good morning, everybody. >> where is the economy heading? there are few people who understand this complicated moment better than janet yellen. the treasury secretary is an economist who previously chaired the federal reserve. we asked her about a wide range of issues that are affecting american families in a real way everyday. when i talk to business leaders, they say we're preparing for a recession. so some have said to me, ask the treasury secretary, what does she know that we don't know? more than 150 lawsuits against social media companies

will move forward next year. tonight, you'll hear from some of the families who are taking them on. >> we're being gaslighted by the big tech companies that it's our fault. when really what we should be doing as parents is banning together and saying, no, you need to do better. i'm doing everything i can. you need to do better. you can't wave a wand and make intolerance, hardship and violence disappear, but you can use magic to try. >> everybody, the magic -- >> reporter: we learned that after visiting remarkable school in cape town, south africa, it's called the college of magic. while it's not an accredited institution, it is a real life hogwarts, a school filled with students from privilege and from poverty. >> one, two, three -- hokus pokus. i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm sharon alfonso. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm norah o'donnell.

>> i'm scott pelley. those stories and more tonight on "60 minutes." this holiday master your kitchen with wayfair. ♪ ♪ keep it fresh with colorful cookware. whip up holiday treats with ease. slice and dice with the best of them. and with wayfair, you can express yourself. ♪ ♪ wayfair, holiday your heart out. ♪ wayfair, you've got just what i need ♪ (scrooge) bah humbug! my signal is totally ghosting me! (cecily) 'tis the season to switch to verizon. (vo) this holiday season verizon gives you the new iphone 14 pro. plus apple watch se, ipad and beats fit pro. all on us. and unlimited plans for everyone start at just $35 a line. verizon [holiday music] ♪ for people who love their vehicles,

there is only one name on their holiday list... weathertech... laser measured floorliners that fit perfectly in the front and rear... seat protector to guard against spills and messes... cargoliner, bumpstep, and no drill mudflaps to protect the exterior... and cupfone keeps phones secure and handy... [honk honk] surprise!! shop for everyone on your list with american marodu at weathertech.com... ♪ ♪ this year take the time to melt into your holiday moments with lindor. ♪ ♪ irresistibly smooth chocolate. from the lindt master chocolatier. ♪♪ you got 100 points!

have you been moisturizing? just sunscreen. that's 50 points. with aarp rewards, anyone can earn points. -who's got 200 points? -you've got 200 points! it's the free loyalty program that rewards you... they're ready for you. that's 300 points. ...and helps your money, health and happiness, live longer. are these chives? 200 points. start earning and redeeming points today. your heart is the beat of life. if you have heart failure, entrust your heart to entresto. entresto helps improve your heart's ability to pump blood to the body. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto.

as inflation hovers at a 40-year high, the pandemic lingers and the war in ukraine rages, a growing number of economists and ceos are saying the u.s. is headed for a recession. the secretary of the treasury, janet yellen, essentially the nation's chief financial officer, says she's doing everything in her power to avoid one. yellen is an economist with over 50 years of experience, and the former chair of the federal reserve. the u.s. central bank in charge of setting american interest rates. she knows better than most about the delicate balance of trying to engineer an economy that keeps inflation at bay without

causing widespread layoffs and a downturn. we wanted to find out what lies ahead in the new year, so we spent the past week with secretary yellen to get an update on the economy. >> reporter: what is 2023 going to look like for the average consumer? >> so, i believe inflation will be lower. i am very hopeful that the labor market will remain quite healthy so that people can feel good about their finances and their personal economic situation. >> reporter: it's been decades since the american consumer has had to deal with inflation like this. >> yes. and i hope that it will be short lived. we learned a lot of lessons from the high inflation we experienced in the 1970s, and we're all aware that it's critically important that

inflation be brought under control and not become endemic to our economy.ure that that ha told us she sees positive signs on the horizon that many of the underlying causes are slowly being resolved. >> first of all, shipping costs have come down. delivery lags, which were very long, those have shortened. >> reporter: gas prices down? >> gas prices are way down. i think we'll see a substantial reduction in inflation in the year ahead. >> reporter: it's going to take a year? >> well, i believe by the end of next year you will see much lower inflation. if there's not an unanticipated shock. >> reporter: but for families who are paying more at the grocery store, when 2023 comes around, do they need to be worried about a recession? >> there are always risks of a recession. the economy remains prone to shocks.

