geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz on the news hour tonight. president biden's top economic adviser discusses rising prices, interest rates, and a possible recession. geoff: law enforcement tactics again face scrutiny in the wake of the police killing of tyre nichols in memphis amna: and a north carolina republican explains why he now supports medicaid expansion after opposing it for years. >> it is something that we ought to do and it makes perfect sense from a budgeting standpoint at this time. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by --

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>> this program was made possible by the corporatiofor public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: good evening. we are learning more about the strength of the u.s. economy and whether high inflation and terest rates are pushing it into a recession. amna: tomorrow, the federal reserve is expected to raise interest rates by another quarter of a point. the next labor report will show

whether job growth is slowing even further. and the slowdown over the debt ceiling is hardly over. all of that mad to the sense that the economy is on a knife's edge. but a recession is not a given. on the president's key advisors on all of this joins us now. welcome back to the newshour. let's begin wit the debt ceiling debate. tomorrow, president biden will meet with speaker mccarthy. the president will release his budget in early march. in your conversations, do you have any sense of what mr. mccarthy is asking for? where republicans want to see spending cuts? >> this is the reason why the president has put the emphasis on speaker mccarthy and the to release a budget, release those

details and show that they have a pathway to pass a budget with 218 votes in the house. that is an important predicate and it is an important moment to do that. the recent data on the economy has been really quite promising. we have seen solid economic growth, one of the strongest labor markets in recent history. inflation is coming down. price increases are slowing at the grocery store. we are seeing it in other parts of the economy. we know what we need to do, keep focusing on reducing prices for consumers, investing in the united states, building more industrial and manufacturing capacity. we have all of these goals within our reach. the last thing we can afford right now is a self-inflicted wound to take our economy backward. amna: but the white house has

made clear that raising the debt ceiling is not a negotiation. why the meeting? >>ook, honoring the full faith and credit of the united states, the obligations we have already made, should not be a negotiable item. it hasn't been for prior presidents. the leaders in the senate and the house today have made clear that this should not be a question. we should not put the full faith and credit of the united states at risk and that question, but we can have a serious conversation about economic priorities and fiscal priorities and do that as part of the normal budget process. the president will release his budget. it will be a detailed blueprint of how he would recommend investing in the country, continuing to make progress on our economic recovery, and bringing down the deficit at the same time.

he is happy to look at the proposals when house republicans put out there detailed plan. we should have that conversation as part of the normal budget process. we should not use the threat of default in a way that we have never done as a country as a way to, as a bargaining chip or as a way of hostagetaking for particular proposals. amna: let me as you about where the economy is right now. you mentioned progress on unemployment. inflation does remain a concern and consumer spending has slowed. that leads some economists to be a little bit more worried. the national association of business economics surveyed economists and they bieve that there is more than a 50/50 chance the u. enters a recession this year. do you agree with that assessment? >> about six months ago, the president said we need to see a transition to more steady and stable growth.

a lot of people at that time were projecting that that wasn't possible. the labor market has remained resilient. the unemployment rate continues at a historic low and inflation has come down for the last six months. we absolutely can continue to make progress because we have seen it. we have seen it over the last six months, the last three months as well. the president's focus is implementing some of the historic legislation passed that will bring further price declines in health care, prescription drugs, clean energy. amna: if i may, consumer spending is lower.

federal pandemic funds are gone. people have less savings now than they did before. on consumer spending, where do you see evidence that will go back up? >> look at what happened in the foth quarter of this past year. we saw solid economic growth. that was driven by solid consumer spending as well. we are seeing some slowing and you would expect that in some areas. if you look at household balance sheets, many of the measures of bacon and -- basic economic security are better than before the pandemic. personal bankruptcies, home mortgage delinquencies are all between 10 and 30 percent lower than before the pandemic kit.

