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I'm Jane Pauley and this is Sunday Morning. From desert watering hole to gambling mecca to world-class, family-friendly destination, the city of Las Vegas has come a long way, very long way. Change that continues to this day with a booming population, a diversifying economy, and new status as the nation's pro sports mecca.
Proof? The event will host next weekend as Las Vegas gets ready for the Super Bowl. Luke Burbank looks at a city coming into its own. The Super Bowl coming to town is just the latest proof that Sin City might not be as taboo as it once was. But was it Las Vegas that changed or was it us? It's been a shift not just in how Las Vegas views itself, but also how the world views Las Vegas. And how America views gambling, I guess. Very much so. Coming up on Sunday Morning, Vegas reinvents itself again.
Last month it received five Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. Bill Whittaker is talking with the women of American fiction. I knew it was going to be like this. Push the button and everybody just... That's that black girl magic. Yeah, yeah. They may come from different generations, but Leslie Uggams, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Erica Alexander know what it's like to be a black woman in Hollywood.
I get joy from seeing these beautiful young women, getting an opportunity to show how fierce they are. Speaking truth about American fiction, ahead on Sunday Morning. He's sold out arenas and stadiums, but Usher has never had an audience like the one he'll have next Sunday. Tracee Smith talks with the star of this year's Super Bowl halftime show.
For 13 minutes next week, Usher will likely be the most watched human on the planet. And for him, the road to the Super Bowl began right here in Las Vegas. Did you find that thing when you came here that was maybe missing? If ever anyone said that Vegas is a place that you go to die, it wasn't for me.
It was a place that brought me back to life. Usher, later on Sunday Morning. Our morocca this morning will recall what may have been the most famous party of the 20th century, and you're invited.
Martha Teichner is taking a closer look at the issue of immigration, a debate that seems to grow more contentious by the day. Seth Doan tells us about a new movie on the life of reggae superstar Bob Marley, plus a story from Steve Hartman. We'll take time out to mark the start of our 45th year on television. And more, this Sunday Morning for the 4th of February, 2024.
We'll be right back. Looking for a major wardrobe update? Try out Rebag, a luxury resale marketplace. Buy and sell finds from the world's top brands, including Hermes, Chanel and Cartier. And don't worry, each piece is carefully vetted and verified by experts. Head to Rebag.com to get 10% off your first purchase with code Rebag10.
That's 10% off your first purchase at www.rebag.com with code Rebag10. Hi, I'm Lalei Arakoglou, host of Women Who Travel. Women Who Travel is a transported podcast for anyone curious about the world. We talk to adventurers and athletes. I've raced the God's Own Adventure Race, which is on the South Island and goes through the mountains.
Down in the Southern Alps on New Zealand. That was eight days spent out in the wilderness. And chefs. Iranian food is home, it's family, it's love. And we share dispatches from our listeners. Ireland is full of these, I will call them ghosts of the past. From stampeding elephants to training sled dogs, we hear it all.
The dogs will curl right up with you and it can be kind of cozy waiting things out. New episodes of Women Who Travel, published every Thursday. Join us wherever you listen. You might say Las Vegas is on a winning streak. Next weekend, for the first time, it's hosting the Super Bowl. But as Luke Burbank reminds us, that's just one indication of how far Las Vegas has come. Hi, I'm Luke. Welcome.
Thank you so much. Looking out at Las Vegas with Mr. Vegas himself, Wayne Newton. You've been up in this a few times, though.
Yes, I have. And it's wonderful, by the way. You realize just how much this city has changed since he came to town back in 1959. There were seven hotels on the strip. That's what Vegas was then. Do you feel like Las Vegas is being treated like a real American city in a way that maybe wasn't always in people's minds? There's no question about that.
And with that maturity comes something that was once unthinkable. The NFL announced today that our city will host the 2024 Super Bowl. Unthinkable because for many years, pro sports teams, including the NFL, refused to go anywhere near Las Vegas, thanks to its seedy reputation. When I moved to Las Vegas in the 80s, my family was concerned.
I mean, I think legitimately concerned. Steve Hill heads up the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, one of the organizations that lobbied for years to get pro sports teams to reconsider their idea of Sin City. Even with all of that work, is it still surprising to you to think that the Super Bowl is going to be happening here in Las Vegas?
It really is. We thought that was completely out of the question. For a long time, there was the fear that the bright lights of Vegas might remind fans of one of sports' darkest days, when gamblers fixed the 1919 World Series. And when, after the famed White Sox fielder Shoeless Joe Jackson confessed his guilt, it said that one weeping fan of his cried out, say it isn't so. But that concern has diminished, says Brett Arbarbinol, executive director of the International Gaming Institute at UNLV. For a long time, gambling in Las Vegas, by extension, was viewed as kind of this unacceptable, maybe unethical, inappropriate… Seedy.
Seedy, sometimes even evil thing to do. And a lot of that's shifted. There's much more acceptance of gambling these days. Ironically, says Arbarbinol, some of that acceptance might be thanks to a 2018 Supreme Court decision that initially looked like bad news for Nevada.
