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April flowers are in bloom. Hope is on the rise. And even though COVID is far from vanquished, Americans are eager to pack their bags and hit the road. Among the growing ranks of the vaccinated, it's ready, set, go, as we'll be showing you throughout the morning.

Tracy Smith has a preview. From the flyways to the highways, newly vaccinated Americans are taking off, or at least planning on it. People have been chomping at the bit to get out there. And we'll have reports from the Amalfi Coast. It's a lemon farm with a view.

They grew amazing. To Easter Island. That's what we call ourselves here. To America's back roads. People just want to get out anywhere. Pick a place, go.

On the road again, just ahead on Sunday morning. Expanding our sights to a destination that's out of this world is what our David Pogue is all about. When it comes to living in space, most of us will always be armchair travelers. We would like to welcome you aboard the International Space Station. What does it smell like in there, especially when you first arrived? I mean, human beings are smelly.

When I first arrived, I would say there was a noticeable scent, and it wasn't quite like a locker room. Later on Sunday morning, a visit from space. Good morning, CBS Sunday morning. Travel to the Lone Star State, and you're in the neighborhood of former President George W. Bush, whose retirement is defined by bold and colorful strokes. Norah O'Donnell will pay him a visit. Welcome to my studio.

It's a wonderful place to paint, and it's a wonderful place to hang out. On his ranch deep in the heart of Texas, former President George W. Bush has been hard at work on a new series of paintings, celebrating the contribution of immigrants to our country. I want to tell the stories of courage, bravery, contribution to the compassion of America. Ahead on Sunday morning, George W. Bush speaks out on solving America's immigration crisis. Anthony Mason takes note of country music stars, the Brothers Osborne. Holly Williams is in conversation with Oscar nominee, Carey Mulligan.

Connor Knighton catches up with travel writer, Ernie Neville, writer Rick Steves, and more. It's a Sunday morning for April 18th, 2021. We'll be right back. No, COVID hasn't gone away, and caution remains the order of the day. Still, for the vaccinated and those of us who soon will be, Ready, Set, Go! looks like it's just around the corner. And as Tracy Smith tells us, in the race to book vacations, it's full speed ahead. It seems that if we've learned anything after a year of staying home, it's how much we like to get away. And with CDC restrictions easing and more people vaccinated by the day, the travel bug is busting out all over, says National Geographic contributor, Heather Greenwood Davis. Now that things are loosening up a bit, what do you see happening? So we've seen the gray wave, which is, you know, all of the people who were sort of over the age of 65 who were getting those vaccinations first. The moment they got them, they took off.

They've had all those resorts and beaches all to themselves. And now that the CDC is loosening the guidelines for the rest of Americans, I think we're about to see a big travel boom. People have been chomping at the bit to get out there, and now that they have the chance, I think they'll go. And they're going all right. According to the TSA, more than 1.5 million people passed through airport security last Sunday alone.

On the same day last year, the number was less than 91,000. It's a brave new world right now. CBS News travel editor, Peter Greenberg, says that by the summer, the skies could be as crowded as ever. We're sitting in an airport. This airport is not empty. This airport is not empty. I flew in on a plane today.

Not a single seat available on the plane. We're back to the old days of airplanes being full. Every airline right now is unparking their planes.

They're taking them out of storage. And by the middle of May, they will all be back in the air. Of course, airline ticket prices might also be heading skyward after a year of some very deep discounts. How cheap did airline tickets get?

They got to the point of stupid. A month ago, a one-way fare from Los Angeles to New York, nonstop on American, was $90. Today, it's $203. Next week, it'll be $278.

And by three weeks from now, we'll be right back to 2019 levels. And here's the interesting thing. Back in November and December, when people started to travel, even when the CDC recommended against it, where were they going? Were they going to visit Granny? Was it a family trip?

No. They were going anywhere they could. They just said, get me out of here. And that's where they went.

