wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. ♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz, on the "newshour" tonight -- the latest jobs report shows an unexpected surge in hiring. we look at how young people are re-engaging with the workforce. geoff: we take a closer look at donald trump's search for a

running mate. who is on the shortlist? amna: and a theater company that addresses contemporary issues focuses on public health after the pandemic. >> it creates the context where we can talk about not just what happened over the last four years, but how do we ensure that it doesn't happen again? ♪ >> major funding for the pbs "newshour" has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour, including jim and nancy goldman and the robert m schiller foundation. the judy and peter bloom foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad. >> qnod is a proud supporter of

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. here are the latest headlines. president biden publicly apologized today for the monthslong delay in getting u.s. military aid to ukraine. his comments came during his visit to france, where he also announced a new $225-million security package for kyiv. the president signed a $95-billion security package in april. the measure was held up in congress for six months. biden met with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy in paris today. pres. biden: i apologize for those weeks of not knowing what was going on in terms of funding. and because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to

pass to have the money from some our very conservative members who were holding it up. stephanie: later, the president paid tribute to the army rangers who stormed the beaches of normandy as he stood on the very cliffs they scaled 80 years ago. in his remarks, he invoked their sacrifice to call for the defense of democracy in the u.s. and abroad. the u.s. military says it has reconnected a pier meant to deliver aid to gaza, after it broke apart in storms last month. the maritime route was intended as an alternative to delivering aid by land, as israel carries out its military operations in gaza. the pier took two months to build and had only been in operation for about a week when it was damaged. us central command says deliveries are expected to resume "in the coming days.” meanwhile in central gaza -- palestinians mourned outside of a hospital after the latest round of deadly israeli airstrikes. health officials say at least 18

people were killed overnight, including four children and one woman. supreme court justice clarence thomas has disclosed two luxury trips from 2019 that were partially paid for by republican megadonor harlan crow. justice thomas said the trips to bali, indonesia, and to california's wine country, were inadvertently omitted from a previous disclosure. the bali trip was part of a pro-publica report last year that led to renewed focus on the court's ethics. 8 of the 9 justices provided new disclosures, including ketanji brown jackson who received $900,000 for her upcoming memoir, and beyonce tickets, gifted by the singer herself. former white house chief of staff mark meadows has pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges in arizona's election subversion case. michael roman -- who served as trump's election day operations director -- also pleaded not gulty. the pair are alleged to have

been part of an effort to submit the names of fake electors from arizona to congress following the 2020 election, in a bid to keep trump in office. joe biden won arizona by a narrow margin of 10,000 votes. the biden administration is raising fuel-economy standards for new cars. according to updated rules from the national highway traffic safety administration, light-duty vehicles must meet an average of 50.4 miles-per-gallon by model year 2031. officials say the rules will save americans more than $23 billion dollars in fuel costs. the new requirements are well below the levels the administration initially proposed last year. the u.s. labor market remains on strong footing. new data out on friday showed that the economy added 272,000 jobs last month. that's more than expected. hourly wages also rose in may, gaining 4.1% from a year ago. meantime, the unemployment rate

ticked up to 4%, a level not seen since early 2022. economists say the relatively strong report will likely give the u.s. federal reserve further reason to hold off on cutting interest rates for now. and pat sajak's turn as host of wheel of fortune is coming to an end. his final episode airs tonight, after 41 years at the helm. the 77-year old has been a fixture on our television screens through seven presidents, and the rise of streaming tv. through it all, sajak has cooly walked contestants through the hang-man style game, with long-time partner vanna white turning the letters. he'll be succeeded by tv personality ryan seacrest, who makes his debut in september. and a passing of note, retired american astronaut william anders died in a plane crash today in washington state. anders was a member of the apollo 8 mission, the first human space flight to orbit the

moon. he took the famous photo earthrise on that mission, giving us earthlings a different perspective on our world. according to local media, anders was piloting a vintage air force t-34 mentor plane when he crashed into the water off the san juan islands. will anders was 90 years old. still to come on the "newshour" -- david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines, and college commencement speakers offer words of wisdom to the class of 2024. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington d.c. and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: today's jobs report showed an unexpected surge and hiring less month. the leisure and hospitality sector has been growing at a steady clip in that it 32,000 jobs, an encouraging prospect for teenagers, and teen jobs

