>> good evening, i am geoff bennett. amna: on theewshour tonight, in an exclusive interview, president biden delves into his vision for the second half of his term, promising progress despite a divided congress and low poll numbers. pres. biden: because the polls don't matter anymore. you have to make 40, 50 calls o a cell phone. geoff: rescue workers pull more people from the rubble after a major earthquake in turkey and syria, with the death toll rising higher as time runs out to find survivors. amna: and lebron james passes kareem abd-jabbar to become

the nba's all-time leading scorer. we look at how keen james -- how king james has changed the game. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist. a raymondjames financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live your life. life well planned.

>> the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the john d and catherine t macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.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 fm viewers like you. thank you. amna good evening and welcome. an air of desperatn is growing in turkey and syria tonight as

the chance of finding earthquake survivors grows dimmer by the hour. geoff: the death toll has grown to at least 12,000 with an unknown number still missing. jane ferguson reports from southern turkey, where a province along with idlib province in syria are among the worst hit areas. jane: combing through the dust and debris continues. there were over 90 people inside this apartment complex when it collapsed. so far only two gravely wounded survivors have been found. periodically the rescue workers stop what they are doing, machinery is turned off, and everyone falls quiet and listens for the sound of survivors under their feet. what appears like a silent tribute to the dead is actually still hope for the living. but desperate relatives on the pavement nearby know that hope is fading.

>> [indiscernible] jane: so a three-person family. have any of them beenulled from the rubble? >> it is very difficult to find life. jane: there is an unspoken for survivors is turning into the recovery of bodies. there are thousands of rescue workers like this across southern turkey, still digging to the rubble, determined to pull survivors from underneath collapsed buildings, but three days since the earthquake, the likelihood of finding anyone still alive diminishes every hour. president erdogan visited today and met with displaced families in a tent city. he addressed the growing

criticism about turkey's delayed disaster response. >> [translated] a total of 21,200 personnel of military and police are on duty. despite this, some dishonest people are campaigning at making false statements. there have been shortfalls. it is impossible to be prepared to face a disaster like this. jane: with elections in may, this is a testy time for erdogan. restricting social media preemptively during a crisis is common for his administration. in a hard-hit city, much-needed eight is trickling in. >> we have no water, no food, nothing. i want help. i don't care about shelter as long as my children are safe. >> we have to evacuate people from cities. you cannot le here, especially in this cold. there are small children.

if people have not died from being stuck under the rubble, they will die from the cold. jane: in northwest syria, scenes of devastation in idlib province. the battle continues to save lives. 200 people are trapped under rubble. all that is left are signs of a childhood lost. after more than a decade of civil war, gettingight into the opposition held province was already hard. now it is nearly impossible. none has reached this far, leaving many tfend off a brutal winter now out in the cold. locals and rescuers now lack the tools they need and manpower as they come through the rubble. mostafa is part of that effort, helping residents whose homes were destroyed. >> evacuation teams have been working for more than 48 hours to rescue survivors from the rubble and to extract the dead

bodies. evacuation teams have only the most basic supplies. jane: one man told us 25 of his family members lay dead under this collapsed building. >> they have obliterated this entire area. i urge your help. today we lost close to 25 martyrs. my uncle, his children. the extracted seven but there were 17 or 18 under the wreckage. jane: those who did survive are homeless, like this family now living in a temporary shelter for those who lost everything. >> we are in need of clothes for the children. we don't have any. we don't have any money to spend. we don't have food. we are suffering in the cold and rain. no one is helping us.

in other countries even when there is a small earthquake the world stands with them. here in idlib children have been under the rubble for three days. no one is helping. why? jane: desperation is mixed with frustration as the urgency to find more survivors grows. with each passing minute, these rescuers become collectors, adding to the horrific accounting of this disaster. i'm jane ferguson in adana, turkey. geoff: fresh off his state of the union address, pres. biden: left washington for wisconsin today. it's part of a push to highlight the economy and investments in infrastructure and blue-collar jobs. judy woodruff was on the ground with him in madison.

