Whitaker hes talking about this minimotors fixed inside the bicycle, a hightech stealth form of cheating that many people we spoke with believe have been used in the Tour De France. So if someone came to you and said directly, i want to use your invention to cheat, ill pay you a lot of money for it, would you sell it to them . If the money is big, why not . Whitaker we took a test ride to see how well these motors work. Hello. What do you want . There are not many shows on television that deserve to be called true american institutions. But one of them surely is sesame street. Now theres a new kid on the street whos making news. Hi, julia julia, a muppet with autism. Not an easy addition. Its tricky, because autism is not one thing. Because it is different for every Single Person who has autism. We really like julia. Shes really special to us, miss lesley. Im steve kroft. Im lesley stahl. Im anderson cooper. Im bill whitaker. Im sharyn alfonsi. Im scott pelley. Those stories, tonight on 60 minutes. You asked for it, you got it. Steak and lobster is back at outback. Starting at 15. 99 for a limited time, were pairing our signature steaks with a mouthwatering, steamed lobster tail. Starting at only 15. 99. Its time to get back to outback. It can seem like triggers pop up everywhere. Luckily theres powerful, 24hour, nondrowsy claritin. It provides relief of symptoms that can be triggered by over 200 different allergens. Live claritin clear. Pcountries thatk mewe traveled,t what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. So when i got my ancestry dna results it was a shocker. Im everything. Im from all nations. I would look at forms now and wonder what do i mark . Because im everything. And i marked other. Discover the story only your dna can tell. Order your kit now at ancestrydna. Com. Whats the story behind Green Mountain coffee and fair trade . Lets take a flight to colombia. This is boris calvo. Boris grows mindblowing coffee. And because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm and invest in his community to make even better coffee. All for a smoother tasting cup. Green mountain coffee. Ronoh really . Gs going on at schwab. Thank you clients . Well jd power did just rank them highest in Investor Satisfaction with full Service Brokerage firms. Again. And online equity trades are only 4. 95. I mean you cant have low cost and be full service. Its impossible. Its like having your cake and eating it too. Ask your broker if they offer awardwinning full service and low costs. How am i going to explain this . If you dont like their answer, ask again at schwab. Schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. Alfonsi as the floodwaters recede from Southeast Texas and louisiana, Hurricane Harvey leaves behind a historic residue of injury, death and destruction. Fema administrator brock long has warned the recovery will be a slow and frustrating process. Assessing the property loss and repairing or replacing homes and businesses will take years, and it will cost tens of billions of dollars in insurance settlements. The victims are relying on it. But, as we first reported some two and a half years after Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of the east coast, sandys victims were hit by another disaster we called it the storm after the storm. Many people said they were cheated out of their insurance claims. Thousands of claims remained unresolved for years, and there was evidence that many homeowners were victims of apparent widescale fraud, where original damage reports were later changed to make it look like the damage wasnt as bad. Hurricane sandy damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and rearranged neighborhoods. Long beach, new york, was one of them. This was bob kaibles house the next day. The yellow one, with a sand dune blocking his front door. Kaible the beaches decided that they didnt want to be there any more, and they came to pay a visit. And thats what happened. And we got back to the house and we were devastated. Alfonsi what was that like, to walk into your house for the first time . Kaible everything that you worked so hard in your life to get is now gone. Alfonsi but you had Flood Insurance. Kaible uhhuh. Alfonsi youd pay for every month. Kaible absolutely. Alfonsi did you think you were okay . Kaible sure. I mean, thats what you pay insurance for. Alfonsi the city condemned kaibles home, saying it was damaged beyond repair. The house had been knocked off its foundation. His Insurance Company, wright flood, sent an engineer to inspect the damage. Three weeks later, the kaibles couldnt have been more surprised. Kaible i get the engineering report, that theres no structural damage to the house. So im going like, what do you mean theres no structural damage . The house is not what it was before. Alfonsi the Insurance Company agreed to send someone back out to the house. Surprisingly, it was the same engineer, george hernemar, who worked for a Company Called u. S. Forensic. Kaible i said, george, how