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I'm Abne Moone and I'm Ricked Schwartz 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:39.720 and we're here from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.720 the global conservation organization behind the world chame of San 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:46.519 Diego Zoo and Safari Park, and together we're excited to 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:52.480 announce the podcast Amazing Wildlife. Here incredible stories about wildlife 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:54.800 and the global efforts to save it as we explore 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.840 the connection between humans, wildlife, and the environment. Listen to 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.160 Amazing Wildlife. I'm the I Heart Radio app Apple podcast 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:09.120 or wherever you get your podcasts. Advertising is online and 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.040 delivered where you are, just like this radio ad. I 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.080 want to know what else is delivered where you are. 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.320 We'll give you a hint. It's shining as a honk 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:19.880 and comes with special features that you get to personally 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.039 pick out, like leather or cloth, sunroof or moonroof, or 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.119 four wheel drive versus all wheel drive. Yeah, a car, 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:29.440 A CarMax car. Buy online, get it delivered to you. 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.839 It's car buying reimagined Carmacks available within a sixty mile radius. 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.280 To select doors, see CarMax dot com for details. Some 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:40.520 restrictions apply. Hey everyone, it's carvel And before we get 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.319 into this episode, I want to ask you a favor. 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:46.360 Throughout this series, we've talked a lot about how Fred 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:48.760 Rogers has helped show us how to make the world 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.320 a kinder place, a better place. But now we want 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.000 to hear from you. We want to hear a story 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.960 about when someone in your life showed you what it 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.520 means to be a helper. Maybe it's someone in your family, 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.400 or someone in your community, or someone that you haven't 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.840 seen since you worry kid, but that you still think 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.520 about something They did to help you, whoever they are, 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:13.320 wherever they are, however they're helping, we want to hear 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.079 about it. So give us a call at three three 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:20.120 six five five zero five to nine. Again, that's three 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:24.080 three six five one five zero five to nine, and 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:26.840 tell us a story about someone who has shown you 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.360 how to be a helper and we might just play 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.400 it on an upcoming episode. Again that number is three 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:36.640 three six five one five zero five two nine. Or 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.720 you can tweet your story with the hashtag finding Fred. Okay, 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:46.200 now let's start the show. Here's a question, did Fred 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:54.280 Rogers do enough? By He had lived and breathed children's 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:57.720 television for more than twenty years. He had found kid 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.639 friendly ways to cover death and to sat nation and segregation, 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:05.840 but also haircuts and doctors visits and moving to a 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.560 new home. And he felt like he'd done enough. He 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.800 felt that he created a library of television visits that 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:16.560 covered everything a child needed to know about growing up. 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:24.880 So Mr Rogers decided he was done. In a week 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.280 of episodes slated to be his last, Mr Rogers takes 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:30.880 us out to his garage, where he shows us a 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:35.200 big cabinet filled with dozens and dozens of VHS tapes, 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.280 all neatly lined up in rows. You see, those are 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:44.080 all different visits, television visits that we have on tape, 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:50.600 share this one. Just as he's about to pop one 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.480 of these tapes into the VCR, Mr McFeeley stops by 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.200 and the two get to talking about how McFeeley has 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.760 changed since his earliest visits to the neighborhood. Huh, I 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.760 remember the days when it was very, very hard for 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.120 you to sit still, Mr mcpheeley. Well, I used to 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.040 talk louder then and talk faster. I'll show you a 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.880 tape on that machine over there and see if you 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.680 remember that visit. I'd like to see that visit. You know, 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:20.360 