overall have been making a comeback after a decades long decline that began in the early 2000's. gen z is reversing the trend. the percentage of 16 to 19-year-old pacifica job had a high in may. i am joined by alicia, associate professor at northeastern university at the school of public policy and urban affairs. >> thanks for having me. amna: teen employment rates have been increasing incrementally since 2000 13, but that is 38% figure is something we have not seen since 2009. what is behind that? >> we have been seeing as we are coming out of the pandemic an increase every summer in particular among teens aged 16 to 19 where their labor force participation has been increasing every summer as we are recovering from the pandemic, so we are seeing rates

around 30%, which are four percentage points higher than what we sought to the pandemic, so this is evidence of the strong hiring demand we have seen coming out of the pandemic as well as adults moving into other jobs, freeing up of those entry-level positions for young workers. amna: strong hiring demand, but among teens are these folks joining the labor market for summer jobs and some are or more out of necessity? >> it is a combination of both. entry-level wages are rising, which makes it more attractive for young people. at the same time you have to be honest about the inflation rate wrestled -- inflationary pressures we have seen where youth are contributing to household bills like rent, utilities, groceries and other expenses. at the same time these opportunities have gotten better, so it is not just dishing out ice cream cones at

the local place, but also more managerial positions, more positions with responsibility and more interesting kinds of jobs that we have seen in the past. amna: these rates are not close to the teen rates we saw among boomers or gen xers, as high as 60% labor participation to back then. do you think we are likely to see those numbers again with gen z? >> i don't think so. back in the 1970's we were seeing labor force participation rates of around 50%, and pretty much every wave of recession we have seen since then those rates have dropped. they never recovered back to pre-pandemic levels until now post-covid, and one of the reasons we have been seeing the steady decline in youth deployment has been a couple of changes going on in the labor market. a lot of the jobs that teenagers

used to do have been automated or outsourced. blockbuster video, we don't have those anymore or those automated grocery checkout lanes that annoy all of us. if you look around your neighborhood is immigrant labor mowing lawns instead of teenagers. the second thing that is happened is employers have been picky and states have been regulating youth employment or, so we see you need to have not just a signature from your employer but in some cases from your school, a physician. you can work fewer hours, so that makes other sources of labor more attractive to employers. finally we have seen youth who are in middle or upper income households doing a lot of things aside from working that might look good on a college application, so they are volunteering, traveling, having precollege experiences, so i do not think we will get back to the level we saw in the 1970's and 1980's, but i am encouraged by the opportunities we have

seen coming out of covid so we are getting back to a position where youth who want to work and find a job can do so. amna: i wonder what this trend says to give socially, the world that gen z has been raised in and the one they are helping to shape. >> there has been a backlash in terms of the college for all mentality, so it is great we have young people going to college into record numbers but enrollment rates dip during the pandemic for a couple different reasons, including financial constraints, but also a recognition that not everybody needs to go to college to have a good paying job or contribute to society, so we have seen the rise of vocational technical education, more apprenticeships add more teenagers coming out of high school and getting job experience before they decide what they want to do for their careers. i think that combination of learn and earn is a key trend we will see going into the future. amna: fascinating insight and a

look into who we are right now. thank you so much for your time. ♪ geoff: former president donald trump says he will choose a running mate in the next few weeks that it unlikely unveil his pick at a major turning point. >> i think i will announce who that person will be during the convention. alicia has been covering the trump now to talk more about this. who seems to be under consideration? >> this is a political reality show from a man who starred in a reality show. he is dropping a lot of names. >> tim scott has been much better for me then he was for himself. i watched his campaign and he

does not like talking about himself, but boy does he talk about trump. doug burgum has been incredible. you can take people like ben carson, marco rubio, j.d. vance, elise is doing fantastic job. amna: i went to look at the group of names that has been a most in circulation the last 1.5 months. two of those names have dropped off, kari lake and kristi noem. my reporting is the trump campaign has asked these eight people for paperwork to try it up at them to be potential vice presidential running mates. most of these are current lawmakers. doug burgum, marco rubio, tim scott, j.d. vance.

