On a Sunday morning in late summer, CBS News gathers a constellation of American stories — from a teenager who refused to let a Maine bowling alley die, to more than a thousand Idaho mothers branded as child abusers for traces of marijuana found after childbirth. Hosted by Seth Doane, the broadcast moves between acts of quiet heroism and the harder machinery of a justice system that does not distribute its consequences evenly. It is, in the way that the best journalism is, a mirror held up to the country — asking who we protect, who we punish, and what we choose to preserve.
Sunday Morning: Community heroes, conservation efforts, and cultural legacies
Over 1,000 new mothers in Idaho have been placed on child abuse registries after testing positive for THC following childbirth, with some women in other states facing jail time.
She took over the alley, shouldering the weight of keeping the lights on.
Mark
Why does a story about a bowling alley in Maine matter enough to lead a national broadcast?
Mimi
Because it's not really about bowling. It's about what happens when someone young enough to be idealistic and old enough to act decides that something worth saving is worth the fight. Mowery didn't just preserve a building—she created a space where people who needed one could go. That's the story.
Mark
And the THC investigation—that feels like it's asking something darker about the law itself.
Mimi
Exactly. The law is written the same way in Idaho as it is in forty other states, but Idaho enforces it against mothers in a way that those other states don't. So you're not really investigating marijuana policy. You're investigating who gets treated as a criminal and who doesn't.
Mark
Why include the Venus flytrap story in the same hour as all this?
Mimi
Because it's about the same thing, actually. A species that fascinates us is disappearing. Someone has to decide it's worth saving. The botanist and the garden director are doing the work. It's not as visible as a bowling alley, but it's the same impulse.
Mark
Tim Curry seems like an odd fit for this week.
Mimi
He's not. He's a man who spent fifty years in public but never let the public know him. Then he had a stroke, lost his voice, had to rebuild it. That's a story about resilience and privacy—about what you choose to share and what you keep. It fits.
Mark
The duck and the dog—is that just a palate cleanser?
Mimi
It's a story about what heals us when medicine alone can't. The dog needed something that wasn't in a pill bottle. The duck provided it. That matters.
Mark
What's the through-line here?
Mimi
People and creatures and places that matter, and the work required to keep them alive.
El Pulso
- In Idaho, over a thousand new mothers have been placed on child abuse registries after testing positive for THC postpartum — in a state where marijuana remains illegal even as most of the country has moved on.
- The consequences are not abstract: women lose custody of their children, face employment barriers, and carry the legal stigma of child abuse designations that can last for years.
- A joint investigation by CBS Sunday Morning and the Marshall Project presses the uncomfortable question beneath the policy — who gets punished, and why, when the same substance is legal across state lines?
- Against that weight, an 18-year-old in Ellsworth, Maine stepped in to save a candlepin bowling alley from demolition and ended up building something the community didn't know it needed: a refuge.
- The hour also tracks a carnivorous plant on the edge of extinction, a beloved actor rebuilding his voice after a stroke, and a golden retriever restored to herself by the unlikely arrival of a duckling.
On a Sunday morning in late summer, CBS News gathers a constellation of American stories — from a teenager who refused to let a Maine bowling alley die, to more than a thousand Idaho mothers branded as child abusers for traces of marijuana found after childbirth. Hosted by Seth Doane, the broadcast moves between acts of quiet heroism and the harder machinery of a justice system that does not distribute its consequences evenly. It is, in the way that the best journalism is, a mirror held up to the country — asking who we protect, who we punish, and what we choose to preserve.
Seth Doane takes the host's chair for a Sunday broadcast that opens in Ellsworth, Maine, where a candlepin bowling alley — the kind of place that holds a community together in ways no spreadsheet can measure — was on the verge of disappearing. Autumn Mowery was 18 when she decided to save it. She took over the alley, kept the lights on, and watched it become something more than she'd planned: a refuge for people in the community who needed one. Lee Cowan reports on how one person's refusal to let something die became a lifeline for others.
The program then turns to a story with sharper edges. In Idaho, more than a thousand new mothers have been placed on child abuse registries after testing positive for THC following childbirth — in a state where marijuana remains illegal, even as more than 40 others have legalized it. The consequences reach far: lost custody, blocked employment, years of stigma. In other states, women have been jailed. A joint investigation with the Marshall Project asks the question that sits beneath the policy: who gets punished, and who doesn't? Erin Moriarty reports.
