Fires and Soaring Temperatures: A New Global Normal?

Summary

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Amanpour Podcast – Fires and Soaring Temperatures: A New Global Normal?

Release Date: August 1, 2026
Host: Christiane Amanpour (CNN Chief International Correspondent)
Notable Guests: Bill McKibben, Sarah Lewis, Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., Dave Eggers
Episode Theme: Exploring the implications of extreme climate events, climate policy, global efforts at adaptation, as well as deep dives into US racial history through Emmett Till’s legacy, advances in sleep technology, and the impact of AI on creativity and youth.

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Main Theme Overview

This episode investigates how escalating heat waves and wildfires are shaping a new global climate reality, with special focus on Europe, North America, and Africa. Renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben joins to discuss responses and hope amid crisis. The episode also features a poignant discussion commemorating Emmett Till, insights into Japan’s unique sleep tech industry, and a thought-provoking literary conversation with Dave Eggers about art and the challenges posed by AI.

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Breakdown of Key Discussions and Insights

1. The New Global Normal: Wildfires, Heat, and Climate Crisis (00:37-09:27)

Europe in Flames

• Christiane Amanpour opens with a grim update on wildfires ravaging France and Spain, with temperatures above 100°F, massive evacuations, and urban centers threatened—calling it "the new reality."

  “This is no longer an exception. It is the new reality. Summers are becoming increasingly difficult, destructive and therefore deadly.” – Amanpour (02:34)

• France’s President Macron and Spain’s PM Sanchez compare the crisis to World War II in severity.

  “…the most severe we have ever recorded, the toughest. Since the Second World War, more than 160,000 hectares have already burned…” – Citing European leaders (02:42)

A Global Phenomenon

• The crisis extends to the UK, Ireland, North America, and Somalia—a “roaring display” of climate change in action.

Interview: Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben, author and environmentalist, reflects on the urgency; shares insights from his new book, "Here Comes the Sun".

• On the scale of the crisis:

  “Well, of course [Macron] is correct… We spent the last week with our air just turned orange by record fires in Ontario pouring smoke down upon us. It’s going to get worse before it gets better…” – McKibben (03:44)

• On El Niño and upcoming climate shocks:

  “I'm afraid this is the appetizer and we're headed for the very main course… we may for a month or two go past that 2.0 degrees Celsius mark that the Paris conference of 2015 was supposed to do everything to keep us away from…” – McKibben (04:47)

• On global progress:

  “I was really taken by the report that in 2025, all new electricity demands around the world were met by green power. That's pretty amazing.” – Amanpour (05:45)

Solutions and Hope

• McKibben highlights Pakistan’s grassroots solar revolution:

  “No government program, just individual Pakistanis importing cheap Chinese solar panels and going on YouTube to figure out how to put them together. They’ve built the equivalent of half the country's national electric grid in 18 months.” – McKibben (06:26)

• On the economics of renewables:

  "Five years ago or so, we passed some invisible line… it became cheaper to produce energy from the sun and the wind than from fossil fuel… Now we have cheap battery technology…” – McKibben (08:19)

Hopeful Note:

• It’s “not too late to stop and take the right path,” but urgency is critical.

  “America is going to be the caboose for a while here, but we need to join that train and fast.” – McKibben (09:08)

Notable Segment Timestamps:

• 02:34 – Scope and scale of European wildfires
• 03:44 – Bill McKibben’s assessment and personal account
• 04:47 – El Niño and approaching climate milestones
• 06:26 – Pakistan’s solar expansion
• 08:19 – Economics and promise of renewables
• 09:08 – It’s not too late: Call to act

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2. Remembering Emmett Till: Legacy, Loss, and Resistance (12:07–18:54)

Reflecting on Emmett Till’s Life

• Amanpour introduces the new Emmett Till exhibition, imagining his “unlived life” at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.

  “A new exhibition is asking what Till's life would have been had he lived… the brainchild of historian and curator Sarah Lewis, who's working with Till's cousin, the Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr.” (11:40)

Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr.’s Memories

• On the abduction night:

  “2:30 in the morning, dark as a thousand midnights… He had no idea what was becoming of him or where he was going or what they were going to do to him…” – Parker (12:07)

• On the pain and lessons:

  “It's not a pretty story. It's an ugly story. But it's American history… so much good came out of it. But at the same time… I'd rather for it not to have happened. But he speaks louder in death and he accomplishes more in death than he would if he had lived.” – Parker (17:42)

Sarah Lewis on Memorialization and Bravery

• Growing resistance to create monuments for Till:

  “Decades of resistance that have taken place in defiance of the attempts to memorialize and to honor Till… bravery is required to confront American history.” – Lewis (13:18)

• On Till’s mother’s legacy:

  “Let the world see, she said, what they did to my son.” – Lewis quoting Mamie Till Mobley (14:21)

Imagining Emmett’s Life

• Selected image by Stephen Mark, 1988:

