nick: good evening. i'm nick schifrin. geoff bennett and amna nawaz are away. on the newshour tonight, remembering the life and legacy of former president jimmy carter, one day after he died at 100 years old. crime in decline.

the reasons behind a sharp drop in the number of murders in 2024. and, bucking the trend. social media users -- it's rejecting what influencers and the companies behind them are trying to get you to do, which is buy more and buy it right now. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by -- with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including leonard and norma core vine. 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 in institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. nick: welcome to the news hour. former president jimmy carter tonight is being remembered as a humanitarian and statesman more than 40 years after leaving the white house. the 39th president, who died yesterday at 100, will lie in state at the u.s. capitol next week before his funeral at the washington national cathedral.

laura barron-lopez begins our coverage. laura: half-staff across the country and around the world. and americans of all backgrounds paused to remember late former president jimmy carter. >> jimmy carter has always been a hero of mine. >> he was just a good man. a decent man. an honest man. something we don't see very much of anymore. >> he was a great humanitarian, he set an example for all of us, and we are going to miss him. laura: from peanut-farmer to president, carter served one term in the white house, from 1977 to 1981. he brokered a historic peace deal between israel and egypt, but an energy crisis at home and the kidnapping of 52 americans in iran led to his defeat in 1980. kurt are's -- carter's life post-presidency was defined by his international humanitarian work. he and his wife rosalynn founded

the carter center, and he earned a nobel peace prize in 2002 for his diplomatic achievements is family vacationent biden to pay tribute to his long-time friend. laura: -- pres. biden: millions of people all around the world, all over the world, feel they lost a friend as well, even though they never met him, and that's because jimmy carter lived a life measured not by words but by his deeds. laura: former presidents from across the political spectrum also weighed in. president-elect donald trump has been critical of carter in the past, but wrote last night that he truly loved and respected our country, and all it stands for. former president barack obama said that carter believed some things were more important than reelection, things like integrity, respect, and compassion. the former president will be laid to rest in his hometown of plains, georgia next to his wife of more than 75 years, rosalynn, who passed away in 2023. one of the couple's final public

interviews was with the news hour's judy woodruff, back in 2021. judy: as you think back on your presidency and your time as a former president, what are you most proud of? is there a big regret you have? mr. carter: i would say that we did what we pledged to do in the campaign. we kept the peace, and we obeyed the law, and we told the truth, and we honored human rights. those were things that were important to me. laura: for the pbs news hour, i am laura barron-lopez. nick: and for more on presiden's life and legacy, i'm joined by judy woodruff, who has covered the carters for more than 50 years. as well as james fallows, carter's speechwriter during the first two years of the administration, and kai bird, other of "the outlier, the

unfinished presidency of jimmy carter." jimmy carter grew up on a peanut farm, no electricity, no running water. the first member of his family to graduate high school. how far was his journey to the white house? judy: it was the longest imaginable journey. you are right, a peanut farm in the deepest of rural southwest georgia, planes, the town we have all come to identify with him, to reach the pinnacle, the most powerful job in the world. and unimaginably to leave office in a state of, if you will, political failure, not winning reelection. here we are, 44 years later, and we are celebrating the life, the legacy of this man, who did come from the very simple beginning. but against all odds, achieved everything he achieved. nick: against all odds, you called your book the outlier.

how was jimmy carter an outlier? kai: he was an outlier for all the things judy just explained. he came from these spartan circumstances. no running water, an outhouse. he was virtually raised in the 19th century. and now has lasted 100 years into the 21st century. he was an extraordinary man. but i think judy and jim will agree that he was just relentless. he was a workaholic. in the white house, he was devoted to figuring out the right thing to do, and studying the memos. he would read two or 3 -- 200 or 300 pages a day. jim saw him on a more daily basis. i was just the biographer. he could be acerbic and difficult. people have this warm and fuzzy thinking, perception of him, but

he was a tough guy to interview. precisely because he was so smart and quick and knowledgeable. nick: james fallows, you wrote some of those memos. carter came to power after the twin traumas of vietnam and watergate. he promised never to lie and to help heal america. at first, did it work? james: did work at first. i think something that is difficult for people now in america who think of carter only is this grandfatherly figure wearing a cardigan, doing good works around the world, to imagine how magical he seemed when he came practically from nowhere in 19 76. i think he still has the record for the quickest to stand from 1% name recognition in the united states, and one year later being sworn in as president. part of how he was able to do is because he seemed to capture the spirit of that time. he was going to be honest, he was hard-working, he embraced all kinds of culture, black and

