner loneliness. About a year ago, his parents broke up.
His dad moved to Florida, and his grandparents lived out of state, too. Fortunately, all those waves, All those seeds of kindness he planted. began to bloom. Starting with mister Wade Folgem. Who lives across the street?
Wade went over to meet the kid, who was always waving. they started doing stuff together. Eventually, other neighbors followed suit. Stopping to talk, doing stuff. drag racing down the street.
Anna says it was weird. I mean she barely knew any of these people. I didn't really know how to take it. I just saw that my son was happy. Which is why she went along with it when Roman then began inviting many different neighbors to his soccer games.
basketball games. and baseball games. Other neighbors came to his swimming lessons. and even his preschool open house. And when it came time for his birthday party, Anna knew the only people she needed to invite.
were his senior citizen neighbor friends. He loves having us there and he'll run up and hug us and we laugh that he has a lot of grandparents. He does. Because it's what he needs. They've made such an impact on him.
Like he really, they are really special people to him. Big beard. He's got a big beard. I thought. Today the refrigerator is blanketed with pictures of all those people he holds so dear.
His mom says his inner loneliness is gone. and has loved thy neighbour attitude, is spreading. It caught on from there, just like, hey, we all started waving at each other. We think people, we wave at them, you know. Roman has now brought together about a dozen neighbors who say they would have barely known each other if not for that little boy who lived in a neighborhood.
but needed a village. Look at what this little kid has built. It does. It does the world of good. If the world was like this child.
What an awesome, awesome place it would be. I love you. I love you too. And to think that utopia may only be A wave away Yes. In a few short years, Gracie Abrams has gone from a shy girl composing songs alone in her room to opening for some of music's biggest names to her own version of pop stardom.
But to hear Gracie Abrams tell it, that was never the plan. In the middle of New York is a spot that Gracie Abrams calls a secret garden, a park where she says she can hang out unnoticed. It's perfect and when cameras aren't around. It's a respite from a life where she's very much front and center. Make me cry, smile.
Oh yeah, that's my life. You're Yeah. At 26, Abrams is a reigning queen of so-called whisper pop. Life goes like I like to slow. Doors closed.
Her witty, intimate style has been praised by critics and millions of fans around the world. She's graced the tops of billboard charts, Chanel ads, and the most recent cover of Vogue. Backstage on tour last summer, she still seemed stunned by it all. I'm constantly pinching myself, and I don't know at what point you could get to where you're not doing that, you know what I mean? Looking at her with blue eyes Did it just to hurt me, make me cry Smiling through it all, yeah, that's Being center stage didn't come naturally to Abrams.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, she always had a passion for songwriting, but not necessarily performing. And at first you didn't want to share the songs? Certainly not. I felt so um It ju it was like You know, like just really physical fear when it like is in the pit of your stomach. I felt that when I would hear footsteps coming down the hall and I would stop playing.
What is it mean? She eventually got up the nerve to post a few songs online. I don't know what my goal was, but I think it was probably that. naive kind of concept of the internet that It's not real and that it doesn't, you know what I mean? I'm like, okay, it was easier to hide behind.
The gamble paid off. By 2019, Abrams had her first record deal. Either And thanks in part to COVID, did her first tour on Zoom from her bedroom. It was such a gift because I was vomiting at the thought of performing and then I got to do it in the comfort of my own space and it felt like this baby step. God I'm actually investing And that baby step turned into a running leap onto the world's largest stages.
By 2022, Abrams was opening for some of the brightest stars in music: Olivia Rodrigo, and then Taylor Swift. Do you remember what was going through your mind when you walked out on the Eros tour stage for the first time? Ugh, it felt like being in some kind of like alternate universe. Like, it was just the best thing. I know it's hard to narrow it down, but is there one piece of advice or one lesson that you got from Taylor that you continue to use to this day?
Oh man. Weirdly, the first thing that comes to mind when you ask that is like encouragement to just never stop writing. Like for me, anytime I had a feeling where I was like, I would rather just like cry about this for a while, or I'm like, you know, it's pick up the, just pick it up and write it down, and it serves you every time to do that. I'm alive, but I think I lost it. I was fine, you said it from a cough and never how I died when you started walking that time And now, Gracie Abrams is selling out arenas on her own.