judy: early this afternoon the president toward a union job training site here in deforest, wisconsin, just north of madison, where he underlined his support for trade workers and training programs. this is part of his push to grow the middle-class by creating jobs for people that don't require a four year college degree. shortly after that, i sat down with him here for a long-delayed and wide-ranging conversation. we touched on the state of the economy. we talked about myew project, the country's deep divisions. we also talked about the coming political season. thank you very much for talking with us. we are in wisconsin, but let me ask you first about last night, the state of the union. you are getting a lot of added boy -- of attaboys from your

fellow democrats, saying you showed energy and stood up to the republicans. they were yelling at you, some called you a liar. did you expect that? pres. biden: the majority of republicans were not that way. there is still a significant element of what i call maga republicans, make america great again republicans. i kind of anticipated. the speaker was gracious and so were a lot of the members. judy: you almost seemed to be enjoying the back and forth. were you? pres. biden: as you know, i spent most of my career with the congress. i know the place well, i know the system well. i always feel comfortable, for real. i did it most of my life. wasn't too bad at it either.

judy: here we are in wisconsin. you have just given a talk to a group of union members. this place where we are sitting is all about training folks in construction work, union work. when you think about a trillion dollars worth of money from the inflation reduction act, the infrastructure legislation, the chips, the manufacturing bill, $1 trillion. how do you see that making a difference? pres. biden: a lot more than that. it's going to make a gigantic difference. we hav already created 800,000 manufacturing jobs in two years, and we paid for it all. they reduced the deficit by $1.7 trillion over two years. it's about giving working folks a chance. you have probably heard me say before, i have never been a big

fan of trickle-down economics. the middle-class, when it does well, everybody does well. my goal when i got elected was to build from the bottom up and the middle out. when that happens, the poor have a chance, the middle class does well, and the wealthy alays do well. judy: these kinds of jobs, what effect do you think this will have on working-class americans who frankly more and more are voting republican? pres. biden: a profound effect. just as i was told we were going to lose big in the last election and i was told we would not pass the inflation reduction act -- we passed them all. what's happening now is people don't realize, although they

were passed in june, july, august, september, it's only coming to fruition now. we play -- pay the highest drug prices of any nation in the world, but people did not know until january even though we talked about it last summer that prescription drug costs were going to go down, and insulin. it is now $35 a month. there is so much more to come. i think we started off with a proposition that the vast majority of americans don't think the tax system is fair. the vast majority, including relatively well-off suburbanites. the idea we have 1000 trillion errors and they pay less in a percentage of income than a schoolteacher does. it is now just starting to roll out. judy: i want to ask about that

because the picture you painted last night, unemployment at a record low. inflation is coming down, incomes are rising. you mentioned the polls. cbs poll, 64% of americans think the economy is in a bad shape. 70% think the country is on the wrong track. why the disconnect? pres. biden: because the polls don't matter anymore. you have to make 40, 50 calls to get someone to answer. e posters, you have talked to them. ask them what they think. judy: so you don't think it is your policy. pres biden: if you ask do they support rebuilding the infrastructure of america, overwhelmingly they do. ask anybody. if they support the chips and science act. we have attracted $300 billion in investments. we invented these chips.

they are coming back to america. we are going to be the leaders again. when we ask whether they are paying too much for drug prices, overwhelmingly yes. people have been through hell the last five years. the pandemic, we lost a million people that -- people dead. any time you turn on the news, do you report anpositive news? not you personally. everything is down, so people are understandably down. judy: a gallup poll saying most americans think the economy next year is going to be bad, do you think there is going to be a recession? pres. biden: from the moment i got elected, how many experts were saying in the next six months there was going to be a recession? judy: i am launching a reporting

project from the newshour looking at my the country is so divided politically and culturally. why do you think that is? pres. biden: i think it is a number of reasons. there was a deliberate effort by the last guy to play on people's fears and to appeal to base instincts. its just not who we are. i also noticed a fair amount of republicans standing up last night and clapping. for example when i pointed out some republicans talking about eliminating medicare. no, no, no. all of you are supporting medicare? they all raised their hand. we accomplished something. unless they break their word, no

cuts to medicare or social security. my point is i think it is the way we talk to each other. the party started to take for granted ordinary blue-collar workers. they got hurt the previous four or five years and everything went wrong in their lives. look at all the factories that have closed in the united states. they are coming back now. we have to make sure everybody knows what we have done and see what happens. judy: you came to the senate 50 years ago just before watergate when there had been assassinations, the vietnam war, civil rights struggles. do you think now is worse than the end -- then then?

