♪ announcer: from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." charlie: admiral mike mullen is here. he retired in 2011 after serving four years as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. that role made him military advisor to president bush and president obama during the wars in iraq and afghanistan. he now teaches at the princeton woodrow wilson school of international affairs and he has been a frequent guest on this program. i'm pleased to have him back at this table. welcome. admiral mullen: it is good to be back. charlie: what are you doing since retirement? admiral mullen: a mix of things.

on the volunteer side, deb and i spend a lot of time with veterans and their families. we give time to charities. particularly in iraq and afghanistan. you mentioned the teaching, which i enjoy more than anything else. i am on a couple of boards, general motors and sprint, which has also been growth for me to learn about how those businesses work. most particularly, i stayed out of the fray in washington consciously. although i think i am as concerned about what is going on there is anybody else. i don't just mean now. i have been concerned about the paralysis, the polarization, the inability for washington to figure out how to do more for the american people. charlie: does it need a white knight or something else? admiral mullen: it is hard for me to know. i worry there are huge challenges that are not being addressed, except maybe rhetorically. and that we are in a bit of a

decline. one of the facts that has alarmed me for months is that wages have not increased since the 1970's. there are a lot of people really hurting. we have not figured out how to create opportunities for them. you can talk about the economy. you can talk about the loss of jobs. all those things, that is part of it. we have not invested well enough in their future, when life changes if you will, in rapidly changing times. i worry we are in a very slow decline. i don't know -- charlie: you are worried we are in a slow decline. admiral mullen: slow decline as a country. a lot of things need to be addressed. in that regard, will we let that continue? will there be some catastrophic event that pulls us out, out of whom someone i could name now becomes the leader the american

people say, ok, we will follow? charlie: that person, you cannot imagine who it might be? admiral mullen: no one can. i just don't see the cadre in washington, many of whom were part of what got us here, as representing that leadership which can move us forward. charlie: all kinds of conflicts have existed before. donald trump is not the first president to feel the press is unfair to him. but his characterization of the press is they engage in witchhunts, they are the enemy, a whole range of things like that. other institutions are under attack. admiral mullen: the press is under attack itself. before this last election, the changes ongoing there as well. i have no -- i think we need to continue to change, and institutions need to figure out how they can evolve to answer the mail for the american

people. i have come to believe it is really tough to do this out of washington. there are a few things washington does well. obviously, they provide resources. in the long-term, i believe it is the local communities, local leaders, the mayors, who make a difference because they have got to make decisions every single day which require actions and their focus -- charlie: they're coming to washington. admiral mullen: they are. i listened to an interview couple of months ago from a young senior at a northeastern liberal college on npr. they were asked what they would do, what are you going to do next? southwesterna state. a pretty natural question.

i listened to her say, i have been here for four years in this liberal college, in this liberal echo chamber. she said, i have to go home. southwest pennsylvania is all red. i have to go home and find out why my family feels this way. what she was saying to me is we have to start listening. not just flame throwing or yelling at each other. we have to get out of our echo chambers and listen to the real concerns of those people in southwest pennsylvania. it is that piece we have not been doing for a long time. charlie: do you know bob mueller? admiral mullen: i do. he is a terrific guy. i worked with him in the chairman's job. he is tough, fair, disciplined, focused. he is a terrific investigator. he will do what is right under any circumstance. i was delighted to hear in the last 24 hours -- charlie: no political pressure can be put on him? admiral mullen: i don't think he can be impeded. he works for the attorney general. he is on that side of the house. the deputy attorney general.

you could not pick a better guy. charlie: this is not a special commission. this is independent counsel. admiral mullen: i have a lot of faith in bob. i think he will be able to get to the bottom of it, whatever "it" is. i think he will answer those questions and others that seem to be generated when an investigation starts. charlie: do you know james comey? admiral mullen: i did not. i just knew of him and thought very highly of him. certainly, his reputation was superb. the first time i ever focused on him was in the bush administration when he took on the issue of torture. and famously went over to the attorney general's hospital bed to intervene. that is james comey. that has been his reputation throughout. charlie: the white house was trying to get them to sign something and he said no. admiral mullen: he camped out to make sure it was not going to happen.