white. he was a military officer who was also against the vietnam war, he was a friend of bob dylan, he quoted dylan thomas he had martin luther king senior is one of his supporters. what democrats would associate with early barack obama or republicans with ronald reagan, jimmy carter had a form when he came onto the scene. nick: get as james fallows just said, the magic of carter first days wore off. his approval rating dropped from 70% to 28 from 1977 to 1978. was that in part because of the outsider status, the outsider staff he brought with him, and helped create the impression among some that he was frankly out of his league? judy: i think it had a lot to do with the fact that he did not really love the idea of bending to the ways of washington. he brought his team, largely very loyal georgia team with him to washington. they surrounded him at the white

house until three years into the administration, when he finally did bring in more washington experienced hands. you have to say the country was experiencing inflation, gas prices were high. he was plagued in the last year of his presidency by the terrible iran hostage private -- crisis where dozens of americans in the embassy were taken hostage, held for a year. he had the failed helicopter -- the attempted helicopters to rescue them. there were so many things that happened that were bad luck. you could attribute it to his great ambition, his determination to make a difference against all odds. but part of what happened, i would say, is the fact that he did not want to bend. he did not want to do things the way washington had always done it. to him, it was more important to try to do "the right thing" then to worry about what would get him reelected. nick: on foreign policy, judy

mentioned the hostages and iran. a signature achievementpresidt e treaty he personally helped seal between egypt and israel that stands to this day. do you believe that is his crowning foreign policy achievement? how did he stay focused on israel after that? kai: that was a crowning achievement. it was an extraordinary episode and personal diplomacy. it would not have happened without jimmy carter. yet, it was an achievement of a cold peace between israel and egypt. people should remember that carter believed he also got an agreement, a road path, to autonomy and may be a two state solution between israel and the palestinians. and that -- nick: the prime minister of israel. kai: yes. carter believed that he had promised him one thing and then walked out the door. he spent the rest of his life

warning the israelis that they were going down a road towards apartheid if they kept building settlements in the west bank. of course, that was not a popular thing to say. but this is jimmy carter. he is a prophet in the wilderness. and phrophets are often unpopular. it was relentless. and i have to say, looking at where we are today, i think he has been proven correct. that is why we still have a terrible conflict in the middle east today. nick: israel denies that it has anything to do with apartheid. i want to get going. james fallows, other foreign policy legacies, turning over the panama canal to panama, something criticized by not only his opponent, president reagan, but also recently by president elect trump. we mentioned iran, normalization

with china. how much of carter's legacy is defined by those topics and what was most important to him? james: in addition to the camp david accord, think carter would rank two other achievements near the top in foreign policy. one was the panama canal treaties, which interestingly, the first negotiations had happened under richard nixon. at the urging of the u.s. military, which said that unless there was some resolution of this colonialist presence in panama, it would be impossible to defend the canal. carter defended that and he pulled off a work that we don't usually associate with him in getting 60 votes in the senate to ratify this. which involved a lot of republicans to join him. i think that was important. his human rights policy, which he announced during the campaign during a speech at notre dame, i think that will stand the test of time as something that in which he changed the world. part of 20 is recognized for in the nobel peace prize. nick: president of the united

states to win a nobel peace prize. when you asked him about his legacy, human rights was one of the main things he brought up. not only during his presidency but afterward. judy: that's right. he was very proud -- he was not one to brag, but he was very proud of his record on human rights, as jim fallows just described. he also said we kept the peace. and that was one of the central missions that carter has been and is today one of the central missions of the carter center, which is housed and based in atlanta. they have worked in 60 countries around the world, at least, promoting health, and some of the poorest parts of the planet, the poorest people on earth. those are the people who jimmy carter said he wanted to pay attention to. it was also working to find peace in regions of the world that the bigger countries often overlooked. for him, that was a huge part of what he wanted to do as his legacy.