these four my understanding is are the ones getting the most attention from the trump campaign right now, but it is donald trump. he once -- wants everyone to keep guessing including the people in the mix. anyone could still be the selection, but that is where he has been focusing. geoff: how are donald trump and the campaign trying to arrive at this decision? >> the former president himself says he wants someone who would be a good president, but when you talk to his team and those around him, number one after that is loyalty. no surprise. the situation with mike pence where mike pence showed up for the duly elected coming into office president biden and rejected what president trump wanted to do is key in his mind. he is doing something nontraditional. he is not thinking in terms of which parts of the basic an

enemy, which is one of the reasons mike pence was brought on. trump and the campaign are not worried about the base. the one thing they are thinking on his own when it would have a good matchup with kamala harris. they want to expose that. this is what they are thinking about, but in general part of it is a casting aspect. he wants someone who looks good beside him and someone who has a good name beside his. it might sound ridiculous but these are actual considerations. geoff: what are the potential candidates doing and saying and give us a sense of why that might be significant? >> since early may we have seen a parade of candidates attending trump events. there was a fundraiser at mar-a-lago in early may where we saw marco rubio show up. we have seen candidates go to trump court cases in new york, for example.

those things have been standing out. it is an open competition, and that aspect is something historians say is novel here. we spoke to one expert on the vice presidency who says this is raising a lot of questions for him about how this will work. >> one of the ideas walter mondale had was the role of the vice president should be impart to talk truth to power, to tell the president things he or she did not want to hear, and yet if you have a process that encourages people to be obsequious, it really undercuts that important purpose of the vice presidency as it is developed and evolved. >> this is why we are focusing on this right now, because this is not just fawning. this has great significance for the future especially if trump is reelected, and if you pay attention to what some of these candidates are saying, they are talking about their loyalty to

trump in ways that differ with themselves on the past including important ways like the 2020 election. when some of these candidates were asked what they thought about our democracy and this coming election, whether they think it will be secure in the past election. >> i think donald trump will have the victory and if it is a free and fair election every republican will enthusiastically accept the results, and those results will show that donald trump has been elected president. >> will you accept the election results of 2024 no matter what happened senator? >> no, if it is an unfair election -- >> no matter who wins? >> the democrats are the ones who have opposed every republican victory since 2000. >> he still has not accepted the results of the election. >> he says and i agree that the election was not fair, with

democratic cities changing election laws and practices up to the last minute. >> had you been vice president on january 6, 2021, what would you have done? >> i stood up for the constitution. i would not have done what mike pence did. >> these are very important public signals that they are sending to trump that we need to watch. geoff: what is the timeline for this decision? we heard the former president say he would make this announcement during the convention. >> we have heard of some strange calendars. june 7, and let's talk about the big event, july 15, the republican convention in milwaukee. if the former president announces his nominee, let's take a look at what is ahead. those two dates you see in yellow are the potential vice presidential debates. mr. trump may nominate someone

or add someone as his running mate and in less than a week that person would be facing the debate with vice president harris, so it is a tight timeline, and it is unusual. geoff: lisa desjardins, thank you for walking us through this. ♪ amna: here to help us further break down the vice presidential picks, and other political happenings of the week, we turn to the analysis of brooks and capehart. that's new york times columnist david brooks and jonathan capehart, associate editor for the washington post. let's pick up where lisa left off. on this potential vice presidential picks, if we put that graphic backup so you can take a look at some of the folks they are currently venting at a mr. trump said he may announce at the convention, what is it

that you think former president trump is looking for in a vice president and who do you think gets the job? >> i cannot get deep inside trump's mind to tell you what he is actually looking for, but he is saying i have class resentment down. j.d. vance out, but likability, not so much. tim scott, in. somebody who would win over people who are worried that trump is a little erratic. the elections in india, which are so important and should have struck fear into everyone in trump world, but modi is a populist authoritarian figure and he looked like he was cruising away and there were all sorts of people who were not picked up in any of the polling who said we do not want an authoritarian, and i can see that happening here too. i want somebody who is reassuring to people, and that would be tim scott. amna: the laughter.