my video tape machine over here. See if you remember 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:27.640 this time when you came to visit me already. Fred 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:30.480 plays the tape and the two watch what is essentially 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.280 a rerun of a Mr. Rogers Neighborhood segment from a 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:37.320 few years before. Then, Fred explains, we'll be seeing a 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.920 lot of reruns from now on. Well, next week we'll 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.760 start to show all of these visits so everybody can 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.200 see them the whole way through. Well, I'll look forward 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:52.360 to that. And with that Mr Rogers signed off, I'm 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.919 Carla Wallace and this is Finding Fred, a podcast about 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.440 Fred Rogers from I Heeart Media and Fatherly in partnership 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:13.480 with transmit Or Media. Fred Rogers felt like he'd done enough. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:18.320 He created an encyclopedia of programs that anticipated the questions 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:23.000 and anxieties that children have as they grow and learn, like, 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.200 for instance, getting poked and prodded or stuck with a needle. 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:30.240 Over the years, Fred had made several visits to optometrists, 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.320 barber's doctors. Producer Arthur Greenwald worked with Fred in a 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.600 series of episodes about going to the hospital. He had 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:41.400 a long time interest in how children are frightened or 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:46.560 overwhelmed by hospitalization. You know, I was really struck by 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:49.400 There was this moment where he was talking about X rays. 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:51.120 He was talking with the physician about X rays and 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:53.599 the physician was explaining, well, you can we can see 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.480 your bones, and then Fred said, I know some children 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.440 who will wonder if if you can see my bones, 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.640 can you excre my head and see my thoughts? If 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.719 you can see the inside of a hand with X ray, 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.479 could you see the inside of somebody's head and know 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.200 what that person is thinking, No, uh, the X ray 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:17.039 picture won't show thoughts feelings. Those are things that we 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.920 really can't see a touch. Our thoughts are very own. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.120 All thoughts are our own. That's good to know. When 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:27.760 I watched that, I laughed out loud because he was 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.640 a grown man, And but it wasn't like silly. It 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.400 was like kind of phenomenal and magical that he was 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.919 able to capture a very specific, very clear thought of 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.599 a child that was important. And of course some people 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:45.000 look at you like you're insane, But who said anything 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.800 about an X ray seeing my thoughts and feelings? But 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.640 by god, that is exactly what a preschool was thinking. 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:56.200 Fred was always working to eliminate misunderstandings, and that was 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.480 a real gift for television audience of toddlers who weren't 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:03.279 necessary really used to being seen and heard and responded to. 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:08.880 But this kind of deep focused listening made adults uncomfortable 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:13.240 because they're socially just not used to people paying attention 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:15.760 to their every word, and so a lot of the 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.440 things will casually say as a passing joke, Fred would 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:23.360 pause an interpret it out loud, which would be either 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.720 illuminating or embarrassing, depending on you know how comfortable you 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:30.960 are with that sort of conversation. It seems like Fred 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.800 was betting on most people being comfortable with that kind 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.600 of thing, because when he left Mr Rogers neighborhood, he 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.920 set out to make a new television program for adults. 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.880 He developed a new show with PBS called Old Friends, 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:49.560 New Friends. It featured Fred talking with other adults about 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.560 what they're passionate about and where their inspiration comes from. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.600 That's what he was interested in. This is TV critic 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.560 David b and Cooley. It's like, if you're a musician, 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.880 where does the music come from? You know, what was 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:09.320 it like that made you become a musician and sort 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.240 of get to the bottom of what what is art 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.840 and what is an artist. The show was documentary style. 