captioning sponsored by wnet >> hill: on this edition for saturday, december 25: the omicron variant pushes up case numbers, and disrupts some christmas plans and travel. a $10 billion space telescope launches. nick offerman on humor, on-purpose hiking, and green places. the author of “queer love in color” documents love and relationships. and, a new dimension for those virtual meetings and connections. >> sreenivasan: remember "star wars," where there was a little princess leia hologram? or the holodeck in "star trek?" that hologram technology is kind of re, now. i'm in one. >> hill: next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:

sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help youake the most of today. mutual of america financial group: retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you.

to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation fund by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> hill: good evening, and thank you for joining us. i'm michael hill, in for hari sreenivasan. hari and the newshour weekend team have left us some christmas gifts-- a selection of some of their favorite arts, entertainment, and technology stories from this year. despite the challenges of covid-19, artists and authors tried out ideas that sometimes sprang from the need to work and communicate in new ways. hari will have those stories from the creative world, coming up. but, we begin with today's news headlines. this holiday weekend, the spread of omicron covid-19 variant led to staffing shortages and delays in airline travel, with 900 flights cancelled

today in the u.s., after nearly 700 cancellations yesterday. more than 5,700 flights around the world were canceled from friday to sunday, according to flight aware. the northern chinese city of xi'an, in its third day of strict lockdown, had the highest number of flight cancellations. the united kingdom reported a record 122,000 new cases yesterday. in london, residents lined up to get vaccinated at centers where health workers sometimes sported christmas costumes. there re estimates that as many as one in 20 londoners had covid-19 infections last week. >> t-minus 30 seconds and counting. >> hill: the world's most powerful and largest space telescope, named for the head of nasa in the 1960s, launched this morning from french guiana on the northeast coast of south america. a joint mission of nasa and the european and canadian space agencies, the james webb telescope will travel one million miles to search for

the origins of the universe. itn's robert moore has the story. >> reporter: the world's scientists and astronomers were holding their breath. >> and we have engines start... and, lift off... >> lift off, from a tropical rainforest to the edge of time itself, james webb begins a voyage back to the birth of the universe. >> reporter: this was a christmas day launch from the amazon that may revolutionize the understanding of our galaxy's origins. james webb is the successor to the hubble space telescope, and 100 times more powerful. >> separation... go, webb! >> reporter: then, from a camera mounted on the rocket, this scientific marvel edged out towards deep space on its own. and the launch team back in french guiana could finally express their relief. ( cheers and alause ) the telescope has many more maneuvers still to make over the coming weeks, as it

unfurls its protective shield, and then reveals its exquisitely crafted mirror. it's more than a decade behind schedule, but its promise is immense: looking back at some of the most distant events and objects in the universe. this was the launch that may change science, astronomy, and cosmology-- a christmas gift to us all. >> hill: in his christmas day address, pope francis prayed for an end to the coronavirus pandemic, and called for vaccines for the poor, and dialogue in resolving the world's conflicts. only a few thousand people attended the annual event at st. peter's square, which normally sees tens of thousands. italy is experiencing a record-setting rise in covid-19 cases this week. the pope offered prayers for those most affected by the coronavirus, including women and children who have suffered increased abuse during lockdowns. and, the pope lamented that

we've become so used to immense tragedies happening in places like syria, yemen, iraq, and ethiopia, that they'reeing passed over in silence, saying“" we risk not hearing the cry of pain and distress of so many of our brothers and sisters.” today in sudan, thousands of protesters across the country took to the streets again to denounce the october military coup, despite the release of the country's civilian leader from house arrest last month. sudanese security forces fired tear gas and authorities warned protesters against approaching government sites, saying forces would “deal with chaos and violations.” activists reported a disruption of internet access on phones ahead of the demonstrations. last weekend, curity forces violently dispersed people at a sit-in near the presidential palace, and at least three protesters were killed. nearly 100 days after a volcanic eruption on one of spain's canary islands, scientists declared an official end to the crisis today. the volcano first erupted on