  "A young boy suspended in the air, thrown up by his father, for me is an emblem of this question. What if Emmett Till lived?" – Lewis (15:25)

Notable Segment Timestamps:

• 12:07 – Parker on Emmett Till’s final night
• 13:18 – Lewis on resistance to Till memorials
• 14:21 – Power of Mamie Till’s open casket
• 15:25 – Imagining Emmett’s unlived adulthood
• 17:42 – Lessons and legacy

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3. Tech for Sleep: Japan’s Science of Rest (19:05–22:45)

Sleep Deprivation as a Social Challenge

• Amanpour: “Japan is one of the world’s most sleep deprived countries and it’s estimated to cost the government more than $100 billion a year.” (19:05)

Hanako Montgomery’s Report (From Tokyo)

• Tests out a high-tech jacket designed to help people fall asleep.

  “I actually feel a little bit more relaxed than I did when I first put on this jacket. Placebo effect maybe.” – Montgomery (19:59)

• Sleep tech industry booming: gadgets for napping anywhere, sleep hotels, highly connected mattresses, etc.
• Experts warn many products lack solid scientific evidence.

  “Many of them don’t have a very solid evidence for the effects. Unfortunately.” – Sleep expert (21:58)

Cultural Roots & Future

• Cultural norms start young: after-school cramming and normalization of sleepiness among kids.

  “Almost the nation is teaching them that sleepiness during the daytime is a normal thing, which is not true.” – Japanese sleep expert (22:08)

• Government betting on technology, but social attitudes may be the real barrier to better rest.

Notable Segment Timestamps:

• 19:59 – Trying the sleep jacket
• 21:01 – Market size and sleep tech gadgets
• 22:08 – Sleep deprivation, kids, and culture
• 21:58 – Effectiveness of sleep tech challenged by experts

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4. AI, Creativity, and the Value of Art – Dave Eggers on "Contrapposto" (24:08–31:59)

Art and AI: A “Beyond Dystopian” Challenge

• Eggers’ controversial stance:

  “Not even one ounce of AI can be allowed in the humanities, in youth education.” (25:03)
  “It engenders suspicion and engenders this unlevel playing field and it most affects kids who are learning the second and third language, who are most inclined to cheat because they want to reach grade level quicker. So for every one of those students, they become voiceless.” (25:46)

Problems AI Cannot Solve

• “It solves nothing. There was never a problem that this tool solved.” (26:38)

Contrapposto: Art, Integrity, and Lifelong Commitment

• Synopsis: Two kids, Cricket and Olympia, become lifelong artistic co-conspirators. Olympia pushes Cricket to make public, confrontational art, challenging him to embrace a wider world—touching on themes of stubbornness, personal integrity, and creativity.

• “Every tiny little concession he can't make, he can't countenance these little compromises. But it frustrates her to no end, but forever. They're still committed, devoted to each other.” – Eggers (27:58)

Eggers’ Resistance to Technology

• Flip phones, writing retreats on a boat with no Wi-Fi.

  “So there's nothing on a smartphone that I wanted… I need isolation.” – Eggers (29:37)

• On writing routines:

  “That's about eight hours on the boat in the writing position to get maybe 45 minutes of actual work done. That's my ratio. It's very sad.” – Eggers (30:27)

Youth & Social Media

• Eggers supports bans on under-16s’ social media access and calls for adult intervention.

  "It's our job to do that. And when we cede our responsibility, we the young people of this world, this is a generation at stake and we've got to make a stand. According to all the science, all the medical studies, every little bit says every extra minute on screens is harmful." – Eggers (30:51)

Notable Segment Timestamps:

• 25:03 – Eggers’ “anti-AI rant”
• 26:38 – “AI solves nothing in the humanities”
• 27:09 – Contrapposto’s plot and characters
• 29:37 – Eggers on writing, tech, and mental health
• 30:51 – Protecting youth from harmful tech

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5. Historical Perspective: Somalia, Aid, and Climate Shocks (32:08–36:08)

Lessons from the Past

• Archival report revisits 1990s Somalia, tracing the real impact of US and UN humanitarian interventions.
• Contrast between renewed life during times of aid and the swift deterioration after aid withdrawal:

  “Displacement, conflict and hunger rapidly returned… Now, as we enter the post-aid world, Somalis are facing a double bind as the war on Iran boosts the price of oil and crucial goods like fertilizer.” – Amanpour (36:08)

Notable Segment Timestamps:

• 33:33 – Archive report: Baidoa a year after famine
• 35:20 – The perils of aid withdrawal

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Bill McKibben:

  "No one's going to fight a war over sunshine, Christian." (07:37)

• Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr.:

  "He speaks louder in death and he accomplishes more in death than he would if he had lived." (17:42)

• Sarah Lewis (on Emmett Till):

  "Let the world see, she said, what they did to my son." (14:21)

• Dave Eggers:

  "Not even one ounce of AI can be allowed in the humanities, in youth education." (25:03)
  "It solves nothing. There was never a problem that this tool solved." (26:38)