but look, we have a very healthy banking system. we have very healthy business and household sector. >> reporter: you have said this, you do not believe there will be a recession next year? >> there's a risk of recession, but it certainly isn't, in my view, something that is necessary to bring inflation down. >> reporter: in recent weeks, amazon, doordash, meta, cbs news parent company paramount and pepsi have all had layoffs. when i talk to business leaders, they say we're preparing for a recession. so some have said to me, ask the treasury secretary, what does she know that we don't know? >> well, economic growth is slowing substantially and businesses see that. look, we had a very rapid recovery from the pandemic. economic growth was very high. and there was a surge in hiring, put people back to work. we got people back to work. c

we have a healthy labor market to bring down inflation and because almost everybody who wants a job has a job, growth has to slow. >> reporter: when you say growth has to slow, that means hiring? >> we are at or beyond full employment. and so, it is not necessary for the economy to grow as rapidly as it has been growing to put people back to work. >> reporter: janet yellen has spent her career in economics, focussed on putting people to work. as head of the san francisco federal reserve in 2009 the middle of the great recession, she gave her staff some memorable marching orders. >> i tried to remind them that there are people behind the statistics that we look at. that there are real people, and we really have to worry about their well being. >> reporter: thousands of people were being laid off, and you tried to remind everybody that,

this is not about statistics, right? >> i think i said they're [ bleep ] people. and i wanted people that work for me to take seriously the harm and misery that was being experienced by all too many americans. >> reporter: how does that affect how you set policy, how you operate here? >> one has to realize that people are really suffering. and i try to make sure that everybody remembers we're implementing programs that affect people's lives. and we need to do it with a sense of compassion and urgency. >> reporter: secretary yellen told us outside of the u.s. economy, the issue she spends the most time on is the war in ukraine. the only nation's flag we saw in the halls of treasury besides

the stars and stripes was the blue and yellow of ukraine. you have said that ending russia's war against ukraine is the single best thing we can do for the global economy. >> yes. >> reporter: do you see any evidence that that end is in sight? >> we're doing everything we can to bring this war to a conclusion. of course, we're providing considerable help to ukraine both military and economic. good morning, everybody. >> reporter: the agency in charge of implementing more than 1,000 sanctions on the russian banking, energy and military industries isn't the state department or the pentagon, it's the treasury. yellen has put 41-year-old deputy secretary wally yatayamo in efforts to try to cripple the russian economy and deprive the russian military of what it needs to fight. much of the financial war against russia is being fought

from behind these closed doors at treasury in rooms called secure, compartmentalized information facility. or scifs. what are some of the things that you can do in this secure room that will limit russia's ability in ukraine? >> we also see intelligence about what russia needs to continue its war in ukraine. >> reporter: so how much time do you spend in the scif's? >> i will spend sometimes hours a day -- >> reporter: hours a day. >> yeah. and the secretary and i will do a few meetings in there a week together with the team to review our progress across a number of issues. >> reporter: the deputy secretary told us limiting russia's supply of everything from microchips to ball bearings has made a difference on the battlefield. take me behind the scenes about how you know that the sanction that you have and other countries have imposed is really having an effect? >> i won't tell you about any intelligence that i've seen, but i can tell you russia's top tank producers shut down their operations and made this public

because they can't get the equipment they need. >> reporter: u.s. and allied sanctions have taken a significant toll on russia's military. but cbs news has learned some of the cruise missiles that russia launched in attacks on the ukrainian capital of kyiv on november 23rd were made in russia just weeks earlier. does that suggest that russia is evading some of these sanctions that you're crafting right here at the treasury department? >> so, i don't know the details on these missiles. i would say that russia's ability to supply its military has been very significantly eroded by the sanctions and the export controls. >> reporter: starting this past week, the g7 which includes the u.s. and the european union plus australia agreed to a price cap of $60 a barrel on russian oil. the elaborate plan eht monraisi

that would hit a continent already suffering from high energy prices. what does this price cap on russian oil do? what's the goal? >> the first goal is to limit the revenue that russia receives, and we want to make sure that they don't get room full of profits, but the second goal is one that concerns americans and countries all around the world, and that is we want to keep russian oil flowing because russia is a significant supplier of oil to the markets. so, those are our two goals. suppress russian revenue, make it more difficult for them to fight the war and keep global prices in a moderate range and avoid spikes. >> reporter: that's a pretty delicate balance. >> it is. it's new. the price cap only went into