there a risks on the horizon and we take nothing for granted, but if you look at what happened in the fourth quarter of this year, i think there is reason for cautious optimism and certainly for staying the course that we need to do what is important. lowering costs and encouraging companies to invest in america, create jobs that give people opportunities. amna: americans don't quite show the optimism with you. when you look at the latest nbc news poll, 36% approve of the president's handling of e economy, essentially the same as it was a year ago. why do you think that is? >> it has been a very difficult set of years. consumers are still facing a lot of challenges coming out of the pandemic. certainly, inflation has been a frustration for folks. i think that the good news for americans that are watching at

home is that we are making an impact. gas prices are down. food inflation is coming down. prices of everyday goods and items that seemed like they were out of whack because the pandemic supply chain issues are coming back. the ultimate outcome of the president's economic strategy is going to be across time. are we building a stronger and more resilient economy ithe future i think it is yes. amna: brian dese, always good to talk to you. ank you for your time. stephanie: here are the latest headlines. the death toll climbed to in

100 monday's suicide bombing in pakistan. 225 were wounded. rescue crews in peshawar continued their search for bodies and survivors in the wreckage of a mosque. families with missing relatives waited outside hospitals, guarded by police. officials are investigating how the bomber got through heavy security to enter the mosque inside a police compound. in central florida today. police are still searching for the gunmen who wounded 11 people, 2 of them critically. the incident happened monday on a residential street in lakeland as the shooters fired from their car. investigators said it was a targeted attack. george santos, the embattled new york congressman, who has admitted to fabricating most of his resume and is facing multiple investigations, told fellow republicans that he's stepping down from his two house committee assignments -- for now. house speaker kevin mccarthy endorsed the move. >> i met with george santos yesterday and i think it was an

appropriate decision until he can clear everything that he's off the committees right now. the voters have elected him. he'll have a voice here in congress. until he answers all those questions then he'll at that time he'll be able to be seated on committees. stephanie: santos insisted again he is not considering resigning from congress. there is word the fbi searched president biden's former washington office for classified material last november. the associated press and cbs news report that was after the president's lawyers had found classified records at the site. it's not clear if the fbi found anything else. a crippling winter ice storm advanced eastward across the south and central u.s. today. airlines cancelled more than 1,700 flights and thousands of people lost power. tes was especially hard hit as freezing rain and sleet covered roads and caused numerous racks. at least one person was killed. four key suspects in the assassination of former haitian

president jovenel moise were transferred to the u.s. today to face criminal charges. three of the suspects are haitian american. the charges include conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping. a total of seven men are now in u.s. custody. moise was murdered 18 months ago. pope francis kicked off a 6-day visit to congo and south sudan today -- insisting that wealthy nations stop plundering africa's resources. the pope arrived in kinshasa as tens of thousands of well-wishers lined his route. in a speech, he urged an end to carving up congo's huge mineral wealth. >> it is tragic that places like this and more generally the african continent are still being exploited. hands off the democratic republic of congo. hands off africa. stop choking africa. it is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered. stephanie: the pope is expected

to appeal for rebels in eastern congo to make peace. secretary of state antony blinken has concluded his middle east visit -- with no apparent progress toward quieting israeli-palestinian violence. he met today with palestinian leader mahmoud abbas, a day after speaking with israeli leaders. blinken urged both sides to step back, but no pledges were made. china reacted today to reports that the united ates might block tech giant huawei from any remaining access to american suppliers. the company is already barred from buying advanced u.s. processor chips but the biden , administration reportedly could go further. in beijing, the foreign ministry condemned any such proposal. >> china expresses serious concern about the relevant reports. we are closely following developments. we firmly oppose the u.s. generalizing the notion of national security and abusing state power to suppress chinese companies. it is a blatant technological hegemony.

stephanie: u.s. officials have called huawei a security risk that might help chinese spying. labor strikes and protests roiled europe today -- including more than a million people demonstrating in france. throngs of protesters poured into the streets of paris, angered by plans to raise the retirement age by 2 years. there were similar mass marches earlier this month. elsewhere, more than ten thousand health care workers marched in brussels, demanding better pay and working conditions. back in this country, actor alec baldwin was formally charged with involuntary manslaughter -- in a movie set shooting in new mexico. prosecutors alleged that baldwin skipped gun safety training, ignored industry protocols and failed to make sure there were no bullets in the gun before he fired. the population of western monarch butterflies that winter along the california coast rebounded for the second year in a row. volunteers tallied 330,000 butterflies in the region, the highest number counted in the last six years.

