Length (Short)

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The Fraud of Plastic Recycling

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The Fraud of Plastic Recycling

CBS Sunday Mornings, 2024, 5:02… About 48 million tons of plastic waste is generated in the United States each year, but only 5 to 6 percent of it is actually recycled. A new report from the Center for Climate Integrity, "The Fraud of Plastic Recycling," accuses the plastics industry of a decades-long campaign to "mislead" the public about the viability of recycling. Correspondent Ben Tracy talks with the report's co-author, Davis Allen, and with Jan Dell, a former chemical engineer, about an inconvenient truth surrounding the lifecycle of plastic.

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The Iron Cage of Prior Authorizations

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The Iron Cage of Prior Authorizations

The New York Times, 2024, 8:37... Should your insurance company be allowed to stop you from getting a treatment — even if your doctor says it’s necessary? Doctors are often required to get insurance permission before providing medical care. This process is called prior authorization and it can be used by profit-seeking insurance companies to create intentional barriers between patients and the health care they need. At best, it’s just a minor bureaucratic headache. At worst, people have died.

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The Most Unequal Place in America

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The Most Unequal Place in America

CBS Sunday Morning, 2023, 6:10… Teton County in Wyoming is home to the widest income divide in America, with a median house price of more than $5 million and an average income of $318,000. Correspondent Ben Tracy looks at how the wealthy, drawn to the state's picture-perfect settings, have been squeezing out the middle class – the very people needed to keep the community running.

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The Culture Industry Prevented a Recession

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The Culture Industry Prevented a Recession

Inside Edition, 2023, 1:48… Taylor Swift's sold-out Eras tour added $4.6 billion to the local economies of the cities she performed in. Her impact on the economy is being called "Swiftonomics." Many of her fans traveled long distances to spend lots of money to make her concert a night to remember. The so-called “Taylor Swift tourists” spend an average of $1,300 per person. Those purchases include tickets, hotels, car rentals, restaurants, merchandise and hair stylists.

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Men and Falling Behind

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Men and Falling Behind

CBS Sunday Morning, 2023, 8:44… In 1972, when Title IX was passed to help improve gender equality on campus, men were 13% more likely to get an undergraduate degree than women. Today, it's women who are 15% more likely to get a BA than men. That's just one of the startling statistics revealing how millions of young men today are struggling to understand how or where they fit in.

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Repatriating Museum Artifacts Looted from West Africa

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Repatriating Museum Artifacts Looted from West Africa 
PBS NewsHour, 2022, 8:10... As a debate over how and when to repatriate art continues to roil, one clear-cut case of looting in the 19th century has art leaders taking strong stands now. Jeffrey Brown went to look at a museum that is confronting the controversial origins of its collection

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Intersex and De-medicalization

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Intersex and De-medicalization

CBS Sunday Morning, 2023, 8:38… According to statistics cited by the U.N., .05 to 1.7 percent of the world's population is intersex, defined as having external or internal sexual organs that are not clearly male or female. As a matter of course, doctors in the past performed surgery on babies, ostensibly so that they would live a "normal" life.

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Pop Culture at the Smithsonian

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Pop Culture at the Smithsonian

CBS Sunday Morning, 2022, 4:59… "Entertainment Nation/Nación del espectáculo," a new exhibition at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., features artifacts from 150 years of music, sports and moving images. CBS News' John Dickerson gets a tour, and looks at how Prince, "The Wizard of Oz" and "Star Wars" helped define our national character.

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Billionaires Are Bad for the Economy

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Billionaires Are Bad for the Economy

WIRED, 2022, 7:36… This video helps dispel the myth of billionaire job creators. The share of income going to the top 1% of households has doubled since the 1980s while their collective investment in our society has been in decline. They are not using such gains to create jobs, raise wages, or uplift the lower classes more generally. Our taxation policies also allow billionaires to pay minimal taxes. While they may give to charities, their donations do not offset the damages they create by hoarding wealth. All of this is unfortunate for society and the economy as this increasing wealth inequality is associated with lower productivity.

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Shady Homeowners & Hot Renters

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Shady Homeowners & Hot Renters

Vox, 2021, 6:48… It’s time to stop looking at trees as a form of “beautification.” They are, instead, a living form of infrastructure, providing a variety of services that include stormwater management, air filtering, carbon sequestration, and, most importantly for a city like Phoenix, Arizona, they cool the environment around them.

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Conspicuous Water

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Conspicuous Water

CBS Sunday Morning, 2021, 3:39… Martin Riese is America's first certified water sommelier, who studies the subtle flavors of bottled water, and prepares menus pairing specific brands with foods. Correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti sits down with Riese to discuss his unique palate, and his thirst for spreading the word on water.

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Exclusionary Zoning and the Housing Problem

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Exclusionary Zoning and the Housing Problem

Vox, 2021, 9:41… Zoning laws are the local rules and regulations that decide what types of homes can be built where. These rules can sometimes have good intentions. But they also have a dark history in the United States as a tool to keep certain races, religions, and nationalities out of white neighborhoods. And while zoning laws in the US are no longer explicitly racist, their effect remains basically the same: to keep affordable housing, and the people who need it, away from the wealthiest Americans.