And can you explain that sensation of looking out and seeing All of these people. thousands of people singing your words? Back to you? It just doesn't feel like it's remotely about me, so I love it. And it feels like even though They might be my words, like they've adopted them, made them their own.
Still, Abrams has had to deal with accusations of nepotism. Her mom, Katie McGrath, is an entertainment executive, and dad, J.J. Abrams, created hit TV shows and directed a couple of Star Wars films. You've been blessed with successful parents, but on the other hand, there's that term that's thrown around Nepo baby.
Well, I mean, my parents have both worked in the entertainment industry. since before I was born. And I think there is no question there are a million visible and invisible ways in which I have benefited as a result of my proximity. I'm the luckiest person in the world to have grown up. learning from the two of them in all of the ways.
It's been everything, of course. Yeah. In fact, instead of avoiding talking about her parents, Abrams has leaned in. Hungry and low. Her latest album, Out Friday, is called Daughter from Hell.
Its title track, heard here for the first time, is a love song for her mom. Very overdue, I feel. I sent it to my mom. I was like, so sorry, it took me 26 years to write one that wasn't laced with, you know, some kind of angsty anger. I'm like, I want to be you now, mom.
What was her reaction? She did cry. Just got her. But I want more than ever to say thank you to the people that made me who I am and who have given every ounce of you know, love that they Have.
So. Yes. Yeah. La la la Like it's so weird to get emotional talk, but it is true.
So anyway The album's first single is the emotional anthem Hit the Wall. And when she goes on tour later this year, some of the lyrics fans will be screaming were written in this quiet little garden.
So I feel very Yeah, grateful to this particular stretch of land. Gracie Abrams is also well aware of the fleeting and fickle nature of fame. In fact, she wrote a song about it. Look at My Life. I got Hotlight.
Book of My Life has a line in it that says, how long have I got in the hotlight? Do you think about that? Yeah. The next Girl, there's always the next shiny object, there's always the next great show. I love you, love your time machine.
Your power tription diamond ring My hope is is longevity, not like white hot moment, you know?
So I want to do this thing for as long as You know, the people will have me, and when they don't want to have me anymore, I will still be hopefully here making stuff so. Yeah. Kicking my Myself with my gut and an arm. Cause hurt the You're Happier. At California Closets, we design for the little things.
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That's me. That's you? Yeah. Vietnam veteran Sean Burns had always planned to one day be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Now. He's not so sure. I'm entitled to be buried there. And so are my colleagues, but we're we're all reconsidering that. It's going to depend on whether this arch goes up.
Really? Yes. Why? It's disrespectful. It's wrong.
Burns is one of three veterans suing the Trump administration over this, a triumphal arch President Trump wants to build to celebrate America's two hundred fiftieth birthday. At two hundred fifty feet it would be taller than most buildings in DC, and would stand just across the Potomac River in a traffic circle at the base of Arlington National Cemetery. It's going to be really beautiful. I think it's going to be fantastic. Critics argue the arch would obstruct historic sight lines between the cemetery that was built during the Civil War.
and the memorial to Abraham Lincoln. the man who ended that war. Had you ever done anything like this before? I hadn't, but I was angered by it. There are 400,000 American veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
We thought this was disrespectful, particularly coming from the man who called Americans who had volunteered and served wore the uniform various wars, suckers and losers.
So we took this step. The arch is just one way President Trump is seeking to remake the nation's capital in his vision. His face now adorns multiple government buildings as he oversees. dozens of projects around the city. Washington, D.C.
is now a safe and beautiful place. And it's only going to get more beautiful.
So far, he has resurfaced the National Mall's reflecting pool. made plans to overhaul the public golf course along the Potomac River. and proposed a new Garden of Heroes featuring two hundred fifty sculptures. He also demolished the east wing of the White House in a surprise move last year. And his name was added to the Kennedy Center.
A judge has since ordered its removal. All of a sudden, the columns were one day white. Charles Birnbaum is the president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation and an expert on Washington, D.C.'s historic core. It was a place designed with purpose like a quilt. And for generations, the city's design and planning has contributed to that quilt.
to honor its bone structure. and to understand its place in this mosaic of 250 years. Birnbaum says every new project is meticulously designed to avoid interfering with the other patches on the quilt. Whether it's the arch or the ballroom, these are massive objects that are being forced upon spaces. that have Symbolism that tell the story of who we are as a people.
