experts attribute this to forest mismanagement. california's policy has been to put fires out as soon as they ignite. that has allowed forests of trees full of dry brush to flourish and provide more fuel for future fires. but forest management is only one piece of the puzzle. the much larger problem is our impact on climate change. the u.n. highlighted the crisis this week in a comprehensive report from its intergovernmental panel on climate change. the report says that it is, quote, unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land, unquote. it added that there is so much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that the warming will last at least several decades. but there's a silver lining. aggressive emissions cuts around the globe could limit the warming beyond the year 2050. the stakes are high, and many people are asking what we can do about the climate crisis.

we'll get into that tomorrow night. it is the top of the hour and it's good to be with you tonight. the taliban have seized control of at least three provincial capitals in one day. president biden is deploying thousands of troops to afghanistan to evacuate embassy staff. but what comes next? the u.s. just saw its strongest back-to-back vaccination days in over a month. could this be the result of the new vaccine mandates? our saturday night panel is here to discuss. the 2020 census data is finally here. we will break down the numbers and see how america is becoming more diverse than ever. later, batman's sidekick is dc's newest openly queer superhero. are comics reflecting our culture or leading the way? from nbc news world headquarters in new york, i'm joshua johnson. welcome to "the week."

the u.s. is reporting a rate of new covid cases that we have not seen since last november. the current seven-day average is 140,000 cases per day. right now, basically everyone in america lives in an area with a high or substantial risk of community transmission. that's up from about 1 in 5 americans last month. and perhaps because of that, vaccination rates are also going up. the u.s. saw its single-largest total in over a month with nearly 1 million shots in arms today. and more help is on the way. yesterday the cdc gave final approval to pfizer and moderna booster shots for immuno compromised americans. the cdc announcement came less than 24 hours after the fda approved the same recommendation. with both agencies' approvals, boostest can be given immediately, again, just to americans with weakened immune systems. the spread of the delta variant has sparked new vaccine mandates

across the country. some corporate offices, schools, concert venues are requiring proof of vaccination. at the same time, the new wave of regulations has re-energized anti-vaccine protests. but these mandates could accelerate once the fda grants full approval to the vaccines in the coming weeks. currently they have emergency use authorization. they're cleared for human use but through a shorter process. as a result, fake vaccine cards are on the rise among those who still refuse to get the shot. lately government investigators and cybersecurity experts are noticing more schemes on social media to sell illegal proof of vaccination. these cards have shown up for sale on sites like amazon, ebay, and etsy. so how will organizations requiring the vaccines tell the difference between a legit card and a fake? lots for us to talk about with the saturday night panel. nbc senior reporter brandy

zadrosni. the podcast "fake the nation." janelle smith, senior correspondent at vox and host of "vox conversations." brandy, you've been reporting on anti-vaxers, particularly those who are also nurses. tell us more about that. >> yeah, i mean, the nursing community has never been immune from anti-vaccination misinformation, unfortunately. now this particular group, they call themselves america's health care workers for medical freedom. and that mouthful is basically promoting this instagram account with a few thousand followers. it's made up of a stable of registered nurses who are also anti-vaccination influencers on the app. what this is, is basically credibility laundering, which means -- you know, these same tired, debunked pieces of information but dressed up in

scrubs. there's a reason when you see an infomercial for a crappie product, so often it's a guy in a lab coat selling it. because that sort of credibility laundering really works. it has a danger at the moment of going sort of viral on social media and collecting a whole new group of people under this anti-vax umbrella. >> jameel, we've got to talk about the governors of florida and texas, particularly ron desantis, who promised to begin dispensing the monoclonal antibodies through mobile clinics during this record-breaking stretch of new cases and hospitalizations. florida accounts for 1 out of every 5 covid hospitalizations in the nation. 1 out of 5. it seems like what ron desantis is doing just in the state of florida impacts the state and the nation more and more broadly pretty much every day? >> of course. the problem is that they're co-opting the language of, frankly, people who are trying

to have pro-choice campaigns and whatnot. they're saying, my body, my choice. really the fact is that it's our bodies and their choice. really, they're making choices about the health of themselves, not just themselves, but also everyone around them. and frankly, i got a good idea for governor desantis. if he wants to get antibodies into the arms and the bodies of his residents, there's a lot better way to do that, and that is promote vaccines and make vaccines not just more available to the larger florida community, but also make sure that they're targeted to communities that frankly have been undervaccinated. we're not just talking about people who choose not to get vaccinated, we're talking about people who have not had availability for those vaccines. as of july, i know vox reported that the vaccination rate was about 15% lower for black people than for white people in the u.s. and i know that gap is shrinking to some degree. but i know in a lot of communities, particularly in places like north carolina, that those gaps are not shrinking fast enough.