>> it is great you are applying a rational basis to talking about donald trump's vice presidential picks, and i go back to the things done from cares about. loyalty, someone who will be extremely loyal to him, it will do what he says no matter what the law says. and also someone -- and all of these people have questioned the 2020 election results and said that they will not say whether they will except the 2024 election results, the number one thing i am looking at is how the person looks. it is always about they are out of central casting. the defensive department secretary is guided. mad dog look like a defense secretary, so if i'm looking at eight people, the person in trump's mind who looks like a vice president out of central

casting is north dakota governor burgum, but to my mind i would not be surprised if elise stefanik is the person donald picks. i thought for sure she would be the next speaker of the house when mccarthy fell, and i thought donald trump would give her the push, because he loves her but maybe this is a better plum. she is willing to sell her soul and the pastor believes in order to be in that world. amna: we will see. i want to turn back to policy and real-world impact in terms of what we saw in washington d.c. there was this big executive action we saw announced by president biden on immigration that effectively shuts dn the border if daily crossings go above 2500 and here is how we announce that action. pres. biden: doing nothing is not an option. we must act consistent with both our law and values, our values

as americans. i take these steps today not to walk away from we who we are as americans but to make sure we preserve who we are for future generations to come. amna: here is so former president trump described president biden's move at a rally tonight. >> joe biden's order is pro-invasion, pro-child trafficking, pro-women trafficking, pro-drug dealers, and they bring death and they bring destruction into our country. amna: the president come at the white house, supporter said he had to back to because congress would not and did not. republicans walked away from me bipartisan plan, but walk us through the political calculus. the threshold is even lower in was in that my partisan bill, but he is angering progressives in the process. what is the calculation? >> the calculation is what is

happening at the border is an issue. americans across the political spectrum are concerned about what is happening, and the president spent a lot of time, folks in the administration and democrats in the senate negotiating with one of the most conservative members of the senate to cobble together the most conservative immigration reform bill we have seen in a long time, and donald trump at the 11th hour goes on his social media platforms and goes, killed the deal. you can talk about the politics all day long, but in the end president biden is looking to get something done, and in the absence of a bill from congress, which is what you need, because also in that bill was money for border protection. that is not there, so the president has got to do something, and he is not making anyone happy. if you are not making anyone

happy, maybe you were doing the right thing. >> if you think immigration is good for this country you also have to think controlling the border is good for this country. i think the policy is right, but let's take a step back at the entire biden project. when he was running for office it seemed like the biden project was i am a democrat, i am not donald trump, but i am not on the left. i am striking this centerleft middleground, and on many issues he is not done that. federal spending, he has not done that. immigration, he did not do that until this week. at some point you said there is nothing more i can do, and he was worried about people on the left getting angry with them, so now he has finally come around because it is a killer issue for democrats. i wish he had said this is my project as president, to be a centerleft democrat and not a left democrat, and i think he is

hurting politically because sometimes extend that clearly, and immigration is the big issue where he has not done it. amna: i went to get your takes on the hunter biden trial this week, which was underway, a criminal trial on federal gun charges. i think it is fair to say it was a tough week, a lot of personal and embarrassing anecdotes and details that from a number of people, beau biden's widow and hunter biden's ex-wife as well. i am curious how you view the place that this trial holds in our political and social conversations and what kind of impact do you think it is having on people paying attention? >> the place this trial holds is last on to the criminal proceedings of the former president. republicans have been trying to make hunter biden an issue for president biden in an attempt to bring him down, the quote

unquote biden crime family, but what we have been this trial in wilmington has nothing to do with any kind of policy or other things republicans have been talking about. we are talking about a drug addict who had a very bad problem, light on some government forms, is being held accountable in a court of law where all of the messiness is coming out, and i think the one thing that might endure to the president's benefit and the family's benefit is what they are going to is what millions of american families are going through, so in the end i think the hunter biden cord case will fall into that bucket and it will be empathetic i think. >> i felt sort of dirty following the trial. he is a lost soul. the guy is in the shadow of his father, in the shadow of his amazing problem, and to guess a