charlie: that is a question we have today, whether anybody can say no to the president. this is a clear question. nobody knows who can say no to the president. admiral mullen: and rightfully so, it is the most powerful office in the world. you go into that oval office, closing the door giving the president frank advice, telling the president where he is wrong is very tough. every president needs somebody to do that. charlie: it is tough because -- admiral mullen: it is always tough to tell the boss, whoever the boss is, he or she is wrong. it is that much more difficult because of the gravity of the issues, the gravity of the office. and it is the president of the united states, the most powerful individual in the world. it is made that much more difficult. somebody needs to do it. charlie: has social media changed us all? admiral mullen: maybe it is changing us. it is moving more quickly. we can argue about whether it is good or bad. it is here and we have to figure

out how to put it to good use. charlie: let me talk about some areas of the world. the state of our union. you just said we have a terrible problem. we may be on decline because of the failure by institutions to recognize a basic problem of people in the middle class falling behind, so people who pay the taxes and fight the wars are not participating in the american dream. admiral mullen: they don't see it. having been involved as much as i have been overseas, particularly to look at countries who have a bulging young generation that make decisions about whether they become productive or not, i have said for years when they don't choose a productive path, they don't have any hope. i worry here we are starting to see that. it is the inequality piece, the wage piece. i don't see a future piece. that is what i think leaders have to create, hope, not just rhetoric, but hope. that is a worry. i have talked about this for years as well, the number one threat to the country. i have said for years our debt.

it is $20 trillion now and has doubled in the last several years. how are we going to pay our bills? how are we going to invest in education or infrastructure in a way that makes us a better country and provides the future we think needs to be provided? just as an example, our education system has been so badly politicized. k-12 education system. we need to invest in. you can talk about all the charter schools in the world, and many are good, but you cannot scale that to our public education system. if we don't get at that, we very

much will have a mediocre future. those things are happening quickly. those are just a couple of things out there, so there is a worry. the leadership, the totality of leadership, has not been able to answer that mail. charlie: there was gridlock during the obama administration. they could never find between, the speaker of the house and the president, they could not reach -- they both had their own political -- admiral mullen: to me, it became more about them and the power. it seemed almost personal in many cases, as opposed to what we need to do for the american people. the place to function has to compromise. there has to be compromise. there has been precious little of that. charlie: why is that? admiral mullen: it is hard for me to know. this did not happen overnight. we have been evolving this way for a couple of decades.

i think part of it is they don't know each other. they don't live there anymore. their families don't know each other. in too many cases, they are kept in apart by their own leadership. the personal relationship is not there. we talked before we came on the show about the criticality of personal relationships and developing them. if they are only in their own echo chamber, it is not likely they will be listening. charlie: the media says what you want. admiral mullen: that is a big part of it as well. charlie: let's go around the world. the president off to saudi arabia. admiral mullen: i would say above all, establish a relationship with the king and leadership over there. the deputy crown prince, as well as the crown prince. within those two lies the future of saudi arabia. they still have a lot of oil. they and the previous king started to look to a future that did not depend on that.

charlie: other economic resources. admiral mullen: can we help them in that regard? can we have a relationship and still address the challenges with respect to inside the country. part. the leadership terrorism.r they will be delighted with the president visiting this time because -- my friends in that part of the world have said, where has the united states gone? we drew back over the last several years. to some degree, we left the middle east to itself. charlie: are you criticizing your former boss? admiral mullen: i'm just saying what we did. i think that is a fact. i think there is an opportunity for the president to start a relationship to engage.