so we need to talk about the lack of vaccinations. 50.5% is not nearly enough at this point. we need to talk about the lack of vaccinations from the standpoint of race and other cultural groups in america, how things have been disproportionately disadvantaged to those communities. >> for my fellow african-americans who are concerned about the medical establishment because of the tuskegee study, please go back and look for my essay about tuskegee. it ain't what you think. that reason is not as strong a justification as you think to not get vaccinated. going back to misinformation, i wonder what you think of the impact of this. that's kind of the power of trolls on facebook, right? is that they kind of co-opt or invent a form of credibility that sort of goes against the establishment, and people who have inherent distrust glom on to that. and now, unfortunately, it's getting people hurt, getting people killed. >> yeah, i mean, it's really scary. but i'm also, you know -- i'm

sympathetic to the people who are consuming this stuff, because i see someone in scrubs, i see someone if a lab coat, and i'm like, what do they have to say? they look official. i can see how easy it is to fall prey to these scenarios. like the other guest was saying, the credibility laundering that's happening, that's being amplified through social media, i think it's really easy to fall prey to that. >> also, brandy, we've heard more about these protests around the country. i'm looking in the last few minutes, there was a protest inside the oklahoma state capitol today, the so-called oklahoma freedom rally. lapd had to respond to two dueling protests outside l.a. city hall on the south lawn where one guy stabbed somebody else, one protester stabbed a counter protester. you, brandy, have been reporting on the proud boys who have been showing up and kind of -- excuse me, "the daily beast" has been reporting on the proud boys who have been teaming up with anti-maskers where there have been protests at school boards.

what is going on here, brandy? >> yeah, my good friend, kelly, wile, at "the daily beast," basically what we're seeing what is we've been seeing since 2020, and that is that proud boys, white supremacists, anti-vaxers, anti-maskers, second amendment people, regular freedom conspiracy theorist folks, all of these people who seem like they have disparate motivations, are actually coming together under this anti-establishment, freedom banner, sometimes pro-trump. we saw all of these groups out protesting at the anti-lockdown protests in the spring of 2020. now they have a lot of other things to add to their big umbrella of supposed grievances, and that includes the so-called anti-critical race theory stuff that we're seeing at school boards. a lot of school board stuff is anti-mask too. school has started again, and

qanon people and the proud boys all need somewhere to go, so they're going to these rallies, now they're taking up the banner of save the children. most of these people don't even have children that are standing up and talking at these rallies, talking at these school board meetings. it's very, very worrisome. >> i love this idea that they need somewhere to go because we would hate for the proud boys to get bored. jameel, what about this idea of people making these fake vaccination cards? i don't see how -- first of all, if you get caught with a fake vaccination card, let's just -- you can get fined a lot of money. we reported not too long ago about a group of guys, travelers, who used fake vaccine cards to enter canada from the u.s. and the canadian government fined them nearly $16,000. for using fake vaccination cards. when a vaccine is free. jameel, i don't even -- i don't even -- i don't even. >> i bet you that's a lot more than it cost them to buy those

vaccination cards on amazon, etsy, whatever. those corporations really need to step up and be accountable for this and be held accountable by us in the press. frankly, i mean, you have these things available widely, and these corporations, you know -- they act like they have no recourse as to whether or not they're sold. so let's talk about the fact that, john, yes, people are going to come up with cockamamie schemes, but these large corporations which have the capability to weed these things out can, in fact, take them out. i want to also address something that your guests have been saying, which is really what we're seeing here more broadly, proud boys and all of this stuff, is a lack of critical thinking. we're seeing people take advantage of that lack of critical thinking that's happening in our owe site. yes, it's easy for people to see a lab coat and think that means authenticity. but we need citizens to be particularly vigilant right now. frankly, this is killing people, and it doesn't have to be killing people. we need people to understand