The court overturned something called PASPA, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. And since then, more than 30 states have legalized sports betting. So, in other words, the fact that anyone anywhere, pretty much now in America, can place a sports bet on their phone, it has not actually hurt the economy here in Las Vegas? It hasn't.
It's grown alongside one another. Because, the theory goes, the more familiar people are with gambling on sports, the less worried they might be about pro sports teams being based in Las Vegas. Teams like the Raiders, the Golden Knights of Hockey, the Aces of the WNBA, and soon, the legendary Tropicana Hotel will be demolished to make way for a new stadium for the soon-to-relocate Oakland A's. It's a big sports turnaround for a city that actually has some humble beginnings. This feels like the most unglitzy part of Las Vegas I've been to. Why are we here? Yeah, we are here because this is where Las Vegas actually began.
Where the plaza sits today is where the great land auction took place in 1905 that founded the city. Brian Paco Alvarez is an anthropologist, tour guide, and lifelong resident of Las Vegas who says there's a practical reason his town has been all in on gambling and entertainment over its 100-plus year history. It's a city that has to reinvent itself to survive. You know, we don't have a lot of industry here. He took us on a drive on what else? Las Vegas Boulevard.
We don't have a lot of water, so we realized that the formula of having gaming worked for us. Nevada legalized gambling in the 1930s, but it was mobsters like Bugsy Siegel and Moe Dalitz who saw its potential, creating that Las Vegas strip. With that danger in its DNA, the city leaned in hard to the sin part of Sin City over the years. These days though, Vegas is betting that the once-in-a-lifetime experience of their town will be a key in attracting the TikTok generation. Things like Formula One racing right on the strip, Adele close-up and personal at Caesars Palace, or U2 at the Sphere, the $2.3 billion concert venue that looks like something you might be able to literally see from space. It's so over-the-top that even we locals can't stop looking at it. I'll drive by and it always gives me a smile, because a lot of times it's a giant emoji smiling at me. Another reason Las Vegas is smiling? The city is back. 40 million people visited last year, nearly topping its pre-COVID record.
In fact, more than 300,000 people are expected in town this week alone. And Wayne Newton would just like to take a moment to say thank you. Do you feel like you've kind of become to some degree the institutional memory of Las Vegas?
Yes, I have, and I say that with a great deal of pride. What I do tour, many times they won't even say Wayne Newton. They say, Mr. Las Vegas opens such and such theater. At first, I wasn't sure it was a compliment, but it certainly has become one, and I'm very proud of that.
The truth of the matter is to call it Sin City is a misnomer, because there's nothing that goes on here that doesn't go on in every city pretty much in the world. Come next weekend, Mr. Las Vegas will be in person watching the Super Bowl, as some 150 million other people tune in from all over the world, as a city known for its glitz and glamour puts on what might be its biggest show yet. It's your questions that make it possible for me to provide unconventional and entertaining insights on your money, and maybe more importantly, on your life. I'm going to be your financial coach, someone who brings common sense and an insider's perspective on how to manage your money and your emotions.
And I promise we are going to have a little bit of fun along the way. Have a question from retirement to career changes to college funding? Just send us an email at askjillatjillonmoney.com. Follow Money Watch wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. I'm CBS News correspondent Major Garrett, host of the podcast Agent of Betrayal, The Double Life of Robert Hansen. During the Cold War, FBI agent Robert Hansen traded classified secrets to the Kremlin in exchange for cash and jewels. In the podcast, you'll hear from Hansen's closest friends, family members, victims, and colleagues for the most comprehensive telling of who Robert Hansen really was. Binge the entire series now.
Agent of Betrayal, The Double Life of Robert Hansen is available on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. It may have been the most glamorous and exclusive event ever held in New York City. Mo Rocca looks back at the infamous black and white ball and its provocative host.
Good heavens, here comes John Kenneth Galbraith. The Maharani of Baroda is here and the Baroness de Rothschild and Mrs. Lowell Guinness. In November 1966, a parade of bold-faced names dressed in their finest peacocked their way into New York's Plaza Hotel as CBS News correspondent Charles Kuralt, in his classic reporter's trench coat, set the scene.
And if those names don't mean anything to you, presumably you are not in the other half and you will be interested in this little report on how the other half lives. There was a reason a news network was covering this party. Author Truman Capote had invited 540 of his very closest friends. Just an endless list.
Author Lawrence Leamer has written about Capote's extraordinary life, including his black and white ball. The New York Times, the next day, published a list, the guest list. It was unheard of. This was atypical because generally they would maybe do the list of, say, a White House state dinner.
Right. People lobbying him. It didn't work. He just loved turning people down. Among the invited, Frank Sinatra and his then-wife Mia Farrow, Andy Warhol, Norman Mailer, Henry Fonda, and a 19-year-old model and actress. Do you remember getting the invitation to the ball? No, and it was an invitation that people were clawing to get. It was New York at its most vicious. Candice Bergen was one of the guests. You knew that you'd have to get a mask.
Yes. Halston stepped in. That would be Halston, the designer of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's pillbox hat. He had designed a white mink bunny mask for Marisa Berenson. Berenson, who became one of the highest paid fashion models in the world. She was also at the party.
