♪ ♪ amna: good evening. geoff bennett is away. on the news hour tonight, the focus in the way -- in the race for the white house turns to the upcoming presidential debate with donald trump threatening to back out.

we meet families in sudan whose lives have been devastated by civil war with many forest to inflate time and again. the race to the white house -->> we have to believe we are one nation. amna: and stephen king reflects on his long career and discusses his new book of short stories. ♪ announcer: major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- ♪ the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour including leonard and norma cora vine and the judy and peter blumer foundation. >> to retiring executives turned

their focus to greyhounds giving these former race dogs a real chance to live. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your purpose and the way you give back. well planned. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.org. announcer: and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ ♪ announcer: this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by

contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the news hour. with both party conventions in the rearview mirror, the presidential campaign enters its final stage. there are new questions about whether the candidates will debate and today donald trump turned his attention to national security and the record of kamala harris. lisa desjardins has this report. reporter: former president donald trump campaigning in michigan addressing an annual meeting of the national guard association as he seeks a second term as commander in chief. >> america's future is under threat like never before, right at this moment. reporter: he accused the biden-harris administration of mishandling the afghan withdrawal. the biden administration said it's decision was set in motion by donald trump's agreement to

pullout troops. a suicide bomb attack three years ago today left 13 american service members killed. >> kamala harris, joe biden -- the humiliation in afghanistan set off the collapse of american credibility. reporter: this morning donald trump laid wreaths at arlington national cemetery in their memory. kamala harris and minnesota governor tim walz were off the campaign trail today but they are awash in cash reporting a hall of more than a half a billion dollars since launching a month ago. in the meantime -- >> welcome back to meet the press. reporter: the man that wants harris' current job met with meet the press on sunday. reporter: can you commit that you will not impose a federal

ban on abortion? >> i can commit to that. >> he said he would. reporter: he was also asked about his running mate, donald trump's repeated words questioning if the election will be fair. >> do you have faith that the election will be free and fair? >> we will do everything we can to make sure it happens and we will pursue every pathway to make sure that legal ballots get counted. reporter: donald trump is signaling that he may bow out of the first head-to-head debate. why would i do the debate against kamala harris on abc? the harris campaign said the issue is more specific -- that it wants microphones to remain on during any debate on the trump campaign staff has not agreed. regardless, monday morning donald trump would not commit to taking part as planned. the campaigns will be on the

road this week. harris touring in georgia and donald trump focusing on michigan and wisconsin. for the pbs news hour, i am lisa desjardins. ♪ ♪ amna: we begin the other headlines with extreme weather. a heat dome hovering over the midwest is sending some temperatures into the upper 90's. meteorologists say that is unseasonably hot. 50 million americans are under excessive heat warnings and advisories. some temperatures could reach record highs through tomorrow. over in the pacific, hurricane honek weakened to a tropical storm but not before dumping a foot of rain over parts of southern hawaii. floods shutdown major highways

on the big island and hawaii is not in the clear yet. officials are watching two other storms, one shown here and it could reach the islands this weekend. special counsel jack smith is asking a federal appeals court to bring back the classified documents case against donald trump. the case was thrown out last month after a judge who is a trump appointee ruled that smith's appointment was unconstitutional. the special counsel's team said the decision was at odds with widespread and long-standing appointment practices and the department of justice and across the government. even if the appeals court reinstates the case it would be unlikely to go to trial before the november election. turning overseas, russia sent a massive barrage of about 200 missiles and drones across more than half of ukraine overnight. ukraine's air force commander

said the attack was the biggest aerial assault of the war and killed at least four people and injured more than a dozen. in kyiv residence took shelter underground. officials said power and water supplies were disrupted in the capital. the president condemned the attack in a video address. >> it was one of the heaviest strikes, a combined one. more than 100 missiles of various types and drones. and like most previous russian strikes, this one targeted critical civilian infrastructure. amna: in russia officials say they intercepted nearly two dozen ukrainian drones since last night and four people were injured. dozens of people have died in southwest pakistan in three separate insurgent attacks across the region. gunman killed at least 38 people in a province that borders iran.