could you write a report like that . He goes, its not my report. I said, what . What do you mean, its not your report . He says, wait here. He goes to the trunk of his car, goes. Picks up the report and brings it into the house. He says, this is the report i wrote. Alfonsi bob kaible got out his phone and took a picture of georges original report. It plainly said there was structural damage to the house. But this is the report the Insurance Company sent to kaible when they denied his claim, not structurally damaged. They said the damage was long term, meaning it existed before Hurricane Sandy. The kaibles Insurance Company, wright flood, the largest provider of Flood Insurance in the country, paid him just 79,000 of his 250,000 policy. Kaible we had a mortgage on the house. Ive had estimates of 300,000 to 350,000 to rebuild the house. What am i going to do . Alfonsi bob kaibles house was torn down after he sold it for a loss, and he believes it was because of a falsified engineering report. The photo kaible took was solid proof for many other sandy victims who were struggling with similar situations. How many houses do you see that are empty . Kaible on this block . Probably half of them. Alfonsi the kaibles pleaded to a Vice President at their Insurance Company and passed on their evidence. But the company denied full payment, arguing subsequent reports supported them. With frustration as high as the water marks in their home, the kaibles filed a lawsuit. That suit drew the attention of a texas trial lawyer who had never been to long beach, but got on his plane in a hurry. Steve mostyn has won billions fighting Insurance Companies, and when he heard about bob kaibles case, he says he had a gut feeling the kaible family wasnt alone. Sure enough, he says, his Houston Office is now flooded with paperwork from victims of the superstorm. Mostyn theres been a systematic fraud on the policy holders whove filed flood claims from sandy. Alfonsi whats the fraud . Mostyn the fraud is taking engineers reports and changing them from saying there was structural damage to saying theres no structural damage, or giving the engineers a form to fill out that already has the conclusion of no structural damage. Alfonsi why would anyone do that . Mostyn save money. The biggest ticket item inside a claim, for a flood claim, is the structural damage. And so, when they dont pay for structural damage, they save hundreds of thousands of dollars on each claim. Alfonsi of the thousands of cases lawyer steve mostyn says hes found, electrician john mero and his wife gails is the most revealing. Their house is in east rockaway, new york. What was this street like in the days. The day after sandy . Gail mero sixfoothigh water in the street. John mero well, the day after, it was like armageddon. Alfonsi the meros house had to be torn down after the storm. Their Insurance Company paid them just 80,000. And now, theyre buried in debt after rebuilding their home. John mero i was like, how can you tell me that youre not going to cover this, that im not going to get the full amount of my insurance . I says. You got my payments every month. Said its time for you to pay and heres what youre going to tell me. Alfonsi it was two years later that the meros felt a second wave hit them, when the engineer who assessed their home after the storm called them out of the blue. John mero the engineer sent his report in to the Insurance Company saying that the house was damaged due to flood. The structural damage is caused by the flood. And from what i understand, the Insurance Company changed it, changed his words, without him knowing. Alfonsi this is andrew braum, the engineer who could no longer stay silent. Braum told us, not only were changes made to his engineering reports, but he was asked to cover it up. He showed us the original report hed written about the damage to john and gail meros house. Andrew braum we assess in the conclusions hydrodynamic forces, hydrostatic forces, due to the flood, caused a cracking and shifting throughout the foundation. Alfonsi so youre saying the flood caused this damage . Braum correct. And then, in the revised or the altered report, it says, settlement due to consolidation of soil caused the Foundation Wall to crack. Thats not what i wrote; its completely altered. Alfonsi braum inspected more than 180 homes after sandy, working for a Company Called hi rise engineering. After he discovered the changes made to the report he wrote about the meros home, he went back to check all the copies of his original reports against the final copies that the homeowners received. How many of those reports were doctored . Braum at least 175 of them, or approximately 96 , is the number that i calculated. Alfonsi 175 of your reports were doctored . Braum correct. They were altered. Alfonsi and the ones that werent changed . Braum the ones that werent changed, interestingly, were ones where i recommended that no repairs are required. Alfonsi braum says hirise engineering pressured him to