drug problem. it leads you into wondering out in the middle of the night looking for supply, and it is unpleasant to look at. this would not have been tried if it was not the son of the president in my point of view, so i just felt repeat that we were all exposed to this. the conviction of donald trump i do not think it's affected the election, so whatever happens to hunter biden, i do not think it will affect the elections. amna: as you know we have been marking 80 years since d-day, the president has been there and use powerful remarks to remind folks about the fight between the fight for democracy -- about the fight for democracy and the parallels to today. >> the guys we saw him to be to live through the 1920's in the aftermath of world war ii. the military, the idea of war was terrific because people had

seen world war i, and then they lived through the depression, and it gets worse in 1937, 1938. they don't want to go out and shoot people and be in an army. they want to have their lives, and yet when history called them they just came. it was a beautifully altruistic things for americans to go 3000 miles across the ocean to liberate europe. it was partly altruistic, so you cannot help but thinking about the moral applications for our generations. the parallels with putin are real, and biden did a good job of playing them up on the end they should be a reminder that sometimes you have to use violence to preserve stability and democracy, and that is what the ukrainians are doing and we should be helping them. >> i think about bob kagan and

the book before this later one. i think the title is "the jungle grows back," in these seven decades, a decades of relative peace in europe is a historical aberration in that we have been able to maintain the peace because of institutions created with leadership from the united states to maintain the liberal order, the small d democratic order. it is all under threat, and it is easy for the jungle to grow back, meaning without american leadership, nato could go by the wayside. all sorts of things we have taken for granted could fall apart, and that is why this election is so important, and that is why what we saw at normandie yesterday was so -- it brought tears to my eyes to see these veterans, but also to david's point, to see the

sacrifices they made, particularly the black veterans is a proud moment as an american. amna: stay with me. always good to see you both. thank you. ♪ geoff: actors, experts, and community members are turning to requested play to address contemporary trauma. jeffrey brown as this look is part of our new series art in action, exploring the intersection of art and democracy. it is part of our ongoing arts and cultures coverage cannabis. >> yesterday you said that the water supply was contaminated by impurities in the soil. >> yes, exactly, the source is undoubtedly that toxic swamp up in milldale. >> a major health crisis has been discovered -- the water in a local spa is contaminated. lives and the economy are

threatened -- the public must be told. or should it? >> we must bury it, for the good of the people. >> who decides? and who decides what actions, if any, to take? at stake -- public health and democracy itself. >> this play is about a public health catastrophe that was in the late 19th century, in 1882. it's made up, but it could be today. and it creates the context where we can talk about not just what just happened over the last four years, but how do we ensure that it doesn't happen again? >> let's do the first couple pages. >> bryan doerries is founder and artistic director of theater of war productions, which turns to ancient and classic plays to explore and spur discussion of contemporary issues and trauma. >> he has the 1000-yard stare. >> we watched in 2010 as he used greek tragedy that still speaks to the rise in suicide rates in today's military.

>> you have spoken well. >> and in 2016 in a missouri community torn apart after the killing of a young black man, michael brown, in antigone in ferguson. >> because there is nothing shameful in loyalty to a brother. >> i see it as a form of mediation. these classic texts create a vocabulary for people to talk about hard things. >> now a pandemic that took over a million lives in the u.s. alone, uncertain, at times chaotic, government responses, masks weaponized, public health officials threatened. >> concoct all the conspiracies you can think of! >> here seen through the lens of an enduring 19th century play, an enemy of the people, by henrik ibsen, about a doctor named thomas stockman who wants to protect his community. >> they will all have my back if things get ugly. >> but who, in the process,

