geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is away. on the newshour tonight. rescue workers desperately search for trapped survivors after thousands are killed by a major earthquake that shook turkey and syria. the u.s. works to recover debris from the chinese balloon it shot down. what china is trying to accomplish with repeated incursions into u.s. airspace. and. while women in afghanistan face intensifying oppression from the taliban, many still find ways to have their voices heard. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has beenprovided by --

and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutionso promote a better world. ♪

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: good evening. stretches of southern turkey and northern syria are in ruins tonight after a powerful earthquake ripped through the region. the numbers are staggering. more than 3700 dead, some 13,000 injured, and tens of thousands homeless. the pre-dawn quake hit in southern turkey -- with a 7.8 magnitude -- and shook buildings as far away as israel. a second quake followed, with hundreds of aftershocks. a moment of pure terror, people fleeing for their lives in turkey. whole buildings reduced to dust as the powerful earthquake ravaged turkey and syria. rescuers now battling freezing temperatures as they sift through debris. searching for survivors, and pulling out the dead.

many left waiting in shock for news of family and friends. >> there are people still trapped under rubble. i have a friend living in this apartment, his children were rescued from the top floor but his daughter broke an arm. we'll see what happened to those living on the ground floors. geoff: turkey's president erdogan called it the worst disaster sincehe 1930s. >> we do not know how far the number of dead and injured will rise, as debris removal works continue in many buildings in the quake zone. our hope is that we will recover from this disaster with the least loss of life. geoff: one woman trapped in her destroyed apartment building, rescued by crane. cheaply and improperly built apartments have been a problem across the country many of them , now teetering on the edge of collapse. across the border in syria, workers scrambled to pull victims out from under destroyed buildings.

a harrowing scene of a baby, born in the rubble, who was rushed to safety. the mother did not survive. elsewhere, a rescuer frantically carried a little girl away from ruins. one survivor of the quakes described his family's escape from almost certain death. >> i have four children and my wife. we were at home sleeping peacefully. we felt the quake, it was very strong so i pulled out with my wife and kids, and ran directly towards the entrance of the house. and as we reached the entrance of the building, it collapsed totally on us. a wooden door fell on us, which saved us. the building consists of four stories, none of the people in the other three stories have survived. geoff: at this hospital more , evidence of the enormity of the loss. bodies wrapped in blankets fill the floor. the hardest hit regions in syria are home to millions of

displaced refugees from the country's civil war living in , poverty with little access to health care and few resources. the united nations sectary general called for support for both countries. >> let's work together in solidarity to assist all those hit this disaster many of whom , were already in dire need of humanitarian aid. geoff: the u.s. says it is working with turkish authorities to provide assistance and rescue crews. more offers of aid have been pouring in as the world watches the death toll climb. we are joined now by the syria country director for the humanitarian group mercy corps. this is a very complex search and rescue operation hampered by severe cold and snow. there are also powerful aftershocks. what's the situation on the ground right now? >> thanks. our our team is based in northwest syria, and it's probably one of the most vulnerable parts of this region.

so there's very limited infrastructure in that part of syria. so one of the biggest challenges today has simply been the electricity functioning, communication working so that we can actually contact our teams that are on the ground and actually assessing what those needs are and how people have been impacted. we're primarily looking at a shelter as the immediate need because within northwest syria, a lot of the infrastructure is damaged. houses of collapsed. apartment blocks have collapsed. so people are without homes at the moment. we are in probably the worst part of winter. the next few days are going to be extremely cold. so we have the additional pressure on top. so having a safe place to sleep, mattresses to sleep on blankets, these kind of very basic but immediate needs are for the next few days. i think following that, there's going to be some other critical areas that we do need to look at, and that will include things

like the access to water. people have been moving throughout the last 12 years of this conflict, living in temporary shelters such as tents. they need water on a regular basis simply to survive. those water sources, we now have been damaged through this earthquake. so we need to find ways to find that water, to bring it to those people, to maintain what is actually our regular work in syria. so i think those are going to be some of the key challenges and what we're going to be working on over the next few days and throughout the weeks ahead. geoff: for syrians who have endured a brutal civil war. this sense of suffering is really all too familiar. according to the international rescue committee many syrians have been displaced , as many as 20 times. how is how does that how is that exacerbated by the effects o this earthquake? >> and to be honest, it includes some of our staff who work with us. they are also displaced families who throughout this conflict have been affected and have had to move multiple times. syrian population is extremely resilient and the fact that