september 19, spewing lava, rock, and ash, and forcing thousands of residents to relocate. lava destroyed around 3,000 properties, ruined banana plantations and vineyards, and cut off roads. no injuries or deaths were directly linked to the eruption. extensive cleanup efforts are underway, with spanish soldiers removing ash covering homes and vehicles. authorities declared an end to the eruption following ten days without lava flows, seismic activity, or major sulfur dioxide emissions. >> hill: for more national and international news, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: this past year, on many weekends, we looked for inspiration in the arts, entertainment, and technology. newshour weekend producers and reporters sometimes still had to face the challenges of remote interviews, but as the months went by, they ventured back into the field. in fact, we begin tonight with newshour weekend's christopher

booker, actually on a trail in upstate new york, where he met up with actor, writer, and carpenter nick offerman-- best known for his portrayal of ron swansonn the long-running tv sitcom "parks and recreation." >> reporter: as was the case for many of us, life slowed down for nick offerman when the pandemic arrived. >> when it went down, i never got too freaked out, because my life... always shifts. i keep shifting hats. >> reporter: an actor, a comedian, a carpenter, a furniture maker, a competition reality show host, offerman's version of shape-shifting is an overlapping affair. one day may be spent in his woodshop, and the next, playing the ornery ron swanson on the tv show "parks d recreation." >> i like saying "no." it lowers their enthusiasm. >> reporter: but offerman has also written five books. his latest, "where the deer and antelope play," was written during the slow days of the pandemic. part travelogue, but more meditation on our relationship

to the natural world, the book reflects on offerman's time spent outdoors. it opens with his pre-pandemic trip to glacier national park with jeff tweedy, the frontman of the band wilco, and acclaimed author george saunders; continues with a trip to the u.k. to visit author and farmer james rebanks; and ends with him and his wife, actress megan mullally, on a road trip across a shut-down america, hauling a 30-foot air stream trailer. >> our lives underwent a profound change, where we were able to say, let's take two months on the road, and a lot of it will involve some state parks, some national parks, some more-- some more "on-purpose hiking," which is-- i was like, "that's my new thing, on-purpose hiking." >> reporter: "on-purpose hiking," yeah. >> i've bought a couple of specialized garments. i guess i'm a hiker. >> reporter: do you have-- do you have the sticks, yet? >> no. in-- in part three of the book, a surprise character talks me into the sticks, so, soon as my

knees start complaining enough, i'll come around. >> reporter: stick time. >> yeah. >> reporter: this is a pretty little spot. offerman and i did some "on- purpose hiking" near the set of an amazon miniseries he was filming. so, when you're out in production, are you seeking out, like, "oh, i need to go and spend an hour or two outside?" >> well, you kw, one of the great things about modern technology? no matter where i am, in a city or the country, if i have time off, whether it's a weekend or a week or an afternoon, i can pull out my smartphone and look at the map and it shows me green places. when i was younger, i would google the phrase "best cheeseburger in pittsburgh" or "best barbecue in" any given place, and then i would hike to that place-- ( laughs ) --and eat a lot of meat. >> reporter: on the surface, there is some overlap tween offerman's love of meat, whiskey, and woodworking, and

the fictitious ron swanson, the character he played for seven seasons on nbc's "parks and recreation." >> you've accidentally given me the food that my food eats. >> salad is traditionally the first course at a wedding. >> is a gerbil marrying a rabbit? >> reporter: swanson was the uber-manly, libertarian boss of pawnee, indiana's parks and recreation department, distrustful of government, while being fiercely protective of his loyaltaff. >> i do consider myself a bit of a trojan horse. inexplicably, there's a-- there's a portion of the "parks and recreation" audience that didn't quite comprehend the sense of humor around ron, and instead, they were like, "finally, we're represented." >> reporter: this is the trick that is nick offerman. in the american consciousness, he is both the artist and the every-man; a beloved character, but also an author wrestling with our strained relationship with the environment. >> i don't know how we are taking care of or how we are getting along with mother

nature. and we need to pay attention to that, which has become strikingly clear in the time of climate change. and i-- i'm not a scientist or a scholar; i'm a dancing jackass, you know, that makes canoes. who-- who has a book deal. and so i was like, well, i'm going to do my best to sort of, you know, use whatever charisma i can find in-- in my life, to try and communicate this to my readership. >> reporter: and the "this" is how we can reconnect our lives to the world we live in, a theme pulled from his friend, novelist, poet, and farmer, wendell berry. for decades, berry has written about the decline of rural communities, and how large agribusiness has separated us from where our food comes from, and the land that must be cultivated and cared for. >> i told wendell berry many years ago, if i could just get a job communicating his writing to people, i'd be happy with that career. and it's working out, because here comes some more.