pres. biden: i don't think it is better or worse. i think we had a different set of problems. we didn't have many people playing on the fears of the american people there was a genuine debate about the war in vietnam, the civil rights movement, which got me involved in politics in the first place. we passed the civil rights act among a number of things. it has gotten too mean. i think one of the messages they sent this last election was work together, get something done for us. judy: this last session of

congress, a lot was accomplished , including in a bipartisan way. you have a republican majority in the house, a number of supporters of former president trump. what realistically do you think you can get done, assuming the debt limit gets resolved? pres. biden: i think when we vote on whether to extend the medicare benefit to ordinary americans not just on medicare, medicaid, when we say insulin should be available 35 bucks for every american, i think you are going to see a lot of things done. they are starting to see those things happening. most people think we are going

to be a laborer. there are four year apprenticeships to be a laborer. it is like going to college. we have the best trained workers in the world. judy: but you think you can get those things through you described? pres. biden: by the way, we got them through, the things i am talking about. we already got them through. i think it is just a measure of demonstrating what we have done. judy: one thing republicans say is a priority for them is investigating your family. they talk about access others have gone because of you, because of your political success. how do you plan to deal with that? pres. biden: the public is not going to pay attention to that. if all they can do is make up

things about my family, it's not going to go very far. judy: i want to ask about foreign policy. the chinese surveillance balloon , you ordered fighter jets to shoot it down across the coast of south carolina. mike gallagher the congressman said it was unexpected both you did not shoot -- it was inexplicable you did not shoot it down earlier. parker rubio said it was dereliction of duty to not immediately tell the public about this. pres. biden: look, i told the public -- the military i wanted to show it -- to shut it down when it was safe. they said it was unsafe to do over land. they said ty could learn a lot by watching it go down over the country. as soon as they had a chance to shut it down over the water,

they did, and are collecting the pieces to see if they can learn from what they gathered. there were several of these balloons that the last administration didn't even know where they are. i just think the idea that there was a dereliction of duty is a bizarre notion. china knows what the deal is with us. judy: so china today is feeling that you smeared them in your remarks last night. have relations now between the u.s. and china taken a big hit? pres. biden: no. judy: how do you know? pres. biden: i know, i talked to them. judy: you have talked to xi jinping? pres. biden: i talked to xi

jinping before, our team talks to their people. judy: during this and since? pres. biden: i have not talked to them during this. but look, the idea shooting down a balloon that's thg information over america and that makes relations worse? i made it clear to xi jinping that we are going to compete fully with china but we are not looking for conflict. that has been the case so far. you are very informed on foreign policy. canou think of any other world leader who would trade places with xi jinping? not a joke. i can't think of one. this man has enormous problems. he also has great potential.

he has an economy that's not functioning very well. he is in a situation where -- for example, everybody assumed china would be all in with russia and ukraine. they are not all in. i called this summer and said this is not a threat, just an observation. look at what has happened to russia. 600 corporations have pulled out of russia from mcdonald's to exxon. you told me all along the reason you need a relationship with the united states and europe is so they invest in china. there has not been much going on there. judy: ukraine, you mentioned that. we heard what you said last night but we now also heard from jim jordan, who is a republican

congressman, that may be some of the money being spent in ukraine should go to american citizens. we heard kevin mccarthy raise questions about it. there has now been $100 billion the u.s. has spent on ukraine. you said to the ambassador, we are with you as long as it takes. does that mean it is an open ended commitment? pres. biden: the idea that the russian military with over 100,000 forces that would invade to try to marauder ukraine and us stand by and do nothing, come on. i think i am very proud of it. i was able to unite nato completely. he was convinced nato would collapse. i have been able to get our asian allies to join with the

europeans in terms of taking on russia. we have a better relationship and tighter control over our destiny now than we have ever had. we have germany increasing their budget by over 2%. we have japan doing the same thing. if these guys don't want to help ukrae, i get it, but what are they going to do when pressure rolls across ukraine or belarus or anywhere else? judy: is it open ended for now? pres. biden: yeah it is. there is no way pin -- he has already lost ukraine. he thought that if he invaded ukraine, he would get a welcome. secondly he thought what would happen is nato would collapse, would not do anything.