sign an affidavit saying he agreed with their final reports. He says he ignored the request and never did it. Do you think they were trying to cover up something . Braum now knowing what i know, yes. Alfonsi what do you think was going on . Braum they figured out that they altered all those reports. And they wanted to hurry up and have they called me braum; braum, get braum to sign off on this quick. So if braum wasnt thinking or if braum didnt care, he would just sign his name 200something times, and they were off the hook. And that wasnt happening with me. Alfonsi Insurance Companies have argued the reason the engineering reports were changed was to allow for a peer review process, a Standard Practice in the insurance industry. Braum peer review, to me, would be amongst my peers of an equal licensing or education level, and review a report and discuss it. But not peer review when i send my final report and its changed without my knowledge. Thats not peer review. Alfonsi in february, 2015, the offices of hirise engineering were raided by the new York Attorney generals office, which was conducting a criminal investigation into hirise, as well as the Insurance Companies that hired them. Hirise pleaded guilty to criminal charges. Wright flood and u. S. Forensic declined our requests for an interview. They have denied allegations of criminal activity, and all three said they cooperated with the investigation. More than 2,000 sandy victims have filed lawsuits in federal courts. Mostyn you know, we thought originally it might be one engineer, right . And then we find multiple engineers inside the same company. And as we dug into it, its other engineering companies. Well, then you got to start looking for a different common denominator. Alfonsi and in this case, all of those companies are overseen by fema, the federal Emergency Management agency. More than five million homeowners living in designated flood zones all around the country are required to buy Flood Insurance policies backed by fema and taxpayer money. Brad kieserman was the new head of femas flood program, when we first spoke to him. Hed been on the job just three weeks, and hed already had to answer to allegations of fraud and criminal activity at the expense of some of sandys hardesthit families. Brad kieserman im not going to sit here and conceal the fact that it happened. Because in the last three weeks, ive seen evidence of it. Alfonsi you say youve seen evidence of these fraudulent reports. Kieserman yes. Alfonsi youve seen evidence of what could be criminal activity by using unlicensed engineers . Kieserman yes, which is why i referred it to the inspector general. Alfonsi when did fema learn that there may be a problem here, that fraudulent reports may be used to deny claims . Kieserman i think that there were signals. Based on what ive seen, if you will, signals in late 2013, early 2014 that there were problems that our survivors were experiencing with engineering, with the claims process, with appeals. But those were signals. And i think those signals got louder, if you will. Alfonsi it was more than signals. This is. This is a letter to fema in the summer of 2013 that clearly says that the person conducting, doing the inspections here wasnt a licensed engineer. This is to fema. Kieserman so. Alfonsi . Inin the summer of 2013. Kieserman so. Youre right. This is dated august 19, 2013. And, you know, ive seen this. Alfonsi the document, sent to fema, was an appeal from another family who felt badly cheated by their Insurance Company. In it they provide proof that the engineer who inspected their home, working for the firm u. S. Forensic, was not licensed to work in new york. Kieserman this upset me very much. Because this piece of information, had it been elevated in the agency, would have been very helpful in helping us help people earlier. Alfonsi why wasnt it elevated in the agency . I mean, this to me is the type of thing you run to the boss with. Kieserman this would be the type of thing that i would run to the boss with. And i need to find out why that didnt happen. Alfonsi but as far as you know, no one at fema ever said to the Insurance Companies, ever said to the engineering companies, keep the claims down . Kieserman as far as i know, no one at fema has ever done that. Alfonsi but lawyers paid for by fema have gone after sandy survivors in court, accusing them of fraud. Bob kaible, who took the photo of his altered engineering report, was accused in court of stealing the report done on his own home, which he denies. We have homeowners who went through the appeals process, and the attorneys, who are being paid for by fema, called them thieves, said they were trying to conduct fraud. Those are your dogs at the end of the leash. Do you take any responsibility for that . Kieserman yes, i take responsibility for the fact that when fema funds activities, the people who are getting paid by those funds need to behave in a professional, ethical manner. Alfonsi so, are you going to make it right . Kieserman i am. As you know, im doing everything i can in the midst of negotiations to try to make that right. Lets face it, i dont have unlimited authority. I cant wave a magic wand and make all of this right for everyone. Alfonsi since we first reported this story, fema created a review process and has settled many of the sandy flood cases. Brad kieserman left fema and is now overseeing relief operations for the red cross in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. People would stare. Psoriasis does that. It was tough getting out there on stage. I wanted to be clear. I wanted it to last. So i kept on fighting. I found something that worked. And keeps on working. Now . They see me. See me. See if cosentyx could make a difference for you cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Find clear skin that can last. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting cosentyx, you should be checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. Or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. If you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions may occur. Never give up. See me. See me. Clear skin can last. Dont hold back. Ask your dermatologist if cosentyx can help you find clear skin that lasts. When you dont get enough sleep, and your body aches, youre not yourself. Tylenol® pm relieves pain and helps you fall fast asleep and stay asleep. We give you a better night, youre a better you all day. And for your daytime pain relief, try tylenol® extra strength. Wherwhere we always welcome you, thats texas. Exas. Where we always find a way, thats texas. Bill whitaker the sport of cycling is notorious for its culture of cheating, made most famous by the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong and his use of performanceenhancing drugs. Now, when cycling hopes to be cleansed of the dopers, theres a Surprising New twist riders enhancing the bikes performance. Some professional racers arent putting steroids and blood boosters in their veins, theyre hiding motors in their bike frames. We followed a lead to budapest, hungary, and met an engineer who said he built the first secret bike motor back in 1998. He told us motors have been used in the Tour De France. As we first reported in january, our story is not about the latest drugs the riders are using to cheat, its all about enhancing the bike. Where, where is the motor in here . Stefano varjas here, the motor is here. Whitaker its in here. In a bike shop in budapest, hungary, we met istvan varjas. Stefano, as hes known, is a former cyclist, a businessman, and a scientist. His most important invention, he placed inside this bike. The frame is fitted with a small motor he designed. Add to it a lithium battery that powers it, and a secret button that he installed. Varjas this is first speed. Whitaker uhhuh. Varjas try to keep the pace. Whitaker wow. The sound is mostly the chain and the wheels. He said you cant hear it on the road, and all of his motor designs use brushless motors and militarygrade metal alloys. And how does this work . This is now the latest version of his hidden motor design. Unbelievable. It can be connected to a heart rate monitor by remote control. When a riders heart beat gets too high, it sends a signal for the motor to kick in. We took his hidden motors for some test rides up in the hills above budapest. This is like im on flat ground. It was hard to believe its real until i put my feet on the pedals; harder to believe when i took them off the pedals. Hello. And still beat the local talent. As you can tell, its not like a moped. Theres no exhaust pipe or revving engine noise. Its designed to give a short but powerful boost to the riders own effort. So, this is a lower gear or a higher gear . Stefano varjas sells complete motorized bikes to wealthy recreational riders for about 20,000, but we went to budapest to find out who else might have bought a silent, hidden motor for a racing bike. Do you know, are professionals using bikes like these on a professional tour . Varjas this one, no. This one. Whitaker but bikes with motors . Varjas yes. I know. I know this. Whitaker they are . Varjas they use, yes. Whitaker suspicions of hidden motors are fueled by videos of riders crashing in races. This bike seems to move by itself without the rider. And, the first time anyone suspected they were looking at a motor was in 2010, when a famed swiss racer sped ahead of the pack at unnatural speeds. These riders all denied they were using motors, and no one had ever been caught, until last year. Race officials suspended this belgian rider after they found a motor inside her spare bike. Jeanpierre verdy is the former testing director for the french antidoping agency, who investigated doping in the Tour De France for 20 years. Whitaker have there been motors used in the Tour De France . Verdy tranlsated yes, of course. Its been the last three to four years when i was told about the use of the motors. And in 2014, they told me there are motors. And they told