♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on "the newshour" tonight... house republicans use a traditionally bipartisan defense bill to pick a culture war fight with the biden white house. we look at the impact. amna: a year after the reversal of roe v. wade, the correlation between a lack of reproductive rights and domestic violence becomes clearer. geoff: and... the push for renewable energy grows more contentious in rural kansas as wind farms divide communities. >> it becomes a classic case of we want renewable energy, but not in our backyard. ♪ >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by

the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of "the newshour," including jim and nancy goldman and kathy and paul anderson. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation, fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. ♪ >> and with ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- and friends of "the newshour." ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you.

geoff: welcome to "the newshour." there's still no relief from the heat tonight. a swath of the country stretching from the west across the south has spent another day sweltering in extreme temperatures. amna: phoenix faced a 15th straight day of temperatures at 110 degrees or higher. heat warnings have also taken effect in much of california. but at death valley national park, tourists have turned out to feel the burn. that's despite forecasts that readings could reach 130, this weekend. alessia: we heard in when we were in las vegas that they all just said, please bring water, because we know that it's so dangerous coming out here, even for maybe even half an hour walk, that you need to have water. i mean, there's like signs like everywhere saying heat kills. amna: overseas, scorching heat from africa has pushed into southern europe. the acropolis in athens closed for much of the day to protect tourists from temperatures that hit 104. and in italy, people brought their dogs to beaches to cool off.

geoff: in the day's other headlines, the department of education announced it's canceling $39 billion of student loan debt. it affects more than 800,000 borrower officials say their payments were miscounted. in a statement today, education secretary miguel cardona said -- quote -- for far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their payments. iowa formally joined several other states today, banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. republican governor kim reynolds signed the bill today at a conservative summit. the state's existing law allowed abortions until the 20th week. a state court could rule next week on whether to block the new statute. in russia, lawmakers today approved a ban on all medical care for transgender people, including gender-affirming surgery. the bill passed unanimously in its final reading. it would also outlaw marriages involving trans people and ban them from adopting children. the kremlin says it's meant to

protect what it calls russia's traditional values. the crackdown has drawn criticism not only from trans advocates but from the medical community, as well. an indian spacecraft is on its way to the far side of the moon tonight, aiming to make up for a failed landing attempt nearly 4 years ago. crowds in southern india looked on today as the spacecraft blasted off. it carries an unmanned rover designed to explore the lunar south pole. back in this country, the biden administration is free -- for now -- to press social media companies about problematic posts ranging from covid to election fraud. a federal appeals court today overruled a judge who blocked all such contact. a final ruling will await the outcome of a lawsuit on whether the government's actions violate free speech. and on wall street -- stocks had a mixed day to close out the week. the dow jones industrial average gained 114 points to close at 34,509. the nasdaq fell about 25 points. the s&p 500 slipped 4.

still to come on "the newshour"... the world health organization warns about the carcinogenic effects of a popular artificial sweetener... david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines... and a carpenter offers life lessons in his new book. >> 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: the u.s. house passed a nearly 900 billion dollar budget for the armed forces today largely on partisan lines. most democrats voted no after republicans added anti-abortion and other provisions to the bill. house speaker kevin mccarthy and democratic leader hakeem jeffries laid out the divide today. >> a military cannot defend themselves if you train them in woke. we don't want disneyland to train our military. we want our men and women in the military to have every defense possible.

that's what our bill does. >> as house democrats, we are going to cut out the cancer that the extreme maga republicans have put in the national defense authorization act, no matter what it takes, and we're going to partner with senate republicans and senate democrats to get a responsible national defense authorization act. amna: new york times congressional correspondent karoun demirjian is here to help us understand the plan's implications for the military and in congress. good to see you could before we get into the details, give us the top lines. >> it is for various defense and national security priorities. it covers everything from programs to help states better counter china and russia, $300 million in security systems -- assistance to ukraine and

includes a 5.2% pay increase for active-duty troops. amna: we mentioned, largely along party lines. why did sony democrats vote against it? karoun: the last few days, the republicans in the house have added a series of schuurs, amending them intohe bill that a lot of things democrats don't like. there was a measure they voted on yesterday that they rolled back a pentagon policy that offers time off and travel reimbursement to people, service members who have to go out of state to obtain an abortion. there was another provision that would into the military's ability to offer health care coverage for gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies, and a provision that slashed all of the office of diversity training into the officials that worked in those offices. and another one today that and the dod from implementing bidens climate change order. they are all anathema for the democratic party, so they said