And that trend is continuing now. People just want to get out anywhere. Pick a place, go. And if you're a city based on tourism, those travelers can't get going fast enough. Las Vegas, Nevada is a place practically built on out-of-towners money. So last spring, when travel dried up, Sin City shut down. And thousands of people, like performers Anna and Hamish McCann, were shut out.

People in our industry just lost their livelihoods, in a way, overnight, and their identities. This is what Hamish looks like when he's performing with the show Absent at Caesar's Palace. But this is what he looked like for most of last year, stuck at home. I thought it would just be like three weeks. I was saying, oh, we'll see everyone in three weeks.

And it was exactly a year and two days later is when we went, when we reopened. Anna's also a professional acrobat at another show, but her performing days are on hold right now. She's seven months pregnant. All right, so my next question about what you've been doing during the pandemic.

Isn't it obvious? I'm watching the plants grow, and then later I was watching something else grow. Talk about watching something grow. The brand new West Hall edition of the Las Vegas Convention Center was started well before the pandemic, and has yet to welcome a single conventioneer. It's just fun to be a part of something that's this spectacular.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Chief Steve Hill. Were you worried that this place would sit empty for a while? Well, you know, these decisions are made with a 30 or 40 or 50-year time frame in mind. It was still the right decision to do it. And the facts back him up.

In June, they'll host the first big convention since the shutdown, and they've booked 30 more through the end of the year. Do you think you can come all the way back? Absolutely, absolutely. You might not know Billy Vasiliades, but you definitely know the slogan he and Billie Vasiliades and his team at the ad agency R&R Partners came up with.

And like most everyone else we spoke with here, he's hopeful. We've always bounced back dramatically, and the reason is because Vegas is a need. It's a need. People come here, they need to come here.

This is the only place they completely lose themselves and transform into, you know, basically whatever they want is legal. And people need that now maybe more than ever. Yeah. But if you want to go to Vegas or anywhere else, you might want to grab a reservation soon, says Heather Greenwood Davis. Right now I've heard that Christmas travel booking is it's very difficult to get something for Christmas. I've also known some hotels that you won't be able to get anything unless you're looking for 2022. What? 2021 is already sold out? Definitely.

The sort of the boutique chic properties, there's a few that are definitely sold out. She also says that if living well really is the best revenge, then that might be reason enough for some people to pack up and hit the road with a vengeance. What's revenge travel? Revenge travel is the idea that after a year of being at home, people are going to get back at the pandemic and actually get out there and live their best lives while traveling.

That's great. So it's kind of like, take that pandemic. I'm getting out. Exactly right. So they're going as far away as they can. They're doing the things they've always dreamed of. And the idea is we are going to live our best lives. We've seen how close we came to losing the opportunity to get out there. And so we're not going to let it pass us by again. Among the most frustrated of COVID stay at homes, travel guru, Rick Steves.

Connor Knighton found him eager to get back on the road. Hi, I'm Rick Steves, back with more of the best of Europe. I'm in Rome, and this is the ancient Appian Way, Europe's first super highway.

It's Barcelona. We're in Paris. Every summer for four decades, Rick Steves would head off on his annual tour through Europe. This time, we're really on the edge. His journeys have been well documented in several PBS shows and specials, replicated in a successful line of guidebooks. But over the course of this past year, a big trip for Steves has looked a lot more like this, a simple stroll through his hometown of Edmonds, Washington.

Ever since COVID canceled his travel plans, he's mostly been staying inside, practicing piano and exploring the foreign land that is his kitchen. I never knew how to make pasta. I never felt the joy of a knife cutting through a nice crispy onion. By that, you mean you've never cut an onion before? I have never cut an onion before. Come on.

Really, never. Are there appliances you're discovering for the first time? Yeah, an oven.