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Detailed Segment Timestamps

• 00:37–09:27: Europe’s wildfires & Bill McKibben on climate crisis/hope
• 12:07–18:54: Emmett Till remembrance with Sarah Lewis and Rev. Parker
• 19:05–22:45: Japan’s sleep tech, culture, and health
• 24:08–31:59: Dave Eggers on AI, creativity, Contrapposto, and youth
• 32:08–36:08: Archive – Somalia, aid, and “post-aid world” challenges

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Episode Tone & Language

The episode balances journalistic urgency with hope (climate), reverent memory (Emmett Till), curiosity (sleep tech), and biting, sometimes humorous critique (Eggers on AI). Amanpour provides empathetic, probing questioning throughout, and each segment is marked by either storytelling or robust first-person reflection.

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In Summary

Amanpour’s episode “Fires and Soaring Temperatures: A New Global Normal?” offers a sweeping cross-section of contemporary global crises and responses—from the frontlines of climate disaster to exhibitions reimagining racial injustice, from Japan’s technological quests for rest to principled resistance to digital encroachment on creativity. With thought-leaders like Bill McKibben and Dave Eggers, the podcast is both warning and roadmap, anchored by a belief in collective action, remembrance, and the power of the individual voice.

Transcript

[Ryan Reynolds]

Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.

[Sarah Lewis]

Now.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited

[Christiane Amanpour]

Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back.

[Dave Eggers]

So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

[Hanako Montgomery]

of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan. Required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Hello everyone and welcome to the Amanpour Hour. Here is where we're headed this week. Europe burns as wildfires scorch the continent. It's a climate wake up call. Who's listening to the solutions? I asked renowned environmentalist and author Bill McKibben.

[Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr.]

Plus, he speaks louder in death and he accomplishes more in death than he

[Christiane Amanpour]

would if he had lived 71 years since the brutal lynching of Emmett Till. A new exhibit imagines him reaching 85 and reminds us of the ongoing fight for racial equality. Curator Sarah Lewis joins me with Till's cousin, the Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. He's one of the last to have seen him alive, then finding sleep in a stressful world. Hanako Montgomery reports on the new tech that says it can bring on the Z's anywhere. Also on the program, my conversation with the best selling novelist Dave Egger about his new novel Contrapposto and protecting children from AI.

[Dave Eggers]

Not even one ounce of AI can be allowed in the humanities in youth education.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Plus, as the climate crisis is on roaring display around the world, including Somalia from my archive, that country has staggered under droughts and famines for 30 years. But back then, international aid created space for survival. Welcome to the program everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London and here in Europe, it's fire on all sides. In France and Spain, massive blazes under temperatures soaring above 100 degrees Fahrenheit displace hundreds of thousands of people across the two countries and even threatening urban centers like Madrid and Bordeaux. This kind of devastation hasn't been seen in decades and the leaders of France and Spain made clear it is not going away anytime soon. This is no longer an exception. It is the new reality. Summers are becoming increasingly difficult, destructive and therefore deadly.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The situation we are dealing with today is the most severe we have ever recorded, the toughest. Since the Second World War, more than 160,000 hectares have already burned and the season is far from over.

[Christiane Amanpour]

But this climate change fueled catastrophe isn't just in France and Spain. There have been wildfires in Ireland. Here in the UK We've just had our fourth heat wave with swaths of this country declaring a drought. In the United States, people are sweltering beneath the third heat dome in a month, all as wildfires rage across North America. So how can we get on top of this challenge? Or is it too late to fix the problems that we've created? Well, my next guest thinks there is still time. Bill McKibben is a globally recognized author and environmentalist. His latest book is called Here Comes the Sun and he joins me from Vermont. Bill McKibben, welcome back to the program. Just a reaction to what Prime Minister Sanchez and Emmanuel Macron said. I mean, I was really horrified when I heard Macron say they're facing the worst crisis since World War II.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, of course he's correct. And he's joined by leaders by now in virtually every part of the world. We're living out this story in place after place after place where we live here in Vermont. We spent the last week with our air just turned orange by record fires in Ontario pouring smoke down upon us. It's going to get worse before it gets better. But the only way out of it is the way that, ironically, Spain has been starting to pioneer the rapid adoption of clean energy technology that gives us some hope of staunching the flow of carbon into the atmosphere from fossil fuels.