yes, he did win the nobel peace prize. he was incredibly proud of that. i have to say, one other thing that was so important to him, that was his own faith. he was a man of christian faith. when i interviewed him in 2021, he spoke about how he and rosalynn read verses from the bible every night, and prayed. this was a central piece of who he was. and he said as long as the american people keep faith, he said, we will continue to have a strong country. it was something that i will -- that all of us will identify with him. nick: jim fallows, kia byrd, judy woodruff, thank you very much. ♪ nick: the day's other news begins in south korea, where the

acting president today ordered an inspection of the nation's entire aviation sector, after yesterday's crash south of seoul that killed 179 people. only two people survived when the jeju airlines boeing 737800 skidded off the runway and exploded. both of them, crew members. here's stephanie sy. stephanie: an anguished man cries out among a sea of forlorn faces. families of the victims of one of the deadliest air disasters in south korean history want answers. >> what we have to demand from the government is to bring in more experts. we have wanted the government to recover our families 100 percent or at least 80% as soon as possible. stephanie: his brother was one of the people on board jeju airflight. it was flying from bangkok and billy landed. without its landing gear deployed, the plane overshot the

runway, barreling at high speed, straight into a concrete wall. nearly everyone on board died as the plane burst into flames. only two crewmembers survived. they were pulled out from the tail of the aircraft. >> the parties are so severely damaged that we are in a situation where we need to recover and piece them together one by one. that is the current reality. stephanie: in the packed airport, jeju air executive about in remorse. >> we will take full responsibility and except any necessary measures. once again, i offer my deepest apologies. stephanie: today, investigators are sifting through the wreckage for evidence. the black box has been recovered. they could reveal what transpired leading up to the tragic landing, that data will not yield immediate answers. what is known is that korean air traffic controllers had warned the pilots of the possibility of a bird strike just before landing. some experts say that alone is

unlikely to be the cause of such a major crash, and other factors bear scrutiny. >> i'm pretty shocked, actually. because whatever happened to the airplane, which meant the pilot could not get the flaps and gear down for the landing, was not actually what caused the death of the passengers. the passengers were killed by hitting a solid structure just over the end of the runway, where a solid structure should not be. stephanie: the ill-fated plane was a boeing 737 800, used by 180 airlines around the world. making up about 15% of the global passion -- passenger aircraft fleet. the government ordered an inspection of every boeing 737 800 operating in the country. boeing said it is in touch with jeju air for the investigation. the grim tragedy struck at a time when the country is dealing with political upheaval of the hype -- the highest level.

this month, the president was impeached. the acting president has announced a week long period of morning. for the pbs news hour, i am stephanie sy. nick: also today, president biden announced another $2.5 billion in u.s. military aid to ukraine, the latest step to help ukraine's war effort before president-elect trump takes office next month. the package includes $1.25 billion in missiles, munitions and other hardware that the u.s. says can be moved to the battlefield quickly. e re weapons delivered longer-term. separately, the treasuryth department announced $3.4 billion in economic assistance to ukraine. the military assistance comes as some 300 ukrainian and russian captives were freed today in the latest prisoner swap. some ukrainian troops had been held since the early days of the war. today, they reunited with loved ones.

>> i'm serving and will continue to serve our country, ukraine. the most important thing is that i am on my land, i saw my country's flag and my family. this is just the best. it's just amazing. after everything that happened to us in russia, after what they did to us. nick: ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy thanked the united arab emirates, for helping to negotiate the exchange. in afghanistan, the taliban leadership says it will close all non-governmental organizations, both national and international, that employ afghan women.taliban didn't sayy why, but have for the last two years warned that ngos had to stop employing women, because of concerns they weren't wearing headscarves properly. in a letter published on social media, the economy ministry warned that if groups did not cooperate "all activities of that institution will be canceled." since re-taking control of afghanistan in 2021, the taliban have barred women from most

jobs, public spaces, and education after middle school. a federal appeals court upheld a $5 million verdict against president-elect trump, for sexually abusing and defaming e. jean carroll. the magazine columnist had claimed trump assaulted her in a manhattan deparatment store in the mid-1990s. the three-judge panel found that trump did not sufficiently make the case that the may 2023 verdict should be thrown out. in a separate case, a jury ordered trump to pay her more than $83 million in damages for defamation related to the assault accusation. trump denies any wrongdoing and is still appealing that verdict. the u.s. treasury department revealed today that chinese state hackers stole documents earlier this month, in what it's calling a major incident. a treasury spokesperson says the hackers were "able to remotely access several treasury user workstations and certain unclassified documents." in a letter to lawmakers seen by

the news hour, the department adds there is no evidence of continued access to treasury information. this comes in the wake of a massive chinese hacking campaign against at least nine american telecom companies, which u.s. officials admit is still ongoing. china has previously denied any wrongdoing. on wall street today, stocks ended lower as traders prepare to close the books on an otherwise strong 2024. the dow jones industrial average dropped more than 400 points, or nearly 1%. the nasdaq fell more than 200 points on the day. the s&p 500 also ended in negative territory. and a passing of note, broadway actress turned sick, star linda lavin has died. in the 1970's and 1980's, she played the title in alice, delivering a weekly serving of laughs as a diner waitress raising a young son. alice: where did you get that? >> from roger, i traded my electric guitar for it alice: you what? >> he traded his-- alice: i heard him! nick: the sitcom aired on "cbs" for nearly a decade, becoming a