I didn't know how to turn on the broiler. Rick Steves never learned much about domestic life. He was too busy traveling abroad. After his first trip to Europe at 14, he was hooked. He returned time and again, eventually marketing his expertise via an empire of guidebooks and group tours. He now has his own line of suitcases and travel wallets, all on display in his Edmonds headquarters, which closed to the public back in March of 2020. What have those sales been like? Our sales are almost zero, you know, and it's understandable.

Who's going to buy a guidebook to Paris right now? 2020 was on track to be Steve's best year ever, but as soon as COVID hit, he was forced to cancel all his tours. It's heartbreaking, and it's not heartbreaking because I'm losing all that money. I've made money every year for 30 years, and you take the good years with the bad, so I'm not making any money this year. But 20,000 people dreaming, saving, planning, trips of a lifetime, taking their kids, taking their grandma, all scuttled.

It just breaks my heart. Steve's sees himself as a teacher. A trip abroad is full of valuable lessons for Americans. To me, Europe is the wading pool for world exploration, and my profit is not how much money I make, but it's how many Americans I introduce to international travel to help them broaden their perspective. Of course, right now, international travel is largely off limits for Americans, but Steve's has stayed in teacher mode, hosting lectures he's dubbed Monday night travel parties from his living room via Zoom. This is the scarf for the Palio, and we're going to be going to Spain momentarily.

Even when things open back up, Steve's doubts his groups will be the first ones back. My idea of travel, the whole Rick Steves Europe, is the opposite of social distancing. I go to Paris to be kissed on the cheeks. I go to Rome to gather on the piazza and then do the passeggiata with all the people walking up and down the street together.

I go to Ireland to step into a pub and share Guinness with somebody, and so the whole beauty of travel for me is the people. And that'll come back, but I'm going to be patient. In the meantime, Steves has made sure to hang on to all 100 of his employees. You're still paying your staff? I'm still paying my staff, yeah. It's the right thing to do. Plus, it's a smart thing to do from a business point of view, because whether it's next year or the year after that, we're going to come out of this, and my staff will be intact.

Until then, Steves is happy to keep enjoying the simple pleasures of life at home. This is my very first trip on my own. Reminiscing about past trips while finding new ways to connect with people from a porch. My trumpet has been in the dark for 30 years, and I pulled it out of its case, and I oiled it up, and now I stand here and I play taps.

And when I'm done, all through the community, this little patter-patter of people clapping and whooping, and just for that moment, we're all reminded that we're together here. Seeing the statues on Easter Island is something many travelers hope to do someday. Hearing an island song by one of its celebrated residents is what Kellefisane can offer us right now. Concert pianist Mahani Teave has traveled the world, but Rapa Nui, sometimes known as Easter Island, is her home. Rapa Nui, that's what we call ourselves here also. That's our people, the Rapa Nui people. It's a triangle-shaped island about the size of Washington, DC, but way out in the South Pacific, and it's best known for these statues called Moai. Scholars think they were built to honor the island's elders.

Our ancestors were all voyagers, and maybe that's what's in my blood too, this coming and going. In the 1700s, Dutch explorers came to Rapa Nui. They landed on Easter, so they called it Easter Island. Easter Island, that's the English name.

Miki Makihara, a linguistic anthropologist at Queens College in New York, has been studying Rapa Nui culture for 30 years. We're talking about a place that's only been inhabited by humans for maybe a thousand years. That is true, right, but a lot has happened. In the late 19th century, slave raiders from Peru abducted about half the island's population and left behind smallpox, which killed many of the remaining islanders. Only 111 Rapa Nui survived.

Nowadays, Rapa Nui is part of Chile, which is the closest mainland, 2000 miles away. It's a remarkable history of survival and reconstruction. Those 111 people kept the language alive and transmitted it to the next generation. Yeah. It's a comeback story.

Yes, yeah. We descend from those 111. Mahane Te'abe was born in Hawaii to an American mother, but her father is from Rapa Nui, and she spent most of her childhood there. I feel like so strongly about the island and here are my roots.