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.160 Fred visited different locations around the country. He talked to 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.560 famous and not so famous people about their lives and 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:26.280 showed them at work. Pittsburgh baseball legend Willie Stargel opened 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.160 up about resilience. Comedian Milton Burrow talked about the rewards 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:34.200 of fame. Fred visited Robert Frost's daughter and NPR hosts 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:40.280 Susan Stamberg. Old Friends, New Friends was conversational warm, and 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.880 because this was still Fred Rogers after all, it was slow. 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:50.599 Responses to the show were mixed. I saw them and 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:54.800 and I loved what he was doing with them, but 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.720 you have to you have to be open to it 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:01.360 and be interested. Not everybody loved it. Fred's biographer Max 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:03.720 King told me he didn't think it was very good. 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.760 I watched a lot of it. It's not particularly compelling. 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.400 The approach that he brought to children's television just didn't 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:14.760 translate to adult television. Betsy Siemens had worked with Fred 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.400 and Mr Rogers Neighborhood. She later helped produce episodes of 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.120 Old Friends, New Friends. The idea that he was going 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.400 to quit doing the Neighborhood, I thought, good for you, 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.439 you know, I mean, I I found like people move on. 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:32.760 I mean, I I think I think I was aware 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:39.480 that it was hard for him because he had been 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:44.439 doing this other work for so long, and I think, 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.800 you know, it's hard to just really switch gears and 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:50.360 work for a completely different audience and in a in 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.640 a really profoundly different medium. The show featured extreme close 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:59.320 ups of people's faces, long silent pauses, deep reflection on 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:03.720 family history, reason, and many of Fred's signature moves, slow pacing, 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:09.480 intimate production, emphasis, and emotions, but these didn't necessarily translate 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:14.240 for most grown ups. Fred's show was illuminating, but many 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:19.199 viewers found the intimacy embarrassing or even worse on TV boring. 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.360 One New York Times critic wrote that for some viewers, 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.600 This Quiet Man may appear to have taken one volume 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:31.960 too many. But I watched it the only episode you 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:36.000 can really find online an interview with concert pianist Lauren Hollander, 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:41.280 and honestly, I found it brilliant. The intimacy, the patient's 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:46.000 Fred's willingness to hover over difficult topics with sometimes difficult 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:52.040 people was transfixing. You're the only pianist who has ever 0:10:52.240 --> 0:11:00.840 communicated to me the feeling that this instrument as a place, 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:10.320 that it is a country, that it's somewhere that you 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:21.239 go to say something. And I've felt that today. Poor Beethoven, 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:26.680 the throwes of his deafness, kept a little chimber pot 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.680 under the keyboard, and he used to keep his head 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:35.960 pressed here against the wood, and could not leave the 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:40.240 instrument long enough to take care of his needs. And 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:44.960 we who grow up here know that it's an answer, 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:50.880 because it's a way of dealing with that incredibly complex reality. 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:57.720 When I heard that, it occurred to me that maybe 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:01.600 that is the case for Fred to that he was 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.360 like Beethoven or Lauren Hollander, and that in a sense, 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:10.000 the precision and love and kindness of Mr Rogers neighborhood 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.880 was his place, his country where he could deal with 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:20.720 the incredibly complex reality. And he got to go back 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:26.160 there when he returned to Mr Rogers neighborhood. More than 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:38.800 that after a break, teething can be a real nightmare 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:40.480 for your little ones. So are you looking for the 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:44.520 best relief to soothe teething pain? 