go down the line. none of that is happening. judy: two other quick questions. classified documents. it's clear there is a difference between the way you have handled this and former president trump. you have coerated with the archives and the fbi. i want to ask about what you said last september, that just possessing classified documents is totally irresponsible. what was totally irresponsible about the fact that you had some? pres. biden: they have informed me not to speak to this issue to end anyway prejudice the investigation that's going on. what i was talking about was what was laid out. all these documents were top-secret, code word, and all the rest. i'm not at liberty, and i'm not even sure -- i made voluntarily, no one has had to threaten to do anything, every aperture i had,

the house, offices, everything, for them to spend hours searching my home. the best of my knowledge, the kinds of things they picked up our things from 1974, stray papers. there may be something else, i don't know. one of the things that happened is what wanot done well is as they packed up my offices to move them, they didn't do the kind of job that should have been done to go thoroughly through every single piece of literature. i just thought the investigation has to decide what's going on and we will see what happens. judy: last question. every indication you are running for reelection. you have not announced yet. democrats, as i'm sure you know, are saying we wonder about his

age. you would be 82 the date of the next election, 86 if you a successful and finish that term. does it give you any concern? pres. biden: watch me. that's all i can say. it goes from one extreme to the other. last night i heard people were saying, just watch biden, age is not an issue anymore. i am a great respecter of fate. i would be honest with the american people if i thought there was any health problem that would keep me from doing the job. we will see. i think people have to just watch me. judy: it sounds like you are running. pres. biden: i haven't made that decision. it is my intention but i have not made that decision firmly yet. judy: mr. president, thank you very much.

amna: in the day's other headlines, ukraine's president zelenskyy rallied support in london and paris, on just his seco trip abroad since the war began. britain announced for the first time it would train ukrainian pilots on western jets, as ukraine braces for a new russian offensive. nick schifrin has more. nick: for 900 years, princes and politicians have walked these steps in westminster hall. today, to rapturous applause, the leader fighting europe's largest war in 75 years predicted freedom would win. president zelenskyy: we proved together that the world truly helps those who are brave in defending freedom and, thus, paves the way for a new history. nick: and ukrainian president

volodmyr zelenskyy asked for a specific weapon, by handing the house of commons speaker the helmet of a ukrainian pilot. >> we have freedom. give us wings to protect it. nick: today britain pledged to train ukrainian pilots on british jets, including typhoons. and brish prime minister rishi sunak said providing ukraine the jets was not off the table. >> the first step in being able to provide advanced aircraft is to have aviators that are capable of using them. that is a process that takes some time. we started that process today. president zelenskyy: i heard from mr. prime minister the desire to provide fighter jets. when it comes to supplying typhoons to ukraine, not everything depends on the decision of great britain alone. nick: so far, the united states has refused ukrainian requests for f-16 fighter jets. senior u.s. officials believe they are expensive, difficult to maintain, and would duplicate

some of ukraine's existing capacity. but today, secretary of state antony blinken did not rule it out. >> this is an evolving process, and we will continue to make judgments about what we think ukraine needs, and would be most effective. nick: zelenskyy today also visited paris, to meet french president emmanuel macron, and german chancellor olaf scholz. zelenskyy pointed out when he last visited europe, he got tea. >> we will be there to support you until the end and until you are victorious. nick: tay he got tanks. a declaration of unity -- >> worried about you, thinking about your country. nick: and the first ever meeting between a ukrainian leader, and a british monarch. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. amna: the french and german leaders said later that zelenskyy will attend a european union summit tomorrow, in brussels. investigators report they have strong indications that russian president putin approved sending missiles to ukrainian rebels, who then shot down a malaysian

airliner in 2014. t the international team said today the evidence is not conclusive enough to prosecute putin or anyone else. the attack on the airliner killed all 298 people on board. a dutch court already convicted two russians and a ukrainian of shooting down the plane. the u.s. military says the chinese balloon shot down off south carolina was part of a global surveillanceffort. the u.s. says it was a spy balloon. china denies it. but a pentagon preferred today pointed to chinese balloon flights over five continents in recent years. he said they're aimed at gathering military data, and he confirmed previous flights involving the u.s. >> we are aware that there have been four previous balloons that have gone over u.s. territory. what we do know is that in some cases, whereas some of these balloons previously had not been identified, subsequent analysis, subsequent intelligence analysis