reveals his own biases and flaws, and becomes both hero and enemy. it was presented recently in what doerries referred to as a temple of experts -- the national academy of sciences in washington d.c in a reading by top actors, including david strathairn, known for such films as goodnight and good luck, which brought an oscar nomination for best actor, and for the blockbuster bourne movies here playing dr. stockman. >> he's a hero, he could be a civic servant, civil servant, a doctor and his, you know, do no harm. >> you're calling him a hero. but in the play, many see him as - >> as an enemy. >> yeah. >> did that resonate for the way you see things today? >> ah, yeah. in a word -- yeah. yeah, i mean there's so many more issues than just him being

an enemy it's about the press, the media - the money - >> the money, the politics of this situation. it goes without saying how present those things are in our lives today. >> the case was a successful persecution. >> like strathairn, actor frankie faison, best known from the wire and the hannibal lecter films, has joined many theater of war projects over the years. >> i get a chance to work with amazing actors and amazing texts, i mean scripts that are just brilliant. you get a chance to exercise that vocal thing without any pressure - we don't have to worry about critics being on top of us when you do this. it's a sharing. and we share this information. and then through that sharing, it opens up a conversation with the audience that just blows our mind. >> this audience included many in the public health community, several of whom took part in the performance from the audience, including professor jeffrey

kahn, director of the johns hopkins berman institute of bioethics, here playing a drunken citizen. >> i don't think we all appreciated that public health professionals would be attacked for their views, that's never happened in our life. >> but here's ibsen, who wrote a play in 1882, writing about exactly that. >> but there's a twist -- here, the health experts play average citizens angry about the upheaval to their lives that the doctor is proposing. >> we are taking the position of shouting down the expert. so it's a bit of a turning of the tables. >> yeah, how does that feel? >> it feels uncomfortable -- [laughter] >> dr. vivian pinn, the first full-time director of the nih office of research on women's health, has been through such battles. to her, dr. stockman was right in his science, but wrong in his interaction with the community, insulting the townspeople for not recognizing his expertise or following his demands. >> how in god's name can it ever

be right for the wise to be ruled over by fools? >> i was really kind of concerned when i was reading the script for this play, at some of dr. stockman's comments about the lower class, the poor, the dirty. and i was thinking, yipes, what we're really focusing on today in public health is being able to interact with the community, get the community involved in what we are doing. >> still, she says the tension hits home. >> he's not right in everything he says but, gee whiz, don't you want to listen to the truth? >> such questions were then taken up by panel members -- an emergency services paramedic lieutenant. >> during the pandemic, which this play resonates so deeply with, there was such certainty in the way people spoke, that they planted the seeds of the automatic response when people speak from such certainty, of, how do you know what you're talking about? i know i didn't know what i was seeing.

i saw it frontline. i was going to on average 13, 10-13 cardiac arrests a day. i didn't know what was going on. how do they know? former nih director dr. francis collins - >> i'm always looking to find a hero. i always feel like there ought to be one. i didn't find one in this play. >> a local business owner - >> but how do you gain back the trust of officials and government and people who are in charge that you believed in the beginning -- >> and members of the audience. >> as much as we want a hero, heroes do not monopolize truth. capital t. they may have a slice of truth. >> a catholic priest. >> this idea of learning how to trust each other again, which means how to love each other

again, and that is going to require humility, people recognizing their wrong. >> i was struck by the absence of independent press in this play. a free press is essential to a democratic society. >> ultimately, just as in real life, the public health crisis in the play becomes a test of democracy itself. in fact, says brian doerries, -- >> i think the core critique isn't the public health. it is can this kind of democracy work? and we're you know, we're entering 2024, with a giant crowd scene with people screaming at a stage and chanting vile things at someone who's trying to help them, who then chants vile things back at them. yeah, it seems like an appropriate place to start this election year and to be framing conversations. >> following the national academy of sciences performance, theater of war productions took an enemy of the people to rural audiences in ohio. next up, outdoors, in new york's

time square on june 12th. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in washington dc. ♪ amna: and we'll be back shortly with some of the best advice given by politicians, actors and even members of the newshour team to the class of 2024, from commencement addresses around the country. geoff: but first take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it is a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like the newshour on the air. ♪ amna: for those of you staying with us. in the summer of 2022, historic flooding in eastern kentucky devastated appalshop, an important cultural hub for the region that is home to a large archive of appalachian history and culture. jeffrey brown first brought us appalshop's story in 2018. in this encore report he returns