we are all concerned about iran. certainly the saudis are and the gulf state. charlie: the sunnis. admiral mullen: correct, as well as israel. i'm struck by the fact he is going to saudi, israel, and rome, the three centers, the free religious centers in the world. and in fact, hopefully we'll be able to focus to meet the concerns of the future. charlie: they are clearly getting along better than they have before. admiral mullen: they have. it was not that long ago, in the last decade or so, the first sentence of any conversation with any of my arab friends was, what are you going to do about the israelis? that has not come up in years. part of that is because of the wars, obviously syria. charlie: and this president has had the palestinians into the white house. admiral mullen: he has. charlie: the palestinians have

changed, there is some evidence of verbal change. admiral mullen: one of the interesting things going on with the palestinians, with the leadership, is the organization that led them as a terrorist organization has become a political organization. how good are they at that? that is an open question. charlie: we talked on the morning show about china and north korea. there does seem to be a dialogue with china, whatever the nature of it is. the president made china a big target during the campaign. since then, spent a weekend at mar-a-lago with the chinese president and basically said i will be less demanding if you will help us on north korea. admiral mullen: i met with a group of senior chinese think tankers to her three weeks after the president's visit. they were happy with that visit.

gettinghow it was read out. charlie: that is what i hear. they said the president listened to xi jinping. admiral mullen: yes, he did. charlie: and long discourses about the history of china and the region. admiral mullen: you don't know where this is going to go. and there is a reality here for a new president. everything he said in the campaign is not going to happen in reality. there is a leavening of that to some degree. hopefully, and i am not a big china fan, but i think the two biggest economies in the world are going to have to figure out how to get along and constructively support each other in the future. china has got a daunting future plan that i would argue probably does not include the united states. i don't know that. charlie: what is that plan? admiral mullen: i think it is economic. i think it is longer-term. they are growing their military to a huge, much more significant capability in the future.

charlie: for a forward projection of power? admiral mullen: i think so. the kind of global reach a watched us over the last 60 or 70 years, and a kind of investment in dominance. they are investing in this one row to come from china all the way through to istanbul or central europe. they have a plan. what is our strategy with respect to that? how do we address that? charlie: they say a lot about the united states in terms of criticism. what is the strategy? admiral mullen: i think it is a legitimate question. charlie: that china, russia, the middle east. admiral mullen: absolutely. charlie: long-term thinking. admiral mullen: we don't do it very well. people say we have not had one for a long time. that is not an acceptable excuse to not develop one. charlie: at the same time, we have people in the economic sphere doing better than anybody in the world. admiral mullen: i know. you mean american people? some of them are, as we were talking about earlier.

charlie: you know what i mean. the benefits are not being spread out in terms of the population the way they should. in terms of developing new products, what happens with the chinese in a product area, all of a sudden companies have matched that. admiral mullen: they are. charlie: they have a consumption model over there of 1.4 billion people that is there to create a consumer demand. admiral mullen: we are critical for their markets right now as their largest consumer.

what happens when that is no longer as big as it is? the when they are the consumers and we are a significant minority? i think we have a time where we need to bring out that develop and figure out what our strategy is, and what are our interests? what do we want to protect? what will we not go to war for? i think i mentioned this morning that graham allison just finished his book. essentially it's, do china and the u.s. have to get into a fight? charlie: rising powers and fallen powers will end up in conflict. admiral mullen: he has 12 different examples. out of the 12 -- i'm sorry, 16 examples. out of the 16, 12 went to war. we cannot afford to have that happen. that is what leaders need to do. charlie: i went two years ago to the china development forum. there was henry kissinger. that was the subject they talked about, was it inevitable we would see what happened between a rising power, would they be able to find some kind of terms of agreement that did not include military?

admiral mullen: i think it is a really healthy question to ask and answer correctly. we need to make sure that does not happen. i mentioned i'm on the board of general motors. we had a board meeting a month ago in shanghai. i had not been to shanghai in a few years. it is eye-watering. i went into a chinese gm auto plant and it was spotless. there were very few people. it was fully automated. i walked out. we got a bunch of briefs. i walked out and they are generating high-quality vehicles. four different types of vehicles on the production line. i walked out of there thinking -- charlie: a lot of people worry about north korea. i know you have thought about it and looked at the options we have. other people i know believe they are closer than the consensus might be. admiral mullen: i'm hugely concerned about that.