Elsewhere in the hour, the Venus flytrap — a carnivorous plant native to the Carolinas that Darwin once called the most interesting in the world — is quietly vanishing due to habitat loss. Botanists discuss both its strange biology and the effort required to keep it from disappearing entirely.
Tim Curry, five decades into a career of roles ranging from campy to sinister, sits down with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz to discuss his memoir, the 2012 stroke that forced him to relearn speech, and his long, deliberate choice to remain private. Steve Hartman brings a smaller story: a golden retriever named Barley, whose spark returned not through medication but through the unexpected arrival of a duckling named Louie.
The broadcast also visits Gay Talese — 94 years old, still being written about, still talking — whose career includes a famous 1966 Esquire profile of Frank Sinatra written without a single conversation with Sinatra himself. The hour closes with a look at Iowa 80, a truck stop in Walcott that has grown into something resembling a small city, built entirely to serve the people who keep America's supply chains moving.
Seth Doane is in the host's chair this Sunday, steering the Emmy-winning program through a week of stories that pivot between the everyday heroism of small-town America and the harder questions about who the criminal justice system decides to punish.
The broadcast opens in Ellsworth, Maine, where a candlepin bowling alley—the kind of place that anchors a community in ways that don't show up on spreadsheets—was headed for demolition. Autumn Mowery was 18 when she worked there, young enough to see the building as something worth saving, old enough to actually do something about it. She took over the alley, shouldering the weight of keeping the lights on. What began as a personal mission to preserve a local institution became something larger: the bowling alley transformed into a refuge for people in the community who needed one. Lee Cowan reports on how one person's refusal to let something die became a lifeline for others.
The program then shifts to a story that carries real legal and moral weight. In Idaho, more than a thousand new mothers have been placed on child abuse registries after testing positive for THC following childbirth. This is happening in a state where marijuana remains illegal, even as more than 40 other states have legalized it for pain relief. The consequences ripple outward: women lose custody, face barriers to employment, carry the stigma of a child abuse designation for years. In other states, mothers have been sent to jail. A joint investigation by CBS Sunday Morning and the Marshall Project—a nonprofit focused on criminal justice—surfaces the hard question beneath the policy: who gets punished, and who doesn't? Erin Moriarty reports.
Elsewhere in the hour, correspondent Seth Doane explores the Venus flytrap, a carnivorous plant native to the Carolinas that Charles Darwin once called the most interesting plant in the world. Its population is collapsing due to habitat loss. Botanist Julie Moore and Damon Waitt, director of the North Carolina Botanical Garden, discuss the unusual biology of a species that seems almost designed to fascinate us, and the work required to keep it from disappearing entirely.
The program includes a profile of Tim Curry, the actor who has spent five decades on screen playing roles that ranged from campy to sinister, yet remains largely unknowable. In conversation with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz, Curry discusses his memoir "Vagabond," the stroke he suffered in 2012 that forced him to relearn how to speak, and his deliberate choice to remain private despite a career in the public eye. There is also an extended web interview where Curry speaks more directly about his medical recovery and the work of rebuilding his voice.
Steve Hartman reports on a golden retriever named Barley who lost her spark after starting medication, until a duckling named Louie arrived for a short visit. The two bonded immediately, and the bird's presence restored something in the dog that pills could not. It is a small story about healing that moves across species.
The broadcast also features Gay Talese, the legendary practitioner of New Journalism who at 94 is still being written about and interviewed. Over more than six decades, Talese has built a reputation for writing about the famous and the obscure—mobsters, aging athletes, nudists—often with a reporter's access that seems almost impossible in retrospect. New Yorker writer Kelefa Sanneh talks with him about a career that includes his famous 1966 Esquire piece on Frank Sinatra, a story Talese wrote without ever actually speaking to Sinatra himself.
The hour also includes an almanac segment looking back at historical events from August 9, and a feature on Iowa 80, a truck stop in Walcott that sprawls across more than 150 football fields and serves as a small city unto itself—restaurants, maintenance shops, a dentist, a movie theater—all built to serve the people who keep America's supply chains moving. The program closes with galleries honoring notable figures lost this year and showcasing some of 2026's leading musical acts.
Citas Notables
Charles Darwin called the Venus flytrap the most interesting plant in the world— Damon Waitt, director of the North Carolina Botanical Garden
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