they've continued to survive throughout the last 12 years of this conflict does speak a lot about those communities. however, here we are again with another crisis. the last 12 months have been tough. we've had the ukraine conflict, which has also impacted on the availability of food. we've had cholera just before the winter, which again, as hard -- has been devastating for communities. and now we have what's happened today, which is which is really devastating and concerning about what hpens next. we do know the syrian people will keep moving forward, that is for sure. but they are going to need a significant amount of support. and that's also the concern that we havas syria has been dropping off the kind of priority list for the past four years because of other situations around the world. but with what's happened today, it's something that cannot be forgotten. and we need to step up. we need the international community to support the people of syria tonight and torrow night and through the rest of the weeks and months ahead.

>> in turkey, as you know, is facing a collapsing currency, runaway inflation. how is that economic hardship affecting th rescue effort and how will it affect the recovery effort long term? >> yes, the economic collapse, to be honest, in the whole region has been extremely difficult for people. even just finding jobs to continue their daily lives prior to this current crisis. we've seen the syrian pound also have huge issues around inflation. things are daluing all the time. it makes it very difficult for people to have businesses to find jobs to support themselves. the global economy is impacting on this in a very significant way. so what happens around the world have impacts on those people inde syria. additionally, and this will make it hard. one of the pbably bigger concerns in the inhe immediate future will be the access to goods.

we have pre-position stocks such as mattresses, blankets, jerrycans, these kinds of things that we can distribute immediately. but those resours will run out and we will need supiers, we'll need contractors to have those stocks. and i think it's being able to access that again, there will be pressure on that over the coming weeks because everybody will be looking for those items and we'll all be trying tsource it. geoff: kieran barnes witthe humanitarian group mercy corps speaking with us from istanbul tonight. thank you. >> thanks. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. updating our top story. the death toll in the turkey and syria earthquakes has surpassed 4000. president biden called president erdogan to offer condolences and assistance. in other news --

russian forces kept up the pressure in eastern ukraine -- possibly, building toward a new offensive. already heavy fighting intensified around the city of bakhmut. meantime, crews worked to restore power in odessa after a fire. it started in equipment that's been damaged by repeated russian shelling. israeli forces killed 5 palestinian gunmen early today in the latest raid on the occupied west bank. the israeli military said a gun battle erupted as troops tracked down militants, after a failed attack on a jewish settlement. palestinian officials called the raid a crime. more than 40 palestinians and 7 israelis have been killed so far this year. tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance workers in britain are back on strike. unions say the 408i will the largest in the history of the uk's public health system. health workers today renewed their demands for a pay increase amid the worst inflation in 4 decades. they said it's killing their profession. >> i think were going to nd it

harder and harder to recruit, harder and harder to retain staff. a lot of people have left the profession already because they are so disillusioned. i think we've got to look at the future. stephanie: the nurses plan to strike again tomorrow. in the meantime, they say emergency care and cancer treatments will continue. in hon kong a landmark national , security trial began for some of the city's most prominent pro-democracy activists. their supporters gathered outside the court for a trial expected to last 90 days. the 18 defendants are accused of holding an illegal primary in 2020 and trying to bring down the government. it is seen as part of china's clampdown that is mostly silenced hong kong's pro-democracy movement. still to come -- calls for paid leave grow louder 30 years after the passage of the family medical leave act. hundreds of migrant children remain separated from their families despite the push to reunite them.

we look at the major takeaways and surprises from the grammy awards. >> 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. geoff: the u.s. sent divers to salvage what they believe is spy equipment from the chinese balloon shot down this weekend off the south carolina coast. william brangham has the story. william: chinese officials still maintain this was a civilian weather balloon that went off course and again criticized the u.s. for shooting down, but the pentagon has rejected that claim , saying it was clearly for surveillance and under control of the chinese government. it became public last week as a traveled over montana and some u.s. military facilities before continuing 20 east coast.