i don't have any information that it will be in the next year or two, but i think probably sooner rather than later. if you look at the number of people he has killed in his regime, it is vastly more than his father did in the first five years. if you look at the number of missile tests, it is vastly more. if you look at his technological development, it is vastly quicker than his dad. everything is happening at a higher pace. he is a really bad guy. he is lethal. he has this legacy to uphold. i think almost more than any leader in the world that he would be inclined to pull that nuclear trigger without giving it much thought.

charlie: even knowing he would not survive? admiral mullen: i really do think so. if he thought he were in jeopardy, i think he would. charlie: that raises the interesting question to me. does he generally believe we may attack him? does he live with that is a reasonable fear in his own assessment? admiral mullen: that is what they've been saying there for decades, as you know. i don't have any indication he would not believe that. he has to prepare for that. this is his only path. this is his ticket to the dance. he has got to be very focused on that. obviously, he is. i think if we get to a point where he can put a nuclear weapon on top of an icbm and hit the united states, that is a point too far. we cannot let him get there. the "we" is the big "we," china, japan, russia, the leadership of the world that has to put enough pressure on this guy, one way or another, to make sure that does not happen. charlie: i don't understand what the pressure will do that it has

not already done. admiral mullen: that is why it's such a difficult problem. charlie: what could we do militarily, putting aside the consequences of what they might do in terms of south korea and their large army? what could we do if we wanted to? admiral mullen: sam nunn and i will did a study last year for the council on foreign relations. we walked our way through from negotiations to get to a point where if all of that fails we could preemptively start striking his test sites. he has weapons buried deeply, very difficult targets. but we could start showing him literally how serious we are in that regard. would that make him respond? it is hard to know. that is why it is such a difficult problem. we really need to solve it from a negotiation standpoint. there is a new government in south korea. i think president trump moved

the president of china. i've seen more movement visibly in terms of how china has responded. whether in execution they really do something is key. charlie: terrorism. clearly, they are making progress in terms of isis in mosul and rocca. in terms of land, in terms of reducing the size of the caliphate. at the same time, we are seeing an uptick in terrorist attacks. admiral mullen: i think that is very much a part of the future, even when we get all of the land back. charlie: this is not a problem we will solve tomorrow. admiral mullen: this is the franchising and inspiration that comes from al qaeda or isis, isis in particular. it is not going to go away. i think it can be contained. i think we need to continue our heavy focus on that. i don't think it is existential to the country. did it fundamentally change our

way of life? at the same time, it is a priority we have to pay attention to. in particular, and i'm not a big fan of president putin, but one thing i have talked to the russians about for years is they are concerned about terrorism. they have a focus on that. as we look for ways to have a discussion with them, that is an area where we can have a meaningful long-term discussion so syria does not become a terrorist headquarters of the world, which i know russia worries about as well. charlie: thank you for coming. admiral mullen: it is good to see you. charlie: back in a moment. stay with us. ♪

♪ charlie: the nantz national alzheimer's center was founded in 2011. it treats thousands of patients each year who suffer from the progressive disease. the goal is to improve the quality of life for every patient and eventually prevent alzheimer's. jim nantz is a five-time national sportscaster of the year. he lost his father to alzheimer's in 2008 and has made it a life's mission to

advance research and caregiving for those who suffer from the disease. also joining me are two physicians, the chair of neurology at houston methodist hospital, and the leader of the neuroimaging at houston methodist hospital. they're also both professors of neurology. i'm pleased to have all of them here at this table, especially my good friend, jim nantz. this is a mission for you. >> it is. >> tell me how you became committed, determined. >> well, thank you for having us on, and thank you. on this journey, we shared a lot about this through the years. my dad had a long and dreadful battle, 13 years, against alzheimer's. i wrote a book called "always by my side." and i realized after the book was released, there was an audience. they reacted to it immediately. in some ways, i think it galvanized the alzheimer's community. the feedback now, almost 10 years down the road, it still follows me everywhere i go. the book, you know, it's not one we're trying to sell now.