we are not on this, it was supposed to be bipartisan and it is not. amna: there were two amend efforts that failed, and attempt to limit ukraine aid, that was backed by matt gaetz and marjorie taylor greene. another provision to restore the old confederate names of military bases. why did some of those failed to make it into the bill? karoun: the confederate name issue came up a couple of years ago, and is much as president trump was pushing for, it wasn't completely possible -- popular in the republican party. the ukraine one is interesting because we always knew the initiative to cut ukraine's funding was going to fail. too many mainstream leaders have been outspoken about to maintain support for ukraine because it's about the west versus russia we don't want to fight a war with russia. while democrats and republicans stay together to vote them down, the interesting thing is how

money will republicans voted to cut the funding. about a year ago, we saw some republicans vote against assistance to ukraine, now we sell 70 say no more money and i think it was about 89 said let's cut the $300 million program i mentioned. the members are taking a. -- taking up. amna: let's talk about the senate version which will likely look very democrats in the democratic controlled senate. this is a critical must pass bill. how does this get resolved? karoun: that's a good question. you're going to have a really republican measure from the house come face-to-face with a really democratic measure from the senate. if it was just up to members of the armed services committee, i think it would be a very --

bill. if you just left the four of them to work it out they would probably say let's do something we can pass with both houses of congress and a strong bipartisan majority. but it's got to go through a conference process were a lot more people will be at the table and they will be fighting really hard to include these provisions. at the end of the day, it's not clear if they can get a resolution for that. that's a situation where you would break congress's streak of nearly six decades of passing this annually. the defense bill is the biggest policy bill congress does every year and they are supposed to do these bills before passing bills for the rest of the government. defense is such a huge part of the budget. i guess the worst case scenario is can't get a resolution and defense goes the way everything else has. amna: i have to ask about one of the provisions to cut the diversity, inclusivity office.

one congressman used an outdated term to refer to black americans, he said colored people. doesn't that seem to undercut the republican argument that the offices needed? karoun: a nod of -- a lot of democrats went on the floor to say you need training. the gop won the fight in the house, it won't win the fight in congress, there has to be compromises. but they for making the argument that this is a waste of money that encourages racism, everyone is equal. but they need to walk the walk. people like this are using that term, it undercuts the argument. amna: a lot to track and we know you will be following up. good to see you. karoun: good to see you too. thank you.

♪ geoff: the world health organization has classified the artificial sweetener aspartame as quote possibly carcinogenic to humans -- and that has led to some concerns and confusion about the risks. besides diet sodas, aspartame can also be found in a variety of foods, including breakfast cereals, chewing gum and some desserts. the w.h.o.'s cancer research group said it was categorizing the artificial sweetener as a possible carcinogen, but the agency's food safety group said the evidence wasn't convincing. there's quite a bit to sort through here. and to help clear up some of this, allison aubrey of npr news joins us now. thank you for being with us. adding to the confusion, the fda also says it doesn't believe that this artificial sweetener is carcinogenic. so what do we make of all of this? allison: i think you have to start by looking at why did the

world health organization decided to look at this? the reason was that there have been several studies over the course of the last five or 10 years that found that people who consumed the most aspartame overtime had a slightly elevated risk of certain cancers. this was showing up in population studies. the question was why? so the scientists of the world health organization decided to review all of the evidence and what they determined is that though these were good studies, theyhether this finding of a slightly cneor elevated risk of cancer was due to chance or bias or just that the people who are getting cancer and consuming lots of aspartame might have other risk factors or other lifestyle habits that had put them at higher risk of cancer. geoff: the fda says that aspartame is one of the most studied food additives in the human food supply. it's been on the market for some 50 years. how are there still unanswered questions about its safety -- about its safety? allison: i think that's the

confusing part to people because the fda says look, it's safe. it's well studied, and on one hand, yes, it is very well studied. there are lots and lots of short term studies. i think that over time, if you think about cancer, it's a disease that develops over decades. i think the question was, this was introduced into the food supply in the that's when diet 1980's, cokes first started using aspartame. so the question was, was there some kind of long term risk that people were missing? i think that's what the w.h.o. was trying to assess and look at. but i come back to where the fda concluded, the fda basically says, as a sweetener in the amounts that people consume it, the agency has reaffirmed its finding that aspartame is safe. geoff: the american beverage association, the lobbying group, the trade group that represents coke and pepsi, says the bu ho -- w.h.o. finding is an expression of personal opinion, not the science and they say their products are safe. setting that aside are there

