This week on "Sunday Morning" (June 15)

CBS News

12-06-2025

The Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. "Sunday Morning" also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.)
Hosted by Jane Pauley
Singer-songwriter Harry Chapin (1942-1981).
Harry Chapin Family
COVER STORY: "You know we'll have a good time then": Harry Chapin and his impact beyond music
Time was short for singer-songwriter Harry Chapin. But since his death in a car crash in 1981 at age 38, Chapin's legacy has only grown beyond his emotional songs like "Cat's in the Cradle" and "Taxi," to include the charities he founded to address food insecurity. Correspondent David Pogue talks with members of Chapin's family, who discuss his impact – as a father, a fundraiser and philanthropist, and an example of how to live life, with a simple credo: "When in doubt, do something."
To hear Harry Chapin perform "Cat's in the Cradle," click on the video embed below:
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ALMANAC: June 15
"Sunday Morning" looks back at historical events on this date.
A detail from a Rudolf Siemering sculpture commemorating the Continental Army, at Philadelphia's Washington Monument.
PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
U.S.: How the U.S. Army was born
On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress voted to replace the part-time militias that were facing off against British forces with a full-time army. After 1,300 battles and skirmishes, the Army, led by Gen. George Washington, defeated the British Empire, winning our independence. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin looks at the creation of America's unified military, and visits a National Museum of the United States Army exhibit honoring the sacrifices of our nation's revolutionary heroes.
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U.S.: A day for a parade in D.C. – and protests nationwide
National correspondent Robert Costa reports.
Josef Newgarden drives into turn one during the 109th Indianapolis 500, May 25, 2025, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis.
Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
SPORTS: Chasing the checkered flag: The allure of Indy car racing
Legendary comedian and talk show host David Letterman is also co-owner of an Indy Car team, and since 1996, Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing has won the Indianapolis 500 twice. Correspondent Tracy Smith talks with Letterman, along with drivers Josef Newgarden and Pato O'Ward, and racing great Mario Andretti, about the attraction of the sport; the dream of winning the Indy 500; and how the popularity of Indy Car racing is accelerating.
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PASSAGE: In memoriam
"Sunday Morning" remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week.
Collecting the results of "worm grunting."
CBS News
U.S.: Worm Grunting
Conor Knighton reports.
HARTMAN: A real dog
A portrait of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, stars of the classic sitcom "I Love Lucy."TV: Desi Arnaz: Singer, husband, dad, and the man who "invented" TV
Desi Arnaz, the Cuban-born entertainer, broke conventions when he co-starred with his wife Lucille Ball in the TV show "I Love Lucy," playing a prototypical American sitcom dad. He also changed the rules of television by filming episodes, thereby creating the rerun – and, ultimately, a new economic model for TV. Correspondent Mo Rocca talks with Todd Purdum, author of a new biography, "Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television," about Arnaz's impact on American culture; and with Lucie Arnaz, who discusses her parents' marriage and divorce, and her father's extraordinary journey.
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COMMENTARY: How is Jim Gaffigan as a father? Hear it from one of his kids
The comedian's youngest son, Patrick Gaffigan, offers his take on Jim Gaffigan as a role model, and it's not pretty. Happy Father's Day. Jim!
COLLECTIBLES: Watches as objects of love
Auctioneer Aurel Bacs knows what makes watch enthusiasts tick, as he puts exquisite, rare and vintage timepieces on the auction block. For 30 years, Bacs (whose love of watches began as a teenager in Zurich) has sold luxury timepieces at the world's most celebrated auction houses. Over the past decade, he and his wife, Livia Russo, partnering with Phillips Auctioneers, have been responsible for $1.6 billion in watch sales, catering to thousands of collectors from around the world. Correspondent Mark Strassmann talks with the flamboyant Bacs, the man some have called "the Indiana Jones of watches," who says watch collecting is not rational: "It's a love affair, and you cannot put limits on love."
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NATURE: TBD
WEB EXCLUSIVES:
FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson (Video)
The death, at age 82, of Brian Wilson, one of the founding members of the '60s group the Beach Boys, was announced on Wed., June 11, 2025. Ten years ago, the singer-songwriter talked with correspondent Anthony Mason about a creative life marred by depression and drugs (dramatized in the film "Love & Mercy), and about his new solo album, "No Pier Pressure." (Originally broadcast on "Sunday Morning" July 19, 2015.)
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Derek Jacobi on "Hamlet" (YouTube Video)
Derek Jacobi and London's Old Vic Theatre company took their production of "Hamlet" to a most appropriate venue for Shakespeare's tragedy: Under the ancient battlements of Elsinore, the castle in Denmark, that is the setting for the most famous play in the world. Jacobi and Jane Nymark, who played Ophelia, discussed the poetry of Shakespeare's language, and the difficulties of performing outdoors, in a report by "Sunday Morning" host Charles Kurault that originally aired on Sept. 16, 1979.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Rebuilding Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (YouTube Video)
American actor Sam Wanamaker fought for years to recreate Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which had burned down in 1613. He didn't live to see a new Globe rise on the south bank of the Thames. In this Aug. 3, 1997 "Sunday Morning" report, correspondent Tom Fenton talked with actress Zoe Wanamaker about her father's obsession, along with master builder Peter McCurdy; Mark Rylance, the actor-manager of the Globe; and American actors Christian Camargo and Steven Skybell, about bringing the immortal works of Shakespeare to life in "The Wooden O."
FROM THE ARCHIVES: The final frontier of "Star Trek"? Outdoor theater (YouTube Video)
In 2012, the beloved original sci-fi series, which explored strange new worlds, arrived at a particularly strange one: Portland, Oregon, where summer theater in the park audiences welcomed a live performance of a classic "Star Trek" episode. Correspondent Lee Cowan went behind the scenes of a production going boldly where no theater project had gone before, in a "Sunday Morning" story that originally aired Aug. 12, 2012.
The Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison.
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