that this is not about them, it's about all of us. >> before you believe one of these influencers, do yourself a favor and ask, what price would they pay for lying to me? what price would they pay for lying to me? >> precisely. >> if i lie to you in this forum, i don't just lose this job, i lose my entire career trajectory. i can never come back to this place if i high to you, even once. if those people online lie to you, what do they risk? what would they lose if they lie to you? something to consider before trusting someone you shouldn't be trusting. >> i'm heartened by the mandates. i've audience to some -- i had a friend who wasn't going to get the vaccine, wasn't going to get the vaccine, finally did get the vaccine. i said what changed your mind? it turns out his favorite bar was mandating it. he wanted to go to his favorite bar. he had to get the vaccine. so there are motivations out there. and, you know, hey, maybe it's your favorite bar. so, you know, small businesses have the power, large businesses have that power.

let's -- these mandates can really make a difference. >> i'm interested in that. there are more bars and gyms and restaurants that are going to begin mandating this. new orleans is going to start mandating it to drink at bars in new orleans. and if you think about what it takes to get rejected from a bar on bourbon street, like the thing that means they won't take their money is you're not vaccinated? we have crossed a boundary, i did not see none of this coming. much more to talk about is we spend our saturday night here. y'all stick around. before we pause, we should update you on the situation in afghanistan. as we mentioned, five provincial capitals there reportedly fell to the taliban today, reportedly. nbc news has confirmed three with afghan lawmakers. the taliban claimed to have taken two others. the capitals that we know fell include mautser e sharif, the last remaining government stronghold in the north of afghanistan. president biden authorized

deploying another 1,000 u.s. troops to that region. that brings the total to 5,000. nbc's megan fitzgerald has the latest. >> reporter: joshua, we are looking at a dire and deteriorating situation that's happening in afghanistan. nbc news confirming at least three provincial capitals have been seized just today by the taliban. one of them, mazar e sharif, the fourth largest city in the country. the taliban now has control of the entire northern part of the country. in addition to that, more than two-thirds of the country as well. so this is why we see this sort of global scramble, if you will, where the u.s. deploying more troops into afghanistan to secure, make sure that the personnel in these embassies are secure and safely transported out of kabul, we're seeing this with other nations as well, closing down their embassies as the taliban inches closer to trying to take over kabul.

we're seeing thousands of people fleeing to kabul in fear for their lives. now today we did hear from the president of afghanistan, who vows to not give up and to try and reduce the bloodshed that we're already seeing. he also mentioned that over the past 20 years, we've seen such progress as it relates to women being able to be educated, being able to start careers of their own. the biggest fear here is that if the taliban seizes kabul and then takes control of the entire nation, that things will certainly change. and right now afghanistan is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. joshua? >> thank you, megan, nbc's megan fitzgerald with the latest on afghanistan. the 2020 census shows that the u.s. is more diverse than ever. we will break down some of the key takeaways. many fans cheered when marvel's loki revealed being bisexual. the god of mischief is just one superhero or super anti-hero paving the way for a new

generation. we'll talk about that. and we promise, no spoilers. more breaking news coming out of haiti. the death toll has jumped to over 300 following a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. hundreds more are injured or missing. the epicenter was 80 miles west of the capital. extensive damage reported across the country. more than 50 hospitalized following a bus crash in central new york state. traveling westbound on the highway, it was the only vehicle involved in that accident. legendary singer tony bennett has retired from performing. the 95-year-old singer made the decision following a suggestion from his doctor. just days ago bennett performed alongside lady gaga in new york. he had been performing for over 80 years. more of "the week with joshua johnson" after a short break.