, recommendations from health organizations about how much people should consume? allison: the recommendation that comes from the agency within the w.h.o. says that people could consume a maximum of 40 mg of aspartame per kilo of body weight. so what that translates to for a 130 pound person is about 12 diet cokes per day. [laughter] geoff: that's a lot of diet coke. allison: that's a lot more than most people are consuming. geoff: so people don't have to give up their diet cokes? allison: bottom line is that the agency is saying we're asking for a bit of moderation here. i think that if you ask yourself, why am i drinking diet coke? am i drinking diet soda because i want to help manage my weight, and i think that's helping me? perfectly reasonable answer there. so a diet coke or two a day? i don't think that there's any evidence that's going to harm you. but you also might say, hmm. given the uncertainties i don't , really enjoy diet coke. i don't really enjoy aspartame.

i don't think it's helping me manage my weight. maybe it's a moment to reassess, but again in moderation. the fda says aspartame is safe. geoff: npr health correspondent allison aubrey, thanks for coming in. allison: thanks for having me. amna: long before the supreme court struck down roe v. wade -- ending the constitutional right to an abortion -- researchers noticed a link between women having abortion access and a reduced risk of violence from men. now, in the wake of the court's decision, the opposite is happening, both anecdotally and in the data: abortion restrictions have led to a significant uptick in intimate partner violence. the national domestic violence hotline reports seeing nearly a 100 percent increase in calls. our health reporter laura santhanam spoke to experts about this for a recent story on our website and joins me now. good to see you.

you've been talking to experts about this disturbing trend. what are they telling you laura: each year, nearly 12 million people are affected by domestic violence in the u.s., and part of what perpetuates the violence, control, isolation of victims by the abusers. when we saw overnight in many places the loss of access to nearby abortions just evaporate, people began to suffer. we're seeing preliminary dam a -- data and anecdotal evidence that are showing that the warning signs we saw before dubs came down are turning to materialize. amna: the national domestic violence hotline says 100% increase in calls, what does that mean? laura: there is so much need right now, it's coming through the hotline in many places. right now the hotline is hearing more than 3000 calls per day on average and that is the highest volume they have seen ever since

they were established in 1996. it is just this massive uptick and there is definitely -- again, preliminary evidence pointing to dobbs making things worse. amna: you spoke to a woman from the domestic violence hotline, here's what she had to say. >> after the dobbs decision, we knew that we were going to be hearing from survivors all over the country who were going to need critical support to talk about the abuse they were experiencing. to talk about the fears that they were feeling that now their access to reproductive health care had essentially been removed. and i think it's really important to say that an abusive partner will use any tool in their toolbox to exert power and control over their victim. amna: when it comes to tools in that toolbox, birds told you about an increase in something called reproductive coercion. what does that mean or look like in real life? laura: is a form of domestic

violence that we are hearing more about. especially after dobbs. what it means is an abuser could sabotage contraception, intercept birth control, could otherwise hinder a person's ability to control, have control over their own body. in my reporting i came across a story of a woman who was in an abusive relationship and could not leave her home but she could receive birth control. she got it through the mail and was able to keep control over that much of her life until her abuser discovered she was receiving her fourth control through the mail. he began intercepting her mail, got her birth control and eventually she became pregnant and was in a state where she could not access abortion. she didn't have the financial wherewithal to go somewhere else were she legally could. in that terrible story, it is not a one off, according to experts. it is happening again and again in this country and getting

worse after dobbs. amna: these stories are alarming and disturbing, that what are the numbers saying? laura: it takes time to get federal data sets but what we are saying in things like the domestic violence hotline is nearly 100% increase in these calls about reproductive coercion alone. experts also told me they have seen more than 20,000 calls related to nonconsensual sex. it gives you a sense of how these power dynamics are being manipulated and abused, and people who are losing access to one thing to give them some distance from abusers. amna: people will hear this and wonder, what if i need help or someone i know needs help, what we tell them? laura: the national domestic hotline is available 24 hours a day. you can chat atthehotline.org,