effect at the beginning of thisr go. reporter: the american people have committed 38 billion to military aid to ukraine. an additional 13 billion in direct aid to prop up the ukrainian economy. how long can that support and billions of dollars continue for ukraine? >> for as long as it takes. >> reporter: the u.s. treasury was set up to finance another war, the war of independence against great britain, before the u.s. even existed. it is the oldest departmental building in washington, where as the 78th secretary, janet yellen, made history. >> i am the first woman. >> reporter: ah. so this is your office? >> this is my office. >> reporter: yellen enjoys a personal connection to another treasury secretary who once made history himself. >> this is ano onepor and you actually hamiigs

kl >> i did. i went for hamilton high school. it was named after hamilton, of course. >> reporter: did you ever think i would follow in his footsteps? >> i certainly never thought of it at the time. i didn't even know that i would study economics. >> reporter: she was born in bay ridge, brooklyn, after graduating from brown university, the secretary earned a ph.d. in economics from yale in 1971. she was the only woman in her class. the notes she took as a teaching assistant are passed down by graduate students to this day. more than half a century later, this past thursday we followed secretary yellen to ft. worth, texas, to see the first dollar bills with her signature go into production. th fstlyitedth just eat. >> reporter: this bureau of

engraving and printing plant is part of treasury and one of only two sites in the nation that print american currency. $2 trillion worth is currently in circulation worldwide, most of it printed here. >> oh my gosh, look. >> reporter: this occasion marked the first time in the nation's nearly 250 year history that the two signatures on the dollar, u.s. treasurer and secretary of the treasury were both signed by women. >> i wish my parents were alive to see this. >> yeah, yeah. >> i think they would find it very exciting. >> reporter: you had many firsts. the first female head of the fed, the first female head of the u.s. treasury, and now to see your name on these dollar bills, wat does that mean? >> well, i'm immensely honored by it, but you know, our currency is really about our values and our sense of ourselves as a nation. and they signify a sound economy, a strong financial

system and a country that's able to produce currency that really is the standard around the world. r: type 2 diabetes? discover the power of 3 in the ozempic® tri-zone. in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. announcer: ozempic® provides powerful a1c reduction. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. and you may lose weight. adults lost up to 14 pounds. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling

in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. gallbladder problems may occur. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may se ffece nausea,ic® with a de, whicylurea or insulin may se worsen kidney problems. join the millions already taking ozempic®. ask your health care provider about the ozempic® tri-zone. announcer: you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription.

cozy up at kohl's! earn kohl's cash every day through the 24th... take an extra 25% off... and get pjs up to 50% off... 30% off koolaburra by ugg bedding... plus, save on slippers... more gifts. more savings. kohl's.

when whistleblower frances haugen pulled back the curtain on facebook last fall, thousands of pages of internal documents showed troubling signs that the social media giant knew its platforms could be negatively impacting youth and were doing little to effectively change it. with around 21 million american adolescents on social media, parents took note. today, there are more than 1,200 amilies pursuing lawsuits against social media companies, including tiktok, snapchat, youtube, meta, the parent company to instagram and facebook.

more than 150 lawsuits will be moving forward next year. tonight, you'll hear from some of the families suing social media. we want to warn you that some of the content in this story is alarming, but we thought it was important to include because parents say the posts impacted their kid's mental health and in some cases helped lead to the death of their children. >> they're holding our children hostage and they're seeking and preying on them. >> reporter: preying on them? >> yes. >> reporter: the spence family is suing social media giant meta, kathleen and jeff spence say instagram led their daughter alexis into depression and to an eating disorder at the age of 12. >> we realized that we were slowly losing her. we really had no comprehension to how severe social media had affected our daughter. she was being drawn into this hidden space and this dark world. >> reporter: it began after the spence's both middle

schoolteachers from long island, new york, gave 11-year-old alexis a cell phone to keep in touch with them after school. >> we had very strict rules from the moment she had the phone. the phone was never allowed in the room at night. we would keep the phone in the hall. >> we checked the phone. we put restrictions on the phone. >> i would wait for my parents to fall asleep and just sit in the hallway or sneak my phone in i wasn't allowed to use a lot of apps and they had a lot of the parental controls on. >> reporter: so how quickly did you figure out a way around the restrictions? >> pretty quickly. >> reporter: hoping to connect and keep up with friends, alexis joined instagram. instagram policy mandates users are 13 years old. alexis was 11. >> i just made up a song called -- >> reporter: i thought you had to be 13? >> it asks you are you 13 years or older. i checked the box yes and just kept going. >> reporter: and there was never any checks. >> no. no verification or anything like that. >> reporter: if i picked up your phone, would i have seen the instagram app on there?