And she found something better. So Halston needed a person. And it was like, OK, you wear it, whoever you are.
So I wore it. As an author, Truman Capote is remembered for Breakfast at Tiffany's and the groundbreaking book In Cold Blood. As a personality, Capote captivated and mystified audiences in TV interviews.
He also played a character not unlike himself in 1976's Murder by Death. The victim is here at this very table at this very moment. For Capote, the masked black and white ball was something of a social experiment. In a masked ball, you see for the first hours of it before the unmasking, anybody can dance with anybody they want to or talk to anybody they want to.
It's a completely free thing. And by the time the unmasking come, you made a lot of new friends. And that was the point.
The ball has been recreated in an episode of the new FX series Feud Capote versus the Swans. The Swans were the wealthy socialite wives who confided in Capote. He would eventually betray them by revealing their secrets in writing. It's an immensely cruel and nasty thing to do to your closest friends. It's unforgivable.
How we thought they could forgive him is beyond me. But his falling out with high society would happen later. When Capote threw his ball, he was at the height of his powers. It was the ultimate fantasy room. This poor little kid from Alabama could pull this off and get everybody to come there. The very planning of the party was the talk of the town for months. The party's ostensible guest of honor, Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham. The party was really for?
Truman Capote. Do you think that Truman had a good time at his own party? Well, did he ever have a truly good time? I don't know. I'm sure he had a massive adrenaline rush. And obviously it was. The one we present to the world. Tom Hollander plays Truman Capote in the FX series, which doesn't gloss over the author's dark side. It's carnival.
It's everything I've dreamt of since I was a little boy, this kind of true nakedness. He was addicted to alcohol. He was also addicted to high society. It made him feel good, but it was not good for him. He should have been at his desk. What was it in his personality that compelled him to throw this party?
Well, the point in finally having a party is who you don't invite. A deep inferiority complex. So much fear there.
It's all fear. John Robin Bates wrote the series. I always think he could have had another 25, 30 years if he had followed the advice of clean up and go into exile. When Capote threw his ball, he was coming off the huge success of In Cold Blood. It would be the last of his books published in his lifetime.
He died 18 years later at age 59. Do you think most people there had a good time at the party? No, I don't think people had fun.
But like all things in hell, they pretended they were having a good time. Do you think that a party could happen today and get that kind of attention? I hope not. It's too much. Yeah.
I think it was a huge piece of theater for Truman. Right. And it worked.
Would you say you had fun there? I was overwhelmed. Yeah. I had to be focused.
It's like, pay attention here. Do you still have the mask? No.
I had to return the mask. If you were rich enough or social or beautiful enough, you would have been here to see for yourself. And as somebody said, unkindly, if we were rich enough or social or beautiful enough, we wouldn't be standing out here in the halls. Charles Kuralt, CBS News, New York. Hi, it's Stephen Colbert, and I'm here to tell you about The Late Show Pod Show, which is the podcast of The Late Show with me, Stephen Colbert. And I'm here with my producer of the podcast, Becca. Hi, Becca. Hi, Stephen. So what do people get when they listen to The Late Show Pod Show?
Let's sell this thing. The extended moments for sure, because we run out of time for broadcast, but we have plenty of time on the podcast. It's kind of like being a live audience member of the show, because you get things that no one else hears.
Listen to The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert wherever you get your podcasts. Many put their hope in Dr. Serhat. His company was worth half a billion dollars. His research promised groundbreaking treatments for HIV and cancer. Scientists, doctors, renowned experts were saying, genius, genius, genius.
People that knew him were convinced that he saved their life. But the brilliant doctor was hiding a secret. Do not cross this line that was being messaged to us. Do not cross this line. A secret the doctor was desperate to keep. This was a person who was willing to coldheartedly just lie to people's faces. We're dealing with an international fugitive. From Wondery, the makers of Over My Dead Body and The Shrink Next Door comes a new season of Dr. Death, Bad Magic.
You can listen to Dr. Death, Bad Magic ad-free by subscribing to Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. He's sold millions of albums and won eight Grammys. But Usher has one more musical mountain to climb. And as Tracy Smith shows us, it's not far from home. Look at that view.
Yeah, it's nice. You might say that Usher has the world at his feet these days. From his home near Las Vegas, he can see the site of next week's Super Bowl in a moment he's dreamed of for most of his professional life. Super Bowl.
Yep. Have you over the years looked at that and said, I want to be there? You know, everybody says they want to win a Grammy or they want to win an Oscar or a Tony or an Emmy.
The Super Bowl is something that everybody wants to play. You know? And here it is. It happened. And it only took 30 years. In case he's not on your personal playlist, Usher is a global superstar.
Here we go. Who's won eight Grammys, sold many millions of records, and created what is essentially the romantic soundtrack of a generation. And for the past year or so, he's been the hottest ticket in Las Vegas with a residency that surpassed all expectations on stage and on the wheels. For Usher, it's all about putting in the work.
Even after his show opened, he'd still practice hard instead of just skating his way through it all. I don't sleep that much. How many hours a night would you say?