And they also symbolize how the view shed can be uninterrupted. How light and shadow across a lawn at the White House is not open space for construction. It's not just about the structures themselves, it's also about. The empty space between them. Right.
The space actually isn't empty. The space is actually there satisfying a purpose. As Trump's projects have mounted, so have the lawsuits over the lack of public input or congressional authorization. and over the use of no-bid contracts to speed up construction. Why do you think the president with all of these projects is moving so quickly?
I think there's a legacy that he may be looking for, but the city isn't his own personal. portfolio. Rebecca Miller is executive director of the DC Preservation League, which has filed six lawsuits against the administration. You have the reflecting pool, which has been compromised from the stealant coming up. And the algae blooms and whatnot.
So you're saying there are consequences when these projects move too quickly? Yes. The White House would probably argue that All cities evolve. And new structures go up, old ones come down, and they're just doing deferred maintenance.
Well, demolishing the entire East Wing isn't deferred maintenance. There's been notes of, oh, it was. terribly ridden with all kinds of asbestos and lead paint, but we've not seen those reports.
Some of that debris. dumped in a nearby park. The cost of all this beautification and restoration has topped $100 million so far. and is projected to grow to nearly one billion. with the money coming from both public and private sources.
At least $80 million has been diverted from national parks. In a statement, the Department of the Interior told Sunday morning, Great nations build beautiful structures and works of art that cultivate national pride. and love of country. We are lucky at this point to have a builder president who appreciates the style of Jefferson to have that city. B.
The the President Reagan's Shining City on a Hill. Rodney Mims Cook is the chair of the Commission of Fine Arts, a body now made up entirely of Trump appointees. The Commission is responsible for reviewing projects like the proposed White House ballroom. which was approved in less than two months.
Some Planners we've spoken to have argued that the National Commission of Fine Arts has become a rubber stamp for President Trump. What's your response to that? They're all. Why do you say that? Yeah.
Because the President listens to us and we've had my conversations with the President are confidential. But he enjoys this. He is very educated about it. Why did your commission approve that ballroom so quickly without the typical amount of public input that you would see for a project this important?
So the White House is an insufficient plant for the Presidency of the United States. It's been complained about since the Harrison Presidents. And now, with drones and people who tend to shoot at leaders. It's a security problem of a major note. Cook has also been one of the driving forces behind an arch in DC.
In fact, his Atlanta-based office is located on top of an arch similar to the one he'd like to see in Washington. I proposed it as a private citizen 26 years ago because it will ultimately become the de facto gateway into Arlington Cemetery. And the current gateway into it is insufficient. Why not put it somewhere else in Washington?
Well, you couldn't have a more open space in the entire District of Columbia than that space for such a properly scaled arch. It's Two feet higher than the Arct de Triomphe. The Arct de Triomphe is 164 feet tall. and it is surrounded by a massive city. This is surrounded by parkland.
His commission signed off on the arch in May. And another key approval could come as early as September. For what some opponents, like Sean Burns, have dubbed the Arc de Trump. We have several other iconic monuments to Presidents, Washington Blinken Jefferson They were not Built at the orders or direction of any of those three men. They were built.
After they were deceased, This is not the case with this Monument. You think he wants a monument to himself. You don't? Look around. Every car you see is probably on AutoTrader.
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Rules and restrictions apply. The most important things I've ever done in my life have been in this hospital. Nothing will ever matter more than what I've done in this hospital, but it is killing me. The Pit was the surprise television hit of 2025, and after two seasons it's become a winner with fans, critics, and at award shows, shining an ever-brighter spotlight on star and executive producer Noah Wiley. And as our Dr.
John Lapouk shares, Wiley is at the center of just about everything. Uh Yeah. Beginning in the 1960s, medical dramas became a staple of primetime TV. You may have followed the trials and tribulations of Doctors James Kildare, Marcus Welby, Hawkeye Pierce. Mark Craig Michaela Quinn, And then, in 1994, ER's Dr.
John Carter. Played by Noah Wiley. Right hand's also swollen. Oh, my God, he's allergic to latex.
Okay. He's in a sister league. When ER ended, if I had come to you and said, what are the odds that someday you're going to do another medical show? What would you have said? Banner, 0%.
What changed? COVID, you know, COVID changed everything, certainly for me, in thinking about. There being another story to tell. I was getting a lot of mail from people on the front lines saying. We could sure use Dr.