separatist groups have long fought for independence in this part of pakistan. funeral prayers took place for the victims today after gunman walked off highways and drag people out of their vehicles and shot them. the military said security forces killed 21 militants in response. in germany, the chancellor has vowed to tighten the country's knife laws following friday's late-night stabbing at a festival that left three people dead. he visited a western city and laid a white rose at the scene of the attack. investigators believe the suspect turned himself in over the weekend shares the radical ideology of the islam makes the extremist group. the chancellor vowed to take action. >> this was terrorism. it was terrorism against us all threatening our togetherness. i want to make it clear with regard to the perpetrator that i

am angry about this crime. it must be punished quickly and severely. amna: he also pledged to get tougher on deportations after germany media reports said the suspect was denied asylum last year but was never deported. kroger and albertsons were in federal court today to defend their plans to merge as the u.s. government tries to block them. such a merger would be the largest among supermarkets in u.s. history. the federal trade commission says the deal would eliminate competition and raise food prices during a time when inflation is already high. the grocery chains argue the opposite, that joining forces would curb cost and allow them to better compete with walmart, costco and amazon. and it was mostly a down day on wall street today but the dow jones industrial average climbed to a new all-time high beating its old record set in july.

major tech stocks fell pulling down the nasdaq by nearly a percent. the s&p 500 finished lower on the day. on the news hour, tamera keith and amy walter bring down the latest campaign headlines. americans affected by hurricanes, heat and floods speak out about the nations worsening weather events. and how to nasa plans to get two astronauts stranded in space back home. ♪ announcer: this is the pbs news hour from wep a studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: a dam in a remote part of sudan collapsed this weekend. the united nation's says at least 20 villages were destroyed and 30 people killed although the death toll could be higher. the dam is about 25 miles north of port sudan and provided the city located on the red sea with

ranking water. port sudan is where many civilians fled because of the bitter civil war between the army and a road militia. -- a a rogue militia. 11 million sudanese have been forced from their homes in the largest displacement crisis. up to 150,000 people are feared dead and millions more base unimaginable trauma. in her third report from the front lines from sudan, special correspondent followed along with some of the families desperately searching for sanctuary. reporter: a perilous journey inching along the front line with only the occasional cover of the mountains. led through the sands by an escort of soldiers. plumes of smoke rise through the error. we are not going to the battle zone. we are here with sudanese families trying to get out

making their way through this treacherous trip alone. this is the northernmost point. we are wearing protective equipment because they have been shelling the area. even after people make it here, it is still not safe. and exhausted mother who made it here with her baby and toddler -- >> [speaking in another language] the fighting is very intense in our area. there is no food there. reporter: she is at the very end of her strength. her eyes glazed, she sits staring. a brief moment of rest before they have to move on again. >> we are sick, hungry and we have small children. we are tired of this board. we won't survive. living like this is so very

hard. reporter: all of these families are this morning. they are a few of the millions of civilians traversing the country forced from their homes by this bloody ward. if they are lucky they can afford ec in a mini bus for a donkey cart but for most it is an arduous journey on foot covering hundreds of miles in the baking sheets. they are running from the greatest of horrors, looting, killing and rape at the hands of rapid support forces militiamen. at this construction site, the air is thick with the trauma of what they have endured. there are thousands of people staying in this makeshift reception center. they are practically in the open air. they are hoping for a spot in a displacement camp but with so many people arriving, there is not space. many have fled to other camps.

in the last few weeks the latest offensive has swept through a southern state. for most, it is far from the first time they have had to flee . this is the fifth time this family has been displaced by the war. four of her six kids are younger than five. the journey was long and rough sleeping on a blanket on the roadside every night. >> 10 days on the road from place to place until we got here. when they said they were hungry, i said we were almost there. when they said we are tired, i said we are almost there. i would promise them, your father will be there when we arrived. reporter: but their father was not at the end of the long road. he stayed behind to earn money for his family when they first fled. she hasn't heard from him since. the attacks happened so fast,