This is where I learned all my first everything. She still remembers the day she heard that someone had brought something new onto the island, a piano. We gotta go see that piano.

Let's go see. So we get to the lady's house and she opens the door. Please can I go touch your piano?

And I don't think she even got a chance to answer. And then after that I would say, please, please, I want piano lessons. There were no piano teachers on the island, so Te'abe asked the woman who owned the piano to give her lessons. She got a piece of paper out, she drew some lines, she said these are the notes, go home and learn them. I memorized what each little thing on each little line and space meant, and after a few days she said, you know what, you can start coming to practice at my house.

In 1992, Te'abe's family moved to Chile where she could study at a conservatory. She was nine. Was that a scary time for you? It was just a very confusing time, and at the same time there's this possibility to be able to continue with, you know, wonderful music. When she was 19, she left Chile to continue her studies, first in Cleveland, then Berlin. Soon she was a celebrated concert pianist.

I would feel soaked with so many wonderful things, you know, going to amazing concerts and interacting with incredible musicians. Did you always know you wanted to come back to Rapa Nui at some point? Well, I always felt the connection to the island. What about the children?

They don't have any chance to study, and who's ever going to do anything about it? Te'abe returned to Rapa Nui a decade ago, and in 2014 she built the island's first music school. A totally self-sustainable structure.

Last year it was featured in the documentary Song of Rapa Nui. We wanted to make an inspiring place, like a message of hope. The school was constructed using an abundant, unnatural resource, trash.

We are in a garbage vortex, so garbage from all over the world comes through the currents of the Pacific. This school, built from garbage, is all about transformation. Are you hoping to find the next great concert pianist on Rapa Nui? The children have the possibility to develop their talents, but I really think it's important that they cultivate the values, the virtues that are learned when you learn an instrument.

You learn perseverance and learn about teamwork, respect. Before the pandemic, some people on Rapa Nui were concerned that tourism was damaging the island. Now, Mahane Te'abe says she's optimistic about the day when visitors can come back. It's something that needs to find the harmony, because the way it was happening was not harmonious, either to the island, to the people, to the nature. Give them an actual experience of what it really is to be here. And maybe a concert. Maybe a concert, but we need a concert piano, so. This is the request from Rapa Nui is less garbage, more grand pianos.

Exactly, more grand pianos. It's the out of this world destination that's out of reach for most of us, though not for the pair our David Pogue has been chatting with. Last November, Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover took a trip to an amazing travel destination. It was 250 miles away, straight up.

And resilience rises. 47 hours later, soft capture confirmed, their SpaceX capsule docked. Hard capture complete at the International Space Station.

We are looking forward to the next six months and can't wait to get started. As Mike and Victor, who also goes by Ike, near the end of their mission, NASA offered me a space nerd's dream come true. A live video chat with Mike and Ike in space. This is mission control Houston. Please call station.

Station, this is David Pogue with CBS Sunday Morning. David, we hear you loud and clear. You indicated that there's really no up or down, so is there any reason that one of you couldn't turn head down with the blood's not rushing to your head, Victor?

Not at all, not at all. In fact, it doesn't seem weird to me until I look at Hopper and go, why is Hopper upside down? Ike demonstrated how to get around.

He just pushes off with his hands and there he goes. The space station isn't quite as futuristic looking as movie spaceships. We're now going to go from the front end of the space station all the way to the back end. The space station is about the length of a football field. The US, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan began building it in 1998 and they've never really stopped. The bedrooms aren't much bigger than phone booths.

We have them on the sides but we also have them on the ceiling and we have them on the deck. It's just a bag to keep you in place and a couple of laptops. Each astronaut spends two hours a day working out. There's a weight machine with vacuum tubes instead of weights, a treadmill with bungee cords and an exercise bike.

Because we're in space, we don't need to sit down when we use this bike so there's no seat. There's a reason for all that exercise. Zero gravity life does a real number on your body. Are there any long-term effects that don't return once you've been on Earth for a while?