[Christiane Amanpour]

So that's what I want to talk to you about because you have a lot of amazing facts and experiences for us to look at from countries and others that are actually doing the right thing on trying to mitigate climate change. But first I want to ask you, because the next big event I think is going to be El Nino, tell us what that is and what that will affect after this summer of wildfires.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes, I'm afraid this is the appetizer and we're headed for the very main course. Over the next 12 months. The heat now building in the Pacific, which is what an El Nino is, will be expressed into the atmosphere over the next year. And it's almost certain now that we will set new records for the hottest year in human history. And in fact, there's increasing speculation, studies yesterday that show we may for a month or two go past that 2.0 degrees Celsius mark that the Paris conference of 2015 was supposed to do everything to keep us away from. We're going to get a foretaste over the next year of what the weather from 2035 or 2040 will be like. And I'm afraid what it'll be like is even more chaos on the scale that we're seeing in France, in Spain, in so many places right now.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And so, you know, when we read and when I research for this interview, there is obviously good news. And I think it's really important to put the good news out so that people can see exactly what you're saying, that there are methods to actually keep it under control even if we can't stop it. And I was really taken by the report that in 2025, all new electricity demands around the world were met by green power. That's pretty amazing. I don't think many people know that. And I just wonder, you know, what you think about or how you think, for instance, the United States could they have this solar powered, free electricity for most of the daylight hours.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The US is where we invented solar panels 1954 at Bell Labs in New Jersey. We could of course be doing this. We're just not. Because as candidate Trump said to the oil industry during his campaign, give me a billion dollars in donations and I'll give you anything you want. What they wanted was to get rid of Joe Biden's efforts to build out clean green technology. But the rest of the world is moving in different speeds in the right direction. And some of the stories are remarkable. Look at Pakistan, a poor country that suffered grievously from climate change, but has the geographic advantage of a border with China. No government program, just individual Pakistanis importing cheap Chinese solar panels and going on YouTube to figure out how to put them together. They've built the equivalent of half the country's national electric grid in 18 months. I mean, it is amazing what this technology is capable of if we really got behind it and pushed. We have an obvious group project as a world, if we chose to adopt it, and that is to in very short order build out sun and wind and batteries such that the planet runs on something other than coal and gas and oil. And A, we can begin to ameliorate the climate crisis and B, we can stop fighting some of these stupid wars. No one' going to fight a war over sunshine, Christian.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And for a long time, renewables seem to be more cumbersome, required more, quote, sacrifice to use, may have been more expensive than good old, you know, fossil fuels. What is the reality of the price right now? People who use renewables as much as they can, are they paying more for their energy or less?

[Ryan Reynolds]

No, Five years ago or so, we passed some invisible line on this planet where it became cheaper to produce energy from the sun and the wind than from fossil fuel. Now the cost of renewable energy is all up front. You have to buy the solar panel, but once you have, then the energy is delivered for free every morning when the sun rises above the horizon. And now we have cheap battery technology to allow us to store the afternoon away and use it at night. So that's what's been so transformative. And frankly, that's why the fossil fuel industry is so terrified and why they're working so hard and so corruptly to game this system to keep it from getting even more of a foothold.

[Christiane Amanpour]

But just to be clear, it's not too late to stop and take the right path.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Not at all. We're obviously wasting time now, but we can and should be building out renewable energy in all the places that are possible. America is going to be the caboose for a while here, but we need to join that train and fast.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Okay, Bill McKibben, thank you so much for being with us. Next, a look at America's dark past and a life that could have been. A new exhibition reimagines the life of Emmett Till if he hadn't been lynched at the age of 14. Also ahead, my conversation with the author Dave Eggers about what he really means about being an artist in a world where AI keeps gaining ground. Tav I got news for your ears. The podcast. I am your host, Michael Ian Black. We're talking about the lack of bombs to drop in Iran, the abundance of Trump's bombs at the White House Correspondents Dinner, the best thing Lindsey Graham ever did that didn't involve a bubble Wand

[Dave Eggers]

and Mitch McConnell's latest Totally Real proof of life.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Have I Got News for your Ears?

[Christiane Amanpour]

Check us out on Apple, Amazon Music, wherever you get your podcasts. Even better, you can watch the Vodcast on Spotify. Welcome back to the program. And we turn now to one of the darkest chapters of America's past. On August 28, 1955, 14 year old Emmett Till was abducted, beaten and lynched while visiting his family in Mississippi. More than 50,000 people attended his funeral where his mother had requested an open casket so that America and the world could see the abject horror racists had wrought on her son. All these years later, as the struggle for basic equality carries on, a new exhibition is asking what Till's life would have been had he lived. It's at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. And it's the brainchild of historian and curator Sarah Lewis, who's working with Till's cousin, the Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. He was the last living witness to have seen Till alive. They told me why his story still feels so relevant today. Reverend Parker and Sarah Lewis, welcome to the program. Can I ask you, Reverend, it would be Emmett Till's 85th birthday this week. As you know, the governor of Illinois has declared his birthday, July 25, as Emmett Till Day. And many say that his killing was the catalyst for the civil rights movement. I want to ask you a personal question. Obviously. What do you personally remember about your cousin and particularly that very last day when you saw him being dragged from your house?

[Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr.]