me, theres a problem. By 2015, everyone was complaining and i said, somethings got to be done. Whitaker verdy said hes been disturbed by how fast some riders are going up the mountains. As a doping investigator, he relied for years on informants among the Team Managers and racers in the peloton, the word for the pack of riders. These people told jeanpierre verdy that about 12 racers used motors in the 2015 Tour De France. The bikers who use motors, what do you think of them and what theyre doing to cycling . Verdy translated theyre hurting their sport. But human nature is like that. Man has always tried to find that magic potion. Whitaker he now thinks that magic potion is a motor like the one designed by Stefano Varjas. Are you selling your motors to pro peloton now . Varjas never, ever. Whitaker never, ever . Varjas never, ever. But i dont know, if a grandfather came and buy a bike and after its go to finishing his grandson who is racing, its not my problem. Whitaker it sounds like plausible deniability, which means, my fingerprints arent on this when it ends up in the bike of a professional. I just sold it to a client. What the client did with it. Varjas . Is their problem. Whitaker i dont know. Varjas its not my problem. Whitaker so if someone came to you and said directly, i want to use your invention to cheat. Ill pay you a lot of money for it, would you sell it to them . laughs varjas if the money is big, why not . Whitaker he said he got his first big money in 1998 when a friend saw his hidden motor prototype and thought he could sell it to a professional racer. So your friend said, with all this doping going on, you, youre crazy not to try to sell your invention. Varjas exactly. And. Whitaker . To these professional racers. Varjas . He, he proposed me. He proposed me, give me this bike and i fix it up, your life. And its happened. Whitaker he told us his friend found a buyer in 1998, and stefano swears he has no idea who it was. He gave us this bank record, that shows that he had about 2 million at the time. We also know that he spent time in jail for not paying a substantial tax bill in hungary. He said whoever paid him all that money wanted an exclusive deal. He couldnt work on the motor, sell it or talk about it, for ten years. And you were okay with that . Varjas for ten years. laughs 2 millions. If you are. In hungary, if you live in hungary, if you. They offer you 2 million to dont do nothing. Whitaker you couldnt refuse it . Varjas laughs can you refuse it . I dont think. Whitaker so you believe that hidden motors have been used by professional cyclists since as far back as 1998 . Varjas i think, yes. Whitaker in france, where cycling is a religion, the newspaper le monde said in december 2016 that the timeline of stefanos story might implicate Lance Armstrong. Armstrong won his first of seven Tour De France victories in 1999, just a year after Stefano Varjas said he sold his first motor. Armstrong denied to the paper ever meeting stefano in person or putting a motor in his bike. We asked armstrong too, through his lawyer, and he denied ever using a motor and declined an interview. We contacted armstrongs former teammate, Tyler Hamilton, who has admitted to being part of all the chemical doping by members of the u. S. Postal team, and tyler told us he never knew of any motors on the team back then. In order to demonstrate that motors existed as far back as 1998, Stefano Varjas suggested to us that we find a carbon fiber 1999 u. S. Postal service team bike, the same bike the u. S. Postal team used in the 1999 Tour De France. We bought this bike off the internet, and he installed a motor, based on his first design, into the bike. He charged us 12,000, saying that covered his costs for the parts and labor. We then asked Tyler Hamilton to test out the bike. You could feel the difference . Tyler hamilton oh yeah, oh, yeah. Its not super obvious. You know, you all of a sudden, youre just like, ah. Whitaker it seems easier . Hamilton it feels a little bit smoother, yeah. Yeah. Whitaker so you could see how somebody could get away with it . Hamilton i could see how teams are doing it. Yeah. I could. Whitaker the motor gives a limited boost of power for about 20 minutes. Tyler hamilton said that much motorized assistance during a race on a Mountain Road could be a game changer for a professional rider. What kind of benefit could this motor give a cyclist . Hamilton thats the difference between winning and losing, for sure. For sure. Whitaker few riders know that better than Tyler Hamilton. When he spoke to 60 minutes in 2011, he was one of the first to talk openly about chemical doping in the sport. He said riders have always looked for ways to stay ahead of the authorities. Hamilton theyd find. You know, for a while, they didnt have an e. P. O. Test. E. P. O. Increases your red blood cell production. When the new tests came out, youd figure out new ways around them. I guess we should have known this was coming, you know . Because, i mean, theres more