but he writes really wonderfully about, you know, something from his purview on his kentucky farm, seeing society go faster and faster. and he says, so what are you-- you know, what did that buy you? it's so true what he says: that there's more-- there's actually more in an acre of ld to fill your lifetime, if you just stop and actually look at it. >> reporter: as he writes, these were the ideas running through his mind as he hikedn the mountains of montana, just before the pandemic, with jeff tweedy and george saunders. a trio offerman describes as a "bromance," with a shared artistic vision. >> we're all three on this lifelong project of, how can we help? how can-- how can we use our art, our gifts, whatever they may be, to get more people to care about other people? >> reporter: offerman says, for his part, that means embracing his many shapes, and doing it

with as even a keel as possible. >> i don't mean this in a false way; i'm grateful that i'm simple. i have a steady demeanor that comes, i think, from my farming family, that i'mble to not get-- i'm able to-- to avoid panic and say, "okay. the house is on fire. there's three exits. everybody get the-- you ow, get the-- grab the scotch. you grab the jar of change. and make sure we have a deck of cards, and we'll be all set." and that's my saving graces. i can say, okay, i-- i-- i'll never, you know-- i can't remotely begin to fix any of this stuff. i can do my part, which is, like, write this book, or take part in a tv show that has a-- has a good-hearted message of love or empathy or whatever. d that-- i can do that.

>> sreenivasan: photography and relationships come together in our next story. last june, during pride month, newshour weekend's ivette feliciano talked with author and photographer jamal jordan. his book, “queer love in color”" grew from a series of articles in the "new york times" that documented relationships between l.g.b.t.q. people of color. >> reporter: growing up gay and black in the 1990s, photographer and documentarian jamal jordan says he never saw himself represented in popular media, even as l.g.b.t.q. people gained greater visibility in u.s. culture. >> it really felt that that was just a white queer moment that i just could not be a part of, right? >> reporter: decades later, those long-held feelings drove him to write a series for the "new york times," "queer love in color," which he has expanded

into a book. in it, jordan documents the stories of queer couples of color from all over the u.s., canada, and south africa. how did you eventually choose all of the couples that are featured in the project? >> i made a list of about 20 cities that i wanted to visit. i started in my hometown of mobile, alabama. it was really important for me to start in my hometown, i think,ecause i want every queer child to know that the love they want is possible wherever they are. and so, it was really healing for me to be able to go home and say this community existed, it always had existed, and the thing that i thought would never be possible was always just in my backyard, right? >> reporter: the experience of queer people of color is often so associated with struggle, and there's such a wide range of experiences in your book, specifically with mike and phil in detroit. why did you decide to feature them? >> when you're trying to build your identity around, like, the stories that are told around you, like, it hurts when the only thing you see is pain and trauma at the expense of telling

the stories of happiness, love, joy, flourishing that were, like, there but just uncovered. mike and phil spoke a lot about how important their elders were at the time and how being-- coming of age in detroit in 1967, '68, having older queer people to look up to was such an important thing for them. so, they-- they've, like, made a big part of their life mission to be that same way for other people. there is somethi so psychologically profound about being able to be a kid and see-- say, like, look up to some older person and know that that's a possibility model for yourself. >> reporter: what was it like to document queer family life? and what was your relationship to l.g.b.t.q. families before this project? >> all the kids that i met, they had, like, really fascinating things to say about love and, like, seeing their parents have to navigate the larger structures that make it difficult for queer parents to, like, raise children, and, like, how much of a reflection of love that was for them, so. >> reporter: they're perceiving

that even at their young age? >> yeah, even at a young age, because, you know, kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. there's one couple, el-farouk and troy, they said one thing so succinctly that i think a lot of the parents that i met felt, and it was that they did a lot of work to build a family for themselves, but now they're doing other work to make the world better for the child that they've brought into it. >> reporter: are there any stories or couples that stick with you on a daily basis? >> i always go back to the story of amisha and neena. they met as friends in 2001, and they had a 14-year back-and- forth of being deeply in love with each other but not really confessing it to each other. eventually, they have this, like, really beautiful moment after 14 years where they have this phone call at 3:00 in the morning in which they meet after and cuddle for an hour and then, you know, plan the rest of their life together. i think about it a lot because i think so much of the pain of not