prime-time hit and earning lavin two golden globes. following "alice," she returned to the stage where in 1987 she won a tony award for her performance in neil simon's "broadway bound." lavin's representative said she died yesterday from complications related to lung cancer. she was 87 years old. still to come on the news hour, tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. and literary critics offer their choices for the best and most important books of 2024. >> this is the pbs news hour from the david m. rubenstein studio at weta in washington and inonkite school of journalism at arizona state university. nick: there is new data out that show the number of murders in this country is declining rapidly. crime was of course a central focus of the presidential election, with president-elect trump portraying crime as out of control. and a majority of americans believe that crime is increasing.

william brangham is here with a look at what the numbers tell us. william? william: nick, data collected from hundreds of law enforcement agencies shows the murder rate dropped 16% compared to last year. in san francisco, homicides have fallen by a third. chicago recorded its lowest number of murders since 2019. and rates of other crimes also fell. car thefts declined by roughly 20%. for a closer look at what this means, we're joined by crime data analyst, jeff asher. he's the co-founder of ah datalytics and creator of the "real time crime index." so good to have you on the program. when you look at all of this data that you analyzed, what stood out to you the most? jeff: i think the scope of the decline in murder stands out certainly. right now, we have over 300 cities with of data through october showing murder down 16%. last year, the fbi had murder down 12%.

for some context, the largest one-year decline ever recorded prior to last year was a 9% decline in 1996. it is not just that we are seeing a decline in murder. it is not just that we are seeing murder relatively returning to where it was pre-pandemic. but we are seeing by far the fastest one-year decline last year and then again this year. it has been a phenomenal trend to be able to follow. william: what is your understanding as to what is the most possible explanation for what is driving this decline? jeff: i most plausible explanation is a combination of one, just sort of everyday life getting back to normal, the stresses specific to the pandemic going away. and two, a lot of the tools we would ordinarily use, both policing and non-policing, to interrupt the cycles of violence erupted in the summer of 2020. we didn't have those tools in

2020 and 2021, and even much of 2022. now we have those tools at our disposal. in a lot of cities, we are seeing murder and gun violence returned to and even exceed where it was pre-pandemic. william: we are seeing also as i mentioned declines and other types of crimes. overall, crime declines, they were not universal. there are some places that saw either a plateauing or an uptick. jeff: sure. we are looking at places like charlotte, north carolina, baton rouge, louisiana, that had increasing murders. but for the most part, those are the outliers. they are notable because they are the outliers. i believe in the latest real-time crime index, we had 40 cities that had seen a double-digit decline in murders and only five cities that had seen a double-digit increase. there are other types of crime that are maybe not seen as significant declines, in terms of robbery and aggravated assault. we are seeing significant declines in burglary, theft, and

a huge decline in motor vehicle theft after four years of increases. yes, you can always point to things that may be are around even or even increasing in various cities. but with the majority of cities, the pattern tends to be decreases across the board. william: your analysis and all the work you do is built on giving the average citizen a better window into what crime really does look like, both nationally and in their own city. as you know, the perception of crime, people believe the opposite of what your. data indicate how do you explain that? jeff: i think there are lots of little things that add up. the first is that there is a data vacuum. we don't have a lot of good strong data, that is the vacuum we are hoping projects like the real-time crime index can fill. the fbi does not put out its year-end numbers until nine months after the most recent year ended. one, you are asking people to essentially not use data and use

anecdotes, and they will always have a bias toward how many murders have i seen on the news recently rather than how many murders did i see last year at this time. i think other challenges, the media does not cover the planes that land. there are rarely stories, and i have done far fewer of these interviews where you are talking about declines in murder, even though it is a record decline, then we are -- then what was being done in 2021 where we saw increases in murder and gun violence. you talked about it at the beginning, partisanship is playing a role. 90% of republicans, 28% of democrats and 60% of independents think crime rose over the last year. we are not seeing necessarily enormous crime disappearing from american society. you would expect to see maybe a 40%, 50% of the public thinking crime rose, where you have this