Wow, that's a powerful question. It's loaded. I remember very well the atmosphere in the house. 2:30 in the morning, dark as a thousand midnights, and thinking and wondering what's going to happen. He had no idea what was becoming of him or where he was going or what they were going to do to him. He had no way of knowing. They tried to prepare him, but he had nothing to let him know exactly what he was facing. And it's a very helpless, helpless, helpless feeling. I can't find words to describe the feeling.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Oh, that is so hard to hear. And I really feel for you. I want to ask you, Sarah, because Rosa Parks had said that she thought of Emmett Till when she refused to get up and vacate her seat under orders on that famous bus. What was it about this story and this person, Emmett Till, that made you want to do this exhibit?

[Sarah Lewis]

Now, it's impossible to understand American history and the catalyst for the civil rights movement without engaging with the history and life of Emmett Till. I decided to create an exhibition, a creative monument and a book to celebrate his unlived life. When I began to see for myself the decades of resistance that have taken place in defiance of the attempts to memorialize and to honor Till and those acts of resistance, which include the bullet shot marker that's meant to honor the site where Emmett Till's body was bought out of the Tallahatchie river in Greybellant and Mississippi, to many others, really represent why bravery is required to confront American history. When you come to see the consistent efforts of resistance to honoring, even 70 years later, Emmett Till's life, it forces a level of urgency in you and as it did in me, to contribute and to do what's required to engage with this legacy. I had my life transformed by meeting Mamie Till Mobley when I was just 14 as well. And in that, years later, Began to see that, she set forth a motto that we're still engaging with today. Let the world see, she said, what they did to my son.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Mr. Raynor asked me. He said, do you want me to touch the body up? I said, no, Mr. Raynor. Let the people see what I've seen. I was just willing to bear it all. I think everybody needed to know what had happened to Emmett Till. Well, let me ask you, Sarah. We've asked you both to choose a couple of images that you want to talk about in this exhibit. So tell me about one of the ones that you've selected and what it means to you. Sarah, you know, had he lived, what would his life have been like?

[Sarah Lewis]

Yes, A photograph by Stephen Mark, 1988. Young boy suspended in the air, thrown up by his father, for me is an emblem of this question. What if Emmett Till lived? This photograph is one that jolted me. When I looked through 18,000 images in this collection. At this Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago where the exhibition is held. I asked myself, who could Till have been? As I looked at this young boy confidently suspended in midair, thought of all I had learned about Emmett, who Reverend Parker knows as Bobo, that he loved jokes. He was constantly helping others. That he loved to fish, go to the beach. He could have been a minister. He could have been a leader. And then caught myself in that act of imagination, thinking of Till as that father. And had to catch myself as I realized that he couldn't have been.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Let me ask you, Reverend, about. Tell me a particular image that you've chosen for us and why you chose it.

[Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr.]

A particular image I chose reflects the time during that time, for that time. And it shows that we had to be creative. If you notice, my images had no tricycles or bicycles or bought things from the store. You had to create games, hopscotch and things that cost no money. And we got good at it. So it takes me back there right away. And that's where we lived. And we had more fun than the law allowed doing those things.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And what clearly was not a lot of fun for you all those years later, is visiting the barn. And we have that image where your cousin was tortured and lynched. He was killed. He was murdered. He was assassinated. What do you think when you go to that place, which is. It just must be just so utterly painful. And you're 87 years old.

[Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr.]

I learned from this story. It's not a pretty story. It's an ugly story. But it's American history. And there's so much to learn. And so much good came out of it. But at the same time time, I'd rather have him not have had the story, but the life. He gave his life, so to speak, that others may live or that others may have a better life. Not intentionally so. I have mixed emotions. You know, we'd rather for it not to have happened. But he speaks louder in death and he accomplishes more in death than he would if he had lived.

[Christiane Amanpour]

It's an amazing story. If Emmett Till lived is an amazing idea for an exhibit. Sarah Elizabeth Lewis and Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. Thank you both so much indeed for joining us. Another reminder of this long, unfinished struggle here in the UK this week as the country marked 193 years since parliament abolished slavery in 1833.

[Hanako Montgomery]

Coming up, this isn't your average jacket. It's one specifically designed to help you fall asleep anytime and anywhere.

[Christiane Amanpour]

What can one of the world's most sleep deprived countries teach us about how to get a good night's rest? A look at Japan's booming sleep tech industry. That's next. Welcome back. By now, we all surely know about the importance of sleep for our health. But how far would we all go to get a really good night's rest? Japan is one of the world's most sleep deprived countries and it's estimated to cost the government more than $100 billion a year. The country's own prime minister famously says that she sleeps less than three hours a night. Now Japanese researchers are using science to create weird and wonderful gadgets that they hope will give people longer lions. Here's what CNN's Hanako Montgomery discovered in her report from Tokyo.

[Hanako Montgomery]

This isn't your average jacket. It's one specifically designed to help you fall asleep anytime and anywhere. So I'm going to try to take a 10 minute nap in this chair and let you know how my sleep was. Good night. The flashing red light inside the hood is meant to help me drift off while this ring tracks my heart rate and body temperature. If my pulse stays too high, the jacket plays a lullaby. So I don't think I slept, but I feel very refreshed and I actually feel a little bit more relaxed than I did when I first put on this jacket. Placebo effect maybe. Either way, Teppe Okata says the goal is to tackle a national issue, sleep deprivation

[Ryan Reynolds]

in Japan.