the balloon was shot down once it was over the atlantic on president biden's order and its thousands of pounds of falling debris post little hazard. the pentagon set another chinese balloon has been detected over latin america and that three other chinese balloons briefly crossed during the trump administration. their presence was not known at the time and only discovered by reviewing archive satellite imagery. we are joined by a long term analyst. her latest book is overreach. thank you so much for being here. the chinese claim this is a weather balloon blown off course. the pentagon says that is not true, it was a surveillance device. where do you come down on that argument? >> i'm persuaded by what the

pentagon has to say. i think the weather device is a cover story. it may persuade some people in china, but certainly not interventional he. william: last week the secretary of state canceled a long planned diplomatic mission to china because of this balloon. surely the chinese new this balloon would be over the united states on the eve of the diplomatic mission. how do you explain that? >> it certainly is a puzzle. xi jinping was eager to prevent the downward spiral in relations to the united states from continuing. china has a lot of domestic problems right now. they really did want him to come.

it is very self defeating. it is the result of poor internal coordination and not a decision by xi jinping. i think he has approved this program of surveillance balloons , but i really doubt he approved this brazen effort just a few days before blinken was about to come. geoff: the most powerful leader china has had in decades. before you are describing is correct, it seems to dent that image. >> yes, and we had a lot of

these poor coordination in earlier period's of china where you have the collective leadership. in the case of xi jinping, he has claimed full responsibility and he has organized a system in which he can control everything. it is a big, complex system. subordinates do what they think xi jinping should do. some people believe that there may be elements within the chinese pla who may be trying to subvert the diplomacy but i

think it is more likely that people were on autopilot here and they just kept doing it and then the winds may have had something to do with it. william: reportedly, there were also failed attempts by u.s. officials to contact the chinese counterparts when this balloon was circling the u.s. what does this incident tell us about the superpower costs ability to talk when the need to talk when there is a potential crisis? >> i believe this is the most worrisome feature of the whole incident. the biden administration tried to consult with their chinese counterparts, either the chinese did not answer the phone or they answered the phone, but said they needed more time. nobody feels they can take a

position until xi jinping authorizes it. that might have been part of the problem. in any case, their ability to coordinate during a crisis is poor and worrisome. william: the trip was to reduce tensions between t two nations. do you think the tensions can be reduced? >> i believe we have to test it. that is why i thought it was very positive that the president mexi jinping, that blinken was going and it would give us an opportunity to see whether or not xi jinping would be willing to moderate some of his more

belligerent foreign policy in order to stabilize relations with the united states. i really don't know the answer to that. especially at this time when china's economy is on the ropes. there are a lot of reasons for him to want to moderate these policies to improve the chinese economy. william: thank you so much for being here. >> my pleasure, thank you. geoff: this weekend marked the 30th anniversary of the family and medical leave act becoming law. but the law -- which provides unpaid job protected leave to millions of americans -- still comes up short for too many workers. laura barron-lopez has a look at

its impact and the challenges ahead. >> the family and medical leave act was hailed as revolutionary for its time when president bill clinton signed it into law in 1993. workers were guaranteed job protection if they needed to take time off to care for themselves, a newborn baby or a sick family member. at a white house ceremony last week, former president clinton said the landmark legislation is more widely acknowledged than any other acon of his presidency. and he sred one father's story about the law's impact. >> he grabbed me by the elbow and i turned around and he had big tears in his eyes and he said, you know, my little girl is not going to make it much longer, but he said because of the family and medical leave act, these months i have spent with her are by far the most important time of my life. >> but the family and medical leave act only goes so far.

according to a recent analysis, 44 percent of american workers do not qualify. for more on this i'm joined by jocelyn frye, she is president of the national partnership for women and families. thanks so much for joining the newshour. you've described the family and medical leave act as groundbreaking. what impact has it had on families over these last 30 years. >> thank you for having me. it has had an extraordinary impact. we estimate that more than 463 million people have used the fmla at some point. that is simply an astounding number. i think it speaks to the need that was present 30 years ago and the continuing need families face to make sure they can care for loved ones in emergencies. >> at the end of the day, this is unpaid leave for families.

what limitatio does this law pose for workers and what demographics are left uncovered? >> it is unpaid leave so while it is job protected, there are a lot of workers who simply can't afford to take time off and lose pay. we estimate that 10 million workers don't take leave each year and 7 million of those don't do so because they can't afford to take unpaid leave. the other thing we know, workers of color are disproportionately and that number. 48% of latin at workers. 43% of black workers. workers of color are bearing the brunt of the gaps of the fmla and those are gaps we should fill. >> president biden recently said he would push for paid family

and medical leave. efforts to pass that last year failed because of one democratic senator, senator joe manchin of west virginia. he did not support tethering the fade -- paid family and medical leave to the inflation reduction act. there is also a new bipartisan group in the house that is trying to pass this paid national leave program and they are meeting for the first time tomorrow ahead of the state of the union speech. can a national paid leave program pass a divided congress? >> i think it certainly can. the fmla was a bipartisan bill. there were republicans and democrats who worked for its passage. it was also vetoed twice before it was enacted. it took nine years to pass the fmla.