Carter out here, or this is really awful. You have no idea what I've been through these last few months, but I've been here. For his work on ER, Wiley was nominated as Best Supporting Actor five times. Noah Wiley. But it wasn't until he portrayed Dr.
Michael Rabinovich. Dr. Robbie on The Pit that last September he took home a trophy as outstanding lead actor in a drama series. And this past week, Is this you? The series won 25 nominations, including Outstanding Drama, the most of any program, and once again, in the lead actor category.
Noah Wiley. Okay, everybody, listen up. Dr. Robbie watches over the controlled chaos at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Send another up to the OR.
I got room for one more red. Got it. It all takes place over a single emergency room shift, and each episode covers just one hour in a very long day. My wife died a year ago. Yeah.
I guess today is the day I'll be joining us. We visited the set at the Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California. I mean, I'm on a stage out there right now. I'm in an emergency room. Walk from backstage into the emergency room, and you feel you are in an actual hospital.
It became really important to have the entire set feel like in a totally immersive experience. Syringes. There's the tape. You open a drawer, everything that's supposed to be in the drawer is there. If somebody got into trouble here, you actually could fix them.
Everything feels real and is exactly where it should go. Two camera ones. America. Fieber. Noah Wiley is in charge here in more ways than one.
Not only is he a lead actor, he is an executive producer and writer. And the days we dropped in, and then we'll drop back. He also directed effusion has grown.
Now, with RV collapse, actors at the pit have to learn more than their lines. Very slowly. There's a two-week medical boot camp. We try our best to educate them on CPR, how to suture, how to intubate the natural mechanics so that when they are on screen and the camera is quite tight and close, everything looks finessed and refined as if someone with experience has done it. Dr.
Elizabeth Ferreira, herself an emergency room doc, is one of the show's medical technical consultants. Sure, okay, go with the tonkin. In episode 10, we had a patient who actually got slugged in the eye by a baseball. She helps make sure the procedures look thoroughly real. How can you see with all that blood?
The realism does shock all of us when we enter a room and the prosthetic has been established on either the actor like this or in bed and go, oh, that's not the actor. Hard at work. That hyper-authenticity extends to the storylines in each episode. It's an unhappy patient. A patient hit you.
Since COVID, there's a kind of a... a stress level and anger that exists in the population, and that has translated to particularly to violence against nurses, but against all the healthcare providers. Executive producers John Wells and Scott Gemmel, both veterans of the classic ER TV series, said the pit began with considerable research. Do you address the issue of the loss of trust? That the public has in public health.
Disinformation, that was one of the biggest changes, I think. Besides COVID, you know, I don't remember the disinformation being at a level that it is these days. The biggest thing that we. Talk about regularly is Dr. Google, is this notion that everybody who comes in is already on their phone figuring out what it is they supposedly is wrong of them, and half of people have assumed that they've got the worst possible thing that could happen to them.
That's part of what the erosion of trust is. You're defending yourself against artificial intelligence, is what's going to happen next. Much of the drama on the pit reflects real life. and real problems. Touched.
People are going to lose their health insurance. People are going to delay care. People are going to continue to come in sicker. They're going to be more volatile when they come in. That's going to put more of a burden on staff.
All this stuff is sort of moving towards this perfect storm of unsustainability. Noah Wiley's connection to the medical community is more than what's in a script. His mother, Marjorie Speer, was an orthopedic and operating room nurse. Mom's at the hospital all day. I gotta walk home from school until mom gets home.
Why couldn't you save her? I mean, this is what you do. And then 35 years later, she's watching an episode of The Pit and comes over and says. That rocked me. I don't know how many people I've helped today, but I can tell you every other person who has died.
She just starts listing all these names of patients that she had seen die when she was practicing. I said, Mom, I've never heard these stories before. And she goes, oh, yeah. We were her kids. And She didn't show us that stuff.
But the pit does show us that stuff. And what happens when an empathetic doctor stops having empathy for himself? You know, in the old days it was kind of suck it up and it was a little bit of like I went through it, so you got to go through it. You know, this is your training. We were up for four days straight.
Yeah, and it became a badge of honor to survive it. Oh jeez. No.
We get feedback from people who Having seen the show. Realize that they too are suffering and have buried it the same way that the Robbie character did.