it's unclear why the population is springing back. climate change has threatened western monarchs since the 1980's when they numbered in the millions. still to come. house republicans prepare to kick off investigations into the white house. the president announces a date for ending covid emergency measures. jake blount puts a new twist on black american folk music. and more. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: five days after former police officers were charged with murder in the death of tyre nichols, the brutal circumstances that led to his ath have renewed conversations around the country about policing, the use of force and related issues. we're going to spend time on that again tonight, starting with new attention around elite

police units. geoff: five of the officers charged in the death of tyre nichols were members of one of those specialized police forces -- known as the scoron unit. it was created a little over a year ago to address rising crime. over the weekend, the memphis police department announced the scorpion team had been disbanded -- all of this raising questions about the effectiveness of these special police units. radley balko is the author of rise of the warrior cop: the militarization of america's police forces and the criminal justice newsletter the watch. welcome to the newshour. >> thanks for having me on. geoff: we spoke with ben crump, the attorney for tyre nichols' family, and he said of the now disbanded scorpion unit that when you watch on nonchalantly they acted while tyre nichols is on the ground in distress fighting for his life, crump

said that spoke to what appeared to him to be business as usual. what does that suggest about how these units are trained and how they operate? >> i don't know what it tells us about how they're trained what it does tell us is that these units are they are designed to suppress crime at any cost. i agree with mr. crump. i mean, if you watch that video, for horrifying as it is, i mean, there's an almost sort of casualness to the way they go about beating terry nichols was one of them stops and tasers, shoes, they have one officer find his glasses. you know, it's one thing for police officers to get caught up in the moment, to have a rush of adrenaline and make bad decisions. this was extended over a long period of time. i think that this tells us that

these are supposed to be elite police units, but they and up concentrating some of the worst aspects of policing which is abuse, excessive force, and this kind of militaristic attitude. geoff: tell me more about that. you will -- wrote an opinion piece for the new york times and you quoted a retired swat officer. he said the guys who really want to be on the swat team are the last peoplwho should be one of the swat team. >> when you call them the scorpions for you give them some other intimidating name that we have seen in other cities, you are doing two things. you are creating fear among the people those units are going to serve and you are attracting police who want to be feared.

i think if you are a community oriented police officer who wants to help people, you are not going to be enticed or excited to join a group called scorpion. geoff: it strikes me that memphis was among the police departments that reviewed and revised its policies after the police killing of george floyd they instituted a ban on choke holds. they instituted de-escalation policies. none of that mattered when terry nichols was pulled over, but it speaks to this question ofan a culture like the one that existed in this unit be reformed? >> i don't think it can be reformed when it comes to these units. the entire point of these units is that they are formed when crime goes up and politicians are police officials feel they have to do something to show they are taking crime seriously. there is this knee-jerk instinct to say that what we need to do is supervise police less, give

them more freedom, more leeway. we need to tell them to be more aggressive and look the other way when they bend or break the rules. we have seen this story play out over and over again. i going to the history of these units in my new york times piece. l.a., chicago, baltimore, indianapolis, cities across the country when they have instituted one of these units, they inevitably run into problems. sometimes pretty massive scandals. most recently in baltimore with the gun crimes task force. geoff: what is a better approach? memphis was among the most violent metropolitan areas in the u.s. in the year 2020. 2021, they had a record nuer of murders. wh our elected officials in memphis, what is the police chief in memphis, what are they to do? >> we don't know exactly what stops crime. we don't know what causes crime

for the most part. one of the thing that is intuitive is you have to have trust from the communities you serve. if you look at where some of those violent cities in america, there have been documented reports from doj and other agencies outlining long histories of police abuse, misconduct, and racism. places like cleveland, chicago, st. louis. anything that might succeed the scorpion units patrolling your neighborhood because the sense of trust has been broken. geoff: thank you so much for being with us. amna: let's focus on how the trauma of police killings ripples across communities. in september of 2016, terence crutcher, a 40-year-old tulsa resident and father of was shot four, and killed by officer betty shelby. crutcher was waiting for help with his broken