or text. 24 hours a day seven days a week. they are there to help make safety plans, find resources, how to find out you can get from a terrible situation to something hopefully better. amna: laura, thank you so much. ♪ geoff: the intense heat wave baking much of the country is expected to only get worse this weekend, leaving more than 100 million people under heat advisories. experts say this heat wave underscores the need to slow climate change, in part by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. but there already are fierce battles playing out around the country over how and whether greener energy should be developed locally. special correspondent and washington post columnist

catherine rampell reports. catherine: across kansas there are 400,000 wind turbines and growing. but controversy is also growing. >> friends against each other, families against each other. >> i know brothers that have farmed together for years and they hate each other now. catherine: technological advances and federal subsidies have spurred a green energy boom across the country. as critics have gotten louder, some local governments putting the brakes on development. >> and frei glynn county we've gotten a three-year moratorium on the construction of turbines or solar projects. catherine: what is this matter? the u.s. needs rapid renewable development to be climate goals. we went to kansas, ranked fourth in the country in wind capacity growth.

the diamond vista windfarm in rural marion county covers about 73 square miles. these 500 foot turbines have been generating power since 2018. jim oversees the maintenance >> -- maintenance. >> it's like 95 kids, good kids, ok kids and troublemaker kids. catherine: they have admirers. >> i think they are majestic. it is a marvel of engineering. catherine: david says when develop and has given struggling farmers a shot in the arm. >> this is generally a lower income area. it is poor ground and year here on extremely beautiful day. the wind howls. if we can generate income off of something that is not popular, that is a win. catherine: he leases his land and views it as another

extension of farming. >> personally i'm proud of the fact we are harvesting wind as a farmer. i grow wheat and we export it to feed the world. we raise cattle and export it to feed the country and world. i'm proud that we take wind and export the energy. catherine: he points all the ways the country has invested in the tiny town, population 100. annual payments to schools, money for a new library, funding for a freezer at co-op grocery store. $35,000 for a new fire truck. the volunteer fire chief. >> we have fundraisers but that is a lot of hamburger feeds to make that kind of money. catherine: the company also paid upgrade the roads. >> we use the roads to get into our pastors and get into the pastors, which wasn't possible before. >> my property goes down to the headroom. catherine: not everyone is a

fan. what was your reaction when you first heard wind development was coming to the area? >> anger, i'd just built this new home that was supposed to be my retirement home. wind turbines is not my dream. catherine: amy's property is surrounded by wind turbines recently installed by a different company. you were never approached about putting turbines on your property? >> no, i only own 20 acres and it is an 80 acre minimum. catherine: she felt powerless to protect the medical country setting she loves. these windows have blackout shades, why? >> when that is the new view, i don't care to look at it. i moved out here to be on farmland. windfarms are not farms. it's nothing but industrial and commercial. catherine: when we visited, the turbines were not yet operational. she fears things will get worse when they are up and running. shadows cast by the moving blades.

>> you're going to have shadow flicker, ice throw, noise, vibrations. what does that do to underground aquifers? what does that do to livestock? catherie: at the project on the others of the county, there's been no impact on livestock groundwater, but there is one common complaint about leaking lights that one aircraft. as for amy's property, this has destroyed her relationship with neighbors. i understand things got kind of heated >> i had vulgar messages prepaid and on the side of my house, i got death threats in my mailbox. catherine: she's been accused of harassing people herself and firing shots when wind company employees conducted a survey nearby. she says she was target shooting. >> i was convicted of three felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. catherine: you are appealing

this? >> yes. catherine: she wants to leave the area but says she can't afford to. >> one of my neighbors contacted a real estate agent and was basically told you don't even need the list. nobody will buy. catherine: elsewhere, residents of douglas county fear wind could hurt their property values. >> the turbines will start about three miles southwest of here along the tree line. they will run to the north. my wife loves this view and wind turbines will mess that up. catherine: philip is a farmer near lawrence and hosted a group of community members. including janet. >> if they put wind turbines and here, electricity does not stay here, it is sent to a thousand -- southeast or southwest power pool. >> our county has high population density. if you take the three cities