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He 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:27.800 loves me, he loves me not? He loves me, he 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.600 loves me not. He loves me not. So he returned 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.400 me because he had thirty days to do so, which 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.680 is plenty of time to discover you don't love someone 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:41.600 or in my case something, Because surprise, I'm a CarMax 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.199 car who is now back on the market thirty day 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:50.679 money back guarantee. It's car buying reimagined Carmacks thirty dmit 0:13:50.760 --> 0:14:00.120 see Carmacks dot com for details. In Fred Rod just 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.520 wrote himself a note. It's typed neatly on a piece 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.600 of yellow legal paper, the kind Fred used for early 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:10.880 drafts of his scripts. Am I kidding myself that I'm 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.240 able to write a script again? He wrote? Why don't 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:20.040 I trust myself? He continues, after all these years, it's 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:24.360 just as bad as ever. Oh well, the hour cometh 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.280 and now is when I've got to do it. Get 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:32.760 to it, Fred. Just a few weeks prior, a four 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:36.400 year old boy named Charles Green died after jumping from 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:40.720 his grandmother's seventh story apartment in Brooklyn. His mother told 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:46.560 reporters he'd been trying to fly like Superman. Fred Rogers 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.560 had already started working on new episode to the Neighborhood Program, 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.440 but he was shaken by the story of little Charles Green. 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.880 The kid was trying desperately to be like a hero 0:14:56.080 --> 0:15:00.840 he saw on screen. When Fred left an Neghborhood Program 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.040 five years earlier, he thought he'd said everything there was 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:08.680 to say, but the world itself had changed. Daycare was 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.119 now a widespread and normal thing, but clearly a terrifying 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.640 thing to a toddler. And what to say to kids 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.320 about divorce as it became more and more prevalent. Television 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.960 itself had evolved, had become a never silent fixture in 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.800 every home, and there were more channels and programs spraying 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:30.360 all sorts of violence and fantasy at children. So Fred 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:34.800 did what he knew how to do best. Remember when 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.840 I was a boy, I used to take a sweater 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:44.680 and put it around my my shoulders like that, hold 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.080 the arms out like that, and pretend that I was flying. Yeah, 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:53.960 let's go out here. I'll show you what I had. 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.080 A couple of steps there at the porch, and I 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:01.560 would go like this, but of course I never took off, 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:10.320 because only birds and bats and bugs can fly. People can't. 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:16.440 Only birds and bats and bugs can fly. I want 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.760 to sing that with me. Only birds and bats and 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:27.800 bugs can fly. Sometimes I wish I could fly, but 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:36.840 only birds and bats and bugs and fly. Fred made 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.360 an entire week of programming about how superheroes aren't real. 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.200 He even visited the Universal Studio sound stage where The 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.520 Incredible Hulk was filmed, and he showed the star looferign 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:52.040 no putting on and taking off his costume. That's all 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:56.600 part of his work, all part. And here's the special 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:00.680 solution that takes the green makeup off. I liked seeing 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.320 the makeup coming off just as well as going on. 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:05.960 But I was glad to show my television friends that 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.680 because it's important to realize that people just don't change 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:15.160 shape and change color. That's all just sort of movie business, 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:20.080 isn't it. It's it's just makeup pretend. Of course, you 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.600 remember the note Fred wrote to himself. A few weeks later, 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:29.040 he added a handwritten PS. It wasn't easy, but it 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:35.480 was good. This I must remember. In the sixteen years 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:39.800 since Fred passed, he's been turned into a TV superhero himself, 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.280 someone who was born with extra powers of intuition and 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:50.200 communication and self control and love. Fred Rogers wasn't a superhero. 