down vehicle. shelby was responding to the call. crutcher was unarmed. eight months later, officer shelby was fnd not guilty of first-degree manslaughter and the case has been expunged from her record. crutcher's twin sister tiffany , crutcher created a foundation in his name, focused on criminal justice and policing reform. she joins me now welcome back to the newshour. i have to ask you just first off , you and i have spoken before about how each new report, each new police killing, each new video reminds you of your pain and your loss. i want to ask you since the release of this horrible video of tyre nichols, how are you doing? >> thank you so ch for having me again. i have to be honest, it has been a struggle over the last few days. even prior to the video being

released, i remember being in his mother's shoes and of course i didn't watch the video at all. i haven't even watched the video of my brothers killing. but to say the least and to hear some of the murmurings of him calling out for his mom, it is definitely re-traumatizing my family and the community here in tulsa, oklahoma. amna: his family said they wanted people to bear witness and they hope it will lead to some kind of change. each time this happens, it seems to reignite this conversation around police reform that i know you do so much work in and around. do you think this leads to change? >> i'm going to be honest, i feel that black folks in america , we are in a state of emergency and we are afraid for our lives

and we have seen video after video after video starting with rodney king, that's what i remember when i was just a little girl. we saw videos of philando castile. we saw the video of my brother and so many more, sterling, walter scott in south carolina, and george floyd, and we have yet to see any change in this country. we have yet to see congress a. i just think that it is unhealthy and that communities of color across this country are dealing with vicarious trauma and we need more than just videos being released, but i am thankful for the fact that these videos put a spotlight on the crime, the criminality, and the murder of black and brown people across this country. but at the same time, it is

unhealthy and it tears the scab off unhealed wounds. amna: the attorney working with tyre nichols' family said he was even glad to see such a swift response in terms of the accountability portion of arresting and charging the officers. when you look at that, what do you see? why do you think things have ved swiftly in this case when they haven't in the past and what is justice if there is such a thing look like for terry nichols' family? >> let's be honest, justice would be tyre nichols being alive. the only justice is for people we pay to protect and serve us, for them to stop killing us. that is the only justice we will ever see and the only way that is going to happen is if we have this swift action and if we change the laws that allow police officers in this country to commit legal murder.

to see this swift action, i'm hopeful. it happened in the case of betty shelby for the first time in the history of tulsa, a police officer was indicted. again, i can't help but think about the thousands of other victims who never get swift justice. the names we will never know. quite frankly, i believe that all of the officers that were involved need to be held accountable and whoever's over the training of these officers, whoever implemented the special unit needs to be held accountable because this isn't the first incident. we know there have been more. i want everyone held accountable. but the only justice that there is is tyre nichols being alive. amna: since your brother's death, you have become part of this community no one chooses to join and i know you have a close

connection with folks like the mother of eric garne michelle keeney, the mother of antwon rose, those who have lost a son or brother to police violence. have you been in touch with them over the last few days? what is that community like for you? >> i have a community of individuals who simply understand and can relate to what i'm feeling. i connected with the minor of -- mother of breonna taylor and eric garner and also dr. bernice king over the past few days. we were trying to figure out will it ever stop. the common thread is that we can't give up. dr. bernice king said we have to make sure that our feelings are

fueled or is the fuel to keep acting, keep rally crying and that is what we all decided we would do. no one should feel this pain, no one should have to be a part of this community, this brotherhood , but i'm confident to know that someone understands what we are going through. amna: tiffany crutcher is the founder and executive director of the terence crutcher foundation. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me. geoff: as part of the new congress, tomorrow, house republicans will begin scrutinizing nearly every policy step taken by the biden white house and congressional democrats over the past two years.

lisa desjardins joins us now with more on what to expect tomorrow and down the road. house republicans have mentioned a number of topics that they say are ripe for investigation. help us understand where they intend to start. lisa: there is a lot to talk about here. when you about the investigations house republicans are launching, let's take a look at the committees that are going to be key here. focusing on china has wide bipartisan backing. different are the two other committe you see right next to me. house oversight committee, these are looking at the biden administration. look at that list. these are all the different things already announced by that committee, things they will look at. classified documents, biden family influence, hunter biden,

and also joe biden's brothers, whether they have connections outside this country, the pandemic, the border, energy, drug prices, and overall afghanistan and the withdrawal. expect a lot of news to come out of that committee, a lot of hearings. then the house judiciary committee. that is led by jim jordan, the republican from ohio. they will look at classified documents, the role of different agencies including the department of justice, border security will be one of their first hearings. here's a special subcommittee. the weaponization subcommittee. i think that will focus a lot on the department of justice and the fbi and investigating the investigators. there will be some look at how government agencies take on individual americans, republicans say. all of this is just kind of the beginning. we don't know exactly what shape these will take. the theme is looking at the biden administration and the