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this week, america got a new portrait of itself. the census bureau released its first batch of 2020 data after a four-month delay. and the results are historic. the u.s. is more diverse and more multi-racial than ever. in 2020, 33.8 million people identified as being of two or more races. that's up from 9 million in 2010. the number of people who identify as white alone fell by 8.6%. our panel is back to discuss. i wonder, jameel, there was an op-ed in the "arizona republic" that pointed at one of the -- perhaps the negative backlashes that could come as a result of this increasingly diverse america, basically saying it would fuel an ugly wave of political rhetoric against a, quote, and this is the term that they used to describe it, brown and foreign invasion. i think that was the term they were using to characterize the rhetoric from others, not their own view on this. i hear what they're getting at.

it feels like we're already there. like this pushback has already begun. but i wonder how you see this, whether the census data could sort of prove what white nationalists have been saying about replacement and all of that over the last few years? >> all right, two things. one is, as opposed to before? it's somehow different? i mean, that's what i'm trying to understand. how is this all of a sudden going to provoke more violence? we've seen an increase in racist violence, we've seen an increase in racist rhetoric, we've seen hate attacks all across the country. all of a sudden they're going to read the census and be, this is a reason to get even madder? racism is going to be here, folks. it's going to be part of our lives until we decide it's not going to be. and frankly, listen. the numbers here what we need to be paying attention to, i think, are the fact that, yes, it's

half the population growth in places like texas. we've seen growth of brown and black people throughout the nation. but consolidated in these urban areas. how are republicans, who are in charge of a lot of these states, going to get cracking and start trying to make sure that they maintain their power base, statewide and nationwide, while these communities are growing? it's going to be interesting to watch. honestly, the violence, that's a whole other problem we can't be worried about backlash. no progress comes without backlash. >> i want to ask about one of the fastest-growing metro areas of the country. first of all, do you know what the fastest-growing metro area in the country was over the last decade? >> oh, i'm going to guess phoenix. >> no. wasn't phoenix. >> am i close? >> you are on the wrong coast, my friend. brandy, do you know? >> no, i didn't know there would be a quiz.

>> you've got to be ready, always got to be ready on this broadcast. >> houston? >> no, no. i'll give you a hint. the census showed that the nation's retiree population is slowing down in general but not here. >> the villages in florida? >> that is exactly right, 10 points to you. the villages, the nation's fastest-growing metro area over the last decade. i don't know if that surprises you. as a native floridian, it doesn't surprise me at all. >> i am from a retirement community, i grew up in palm springs, california. that doesn't surprise me at all either, just knowing how they roll. literally in golf carts, how they roll. >> right. >> but can i just, before we move on, i just want to take a quick moment to celebrate the census. i know that there's always, like we want to get into the backlash. i think it's amazing 33.8 million people identified as being part of two or more races, up from 9 approximately in 2010.

that was a fantastic statistic that you shared. i'm the mother of a person with two or more races, so i feel partially responsible for this. and also, you're welcome. my kid is black and iranian-american. and this is a part of the american fabric. this is actually the gist of what makes america, america. that we threw a bunch of different people into one country and we said, do a country. and we keep doing that. and, you know, to call it a brown and foreign invasion obviously, you know, like your other panelists were saying, ignores the fact that there was a white invasion when native americans were here in the first place. so it's a just completely ridiculous argument. but i think it really -- we should look at this kind of thing and really celebrate it. this is what makes america so fantastic and amazing. >> yeah, yeah. by the way, i should have given the numbers. in the 2010 census, the villages, which is in

north-central florida, north of orlando, before you get to jacksonville. in 2010, the population of the villages was about 51,000 people. 2020, 79,000 people. the fastest-growing metro area in the country. brandy, redistricting one of the big aftereffects of the census. there's an effort to preserve enclaves in the country, including lgbtq enclaves. the victory fund, a lgbt advocacy group announced it's launching a kind of redistricting effort of its own, to prevent enclaves from being broken up, to kind of keep them together for the sake of representation. this is an aspect of redistricting that i don't know that we think about nearly as much as we think about the red versus blue aspect. >> i mean, it's interesting to see. i think what you're alluding to

is that so much of the conversation about redistricting has been a conversation about defense. how to stop republicans from, you know, crisscrossing, making these crazy jigsaw puzzle kind of districts, to hold on to power and create strongholds of power. and so, i mean, that's really just as a political reporter, that's really interesting to me. and it sort of does also carry on this idea of, for so long i think progressives have often been sort of in this defensive situation. and this is the same thing with misinformation, which is what my key is, people are now not just happy to fight the lies, but also, how can we be offensive with the truth? it's really interesting. i want to just say one thing about the census and the lies. i totally agree. tucker carlson was saying this in april. he was talking about the great replacement -- literally saying, they are trying to replace you.