There can be, absolutely. It is hard to prevent having some bone loss but after my last mission, I lost about two and a half percent bone density and it took years for that to kind of come back. Mike and Ike have also mastered the finer points of dining in space. So I get a little bit of peanut butter. Most of the food comes ready to eat. Well maybe a lot of peanut butter.

But not all of it. I can let go of my cracker and it's going to stay in the general location and so now I'm tearing open my jelly packet and voila, I now have a cracker, a peanut butter and jelly cracker. And because your inner second grader probably wants to know. A couple things about our toilet. You can see there is a can here and this can, that's where the solid waste is collected and then the urine is collected in this hose. Because we collect urine separately, we're able to recycle that urine. Yes, the astronauts recycle their pee.

In space, water is a precious resource. The stations recently celebrated 20 years of being continuously occupied. What do you miss most while you're up there? I miss my family and you know, I just can't wait to see my kids at the airport or wherever I bump into them first. I will also tell you one of the things I miss the most, weather. Up here, it never changes. It is always 70 degrees and there's no wind, there's no rain, there's no snow, no humidity.

I mean it's just constantly the same. Hearing Hopper say rain reminded me I miss the shower. On the other hand, former astronaut Peggy Whitson sometimes misses space. After my first flight, I returned to Earth and I was laying on the bed and threw the covers off and just did the lightest push on the bed and expected to float to the bathroom.

And I was like, oh my, it's going to take a lot more work to get there than that. She spent more time up there than any other American, much of it as the commander of the space station. What's the grand total number of days you were in space? 665 days. That's the equivalent of a flight to Mars, is that right? Yes, you could get to Mars and back in 665 days.

So I'm proof it's doable. 20 years of space station science have yielded hundreds of breakthroughs in fields like weather, astronomy, biology, materials and especially medicine. Alzheimer's, cancer, heart disease and so on. The salmonella that gives you food poisoning, it actually became more virulent in space and then they were able to actually develop a vaccine for that. Worms, mice and rats are often on board too to help NASA study the long-term effects of zero gravity.

They seem to like it just fine. Understanding the physics of how things work without gravity, we sometimes figure out ways to better understand how things work in gravity. But for the humans on board, seeing our home from space is always spectacular. You look out the window and you see planet Earth and you look at it and you see how thin this atmosphere is and how delicate it looks. If you happen to be near a window and you're flying over the Sahara Desert, the whole room will get this golden glow, this peachy, orangey glow. The best views on the station are from what's called the cupola.

The cupola is the window that faces down at the Earth and it is a pretty incredible view and it really never does get old. Talking to astronauts never gets old either, but eventually it was time for Colonel Hopkins and Commander Glover to get back to their mission. Thank you Mike and Ike. This is the greatest and thanks for all you do. Station, this is Houston ACR. That concludes the event.

Thank you. This is Intelligence Matters with former acting director of the CIA, Michael Morell. Bridge Colby is co-founder and principal of the Marathon Initiative, a project focused on developing strategies to prepare the United States for an era of sustained great power competition. The United States put our mind to something we can usually figure it out.

What people are saying and what we kind of know analytically and empirically is our strategic situation, our military situation, is not being matched up with what we're doing. Follow Intelligence Matters wherever you get your podcasts. Next stop, Italy. Seth Doan has a story that tastes as good as it looks. It can be hard to know where to look along Italy's stunning Amalfi coast, but this picture-perfect setting has a sort of natural green frame. They're terraces carved into the mountainside where for centuries lemons have been grown. It's a lemon farm with a view. Yeah, they grow amazing. They're happier here.

Yeah, I think so. If it were possible to envy produce, well maybe it is. These lemons sit perched over Amalfi, unbridled by budgets or travel bans. They should be good if they're grown here.

They have to be good. They're spoiled. Salvatore Acheto is a sixth generation lemon farmer.