being able to see images of love that reflect you is that you kind of lose out on the, like, serendipity and magic of, like, love and meeting people and connections. it gave me a new goal, hoping that as we normalize more images of queer people of color, we let queer people feel that magic, the serendipity of love, too, and approach it more with happiness and openness instead of fear. >> reporter: how important is visibility, the visibility of queelove? >> i don't think that i'm overstating it and saying that, like, for a lot of people, particularly younger people, it can really be a matter of, like, life or death, you know? in tying the stories in the book together, i learned just how common it was for the people in it to feel they'd grown up and never heard a positive thing about being a queer person of color or actively had people tell them that they had less value, their love would be impossible. and i think that there's such a radicalizing power of being able to say, "look, there are people like you.

they exist all over the world." >> sreenivasan: and finally, in our "best of" series today-- a story that took me to a different dimension. watch and see. remember "star wars," where there was a little princess leia hologram? or the holodeck in "star trek?" that hologram technology is kind of here, now. i'm in one. and i went and talked to the c.e.o. of a company that has hologram studios, that are setting up all over the world. in midtown manhattan, i recently visited this co-working space, run by wework, which has partnered with hologram company arht media, to bring life-like holograms to as many as 100

wework locations worldwide. to find out more, i spoke with arht's c.e.o., larry o'reilly. he joined me from toronto. >> greetings from toronto. >> sreenivasan: hi, larry! how are you? >> i'm great. how are you today? >> sreenivasan: thanks for... virtually joining us. >> absolutely. i'm there. >> sreenivasan: so what are we doing here? >> what's happening is, i'm being captured on a 4k camera. my video, image and audio are being compressed and encrypted and sent to new york, where i'm being presented to you in 0.3 seconds or less. and i should be appearing life- sized and lifelike, looking 3d. and that's what we call "creating presence." >> sreenivasan: what does this do, that i don't get from a facetime or a zoom? >> well, what you don't get, obviously, is the body language, right? all the cues that are nonverbal, of which more than 50% of

communication is nonverbal. and really, where you notice a huge difference is, we can take people from different parts of the world and bring them on stage together where they can communicate with one another as if they're in the same place, and then that can be streamed anywhere in the world. >> sreenivasan: so, who's going to use this? i mean, i'm at a wework space in new york, and you're sitting at your headquarters, but who do you see and how do you see them using it? >> training is a big thing. education is a big thing. >> today, i'd like to share... >> we have a college that's in the south pacific, and their courses are taught from the university of hawaii using our hologram technology. and our primary client base would be professional service organizations. if you're in new york and you need a portfolio manager from an investment bank in hong kong, well, you'd be moving from hong kong. it saves three days of travel. no carbon footprint, you know, and you might get access to somebody who you wouldn't get

otherwise. >> sreenivasan: is this augmented reality likely to trickle down into people's homes or people's community centers? >> like all technology, as it evolves, the cost of delivery comes down, and then it gets adopted by a much broader base of people. when i joined this company 3.5 years ago, our starting price to deliver an event was about $90,000, and we'd send a team of people. now we can do activations for $15,000 and $20,000 and still be profitable. >> sreenivasan: what other ways can we create that human connection between people across distances? >> there's been major leapfrogs in technology on the camera- side, and right now, in order for us to get the proportions right, ideally, we need a distance of about 15 to 20 feet between the camera and the subject. and that will change. you know, i'm being captured on

a green screen, and there's technologies that are out there today where i can be captured outdoors and the background would be removed. there's latency involved with all of that, but like with all technologies, that will evolve. >> sreenivasan: thank you, larry, for stopping by, i guess. >> it is a pleasure to meet you, and thanks for coming to wework in n york. >> hill: that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm michael hill. merry christmas to those celebrating today. thanks for watching. stay healthy, and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet

captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural

differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group: rirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

(bright music) - when it comes to christmas, britain's country houses have always put on a great show and harewood house in yorkshire is no exception. there it is, harewood house. it's huge. it's glorious. a georgian palace created by some of britain's greatest architects and craftsmen, harewood has been celebrating christmas in spectacular style for over 250 years. aren't they just amazing? this year, they're planning something truly magical. - it's a total dreamscape, the whole thg. - as the team count down to the grand christmas opening, i'll explore historic harewood recipes. you couldn't get much more meat in there, could you? - we're gonna. - and showou how to cook delicious modern dishes