[Christiane Amanpour]

It's really cool to work hard.

[Dave Eggers]

It's like a badge of honor. That unhealthy culture still hasn't gone away. It's become a major social problem in Japan.

[Hanako Montgomery]

Japan sleeps less than any other developed country Research has linked too little sleep to an increased risk of heart disease, obesity and stroke. But it's also costing Japan an estimated 3% of its GDP each year. Now, to help the nation catch more z's, the government is betting on sleep tech, a market expected to top $98 million by 2027. Gadgets include a box you can sleep in standing up, a bed that lies flat when you doze off, even a hotel that tracks your night's sleep. In here, an infrared camera checks if you snore. Then there's this machine in the back here also to measure how much you're snoring. And they tell me that this mattress also helps you improve your sleep because it can tell how much you're moving in your sleep. But do these products actually help, or are they just expensive bedtime accessories?

[Christiane Amanpour]

Many of them don't have a very solid evidence for the effects. Unfortunately.

[Hanako Montgomery]

Yanagisawa says Japan's sleep problem starts young.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Japanese kids are already very much sleep deprived, partly because they have this not only a regular school, most of them actually go to after school school. Almost the nation is teaching them that sleepiness during the daytime is a normal thing, which is not true.

[Hanako Montgomery]

So the biggest sleep aid might not be another gadget, but changing the culture around rest. Good night, and good luck on getting a good night's sleep. Hanukkah Montgomery, cnn, Tokyo.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Are you feeling it yet? Coming up, the best selling author Dave Eggers on his new novel why he needs to isolate himself on a boat with no wi fi just to run bring on those social media bans.

[Dave Eggers]

He says they will sometimes find workarounds. My kids are 17 and 20. They tell me about every workaround. But we do have to protect them. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast.

[Ryan Reynolds]

My guest is Dr. Dhruv Kullar.

[Dave Eggers]

He has seen firsthand the effects GLP1s can have on addictive behaviors. Today we're gonna talk about how GLP1s are changing us, changing us as humans. And when the cravings go away, sort

[Ryan Reynolds]

of trying to figure out is there something else that we're losing as well.

[Christiane Amanpour]

People who had cravings for opioids said that those were being diminished. And so, you know, we thought about these as kind of digestive medications, maybe diabetes medications, but they're actually psychoactive medications, or so it seemed. What was so interesting about that is if you're playing with the reward system, that can have real implications for people's maladaptive behaviors. All sorts of addictions, but also a

[Dave Eggers]

potential downside Listen to Chasing Life streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Welcome back to the program. And now to a novel that's reflecting on art, the artist and the things that sometimes get in the way. Contrapposto is the latest project by the best selling author Dave Eggers. It's a coming of age novel love story that explores the value we place on human creativity in a world adjusting for AI, a familiar topic for Eggers, whose acclaimed novel the Circle also dealt with social media and the perils of rapidly advancing technology. Now, as top staffers at some of the world's biggest AI companies urge the US government to slow down, while people like Mark Zuckerberg urged the exact opposite, I sat down with the author here in London to talk about what he thinks can be done to protect our society, our children and our art. So I want you to give me your anti AI rant. Well, what do you say to a 10 year old, for instance, who wants to be a writer?

[Dave Eggers]

You have a 10 year old who is unprecedented in the history of the world. There's never been anyone like that person. It can't be. And so they have so much to say. They have seen the world only the way that they can see it. So to think about that one of a kind in the history of humanity, person shopping their vision out to a machine. How tragic that is. That's beyond dystopian. It cannot be allowed. Not even one ounce of AI can be allowed in the humanities, in youth education.

[Christiane Amanpour]

So that's a pretty bold declaration. I absolutely get where it comes from because you're a creative. Because of, you know, we're all individuals and no machine can do what we can do. But are you swimming against the tide?

[Dave Eggers]

I think this summer is the summer. If you talk to teachers, everybody's trying to get policies in place and get it straight before the fall. And most teachers I talk to are absolutist. No amount of AI is safe and they spend 20 hours a week policing their kids. Now, did they cheat? Did they use this? Did they do that? So it's made public education teachers, their job is so much more difficult. It engenders suspicion and engenders this unlevel playing field and it most affects kids who are learning the second and third language, who are most inclined to cheat because they want to reach grade level quicker. So for every one of those students, they become voiceless. So we're about to lose an entire generation who will never speak authentically in their own voice unless we say none at all. Through K, through the last Year in college.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Whoa. K through the last year in college.

[Dave Eggers]

It solves nothing. There was never a problem that this tool solved. We were doing quite well as writers in this country. You had a few good writers. And so what was it there to solve? Nothing. It improves nothing in the humanities.