did enable us to indicate that these were chinese balloons. amna: the state department says u.s. diplomats have briefed dozens of countries on those chinese surveillance activities. a texas man has pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes in one of the country's deadliest mass shootings ever. patrick crusius was accused of killing 23 people at an el paso walmart in 2019. he had posted online about, quote, a "hispanic invasion." federal prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty, but crusius still faces a possible death sentence on ate charges. three former twitter executives acknowledged today they were wrong to block a news story on the contents of hunter biden's laptop before the 2020 election. they told a congressional hearing they made a mistake, but they denied being pressured by democrats. the hearing was dominated by claims and counter-claims between democrats and republicans, now in the house

majority. >> instead of allowing people to judge the information for themselves, you rush to find a reason why the american people shouldn't see it. in a matter of hours, you are deciding on the truth of a story that spans years and dozens of complex international transactions. you did this because you were terrified of joe biden not winning the election in 2020. >> a whole hearing about a 24 hour hiccup in a right wing political operation. that is why we are here right now. and it is -- it's just an abuse of public resources and abuse of public time. we can be talking about health care, we can be talking about bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, we can be talking about abortion rights, civil rights, voting rights, but instead we're talking about hunter biden's half fake laptop story. amna: republicans say this was just the first of more hearings to, on the president's family

and on big tech. and in economic news, the walt disney company announced a restructuring that will cut 7000 dogs -- jobs, 3.5% of the workforce. and on wall street, uncertainty about interest rates and inflation kept stocks off balance. the dow jones industrial average lost 207 points to close at 33,949. the nasdaq fell 200 three points, 1.7%. the s&p 500 slipped just over 1% still to come, multiple security breaches at the dallas zoo raise questions about animals' safety. and one exceptional man's take on being inspired by the natural world. >> this is the pbs newshour from wta studios on washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: he is known as king james in the world of basketball, and last night, lebron james only added to that title and his

legend when he passed kareem adbul-jabbar to become the all-time scoring king in nba history. he blew past a record that stood for nearly0 years. >> looking for james, he has got it. coming to the end of the third quarter. lebron james, a shot at history. lebron stands alone! the nba's all-time scoring record now belongs to lebron james. geoff: after the game, lebron was asked by shaquille o'neal on tnt whether he now considers himself to be the greatest basketball player of all time. >> i'm going to take myself against anybody that has ever played this game, but everyone is going to have their favorite, decide who their favorite is. i know what i bring to the table every night and what i can do on this for.

i always feel like i am the best to ever play this game, but there is so many other great ones and i am happy to be part of their journey. geoff: let's bring in greg anthony, a commentator and analyst for nba tv. and he's a former guard who played in the league for 11 years for the knicks, grizzlies, blazers and bulls. we appreciate you being with us. lebron james says as far as he is concerned, he is the best to ever play the game. you can't really argue, or can you? greg: it's very difficult to argue with it. while he is immensely popular, he won't necessarily be the most popular and at times can be polarizing. i do think his accomplishments kind of set him apart. to be the all-time leading scorer, won four world championships, four mvps, still playing at a high level. probably be all nba again in his 20th season.

it's hard to go against that. a better way to have perspective on this also is if you think about over the last 100 years of pro sports, we have two athletes that probably have more hype than anybody else prior to them. what's amazing is both have exceeded expectations, and that's tiger woods and lebron james. remember this is a young man that came right out of high school and was dubbed the chosen one. so often, as i'm sure you are aware, when young athletes have that much hype and that large expectation placed upon them, the pressure often consumes and overwhelms them. that has not been the case with lebron. he has been an incredible ambassad for our game. he has grown the game immensely, has always had the courage to put forth his beliefs, his philosophy, and speak up for

those who may be were less fortunate. for me i would say he is the greatest ever. it doesn't take away from michael jordan or kareem abdul-jabbar or bill russell. all of these were the greatest at their time. as the game has evolved, if you look at the level of talent in our league, it has never been as hot -- as high. to be the best unquestionably in this era, it is hard to argue against it. greg: to your point about him not bowing to pressure, he had the nickname king james in high school. how did this kid from akron turn out to be one of if not the best basketball players of all time? greg: it's an incredible journey. raised by a single mom who had him at a very young age. was never i think overwhelmed of the temptations of success as a young person.

if you think about his work, the way he has conducted himself in an age when it is difficult to in essence go unscathed, especially when you put yourself out there like lebron has. don't know that we could ever have a better ambassador for the game of basketball. i marvel at what this young man has been able to overcome, arguably being the greatest team ever assembled. they broke the all-time win record set by michael jordan and they were down 3-1 in that series. for him to come back and win that is probably the seminal moment in his career, but he won three other championships, plate eight consecutive finals. to have those accomplishments is rare in this day and age.