The roots here run even deeper. Before Amalfi became a ritzy tourist destination, it was the first maritime republic of what is now Italy. Trade was vital and about a thousand or so years ago lemons were imported. They thrived on this mountainous terrain and became a key ingredient in the culinary landscape, used in dishes, even painted onto them.

Wow, nice. Together with his dad Luigi and son Gianmarco, he farms these steep terraces. Looking out into the valley here you see the lemon terraces throughout this part of Amalfi. This is the heart of Amalfi, no?

The Acheto's lemon grove totals about 2,700 trees and about 1,300 steps. It's tough on the knees but good for the heart. Lemons are your life.

And at 87 years old, Luigi is still working. You don't have blood in your veins? You have lemon juice in your veins. Your grandfather told me he had lemon juice in his veins.

Has that happened to you yet? I still have to discover. I have to do some tests. Gianmarco is studying agronomy and is the seventh generation here. He'll be contending with a changing climate and another challenge. Without tourism, this is not sustainable. It's impossible to compete with the other countries that produce lemons because they have less cost.

Tourists, at least pre-COVID when they had visitors here, made up more than 50% of the Acheto's business. They'd come for tours or tastings. One of the things that surprised me when I first saw these Amalfi lemons was that you eat them almost like an apple.

Yeah, you can eat everything because it's organic. Salvatore's wife, Giovanna, runs the cooking classes. But with no tourists, she made a lemon pasta, shallotelli, just for us.

A little garlic, parsley and lemon. We joined the three generations for lunch. When you were away at school, did you miss all of this? The meal or being with the family? The family, of course. The pasta? I didn't miss the shallotelli with lemons. We ate it almost every day, so I developed a repulsion towards it.

Others at the table, including this reporter, did not agree. It's delicious. The pasta was followed by a lemon chicken, scamorza cheese cooked in a lemon leaf, and then a lemon torte, all served, of course, on a lemon tablecloth and polished off with some limoncello. Their own production. We try to use only the yellow part, because the white is a little bit sour.

Cousin Luigi Acheto talked us through the process. They use lemon rind, pure alcohol and sugar, then let it rest for several days. Lemon, limoncello, then maybe ceramic from Vietri. These are the most requested products here in the Amalfi Coast. In the town of Vietri, those ceramics have a familiar theme. It's a way to celebrate and immortalize this perishable product.

In the sensory overload that is the Amalfi Coast, at least one family here would argue that taste is the sense that wins. It's amazing. It's sweet.

May I try? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really good. Former President George W. Bush has found a most colorful way to spend his retirement, as CBS Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell learned during a visit just a few days ago. Springtime in Central Texas doesn't get any better than this.

The Bluebonnets are in bloom across the 1600 acres of Prairie Chapel Ranch, south of Dallas. Yeah, I've prepared a special lunch. A retreat for former President and First Lady George W. and Laura Bush, where they once entertained world leaders. And though Mr. Bush has stepped back from the world stage... How do I look now?

His trademark strut and salty humor are as strong as ever. It's like these interviews I used to do and they'd call in from New York, ask the son of a b**** about when he stopped. Go when they're taping you. The former president gave us a tour of his tree farm. You're in the tree farming business? Yeah, baby, we're selling trees.

And while Mr. Bush did take out one of our cameras, he has a valid excuse. You know what's interesting? I have not driven a car on a road since 1993. Wow.

Before you were born. Come on in. And I see Studio 43. That's it. Well, I can smell the paint, yeah.

Oh, yeah. The occasion for our visit is the release of a new book of his oil paintings, Out of Many, One, Portraits of America's Immigrants. Welcome to my studio. It's a wonderful place to paint and it's a wonderful place to hang out. His subjects range from the famous to the not so famous.

They are all equally celebrated by this 74-year-old commander-in-chief turned artist. When your husband started painting, what did you think? I was shocked.

Really? He hadn't even ever looked at art. I mean, we lived with a major American collection at the White House. And he expressed no interest then?