but people that are in, unfortunately, the care giving side of the alzheimer's world, they can relate to it. and i can walk out of a tower or a broadcast booth and people are there, to this day, asking me to sign the book and tell a personal story about a loved one. i realize, when that book was released, that i was put on this planet to do something more than have the best seat in the house at the final four, the super bowl, or at the masters golf tournament. and i had to make the most of this platform that i had. it became something that just kind of overtook me. charlie: so in a sense you were doing less than

you could. and the book's response gave you an incentive and a motivation to go further. jim: it did. it actually taught me that i could communicate with people and the book inspired people. again, very relatable to people that unfortunately have been in the dark world, the abyss of trying to care for an alzheimer's victim. but i want to find a way to use my voice to create positive change. i have my father's voice. i was never professionally trained. i sound just like my dad did. i carry his name. i'm the third. my family and friends know me as jimmy. my dad was jim. but when i got started early in my career with cbs, i wanted to sound a little more mature than i was, some 26-year-old kid that was just a few years out of college. so i stayed with my professional jim nantz name. i realized i've got my dad's voice, my dad's name. i want my dad to be heard. i want, through my platform, i want my dad to be an agent for change. and that change being one day find a way to prevent and ultimately to cure alzheimer's. and i've said it a lot here recently.

i feel like, if i don't see, by the time i take my last breath, positive change in the world of alzheimer's, then i didn't make the most of my platform. i know my dad would be telling me right now, son, do something. do something with the chance that you have, speak to the nation. virtually every week of your life. and you've got to do something to make the world a better place. that's what drives me. charlie: you have written powerfully in the book and in conversation about when you discovered your dad had alzheimer's. and how the doctor told you. and your mother. first you alone. jim: well, that man sitting right here at this table, i first met stan back in 1985. my first year at cbs. i was reporting on a story about a college football coach, bob waters, who suffered from a.l.s. he was the head of neurology at duke medical. he made an impression with me. so now my father, all these years later, suffers a stroke.

charlie: a mini stroke? jim: one of those tia's. and i took him to some doctors here in the new york area. and i just wasn't happy with the feedback i was getting. i thought, if i could somehow go to stan, i wonder if he'd take my phone call, maybe squeeze in a visit. i'd like to take my dad and have a chance to put him in front of stan. we had a chance to visit with him and he diagnosed my father right on the spot, that my dad was already past the early onset stage and that we had a serious issue. charlie: and he told you the challenge that you would face, the entire family? jim: he did. it was devastating. i could hear my mother in an adjoining room. she was actually being counseled at that time by someone from houston methodist hospital.

and my mother was being informed of the dire diagnosis. i could hear my mom wailing through the walls, crying, knowing that the family faced a completely different world for who knew how many years to come. my father, it was a 13-year struggle. it never got better. of course, it never does get better. it only digresses and you just try to stabilize it best you can. charlie: and the less recognition of things around him? jim: exactly. just holding on to just faint recognition, anything you could get. and i get asked a lot of times -- i open my shows with "hello, friends." you know, in the snarky world that can be out there, people have all kinds of impressions of what that means. and truly, and i wrote it in the book, it was a coded message to my father, while he still could hold on to some memory. my dad had nothing but friends in his life. i was visiting one time, before i left to go broadcast an event. i said, dad, on saturday i'm gonna come on the air. i'm gonna say your name and i'm gonna say "hello, friends."

i want you to know, i'm talking to you when i say that. and i did it. that night a friend of mine, he called. he said, i heard you say "hello, friends" at the start of the show. where did you come up with that? i said i did it for my dad. sayld him i was going to that. he says, you ought to do that from now on. it sounds like you. i do it to this day. i look into that camera and i say "hello, friends." i'm thinking of my father. i'm relaxed, composed. and it's a good feeling. ♪

♪ charlie: tell us where we are, in terms of the effort to deal with alzheimer's, to find a cure, to slow down the impact it has on you. >> well, there is a huge, huge effort being made. we are one of the centers, and a very good one, that are working on alzheimer's. a it is a dreadful disease. i mean, you describe it in such a poignant way. we see that every day, in the people we take care of. but you can name any medical institution in this country and abroad. there are researchers there working on alzheimer's.