he won a championship and three finals mvps. no one has ever done anything like that. geoff: he is 38 years old, in season 20 of his playing career. by conventional basketball standards, he is old. he says he is going to keep playing. he is averaging 30 points a game now. how high could his scoring record go? greg: he has said he wants to play in the nba with his son. i'm going to assume he is a couple years away from making it to the nba. realistically i think he is going to play another 3, 4 years. in his 20th season he is going to make all nba, which is incredible. i think he has a good three or four years at a high level. that scoring record could be put out of the stratosphere. geoff: greg anthony is a

commentator and analyst for nba tv. appreciate your time and insights. greg: my pleasure. amna: the mystery of two missing monkeys and the death and disappearance of other animals from the dallas new has captured the country's attention. today at the houston zoo, zookeepers are on high alert after a cut was discovered in the fence around the republican habitat. as stephanie sy reports, authorities are trying to pin down exactly what happened. stephanie: the series of unfortunate events at the dallas zoo began on january 13 when a clouded leopard named nova escaped. police were called after zoo staff noticed a suspicus opening in the big cat's enclosure. >> it was their belief and it is

our belief that this was an intentional act. and so we have started a criminal investigation. stephanie: the 25 pound leopard was found hours later on zoo grounds. but that same day, a second breach was discovered in a fence used to enclose the zoo's langur monkeys. none of them got out. then on january 21st, a lappet-faced vulture named pin was found dead and wounded. in a statement, the dallas zoo said, "the circumstances of the death are unusual, and the death does not appear to be from natural causes." concerns about criminal mischief have zoos on high alert. >> zoos across the country have taken a long, hard look at this. stephanie: ed hansen is the ceo of the american association of zookeepers, which is dedicated to advancing animal care and promoting zookeeper education. >> zoos all over the country are retraining their employees, taking extra security precautions, installing more cameras, basically whatever it takes. stephanie: the dallas zoo

installed additional cameras and increased onsite security patrols in mid-january, but it wasn't enough. late last month, more than a week after the vulture died, two emperor tamarin monkeys -- bella and finn -- went missing, there enclosure also apparently sabotaged. a search for the monkeys ensued, with police circulating an image of a suspect throughout north texas. the man was later identified as 24 year old davion irvin. >> preliminary investigation and help from the public identified him as the man that we were looking to speak to regarding this case. on thursday, we received a tip that irvin was seen at the dallas world aquarium near some animal exhibits. stephanie: irvin has been charged with six counts of animal cruelty and connection to the monkey heist at the dallas zoo and two counts of burglary. according to court documents, irvin told authorities he loves animals, and that if released, he would steal more. bella and finn were found in a

closet in an abandoned home in lancaster, a suburb of dallas roughly 15 miles from the zoo. beyond losing weight, they showed no sign of injury. meanwhile, in louisiana, the search for 12 squirrel monkeys continues after they were stolen from zoosiana on january 28. the private zoo is located just outside lafayette. zookeeper ed hansen says accredited institutions like the dallas zoo and zoosiana are required to meet safety standards. but that, broadly speaking, security measures at zoos are primarily to protect people, rather than animals. >> they're not meant to combat a break in and someone who wants to do malicious harm to either the animal itself or the enclosure itself. you know, in the future now with this happening, maybe there will be some revisions to protocols. stephanie: no motive has been released in the dallas zoo case, and the mysterious death of the

35-year-old vulture, an endangered species, remains under investigation. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. geoff: geoff: drew lanham refers to himself as a rare bird. he's an ornithologist, naturalist and writer. he views conservation efforts as a blending of rigorous science and having a vision of the broader world. lanham is among the new class of macarthur fellows, often called the genius award. jeffrey brown traveled to south carolina recently to meet him, for our arts and culture series, canvas. [hooting] jeffrey: a winter morning walk in south carolina's congeree national park, outside the capital city of columbia. the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest in this region of the country.

this is woodpecker destruction or what? drew: this is woodpecker buffet. they are going for breakfast. jeffrey: is not the busiest ti of year for spotting birds, but if you know what to look and listen for -- drew: that's the ruby crowned. jeffrey: and drew lanham does -- there's plenty going on. even if sometimes he can be fooled himself. a moment of birding comedy: a call from drew: his dentist. drew: well no, i wish that was a real bird. that's unfortunately my phone. jeffrey: lanham often wanders this boardwalk for hours, open to surprises. >> black and white warbler. that's a special bird. look how beautiful are you. the thing is that every time i come here, the light's different, you know, the trees are different. jeffrey: the water's different.

