Good morning. I’m Jane Pauley, and this is Sunday Morning.
Rock climbing demands strength, technique and nerves — and for Jesse Dufton it has become the center of his life. Born with rod-cone dystrophy and now blind, the 40-year-old Brit pursues some of the planet’s toughest routes. Taught by his father, Jesse kept climbing as his vision faded, choosing the riskiest role on a climb: leading. He places protection, reads the rock by touch and sound, and relies on his partner Molly — whose voice, helmet radios and steady teamwork guide him. The couple met in college, fell in love on the cliffs and later married atop a Greenland peak. By day an engineer, Jesse has set bold marks in the climbing world, including a feared 450-foot sea stack off Scotland. He resists being framed as a daredevil or defined only by blindness; to him, climbing is a series of judgments that reveal character.
Amanda Seyfried finds balance away from the cameras on a farm in upstate New York, where chores, animals and routine bring calm. From early comedy turns to an Oscar-nominated performance in Mank and an Emmy-winning portrayal in The Dropout, Seyfried has built a career on range and vulnerability. She speaks openly about living with anxiety and OCD and credits therapy and medication with helping her focus that intensity into work. This year she appears in the thriller The Housemaid and in The Testament of Anne Lee, a period musical about the Shakers that has won praise and revived awards conversation. At home she emphasizes responsibility, family and the quiet rewards of tending animals and instruments.
Filmmaker James Cameron has long been obsessed with inventing the means to tell the stories in his head. From self-taught special-effects work to landmark films such as The Terminator, Aliens and Titanic, he has pushed technology to serve vision. His Avatar films expanded that boundary again — using massive underwater tanks and performance-capture techniques to create Pandora’s world. His new film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, continues the Na’vi’s struggle against colonization. Even now he cautions against letting generative AI replace genuine performance capture, framing his work as a collaboration between director and actor and saying that at 71 he’s still driven by projects he doesn’t yet know how to make.
In Aix-en-Provence, Seth Doane reports on the city’s embrace of its most complicated son, Paul Cézanne. Once rejected, the painter is now celebrated: museums, preserved studios and walking trails take visitors to the scenes that preoccupied him — from Mont Sainte-Victoire to the Bibémus quarries. Cézanne’s unfinished brushwork and insistence on painting from nature helped redefine modern art; standing where he stood invites patience and a different way of seeing light, color and form.
Luke Burbank profiles Metallica’s All Within My Hands foundation, which has grown from backstage food donations into a multimillion-dollar effort supporting workforce education and disaster relief. The band’s grants fund community colleges, trade programs, scholarships for commercial driver’s licenses and emergency response after fires and earthquakes. Band members describe the work as a duty rooted in humble beginnings and blue-collar values; for many recipients, the support has been life changing.
Architectural Digest continues to chronicle notable homes, capturing more than décor — photographs that record how people live. Whether it’s Dakota Johnson’s midcentury house, Sienna Miller’s cottage or Liev Schreiber’s New York apartment, AD’s editors say what endures is warmth, personality and the way a house reflects those who occupy it.
Nancy Giles looks at life after Thanksgiving, and Chef Chris Morocco of Bon Appétit and Epicurious offers clever ways to remake leftovers. Mashed potatoes into soup, rice into stir-fries, tamales repurposed for quick weeknight meals — small culinary turns save time, reduce waste and revive a long tradition of frugality that once carried moral and spiritual overtones.
Weijia Jiang reports on the investigation into Wednesday’s fatal shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. Officials say the suspected shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who arrived through an evacuation program. The case has provoked swift political reaction and proposals to change visa and asylum processing. Authorities stress the need to balance resettlement commitments with public safety, while advocates urge caution against stigmatizing entire communities over one individual’s actions.
As the month ends, we look back at how Thanksgiving became a national observance. Sarah Josepha Hale spent decades campaigning for a day of thanks; her persistence helped lead to Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation during the Civil War, and in 1941 Congress fixed the holiday in November. Charles Osgood reminds us to be grateful for family, friends and those around our table.
We close among the giant sequoias at Sequoia National Park — a quiet reminder of endurance, scale and the awe of the natural world.
I’m Jane Pauley. Please join us next Sunday.