enormous gap between how democrats and republicans see perceptions, suggesting they are being fed a very different stories about what is actually happening in the country. william: what is your sense as far as the practical impact of people not understanding reality with regards to crime? what difference does it make? jeff: i think it has enormous differences in terms of one, it is not healthy for people to be afraid. it is not healthy for people to think they will get mugged every day, or that they live in some crime-ridden dumpster that nobody would want to live in when reality is, things may be in their city getting a lot better. i think the other real challenge is if we create a world where either crime is rising, or the data is wrong, then we are never able to understand why are things getting better? this is something we are doing? is it randomness? is it a policy that nobody is thinking of that is having an affect that nobody expected? how do we know that success is just as important as how we can

reverse failures. if we are having successful reduction policies, it is a shame on us if we let this moment pass without seeing why these are happening, and what we can do to extend it, and what we can do to make this happen in places that are not currently seeing declines. william: jeff ascher of the real-time crime index, thank you so much for your time. jeff: thanks for having me. ♪ nick: as 2025 is about to begin, we look ahead at the political landscape to come, and back to the year that was, with our politics monday team. amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter. and tamara keith of npr. thank you very much. welcome to you both. tamera, let me start with you. jimmy carter had 40 years to define his legacy after the white house. not only does biden not have that much time, but is there a

recognition that in fact, biden's successor could help define biden's legacy? tamara: absolutely. president carter gave himself a new legacy, a second i could see. 40 years is an incredibly long time. president biden does not have 40 years. the tables tell us that is basically impossible. his presidency is likely to be defined both by what he did in office and increasingly, by how his time in office came to an end. he ran in 2019, forto make donam president. that was why he ran. that is he said. now, donald trump will be a two-term president. history remembers two-term presidents generally more fondly than they remember one term president's. i have spoken to several presidential historians who say president biden, much of his -- the fate of his legacy may well be defined by how people

ultimately perceived donald trump. right now, if you ask, he was the dragon slayer, as one historian told me. but then he also is the man who let the dragon back in. that at least is the perception from this historian i spoke to. nick: katie boulter, is biden uniquely vulnerable to have a legacy written by his successor? amy: certainly in this most recent era where we have had some young presidents, we also have bill clinton who left office in his 50's, much like jimmy carter did, was able to watch his own legacy be written andho h rewritten almost every few years. george bush, also leaving office at a relatively young age. and of course, barack obama. this is unique in our recent era, but we certainly have had presidents who soon after they left office, maybe they were

defined by, i'm thinking lyndon baines johnson, things about their presidency that were the most unpopular. and then years and years later, their legacy is redefined by some of the other accomplishments they had. i think what is also fascinating in looking at biden and carter bo o them re feld by a secd, similar issue, which is inflation. both of them as one term president. -- presidents. if you look at what happened with jimmy carter, both when he came into office and after he left, he was really an outsider and really enjoyed and embraced that outsiderness going back to plains, georgia after he left the white house. biden will be remembered for being the insider whose life was

defined by washington. nick: congress returns at the end of the week. the first item on the agenda is choosing the house speaker. president elect trump today threw his support behind mike johnson writing, this message, "he is a good, hard-working, religious man. he will do the right thing and we will continue to win. mike has my complete and total endorsement." with such a narrow margin in the house, does this get johnson over the top? tamara: it is not clear yet. we do know of at least one house member who has said -- house republican who has said he will not support johnson. we also know house democrats are not planning to bail him out. johnson faced another challenge to his speakership, and democrats at that point did step in and support him. this time, they feel burned by the deal at the end of the year,

right before the holidays, to keep the government funded. it was supposed to do a bunch of other things. it blew up in part because of trump and musk, but democrats left that saying, we can't trust johnson. he won't have democrats to help. trump, this is going to be a test of trump's sway with his party. with republicans. because trump also said he wanted the debt limit to be extended, and he wanted that done and the decks clear before he came into office. 38 house republicans voted against that. this will be a test. we will see. but trump has every reason to not want a leadership battle right now, because he wants to hit the ground running. and a leadership battle will distract and make it harder for republicans to have the kind of unity they are going to have to have with that narrow majority, in order to get the things done that he wants done. nick: can trump avoid the leadership battle? amy: tam said it perfectly.