>> no. there are apps you can use to disguise as another app so you could download a calculator, calculator but it's really instagram. >> there was always some work around. >> reporter: she was out whiting you? >> right. >> she was addicted to social media. and we couldn't stop it. it was much bigger than us. >> reporter: now 20, alexis says an innocent search on instagram for fitness routines led her into a dark world. >> started as fitness stuff and then i guess that would spark the algorithm to show me diets. then started to shift into eating disorders. >> reporter: what were you seeing? >> people would post photos of themselves who were very sickly or just very thin and using them to promote eating disorders. >> reporter: these are some of the images that were sent to alexis through instagram's algorithms, which process the personal data then push content to them they never directly asked for.

what did you learn from looking at these pro-anorexic websites? >> a lot. learning about diet pills and how to lose weight when you're 11 and going through puberty and your body is supposed to be changing. it's hard. >> reporter: when did that stop being something that you looked at and start being something that you were doing to yourself? >> within months. >> reporter: did it normalize it for you? did you think other people were doing this? >> definitely. they needed help. i needed help. instead of getting help, i was getting advice on how to continue. >> reporter: by the time she was 12, alexis had developed an eating disorder. she had multiple instagram accounts and says she would spend five hours a day scrolling through the app, even though it often made her feel depressed. she drew this picture of herself in her diary crying, surrounded by her phone and laptop with thoughts reading, stupid, fat,

kill yourself. >> i was struggling with my mental health. i was struggling with my depression and my body image. and social media did not help with my confidence. if anything, it made me hate myself. >> reporter: all came to a head her sophomore year when alexis posted on instagram she didn't deserve to exist. a friend alerted a school cunselor. >> that was the scariest day of our lives. i got a call to come to the school. and i went there. and they were just showing me all of these instagram posts of how alexis wanted to kill herself and hurt herself and if instagram is really -- has all the software to protect them, why was that not flagged? why was that not identified? >> reporter: this previously unpublished internal document revealed facebook knew instagram was pushing girls to dangerous content. itstagram employee ran an

internal investigation on eating disorders by opening up a false account as a 13-year-old girl looking for diet tips. she was led to this content and recommendations to follow skinny binge and apple core anorexic. other memos show facebook employees raising concerns about company research that revealed instagram made 1 in 3 teen girls feel worse about their bodies and that teens who used the app felt higher rates of anxiety and depression. what was it like when you saw those facebook papers for the first time? >> sickening. the fact that i was sitting there struggling and hoping to save my daughter's life, and they had all these documents behind closed doors that they could have protected her and they chose to ignore that research. >> reporter: attorney matt burgman represents the spence family. he started the social media

victim's law center after reading the facebook papers and is now working with more than 1,200 families who are pursuing lawsuits against social media companies, like meta. >> time and time again when they have an opportunity to choose between safety of our kids and profits, they always choose profits. >> reporter: next year, burgman and his team will start the discovery process for the federal case against meta and other social media companies. a multimillion dollar suit that he says is more about changing policy than financial compensation. burgman spent 25 years as a product liability attorney, specializing in asbestos and mesothelioma cases. he argues the design of social media platforms is ultimately hurting kids. >> they have intentionally designed a product that is addictive. they understand that if children stay online, they make more money. doesn't matter how harmful the material is.

>> reporter: the fact that the kids ended up seeing the thing that they saw that were so disturbing, wasn't by accident. it was by design. >> absolutely. this is not a coincidence. >> reporter: isn't it the parent's job to monitor this stuff? >> well, of course it is. i'm all for parental responsibility. but these products are explicitly designed to evade parental authority. >> reporter: so what needs to be done? >> number one is age and identity verification. you know, that technology exists. if people are trying to hook up on tinder, there's technology to make sure that the people are who they say they are. number two, turn off the algorithms. there's no reason why alexis spence, who was interested in exercise, should have been directed toward anorexic content. number three, would be warnings so that parents know what's going on. let's be realistic, you're never going to have social media platforms be 100% safe, but these changes would make them safer.