On average, I'd say maybe four. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's pretty bad. Yeah. But it's good. You know, my creativity just doesn't allow me to really stop.
You know, it's just like... Always going. Always going. I know you're a student of music history, of entertainment history. How much do you think about the greats who have come to this town before? They're always in front of my mind. I mean, the heart's history of African Americans who had to perform here and couldn't go through the actual casinos now to be here with a residency. It's like, man, what a whirlwind.
A whirlwind, indeed. Born in 1978 and raised in Chattanooga, then Atlanta, Usher Raymond IV started singing where so many greats got their start, the church choir. With his mother, Janetta Patton, by his side, he entered talent shows and would sing just about anywhere he could find an audience. I was the artist, right, who basically stood on the corner and sang songs for change, right? I didn't have the opportunity to kind of sit down and play guitar, but I could sing.
I didn't actually collect change. I wish I would. At least I got paid for what I was doing. He was still a teen when he caught the eye of big-time music producer L.A. Reid. I managed to impress him so much so that he asked me to be, you know, his first solo male artist, right? That's pretty amazing. He signed you on the spot.
Yeah, yeah, on the spot. Seventy-five million records later, he's one of the biggest names in the business, and as of last May, an honorary doctor from Boston's Berklee College of Music. I'm the Usher that everybody knows now, and trust me, it wasn't easy having that name as a kid.
Usher got that name from his father, Usher Raymond III, who left home when his son was still young. The two reconnected years later, shortly before the elder Usher died of liver disease. When you became famous, you tracked down your dad.
What happened? We had some good conversations that maybe helped me understand and maybe remedy some of the pain that I felt. I feel resolved about it because I did get some answers that I needed. I was conceived in love regardless to whether my mother and father managed to make it.
I know they loved each other, and I was a love child. That was the answer you were looking for? That was one piece of it.
The other half had a lot to do with, you know, why. Was it something I did? Was it something that was done? You thought as a kid, was it something that I did? Or did you just not want me? Was I not good enough? Was I not worthy enough of your actual presence, but I was giving your name? All of these things. And the one thing that he told me that was most valuable is, where I know I couldn't be there for you, I prayed that God could. So, man, I was like, wow, that's okay.
Get it. These are my confessions Just when I thought I said all I could say Safe to say his dad would be proud. Usher's album, Confessions, went diamond, meaning more than 10 million copies sold.
I realize that I can be a lover Let's just keep it honest with each other And he's already trying to top it. This week, he'll release his ninth studio album, Coming Home, just two days before his appearance at the Super Bowl. Talk about having a moment. He says the real challenge was keeping his Super Bowl appearance a secret from his kids. There was, like, a moment in time where your kids were saying, Dad, you should do the Super Bowl, and you know you were doing the Super Bowl.
Well, yeah. As of August the 11th, I knew, and I had to keep it a secret up until the grand unveiling for the world, and I couldn't let my kids know. So, like, any kind of documents I'm receiving, you know, we had, like, a code word that we would only talk on the telephone to let it be known that we were discussing Utah, you know. Was that the code word, Utah? That was a code word.
And when you were able to tell your family, what was the reaction? That's funny, because my kids were like, Dad, you should play the Super Bowl. I'm like, oh, really? That's a good idea. You might want to pray about that. You should pray about that, man. If you feel like I really deserve it, man, let's just say a prayer together.
So I'm like... But it was the sweetest treat, right, to know. It was like Christmas, you know what I'm saying? Your kids, you don't get a chance to surprise your kids that often anymore.
It's like there's no fantasy moments. But their prayers were answered. Their prayers were answered, yeah. A few of his prayers will be answered, too. Usher actually dropped into the big show in 2011 with the Black Eyed Peas, but being the headliner himself is a pretty big leap.
Usher says he hasn't seen the big show in 2011, but Usher says he hasn't settled on what comes next. He's testing the waters of a few different options. Oh, yeah, it's good and warm. Is it warm?
It's super hot. Oh, my gosh, that's nice. He says his family always comes first, but right now there's another all-consuming thought. He's got a show to do.
I think I have done the job of 40 men. I have got to figure out how to get some rest after the Super Bowl. You're saying that, but you're actually not going to. I'll manage to get some sleep. Now, I've got to talk to you about future tour.
I've got to talk to you about future residency and other things like that. It's like, ah, I'll consider all of that after the Super Bowl. I told you I don't really choose to celebrate that much because I'm always on to the next, right? Well, at this moment I'm going to celebrate. This moment I'll be celebrating for the last 30 years of hard work that I put in and the time that I know I'm going to put in specifically for this performance, but I'm going to celebrate.
I'm going to relax, and I'm going to enjoy it. Being an actual royal is never about finding your happy ending, but the worst part is if they step out of line or fall in love with the wrong person, it changes the course of history. I'm Arisha Skidmore-Williams.