that are dominant out, we still have over 30 people per square mile. catherine: michael, president of the rural preservation association. >> put them where people are not affected. catherine: someidents in marion county saul wind as a way to preserve the area, others feel differently. >> we have absentee landowners that signed leases. farm owners rent background to farm and they will lose it. we have hawks and other birds that will be at risk. catherine: he and his neighbors say they don't oppose the products -- projects, they just don't want them nearby. >> i'm totally for clean energy but i don't like the idea of somebody ramming something down my throat. >> wind development over time is getting more contentious. catherine: sarah studies estate and local renewable policies at

the university of michigan. >> as the more remote rural places with lots of farmers have taken up and wind projects have moved closer to where our vacation home homeowners or people have moved in retirement, that's where you start to see a lot more contention. catherine: that means getting permits for new projects is more difficult in some places. >> what you've done at the local level is created what is effectively veto rights for the local governments. it a classic case of we want renewable energy but not an our backyard. catherine: nick, who oversaw development for diamond this -- vista, says he's running into more issues. >> a vocal minority can prohibit a broader community from benefiting from all of the economic and other benefits that

these projects provide. catherine: he says energy developers must commence local residents that it is in their interest, especially for going to meet decarbonization goals. >> it's hard because we can all imagine landscapes we would not want to see energy infrastructure. one of the tricks is those landscapes for me might be different than for you. people in a place may have inferences of opinion about that same landscape. catherine: as is the case and the places we visited in kansas. to some, the turbines enhance the view and local economy. to others, they ruined both. ♪ geoff: for analysis on the president's trip abroad this week and the 2024 presidential race, we turn now to the analysis of brooks and capehart.

that's new york times columnist david brooks and jonathan capehart, associate editor for the washington post. good to see you both. looking back at the week that was, president biden notched a number of wins this past week in europe. he celebrated some major breakthroughs at the nato summit , was able to showcase his devotion to diplomatic engament whyour takeaways? davi white it's not obsolete. -- why it is not obsolete. president biden has really used a lot of different eating with india and others -- meetings with india and others to advance the democratic caused and no week was bigger than this one, getting sweden in over previous objections of turkey was significant. getting more commitments for ukraine was significant.

the slowly developing consensus ukraine will not join nato now but after the war is over it probably will is also significant. in either case, he is expanding the democratic camp. jonathan: i have nothing to add to what david said. he lays it out perfectly. but i want to talk about what the president did after the nato summit in where he went -- helsinki. the room he was in was the exact same room where five years to the day earlier, then president donald trump with vladimir putin standing next to him, when asked about russian interference in the election, he said i asked president putin and he said it wasn't him and i have no reason to believe otherwise. that was a thunderclap moment for the alliance, thunderclap moment for the american people who care about the united states standing in the world but also the american president standing up not just for the small d

democratic order but for the alliance and the united states's role in the world. you have the president died in five years later standing there clearly not just as the american president but the leader of an alliance standing rm against the aggression and authoritarianism of vladimir putin. i think that is the cherry on top of what david just said. geoff: on the matter of building a coalition of democracies and supporting ukraine, there is a record high 44% of republicans and gop leaning independents who say the u.s. is giving too much aid to ukraine, according to a survey last month. and republican presidential candidates have seized on this wariness of the cost of the war. do our allies have reason to be concerned about the durability of the u.s. commitment? david: yes. in the 1940's, one of the --

eisenhower wanted to know if taft was going to support, and he said no, and eisenhower decided to run. the u.s. should exert power abroad. the last couple of years, the republican party is returning to what is the pre-eisenhower, i.s. toward i don't want to say isolation, but taking care of ourselves. for a while we did not have big polling gaps on how isolationist the u.s. should be but now we do. it's not just a donald trump thing, a lot of republicans have said we should not waste our money abroad. it is an ancient war crime in america but we've had about 50 years without it. it has come back. jonathan: david says republicans, we should take care of our own, but the republicans