he said it friday night. you can't underestimate the little kick in the pants or the fire that stuff like this, these little data points, really does light under true hard-core white supremacists, the people that tune in to tucker, that just thrive on this stuff that fund-raise on this stuff, that, you know, create meetings and momentum. for them, for these sorts of people this really was a sort of banner report. >> one more thing before we pause. there's something we're going to discuss tomorrow but i want to get your sense of it tonight. there was a "new york times" piece that pointed out someplace where america's diversity is not reflected as strongly as it could be, in the grocery stores. it was asking why grocery stores, many of them, still have an "ethnic" aisle, section. we're going to talk more about this on tomorrow's program. but how do you see this? >> am i lazy?

i love the ethnic aisle. it's like a place to brows and find stuff that i haven't heard of. or it's just the place where i know i can get some of the weirder things i need to make some of my weirder dishes. and so i've always embraced the ethnic aisle as just a simple organizational tool in the grocery store. but that might make me a lazy ethnic person. i'm not sure. >> oh, i would never call you such a thing. before we pause, what is one of these weirder dishes that you make that you're talking about? >> there's a really delicious iranian dish, fesenjan, a pomegranate, molasses, walnut chicken dish. so there's a weird one. >> that sounds -- brandy, jameel, i don't know, i would try it. >> doesn't sound bad at all. >> i would try it. >> i'm a mom of three and a full-time reporter, so basically i eat half-eaten hot dogs for

every meal, so that sounds like the most amazing thing i've ever heard of. >> see? we just had a breakthrough. when we come back, something comic book fans are celebrating. batman's sidekick, robin, came out as bisexual. what that says about our favorite heroes and about us when we come back. i became a sofi member because i needed to consolidate my credit card debt. i needed just one simple way to pay it all off. it was an easy decision to apply with sofi loans, just based on the interest rate and how much i would be saving. there was only one that stood out and one that actually made sense and that was sofi personal loans. it felt so freeing. i felt like i was finally out of this neverending trap of interest and payments and debt. ♪♪ welcome to allstate. interest and payments and debt. (phone notification) where we've just lowered our auto rates. ♪ ♪

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set aside all your jokes about batman and robin and how "close" they are. because this week, robin's storyline developed in a way that had a lot of fans talking. in the august issue of the dc comic "batman: urban legends," robin agrees to go on a date with another male character. he's not the first comic book character to embrace their sexuality on the page or on screen, far from it. but he is the first cisgender male hero in the batman saga to do so.

robin's one of the most iconic characters in comic. some consider this a big win for representation. we are back with our saturday night panel. jameel, let me start with you. i wonder what your reaction is to robin -- not really coming out, but owning the fullness of who he is, in a way? >> yeah, as my friend wade davis likes to say, it's about allowing people in, not necessarily coming out. i think that's a beautiful thing. i think, honestly, it's important to have representation like this in this kind of media, because if you're -- unless you're white, you don't see people who look like you in mass media every day. that's just a fact. and unless you are white and straight and wealthy, frankly, you don't see those people in mass media every day. so when you see the culture reflect yourself back at you, you know, not just in one entity, but these various versions of you, including in comic books, i think it

increases the number of possibilities. i think young people out there who are lgbtq can imagine for themselves, and i think frankly, every little step helps. it doesn't necessarily need to be more than what it is. i think it's just a beautiful example of how representation matters. >> brandy, megan fits martin was the writer of this arc in robin's story. here's what ms. fitzmartin said. "while female lgbtq representation is very important, there's also a history of deeming these characters as acceptable only because lgbtq are often fetishized. therefore, it becomes uncouth for male characters to explore their sexuality because of what it may mean for the male readers. ultimately what i want for art is for it to challenge the way we see the world and face us with the truth that exists below the surface." what do you make of that?