family members were separated. her neighbor was out trying to find work so she grabbed the woman's teenage daughters along with her own kids and ran. >> i couldn't leave them behind. there is no news of their mother. reporter: with no work to be had, they survive on the kindness of others. volunteers distribute one meal a day to the families. and locals from the city bring what they have to share. but now, fears of an attack are growing. she does not know if she has the strength to run again. >> a few weeks ago there were shells and machine guns and snipers. we had to sleep under the beds. if the rs f comes here i'm not going anywhere. i cannot bear to be displaced again. reporter: with no where to house the onslaught of people,

schools, closed since the beginning of the war, have become shelters. at this girls school, students were clamoring to continue classes but did not want to make the temporary residents homeless. the principal came to a compromise. they have made space an extra 250 displaced peoples. inside the school buildings, families living in limbo. she has been here six months with her four toddlers. at night up to 200 people packed the small rooms. this is where you have been living. >> this is where i live and this is my family. reporter: and his family is in the classroom next door. he says they have seen little international support. >> they have forgotten us. we see people in syria and ukraine. but this is africa.

now we have two months and haven't seen anything. reporter: you haven't received any aid? and how do you feel about the future? >> the future of my children right now, i see it as very dark. it is very sorrowful. we have to believe that we are one nation and look for the country as a home for us all. reporter: the recently opened displacement camp nearby cannot begin to host this number of people. aid agencies say without more funding and access to the areas hit hardest, there is little more they can do. at schools across the country, similar scenes. these families have just fled a tiny island in the center of the state.

fleeing across territory is dangerous. facing daily shelling, shooting and arbitrary arrests from militiamen but the risk of staying longer was worse. >> they were firing shells that hit houses and people. the bullets were everywhere. there was no water or electricity for 11 months. people sent us money but the militiamen confiscated them. people died because of the lack of treatment. reporter: both mohammed and his wife have diabetes. it was time to go but only if they could afford the hefty exit bribes. it cost him nearly $1000 to get his small family out. it was a life savings he was lucky to have unlike others. no one knows what the future holds and at night the children go back to duty. >> the children know the difference between the sounds of bullets and shells. all they talk about is the

militias. even in their games. reporter: many are fleeing evils's even darker than bombs and hunger. she was out running -- she was out running errands when a gun fight broke out. in seconds her husband was dead and the rsf had kidnapped her and for six months she was held captive subjected to horrifying abuse. >> there was beatings, sexual assault and death. everything is done to us. reporter: finally they gave her a choice -- work for the rsf or we will kill your children. >> that is where the torture and training began. they trained us girls. my role was to be a spy to gather information for them. my children were in their hands and i had no choice. reporter: eventually she was caught. now she spends her days in a

protection center in the army zone dreaming helplessly of her three young kids. >> until now, i don't know if my children are alive or dead. reporter: i tell her we should stop if it is too much. no, she insists! people need to know what is happening! >> many other people have experienced similar things. i'm not the first girl nor will i be the last. some girls were raped in front of their parents. all sudanese have been psychologically damaged by the rsf. we live in fear. reporter: with the war still raging, there is a little space for healing. escape, survive, escape, survive, a nightmarish cycle playing on repeat. the families never know if the next step -- stop will be their

last. they often take the long way around the mountains to try to avoid mines. everyone we speak to say they attack soberly that civilians drop everything and run. even those that make it as far as port sudan, the military capital on the red sea, are little better off. children arrived in dire condition. even those that look relatively healthy are malnourished. and even for those with some cash, most food is unaffordable. the price of meat has risen six times in the last two months. this 75-year-old has been trying to make money at the central market since arriving. a sympathetic local gave her some cash to start a business but the going is tough. >> i'm currently living in a house without a door or window. rain and wind are over our heads.

we have no money. we left everything behind. we only escaped with our lives. all i own is the shawl that i'm wearing. do i look like i know the price of the can of oil now? reporter: homeless, penniless, constantly trying to outrun the next attack. this conflict which has devastated the lives of millions of sudanese shows little signs of slowing on its path of destruction. for the pbs news hour in port sudan. ♪ amna: there are just 70 days left until election day and the campaigns are ramping into high gear. that means there is a lot to break down this week in politics and for that we are joined by amy walter and tamra keith.