for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> oh boy -- not like what i remember. >> a lot different. >> it's a center for cultural preservation, now struggling to preserve itself - appalshop, in whitesburg, kentucky. operations director roger may recalls the mess of water and mud he found when he first entered after the floods. >> it was hard to reconcile what i was seeing with what i was supposed to be seeing. ♪ >> for most of appalshop's fifty five year history, this building teemed with the vibrant sights, sounds, and stories of appalachia. first through filmmaking -- expanding to the renowned roadside theater, a radio station, and music classes all while building an ever-growing, one-of-a-kind archive that documented everything from music to mining.

the central idea, and without the people of this region to tell their own stories, the good as well as the hardships. >> i didn't know that you could do journalism in your own community. i didn't know you could tell a story in your small town. correspondent: willa johnson runs the youth media program at appalshop - the same program that first brought her in the door as a 21 year-old aspiring filmmaker. >> when we were flooded, it took out the bridge to our our community. and so we didn't have cell phone, we didn't have internet, we didn't have water. we didn't have a way out. i just kept thinking, man, i hope they realize why i'm not at work. i didn't even know appalshop was underwater. seeing it underwater was like seeing such a pivotal place, like a home place being lost. correspondent: one a response, do what they have always done. filmmaker oak you gait. >> your instinct as a filmmaker was, we have to document this. we have to make a film?

we have been documenting it for years. correspondent: he was part of a team that produced all is not lost, documenting the toll the flood took on their community. >> you can see the water wash houses away. correspondent: building back is not been easy. appalshop, which always relied on a mix of funding sources - like grants and private donors - has been forced to ramp up its fundraising efforts since the flood. >> the high watermark in here was, almost up to my shoulder. so everything in here, to our theater, our radio broadcast booth everything was underwater. ,correspondent: the building is now, quite literally, a shell of its former self. its location in the floodplain means appalshop will need to find a new home. the radio station operates out of an rv parked outside, theater productions are on pause, and the staff relocated to a

temporary office 14 miles away. >> this is the archive. so this is the door to the to the archive back there now. correspondent: most concerning - even irreplaceable - is the film, video and audio archive. >> everything reel to reel films, audio, photo negatives. everyone's a story. meant enough to someone at the time to say, hey, i need to record this moment. >> this is some type of event, a concert. the flood left its own filter. it is just a treasure trove of appalachian culture that was knocked around and inundated with floodwater. some of these film canisters were found miles down the stream. >> we spend a lot of time talking about how climate change

could impact our future. we spend less time hearing about or thinking about how climate change is impacting our past. correspondent: for jennifer grimaudo, of data management company “iron mountain”, what happened at appalshop is part of a much larger problem. >> they are impacting our memories, these really important sites that help us connect with the prior generations. correspondent: since last spring, “iron mountain” has how was more than recordings 9000 from appalshop's collection and its cold storage facility free of charge to prevent further degradation. they also developed a cleaning process, so far tested on a handful of videotapes. including this unedited interview from the famed documentary stranger with a camera about a canadian filmmaker killed by a property owner while filming in kentucky in 1967. >> what are you doing, and i looked at him and i saw blood

spreading out of the side of his chest. >> we had this archive of material, but we did not know what it was on those reels or negatives, and now as we begin to get those digitized, they are coming back to us. some of this material we are seeing for the very first time. correspondent: the effort to ve the archive revived not only important cultural gems, but also significant personal histories. a friend came upon a box containing willa johson's notes and material from her very first student film. >> i said, how did that survive? and he said it was on a higher shelf. and then i cried because there's, like, much more important things should have been on that higher shelf. pretty important. it was just amazing to see and felt so good to see that survive, survive everything. correspondent: what else will survive? and what of the organization

