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Inside Politics
Series of Storms Could Impact Christmas & Post-Christmas Travel; Kelly Bishop Discusses Her Career, Late Husband and Her New Memoir, "the Third Gilmore Girl." Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired December 25, 2024 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Temperatures are going to get down below 32 after dark. So, if the road looks wet and you're driving around at 7:00 at night, it is not wet, that is likely ice on the roadways. So be careful there. Not melting any snow in Minnesota, not melting any snow in Wisconsin. It is still cold enough out there.
There could be some severe weather tomorrow across Arkansas and parts of Louisiana. They'll take the rain, but we don't need all of that severe weather potential. And then as we look ahead to Sunday, this is when so many people are going to be trying to get back home. They're going to take this storm, we're going to move it into Boston, New York, D.C. and Atlanta, all the big airports where people are trying to get either out through or to. And so yes, this is going to be a slow Sunday and more snow in the northwest, more snow in the Sierra. They've already had a lot, trust me, like 170 percent of normal, and two or three more feet still to come.
Look at these ski resorts out here. If you chose something in the east, probably chose poorly. This is where to choose wisely, Mammoth Mountain, 85 inches of snow on the ground right now. They're not making snow out there because they don't need it. Mother Nature is doing its job. Jessica?
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it sure is. All right. Merry Christmas to you, Chad. Thanks so much for that.
MYERS: Merry Christmas.
DEAN: After the break, Dr. Sanjay Gupta gives us a look back at the top-10 health and medical stories of 2024.
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[12:35:12]
DEAN: There have been a wide range in major health related developments this year from new information about microplastics in our bodies to the harms of ultra-processed foods, but also new hope in the fight against Alzheimer's. And for a look back at the top-10 health stories of 2024, here's CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: From another potential pandemic to health threats infiltrating our daily lives, 2024 provided us with some warning signs, but we also saw stories with hard-earned moments of inspiration and innovation, reminding us of the relentless search for the next medical breakthrough.
GUPTA (voice-over): With more than a hundred thousand people on the wait list for organ transplants in the United States, there is a clear need for a solution, and this could be the answer.
MICHAEL CURTIS, CEO, EGENESIS, INC.: They're fully edited. All these piglets can carry a total of 69 edits to the genome.
GUPTA (voice-over): Genetically edited pigs designed by scientists to be compatible with the human body, reducing the possibility of rejection. Scientists have started to make progress testing this type of organ transplant. It's known as xenotransplantation. They're doing this in the patients who have no other alternatives.
As temperatures around the world keep climbing, it's taking a clear toll on our health, testing the limits even of human survivability. This year, people hiking, attending concerts, just being in their own homes, they have died from heat. In fact, heat is the deadliest type of extreme weather and climate change is making those heat waves longer and more severe. Heat also means warmer oceans, leading to these supercharged hurricanes like the ones that we saw this year, and that comes with their own health consequences as well.
Imagine using a computer by only using your mind. That's just the beginning of what Brain Computer Interface or BCI technology combined with Artificial Intelligence is now hoping to do. Companies like Synchron and Elon Musk's Neuralink, they have begun implanting BCI devices into people's brains to help people who are losing motor functions still be able to perform daily tasks.
Earlier this year, I met Mark. He is an ALS patient who has mostly lost the ability to use his arms, and we saw firsthand how Synchron's Stentrode device helps send messages on his computer and even play a game like Pong. He hopes this technology can help him, can help other patients struggling as well with paralysis maintain as much independence as possible.
TIMOTHY MITCHELL, COLON CANCER SURVIVOR: I was 43 years old at the time when I was diagnosed.
GUPTA (voice-over): A growing number of young adults like Timothy Mitchell are being diagnosed with cancer.
DR. JONATHAN VILLENA, AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY: Cancer which usually would affect people over 65 has now become much more prevalent in patients under 55.