good to see you both. one week after the convention, the democratic national convention, amy, candidates get a postconvention bounce. are we seeing that or do we expect to? >> unlike any other election we have ever seen before where the candidate really came onto the scene less then a month before the convention, she got a lot of that bump before we got to chicago with the base rallying around her. she has had the wind at her back since she has been in the race. if anything, the convention crystallized the kind of momentum she has an able to sustain for the last month. you have democrats leaving chicago but you feel it around

the country also more enthusiastic than they have been at any point this year. and i could argue for the last two years. she may get a little bump out of that. overall, i think this is the real question going forward and this is what donald trump is trying to desperately stop -- she has been able to control the narrative of the campaign on the terms she wants to talk about whether it is on issues -- the issues like abortion or the economy in terms that work for her and most important, she has been able, even as the incumbent, grab the change candidate. people upset with the status quo, she is part of it but she has also managed to be the person turning the page. amna: if you are donald trump, this is a condensed timeline. 70 days.

you have a new ticket late in the cycle. what are you seeing from the campaigns that tell us the priorities and strategies? >> donald trump's campaign put out a memo over the weekend saying, there is going to be a bump. harris will see her number are rise. don't worry, it will go away. it is not clear because it is a tight schedule what will happen but i know that donald trump is campaigning like he is losing. he is doing a lot of events. he is doing different types of events. he is doing everything he can to take attention away from harris. today he went to arlington national cemetery outside of washington dc he went to a vietnamese restaurant in northern virginia campaigning with a senate candidate doing these small retail type events. that is not something he has typically done. he is doing erything he can to

get attention. harris, on the other hand, is going to have a bus tour this week through georgia. what is interesting is it is the same strategy they employed in pennsylvania which is to say that atlanta is not georgia. the state has many other areas. they could still hear from the candidate and reduce their losses and some of those areas. she is doing a bus tour, not just big rallies. both campaigns are running like it is a real race. amna: there is another factor that could have an impact on the race that we know will be won on the margins and that is friday's announcement that robert f kennedy is suspending his camping and endorsing donald trump. we saw his support drop after harris became the nominees. -- became the nominee. >> it is true, but for biden

dropped out of the race, about 8% of voters said they were voting for rfk junior today it is down to half of that. most of those went to harris. recent surveys looking at the battleground states, voters that remain kennedy support is, if you put them up -- if you push them on the question of who they will support, half say they are trump supporters. will they show up? they are sitting there because they liked rfk and they are disappointed. if they do show up for donald trump, especially if the undecided voters, if they show up for donald trump as well, you are talking about movement of a

point or so were a little under. it doesn't look big. but the last election was decided by 10,000 votes here and 15,000 there, if i am the trump campgn i would be ready to bring those people back into my camp. amna: and if you are the harris campaign, the chair put out a statement after rfk junior dropped out saying vice president harris wants to earn their support and for any american out there that is tired of donald trump and looking for a new way forward, ours is the campaign for you. are those voters win bowl by harris? >> part of that is signaling that they take no vote for granted. and a big part of that is signaling back. as we have said, this is a close race and will continue to be. they cannot look like they are writing off a group of voters. sure, they could go nuclear on

all of rfk junior's many liabilities and tie them to donald trump. they will do that but this was a conciliatory thing you would expect. we are a big tent. look at the convention, they had all of these republicans -- today they announced another 200 republicans. they are building a stable who they hope will create a structure, a permission structure. that is not the major thrust of the campaign but one of the many angles they are trying. amna: it is a reminder that the democratic coalition since biden has been one of bringing in voters that say, i don't know that i can vote for donald trump to say as--we are part of that. amna: another debate is scheduled.

