>>i jones, the author of a new biography on jim henson. very excited to talk to him. earlier this week we talked about how the official launch of obamacare was marred by web glitches anlong delays. but there was another major obstacle to obamacare's implementation. total dickishness. you see, obamacare for all its well-documented issues and problems is still a well-intentioned attempt to get people who have not had health insurance in this country health insurance. medicaid has traditionally covered people up to this income level. obamacare was going to cover them ostensibly down to this income level. so it was going to be the gap there, about the size of an ipad ee cement instead of an ipad it is about 8 million people living just above the poverty line so to provide health insurance for this nation's, you know, center, the federal government was going give the state government money to expand their medicaid program. for three years the state would pay for this program, i think the number was about 0. and then after that, they would pay up to 10%, i think, by the tim

called jim henson the biography, on the book shelves now. brian jay jones. thank you, sir. (applause) >> that's our show. hey, before we go, though. let me tell you a little story, it is a story about, it's kind of a table, really, about this punk kid from long island. let me see if i have got any footage of him. there he is, right there looks like kind of a punkie kid carrying a toilet in new york city. oh, gee, i don't know what this kid is doing. just-- just terrible. and the whole thing is just terrible. anyway that kid's name is rory albany. and i got to the show in 1999ment he started probably about two months after that. and he was a wise ass. and i really liked him. and i noticed that whatever job we gave him, he kansas citied that job's ass. like did it great, was really smart, really funny. and just kept working. so we kept giving him more responsibility and more creative control. and more things to do. and every time de t he would knock it out of the park. so now i done know what it is now, 2032, whatever, 2013. so this kid who started at this show in 1999 as a p

tavis: jim henson, creator of kermit the frog, ms. agee and so many of the muppets is no doubt a beloved american icon. more complex than his followers made have imagined. book written by brian jay jones, let's take a look first at a clip at how jim henson action created kermit the frog. >> he is one of the supposed puppets. inside of his head, there's nothing in there but my hand. so it's just a little cloth pattern here. the eyes were half spheres. but he's very simple as puppets go. some have gone a lot more completed. but he is truly a glorified sock puppet. tavis: you were telling me during the clip of that for you he was what you referred to as creatively restless during >> yeah, a guy -- restless. but yeah, guy who is constantly pitching. even a guy with the most famous always the world was creating stuff. >> that creative restlessness was born of what? >> from the very early age, his dearmother, who he called , always encouraged him to drive to painted to so. he was always encouraged by his parents and his grandparents to go o

and they are all, of course, the brain child of jim henson. >> jim really celebrated and wanted people reporter: the author captures the life of henson in a new biography. >> they still do muppets for sesame streak and still build costumes. there's drawers of eyes and hair and teeth. >> he seemed to be the kind of kid, he was when he got into this business, that knew what he wanted to be early on. he was on tv as a teenager. >> yeah, 17. when a local tv channel advertised for puppeteers to perform, he went to the library and taught himself to build and perform puppets and auditioned and got the job. >> by his freshman year in college he got his own show on a local nbc affiliate. >> he survived sam with all of these vague abstract characters including an early version of kermit the frog. >> reporter: so the muppets were born. like many creations the characters evolved. kermit the thing became kermit the frog. this monster would lose his teeth and gain an addiction to cookies. in the 1960s, jim found regular working commercials and made frequent talk show appearances, including here on "

tavis: jim henson, creator of kermit the frog, ms. agee and so many of the muppets is no doubt a beloved american icon. more complex than his followers made have imagined. book written by brian jay jones, let's take a look first at a clip at how jim henson action created kermit the frog. >> he is one of the supposed puppets. inside of his head, there's nothing in there but my hand. so it's just a little cloth pattern here. the eyes were half spheres. but he's very simple as puppets go. some have gone a lot more completed. but he is truly a glorified sock puppet. tavis: you were telling me during the clip of that for you he was what you referred to as creatively restless during >> yeah, a guy -- restless. but yeah, guy who is constantly pitching. even a guy with the most famous always the world was creating stuff. >> that creative restlessness was born of what? >> from the very early age, his dearmother, who he called , always encouraged him to drive to painted to so. he was always encouraged by his parents and his grandparents to go o

jim henson, the buyer fee, written by brian g jones. thank you for the work. good to have you on the program. coming up up, kathy eldon, author of in the heart of life. stay with us. tavis: putting your life together after a catastrophic losses at the center of a new memoir called "in the heart of life" by kathy of them. she struggled to have a meaningful life for herself after her son was killed at the age of 22 while covering the conflict in somalia for reuters. to forgivend a way her son's assailants was one way . kathy eldon, good to have you on this program. >> and lead you mention the humor. tavis: let me start, if i might, given that you lived in nairobi and the kenya, with your thoughts on this still developing story in some ways, about this terrific incident at this mall in nairobi. >> there's not a civil person that i have talked to in nairobi that wasn't personally affected by the killings and i feel particularly sad because it takes us right at 20 years to when my son was killed and the underlying causes of why daniel and his colleagues were killed