trying to find how it develops, trying to understand how it works, and therefore trying to come up with better treatments. charlie: with people living longer, the ages we're seeing, are we seeing more cases? >> absolutely. it will jump to 20 million in another 20 or 30 years. if we don't do something quickly. charlie: where is the research taking us? >> so i just want to give a big, big picture view of this, because from my perspective, i've been in the field of neurology for a good number of years. this is the most exciting time. this is the time when we have more hope than we've ever had before.

charlie: hope to do what? >> hope ultimately to cure. but at this stage, if we can slow progression, and with the trials that joe can talk to you about, the amazing thing about the hope is if you can get this disease early, block and tackle it, knock it down, you do it at an early stage that we call mild cognitive impairment. if you can prevent it from progressing to full-blown alzheimer's, you can lead an almost normal life at the mci stage. and that's where we are with more hope than we've had for decades. charlie: let's go there. mild cognitive impairment. do we have the tools to do that now? >> do we have the tools to cure it? charlie: no. if we catch it at mild cognitive impairment. that's the time. do we have the tools and pharmaceutical -- whatever they may be -- to dramatically reduce

the further progression? >> that's what's being tested now. that really is the trial. there are several trials ongoing. and we're optimistic that we're going to be able to answer that question positively. >> stan was referring to the earliest stages. and what we have been able to determine in the last few years, since the imaging tools allow us to see what's going on in the brain, is that about 10 to 15 years before anybody has any problems -- i mean, we say somebody has mild cognitive impairment when they begin to forget meetings, a little bit more serious than forgetting where you left your keys. but before that, when the person is completely fine, there is already a buildup of protein that we can see with brain imaging tools, with something that we call positive emission. we can see it. and then the idea, as stan said, is to use medications that will reveal the abnormal protein and see whether this can prevent the development of the disease,

where we can push it back 10, 20 years, 30 years. this has been don at the alzheimer's center. we have now trials, looking at different medications that will reduce the amyloid. and it takes a few years, but we are very hopeful, because for the first time, we are attacking the problem, knowing what the problem is. this is the critical difference. charlie: we know what? joe: we know there is a buildup of

this protein called amyloid. stan: and there's another protein that builds up after beta amyloid, called tau. studies are starting with the same blocking agents against tau that also will be effective. it's very promising that the combinations of these will be the proper way to slow and prevent the progression. charlie: so it is a protein that affects the beginning stages of alzheimer's? stan: exactly. charlie: what else don't we know? what don't we know? joe: we don't know whether these treatments that we are applying are going to work. we do know that these proteins, the first one amyloid, predisposes the brain to get a buildup of the second protein, tau. when tau gbegins to build up is when the person begins to have problems, begins to forget keys, forget appointments. it's when the person has mild cognitive impairment evolving into early alzheimer's. that's why reducing amyloid is

so critical. and we are there. we are doing it, and we will be able to tell you in a few years whether this approach works or doesn't. a few years meaning probably as few as three years. charlie: what are you doing in nantz national alzheimer's center? jim: i'm out talking about it, virtually every week of my life. and i just -- back to what you asked before, earlier, what could i do? i wanted to team up with stan. i wanted to go down to houston, which has this fabulous texas medical center there and the houston methodist hospital, world acclaimed, and i wanted to bring a first-class alzheimer's research institute as well as clinical care to the city. and, you know, i put this project in the hands of, you know, the babe ruth of neurology here in stan appel.

and joe was one of the first guys that stan recruited. i wanted to put an all-star team together. and i'm careful about talking science. i'm out trying to, as someone who has lived through it, as unfortunately a member of this club having lost a parent to alzheimer's, i'm out selling hope. and i'm not selling false hope. i believe in these guys. they'll tell you. i call them, where are we? how close are we? charlie: what are you doing? funding it, raising money for it, creating awareness of it? jim: both. in the last week alone, week and a half, i've had four alzheimer's fundraising events. my wife and i financially support it as well. we've done everything from massive fund-raising events to trying to make presentations in front of people who are looking to send grant money down to houston from the department, to various other sources.