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.720 His biographer told me that Fred himself would be horrified 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.400 that anybody might think he was a saint. But producer 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.679 Margie Whitmer told me that Fred did believe that his 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.840 show mattered. It's hard, I think when you when you 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.239 become famous, there's lots of people who tell you how 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.840 wonderful you are. You know, he had lots of followers. 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.439 You tend to believe that you're making a difference. The 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:17.800 audience was national, even international. There were enormous lineups to 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.840 meet Mr Rogers when he did public appearances. He was 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:24.760 Mr Rogers, but the program was bigger than him. I 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.879 just had a letter the other day. It was from 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:34.720 this woman who said, fourteen years ago, I had a 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:41.480 baby who was sixteen months old, and I had that 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:46.399 baby in the backseat of the car and I was 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:51.120 in such a terrible depression my heart. I didn't even 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.919 know that I had put him back there. And she said, 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.920 I was driving along and I saw this truck coming 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:01.560 and I thought, I'm just gonna end it all. I'm 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:06.679 just gonna go straight into the truck because she was desperate. 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:12.560 And she said, I started turning to the left, and 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:17.320 all of a sudden, I heard this little voice singing, 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:21.320 it's a beautiful day in lint it. And she said, 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:26.119 I veered my car to the right, and I thought 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:33.840 of life and love. And now it's fourteen years later, 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:42.520 and I just need to thank you. Well. You know, 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:48.760 to hear that your works can be used in such 0:19:50.320 --> 0:20:01.960 wonderful ways is a great blessing. When I started interviewing 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.240 people for this project, there were two questions. I asked 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:09.760 almost everyone who knew Fred, did you think he did enough? 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:15.440 Do you think Fred thought he did enough? And while 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:18.159 the responses varied, a lot of people told me the 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:22.520 same thing. Yes, they think Fred did enough, but he 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:26.640 always wanted to do more. Fred returned to the Neighborhood 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:31.119 program in The show ran until two thousand one. He 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:34.119 kept at it almost three times as long as his 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:38.720 first run, for decades and for generations of kids. He 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:42.880 was a voice of comfort, of stability, and of reason. 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.040 He'd made a special episode when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:49.080 he'd recorded p S A S in the middle of 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:53.000 the Gulf War. Fred finally retired in two thousand one, 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:57.520 after nine hundred episodes and thirty years on the air. 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.879 But we don't know if Fred ever actually felt like 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:06.960 he did enough. We do know that just a few 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:10.920 weeks later, planes flew into the Twin Towers in New York. 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:19.400 When nine eleven happened, he was so distraught. I don't 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:25.040 think that I ever really until that day, I didn't 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:32.640 think on a real internal level about his mission as 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:37.000 saving the world. I thought. I think I just thought 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:41.600 about it in more practical terms, we of helping people 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:46.600 try and do the best they can. I think it 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.880 really hit home to him when those when the Twin 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:55.919 Towers got hit that he's not the savior. He can't 0:21:56.000 --> 0:22:01.080 save the world. Some of Fred's producers, including Marky, convinced 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:06.800 him to send one final message in his office. I 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:08.399 went up to get him to come down to the 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:13.440 studio and he was He was a mess. He was said, 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:15.560 why am I doing these? These aren't going to do 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.560 any good. I said, you have to do them. And 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:22.600 I said, Fred, people care about you, people listen to you. 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:25.680 You have got to do these none of us can 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:27.760 save the road. We can do the best we can do. 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:35.760 In the p s A Fred recorded after September eleven, 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:39.359 he repeated his story he'd often told about his mother 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:43.680 comforting him when he was young. She told him, notice 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:48.240 the people who are helping during times of crisis. Look 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:52.840 for the helpers, she said, there's always someone trying to help. 