No, he was not at all interested. What led you to painting? You know, in retrospect, it was longing for learning. Presidency is a great learning experience.

And then all of a sudden, you're not president. And by chance, I read Winston Churchill's essay, Painting as a Pastime. And it got me thinking about painting. And in essence, I said, if that old boy can paint, I can paint.

And so I started. The paintings themselves are much more than art. They are a timely message to Washington. Do you want to be involved in the immigration discussion? Yeah, I do in a way.

In a way. I don't want to be prescriptive. I don't want to tell Congress how to do this or that. I do want to say to Congress, please put aside all the harsh rhetoric about immigration.

Please put aside trying to score political points on either side. I hope I can help set a tone that is more respectful about the immigrant, which may lead to reform of the system. You gave an Oval Office address on immigration.

I did. These are not contradictory goals. America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time. It's been 15 years. No. Still, nothing's been done. No, a lot of executive orders. But all that means is that Congress isn't doing its job. Is it one of the biggest disappointments of your presidency?

Yes, it really is. I campaigned on immigration reform. I made it abundantly clear to the voters this is something I intended to do.

Despite bipartisan backing, reform failed during Mr. Bush's tenure. Years later, Donald Trump made anti-immigrant rhetoric a centerpiece of his campaign. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. The problem with the immigration debate is that one can create a lot of fear.

They're coming after you. But it's a nation that is willing to accept the refugee or the harmed or the frightened. To me, it's a great nation, and we are a great nation. The former president supports a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants if they pass a background check and pay back taxes. And if that were the proposal by President Biden, would you lobby your own party to support that? I am right now. I don't know whether my own party listens to me or not is another question.

Though he has refrained from criticizing his successors, he told us there's a clear difference between him and former President Donald Trump. I feel a responsibility to uphold the dignity of the office. I did then, and I do now. And I think it's undignified to want to see my name in front of me.

I think it basically sends a signal that I miss being famous and I want people to see me. Listen to me. And I don't. I really don't. So you feel humbled by the office?

Totally. To me, humility shows an understanding of self. It shows a sense of self. Understanding of self. It shows a belief in a higher power. And necessary to be an effective leader. And we were short of humility. In the last four years.

Yeah, absolutely. Mr. Bush left office in 2009 with approval ratings as poor as the state of the economy at the time. Yet the Trump presidency has inspired a fresh appraisal of the Bush years, something actor Will Ferrell poked fun at in a TBS comedy special.

How do you like me now? The real George W. Bush has made headlines with friendships that cross party lines. Case in point, the 2016 opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. There was that moment, of course, where you and Mrs. Obama hugged.

A big hug, yeah. I think the one that became more famous is when I gave her the Altoid during McCain's funeral. And it shocked me. We got in the car and I think Barbara Jenna said, hey, you're trending. And the American people were so surprised that Michelle Obama and I could be friends.

I think it's a problem that Americans are so polarized in their thinking that they can't imagine a George W. Bush and a Michelle Obama being friends. Mr. Bush's position on immigration does set him apart from his party's most strident voices. And while he no longer has the bully pulpit of the presidency, he hopes his paintings will speak louder than words.

The portraits that you have done are beautiful. Thank you. But how does it change policy? It doesn't, but it's a part of hopefully creating a better understanding about the role of immigrants in our society. Mine is just a small voice in what I hope is a chorus of people saying, let's see if we can't solve the problem. One week till the Oscars, and Holly Williams is in conversation with one of the nominees, Carrie Mulligan. What I always loved about it was the community. We took a stroll with Carrie Mulligan down memory lane, London's famed West End. And I kind of loved the auditioning kind of pounding the papers phase.

Where she started out vying for parts at just 18. When things reopen, maybe later this year, do you think you'll start doing theatre roles again? Oh, I'd love to. Yeah, I love it and I miss it.