while congress may look challenging the moment, we are not giving up and will never give up because we know that the public are costs - across the country want paid family and medical leave so we will continue to push for. we came close with build back better but the good thing is we came so close, closer than we have ever been before. we will just keep pressing. >> the president was pushing for 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. some small businesses and conservative think tanks have said a national paid leave program would reduce productivity in the workplace or create a heavy financial burden on businesses that have less than 10 employees. what is your response? >> i would say those are the same criticisms people did here

30 years ago when the fmla was passed. i think the data speaks for itself. what we know is that the fmla has not been a problem. it third of those employers say it has helped with productivity. we know the research speaks otherwise. we also know that there are those who say it has been good for business. many of those critiques are just not borne out by the data. i would say for very small businesses that if you listen to groups like small business majority, what they will tell you is that investment of a paid leave program at the national level will take off some of the costs that the small is now have to deal with. >> we have to ended their.

thank you for your time. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: it's been more than a year since the taliban banned teenage girls in afghanistan from school. and *women there can't attend college, aren't allowed to work with aid groups or even go to amusement parks -- in essence they cannot lead normal lives. we've been speaking to young girls whose dreams have been stifled and women protesters who have been standing up against this crackdown in the face of serious threats. nick schifrin has their stories. nick: afghan women are undaunted. but they are hunted. the woman in the red scarf, she and her friends are at war. the taliban target her, and other female activists who dare to protest. including last august, on what

they call the dark day, one year of taliban rule. we spoke to her by phone and are protecting her identity. >> they beat me and my friends up. most of us were held hostage. they were shooting guns right in front of us, and they were thatening us. nick: before the taliban takeover, she worked in the government. her daughters attended school. they, and she, lost everything. she's fighting for the life she once had. for that, she's punished. >> they hit my back with the butt of a rifle. they hit my hands with a whip. they kicked me, too.ust like me, most of my friends have been beaten up and arrested. some of my friends were taliban hostages for almost a month. nick: nevertheless, she persists, demanding change, but suffering immediate blowback. >> after every protest, i couldn't go home for almost a month because there was the possibility of my location being discovered, and my getting

arrested. each time after i protest, i receive calls from anonymous numbers. they warn me that if i protest again, or come out onto the street, i will be killed or vanished, in a way that nobody will be able to understand what happened to me. nick: and yet her acts of courage created confidence, in a younger generation, including this 20-year-old college student . >> i'm watching women who are protesting in the streets. it's a big hope for us. and if there would be a revolution, absolutely it will be done by women. nick: she was studying to become a dentist. but now, she's banned from college. so the student has become the pressor. she's teaching english at a secret school, online. >> i still have hope. i am teaching girls who are banned to get an education through online platforms.

i recd my voice, i record presentations. our activities are somehow under the radar. nick: and that's what saves her. because the taliban track secret schools. she understands the risk. >> they can kill me or they can put me in jail. they will torture me. i'm resolved to do it because i believe these opportunities that i'm providing for girls, really deserve it. they have gotten depression. they're crying all the time. nick: depression is a harsh reality for most young afghan women. one, we'll call fauzia, used to be the happiest girl in school. now, her hopes have been crushed. >> this is really, really dark. and i think that all my wishes and all my dreams are dying, and i can't achieve them. i don't know what to do and that's really broken my heart and it's really bad. i was a girl with big dreams. i really don't know what will happen, and i don't see any

brightness. i don't see any light in my future. nick: that darkness is literal, for a woman we'll call bibi. >> right now'm in a very dark and small room, where i'm scared that a talib could just come anytime. nick: she too, used to be a government employee. last year she protested multiple times. she says she's willing to sacrifice her blood for freedom. >> my family is really scared for my life. they tell me that one day you will get killed, your life is in danger, and we won't even be able to find your body. but when i think about it, everything i do is worth it. if my blood brings education or human rights to the next generation of afghan women, i am ready to do it. nick: not just a fight for human rights. it's a fight for survival. this hospital, full of children suffering from pneumonia. and these parents pray, over

their own child's grave. he died last week of hyphermia. this has been the worst winter in a decade. two thirds of the country needs humanitarian assistance. >> the situation here is way worse than it is reported. when i go to the bakery. men and women waiting for someone to give them bread. >> what conditions did you see there? what conditions do they currently face? >> it is very dire. they suffer terrible droughts. they are experiencing an extraordinarily beautiful -- brutal winter.