>> her favorite pose. >> reporter: right now the roberts family says social media is not safe for kids. england roberts was the baby in a large family. center of her parent's tony and brandy's world. ♪ >> she made everyday -- >> special. >> everyday felt like christmas here. >> reporter: but england's life online told a different story. as the pandemic played out, england wrote about struggles with self worth, relationships and mental health. one august night in 2020, just a few hours after tony and brandy kissed their 14-year-old smiling daughter good night, brandy received a text from a parent of one of england's friends who was worried about england and suggested they check on her. >> we went upstairs and we checked and her door was locked. that was kind of odd. so i took the key from the top and we opened the door and no england. and when i turned around, that's

when i found her. when you find your child hanging and you are in that moment in disbelief, just no way, not our baby, not our child and then ultimately i fault myself. >> reporter: why do you fault yourself? >> i'm the dad. i'm supposed to know -- >> reporter: prior to that night you had no idea that she was depressed? >> not even close. >> reporter: like the spence family, tony roberts started connecting the dots after the facebook papers came out. >> i knew her pass words. >> reporter: and began digging through his daughter's phone for answers. he found an instagram post sent to england from a friend. >> there was a video, and that video was a lady on instagram pretending to hang herself.

that's ultimately what our child did. because you ask yourself, how did she come up with this idea? and then when i did the research, there it was. she saw it on instagram. it was on her phone. >> if that video wasn't sent to her, because she copied it, she wouldn't have -- >> she wouldn't have had -- >> had a way of knowing how to do that certain way of hanging yourself. >> reporter: nearly a year and a half after england's death, that hanging video was still circulating on instagram with at least 1,500 views. tony roberts says it was taken down in december, 2021. the roberts are suing meta, the parent company to instagram. >> if they so call monitor and do things, how could it stay on that site? because part of their policy states they don't allow for self harm photos, videos, things of that nature. so who is holde?em>> rorter:eta request for an interview but its global head of safety gave us this statement.

telling us, we want teens to be safe online and that instagram doesn't allow content promoting self harm or eating disorders. and that meta has improved instagram's age verification technology. but when "60 minutes" ran this test two months ago, our colleague was able to lie about her age and sign up for instagram as a 13-year-old with no verifications. we were also able to search for skinny and harmful content. and while this prompt came up asking if we wanted help, we instead clicked see post and easily found content promoting anorexia and self harm. showing more rigorous change is needed. a challenge the spence and roberts families are ready for. >> we're being gaslighted by the big tech companies that it's our fault when really what we should be doing as parents is banning together and saying, no, you need to do better. i'm doing everything i can. you need to do better.

>> we lost. we learned. but what's going to stop these companies from continuing to let things happen if they don't change or be forced to make a change? >> social media is a silent killer for our children's generation. that's the conclusion i've come to. why is everyone in power that can help change this, why is it not changing quick enough? if our children are truly our future, what's the wait? fighting for social media regulation -- >> there's room for tech companies to be held accountable. >> reporter: plus, mental health resources for kids and families in crisis. at 60minutesovertime.com.

bravo! you used the quicksilver card from capital one with no annual fee and unlimited 1.5 percent cash back on every purchase, everywhere. that makes you the hero of every purchase. what's in your wallet? for adults with generalized myasthenia gravis who are positive for acetylcholine receptor antibodies, it may feel like the world is moving without you. but the picture is changing, with vyvgart. in a clinical trial, participants achieved improved daily abilities with vyvgart added to their current treatment. and vyvgart helped clinical trial participants eve reduced muscle weakness. vyvgart may increase the risk of infection.

were urinary tract and respiratory tract infections. tell your doctor if you have a history of infections or if you have symptoms of an infection. vyvgart can cause allergic reactions. the most common side effects include respiratory tract infection, headache, and urinary tract infection. picture your life in motion with vyvgart. a treatment designed using a fragment of an antibody. ask your neurologist if vyvgart could be right for you. (woman vo) sailing a great river past extraordinary landscapes into the heart of iconic cities is a journey for the curious traveler, one that many have yet to discover. exploring with viking brings you closer to the world, to the history, the culture, the flavors, a serene river voyage on an elegant viking longship. learn more at viking.com