he can't afford for this to go off the rails. i think this is going to be a constant in this trump second term, this push and pull between trump wanting to be the disruptor. that is something he enjoys, something he campaigned on. it is something we saw in his first term. this is also what we saw at the end of the year. disrupting at the very end of the process. this deal on the funding for the government and potentially a debt ceiling raise. he also, the poolside, if that was the push, the pole side is wanting to accomplish something, now that he has, coming into office, very narrow but still a republican majority in the house and senate. does he want to be a disruptor? does he want to be a doer? he cannot get a whole lot done in his first two years if what is happening is constant

friction and constant disruption , intraparty friction and disruption that he may help to stoke. in this case, he is seeing the importance of lining up behind a speaker, preventing that disruption in this area. i don't think this means we are not going to see the side sometimes overruling the doer side. nick: you each have 45 seconds. amy, you first. sorry, tam, you first. 2020 for, the biggest political highlight of the year? tamara: i'm going to go with some surprises. there were many of them. this was a year of political surprises. i think the ultimate surprise in the election was after two elections where donald trump never broke 47%, where he was pretty much stuck at 47%, he

broke 47%. he exceeded what was thought to be his ceiling with an effective campaign, and obviously that help of inflation and a desire for change among american voters. obviously, the other huge surprise was president biden's performance in that debate. just a devastating performance, where people were trying to say, maybe he could do ok, maybe he won't be the best but he will be ok. no one was predicting it would be that bad. and that it would have those sorts of consequences. actually, i will say, lots of voters were predicting that somehow joe biden would get out of the race before that happened. those voters were right. nick: amy, political highlight of the year? amy: i think it was that the republican success was decisive, but also continues to be very narrow. with control of the house, it came down to about 7000 votes split across the three most

competitive races, pushed those the other way, democrats have control of the house. in the presidential race, trump won a decisive victory, won the popular vote. it was merely thanks to 220 9000 voters in those blue wall states that gave him the -- nick: out of 155 million. amy: that's right. that is very narrow. i think this is the reality that we have to continue to remind ourselves. that we live in an era of politics that is fought here on the margins, and the smallest margins seem to be the most important. nick: amy walter, tamara keith, thank you very much to you both. ♪ nick: this holiday shopping season, americans were projected to spend 7% more than last year. but our paul solman was alerted to a social media trend urging

eager -- it hits possible for pressing the purchase button. >> get ready to go with me on a shopping spree. paul: the perennial end-of-year messages we have had to endure, in print, on tv, and all over social media: buy away, buy away, buy away all. >> let's do the biggest shopping hall ever. >> we are going to go self-care shopping at sephora, ulta, target. >> this is everything i got. let's go through it quickly. paul: but here is what has also been trending this year, #underconsumptioncore. >> i wanted to show you stuff that i've had for literal decades. my chi hair straightener from 2010, 2011. still works great. paul: counter-trender diana wiebe was posting videos like this one. >> you can see i have hit pan on

a couple of these, but it is still good. >> it's rejecting what influencers and the companies behind them are trying to get you to do, which is buy more and buy it right now. paul: it's a younger generation's reaction to america's throwaway culture. buy less, repurpose, shop vintage, instead of plunging reflexively for. -- i'm just going to be the first one to say it i guess, garbage. paul: of course, wiebe is hardly the first to say it, or the first to push underconsumption. >> i don't think it's new at all. it's what we have called in the past living within our means. paul: brett house, economics professor at columbia university's business school. >> i think it's worth noting that if there is under consumption happening anywhere, it's almost certainly for people at lower incomes who are facing greater challenges in covering their day to day needs. if we look at past cycles between booms and recessions in the wake of any slowdown, we have seen people focus more on

cleaning up their debt, reducing consumption and aligning expenses with their incomes. paul: same for garbage products made to expired. >> we've seen products with defined lifecycles hit the market for decades. paul: built in obsolescence, it is a term coined nearly a century ago, but hey, how better to keep the hamster wheel of consumerism spinning? the problem is, says wiebe, it's getting worse. >> i have seen a decline in quality just over my lifetime. i'm only 30 years old, but i can see when things are not made as well as they once were. paul: and online shopping has never been easier. one-click, payment info already saved, for products increasingly pushed by influencers, posing as your friends. >> tiktok just send me a notification that this is nine dollars. go get it right now, best to you. >> kc people having the newest water bottles, the newest

fashion, the newest shoes or handbags. and they want those things. paul: consumer researcher melissa bublitz. >> this idea of advertising is not new. but i think what is new is the amount of time and the wide variety of exposure that our young people have to this influencer culture. paul: look, way back in 1960, the waste makers, urged resistance to built-in obsolescence in the spirit of sustainability. two years later, dr. seuss rhymed about the exhausted zizzer zoof salesman. all day they've raced round in the heat, at top speeds, unsuccessfully trying to sell zizzer-zoof seeds. which nobody wants, because nobody needs. >> we as consumers and, you know, more privileged countries buy five times more clothing today than we bought in 1990, which means that something has changed in our buying habits as well. paul: that beautiful sweater you are wearing. how long have you had that? >> eight going on nine years, maybe. paul: aja barber is the author