28 million need humanitarian assistance. it's grim. >> you have been working in afghanistan for four decades. have you ever seen conditions like the conditions they are facing? > this is about as dire as it gets. it's the combination of the effect of climate change, the effective decades of conflict in the isolation of afghanistan, which came along with the taliban taking over the country a year and a half ago. the banking system doesn't work. you can't make transactions. people can't access their bank accounts. they desperately need and depend on humanitarian aid. >> the taliban have banned women from organizations and you have called that a deathblow for your work in afghanistan. >> without women working in the

delivery of humanitarian assistance, we c't access women and girls and women and girls are always our primary target beneficiary for humanitarian assistance and protection. in afghanistan, that means you must have women working in the front lines of humanitarian organizations, otherwise we won't know if we haveeached the right people, understood the assessments of need, on top of the rights of women, which have been impeded by these edicts. >> what was your message to the taliban? >> the message was very clear. this edict does you no favors, it needs to be rescinded. health and education have already since that edict been exempted from it. the second message to all those taliban leaders that i met with my colleagues is expand those

exemptions to all the sectors that require assistance, whether it is refugees, basic services, protection against gender-based violence. the reaction from the taliban is we understand your concern and are in fact in the process of preparing guidelines. and they said, i think you will be positively surprised by those guidelines. well, we will have to see. >> you have said the taliban has asked you to be patient while waiting for those guidelines. you've dealt with the taliban for decades. are they just stalling? >> i don't think they are just stalling, but patience is not unlimited. they hope to have these guidelines done and out by march. i hope so. there is one more thing which needs to happen. this is i think almost as important. that is the international community needs to engage with

the taliban across the board. engaging on all issues like counterterrorism, counter narcotics, abouthe economy. there are many things we could do for the people of afghanistan, which are being held back because of the lack of a relationship and engagement with the taliban. >> washington says it is not impeding any kind of humanitarian access, but the u.s. maintains the foreign reserves frozen in international institutions. do you believe the u.s. needs to change its policy and have more engagement and less punishment? >> my message to the u.s. government is exercise your leadership to ensure that afghanistan is not isolated and insulated, but a place that we understand and that we approve eventually of the ways in which they allow us to help their people.

>> i have talked to other humanitarian officials who believe that you in the u.n. are too deferential to host countries and that they would want you to criticize host countries publicly rather than keep any criticism prite in the hope that you will maintain your access to the country. what is your response? >> i think the record is pretty clear, they have a pretty poor record of achieving the results we need to see so i'm a believer in encouragement and clarity and accountability as a means of engaging. >> regardless of the policy, the people of afghanistan desperately need help quickly. >> they desperately need help quickly. isolation means people die when they need food. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. ♪

geoff: it has been two years since the biden administration took on the task of reconnecting children with their families after they were split up under the trump administration's zero-tolerance policy. roughly 1000 children still remain separated. caitlin dickerson has reported on this extensively for the atlantic and joins us now. >> thank you for having me. geoff: the trump administration zero-tolerance policy separated more than 5000 children from their parents with no process for reuniting them. the roughly 1000 childre that still remain separated, what do we know about them? >> the one thing that is true of all of the children who have not been reunited yet with their parents is that they are no

longer being housed in the government overseen shelters where they were initially sent after separation, but that is really all they share in common. the children who have not been reunited with their parents are scattered across the country. some are living with extended relatives. summer living with family friends who agreed to take them in. some have been taken into the care of state child welfare organizations and may be living in foster homes or adoptive homes. that is one of the challenges to reuniting the children with their parents. they can be very hard to find. geoff: it seems the number of children who have yet to be reunited, it seems that number is growing. why is that? >> these numbers are a moving target. you initially mentioned about 1000 children who have yet to be reunified. that is the number we are hearing from the biden