And I'm Brooke Siffrin. We've been telling the stories of the rich and famous on the hit wondery show Even the Rich and talking about the latest celebrity news on Rich and Daily. We're going all over the world on our new show Even the Royals. We'll be diving headfirst into the lives of the world's kings, queens, and all the wannabes in their orbit throughout history. Think succession meets the crown meets real life. We're going to pull back the gilded curtain and show how royal status might be bright and shiny, but it comes at the expense of, well, everything else, like your freedom, your privacy, and sometimes even your head. Follow Even the Royals on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen to Even the Royals early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. Academy is a new scripted podcast that follows Ava Richards, played by HBO's Industries, Myhala Harold, a brilliant scholarship student who has to quickly adapt to her newfound eat-or-be-eaten world. Ava's ambitions take hold and her small-town values break in hopes of becoming the first scholarship student to make the list. Bishop Gray's all-coveted academic top ten, curated by the headmaster himself. But after realizing she has no chance at the list on her own, she reluctantly accepts an invitation to a secret underground society that pulls the strings on campus life and academic success. If she bends to their will, she'll have everything she's ever dreamed of.
But at what cost? Academy takes you into the world of a cutthroat private school where power, money, and sex collide in a game of life and death. Follow Academy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can binge all episodes of Academy early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's an issue dominating the headlines and dividing the nation, immigration. So how did we get here and what can be done about it? We've asked our Martha Teichner to take a closer look. Look at just about any of these people, any mother carrying a child.
And you can be pretty sure they've walked the length of whole countries. Along the southern U.S. border, where the razor wire meets the river, a humanitarian catastrophe meets an immigration enforcement horror show, Tinder and Spark, which have ignited what is now the nation's number one political firefight. If that bill were the law today, I'd shut down the border right now and fix it quickly. The latest flashpoint over that proposed bipartisan border deal, likely DOA after former president and candidate Donald Trump weighed in. There is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America. Meanwhile, the migrants keep coming.
Last year, the United States spent more than $36 billion on immigration enforcement, more than for all other federal law enforcement combined. Since the Biden administration took office in 2021, there have been at least 6.3 million migrant encounters at U.S. borders. 2.4 million of those people have been let in, mainly asylum seekers, apprehended then turned loose to wait for their court dates, and eligible for work permits after six months.
A big incentive to come. Until your case is decided, it will be a very long time, and that does function as a pull factor, yes. We're talking about anywhere from four to six, seven, sometimes more years than that. Doris Meissner was commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service during the Clinton administration, and is now a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. What the data show us are that if you are in the country for more than a year, it's highly unlikely that you'll be returned, even when your case is turned down, if it's turned down.
You'll remain here in a long-term limbo. The immigration court backlog is currently 3.3 million, a third of them asylum seekers. Of the asylum cases decided last year, more than eight out of ten were denials. Why don't they do it legally?
There is no line to get into to do it legally. We bring a million or more people into the country every year. Two-thirds of those people have a relative in the United States. We as a nation are forcing people to show up at the border, get apprehended, and apply for asylum.
You could certainly state it that way. What have we got? A giant, messy catch-22 thanks to an outdated and politicized immigration system. Where a nation says if you want to flee and you're fleeing oppression, you should come. The accusation that what candidate Joe Biden said in 2019 was a big green light for migrants. What if I told you not everybody wants to solve the problem? What if I told you it is very lucrative, both financially now, but also politically for so many people to be in this quagmire, to see these images? Texas Congressman Tony Gonzalez, a Republican, represents the epicenter of the migrant crisis, Eagle Pass.
How can we just stop? My community needs help, immediate help. Show me your district. We're 123 miles along the border. Here's Eagle Pass.
Right in here is Eagle Pass. Where that ugly showdown is still playing out over who controls the border, Texas or the federal government. And speaking of political theater, by busing tens of thousands of migrants to already overwhelmed big cities with Democratic mayors, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has riled the likes of New York's Eric Adams. This issue will destroy New York City. Do you stand by that?
Without a doubt. Here in the city, 169,000. They cannot work to provide themselves. We have to provide food, shelter, clothing, cleaning, education, health care.
That comes with a serious price tag. Twelve billion dollars over three years that's coming out of our city coffers. We're better than this, America. How much milk do you produce a day? Around 90,000 pounds a day, which is 45 tons of milk. At Walter Moore's dairy farm in southern Pennsylvania, two and a half hours from New York City's migrant mess, you can see a whole different side of the crisis.
From mariachi music to milk pie. Brian and his dad Alejandro are here from Mexico legally. The dairy industry would have trouble surviving without immigrant labor. But Walter Moore, a leader in the field, has described the labor shortage as severe.
The reason? Only seasonal farm workers can get visas. Dairy farming is year-round 24-7. Moore says change the law, so badly needed migrants are allowed into the United States to do the work.
Do you know farmers who have left the dairy industry because they couldn't find the workers that they need? Yes. You know, honestly, we've been talking about this for 15 or 20 years. Nothing happens?
Nothing happens. You always have to look at where the political incentives lie. Jay Johnson was Homeland Security Secretary responsible for U.S. borders in 2013, the last time bipartisan immigration reform legislation came close to passing, but then failed. And ever since then, any effort to compromise has been deemed weak, has been deemed a political liability.