GUPTA (voice-over): While the trends have been headed this way for more than a decade, experts still aren't sure why this is happening. But it has put a spotlight on the importance of recommended preventative screenings, paying attention to any unusual symptoms in your body, and a search for factors that could be behind this increase.
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A new study shows an increase in levels of microplastics in human brains.
GUPTA (voice-over): Microplastics, they are everywhere. Nowadays, they're in our food, they're in our clothing, they're in the air we breathe. And now, we're starting to get a better understanding of their potential impact on our health. There was a study that found people with micro or nanoplastics in their carotid arteries were twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke, or die from any other cause over the next three years --
GUPTA: -- compared to people who had none.
GUPTA (voice-over): If you're a parent, I know you're going to understand this.
DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: 48 percent, nearly half of parents, are saying on most days they're completely overwhelmed by their stress.
GUPTA (voice-over): This summer, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, issued an advisory calling parental stress a public health concern, saying that we need a cultural shift with both individual and government intervention. Parents are working more than ever, and childcare demands have only increased, leaving many families feeling exhausted, burned out, perpetually behind. That's what Murthy said.
It's no secret that diet plays a major role in our health. And while we know the benefits of healthy food, the harms of ultra-processed food are now coming into clearer focus. Ultra-processed foods make up nearly 70 percent of our country's food supply. Numerous studies have found that consuming higher amounts of these foods raises the risk of obesity, but also the development of chronic conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, and it probably even shortens lifespan.
[12:40:00]
Researchers are now trying to figure out if ultra-processed ingredients are all created equal.
An alarming spread of bird flu throughout dairy herds across the United States has scientists on edge.
ANDREW BOWMAN, OHIO STATE EPIDEMIOLOGIST: As we think about a virus that might move from animals into humans and potentially cause the next pandemic, certainly has everyone's guard up.
GUPTA (voice-over): While the CDC says the public health risk remains low, there have been cases of bird flu in humans.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The CDC is now confirming the first severe case of H5N1 bird flu in a human inside the United States.
GUPTA (voice-over): Most human cases have been among people who've been exposed to sick animals, but that hasn't completely eased the fears of possibility of human to human transmission.
There may be more hope for Alzheimer's patients than ever. A new study led by Dr. Dean Ornish found that some patients who underwent lifestyle interventions alone, like eating a vegan diet, exercising daily, practicing stress reduction, they saw improved cognition, even signs of reversal of the disease. I got to see this firsthand meeting patients all over the country.
MIKE CARVER, ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT: This is the best I can do to stay alive. And I want to live with my wife as long as I can.
GUPTA (voice-over): We also did see promise in newly approved pharmaceutical interventions, including monoclonal antibody treatments, Donanemab for example, demonstrating the ability to slow the progression of the disease. For decades, we only saw incremental progress in treating this disease. But now, I have to say these options are giving patients new hope.
This year, we traveled around the world, investigating the impact of the GLP-1 weight loss drugs. With no signs of slowing in popularity now, these drugs have given us new insight into obesity as a disease.
RASHEEDA BUSH, OZEMPIC USER: What it did help me was not have a whole lot of thoughts about food. My cravings went away.
GUPTA (voice-over): We now consider obesity a disease of the brain, a revelation that I think has lifted a sense of guilt associated with this disease, helped us get to a better understanding of how to treat it as well.
DR. DAN SKOVRONSKY, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER. ELI LILLY: It's definitely true that there are people out there who've said time and again, obesity is not really a disease. All you need to do is eat better and exercise more and you'll be OK.
GUPTA (voice-over): While these drugs may not be for everyone, we have seen how they can transform people's lives, physically, yes, but also emotionally. We've only, at this point, begun to unlock the possibilities. Studies have found that these drugs could be associated with cardiovascular benefits, lowering the risk of certain cancers, curbing cravings as well beyond food, like nicotine and alcohol.