♪♪ this... is the planning effect. this is how it feels to know you have a wealth plan that covers everything that's important to you. this is what it's like to have a dedicated fidelity advisor looking at your full financial picture. making sure you have the right balance of risk and reward. and helping you plan for future generations. this is "the planning effect" from fidelity.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

get exclusive offers on select new volvo models. contact your volvo retailer to learn more. you can't wave a wand and make intolerance, hardship and violence disappear. but you can use magic to try. we learned that after visiting a remarkable school in cape town, south africa. it's called the college of magic. while it's not an accredited institution, it is a real-life hogwarts, a school filled with students ranging in age from 10 to 18, and more importantly, reflecting south africa, they come from privilege and poverty. pick a canard, any canard, sleight of hand, juggling, ventriloquism, card tricks you can learn it all at the college of magic. but what the school really teaches is also the great super power of magic itself.

rethinking the limits of possibility. [ bell tolls ] >> reporter: it looks like any other campus. gothic architecture, a diverse student body, a core curriculum. all balanced with electives. to become masters of magic, these kids must be both tacticians and technicians. >> up, down. >> reporter: like any art form, this one requires practice, application, discipline. >> 6 of spades. >> reporter: there is no magic bullet. while students attend academic school during the week, they come here after school, on weekends, and on holidays. it takes six years to earn a diploma. >> one. >> one. >> two. three. >> reporter: sinathemba bawuti

is a teacher, a graduate and himself now a practicing magician. he shows students the tricks of the trade. >> reporter: what is it about magic, what appeals to you so much about this? >> i didn't think i would be doing this as a career or performing it like doing it like to support myself. i wanted to put a smile on people's faces, make them happy, entertain them, break ice. that's what i wanted to do. but then it became my thing like, that i'm using to feed my family and myself. >> reporter: and he says he and the school aim to teach the kids honesty, humility and respect. sounds like the tricks and the juggling is only a small part of it? >> yeah, it's not a college of magic. it's a college of life. >> reporter: for the revered dean and founder, david gore, it's been pe pcticinaw pulllt , heopollege. thly its kind devote w

i'm surely not the first person to make the joke you gave up law to pursue a career of deception. >> i don't like to think of it as deception. we think of it as illusion and wonderment. giving some of the game away. >> reporter: his knowledge and love of magic fills the halls, quite literally. contraptions and memorabilia trace the history of illusion. >> even with all the sophistication around us, there's nothing more exciting than seeing a magician live and seeing something appear or disappear right under your nose. >> reporter: what do you attribute that to you? >> i think people generally are very interested in and curious about how the laws of nature can be suspended. i think the magician offers that opportunity, that gateway to a world which we all would love to be a part of, where gravity is always pulling us to planet earth where we can float upwards. it's a beautiful feeling. >> reporter: nothing here is quite as it seems. when we visited last july, ha d?

>> like the turban. it's a good look. >> reporter: whoa. turn it up? >> yes. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: very good. that was a winner. >> come to our close-up here. come inside. >> reporter: michael barta has been teaching here for decades. >> i teach children how to use their hands. and this -- okay. i was juggling three balls. somebody has taken my ball. >> reporter: the school was always conceived to go beyond hokus pokus. >> so how bi s?barta thinks ith >> magic develops skepticism and curiosity.

those two things are needed in education. >> reporter: that's great. you come here, there's a healthy skepticism, how did he do that? >> yeah. >> reporter: and mixed with this curiosity and wonder, how did he do that? >> i know. how did he do that? wow. >> reporter: from the school's beginning it reflected a cross section of south africa. now as then students come from the most wealthy suburbs and cape town's most impoverished townships. his day starts at dawn in the tin shack he shares with his grandmother and aunt. his mother was murdered four years ago. the sprawling shantytown like so many others in the country is pocked by violence and drugs. >> some of them are carrying guns and knives and busy robbing old people, being on drugs and stuff. so, i have to -- hear gunshots. >> reporter: you're describing gunshots and knives and drugs

and gangs. and you come here, it must be a bit of a relief? >> it's helped me a lot. it saved me from doing those stuff because i became an artist and i can take care of myself. >> reporter: you say artist? >> yeah. you're a magician. you're an artist. because it's art. yeah. >> reporter: in the townships, you don't come across many bow ties. when duma passes by, he draws attention. a quick bit of whiz. and gee whiz. and he's off. the school arranges transportation when needed.