We asked Johnson about a fix. There's a lot you can do to surge resources, which solves the problem in the immediate term, in the short term. But so long as families are so desperate to flee violence, poverty, corruption, they're going to keep coming.
You've also got to continually send the message that if you come here, we will send you back. His solution? Very similar to the framework of the bipartisan border deal. Address the things that serve as magnets in our immigration system. Address the backlog, address the standards by which someone can qualify on the front end for asylum and then go into that multiyear waiting period to see whether or not they ultimately get it. More immigration judges, more asylum officers, more technology, more border patrol agents, all of those things.
But always with a view toward what our values are as Americans. We are a nation of immigrants. We spoke to Johnson at Ellis Island, the very symbol of our immigrant heritage. Between 1892 and 1924, 12 million passed through its Great Hall. The space is being compared to the Roosevelt Hotel, where migrants are processed now in New York City. A lobby full of stories of how and why.
But here, only one goal. Under the dictatorship, it was impossible to live in Venezuela. Meet Daniel, 24, a construction worker back in Venezuela. He was earning $10 a month max. A month?
A month. And several times to cross the border before finally making it in December. He understands very well that for his economic conditions, they don't provide asylum. So he will look into other alternative methods. Daniel, like every other migrant in this room, intends to stay, no matter what. Let's come together, find the practical, pragmatic solutions to controlling our border.
It's what the American people want. It's a buzzworthy new film that's brought four of our most accomplished actors together. And it's now one of this year's top Oscar contenders. Bill Whitaker of 60 Minutes is talking with the women of American fiction. I'm seeing a sisterhood here.
You had never worked together before? No, it's so great. Though it's the first time Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Erica Alexander, and Leslie Uggams have acted together in a film, they said making American fiction felt like a homecoming. It's a special film. It is. For sure. I feel very proud to be in it.
I walked on the set and I just felt that we all belonged. Based on the 2001 novel Erasure, Do you have any books by the writer Thelonious Ellison? American fiction stars Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious Monk Ellison, a professor and frustrated author struggling to find his place in a literary world circumscribed by white perceptions of black life. Would you give us the pleasure of reading an excerpt? Monk's frustration grows when he hears Rae's character, Sintara Golden, read a passage from her wildly successful book.
Girl, you be pregnant again? Riddled with every racial cliché imaginable. And if I is, Rae Rae is going to be a real father this time around. As a joke, Monk assumes a pen name and writes a book awash in black stereotypes. Deadbeat dads, rappers, crack, that's black, right?
But the joke's on him. We love it. What? It is very, ah. Black?
Yes, that's it. I'm happy you said it and not me. When it becomes a roaring success. We think it is going to be the read of the summer. I'm sure white people on the Hamptons will delight in it. Yes, we will.
It's going to be huge. At its heart, American fiction is about relationships. Welcome to the neighborhood. Erica Alexander plays the divorcee who lives across the street. If Sintara is the object of his obsession, then I'm glad that I'm playing Coraline, the object of his desire. It's a beautiful, mature relationship and love story, blooming. Welcome home, baby. It's a family love story, too, and like in many families, love doesn't come easy.
Hello. Ross plays Monk's sister, Lisa, the glue binding the family. Leslie Uggams is Agnes, their mother, struggling with early-stage Alzheimer's.
You look fat. I never liked that painting anyway. Off-screen, there was a lot of love for their co-star. Did you guys have any out-of-body moments watching him?
Jeffrey? Yes, during the scene. I mean, there was definitely a moment where I was just like, oh, okay. I'm watching him work. This is crazy.
When you're working with fabulous people, you raise the bar because you better. I was just thinking about kissing him every day. He would be near the craft service table and I'd mosey up and say, our scene is coming. And he'd go, oh, boy. I was like, oh, get ready, dude.
You're both fantastic kissers. Wright's Monk is the central character, but he's defined by the women around him. His brother shines a spotlight on his flaws and his foibles, but the women are the ones who show us and show him who he truly is. That's black girl magic. Books change people's lives. That's something I've written, never changed your life?
Absolutely. My dining room table was wobbly as hell before your last book came out. It was like perfect. They saw that black girl magic in the script by writer-director Cord Jefferson.
It was on the page. He allowed these women to be full people. Is that not something that happens often, especially for black actors?
The brilliance of this film is that you have such a complete family story and one that candidly would be hard to sell on its own. Ray, Ross, Alexander and Uggams all had success playing accomplished women on television, roles they call the exception, not the rule. Writer-director Cord Jefferson asked, and I'm going to quote him here, why aren't black professors depicted in books and films as frequently as black drug addicts or black rappers or black slaves? Why is it that white people with the power to greenlight films, books and TV shows have such a limited view of what black lives should look like? Why is that? I don't think it's a question for us. Sometimes we're reduced to plot devices and I think that what it is is like a lack of seeing us as human.