administration, but immigrant advocates would push back because the biden administration considering a subset of family separated under the trump administration and that is the number from which they are pursuing their work. that number is about 3900. actually more than 5000 famies were separated. some of those were excluded from the federal court case, so advocates argue that the total number of families who remain separated are much higher. there is a second reason why it is a moving target, an official said to me today, we are still uncovering new separations and new horrors all the time. there are families who have come forward as part of the reunification process, they have applied for reunification and identified themselves as having been separated, there was no record of the separation but the biden administration was able to

do a forensic analysis to determine this family was separated. that is something a focused a lot on my reporting, this often nonexistent record-keeping. that is why it is very difficult. an administration official told me we will never get the point where we have a total number of separated families and we will never get to a point where every single separated family has been reunited, which is very stark and troubling. geoff: tell me more about that. what does this reunification process entail? >> there are advocacy organizations on the ground in central america looking for separated parents. they are trying to track down parents who have not yet been contacted by the government and also to find families who were identified in the early months following the end of family separations but who the government has lost track of sins. these advocacy groups tell them

about the process to apply for reunification and walk them through the process along with the iom, which the administration has hired to help with this work. they do lots of refugee resettlement work. it is a month-long process to go through from start to finish, apply and be brought back into the united states. that is when behavioral health services are offered and just the beginning of that bond, the re-formation of that bond starts. it is something that is going to go on for a very long time and perhaps forever. geoff: there seems to be little to no appetite within the biden white house to hold trump administration officials responsible for this policy even the president biden himself said the practice was criminal. >> you are right. we have not seen any concrete evidence that there is such an appetite. it doesn'tean that one won't

come down the road. but they are certainly not talking about it now. there are policies been developed internally in the white house and the department of homeland security to prevent future family separations, but as we all saw under the trump administration, if those policies are not codified they can go away on day one of a subsequent administration. so they are not necessarily as durable as a legal change or concrete accountability for the individuals who came up with and carried out the family separations to begin with. geoff: thanks so much for sharing your reporting. >> thank you. geoff: the 65th annual grammy awards last night showcased a hip hop tribute for the ages and featured some major high points in the music world from this past year.

but the top honors weren't what some expected. jeffrey brown reports about ongoing questions about the process as part of our arts and culture series, canvas. ♪ >> the night began in spanish with puerto rican superstar bad bunny. and featured musical legends, including stevie wonder. and today's biggest pop stars, including lizzo, who won 'record of the year, and harry styles, whose harry's house brought him album of the year. in what many including the winner considered a surprise, 73-year-old bonnie raitt won song of the year for just like that. >> thank you for honoring me. to all the academy, that surrounds me with so much support and appreciates that art of songwriting as i do. >> the award for pop duo / group

performance was won by sam smith and kim petras - who proudly noted being the first transgender woman to win the award. >> i just want to thank all the incredible transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open for me so i could be here tonight. ♪ >> we are celebrating the happy 50th anniversary to hip hop. >> another highlight, a 15-minute celebration of 50 years of hip hop that brought several generations of stars to the stage. an acknowledgementf the impact and influence of a musical genre that has at times had a rocky relationship with the often tradition-bound grammys. and the queen of the night -- beyonce, of course, who made history with four more grammys, becoming the all-time grammy winner wit32 career awards. but this too, came with some caveats and criticism, when her widely touted renaissance album failed to win in any of the top categories.

i'm joined now by shamira ibrahim, a culture and music writer who contributes to a variety of media including npr the new york times, th , root, and the cut. thank you so much for joining us. i want to start with the beyoncé, the most honored artist, and yet for many feeling like she hasn't really been honored as she should. how do you explain that? >> thank you so much for having me. i think there are a variety of things happening. i think one of the big things is that beyoncé exists at the intersection of peak appeal and yet outside of the actual formal structure of what is the usual promotional cycle that is expected within the recording academy. the grammys is an entertainment production as well as a trade award show. for the grammys to legitimize

itself as music's biggest night, it needs to continuously engage the biggest artists, such as drake, beyoncé, jay-z, and some of the biggest entertainers of the world. to promote something like beyoncé breaking records, beyoncé as what is known as the biggest artist across arguably two generations is a conversation that continues to enmeshed itself in the zeitgeist. that is something that is one part of the conversation here. >> but not winning album of the year time after time. and this has been a long-running question and issue for the grammys, especially when it comes to black women not winning the top award. >> correct. and part of that is due to the fact that beyoncé has expressed desire to not really participate in the rigmarole of the academy.