of consumed, a critique of what we buy and how it is created. >> i've always shopped second hand. it just wasn't very cool. i remember getting clothing from ebay in the early 2000s when i was a university student. and keeping that a bit of a secret from some of my peers who would think it was icky. so it's always been the way some of us have have done it. it's just now become a part of a larger conversation on a planet that is in duress due to these systems. paul: as it turns out, 92 million tons of clothing end up in landfills a year. and every year, automation will make products, this shirt, say, cheaper. not to mention overproduction that's already pedaled at absurdly low prices by chinese e-commerce companies like temu and aliexpress, all of which leading to more waste. >> looking at all of the clothing that was being pushed on myself and others, i began to

wonder where this clothing was going. i soon learned that there are places in the global south that end up with mountains of our clothing, and it is not something that is needed or wanted. >> i do see just in my own interactions with people who i'm talking to, that they want to consume less, they want to be more mindful of when they're being advertised to, and they really want it to be a way of life. paul: diana wiebe's following has swelled from 1,000 to more than 200,000. the meme prompting more than 20,000 posts on tiktok alone. but here's the rub. it hasn't made much of an impact on overall consumer spending, says researcher bublitz. >> we don't see consumption going down. in fact, our population's growing by less than 1%, but our consumer spending is growing, you know, at least 5%. if anything, we've seen slightly higher than normal consumption, not under consumption in the big numbers we look at.

>> but it is still a perfectly good mug. paul: so is the meme all for nought? no, insists deinfluencer wiebe. >> my hope is that people don't necessarily treat it as under consumption core as a a trend, but rather just like my normal lifestyle is not buying things instantaneously. paul: for the pbs news hour, paul solman, bit bummed to have overconsumed yet again this year, while doing this very story. ♪ nick: finally tonight, 'tis the season for year-end lists, and -- and our jeffrey brown sat down recently with two of our regular literary critics to highlight some of their favorites for our arts and culture coverage, canvas. jeffrey: it has been another year of great releases across a number of genres and to help us

recap the highlights, we are joined now by two familiar faces, maureen corrigan, book critic for npr's fresh air and gilbert cres, editor of the new york times book review. nice to see both of you at this time of year. let's start with my own favorite because i get to choose, that is fiction. gilbert, do you want to start is off? gilbert: it is good to see you both. the first book i want to talk about is called all fours, by miranda july. it was a big book this summer. it is kindse. you have a a middle-aged female artist, she decides to take a road trip from la to new york, 20 minutes outside of town, she stops at a motel, decides to completely redo the motel, becomes obsessed with a younger man, and the story takes off from there. it's a crazy start. but in the end, it's a very serious book about what it means to be middle-aged, particularly

middle-aged woman, what it means to be a parent and a mother, what it means to have a desire and be desired as you approach middle-aged. and while humor is very subjective, i found it very funny. it was quite entertaining to read. jeffrey: how about one more? gilbert: sure. i love books and translation. there was one that came out earlier this year called you dreamed of empires. this is by alvaro enrique, translated by natasha wimmer, and it takes place in what is now mexico city. it was then called tenochtitlan in 1519, hernan cortez has just rolled into town with all of his soldiers, and he meets the aztec emperor, makhtezuma. you have these two cultures coming together. there's this threat of violence that hangs over the whole thing, but there's also comedy of manners elements to the entire book. fourth cortez and his people, they are wondering, are we speaking the right language with our translators, are they going to kill us for the aztecs, they're looking at these horses, they've never seen them before.

it's a sort of fascinating melange of different tones that enrique puts together. incredible book. jeffrey: all right, maureen, so he went with very contemporary and historical fiction back to cortez. what have you got? maureen: i have got in a sense historical fiction and very contemporary too. james by percival everett, which i think has landed on so many best of lists this year. jeffrey: national book award. maureen: yeah. thank you. it is a retelling, in a sense, of huckleberry finn, but from the point of view of jim james,e novel. i usually am suspicious of these kinds of appropriations of classic texts, through the point of view of a secondary character. this is alive. it is very much its own novel. it's funny. it's heartfelt. i mean the opening scene is james educating young children