I'm not saying they're doing it on purpose, but I do think that there's something in it, psychological, that wants to bring it back down to something that they can say is, oh, that's more accessible. Do you like to read, Mrs. Ellison? No. Leslie Uggams told us a movie like American Fiction would have been unthinkable when she started in show business seven decades ago. I love to walk in the rain. As a teenager, she became the first African American woman to appear as a regular on a TV variety show, Sing Along with Mitch. I have to tell you, when you showed up, my family would run to the TV. We were all glued to the TV because Leslie Uggams was on. Oh, my God, it was an event. And the interesting thing about that is that the South had blacked us out. They wouldn't take the show because of me.
That was controversial back then. But you've seen a lot of change. Yes, there's more of us on television. I mean, when I was starting, it was like maybe one commercial, and that was usually Anne Jemima and the Pancake Box kind of thing. In the 1990s, Alexander was a breakout star of the TV show Living Single.
In 2016, Ross became the first black woman in 30 years to get an Emmy nomination for Best Comedy Actress for her role in Blackish. Do you want your man or not? Do you know your plans or not? That same year, Ray's series Insecure debuted on HBO to much acclaim.
They all give a nod to Uggams. What you scared of, girl? I ain't scared of nothing, least of all you. What we've all been talking about, how you all have broken barriers, is that a burden to carry? I've said I'm going to blast through the door, and I've been doing that all my life. I don't take no for an answer. So it hasn't been a burden for me. It's been like, you know, marching up the steps.
Come on, let's go, let's go. We want to showcase the best of us, and I think it's an insult, frankly, when we see what others think of us. The burden is only in confronting that.
And if you look at Louis Armstrong, and if you look at Jimi Hendrix, and the blues of the great Diana Ross, all you see are people who have defied the odds. And so that's our birthright. But I just feel that if we can do anything to lessen the burden so people can actually get on with the creativity, that's what I think our job is, is to make it easier for them to be funded and found.
I think that is happening, which would happen faster. You don't make the rules. American fiction is on a fast track.
I'm just going to put them back after you leave. Don't you dare. It already had garnered several awards and nominations this season. Now, five Academy Award nominations.
Are you crazy? What if they fact-check this? I check.
There's barely money to pay editors anymore. Here you are getting Oscar buzz. You're getting Oscar buzz for two movies. Well, all right. That one's a white movie, but yeah. We're talking about a black movie.
Thank you so much. What's that like for all of you? I think Oscars award shows are complicated things.
The reality is they open doors in terms of the business. All of us sit here, and we're four women that have made our way through, but the amount of other women that have not been given accolades or even a seat with the work that they've done. And so, yes, it is an honor. It's a treat. But it also does not validate who we are.
But it's great, and I really like putting on the clothes. You've seen a lot of change in Hollywood over your career. From your seat here today, what's the future? We're just going to keep in everybody's face.
They need to start writing stuff more for us, but I'm hopeful. Steve Hartman this morning has a story that puts the expression honeydew list in a whole new light. After his retirement, and especially after his wife died, 76-year-old Danny Chauvin of Waveland, Mississippi, says he had way too much time on his hands. If you're alone with just your thoughts, does your mind wander places? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
That you don't want to go? Yep. That's when stuff comes back to you. Danny served in the Army in Vietnam. He's been treated for depression and PTSD. But to keep his sanity, he knew he also had to keep busy. But how?
And that's when Danny realized one of the things he missed most about his wife was all the little handyman jobs he used to do for her. So a few months ago, he posted a note on Facebook. If there's any honeydew jobs that you can't handle, I'm willing to help. And it's spread.
It's spread like wildfire. Thanks for coming to help me out. So now every day, sometimes four times a day, Danny fixes the hole in his heart by fixing just about everything else. He's working on fixing a closet door. And then he hung my porch swing. He hung my shower.
And he did my screen door. And the best part? What does he charge for all this? The price. Zero. Nothing.
Charge does nothing. He showed much kindness to people. We can fix that up. Most of the people Danny helps are women, most single or widowed. They call him the honeydew dude and say he's just about the only guy they know willing to help with these small jobs.
And obviously, no one's going to match his price point. In fact, when the work is done, only thing he takes is a picture, a reminder that he is not alone in his struggle. Right now, I've got a lot of friends.
A lot of friends. Is the PTSD any better now that you've started doing this? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's what I was looking for.
Plus, finding happiness off the honeydew list. He found his way from a small village in Jamaica to become the man who put reggae on the music map. The legendary Bob Marley is now front and center in a new movie.
Seth Doan tells us all about it. With songs of unity and empowerment, Bob Marley brought the music of a tiny Caribbean island to the world. The infectious rhythm of reggae and the message in his music made the Jamaican native a legend. One love, one art, one destiny.
His story is now coming to life on film. You can't separate the music and the message. What is the message?
Peace. He means so much to so many people, so there was a lot of instructions for me. You know, remember he's this, remember he's not that, don't do this, don't do that. It's a lot of pressure as an actor. Yeah, it's like, because the messaging was, like when he was in the studio he didn't mess around and then there's a lot of people saying, you know, you have to remember that there were other sides to him. He was very gentle and loving and like so popular and funny and I think with an icon like Bob, it can be challenging because his public persona is so strong. From the beginning. British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir took on that challenge of portraying Marley in One Love, which opens on Valentine's Day. You know you're a superstar.