>> i'm a librarian, that's how i got into news librarianship, eventually reporting. so i'm a lover of books. and basically for the same reason that was just mentioned. and it's because it opens a whole world to you. i grew up in a small town in florida. i didn't see many representations of lgbtq people. it was a fairly white, middle-class enclave. that was a place where you learned that there was a whole world outside of your tiny world. i want -- i have two sons. i want them to pick up books and see all of these different types of people represented so they can see themselves in it. so we can live a whole human experience and make connections with people that may not look necessarily like us, that we share lots of other qualities with. so i love it. i love the quote. i just think it's such a lovely thing. >> can i go a half step deeper with you as our resident librarian, son of a librarian, so you can speak twice? for parents, i don't think as many parents realize as they should that for many young

people, comic books and graphic novels are their first form of real literary complex storylines, deep themes, dealing with motifs like -- kids take a lot more from comics than just, bang, pow, i saved the day. >> oh my gosh, my reluctant ride readers. we had shelves and shelves from bone to batman. we had comics that would be the bridge between people who said, i hate to read, young people, and young people who couldn't take these books out of their hands. and when you look at comics themselves, the vocabulary is so elevated. the storylines are very intricate. the characters are very developed. show me a comic book and i will show you an incredible story that is teaching all sorts of things. so yes, comic books for life, forever. my son's reading manga right now

downstairs. >> very cool. our time is shore but we had the marvel character loki, who has a self-titled series on disney plus. i watched the final episode, i was like, that was a lot. he and the female main character, sylvie, the antagonist, have a conversation. she asks, is there a princess waiting for you, or a prince? he says, a bit of both. both in this series and batman, which was reading on my phone before we got there, the character that they connect with is someone else who can kick butt. sylvie is another tough fighting character. this guy, bernard, who robin finally asks out on a date, he goes to rescue bernard and bernard helps him fight his way out. i feel that's a nice additional touch, as opposed to just being the damsel in distress or whatever the equivalent, the dude in distress? i don't know what you'd call it. i found that a very cool touch. >> yeah, i think the amazing thing about what shows like this are doing what comic books are

doing, expanding the definition of masculinity. masculinity can mean you're gay or bisexual, but that you also kick butt. it can have a lot of shades and nuance. i think kids are going to grow up with this and it's not going to feel like a big deal the way it does now. the revolutionary change is happening now, but this generation is just going to grow up with it feeling normal. they're going to have this expanded notion of what masculinity is, and that's great. >> you know who else kicks butt? the three of you. i appreciate you making time. you do, you're fabulous. i've had a great time talking to you all tonight. appreciate your making time for us, thank you all very much. it is a race against time in afghanistan. the taliban continues its siege and the u.s. scrambles to get allies out of harm's way. we'll have the latest from kabul next.

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ground in afghanistan. they captured the northern city of mazare sharif. in response president biden is deploying a total of 5,000 troops. their mission is to evacuate u.s. and allied personnel, as well as afghan civilians who assisted the u.s. during this war. time is running out for them to leave before the taliban arrive. >> reporter: president biden ordering more u.s. troops back into afghanistan, raising the total now to 5,000 personnel. the first of them are already on the ground at a military compound at kabul airport for what the pentagon says is a limited mission to get americans out. the u.s. ambassador and commander for u.s. forces in afghanistan meeting with president ashraf ghani and the head of afghan special forces, now in charge of defending kabul as the taliban close in on the capital, reportedly seven miles away but not yet fighting.

in this propaganda video, they claim they ambushed an afghan military convoy and captured government soldiers. tonight they've seized the last big city in the north, mazare sharif, and the nearby army base camp shaheen. after those who pledged to defend the city fled to uzbekistan. the military in control of kandahar in the south and herrat in the west. this taliban fighter claiming businesses are open and people are happy, but 13,000 families have fled taliban-controlled areas and aid agencies are warning of a humanitarian crisis. >> humanitarian needs of growing by the hour. >> reporter: these men all worked for nato as construction workers, cooks, interpreters. >> we are resident on the ground. we know the language. we translated. we issued them visa tourists.

we put them in the jail. because of that, if they arrest us, they will kill us. every one, they will kill us. >> reporter: many here feel abandoned and betrayed. >> that was nbc's kelly cobiella reporting from kabul. "jeopardy!" has named its new hosts. that news got a very mixed response from fans and even from me. actually, i have to take something back that i tweeted a few days ago. i'll explain before we go. with pronamel repair toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. my go to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair. my go to toothpaste i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. a pool floatie is like whooping cough,