pressure in todays cycling world than ever to win. Whitaker during this car ride in hungary with Stefano Varjas, we listened as he talked on the phone with one of his clients about delivering some new motorized bikes. He said he was speaking to this man, dr. Michele ferrari. Ferrari is the man behind the doping programs of Lance Armstrong and other top cyclists. He has been banned from the sport of cycling. Still, Stefano Varjas told us that ferrari bought bikes with hidden motors in the past three years. We spoke to dr. Ferrari by phone and he denied buying motorized bikes from stefano, but said he has tested one. Threetime Tour De France winner greg lemond and his wife kathy first learned about hidden motors in 2014, when greg met Stefano Varjas in paris and took a test ride. Greg was outspoken about chemical doping, and now has the same level of concern about the motors. Greg lemond ive watched, last couple years, and im going, i know the motors still in the sport and. Whitaker you know it is still in the sport . Lemond yeah. Yeah, theres always a few bad apples and, because, its a lot of money. Whitaker he is so concerned about it that while working as a broadcaster at the Tour De France, he and his wife worked secretly with the French Police investigating the motors. His best source, it turned out, was Stefano Varjas. Kathy lemond i asked stefano if he would please come and talk to the French Police. Whitaker did he . Is he cooperating with the police . Kathy lemond completely. Whitaker stefano said he told the French Police that just before the 2015 Tour De France he again sold motorized bikes to an unknown client through a middleman. He said he was directed to deliver the bikes to a locked storage room in the town of beaulieu sur mer, france. Stefano varjas told us that in addition to the motors in the bike frames, hes designed a motor that can be hidden inside the hub of the back wheel, seen here in a video he gave us. Kathy lemond stefano had said, weigh the wheels. Youll find the wheels. The wheels are in the peloton. Whitaker according to varjas, the enhanced wheels weigh about 800 grams, or 1. 7 pounds, more than normal wheels. You could detect it by weight . Greg lemond yeah. In cycling weight is everything. Your body, your bike. If your bike weighs a kilo more, you would never race on it. Whitaker in the 2015 Tour De France, bikes in the peloton were weighed before one of the time trial stages. French authorities told us the British Team Sky was the only team with bikes heavier than the rest each bike weighed about 800 grams more. A spokesman for team sky said that during a time trial stage, bikes might be heavier to allow for better aerodynamic performance. He said the team has never used mechanical assistance, and that the bikes were checked and cleared by the sports governing body. A heavy bike doesnt prove anything on its own, but to greg lemond, the weight difference should have set off alarm bells. In this case, sources told us, the sports governing body would not allow french investigators to remove the team sky wheels and weigh them separately to determine if the wheels were enhanced. Lemond said not enough is being done by the International Cycling union to prevent cheating with motors. Greg lemond this is curable. This is fixable. I wont trust it until they figure out how how to how to take the motor out. I wont trust any victories of the Tour De France. Whitaker the 2017 Tour De France wrapped up in july, and for the fourth time, rider chris froome led the British Team Sky to victory. The sports governing body said they checked 4,000 racing bikes during the tour, and found no motors. Cps sports update is brought to you by ford division. Hello everyone in you are new york studio. At the u. S. Open, anastatia defeated Maria Sharapova to advance to the quarterfinals. In baseball the astros swept the mets in first series babin houston since Hurricane Harvey. And arizona wins their 10th in houston since Hurricane Harvey. And arizona wins their 10th in a row. For sports news and information go to cbssports. Com. Okay, so lets. Stop. Dont mess it up squeaking ahhhh eeee all right. chuckle nice come on, dad, lets go for those who know what theyre really building. Always unstoppable. Knowing where you stand. Its never been easier. Except when it comes to your retirement plan. But at fidelity, were making Retirement Planning clearer. And it all starts with getting your Fidelity Retirement score. In 60 seconds, youll know where you stand. And together, well help you make decisions for your plan. To keep you on track. Time to think of your future its your retirement. Know where you stand. Time to think of your future find fast relief behind the counter with claritind. Strut past that aisle for the steroid free allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes. And contains the best oral decongestant. Live claritin clear with claritind. Lots of vitamins a and c. And only 50 calories a serving. Good morning indeed. V8. The original way to fuel