and gives us a look of the creative genius that was jim henson. i have to say, i'm a huge sesame street fan, i have a 5-year-old daughter. we bought all of the old original seasons of sesame street, watched them all. they are fantastic. you have this great quote from one of the co-founders of the children's television workshop, i think there was a kind of collective genius about the core group that created sesame street but there was only one real genius in our midst and that was jim. >> jim was so pivotal to sesame street when they were developing it that one of the other co-creators said if you cannot get him, you can do not puppets on sesame street. i think one thing people don't remember about his early contributions, did the number films and baker falling down the stairs, that's jim's voice dubbed in. he made all of those films. the little boy digging in the sand box with machines, that's his son brian in the film. one of the things attracted to him when he was doing that, he got to do these other little fun things as well apart from really f

and they are all, of course, the brain child of jim henson. >> jim really celebrated and wanted people captures the life of henson in a new biography. >> they still do muppets for sesame streak and still build costumes. there's drawers of eyes and hair and teeth. >> he seemed to be the kind of kid, he was when he got into this business, that knew what he wanted to be early on. he was on tv as a teenager. >> yeah, 17. when a local tv channel advertised for puppeteers to perform, he went to the library and taught himself to build and perform puppets and auditioned and got the job. >> by his freshman year in college he got his own show on a local nbc affiliate. >> he survived sam with all of these vague abstract characters including an early version of kermit the frog. >> reporter: so the muppets were born. like many creations the characters evolved. kermit the thing became kermit the frog. this monster would lose his teeth and gain an addiction to cookies. in the 1960s, jim found regular working commercials and made frequent talk show appearances, including here on "today". >> this is ke

>>i jones, the author of a new biography on jim henson. very excited to talk to him. earlier this week we talked about how the official launch of obamacare was marred by web glitches anlong delays. but there was another major obstacle to obamacare's implementation. total dickishness. you see, obamacare for all its well-documented issues and problems is still a well-intentioned attempt to get people who have not had health insurance in this country health insurance. medicaid has traditionally covered people up to this income level. obamacare was going to cover them ostensibly down to this income level. so it was going to be the gap there, about the size of an ipad ee cement instead of an ipad it is about 8 million people living just above the poverty line so to provide health insurance for this nation's, you

tavis: join me next time for a conversation with the writer of a new biography of jim henson. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. thank you. >> be more. announcer: support for "kqed science" is provided by... support is also provided by the members of kqed.

tavis: jim henson, creator of kermit the frog, ms. and so many of the muppets is no doubt a beloved american icon. more complex than his followers made have imagined. book written by brian jay jones, let's take a look first at a clip at how jim henson action created kermit the frog. >> he is one of the supposed puppets. inside of his head, there's nothing in there but my hand. so it's just a little cloth pattern here. the eyes were half spheres. but he's very simple as puppets go. some have gone a lot more completed. but he is truly a glorified sock puppet. tavis: you were telling me during the clip of that for you he was what you referred to as creatively restless during >> yeah, a guy -- restless. but yeah, guy who is constantly pitching. even a guy with the most famous always the world was creating stuff. >> that creative restlessness was born of what? >> from the very early age, his dearmother, who he called , always encouraged him to drive to painted to so. he was always encouraged by his parents and his grandparents to go out th

tavis: join me next time for a conversation with the writer of a new biography of jim henson. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> hello and welcome to "global 3000," your weekly check on how globalization affects us all. here's what's coming up. a clean sheet for climate- friendly tourism in the dominican republic, how the new freedom in myanmar affects the catwalks, and singing out loud -- south africa's aspiring new opera talent. the island of hispaniola is divided into deeply poor haiti and the up-and-coming dominican republic, a popular tourist destination. you can even see this division line from space. while haiti has lost much of its landscape to deforestation, the trees that do remain mostly belong to the dominican republic. and increasingly there is an awareness that keeping tourism green is important to keep this industry sustainable. here the islanders are putting some new ideas into practice. >> visitors to the beaches of punta cana are treated to a caribbean island paradise. here the developing country of the domin