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jeopardy." the category, tv hosts. contestants, here's your clue. this person was the best choice to be the new permanent host of "jeopardy!." the correct response is -- complicated. fans of the show have spent months watching an array of guest hosts, learning just how hard alex trebek's job really

was. this week sony pictures television, which makes "jeopardy!" announced who the permanent host would be. starting next month the show's executive producer, mike richards, will host the syndicated daytime show. he'll share hosting duties with mayim bialik for primetime and spinoff shows including a college tournament. mr. richards has hosted game shows for years, executive producer of "wheel of fortune," ran both "the price is rice" and "let's make a deal." alex trebek also produced "jeopardy!" for the first three years of his run. none of which mattered to many of "jeopardy!'s" most vocal fans. including those who had already told the show exactly who they wanted. lavar burton made no secret of his intense desire to host "jeopardy!." the buzz around him was very strong. some of it gently stoked by him. others by viewers who saw a perfect fit. from "roots" to "star trek, his

career has centered around the power of knowledge to elevate us all. and let's be honest, he just wanted it so bad, you could feel it. >> i am a huge "jeopardy!" fan, have been since i was a kid, going back to the days of art fleming. and in many respects i feel like i have been preparing my whole life for the job of hosting "jeopardy!." and should that job come my way, i would be exceedingly glad. >> so what now? well, i shared an idea on twitter that, after thinking about it, i need to take back. nothing offensive, just not my best thinking. i was responding to a tweet from director and producer ava duvernay. she shared an animated gif of dan levy representing, quote, me trying to create a show for@lavarburton to make an international hit. mr. burton responding, she

should check her messages. i tweeted an idea for what they might consider. since he has such a strong pbs following, if it's a game show they're looking for, the answer seemed obvious. ♪♪ ♪♪ kind of funky. that's rockapella, an update to their theme to the classic game show "where in the world is carmen san diego?" it performed live on the show when it aired in the early'nys. carmen san diego meant so much to me as a kid. the theme will bring tears to my eyes. i kid you not. and if i would trust anyone with a show that was such a huge part of my past, it's lavar burton. and that is exactly why this idea is the wrong answer. it's not that he couldn't do it, of course he could. the reason is, in ms. duvernay's tweet, she was trying to create a show for lavar burton. to create is to bring into

existence, to form something new, to move forward. how can you move forward with an idea from the past? besides, netflix already revived "carmen san diego." our favorite thieves an animated hero, stealing back what other villains have stolen. i think it's easy when faced with a problem to seek answers in our past. reviving "carmen san diego" would be fun for awhile, but that does not really count as creating anything. this is a time for groundbreaking and risk-taking. there must be something better, something new, and really, isn't that the challenge we face with just about everything right now? figuring out what to do next? i mean, look at today's news. how will the u.s. recalibrate its relationship with afghanistan if the taliban succeed in taking kabul and overthrowing the government? where can we build consensus across political lines to end this pandemic, especially now that more children are dying of covid? when will the world fight climate change as one, especially with fires in the

western u.s., flooding in turkey, and this july being the hottest july on record? this uniquely difficult moment gives us a unique responsibility. it means letting the past instruct the future, not construct the future. moving forward despite the disappointment. that is the correct response. so mr. burton, if you're watching, i have a suggestion. if the producers of "jeopardy!" should ever come to you someday, for whatever reason, and offer to make you the host after all, i would just ask you to think very seriously about respectfully turning them down. say no. i've been blessed to work for people who saw me as their favorite, not their fall-back. you may have missed your chance to be host, but they also missed their chance to hire you. shake the dust off your feet and don't look back. and with that said, we'd love to hear from you.

especially if you've been moving forward from difficulties and disappointments. what setback have you faced recently, and what was your correct response? email us, tweet us, or stitch a video to this one on tiktok, also at instagram. however you reach out, include your name and where you live and we'll share some of your stories tomorrow night. thank you so much for making time for us. come on back tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. eastern. randi wine gartin, president of the american federation of teachers, will join us. we'll discuss vaccine mandates, school reopening policies what your children should expect this fall. until we meet again, i'm joshua johnson. we'll see you sunday. good night. (vo) at t-mobile for business, unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so you can focus on what matters most. whether it's ensuring food arrives as fresh as when it departs. being first on the scene, when every second counts. or teaching biology without a lab.

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