later in september. mr. trump is casting doubt that he will take part in a. do you think it will happen? and will it make an impact? >> this is now a place where donald trump needs to change the direction of his campaign. in june it was biden that wanted the debate because he knew he was runningehind and now trump wants to change the focus. since harris got income of the trump campaign has been adamant that she hasn't been tested or sat down for an interview. let's see how she is able to do once she gets under the hot lights of having to answer a question not on a teleprompter or scripted. >> she has been conducting a one-way conversation with the american people. she has not been pressed. a debate is an opportunity, the interview she promised she would

do by the end of august, that will also be a two-way conversation. and the harris campaign clearly seems to want the debate to happen but they are also enjoying getting under trump's skin about it. implying his handlers don't want him to have the open microphone. he wants the microphone shut down. donald trump is asked about it and says, i would be happy with an open microphone and that blows up the negotiations and the behind the scenes debate about the debate. amna: i feel like we will continue to have a debate about the debate until the debate happens. tamra keith and amy walter, great to see you both. thank you. ♪ ♪

amna: the punishing heat hitting much of the u.s. this week and the downpour that hawaii is enduring are the latest in what has been a relentless summer of extreme weather. we spoke to different people in part of the country about the impact of these events and how they are thinking about the future. >> 6-8 inches of rain in 24 hours. >> we bought a generator. i never thought i would need a generator. >> as a farm, this year has been a very difficult year. >> right now with the triple digits we are hitching, it is dangerous to be outside between 11:00 and 3:00. >> my name is liz and i live in tempe, arizona. >> my name is ben and i live in houston. >> my name is natalie from reidsville, north carolina. >> i am a senior social

scientist for climate vulnerability. a dangerous season is the term we use. it starts in may through october. the concerns are the increased frequency of extreme weather events that can occur back to back that can threaten the population on an almost regular basis. by may 7, almost 33% of the population had been under one extreme weather alert. this jumped to 50% by may 20. and by june 22 the number had reached 95%. >> my family has been here for generations beyond when this place was a state or even a territory. i grew up outside. right now, you don't see kids playing outside. >> i am eight months pregnant and one of the things i discussed with my doctor when my feet started to swell is what is causing it?

and my doctor shared with me, the heat will cause it to swell. if you are starting to swell now and i was 3-4 months now, my feet will swell for the rest of the pregnancy. it was hard to accept. i bought ice packs that i wrap around my feet for the swelling. >> last july my home received 32 inches of water on the first floor. we spent the next days emptying everything out of the home and piling it in the front yard. and a few weeks later we watched it get taken away by cranes and dumpsters. in -- the basement flooded again and in july the basement flooded again. having to figure out how to pay a mortgage and rent and get the money from fema -- i've spent so

much time and energy trying to recover and not feel like instead of the disaster happening to me. >> as a property manager in houston, taking care of single-family residential homes, we are managing things like sinks, doors needing to be adjusted and small repairs but in the last two years we have shifted to a disaster recovery company. we are taking care of power outages and electrical surges, floods. it has been very challenging. we are shifting from living and enjoying to preparing and bracing. all of that affects quality of life. how much we spend enjoying looking out the window versus stressed about packing a to go back. none of that is exciting or fun. >> just looking at july, we had 20 or more days of 90 plus

degrees on top of the heat we also had a drought condition. with the hurricane that came through august 8 we got probably a little more than 80 inches of rain. i've been out on the farm eight years. i've had to deal with a tornado, two storms. it is a challenge. it is very difficult. >> one of the most sobering things that scientists have said is we are not looking at the worst of quiet -- climate change but we are looking at the minimum impacts that we will see. >> arizona is in my blood. it is my roots. my family has been here for generations. it is hot but i would never want to live where it is cold. i love the state and where i live. but it is getting harder to stay. >> i'm finding it very hard to

make a decision of tearing down a 140 year house or i elevate it and have to deal with fixing it for the next two years. will it be high enough for the next time it happens? i think about these things too much. it wakes you up in the middle of the night, wondering what to do. >> not once have i considered moving until this year. seeing the power outages, the damaged homes, the excessive heat where ac cannot keep up anymore, it sparked me and my partner to look somewhere else to live. we recently put an offer on a house in the seattle-tacoma area. we are looking to make a big move because we want stability back. >> i don't cn ending at all -- i don't see an ending at all because each year it gets

progressively worse. you have to be proactive, resilient and you have to think outside of the box now. how do we as farmers sustain long-term? i don't have the answers to it and it is even stressful to think about. ♪ amna: nasa's initial test launch with the boeing starliner capsule has not worked out well. the space agency announced this week and it has decided that the astronauts stop at the international space station will come back on a spacex dragon capsule next year instead. the pair were initially sent on an eight day mission in early june. bill nelson says the priority has to be safety of the astronauts. >> spaceflight is risky.