we are talking about today don't even want to take about what's -- take care of it's happening on in the country with what they've voted against. i know i cut you off. geoff: typically foreign policy doesn't really resonate in presidential elections. will that change the cycle given ukraine? jonathan: sure, it might. i think the president's leadership makes it something that could be salient. this is something in terms of the money, into the concern of the american people, particularly republicans, i felt it was very important that president zelenskyy come up before he said anything about meeting with the president, thanked the american people for his -- for their support and specifically i think you for your money. because he understands it is a

financial sacrifice for the american people and he wants us to know he knows that and realizes that. and when the president says we will be with ukraine for no matter how long it takes, zelenskyy is like, we appreciate it, keep it coming. geoff: on defense and money, congress is considering the national defense authorization act which sets policy for the defense department, the house nearly approved its version last night and it includes republican provisions blocking abortion, transgender care. in the past this was a bipartisan enterprise. what do you make of this effort by republicans to use this bill as a cudgel in the culture wars and virtue signal to members of their base? david: there are two things going on, one of the amendments, which i'm basically fine with. having the pentagon pay for

people to travel for abortion is a policy choice, it is based on a set of philosophies and some other republicans have a different philosophy. they can try to vote it down, and to me that is the democratic process. the terrible thing that is happening with senator to refill locking promotions until he gets his abortion policy correct. that just weakens the military. it's fine to have a debate in the policy process, it's not fine to weaken our military because of your philosophy. i'm doing a lot of history tonight, mark shields smiling upon me. a 20th-century dutch prime minister had a philosophy of the spheres, that we have different spheres of life. politics over here, the media here, the military over here. you room in society if you don't respect the differences of the spheres. the military does its own thing by its own standards and it should not have outsiders screwing up the way it does its

business for an ideological, cultural war issue. geoff: president biden has called on republicans to talk to senator to reveal -- tuberville, but it doesn't seem like that's gonna happen. jonathan: the onus is on him, it is shameful and reprehensible. it puts national security at risk, and sure, a marine corps commandant and waiting can be acting, this is the first time in 150 years there hasn't been a senate confirmed commandant of the marine corps and that is important. for that person to be senate confirmed, that means that person is beholden to the american people, accountable to the american people, and i don't know what it will take for the senator to change his view. i wish he could change his view on holding up these promotions in the same way he changed his view right quick on his

definition of white nationalism and whether it is racism or not but that is another conversation. [laughter] geoff: let's talk about 2024. former president donald trump is not among the public and presidential candidates gathering in des moines for the family leadership summit, of christian conservatives. at this point doesn't matter or if he so far ahead that his lead is basically insurmountable? david: i don't think it's insurmountable. there's a lot of rumbling among the donor class turning toward tim scott or others as the desantis bubble fades. i think there will be a lot of movement. whether he can get away with not debating, i don't know. i am curious to learn, and i think i will learn because i don't think he will do a lot of debates. may be another rule he is allowed to break impunity. you would think voters would want him to show up, but the polling on trump is he is still so popular they think he will be biden, they like his economic policies and he could win without debating, which would be

bad. jonathan: it would be bad and he thinks he can win without debating any probably can. each indictment, his poll numbers have gone up. i'm old enough to remember, you get criminally indicted, you might as well close up your campaign shopping go home and the opposite has been true. don't show up for a debate, watch poll numbers go up. geoff: the fact the republican donor class is giving a second look to tim scott, giving concerns about the desantis campaign, how does that strike you? david: it strikes me as smart on their part. jonathan: i haven't used these words before, but to my mind, from the moment senator scott got in the race, he was the dark horse. he was the one person, while i don't agree with him on pretty much anything, i thought his launch of what he had to say to the party faithful was something that was interesting.

he was a happy warrior. he is worth the look. it is telling the leaked memo from the desantis campaign shows that governor desantis wants to focus now on tim scott. they see what i see. senator scott is the one to be worried about. david: i see it the same. i think at this point mostly what you want to focus on, it's like spring, you are looking at pitchers. do they have political skills? that's more important. tim scott has skills. he's just good at this. he will get his moment. geoff: all right, thanks to you both. ♪ amna: the author of the new book titled "building" is, as you might suspect, a carpenter who knows his way around tools. but rather than a how-to book,