shuttling the kids on the long journey into the city. ♪ >> reporter: there's no uniform as such, but students are encouraged to dress as smartly as they can. for many, going to the school marks a rare opportunity to get out of the township. tuition is $350 a year, unaffordable for most of the 130 students. funds for scholarships, breakfast and lunch included. you have some kids coming here who are malnourished, you have to feed. you have other kids getting picked up by parents in fancy sports cars. is that hard for you to watch? >> yes. i think it's an important part of our nation building and for understanding that young people get to understand how each other is living and how we think and how we approach life because these are going to be the young people who are going to drive this nation forward. >> reporter: i could see some people watching this college of magic is all well and good and you're teaching kids to make coins disappear. why aren't you teaching them coding or something more

practical? >> i think the most important skill in the 21st century is going to be imaginative thinking. no matter what career you select to go into, it will no longer be your knowledge around that. because that knowledge is so freely available now on the internet, it's going to be how you use that knowledge and there's no better topic or subject than magic to explode the whole idea of imagination. >> reporter: they trade their cape for three piece suit or sports jersey or nurses attire, you're okay with that? >> absolutely. >> reporter: this 15-year-old is a rising star at the college. but four years ago she had to beg her mother to allow her to enroll. >> and then i was like, mom, i would like to join this. what are you talking about? i want to become a magician. and she thought i was crazy, but here i am today. >> reporter: here you are. your mom said you were crazy for wanting to be a magician. >> because they do not believe in magic.

>> reporter: not only that for many of the townships, magic is associated with the occult or witchcraft. >> the first time i performed, i performed for my grandmother. so she does not understand magic at all. and every time she would see, she would say darkness, evil powers stuff like that. >> reporter: people are saying i don't understand. explain it to me. what do you tell them? >> oh, that magic is not black agic. we do not practice any kinds of spells, dark spells. there are secrets behind the magic and it takes time to practice and master each. you must follow very, very carefully because a lot of things happen. >> reporter: milo says his mom had to convince him to enroll. >> before i came to college of magic, i was very shy. so i couldn't dance even in front of my brother and sister. i would just go hide behind my mom. my mom said i need to learn s.i. skills. >> reporter: social intelligence.

>> yes. when we learned about the college of magic that is the perfect spot. first you'll get into a good high school because you have lots of different talents and secondly s.i. skills. >> reporter: i'm going to go out i'm going to take a risk. you came here for more social intelligence, to come out of your shell a little bit. it seems like it's working. >> yeah. it is working. >> reporter: being a magician, do you feel like you're part of a secret society, a secret club? >> yes. like a secret agent of a big force. >> reporter: let's do a role play. milo, milo, tell me how you do that trick. >> no. >> reporter: why not? >> because you're a dunderhead, you wouldn't be able to understand. >> reporter: never give up your secrets, right? >> actually all my family has learned all of it by now because when i practice for a performance, they pick up my mistakes. >> your family can keep a secret? >> i'm not sure about my sistere

milo lives, lulo the great as he calls himself. he lives in a one bedroom home with his father sean, mother belinda and little sister lolu. he too transformed after joining the college of magic. was he always that way? >> no, he was too shy. like his sister. >> reporter: this guy was shy? >> very, very shy. >> reporter: i don't believe it. >> very, very shy. >> reporter: but for belinda and sean, magic is more than a tool to get lulo out of his shell, it might also be his path out of poverty. >> bravo. >> i said to lulo, each and every day, continue with your magic. >> reporter: continue with your magic? >> yes. fly, wherever you want to go to. it's your life. it's not my life. the only thing i want from you -- >> to succeed. >> to succeed in life. that's it. >> one day i'm going to be a famous magician.