biden family. geoff: tell us more about the approach these committees might take. lisa: those two chairmen are very different in their approaches. let's talk about james comer and house oversight. he is the more affable kind of chairman. he has gotten along with ranking and democratic chairman in the past. he says he's going to take this slow. he does not want to start out of the gate with big throwing punches at the administration. he said he wants to gather evidence. in the past, he has also criticized the trump administration. difference in style, jim jordan. jim jordan is a former champion wrestler, he is someone who likes to throw punches, he believes pugilistic style is something that can uncover truth, and it is something he loves to do. we will see much more contention and already we have seen that he is telling the admistration, signaling to them he's ready to issue subpoenas prettyuickly.

press release they put out in the last couple of weeks signaling that he will take them on, giving them notice about documents requests that are out there. both of these committees are still trying to go after the same thing. republicans say there was not enough of a check another biden administration. democrats are nervous and they said the judiciary committee is something in particular they want to watch. some democrats said they were nervous about even sitting on that committee. geoff: there is news regarding two members of congress who may not have committee seats at all. >> representative george santos has said he will not serve on committees. he said that is at least temporary. that is connected to the other member we are talking about, democrat bill han omar. she is someone that speaker mccarthy said he would like to remove her from the house foreign affairs committee, but he needs nearly all of his conference to agree. he does not have enough votes.

she has apologized for past comments, but there are questions from some about her stance toward israel. he doesn't have the votes to remo her now. we will watch carefully. geoff: there has been a removed -- a renewed focus on police reform. what are the prospects in congss right now? lisa: there is huge interest in doing this. there are behind-the-scenes conversations. this is the critical timeline. state of the union. we expect to see tyre nichols' mother at that speech. that is the critical timeline. if there can be movement on this issue, it will be up to that speech and they are hoping to get some sign of advancement by that. geoff: state of the union on february 7. thanks for that report.

amna: since the start of the pandemic, both former president trump and president biden have repeatedly renewed a special declaration of a national and public health emergency. but the government's approach toward covid has dramatically changed. and yesterday, the president said he would allow that emergency declaration to end in may. william brangham looks at what that will mean. >> amna, this is the government essentially saying that covid-19 isn't as grave a threat as it once was and thus certain policies can be phased out. house republicans have been pressuring the administration to make this exact move. but covid is still killing more than 500 americans every day, on average, and has cumulatively killed well over a million of us. joining me now is lawrence gostin, who tracks all this very closely. he is a georgetown university global health institute. great to have you back on the program.

i mentioned the gop pressure on the administration. house republicansntroduced this bill called the pandemic is over act, which would do with the administration says they are going to do. do you think the administration wanted to do this or is this bowing to political pressure? >> i thicket is a little of both. certainly, all emergencies have to come to an end and we have been at this covid emergency for three years now, originally with president trump declaring it in january 2020. but there has been in norma's pressure. it is from congress, from republican governors. it is from the public that seems to be so fatigued and over covid. even from its own agencies. the food and drug administration is planning on cycling to seasonal covid shots the way we

do flu shots. all of this is a strong political signal that we need to move on, but we need to have a soft landing. i think that is why the administration is focused on pushing this back until may 11. >> when the government says the public health emergency is over, what does that mean, what follows? >> first, we have to be clear that the crisis is still here, particularly for the vulnerable. we have variants and subvariants on the horizon. for the young and healthy, it may be over, but for the vulnerable, it is not. what this is going to mean is that it is going to unravel a whole social safety net.

people will find it harder to get health insurance, particularly medicaid. even private insurance. it will start to cost money as they transition to the private market. that means the uninsured, the underinsured are going to lack access the way that they are accustomed to doing it now. there is also implications. >> what is the implication for title 42? i know that there has been another one of these political hot potatoes. if you declare the emergency is

over, does that change title 42 in any real way? >> it does. title 42 itself is not dependent on a formal declaration of a public health emergency. but if you look at cdc's original order, the order says it stays in place until the cdc decides to take it down or until a former declaration of emergency is over. on may 11, like it or not, title 42 is gone unless for some reason cdc were to issue a fresh order. cdc won't do that because my understanding is they have never been in favor of this because it is really not justified by public health. it is really more border control policy. and an inhumane one, at that. >> you wrote on twitter that this is the equivalent of waving the white flag of surrender.