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:57.880 Look for the helpers has become this sort of stock meme, 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:00.840 one that gets reposted all over so social media after 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:05.639 a catastrophe, whether a natural disaster or mass shooting. But 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:09.360 there's something I want you to notice about Fred's final message. 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:15.080 Listen closely. Who is he talking to. I'm just so 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:17.960 proud of all of you who have grown up with us, 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:22.399 and I know how tough it is some days to 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:26.920 look with hope and confidence on the months and years ahead. 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:30.439 But I would like to tell you what I often 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:34.240 told you when you were much younger. I like you 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:39.440 just the way you are. And what's more, I'm so 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:43.199 grateful to you for helping the children in your life 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:48.120 to know that you'll do everything you can to keep 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:53.479 them safe and to help them express their feelings in 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:59.040 ways that will bring healing in many different neighborhoods. It's 0:23:59.080 --> 0:24:02.880 such a good fee linked to know that we're lifelong friends. 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:11.040 He's talking to us, to the adults in the room. 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:14.960 His producer, Betsy Siemens says, this is the message of 0:24:15.040 --> 0:24:19.439 friends that we need now. Look for the helper. Was 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:24.520 advice to children, and we are not children. And I've 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:26.760 heard a lot of adults saying, oh well, Fred Rogers 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:28.560 made me feel so much better because he said look 0:24:28.600 --> 0:24:30.720 for the helpers and no, no, that was advice to 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:35.080 children and that was not advice to the parent. It's 0:24:35.080 --> 0:24:38.480 an interesting distinction though, between the child and the parents 0:24:38.560 --> 0:24:44.040 and the adult. Uh, because the harm that comes to 0:24:44.080 --> 0:24:46.639 many of us in our childhoods. I think this is 0:24:46.680 --> 0:24:51.520 my theory my therapist agrees, is that is that it 0:24:51.720 --> 0:24:54.040 we get frozen in moments in time and we don't 0:24:54.080 --> 0:24:56.720 ever overcome our childhoods in that way, and so we 0:24:56.840 --> 0:24:59.720 constantly have this child in us that is crying out 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:02.360 for the things that we need as children, crying out 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:05.840 for safety or for acknowledged manner for because we don't 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:08.680 get those things as young people. And so I think 0:25:08.680 --> 0:25:11.480 that that may even be we may be experiencing a 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:15.359 mass level of fact as a country. Maybe it's one 0:25:15.359 --> 0:25:17.640 of my theories. And so when people hear that quote, 0:25:18.160 --> 0:25:21.359 that's the child in them, the unhealed child who's still going, 0:25:21.359 --> 0:25:24.520 oh great, now I know what to do. It's it's 0:25:24.560 --> 0:25:26.280 hard to be an adult, and it's hard to be 0:25:26.280 --> 0:25:33.000 an adult when your own child hasn't been raised. Absolutely, however, 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:36.960 it is the universal human condition. It's true for all 0:25:37.000 --> 0:25:41.080 of us, and it was true for him, and I 0:25:41.160 --> 0:25:42.919 still think I know that one of the things that 0:25:43.080 --> 0:25:46.840 was very important to him on the program was that 0:25:46.920 --> 0:25:50.359 he always be the adult, the adult who can play 0:25:50.400 --> 0:25:54.000 with children, and I mean he acknowledged all of our 0:25:54.000 --> 0:25:58.800 inner children and his own, but he also understood that 0:25:58.840 --> 0:26:02.040 there comes to time in life when we also have 0:26:02.240 --> 0:26:05.399 to be the adult. And I think that was one 0:26:05.440 --> 0:26:09.760 of the fine points of his work. We're the grown 0:26:09.840 --> 0:26:15.120 ups doing what we can. Doing enough doesn't mean fixing 0:26:15.240 --> 0:26:18.920 a tragedy as massive as nine eleven, but it does 0:26:19.000 --> 0:26:24.040 mean helping. Every one of us has something essential inside 0:26:24.040 --> 0:26:28.000 of us that we can use to help. For Fred, 0:26:28.080 --> 0:26:30.640 that meant sitting at the bedside of a comatose kid, 0:26:30.840 --> 0:26:34.560 or staying on the air for thirty years, helping children 0:26:34.600 --> 0:26:38.080 grow into adults who could help other people. What does 0:26:38.119 --> 0:26:43.400 it mean for you? I think he drove himself very hard, 0:26:43.440 --> 0:26:47.200 and I think his expectations of himself were extraordinary, So 0:26:48.200 --> 0:26:51.440 I would guess that he never thought he did enough. 0:26:52.400 --> 0:26:58.119 Because here's the thing, there is no enough, there is 0:26:58.160 --> 0:27:01.719 no finish line. The problems faced with are so big, 0:27:02.000 --> 0:27:05.360 so many, that no one of us can address them alone. 0:27:06.480 --> 0:27:10.560 It's not easy to keep trying, but it's one good 0:27:10.600 --> 0:27:15.480 way to grow. It's not easy to keep learning, but 0:27:15.760 --> 0:27:20.879 I know that this is so. When you've tried and learned, 0:27:21.080 --> 0:27:26.840 you're bigger inside than you were a day ago. It's 0:27:26.880 --> 0:27:32.520 not easy to keep trying, but it's one way to grow. 0:27:33.359 --> 0:27:39.960 You've got to see every little bit you've got to 0:27:40.119 --> 0:27:43.280 do it. Do it, do it, do it, and when 0:27:43.359 --> 0:27:48.800 you're through, you can know who did it for you 0:27:48.880 --> 0:27:55.040 did it, you did it, You did it. And when 0:27:55.040 --> 0:27:58.359 you've done something that you wanted to do and you've 0:27:58.359 --> 0:28:01.760