we're careful not to approach their world. they're the best. you know, and i'm trying to drive it as best i can for awareness, for people to know that we're in this fight together. charlie: he's got a pretty famous houstonian who loved him almost like a son, george h.w. bush. jim: and i had the great fortune of seeing him last week. he's had several bouts here with pneumonia during the last six months. but he's out of methodist hospital, i'm happy to report. forward tog summering in kennebunkport. stan: i'm a great believer that if really prominent people will start talking about their loved ones and the disease, that amount of awareness is more important than anything else. charlie: why is awareness so important? stan: the awareness is important because it gives people hope. and we're a great believer that hope can translate into meaningful -- not a solution of the disease but at least being

able to grapple with some of the problems that develop. and it can quiet down disease. the amazing thing is that i'm a big fan of the immune system. we're studying that in alzheimer's. and the amazing thing is the more positive you are, the more you feel there's hope, the more you can get there, the more the immune system will help you deal with the problem that's developed in alzheimer's. charlie: how much did ronald reagan and his very forthright announcement that he had alzheimer's do for awareness? stan: tremendous amount. nancy reagan is one of the people who is, as far as i'm concerned, is a heroine for bringing all of this public, for increasing awareness, for increasing funding, for getting

the alzheimer's association to the point where we could get young people supported to enter this field, to help solve this problem. jim: i think it was a game-changer, charlie, really, because let's face it, there was a stigma before. people wouldn't own up to it. they wouldn't say it. charlie: and they didn't know what it meant? jim: i think in some ways they were almost embarrassed to be able to lay claim to it and just be forth right about it. and i saw what the reagans did, what maria shriver did. i wanted to join that team. i wanted to be a crusader out there too. and i hope that when people see me on television, covering a sporting event, that they'll think, now, that's the guy that, hey, he's on our team. he's doing everything he can, with a lot of passion and energy, making, you know, a number of speeches and talks and presentations during the course of the year to steer, you know, the money and research and funding into the hands of the great experts. charlie: give us a timeline.

where do you think we can be five years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now? realizing that all kinds of things could intervene to either be a roadblock or expedite. joe: postponing the beginning of the disease, i think, is something we're going to see in the next five years. and we are going to see it, because of these medications that we have to work on what is going on in the brain, not just symptoms, not just how -- people can look very similar with different diseases, so we cannot rely on that. jim: this cellular component of it? joe: exactly. cellular component, to be able to know exactly what's going on in the brain. with this protein tau, we've been able to see it only for the last few years. our center has been in the lead, identifying this protein with this compound that we have to image it. and frankly, if the person gets

worse -- it gets worse proportionally to the buildup of this protein. we can tell whether the person is getting better or worse, after we give them this medication. we have something objective that goes beyond doing testing that the person may feel better or worse. charlie: but delaying the impact, within five years? joe: right. delaying the progression of the disease, that's right. stan: i was just going to say, it's not delaying the impact. it's delaying the progression. so you don't go all the way to alzheimer's. charlie: that's huge. stan: which would be huge. which is huge. that's correct. the other thing that's important, and joe is always talking about this, we're now in an era of personalized medicine. and what is amazing is we can look at neuroimaging. we can see the images there. and he points out that in one of the early studies, using an antibody against beta amyloid --

didn't have beta amyloid. no wonder the study wasn't effective. they didn't have that particular problem. we can do all of this now with neuroimaging. this is one of the most talented guys in the world, fortunately, we have in nantz, who can help us with neuroimaging. we call it a biomarker, a marker of the earliest stages of disease, even before there's any cognitive dysfunction that you can point to. charlie: we have on this program been doing a series on the brain over the last four, five years, with dr. candale who just established an institute here to look at the increased kind of focus on the brain. institute.an the response that we get from these issues with having people like this come around this table to talk about depression, to talk about lou gehrig's disease, to talk about parkinson's, all