this one is about developing any kind of craft and skill, along with a few hard-earned lessons for living a good life. jeffrey brown has the story for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: in 1840's house now being restored and renewed. mark: everything you see on the outside of the house is brand new. every board, every stick, every ick. but made to look like that photograph. jeffrey: an 1840's house, now being restored and renewed. a 1940's photo, used to guide the work on the exterior, mandated by new york city's landmarks preservation rules. mark ellison is doing the best he can. but who knows if this is really how it originally looked? mark: is this preservation? i'm not sure. jeffrey: what do you call it? what is it? mark: in my book i call this a

paleo facsimile. [laughter] jeffrey: you have to laugh in the world of mark ellison, where the design demands can border on the impossible, and the client expectations are off the charts. mark: it's a bit annoying because if it's really, really, really good, everybody looks and goes like, yeah of course it should be that way. i am like, you have no idea what it took to make it look like that. you have no idea what we went through to make it so the staircase just looks like, yup, tra la la, it's beautiful. jeffrey: staircases are indeed a signature. ellison has gained a reputation as the master builder behind some of the most beautiful and expensive homes in new york and beyond. often for celebrities and wealthy owners who don't want their names known. he's the go-to guy who can take the grand designs of architects and figure out how to actually make them. now 61 and 40 years into his career, he's written “building:

a carpenter's notes on life & the art of good work”. and he means any work, not just the kind he does. one word he has no patience for: talent. mark: if you believe talent is the main thing, you're already on the wrong track. jeffrey: what's the main thing? mark: work. effort. practice. daily, like daily, you know, not every day, you can take a day off once in a while. but studied, ritual practice, having a good teacher, having good guides, having people that can teach you how to do things without error and staying at it. i wasn't a good carpenter for 15 years. it took me at least 15 years before i decided i was a good carpenter. i was competent by 20. and then another 20 to learn how to do the rest of what i do now. jeffrey: ellison took us on a tour of what, by his standards, is a rather modest project, but still an 8 figure proposition overall -- side by side townhouses in clinton hill, a brooklyn neighborhood home to mansions in the 1800s, then

middle and working class homes, and now again undergoing vast change amid gentrification. mark: this is called the primary bedroom suite. jeffrey: one quirky touch -- a sinking of the titanic scene for the primary bathroom, executed by a long list of artists and craftspeople, overseen by ellison. the idea came from the owner. mark: when somebody really loves an idea and gets really excited about it, i will go all in to render it as incredibly as it possibly can. jeffrey: you like cap. mark: i like it. jeffrey: the home will also feature a spiral staircase. ellison started with a model. mark: i have to figure out how to detail it and make sure everything's smooth and the curves and it makes sense and that it looks right from the underside and the curves are good. it will have this sort of tornado quality to it and kind of like a vortex stair simply because of the way the geometry on this, on this side works. like usually what i find is

whoever designed this side didn't think about this side. [laughter] that's what i have to do. jeffrey: he builds his models and does his own work in his studio about an hour north of the city in a 1905 firehouse he converted. it's also where he pursues his other passion, music, the one that doesn't pay the bills. still, he insists, developing any skill is about having the will to overcome inevitable obstacles along the way. mark: anybody who has really developed a real skill, if you talk to them, 75% of what they'll tell you about is the stumbling blocks they met on the way, and what they had to overcome on the way to doing those things. it over time, will becomes the confidence in oneself of knowing, if i set my mind to something, i can do it. i can do it. even if i've never done it before, i have -- will gives me the feeling that i can do this thing and i will do this thing.

jeffrey: the creativity comes on how you build it. mark: the creativity comes from how you realize it and how well you realize it and how, how you balance everything. and it's part of making it more complete and more beautiful. it's like excellent tailoring. jeffrey: there was a clear expectation ellison would go to college -- both parents were professionals with multiple degrees. instead, he chose a very different path. and he writes of the social realities of the workplace itself and who builds in america today. mark: it's dirty and you get hurt. i've been hurt many times. carrying buckets of mortar, carrying block and concrete, is done mostly by people who don't get paid a lot of money. they haven't been here very long. and most people who live in this country won't take that kind of work. if you want to know what parts of the world have the most trouble right now, those people will be on my job site in a couple of months.