in the community. how to speak through a slave filter so that white people will listen to them. and it really makes you rethink huckleberry finn in ways you can't even anticipate. so that's one. and then this is a peculiar year, right. danzy senna's colored television. danzie senna happens to be married to percival everett, so i would love a lot of love to -- jeffrey: you are showing a lot of love for this household. maureen: i would love to hear their dinner conversations. really social commentary, funny, satirical. it's about a woman who mixed race who was trying to write this epic. -- this epic novel about what it means to be mixed race in america. not having any success with the novel. so she decides to sell out.she . such a smart novel about the writing life and also about

class as well as raise. what it means to have a lot of cultural capital, without a lot of financial capital, which is the plight of a lot of writers. jeffrey: and we have both of them on this shelf. gilbert cruz, what about nonfiction? gilbert: the wide, wide sea by hampton sides is about the 3rd and final voyage of captain james cook. captain cook, very, very well known british explorer. this is the journey that he took from england in 1776 to the south pacific in part to return to he should and men from those islands to hise lay to find the northwest passage, which, as you both know, was a thing that people really tried to do back then. hom and it's one of those classic pieces of historical nonfiction that anyone who loves seafaring adventure, will enjoy, but i -- but it also has that very sort of necessary realization of what it means to, you know, have engaged in these sort of imperialist endeavors back then.

it has a modern understanding of history while also being incredibly detail oriented and incredibly entertaining. so that's one, and the other one i'll talk about is very contemporary, it is everyone who is gone is here by jonathan blitzer. we just came out of a presidential election in which the immigration situation at the southern border was one of the key sort of points of debate. and what blitzer, who is a staff writer at the new yorker has done is put together a history of a half-century of the situation at the u.s.-mexico border. it focuses on, on 3 nations, 3 central american nations, honduras, guatemala, and el salvador. and through administrations, republican and democrat, it sort of tells the story of how we've gotten to the point where we are today. jeffrey: maureen corrigan, to nonfiction. maureen: a wilder shore by camille perry, it tells the story of the marriage of robert louis stevenson and fannie stevenson, and she is the star of the show in this telling it's her story as it should be.

i mean, she was a woman who really fled from an abusive marriage, went to europe on no money, decided she wanted to be an artist, taking her three children with her, met stevenson, and we go on from there. it is an inspiring story about having a larger life. so that's one. the other suggestion is the new edition of the letters of emily dickinson, which harvard's belknap press has brought out . yes, 300 new letters. they have been collected that we have not seen before. it's the closest thing we're ever likely to get to an autobiography by dickinson, and i tell you, you can't put it down. jeffrey: wow. i wasn't expecting that. ok, so i want to give you each in the time we have left a bonus pick. so whatever, maybe a book that just didn't get as much attention as you hoped, but that you tell your close friends, you got to read this.

gilbert cruz, you want to pick one? gilbert: absolutely. so, a book that came out sort of late in the year that i really enjoyed, it's called carlo's choice. it's by nick harkaway, and it's a new john le carre story. so john le carre died in 2020. his son, nick harkaway, is also a writer. he's a novelist known primarily for science fiction work. and he has written a new story starring george smiley. so george smiley, one of the most famous spy protagonists of all time, tinker tailor soldier spy and all of those books. this is set in the period between the spy who came in from the cold and tinker tailor soldier spy, and he does just a remarkable job of not really mimicking his father's voice as much as inhabiting it. and it tells the story of george smiley and his nemesis on the soviet side, carla. it was quite entertaining. jeffrey: bahrain, final bonus pick. maureen: ok, this is out of the box for me, out of the box. the dog who followed the moon by james norbury. it's an illustrated

inspirational book for adults, and it's really all about a dog who's lost and follows the moon and doesn't know where he's going to end up. for those of us who are feeling a little lost these days and i'm -- and unsure about about what paths to take. the illustrations are gorgeous and again, i guess inspiring is my theme for my picks this year. i found it very inspiring. jeffrey: all right, great picks as always, maureen corrigan, gilbert cruz. thank you both very much and happy new year. maureen: happy new yea thank yo. nick: later this evening on pbs, american experience presents an encore broadcast of its documentary "jimmy carter." the film traces his life as president, including a rapid ascent to a dramatic downfall. and it chronicles his many

achievements in the decades following his presidency, as pjit 8:00 p.m. eastern on pbs, check your local listings. we have much more online, that includes 2024 song recommendations from some of the music industry's most decorated artists and producers. that is on her instagram. and that's the news hour for tonight. i'm nick schifrin. i hope you had a good day. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. have a great night. >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided 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 from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ >> you're watching pbs.

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