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. 

     
COVER STORY: Biden’s legacy
On the eve of the inauguration, CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes looks back at the legacy of President Joe Biden.

     
ALMANAC: September 19
“Sunday Morning” looks back at historical events on this date.

ART: Tamara de Lempicka’s vibrant life and art
Tamara de Lempicka (1894–1980), one of the giants of early 20th century modernism, is now the subject of the first-ever U.S. retrospective of her works. Correspondent Faith Salie visits the de Young Museum of San Francisco, to learn how Lempicka’s glamorous figurative paintings of the modern woman played an important role in defining the aesthetic of Art Deco, and why Lempicka herself is so little-known compared to other modern masters.

For more info:

• Exhibition: “Tamara de Lempicka,” at the de Young in San Francisco (through February 5), and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (March 9-May 26)
• Catalogue: “Tamara de Lempicka” (Yale University Press), available in Hardcover format, via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• Tamara de Lempicka (Official site)

TV: Inside “Beyond the Gates,” TV’s newest soap opera
In the world of daytime network TV, only three long-running soap operas have survived. But in February, CBS is launching a new one: “Beyond the Gates,” which traces a prominent African American family living in a gated community outside of Washington, D.C. Correspondent Nancy Giles goes behind the scenes of the new series, and talks with the creatives and actors who say you’ve never seen a soap like this.

To watch a teaser for “Beyond the Gates” click on the video player below:

For more info:

• “Beyond the Gates” debuts February 24 on CBS and Paramount+

BOOKS: Perle Mesta, the renowned social queen of Washington
The widow of a steel magnate, socialite Perle Mesta (1998-1975) used her fortune to host inclusive dinner parties in Washington, D.C., becoming known as “The Hostess with the Mostes’ on the Ball” (after Irving Berlin celebrated her in the musical, “Call Me Madam”). Mesta became one of the most famous women in the world, and her influence – on politics and on the social scene – is examined by Meryl Gordon in her new biography, “The Woman Who Knew Everyone.” CBS News’ Erin Moriarty talks with Gordon; with 99-year-old former journalist Marie Ridder, who attended some of Mesta’s parties; and with Washington insider Sally Quinn, who doubts that any power broker today could pull off what Mesta once did so brilliantly: getting Democrats and Republicans to sit down at a dinner table and see eye-to-eye.

READ AN EXCERPT: “The Woman Who Knew Everyone” by Meryl Gordon

READ AN EXCERPT: “The Party: A Guide to Adventurous Entertaining” by Sally Quinn
In her 1997 book, the Washington Post columnist writes about the social imperatives for entertaining, and how the role of host and hostess in the nation’s political capital has remained vitally important. 

For more info:

• “The Woman Who Knew Everyone: The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington’s Most Famous Hostess” by Meryl Gordon (Grand Central Publishing), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• “The Party: A Guide to Adventurous Entertaining” by Sally Quinn (Simoon & Schuster), in Trade Paperback format, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• Marie Ridder, Piedmont Environmental Council

     
PASSAGE: In memoriam
“Sunday Morning” remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week.

U.S.: Climate scientist: “There’s no place that’s safe”
In 2022, climate scientist Peter Kalmus moved his family out of Altadena, California, to North Carolina, to a place he hoped would be “less fiery.” His old house burned to the ground in last week’s wildfires, while North Carolina suffered the effects of Hurricane Helene last fall. Kalmus tells correspondent Tracy Smith he hopes people are finally listening to warnings about climate change. Smith also talks with amateur meteorologist Edgar McGregor, who warned his fellow Altadena residents to get out as the flames approached; and with John Vaillant, author of “Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World.”

READ AN EXCERPT: “Fire Weather” by John Vaillant

For more info:

• “Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World” by John Vaillant (Vintage Books), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• Climate scientist Peter Kalmus
• Altadena Weather and Climate Group (Facebook)

     
HARTMAN: Color commentary

     
U.S.: Steve Guttenberg on the California fires
CBS News contributor Lisa Ling reports.

For more info:

• “Time to Thank: Caregiving for My Hero” by Steve Guttenberg (Post Hill Press), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org

     
GALLERY: Images of loss
       

POLITICS: Trump ally says first 100 days will be “shock and awe”
President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House is the culmination of a political comeback that many in both parties believed would never happen. Now, Trump is promising swift action despite paper-thin GOP majorities in Congress. CBS News chief election & campaign correspondent Robert Costa talks with Republican Senator Jim Banks, a staunch Trump ally, and Independent Senator Bernie Sanders about what to expect in the second Trump administration.

For more info:

• Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.)
• Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

     
COMMENTARY: What might President Biden’s legacy be?
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley looks at the considerable, often heroic achievements of the administration of Joe Biden, and at the mistakes that may color historians’ view of his presidency, as Donald Trump – a man Biden warned is a threat to democracy – re-enters the White House.

For more info:

• Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley

     
NATURE: TBD

FROM THE ARCHIVES: David Lynch on Transcendental Meditation (YouTube Video)
Director David Lynch, renowned for such visionary and surreal works as “Blue Velvet,” “Twin Peaks” and “Mulholland Drive,” died on January 16, 2025, at age 78. A longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (or TM), and founder of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, he spoke in 2016 with “Sunday Morning” correspondent Mo Rocca about the effects of TM. Rocca also visited a Los Angeles school, where Lynch guided students on the benefits of meditation. [From a report that originally aired January 3, 2016.]

FROM THE ARCHIVES: A visit with “Mr. Baseball” Bob Uecker (Video)
Milwaukee Brewers announcer Bob Uecker died Thursday. January 16, at the age of 90. In this 2024 profile by “60 Minutes” correspondent Jon Wertheim, Uecker talked about his love for baseball, and how it has manifested in his adjacent careers as actor, commercial pitchman, and TV talk show guest.

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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