even at its safe. and even at its most routine. and a test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine. and so the decision to keep butch and sonny aboard the international space station and bring the boeing starliner home uncrewed is the result of a commitment to safety. amna: we have our science correspondent, miles o'brien. we know nasa has been weighing whether to bring sonny and butch home on the boeing craft or a spacex craft. why do we know about why they ultimately decided to go with spacex? >> they just could not be certain about the thrusters which are key. all of the people making these decisions we should point out lived through the searing

tragedy of columbia in 2003 when the orbiter disintegrated on reentry. it is important that these thrusters work as advertised because it is a very unforgiving , risky portion of the flight. if they come into hot, that is a problem or if they come in without enough speed, they could skip off the atmosphere. they went through the testing and tried to understand the problems with the thrusters which manifested when they approached for docking and they don't feel confident that they know enough about why they failed to see if they could be reliable enough to get the crew home. there was no logical or safety rationale to put two human beings at risk. amna: they cannot be sure it is reliable so what does this mean for the future of the starliner

and for boeing's relationship with nasa? will they still work on missions together? >> boeing and its predecessor companies goes back to the beginning of nasa. they have been contractors on just about every program including the shuttle and the international space station. there is no indication there will be a separation of these entities, boeing and nasa. highly likely they will continue to work together. the leaders of both say so. what is interesting is what happens on the next flight for starliner. will that be an uncrewed mission or will they allow astronauts to be a part of the next flight. amna: an eight they mission has turned into a several months long mission. if the decision has been made about how they will get home, why will it take so long to bring them home?

>> why is it gilligan's island, people are asking. there are no seats for them to return home on the spacecraft which are attached to the international space station. they are not going home on the starliner. there is a spacex dragon there but there are no seats. ey could build a rocket for them to pick them up or more efficiently a crew, set to arrive month,, it is a four person crew. two of the crewmembers will stay home. and sonny on butch have been volunteered to be a part of this mission which lasts six months into february. it is the most efficient for the flow of the space station but probably not the most convenient for butch or sonny. amna: what do we know -- this is always top of my mind, do they

have what they need who planned for an eight day mission to get through these next several months or will there be some kind of resupply mission? >> it is worth pointing out that they went up without suitcases. they had to make room for a piece of equipment to haul up to the space station to fix the water recycling station. there has been a cargo mission that arrived a week or so ago with 8600 pounds of stuff. at -- and i'd any given time nasa has enough clothing and foods for a four person crew to last four months. there are plenty of stores up there. that is not the problem. they won't go hungry. they will have clothing. they do have a long mission ahead they didn't anticipate. amna: and what about the mission to come home? they trained to go up and come

back on a different craft and what they will be coming back on. what does that mean logistically? >> the dragon spacex is highly automated. the two-person crew which will fly up will be fully trained in spacex and dragon functionality and the checklist, so to speak. sonny and butch are test flight -- are test pilots with a lot of experience. they will be in the history books when they go back on the dragon having flown in all four vehicles. they have an experienced crew with them and they are well-versed as test pilots and they have plenty of time right now to read the manual. i guess it will be ok. amna: our science correspondent, miles o'brien. always great to speak with you. thank you. >> pleasure. ♪

amna: 50 years ago a 26-year-old rural maine school wrote a horror novel. that man has gone on to write 60 books since. they have been turned into films like the shining, shawshank redemption, stand by me and many more. king invited jeffrey brown to his maine home to talk about his latest book of short stories and the long arc of his career. it is part of our arts and culture series. >> in his new collection stephen king writes of the unsettling and otherworldly raising its head in this one. he calls it, "you like it darker," and he clearly does. >> darker means spooky and scary

and let's exercise our unpleasant emotions for a while. i think people like the idea of opening the door and saying -- i want it darker. do you? ok. we are in agreement. let's go into the woods together. >> millions of readers have taken the dark walked with king but we had our late -- a later one with the 76-year-old. >> i feel like if i was a car, i would trade. i love maine. i love the country. i'm not much of a city kid. i love the people. and i think they are stand ins for people everywhere. i want to write about regular people, ordinary people in the