So that brings us to your meltdown. Everything's going crazy. We need the hero to come in on his white horse and save the day.
Okay, come on, give me your hand. He's on the floor. I can't. The heroes on the floor? How can that be?
So three decades after ER, Noah Wiley is once again playing a dedicated doctor. And as it turns out, It's a prescription he wrote. for himself. There were two points in my career during the pandemic and during this last work stoppage for the Writers and Actors Strike. Those were the two moments when The flow of my career were interrupted and I Wasn't used to it.
It really rattled me. in a way that That rattled me. I remember saying to my wife, like, I don't think I work for money. I think I work for health, my own health. Like I think this is where I get my orientation.
And without it, I'm not sure I know what I do on this earth. I think it's going to somewhere. Are you happy? I'm the happiest I've been in a long time. Does that surprise you?
It just confirms, you know, it confirms all my worst suspicions about myself, which is that I really need all this. Wow. That's right, right, right, right.
Okay. The wine barrel racing in the recent romantic comedy You, Me, in Tuscany, isn't some invention of a Hollywood screenwriter. It's a real tradition, loved by locals and visitors alike. Our Seth Doan has a postcard from Tuscany. Ringed by vineyards and perched on a hilltop, it's hard to upstage this Tuscan town.
Okay. But for a few days each year, the residents of Montepulciano do just that, as its medieval structures become a backdrop for the spectacular and serious bravio delli botti, or wine barrel race. The bravio is everything. Everything. The bravio is a celebration of culture.
of sports. It's a celebration of the rich history of this town. As empty oak barrels are readied for the race in which they're pushed to the church at the top of town, American Stacey Dabate was adding to the fanfare in her adopted second home. I can't actually believe I'm standing here in this beautiful costume playing this beautiful instrument. Playing the Chiarina, she's about 4,000 miles and seemingly several centuries removed from her performances in Arizona with the Scottsdale Philharmonic.
So basically, if you untwisted my French horn... You'd get this. You would get this, yes.
Okay. Elaborate parades by both Torch and Daylight are just a prequel to this race. Which requires intense practice. Just moving the barrels from their roadside storage is challenging. Empty, they weigh nearly 200 pounds.
This is tough work. Yeah. tough but at the same time it's a pleasure. Alessio Mosca's training does not appear so pleasurable though there is the view, rows of Sangiovese grapes which make this region famous. They have to push with even strength, except when turning.
Then there's going uphill. Barrels can take precedence to cars here, as this correspondent who lives nearby has learned. You guys are out here all year round training. I see you going up and down these hills. Yeah, it's very difficult but it's a passion for us.
Lukarosi and Alessio Mosca train all year to be ready for the last Sunday in August. Why is this such a big deal? It It is like if you ask for a sinese about the Paglio di Siena, it's a thing that you have inside of you. It's impossible to describe it. You have to feel it yourself.
Siena has felt the rumble of its famous Palio horse race since the Middle Ages. Nearby, Arezzo has its Serreccino joust. Monte Pulciano's wine barrel race is just about 50 years old. But carries on centuries of tradition in which neighborhoods or contrade compete against each other. You wear them like this.
And you'll wear it around so people know this is yours. Simone Mosca, Alessio's older brother, was selected to push the barrel, a role he admired as a kid. For me, there was a like a Superheroes. Their contrada, Talosap, hosts team-building meals ahead of the race. How much rivalry is there between contrada, between neighborhoods?
We are a small town, so we know each other very well. But On that day, your contradiction. When you're at the start line, Uh you are racing for yourself and nobody else. I'm not sure if I can do it. The event is telecast live and fans line the steep stone streets.
We train a lot for nine minutes of race. If you win, it's good, but if not, you have to wait one year to do it again. There are not many rules other than good sportsmanship, but there is some strategy when to try to pass another team. Cañano Contrada was victorious, a celebration of strength and abs, which was not shared by Alessio Mosca. What strikes me most of all in just seeing this is how incredibly physical it is.
This day a lot is in your head, but there are a lot of good athletes in this sport, so the level is very high and you have to respect them. I'm not sure if I can do it. Just after the bravillo, grills were again fired up at the contrade, and scarves of varying teams could be seen at the same table, while now more convivial and less competitive wine remained at the center. I'm Tracy Smith. Thanks for listening.
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Find a one worth keeping. 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.