[Christiane Amanpour]

So now let's get to the story of Contrapposto. So it's cricket and isn't Olympia. Exactly. And they are. They meet as young kids at school, right? And they want to be artists. So it's that journey plus their own relationship. Give us a little synopsis.

[Dave Eggers]

Well, they meet when he's nine and she's 10 and she's this exotic, much more worldly, eloquent, knowledgeable person. And she gives him his first public commission, which is to deface a public place structure with horrible things. But they say these horrible things and he writes them in old English calligraphy to make it artful. And so that to him is his first platform, his first authentic outside audience. And forever after that he's devoted to her.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And does he get what happens to him for defacing this? And it's pornographic, you say.

[Dave Eggers]

Not nice things, but I don't know what we could say. It's pretty pornographic. He doesn't know what any of these words mean. He's so sort of naive.

[Christiane Amanpour]

She does though, right?

[Dave Eggers]

She knows much more always than you.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And why is she egging him on into that?

[Dave Eggers]

Well, she's more of a curator. She's a forever after, goes through 66 years in their lives. She's always trying to pull him out of obscurity. His stubborn unwillingness to compromise even a little bit and to give him a gallery show or, you know, bring him into the professional art world and every tiny little concession he can't make, he can't countenance these little compromises. But it frustrates her to no end, but forever. They're still committed, devoted to each other.

[Christiane Amanpour]

You've written, you know, obviously a number of novels and you've said that, you know, compared to nonfiction, it is much more fun. Tell me about, especially today, maybe writing novels.

[Dave Eggers]

Well, you know, I, I sort of alternate. I write, I write nonfiction mostly out of a sense of outrage. And it's not a good way to spend every day. And then of course, the nonfiction slog of write four words, you have to check that fact. You write four more words, you have to check. Fiction is just fluid, it's liberated, it's totally untethered. It's so much more enjoyable on a day to day basis. And to wake up without an ulcer, you know, to wake up without thinking about Trump, wake up without thinking about destruction of certain tech companies. So this was a very healing bath.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I was just kind of struck by how you still only have a flip phone, as far as I can gather, how you take yourself off to your boat in San Francisco to write so that you're not tempted. Tell me a little bit about your, you know, your working habits, your mental health, your resistance to tech.

[Dave Eggers]

Yeah, I was enjoying life a lot before all of this came about. So none of it was solving anything that I needed to solve. So there's nothing on a smartphone that I wanted. I would use one if there was something on it that I needed, but there isn't. And so, yeah, I have the flip phone doesn't work abroad, so it's just a, it's just a rock in my pocket right now. But I do have to be really far away from the Internet to get any work done. So if I'm tempted or if I have it like in the hotel tonight, I will have the Internet and then I'll spend four hours on YouTube and so I can't be trusted around the Internet. But mostly I need isolation. I need to be free for eight hours a day to get anything done. And that's about eight hours on the boat in the riding position to get maybe 45 minutes of actual work done. That's my ratio. It's very sad.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Eight hours to get 45 minutes, sometimes

[Dave Eggers]

maybe an hour's worth.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I mean, it's important to know that,

[Dave Eggers]

yeah, you do need to sort of give yourself selfishly that amount of time.

[Christiane Amanpour]

So just quickly because I have to ask you, there's many, you know, regulations afoot in Australia and Britain, everywhere to try to keep under 16s off social media.

[Dave Eggers]

I'm all for it.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Everybody works.

[Dave Eggers]

They won't just find workarounds, they will sometimes find workarounds. My kids are 17 and 20. They tell me about every workaround. But we do have to protect them. It's like we protect them from so many things that we know are dangerous. Cigarettes, alcohol, you know, steroids, vaping, whatever. We all have regulations about everything because we care about them. For some reason. This is the Wild west. Oh, we can't restrict them. When this thing is like, it has taken so many young lives, it has made so many millions of kids deeply depressed. If you talk to any teenager, my son was just on a two week retreat. No phones for anybody. Best two weeks of his life, he said, because nobody else was online, it wasn't fomo. They didn't have to like, worry about what they were doing. They all want the adults in their lives to make a rule or two to protect them. It's our job to do that. And when we cede our responsibility, we the young people of this world, this is a generation at stake and we've got to make a stand. According to all the science, all the medical studies, every little bit says every extra minute on screens is harmful.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Well, they will be reading Contrapposto and every minute reading will be regenerative. Well, thank you very much indeed, David.

[Dave Eggers]

Thank you so much.

[Christiane Amanpour]

You can get Contrapposto at your local bookstore now or online. Coming up, as the world faces the brutal reality of climate change. From my archive, reporting from Somalia, which has faced 30 years of climate shocks and how previous American interventions and international aid helped transform people's lives. Welcome back. This week we've seen Europe ablaze and the US Face its third heat dome in a month. But of course, it's not just the Western world facing the climate crisis. Across Africa, extreme weather is taking its toll. And few know this pain better than Somalia, where climate shocks like droughts and floods have made life perilous for more than 30 years. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, some 6 million people are facing crisis levels of hunger right now. And concerns are only growing as aid dries up. So from my archives this week, a close up look at how aid does make an impact. In 1992, we witnessed an emergency US military intervention to end a devastating famine in Somalia. A year later, we went back to see how the country was doing, only to find it was doing well on a diet of US Aid and international support. It made a real difference until they all pulled out.