eporter: one dayams cian, is that what you want? >> yes. and it will happen. >> reporter: but first things first, tomorrow is the children's magic festival. and lulo can barely contain himself. what's the goal tomorrow? >> the goal tomorrow is to show people who i am. i'm lulo the great. the juggler. spinning rings, all that stuff. >> reporter: cards? juggle? dancing? what doesn't lulo the great do? >> lulo the great doesn't do any one thing. many stuff. >> reporter: man of many talents? >> many talents. ♪ >> reporter: there was an abundance of talent on display and there was an abundance of wide eyed wonder. >> one, two, three. hocus pocus. >> reporter: kids and parents dumo was among the show stoppers. >> some of them the first time

to see this. i bring happiness to the kids. that's why i feel happy because i'm making them happy. >> reporter: you're not just making them happy, you're making them wonder, you're expanding their idea of possibility and imagination. >> yeah. it's a great feeling. a great feeling. >> reporter: but you don't give it up when they say how did you do it? >> it's magic. it's magic. cbs sports hq presented by progressive insurance. i'm james brown from the scores from the nfl today. the jets and mike white had a long niet when they felt the bills might. minnesota mourns. beng ls brutally bulldoze the gr browns in the battle of ohio. for 24/7 news and highlights go

to cbssportshq.com. this book has helped me reach so many young homeowners who have become their parents. hey, what's the lowest you'll go on one of these mugs? ah, remember -- no haggling in stores. oh, yeah, chapter six, yep. they may have read the book, but they still have a long way to go. was hoping to get your john hancock on there. well, let's just call it a signature. i noticed there weren't any refreshments, so i'm just gonna leave a couple of snackies. folks, the line's in shambles, let's tuck it in. -sir? -come on, come on. okay. all right. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. okay, we don't need a line monitor. [narrator] there was a family. when you bundle with us. they played together and laughed together. ♪ (slow music) ♪ but they weren't completely alike.

d as they grew older, their opinions widened, and they distanced from each other. conversations became heated. reunions became more and more uncomfortable. ♪ they thought they were meant for each other ♪ ♪ one thinking of one another ♪ brother aligned against sister. ♪ never thinking just for one second ♪ birthdays were ignored, gathering stopped. because each had to be right. ♪ we don't want there ♪ ♪ we don't want there, oh no ♪ ♪ we don't want there ♪ ♪ we don't want there ♪ ♪ we don't want there ♪

(fisher investments) it's easy to think that all money managers are pretty much the same, but at fisher investments we're clearly different. (other money manager) different how? you sell high commission investment products, right? (fisher investments) nope. fisher avoids them. (other money manager) well, you must earn commissions on trades. (fisher investments) never at fisher investments. (other money manager) ok, then you probably sneak in some hidden and layered fees. (fisher investments) no. we structure our fees so we do better when clients do better. that might be why most of our clients come from other money managers. at fisher investments, we're clearly different.

♪music playing♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪ nothing brings the pack together like a trip to great wolf lodge. now open in northern california. >> announcer: "the last minute" of "60 minutes" is sponsored by united health care. get medicare with more. now an update on a story we reported one year ago. alessandro michelle, the eccentric creative director of the house of gucci sat atop the world of high fashion in rome. nearly seven years into his tenure, he transformed the gucci image with edgy, odd and outrageous designs. but in fashion, something once

in must eventually be out. and late november, the fashion house and the designer parted ways. as he told us, it was a day he expected would come. you said after that first show, you were worried they were going to fire you. >> yeah. >> are you feeling a little more confident now? >> i love to feel insecure in a way -- >> makes you creative. >> makes me feel creative. it's live. it's not forever. that's the most beautiful thing. that nothing is forever. that's why it's precious. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes. when it was time to sign up for a medicare plan mom couldn't decide. but thanks to the right plan promise from unitedhealthcare she got a medicare plan expert to help guide her with the right care team behind her. the right plan promise only from unitedhealthcare. bravo! you used the quicksilver card from capital one with no annual fee and unlimited 1.5 percent cash back on every purchase, everywhere.

that makes you the hero of every purchase. what's in your wallet?

♪ welcome to the "national christmas tree lighting: celebrating 100 years" brought to you by the national park service and the national park foundation. hosted by ll cool j featuring performances by andy grammer, ariana debose, the estefan family, joss stone, shania twain and yolanda adams. with the president's own u.s. marine band and a special christmas message from president biden. and now to kick it all off with a christmas classic, here is shania twain. ♪ it's beginning to look a lot like christmas everywhere you