drew: the water's different. but having the time to sort of wander slowly allows you to see things that you didn't see the last time. jeffrey: lanham traces his love of the natural world to his childhood on a farm in rural south carolina and his understanding of human nature to his grandmother's stories of growing up in the jim crow south. he wrote of all this in a 2016 memoir, "the home place." birds were and are his continuing passion. he travels around the u.s. and to other parts of the globe to study firsthand how they behave. his greatest wish, then and now: to be a bird. drew: to see that bird soaring, to see a vulture soaring or to hear a bird singing. to see a bird flying from point a to point b so effortlessly - i wanted that. jeffrey: first you wanted to be a bird. then you wanted to study birds. but there was no pathway to do it at first? drew: no, it wasn't anything.

ask 10 people and nine are going to say what, orthodontist? no, ornithologist. and frankly, once people learned what an ornithologist was, then they said, well, that's not what black kids do. jeffrey: it would take years, after first being pushed to study engineering, at which he excelled but didn't love, for lanham to fulfill his calling. but he did, eventually earning three degrees, including a phd in forest resources from clemson university, where he's now taught wildlife science for 28 years. he's learned the sights and sounds of the trees and animals around him, which this day included a number of hermit thrushes. but he also learned, and teaches, that sometimes you have two put the binoculars down to really see. drew: sometimes as birdwatchers we become so focused on that bird, on that one bird, and we want to see it ultra close. and that's fine. jeffrey: that's the mission in

some sense. drew: yeah, that's the mission in some sense. but then when you put the binoculars down and zoom out and see that bird in the context of place and begin to understand habitat and begin to -- so this morning, looking at that tiny kinglit, then we can zoom back a little bit and we see that it's in holly and it's foraging in the holly. but then we zoom back and we see this wonderful wooded wetland landscape, right? we see this swamp. and then when we see the swamp you begin to think about all these other things. and the kinglet is still there, the kinglet hasn't gone anywhere. jeffrey: and these other things include human history. drew: and these other things include human history. jeffrey: indigenous people moving through the forest, enslaved people seeking safety -- safety, and our own present-day lives, all impacted by and impacting this landscape. drew: were i the sparrow, brownback, skittish, and small

-- jeffrey: lanham uses the tools of science to work for and preach conservation. but he also uses poetry, including the title poem from his 2021 book, "sparrow envy", identifying with a small brown bird, often overlooked. drew: i would find great joy in the mist-sodden morning sing humble pleas from the highest weeds and plead for the gray days to stay. jeffrey: it's a humble moment in the life of a fairly humble bird. drew: the understated beauty of brownness, right? you know, these are birds that are often passed by. i envy those birds in part because they continue to sing, they continue to be who they are. for a black person, for a black man who is often overlooked and dismissed in this society, to find common ground, i think, for

me is part of life's mission. jeffrey: in his own life, lanham, a bassoonist who takes a wooden flute into the woods, has lived with the complexities of cor in a world where birding while black is a thing. he says, for example, he had to drop an early dissertation project because the area he was conducting research in was home to a supremacist group who let him know he was not welcome. one piece in his book is titled, "9 rules for the black birder" drew: if somee calls and says, drew, there are evening grosbeaks that have appeared suddenly this winter in a particular neighborhood, you really should go see those birds. well, depending on the neighborhood, i'm not going to go alone. and so that's real, jeff. that's something i have to think about. and so while i'm watching the birds, i'm also watching to see who's watching me.

red shoulders are kind of suburban hawks -- jeffrey: lanham laments that too many young students of color still never learn they have the opportunity to do the kind of work he does. educators and the scientific community, he thinks, need to do better. and he makes a wider call to all of us, to leave places like this better than we found them. drew: that's all conservation news. leaving it better than you found it means you have to have some degree of care and love for people you don't really know. what a concept. that means you have to think outside of yourself, you have to take your binoculars down and see a broader vision and a broader world. jeffrey: a vision both very small and very large indeed. for the newshour, i am jeffrey brown. geoff: that is the newshour for tonight. amna: on behalf of the entire

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