these diseases that are brain-related, is an amazing thing. that in terms of also understanding how much of it is inherited and how much of it is a factor of how you live your life and that kind of thing. stan: no question. you know, one of the concerns we have for our patients is we're all about helping them with the quality of life. charlie: right. stan: it's not just the length of life. it's quality. it's quality that allows us to be husbands, fathers, sons, brothers. charlie: how much of it is genetic? all of it, but you know what i mean. joe: you said it. all of it is genetic. it can be changed by the way you live, absolutely. stan: so can i try a different answer to that question? because i think how you live is critical. a single gene, we used to think

was responsible for a large segment of the alzheimer's population. of the lou gehrig's population. turns out it's under 10%, maybe 5%. it's not a huge number. however, the vast majority is still as genetic as intelligence is in general, as height, as a variety of things. but the difference is it could be 100 genes. it could be 150 genes dictating susceptibility as well as resistance. and the way i put it, because this question is asked of me every day from our lou gehrig's patients, what caused this? and the way i put it is the genes load the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger. so it truly has to do with environment interacting with a whole range of susceptibility and resistance genes.

charlie: good luck with all of this and to jim. you've got a new partner, tony romo. jim: tony romo is going to be calling nfl games with us this fall. charlie: how did that happen? jim: you know, i think that tony was, at this point in his career where he'd been injured several times in the last few seasons. of course, last year dak prescott came in, and the cowboys went with prescott. charlie: did pretty well. jim: did very well. so tony was at an point, was he going to go play somewhere else to finish out his career for a year or two, or would he retire perhaps as a dallas cowboy like one of his heros, roger staubach? he made, during the course of his career, such a positive impression with all the people in the television business, through production meetings, just the way he can break down a play or explain what the cowboys are doing, where virtually every single network that broadcasted the nfl made a run at him.

and we're thankful he's coming to cbs. charlie: how happy were you to watch the masters and see sergio win? because of the human drama of it. jim: i've always taken a lot of pleasure out of being able to call an event, when the champion ultimately is someone who has been basically labeled as a guy who can't get it done. charlie: can't finish. jim: he's got everyone telling him, filling him with doubt, every press conference, every question has a tinge of doubt. he had never won a major. what are -- where are you gonna take your career from here? sergio was that best player to never have won a major. for him to face those adversities and obstacles -- when he was 19 years old, we thought he was going to be going against tiger. for his whole career, they'd be trading off major championships.

so for it to happen, a double number of years later, 18 years later basically, to win the masters the way he did, it was a sensational win. augusta has just a way of presenting these story lines that are so rich. if you'll remember, sevvi would have been celebrating his -- he would have been 60 years old on the day he won the masters. charlie: of all the sports you covered, is it the final four, the masters, is it -- what? jim: i have three children. charlie: no. no, don't go there. jim: i love them all the same. [laughter] charlie: you know what they call that it medicine? they call that a copout. jim: you know, the nfl is -- i had the great pleasure of working with phil sims for 13 years. >> good man.

>> great man. he's going into the studio as an analyst. he's excited about that. i'm very happy for him. and now to, you know -- now that tony is coming on board, it's going to be a fun time ahead. but the nfl, to watch a stadium come to life with 75,000 people just pouring in in front of you -- i get there five hours before kickoff. i watch this take on a pulse. and then the game breakout. i'm a fan watching it. there's something that's really exciting to me about the nfl process and the preparation that i enjoy maybe as much as, if not more, than anything. stand alone one event, i wouldn't trade the masters for anything. that tournament, with just its tradition of, you know, the same golf course all the other majors rotate around. everybody comes to augusta, georgia. if you're like me and you have all the history cataloged in your head, you can't help but think about arnold palmer this year. charlie: thank you both for coming. pleasure having you here. >> thank you. >> thank you. charlie: thank you for joining us.

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carol: welcome to "bloomberg businessweek." i am carol massar. oliver: i am oliver renick. carol: in this week's issue, a question being asked from wall street to main street. oliver: if america were a company, would you keep its ceo? carol: that's next on "bloomberg businessweek." ♪ oliver: we are joined by bloombws