tavis: join me next time for a conversation with the writer of a new biography of jim henson. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> welcome of "joseph rosendo's travelscope"... >> ha ha ha! >> where you join us as we accept the world's invitation to visit. >> today on "travelscope," i visit quebec, canada, and explore the many sides of montreal, the french-speaking city with a european flair. >> "joseph rosendo's travelscope" is made possible by san antonio, texas, where you'll find art, culture, romance, authentic tex-mex, 50-plus golf courses, and hundreds of attractions. san antonio--deep in the heart. and no-jet-lag jet lag prevention. >> founded along the banks of the saint lawrence river in 1642, montreal has grown to become the largest city in the french-speaking province of quebec and the second largest city in canada. for 26 miles along the saint lawrence river, from old montreal to beyond mount royal, there are numerous neighborhoods, cultures, and attractions. join me on my montreal, quebec, canada, adventure. like mos

join me next time for a conversation with the writer of the new biography of muppet creator jim hensonhat is next time. we will see you then. ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a >>> funding for this program is provided by the gruber family foundation and by the members of kqed. >> a co-production of kqed and center for investigatie ive reporting. >> california's san joaquin valley is one of the most productive farm regions in the world, yet the people who live and work near those farms can't always access that bounty. >> they're picking fresh fruit for everybody else, but actually they don't even have fresh fruit for their own family. >> families in the central valley experience some of the nation's highest levels of food insecurity. >> one in four families are at the risk of going to sleep hungry. one in three children are at risk of being

. >>> and jim henson's muppets prepared to go gaga. >>> don't forget our overmany discounts to thinecustomers! [old english accent] safe driver, multi-car, paid in full -- a most fulsome bounty indeed, lord jamie. thou cometh and we thy saveth! what are you doing? we doth offer so many discounts, we have some to spare. oh, you have any of those homeowners discounts? here we go. thank you. he took my shield, my lady. these are troubling times in the kingdom. more discounts than we knoweth what to do with. now that's progressive. that's why we reimagined the range using a tri-ring burner. from the lowest simmer, to the hottest sear, nothing can stop you from achieving the perfect dish... almost. ge. reimagining home. visit bray & scarff and save 10% on select ge cooking appliances when you buy two or more. hurry in for this limited time offer. ♪ 3 in oakland. 57 to the patch river air station. clear skies. a beautiful horizon glowing this morning ahead of the sunrise with reagan national reporting 56 degrees under clear skies. a west wind at 5 miles per hour and the relative humidity a

join me next time for a conversation with the writer of the new biography of muppet creator jim henson that is next time. we will see you then. ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a ♪ >>dean: hi, welcome back to hometime at the creek side project. well it is full speed ahead because we finally got all of our drainage problems taken care of that we were dealing with last time. >>miriam: thankfully that was in the past and now what we wanna do is get some gravel out front and some concrete downstairs. the gravel is what we need to give us a good solid base for the paver driveway that we're going to be putting in a bit later. but we wanna talk about what it takes to give it the proper support right now. and the concrete is for the basement floor which we've been putting off a bit because of all the moisture issues. but now that those are taken care of, we're ready to put in our water- proofing underneath the slab, by the end of the show, we'll be pouring concrete. >>miriam: we'r

join me next time for a conversation with the writer of the new biography of muppet creator jim henson that is next time. we will see you then. ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a >> even as late in the history as the 1920s, nobody knew or cared who directed these shows, and it didn't really matter. they were traffic managers. then, as you get into the 1950s, we start to have director-choreographers in a big way, but now, all the choreographers want a promotion, to be director-choreographers, and the musicals take on this wonderful life because the choreographer sees everything in motion. >> haskins: "theater talk" is made possibly in part by... >> from new york city, this is "theater talk." i'm susan haskins. >> and i'm michael riedel of the new york post. so, susan, one of our favorite guests of all time is back with us today. ethan mordden, who has written -- ethan, i'm in the middle of writing one book, and i think by the time i finish my one book, you'll probably have

and so jim henderson was in the news because somebody wrote a book with him. >> rose: henson. >> henson, right. and you know, it's happening at an ever increasing rate at hospitals around the country. we've overused our repertoire of antibiotics and now the bugs are fighting back and they're resistent. now for an emerging infection is the same as if somebody makes a new infectious agent. it has a sufficient repertoire of anti-virals and anti-infectives. we need them both. >> rose: you have to stay ahead of the curve. >> exactly. on both fronts. the biggest threat is the emerging infections than it is man-made infections. we have powerful technology, obviously any can be used for good or for evil. we are been working with them on what can be didn't, what can't be done. >> rose: what makes them super resistent. >> some develops techniques for pumping into the body back out of the cell. they change their genes owe the antibiotic doesn't have any effect anymore. we're investigating this area that used to be popular in eastern europe before the discovery of penicillin and that was using the