do you think that is the case? the american public has decided, we are done with this. what are we surrendering to? >> i worry that when the next variant or some variant comes that it has more immune escape ability, perhaps even more paogenic or deadly, that when cdc says put on a mask or get to a booster shot that people's eyes may roll i think it is fine for the young and the healthy, but i really worry about the poor, the uninsured, those with the deep, underlying health conditions and vulnerabilities. i think they are grave risk. i do understand and agree with president biden that all

emergencies do eventually come to an end, but i wish we would be able to have a safe landing in a sense that we really protect the health care insurance and social safety net for the most vulnerable among us. >> always good to see you. thank you. >> thank you. i appreciate it. ♪ geoff: since the affordable care act was implemented more than a decade ago, 39 states have expanded medicaid the public , insurance program that provides health coverage to low-income americans. north carolina is not one of those states. one of the obstacles had been phil berger, a republican and president pro tem of the state senate. but he changed his mind last year, and now that the legislature has reconvened for the year, medicaid expansion is a top priority. north carolina stateenator

phil berger joins us now. thanks for being here. our team looked up a press release issued a decade ago this week and what you said of expanding medicaid, saddling our citizens with the enormous costs of a new federal bureaucracy of entitlements is simply not the way. what were your primary objections to expanding medicaid at the time and ultimately why have you changed your mind? >> the big objection had to do with the impact on the state budget or the potential impact. it was a new program. the federal government said they would be paying 90% of the cost. that difference between 66% and 96% could bust the budget in significant ways. since then, we have seen the

federal government be controlled democrats, controlled by republicans, we have seen in most every iteration that you can have of control about one party or t other or joint control and they haven't change that split. it is something that we ought to do and it makes perfect sense from a budgetary stamp point. geoff: there was also an initial concern that expanding medicaid would have discouraged people from looking for work. is that right? >> we are looking at the potential of 600,000 people and generally the numbers that we were seeing was that the bulk of those folks would be able-bodied individuals who are not employed and not really looking for work. the reality is that with the way the federal program is designed,

more often than not, what you have is a situation where folks would be eligible for medicaid in the expansion population are people who are actually working full-time, sort of the person that seems to be helped the most would be a single female with one or two children who works a full-time job. she is not eligible for traditional medicaid. not eligible for subsidy of exchange policy, so she falls through the gap and doesn't have the funds to purchase private insurance. i think that at this time a substantial number of people that will be covered in the expansion population are people that are working. you've still got a good number of folks who will be able-bodied, not working, not willing to work who will be covered, but i think on balance,

given the choices that we have, it turns out to be theest policy decision for us to make at this time. geoff: there are few incentives these days for elected officials to change their minds on issues like this. might there be any consequees? what is your level of concern? > i think the public by and large is supportive of expansion of medicaid. i think the opposition is clearly there. it is probably more pronound in what would be described as a very red district, but even there, in the senate last year, we had 44 votes in favor of expansion in the bill that we passed. most of those positive votes were republicans and in

republican leaning districts and quite frankly i don't remember the expansion being an issue in either a primary or this point in the general election in the way that it would have been 10 years ago or the way that people thought it would be now. geoff: senator, thanks for your time. >> thank you. amna: when folklorists went to the american south last century to record and preserve traditional string band music, they probably didn't imagine that someday a 27-year-old like jake blount would come along to not only update the tradition, but to help ensure its future, too. blount is gaining recognition for his work and is up for artist of the year at the "international folk music awards", being held tomorrow night.

our special correspondent met up with him for our arts and culture series, canvas. ♪ >> jake blount is a musician on a mission. upon first listen, you might think it was simply to keep up the tradition of what is known as old-time, or string band music. >> i tried to cultivate a close relationship with the body of source recordings that we have that come from these bygone musicians that are a generation or two or three ahead of me. >> he has studied those sources. but jake isn't content to simply research and copy the past. in fact, he has pulled the sound right into the present and put his own spin on it. ♪