Just being in here makes me want to do a play. On screen, Mulligan cut her teeth with some very British period dramas. It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in a language chiefly made by men to express theirs. She's won praise as one of the most courageous actors of her generation.

Do they miss me in Chicago? From The Great Gatsby. I wish it could always be like this. To Suffragette. We burn fees because war's the only language men listen to. Her performances combine vulnerability. You're not getting rid of that piano.

It's the one civilized thing in this place. And steeliness. I'm drawn to stories about women that feel real and honest and not just the bits that are kind of pretty and easily consumed. Growing up in a small English town, acting was the only thing she ever wanted to do. But she was rejected by every drama school she applied to. Rejected everywhere and yet you persisted.

Yeah. You must have some pretty strong self-belief. I watched the other people audition and they were brilliant and I thought, yeah, like I'm not that good yet, you know. But I think I could be, you know. And she was right. At 23, she won her first Oscar nomination for an education, playing a schoolgirl manipulated by an older man.

All that poetry had all those songs about something that lasts no time at all. Yeah. You know, they put themselves in danger, girls like that.

And now Mulligan's garnered her second Oscar nod for Promising Young Woman, a revenge thriller in which her character methodically reeks vengeance after her best friend is sexually assaulted. Have you come here to hurt me? Do you want me to hurt you?

She visits bars, pretending to be drunk. Hey, it's okay. You're safe.

To expose the men who prey on women. I'm a nice guy. Hi.

Are you? While the films won rave reviews, it's made some people uncomfortable. Just chill out, okay? Why don't you calm down?

Oh, okay. A couple of journalists that I spoke to said, she's a bit crazy, right? She smashes up that guy's car and she's a bit nuts.

You know, in all of these films where men are enacting revenge or they're going on a mission for somebody that they love, I've never heard any of those men being referred to as crazy. She's basically doing the same thing. And actually what she's doing is a lot less drastic than a lot of the things that happen in these other films. But she's crazy. Promising Young Woman is the feature debut of writer and director Emerald Fennell, who shot the film in just 23 days while she was seven months pregnant. Nominated for five Oscars.

Cassandra. It's a gut punch of a movie with shades of Hitchcock set in a candy cane world. There's no grit in the aesthetic. Is that Emerald Fennell playing with our heads? Yeah, described as like a beautifully wrapped piece of candy that you just can't wait to taste.

But when you swallow it, you realise it's poisonous. Ironically, while promoting the film, Mulligan was swept up in a controversy about sexism. In an interview last year, she criticised a review of the film, published in Variety, that said she was an odd choice for the role and that playing the part, she wears her pick-up bait gear like bad drag.

We know that appearance has nothing to do with these situations. Variety later apologised, but Mulligan's worried that the critic who wrote the review has been harassed online and says we're missing the bigger picture. Everybody makes mistakes all the time.

But if we can have a bit more grace for each other, instead of deciding that one person is inherently, you know, in the wrong, can we look at more how we can work together, how we can improve things moving forward beyond the initial condemnation? If you're sorry, you know, if you're sorry. Away from the limelight, Mulligan's life appears a picture of bucolic bliss.

She lives in the English countryside with her husband, Marcus Mumford, lead singer of the band Mumford & Sons, and their two young children. When she hosted Saturday Night Live last weekend... Sorry, I thought you were giving me the signal.

..he crashed the opening monologue. Our secret couple signal for, please play the guitar. I'm alarmed that you think that we have that. These days, the woman who couldn't make it into drama school is centre stage. Her new film, the surprise success of this awards season. The idea of this film really was to reach as many people as possible, not people who've already given this stuff a huge amount of thought.

And if it can reach people who haven't thought about this stuff, then that's a really good thing. We leave you this Sunday on the far shores of Lake Ayasi in northern Tanzania, home to the aptly named Fisher's Lovebirds. Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. The best way to protect the good people is to convict the bad. So here's to us. The Good Fight, the final season, now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.