best way i know how. >> even in their dark moments? >> i'm interested in what happens when regular people are suddenly confronted with something that is totally out of their wheelhouse. i think that literature in quotation marks is about extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances. and what i do is ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. >> king himself grew up in mostly rural class working maine. he began writing columns for his high school newspaper and then stories and more at the university of maine where he met tabatha, another young writer, now his wife of 53 years. early on the young couple took on a variety of jobs to make ends meet. >> i just wanted to support my

family to be able to say -- i'm doing work, my wife also worked. she worked at dunkin' donuts and would smell like a cruellar. >> with sissy spacex as a bullied high school girl with telekinetic powers. unforgettable revenge ensues. in his 2000 book of writing he talks about battling his own demons early on with alcohol and drugs and later years of pain and physical difficulties to this day. can one write darker without having a kind of darkness himself? >> basically i'm a perfectly nice fella, a good family man, a

good husband and father. and all of this stuff that is on the darkside comes out in the stories. it doesn't have to come out of life. i used to think to myself, i could have been a very bad person except for the stories that i tell. it takes off a lot of the pressure. >> maybe that is how his stories work for all of us. whatever it is, stephen king is as much a cultural icon is any american writer today. you have all of these movie posters -- especially when you consider the number of films and movies about his stories. >> my first editor used to say that steve has a movie camera in his head. >> like you see the story. >> the stories are very visual. i grew up the first generation of movies and tv and they made a big impression on me so i have a tendency to see things and that is part of the pleasure.

>> pleasures at time have come from rock 'n' roll. through his success he admitted that he is not always happy with the critical reception that he got. >> there was a time when i thought no one would ever take me seriously as a writers writer . just as someone that makes money. it seemed to me there was an underlying assumption about popular fiction that if everyone reads this, it can't be very good. i've never felt that way. i've felt that people can read and enjoy on many different levels. >> but you got over worrying about that at some point. >> i got old.

and i think that probably a lot of the critics that didn't like my stuff are now dead. so -- them. >> bleeped them. you also wrote in your book on writing, you wrote about not only being the stories creator but it's first reader. you want to feel the suspense of the story yourself? >> not only do i want to feel the suspense in the story, i want to relish the good parts. >> i want to enjoy -- if you want to enjoy the good parts. >> every now and then you say to yourself, i wrote a good line there. that is cool. >> how does he generate so many ideas? >> i can't explain it. that is the beautiful thing about what i do. it is just like being felt by an idea.

i was getting out of bed one day and i thought to myself -- what if an ordinary guy had a psychic vision in a dream about where a body was buried and actually went out there and found that body? would anybody believe he had that vision or would they think he did it? >> you just woke up thinking that? >> i was putting on my pants when i had this idea. and i put them on one leg at a time and i had one like in my pants and i had this idea and by the time i got the other leg in, i had almost the whole story. and who wouldn't want to do something like that? that is so trippy. it is just the way my mind works. >> trippy, dark and having a --

of a writing life. >> i'm very fortunate to do what i do. i love to tell stories and in a way i got paid for something that in the words of the late john do mcdonald, i would do for free. ok, that is good. >> coming soon, several new film and tv adaptations of his work. from the darker side in western maine, i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs news hour. amna: and online we have more from stephen king including what he watches and reads when he is not writing. that is on our youtube channel. our student reporting labs podcast called on our minds has a new season focused on the elections and the youth vote. two new student hosts along with student reporters from around the country talk with conservatives and liberals, experts and candidates about the

political issues that matter most to young people. >> this election year is wild. the election is affecting all of us, even those of us too young to vote. >> on this special season -- >> student reporters are asking -- >> what does it mean to be an american? >> does my vote matter? >> we are having conversations with everyone. >> conservatives, liberals. as americans we need to come together. >> and the way to do that is -- >> by listening. >> a podcast by teenagers for teenagers. >> produced by pbs student lab podcasts. amna: and that is the news hour for tonight. on behalf of the entire news hour team, thank you for joining us. announcer: major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- ♪

♪ supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions -- ♪ announcer: this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ ♪

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