one of the standards that exists is to do a full promotional cycle, an 18 month campaign, 12 month campaign. beyoncé has become institution in and of herself and she does not need to participate in press covers, going to all of the 12 chapters of the grammy institution to go ahead and campaign and demand or solicit votes of her colleagues and peers and really let the music situated itself as the cultural affection of change that it is. that kind of presents a question of what the music is and what the grammys wants to be as an institution. that is part of the conundrum that arises whenever she doesn't actually get the album of the ye award, which is the award really for the music or is it participating in the actual participation of doing the gladhanding that happens that a lot of these tradeshows?

> there has also been the notable history regarding hip hop, which last night got this sort of big nod with a 50 year retrospective. brought a lot of generations out there. but if opposition genre that has had its really fraught relationship with the grammys, right? >> correct and i think that is part of why there is a continued emphasis on the big four with genres like hip-hop and r&b, with genres and categories e allowed to be given front stage in the actual broadcast of the program itself? what performers are allowed to be showcased in the main broadcast? and over the years categories like r&b have gone from eight nominating awards to four nominating awards, and as the shifts continue to evolve, the big four, that is the unequivocal positioning of what across the industry really is

the gold standard of music. that is part of why this evolves as a conversation as to where the grammys wants to move to. >> continuing year-by-year discussion, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> tonight our student reporting labs team brings us another edition of "moments of truth," a series that delves into the spread of misinformation. david morrill of portland, oregon, was involved in online conspiracy theory communities -- until a mental health crisis forced him to confront his beliefs. he talked with his father about how he found his way back to reality. >> in the real world, i was falling behind in this digital fantasy i was unlocking the secrets of the universe. i'm a 30-year-old graduate student and we are here to talk

about how i slowly got drawn into conspiracy theories. >> i'm david's dad. i don't think at first i had any inkling that something was going on. >> it all started with something called the cicada 3301, this online puzzle that starts with the basic problem solving. you would take a nanogram and arrange letters correctly. i got involved more deeply in communities that were trying to crack this. i started going on reddit specifically. i realized i couldn't, but there were other less well-known puzzles and challenges that people were directing my attention toward. i got it in my head that there was some shadow group running everything and maybe if i solved these things they would let me in and i would be a member. i never knew what the grand sacred truth was, i was just going through a hero's journey of challenges and puzzles to try to get there may be. >> did you get more despate to

crack the code so to speak? >> yes, my relationships began failing darn near immediately after marriage and my income was paltry at best. i wasn't sleeping. i was taking drugs. i started getting really paranoid, as is a common side effect of marijuana. i started frantically reaching out and trying to express my concerns to you. >> you were talking about stuff that your mother and i didn't get. at some point, there was a traumatic event that brought this all to ahead. >> my imagination was running away from me, so i got in the shower and for over a dozen hours i refused to get out. people were knocking and i was terrified of them. the broader -- water running over me was comforting. doctors have labeled it as a ug induced psychosis. >> it is an absolutely

terrifying thing to see a loved one in that much distress and not know what you can do about it. we called in some experts on how to deal with it and basically talked him down and helped you on a path to recovery and you started working with people in the health care industry that helped. >> i wish i could give more of a single moment where the not believing in conspiracies kind of emerged. all i know is that by your not being judgmental, by not telling me that it was all fake or that i was crazy, i was able to slowly climb back out because of your support. >> going to make me cry. stuff has taken a turn. >> swiftly. >> for the better. >> now i've gotten two bachelors degrees, successfully defended my thesis last month. >> tell me a little bit about

that. >> i wanted to know what happened to me and also hopefully lp others in the future. itarted focusing on conspiratorial ideation and persuasion online. i've got to be honest, it is more invigorating going through the proper channels then it is making tse breakthroughs in your basement. >> i hope that your mother and i weren't accusatory. >> you were very supportive. at the end of the day, i could have dismissed anybody except you guys. you've made it abundantly clear through my whole life that you care. i appreciate that. >> it would be impossible to overstate how much we care. geoff: and that is the newshour for tonight. be sure to join us tomorrow for our live coverage of president biden's state of the union address, starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on line a 9:00 p.m. eastern on your local pbs station. i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us.

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