jeffrey: you can see the american class structure at work. mark: it's right here. and i mean, i've taken a lot of people from carrying brooms to actually running jobs, in my career. it's a harder thing to do for somebody who didn't have the opportunities that i did. jeffrey: do you have a sense that a lot of this craft, this ability has been lost? mark: i think it's less than people imagine. i mean, i think it's less lost than people imagine. you have to know where to look. there are still people that take a keen interest in this, in many different fields. i mean, i know weavers, i know people who weave on hand looms. i know people who make musical instruments and make musical instruments that are, that rival the great musical instruments of the past. there are people that do these things and you will most of them sort of between the cracks. jeffrey: i'm thinking about the debates in this country about education. do you wish or do you ever advise young people to go into the kind of work you are doing rather than go get their four year degree? mark: first of all, you have to like it.

this is demanding, unforgiving, sometimes painful, sometimes dangerous work. and if one does not have a taste for it, don't do this job. you won't like it. but for anyone who has a taste for it, there's an incredible need for people now who would take that route. and i hate to tell doctors and lawyers, but those of us who get really good at this make better money than they do. i still love coming to work every day. jeffrey: and then, time to get back to work. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in brooklyn, new york. amna: speaking of loving what you do, as a tsa agent, benni latham brought lots of joy to her job. however, after a violent incident at work, she felt the need to pivot. today, benni has found success pursuing her dreams through voice acting projects and commercials. here, she shares her brief but spectacular take on second acts. benni: in 2006, i started

working at tsa at lax airport. i was the tsa agent that was making up songs and doing funny voices and impressions while i was telling people to take their shoes off and all that jazz. because, you know, at the end of the day, you don't know where these people are going, right? if i can be the, the little soft part of their day in such a weird, chaotic place, then i'm happy to do that. the circumstances that led to me quitting tsa was, um, was pretty violent. november 2013, an individual came into the terminal and opened fire at the checkpoint. and it was a wake up call for me. i recognized in myself that i would rather deal with the failure of trying something and maybe not being completely successful than live regretfully wondering what if. so at that moment i decided i'll take fear over regret, and i made plans to quit. i decided to try my hand at commercial acting.

and then i booked my first on camera professional commercial for samsung, where i played a, wait for it -- tsa agent. [laughter] why? because the universe has a great sense of humor. when i became a full-time actress, it felt right. i felt like i was at home. i found my tribe and my inner child is so impressed with me right now. it's not even funny. some of the characters i've played include harriet tubman. you know, she's very, very solemn, very dignified, and very ethereal almost. i am also the voice of cedar sinai hospital. right now -- thank you for calling cedar sinai. for information in english, please press one. schedule little, did and i? [laughter] when it comes to dealing with ethnic things, racial things, i meet people where they are and

then i ask questions. so if someone says, can you gimme a little more sassy? i'll give them examples so that tother we can come up library of terms and images that don't necessarily rely on stereotype, they rely on character choices. nobody really wants to be shamed when they're trying to create art. but no one wants to lose their humanity either. people be peopling. and you know, you take it as it comes because at the end of the day, i'm already winning because i'm doing what i love. doesn't matter. doing things that allow me to connect with that little girl from compton who grew up to be a big mouth voice actress. my name is benni latham and this is my brief but spectacular take on second acts. amna: you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. geoff: there's a lot more

online, including a look at how new orleans has lost ground in its effort to end homelessness, and what the city is doing about it. be sure to tune into washington week later tonight hosted by our own lisa desjardins. that's right here on pbs. and watch pbs news weekend tomorrow for a look at prisoners who are experiencing extreme heat with no air conditioning. finally tonight we want to wish , all the best to a longtime member of our newshour family who is moving on to her next chapter. mary lawrence has worked with us in our control room for more than 20 years as both an associate director and director. there she is. she has guided us through much of our coverage, including supreme court confirmation hearings, impeachment hearings and little coal conventions. and she was in the director's chair on january 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the u.s. capitol building on that fateful day. amna: her leadership and vision in those high-pressure situations is invaluable in our industry.

but those who know mary also know she is also full of joy. if you step into the control room early in the day you will , often hear music playing and might even catch mary singing and dancing along. [laughter] mary will be getting some very well-deserved beach-time before moving onto her next project. geof mary, we'll miss you. know that you can never be replaced. congratulations and we wish you all the best. [applause] amna: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. have a great weekend. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪

>> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- ♪

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