[CNN Correspondent in Somalia]

The first thing a visitor gets in Baidoa is a warm welcome. There is none of the hostility you find in Mogadishu. Here the children smile. They don't throw stones.

[Dave Eggers]

I have much more interaction with them. Here in Mogadishu, generally, it's windows up,

[CNN Correspondent in Somalia]

not walking around the streets because here everything has changed. Barely a year ago, Baidua was called the city of death. Hundreds of of people starved every day. Now this is the only feeding center left. Today they get rice and beans, not the special mix they needed just to keep them alive. Today, children online laugh and joke at the height of the famine, so many died just waiting to get to the front of the queue.

[Ryan Reynolds]

There are no or very few walking skeletons that we saw at this stage last year.

[Dave Eggers]

So the security that's been provided since the US Led intervention last year and

[Christiane Amanpour]

moving to the UN is really what's

[Dave Eggers]

changed the situation here today.

[CNN Correspondent in Somalia]

French and other soldiers are on patrol. Militias have been disarmed. There are no more guns on the streets. People can now wield pens instead of weapons. Teacher training courses are underway and children are going back to school. Medical facilities are working again. Mothers come to immunize their children and learn how to provide proper care. In the market, vendors are selling food that is almost all homegrown. Peace means they are able to plant and harvest again. A man shows us his lettuce and his peppers. Like so many others, he has come back to his land, no longer afraid he'll be chased off by bandits. There still aren't enough fresh water sources, but at least today, dead animals don't contaminate them. And mothers can give their babies a drink, knowing it won't kill them.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Out here in the countryside away from

[CNN Correspondent in Somalia]

Mogadishu, it's very difficult to make a

[Christiane Amanpour]

case for withdrawing the troops.

[CNN Correspondent in Somalia]

For here, the UN Forces have done their job. Here, their mission has been a success.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And what's worrying the people is that

[CNN Correspondent in Somalia]

anarchy and the famine could return if

[Christiane Amanpour]

the troops pull out too soon and we need them.

[CNN Correspondent in Somalia]

The UN Special envoy is visiting Baidoa. The people tell him they still need help, but the forces won't stay forever.

[Christiane Amanpour]

You will always be in our hearts, but soon you will be on your own completely.

[CNN Correspondent in Somalia]

How is inaugurating the new regional council? Soon it will be up to them to keep the peace and the pace that has brought Baidoa back to life in less than a year. Christian Amanpour, CNN, Baidoa.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And after those international aid groups and U.S. troops withdrew, the impact was dire. Displacement, conflict and hunger rapidly returned. Now, as we enter the post aid world, Somalis are facing a double bind as the war on Iran boosts the price of oil and crucial goods like fertilizer. Coming up, a CNN series about the players, the matches and the moments that have defined sports for decades and keep us coming back for more. Plus, a look back at my conversation with 22 time Grand Slam winner Rafa Nadal. And finally, it lifts us up, it brings us down. And more than anything, it always keeps us on the edge of our seats. From ancient Greece right through to today, sport has always held a unique place in society, helping to shape our culture and being shaped by it. This weekend, a new CNN series airs looking at some of the athletes, moments and cultural shifts that have defined sport in recent times. From the civil rights movement of the 1960s to today's. Age of Social Media Decades in Sports premieres on CNN on Sunday. As a journalist and a tennis fan, I've spoken to a lot of the greats through my years as an interviewer. From Serena Williams, Chris Evatt, Martina Navaratilova to Roger Federer, Billie Jean King and Rafa Nadal. We've spoken on several occasions about the difficulties and joys that come with decades performing at highest level. Back in 2022, Nadal had just won his 22nd Grand Slam victory and a record 14th Paris Opium Championship. Even after all the trophies, the fame, the riches, he said, it's always been all about the love of the game. 14 times, 22 Grand Slams, a whole load of other US Open, Australian Open, two Olympic gold medal medals. Are you ready to declare or at least have people say that you are now the greatest of all time? You wouldn't agree when I asked you last time? I honestly don't think much about that and from the bottom of my heart, I really don't care that much. You know, I mean I, I think doesn't matter. You know, I think we achieved our dreams. I achieved my dream and I enjoy

[Ryan Reynolds]

what I am doing.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Happiness in our post World cup haze as well. That's all we have time for. Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as [e-mail] audio and on all other major platforms. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching and join us again next week. A high stakes showdown in Michigan's fierce Democratic Senate race. Progressives and moderates battle for power.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Who will come out on top?

[Dave Eggers]

Join CNN for results and analysis.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Michigan primary August 4 on CNN and watch on the CNN app.