And I'm sure we're going to continue to learn a lot more about this in 2025. Happy New Year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN: Coming up next here, a break from our usual "Inside Politics" fair, actress Emily Bishop, a.k.a. Emily Gilmore will be here to talk about her long career from Broadway to Stars Hollow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:47:35]
DEAN: Here on "Inside Politics", we like to spotlight powerful women, presidential candidates, the Speaker of the House, United States Senators, and occasionally stars of stage and screen. Dana spoke recently to actress Kelly Bishop, and you may best know her as the Matriarch on Gilmore Girls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMILY GILMORE, PORTRAYED BY KELLY BISHOP, GILMORE GIRLS MOVIE: I am going to Europe, Richard. I'm going to Europe, and I'm going to have a marvelous time. I'm going to get up at 10 and I'm going to have two glasses of wine at lunch every single day.
RICHARD GILMORE, PORTRAYED BY EDWARD HERRMANN, GILMORE GIRLS MOVIE: Only prostitutes have two glasses of wine at lunch.
E. GILMORE: Well, then buy me a boa and drive me to Reno because I am open for business.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': The formidable. Kelly Bishop joins me now. She is the author of the fantastic new memoir, "The Third Gilmore Girl." I want to start, of course, with the Gilmore Girls, which is the way that you entitled this and give our viewers a little bit of a preview of what's in the book. You write, "I've been asked more times than I can count about my favorite part of the whole Gilmore Girls experience. Right up there at the top of the very long list is the fact that we were a company, an ensemble. There was no star and there -- and that's something I've known about myself since I was a little girl who was falling in love with ballet. I wanted to be a performer, but I never wanted to be a star."
Well, newsflash, you are a star. So --
(LAUGH)
BASH: -- that definitely, did happen for you despite not necessarily wanting that. So, can you just talk about the designation, where you are now and how everything, not just this, played into your incredible career?
KELLY BISHOP, ACTRESS AND AUTHOR OF "THE THIRD GILMORE GIRL": Well, this book has just kind of brought it all together. And as I hadn't expected to write it, I never -- it had been suggested to me and I kept thinking, I don't know why anybody would want to read about me and no, no, no. Well, and I thought, OK, I'll give it a shot and I had a wonderful time doing it.
BASH: Yeah.
BISHOP: It was terrific.
BASH: And the Gilmore Girls, it's really amazing how iconic it has been. And you have become your character, Emily Gilmore. I mean, I will tell you that I watched it for the first time in its entirety during the pandemic. The fact that it's streaming on Netflix opened up the floodgates to so many fans.
BISHOP: I spoke to so many people who binged it. I think it's a show that especially young girls and their mothers should watch together. But I think anyone can enjoy it. And I'm very proud of it. I was proud of doing it and I'm really proud of it now.
[12:50:00]
BASH: I want to go back in time because you are a Tony Award winner. You were in "A Chorus Line." You weren't just in it, you were Sheila. And the song at the ballet featured several quotes from your own life. And in fact, you and others went into a room and kind of poured out your hearts about your own lives, and that became "A Chorus Line." And I'm wondering what it was like. I know at first that was a monologue, and then it became a song written by Marvin Hamlisch, which is quite something. What it was like when you first heard it?
BISHOP: That was amazing because, as I mentioned in the book, and to anyone else who's ever asked me, I'm not a singer, never was a singer. And then Michael Bennett said to me one day, we are going to take at the ballet -- or your section and turn it into a song called "At The Ballet." And as soon as he said Sons, I'm sure I turned white.
And he said, it'll be a trio. And the relief was palpable because I love singing actually, in parts because I get to sing bottom.
(LAUGH)
BISHOP: Surprise, surprise. And I think it's a beautiful song. I think it's the prettiest song on the show.