itself? roger may looks to the long history of this region. >> i'm confident that we'll figure out how to adapt. just like folks in communities like this have for generations, you know, through natural disasters, through the boom and bust of the coal industry, we've figured out ways to, to stay and to adapt. correspondent: for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at appalshop in whitesburg, kentucky. ♪ geoff: despite heightened tensions on many university campuses this year, it is still graduation season, and that means politicians, actors and even members of the newshour team have been sharing advice and encouragement to graduates around the country. here are some of the life lessons this year's commencement speakers passed on to the class of 2024. >> i have never seen this many young people so thrilled to be

on a jumbotron. >> i want to create a world where if aliens came to visit, they wouldn't look around and run back home and say 'you know, there's no sign of intelligent life on earth.' rise up. make decisions in the interest of our health, our wealth, our security so that subsequent generations can look back on you, on us, and be proud of the decisions that we have made and not ashamed of them. >> give your friends grace, your parents grace, who are all out there, your future partners grace. or current partners grace. most importantly, give yourself grace in these moments. you are all already resilient. >> you don't need to wait for anyone else to show up. when you see a need, when you see an injustice, a way the world can be better use the , unique gifts and talents you

have to serve the world. we don't know what will happen, but nothing will change if we don't try. >> i would suggest that instead of defining yourself by your career that you choose to define yourself by things that that are entirely in your control. your love for your family, your friendships, your faith, your service to others. >> in times of uncertainty and comfort choosing optimism and humor can change your whole mood in an instant. more importantly, it can lift an entire group. the effect you have on others is one of your most potent gifts. your impact on the world comes from small moments like that one, simple daily choices integrated over a lifetime. pres. biden: we don't know where or what fate will bring you or when. but we also know we don't walk alone. when you've been a beneficiary of the compassion of your family, your friends, even strangers, you know how much the

compassion matters. >> in every relationship, in any negotiation, in order to move forward and accomplish anything meaningful, someone lowers their shield first, brings down their ego, the defense mechanism. then, others follow. let that person be you. >> choose honor over hypocrisy, virtue over vulgarity, discipline over dissipation, character over cleverness, sacrifice over self-indulgence. >> what a wise person says is the least of what they give. what gets communicated is their way of being in the world, in their smallest gestures and their daily acts of integrity and kindness. the message is the person. we grow by imitating people we admire just as they grew by imitating a person they admired

back and back into the deepness of time. >> when i was growing up, shame and fear was all around me. we had to dress a certain way, laugh a certain way. it was always, just be normal, jennifer. and i heard that so many times. don't run from yourself, you will lose decades. i promise you i did. choose radical self-acceptance and compassion. >> life is like a movie. it is filled with plot twists, unexpected turns and plenty of drama. whatever path you have chosen, seek out the details that add color, pattern, and texture to your stories. embrace your uniqueness and trust your voice. continue to be unapologetically yourselves. and in the words of queen ramond

a, show them who you are. >> life is not linear. you will experience detours on your journey, but just because something doesn't happen how and when you want it to it doesn't mean you give up hope, it doesn't mean it's a failure, instead embrace it as a gateway to infinite possibilities. >> you are not an untested bunch. you have proven yourselves time and again. you have risen to the challenges presented. and now, it is time for you to rise again. >> this is not the finish line. this is the starting line. thank you. [applause]

amna: remember there is much more online, including our weekly digital show -- pbs news weekly, that takes a look this week at a big year in global elections as half of the world's population votes in 2024. that's online now on our youtube page. geoff: and be sure to tune in tonight for a special edition of washington week with the atlantic. jeffrey goldberg speaks with new york times columnist thomas friedman about america's rising tension with china, russia, and iran. amna: and on pbs news weekend, as temperatures rise around the world, many schools in the u.s. are struggling to keep classrooms cool, putting students' learning and health at risk. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thanks for spending part of your evening with us. have a great weekend. >> major funding for the pbs "newshour" has been provided by -- ♪

and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. the william and floor foundation -- the william and flora hewlett foundation, providing solutions to advance the world. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible

by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> from weta studios and washington, d.c. and from our bureau at the walter ron kind school of journalism at arizona state university -- walter

jeffrey: every president confronts a dilemma in the middle east best articulated by al pacino in "godfather iii." president biden has had the same bad luck as so many of his predecessors. tonight, a close look at the