>> string band music, whether spirituals, is still alive and breathing and growing. it is not restricted to old times. i think it is perfectly allowable to admit that people who are young and alive today have things to contribute to that. >> he proved that point on his first full-length release, where he covered leadbelly's classic tale of jealousy, where did you sleep? last night? ♪ >>'s version changes girl to a boy, giving the song and arresting new power, on an album it deemed an instant new classic. his most recent album is called the new faith. it contains a song called the downward road. this 1934 version is sung by a group of incarcerated black men

in south colina. ♪ it is a spiritual about the damnation of unbelieving souls. ♪ but jake has repurposed it. the road still heads downward and it is still crowded with imperiled souls, perhaps for eternity, but the doom that awaits is a new kind of hell, environmental catastrophe. >> if you are anxious about climate change, say, woo! when we started this trip, a third of pakistan was underwater. we started this tour off -- >> one feels the precariousness

that your generation must feel about the future. >> i'm terrified. everyone i know is terrified. i don't know what we are supposed to do. i'm going to be old in the world is going to be collapsing around me. i felt like i needed to approach it somehow. >>'s approach is to put a futuristic spin on the songs of his black musical ancestors. >> designing the sounds, designing the concept meant thinking about people who have heard all of the music we have heard up until today, all these different genres that have come t of the black community. >> didn't it rain is a spiritual about noah's flood, once sung by

sister rosetta tharp in early rock 'n' roll fashion. >> ♪ didn't it rain, children ♪? ♪ ♪ >> blount takes a swinging approach, but the electric guitar becomes ominous. ♪ and he not only reworks records of the past, he imagines records that were never even made. he said one field rording went to making commercial releases, many black musicians were erased. >> they have made two kinds of records, hillbilly records, and race records, which is whatever black people did and they wanted that to be blues, jazz, eventually gospel. you have black musicians like a black banjo and fiddle player.

he never got recorded until he was a 7year-old man. i do love it, but that the end result is that people were written out of the sound. what i'm doing is reimagining a version of string band music where people were not erased. >> and where he is not afraid to mix old-time fiddle with hip-hop from his friend the rapper known as demeanor. ♪ you might say that is the sound of the future. ♪ for the pbs newshour, brooklyn, new york. ♪

♪ geoff: tonight on pbs, a new series recounts the birth of hip-hop and its emergence as a global cultural phenomenon now 50 years old. >> rap, ridley meekly -- rhythmically rhyming and spoken word, graffiti art, aerosol art, and djing were four distinct cultures and communities. they came and brought all that together into one place. some years later, they started calling it hip hop. ♪ >> hip hop was a movement created by, populated by, and

spoke to working-class kids. >> these were the kids that had the attitude about themselves. hip-hop is coming from within us. we were never not hip hop. we were always this from the time we were born. we were always this. >> there was a shot. hip hop empowered me. i can use this to not be afraid to tell the world who i am. >> hip hop is creativity and activity that comes out of the black neighborhood where everything has been stripped away. geoff: fight the power: how hip hop changed the world airs tonight. amna: remember, you can watch

much more online at pbs.org/news hour including a conversation about whether people can change their luck. geoff: join us again tomorrow night where we will speak with senator and former astronaut mark kelly about the 20th anniversary of the columbia space shuttle disaster. and that is the newshour for tonight. amna: on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major fundingor the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live your life. life well-planned. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic

engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> this is pbs newshour west from weta studios in washington and in the walter concord school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption ntent and accuracy.] ♪ >> ming music)

- [danielle] hawaii is the most asn part of america by a wide margin. and what that means to us at "lucky chow" is that everywhere you look, you'll find asian and pacific foods and flavors. some people come here to surf or sun tan, but we come here to eat. from farm to fishing boat, to table, hawaiian cuisine has been shaped by waves of asian immigrants who came for jobs at sugar cane and pineapple plantations and melded the dishes they brought from home with hawaiian ingredients and traditions. we've come back to the islands to meet with the latest generation of growers, fishermen, and chefs who are shaping hawaii's ever-evolving fusion of flavors. (upbeat music)