BASH: Sure was. I want to ask about something else. In your memoir, you write about a very personal and traumatic experience, and that is the fact that you made a decision to have an abortion, and you share that experience as a way to describe how you felt about your own body and having control of your own body, about the physical ramifications, the emotional ramifications, but also, how it shaped your perception of politics. And that you came here to Washington with Amy Sherman- Palladino, who of course is the creator of Gilmore Girls and Mrs. Maisel and others. You attended a rally in 2003. Why was that important to do?
BISHOP: It's because, again, it was all about Roe v. Wade, I believe it was an anniversary. And there was some -- there's always been pushback as far as women's rights go. And I just -- I'm not an activist. I have strong feelings, but I'm -- don't get myself very involved. And I thought I would really like to go to that. I mean, I grew up in the '50s. I remember what it was like when you heard about a girl getting pregnant, her life was pretty much over unless her parents were very rich and they sent her to Europe, and then she came back not pregnant anymore. So I wanted to be a presence there.
BASH: OK. Let's fast forward in your career from the Chorus Line to Dirty Dancing. That is the one movie, well, one of several, but really, if that is on TV, I do not turn it off. I stop whatever I'm doing, I'm late for wherever I'm going. You played, Baby, Francis' mother, and I can't believe I get to ask you this. There's one line in there that I want to play for our viewers and ask you about it on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARJORIE HOUSEMAN, PORTRAYED BY KELLY BISHOP, DIRTY DANCING MOVIE: I think she gets this from me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: I think she gets that from me. That was after you've done "A Chorus Line", you are a classically trained ballerina. Did you add that in there or was that scripted?
BISHOP: That was scripted.
BASH: Oh.
BISHOP: And so many people asked me through the years because they knew I was a dancer or when they were dancers too, and they said, did you put that in? I said, no, it was there.
BASH: Because you're here at CNN, I do want to acknowledge your late husband, Lee Leonard. He helped launch CNN and I know he was the love of your life. And we have a clip from his very first day on the air in 1980.
BISHOP: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE LEONARD, LATE CNN ANCHOR OF "PEOPLE TONIGHT": Hi, I'm Lee Leonard, and this is the CNN Los Angeles Bureau. Every night at 10 o'clock Pacific Time, we'll bring you Tonight's People, a full hour of talk with celebrities and people making the news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BISHOP: What a guy.
BASH: Yeah.
BISHOP: What a guy.
BASH: He was the love of your life?
BISHOP: Oh, hands down. And I was so smart. I took my time allowing myself to fall in love with him until he passed several tests that he had no idea he was on.
(LAUGH)
BISHOP: And then I finally looked at him and I thought, I can fall in love with this man, and he never bored me. And that was really it. This man will never bore me, and he never did. Smart, logical, savvy, funny, kind, but tough.
BASH: Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Once again, the book is "The Third Gilmore Girl." Kelly Bishop, it is an honor and a pleasure. Thank you so much.
BISHOP: My pleasure. Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN: A new CNN film examines the storied career of one of the most influential artists of all time, Luther Vandross, from his formative years in Harlem, appearing in the Apollo Theater house band, in the first episodes of Sesame Street to his rise as the 'King of Love Songs'. Using a wealth of archives, Luther tells his own story along with the voices of his closest musical collaborators and friends. Here's a preview of that.
[12:55:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUTHER VANDROSS, AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER AND RECORD PRODUCER: I used to sing background vocals for Roberta Flack on the road, and Roberta sometimes would have interviews and sometimes she'd be unable to show up at sound checks, so I would sing her songs for her in sound checks to test her microphone.
What happened is that one day, she had come back to the theater and I was singing, and she came over to me and she said, you know, you're getting a little too comfortable sitting on the stool in the background saying oohs and ahs. I really want you to make your own statement and make your own record, you know, and she in effect fired me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: Tune in the all new CNN film, "Luther Never Too Much." Premiers New Year's Day at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, right here on CNN.
Thank you so much for joining us on "Inside Politics" today. Merry Christmas. A very happy first night of Hanukkah to everyone out there. "CNN News Central" starts right after this break.
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