I am a superstar. What was the most difficult thing to learn? The language.
That Jamaican platform? Yeah, the language. I know this thing from my ego version. I know it because, you know. I know it because of a cuss. I'm sorry, does it say again? I may as well have been doing a movie in French.
Got to have a come together and make the decision. Africa for Africans at home. In a London screening room, we watched one of Marley's interviews. And then tomorrow, man, it get young again every day. You know what I mean? I knew that I didn't understand everything he was saying in a way that worried me. He told us he listened to it again and again.
When this was playing, you're saying little bits under your breath. Yeah, this interview is in me in a way. This is where I sort of lived when I was doing Bob.
The actor prepared for the role at this North London studio. Oh man, it fills me with fear. Really? I was just like, oh my God, I was in a... Wow, you're remembering... Being petrified. Benadir did not sing, dance or play the guitar before he transformed into a man known for all three. When Bob moves and when he sings and when he's on stage, there's something really profound going on.
The film from Paramount Pictures, a division of CBS's parent company, was produced in partnership with the Marley family, including Bob Marley's son, musician Ziggy Marley. Do you remember being here with your dad? Yeah, man.
These steps are like sitting here talking, hanging out. He met at the Marley Homestead, now a museum in Kingston, Jamaica. You wanted a Jamaican to start. Of course, of course. But you couldn't find someone you liked? We looked wide and far. You're looking at the tapes and you see one, you see two, and then you see Kingsley and you're like, hmm.
What made you go, hmm? Well, he held my attention. He's physically different, he's taller.
Yeah, but in my mind, this is an artistic expression of Bob. So the height, that never mattered, because him taller than Bob, but to me, Bob was a giant. And I knew that he was 5'6". And you're? 6'2".
So I'm like, does everyone know this? Benadir says he dropped about 40 pounds for the screen test. And it was too much. I felt sick. I wasn't sleeping. There were a lot of conversations with the family where I was like, we're just trying to find Bob's essence and his spirit in this film.
You can't copy Bob. No woman of pride. No woman of pride. The movie explores Marley's spiritual side, Rastafarian principles of equality and social justice. There's a war going on. Oh, I can't bring peace.
I can't even get peace for myself. And his push for peace in the 1970s, after years of political violence in post-colonial Jamaica, it centers on the making of the album Exodus, which Time magazine would later anoint, Album of the Century. Why focus on this time period of his life?
It was life-changing for him. Somebody trying to kill you changes you. Somebody trying to kill you makes you think things, makes you have emotions that you never had before.
Not everyone likes what you're saying. In 1976, armed men attempted to assassinate Bob Marley just days before he was to perform a concert designed to curb violence among rival groups. This is the time period where he came to an enlightenment, a conclusion about his purpose and his sense of who he is. His life is for him, he doesn't want it. His life is for people. Insinctively, from the time I first met him, I just knew there was something there. Island Records founder Chris Blackwell is largely credited for taking Bob Marley and reggae music beyond Jamaica. He's portrayed by James Norton in the film.
Everything here is politicized, Bob. We met Blackwell, now 86, at his Strawberry Hill hotel outside Kingston, where Marley came just after the shooting. Blackwell got emotional remembering Marley taking the stage in Italy before more than 100,000 people. He was barely touching the ground. He was like floating to it. Or maybe that was my image of him because I just saw him just going. And, you know, just there.
What's behind the emotion? Oh, boy. It's a lot, you know, because it's super rare that there is somebody who has what he had and to be able to touch the world. Old pirates, yes, they rob I Bob Marley died at just 36 years old in 1981 after battling a rare form of melanoma. The last thing my father said to me was in the hospital, on your way up, take me up.
On your way down, don't let me down. And for him, making this film is another sort of Bob Marley record. Now we have a chance to expand the understanding of him as a human being, but most importantly, to expose the message to more people, the message of love, the message of unity, which the world, they spread the needs now. As you may have seen, last Sunday, we devoted our entire broadcast to remembering our friend and beloved colleague, Charles Osgood. But last Sunday morning was special for another reason.
It was our 45th birthday. Good morning. Here begins something new.
With those words, on January 28th, 1979, Charles Kuralt inaugurated a new kind of television program, a leisurely 90-minute news magazine insulated from the bustle and clamor of the nonstop news cycle, a program devoted to the kinder, gentler topics TV news often overlooked. From the beginning, we've told you stories about things that inspire us, transport us, and uplift us, stories about the artists and doers and dreamers who show us the best of ourselves. Presidents and popes, ballet dancers and ballplayers, authors and actors and artists, ordinary and extraordinary people from all walks of life, showcased by some of the best journalists around.
Of course, some things have changed over the years. But Sunday morning's mission remains the same, to illuminate the human condition in all its beauty and complexity. As we mark this milestone, most of all, we're grateful to you, our viewers, some of whom have been here from the start. After nearly half a century, we can say, with maybe a little immodesty, that we're proud of what we've done and who we are. Here's to all the Sunday mornings gone by, and all those still to come. Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-02-06 17:04:49 / 2024-02-06 17:28:05 / 23