your day. 60 minutes continues in a moment. And were always online at 60minutesovertime. Com stahl there are not many shows on television that deserve to be called true american institutions, but one of them is surely sesame street. Its been on the air now for almost 50 years. When sesame street began in 1969, it was considered an experiment. The question could television be used to educate Young Children . Well, research proved the answer to be yes, and the nonprofit Childrens Television workshop, now called sesame workshop, that created the show, has been refining and expanding that mission ever since. Everything from abcs and 123s, to race, and even death. When we first broadcast our story this past spring, sesame street, which now airs on hbo as well as its longtime home on pbs, was getting ready to take on its latest challenge introducing a new kid on the street a muppet named julia, who has autism. For many of us, these opening notes are a trip down memory lane. Sally, youve never seen a street like sesame street. Everything happens here stahl . To a street we watched as kids, with our kids, or both. Bert do you know that you, uh, have a banana in your ear . Ernie what was that, bert . Stahl with muppet characters as known and beloved as any human tv star. Bert will you just take that banana out of your ear . Ernie im sorry, youll have to speak a little louder, bert. I cant hear you. I have a banana in my ear stahl today, almost half a century later, sesame street is shot on a soundstage in astoria, queens, with one of the cameramen who filmed the First Episode still on the job. The sesame street set is a vibrant, upbeat place, with puppeteers on rolling stools down below, and the furry and feathery creatures they bring to life in the sometimes crowded space above. Abby it was a little awkward. Whaaaaaa big bird im sorry stahl the puppeteers figure out how to position their muppet by watching the scene on monitors. The day we visited, they were filming the debut of the new muppet character, julia, who has autism. The story begins with julias friends, muppets elmo and abby cadabby, introducing her to big bird. Big bird oh, hi, julia. Im big bird. Nice to meet you. Oh. Julia . Stahl but big bird is confused when julia doesnt respond. Christine ferraro i think the big discussion right at the start was, how do we do this . How do we talk about autism . Stahl Christine Ferraro has been a writer at sesame street for 25 years, during which time the frequency of autism diagnoses has multiplied. The chances of a little kid, two, three, four years old, having some kind of a relationship with another kid with autism is pretty high. Ferraro exactly. Especially once they hit school age, because theyll be in their classrooms. Abby julia, youre so creative julia laughs stahl but how to portray autism . Ferraro its tricky because autism is not one thing, because it is different for every Single Person who has autism. There is an expression that goes, if youve met one person with autism, youve met one person with autism. Stahl sesame street has always based its characters and content on extensive research. They regularly bring in educators and child psychologists. In the case of julia, they also worked with autism organizations to decide which characteristics she should have and how best to normalize autism for all children. Ferraro so that when they encounter them in their real life, its familiar. And they see that these these can be their friends too. Abby hi, miss lesley, you look very shiny and beautiful today. Stahl well, so do you. During a break in the filming, julia and her friends did for us what theyre hoping to do for millions with this episode. And hi, julia. Help the audience understand when a child with autism doesnt react the way one might expect. Big bird, when you first met julia big bird uhhuh . Stahl she didnt answer you either. Big bird yeah, thats right. And ii thought that maybe she didnt like me. Elmo yeah, but you know, we had to explain to big bird that julia likes big bird. Its just that julia has autism. So sometimes it takes her a little longer to do things. Stahl youre explaining her, because youve come to understand her so well. Elmo well, were pretty good at understanding people. We live with a grouch. laughs oscar what do you want . Stahl sesame street has been around so long now that its hard to remember a time before Childrens Television was educational. But sesame streets creator, joan ganz cooney, remembers it well. Joan ganz cooney it was just nutty cartoons with no purpose at all. I mean, i would watch them and just be appalled. Stahl as youre talking, im seeing a cat slam against a wall, be reduced to nothing, slide down, and come back to life. laughter ganz cooney yes, that was commercial television. Stahl ganz cooney, then a Public Television producer, was asked by the Carnegie Corporation to study whether television could be something different. Ganz cooney the question being, do you think television could teach children . Stahl ironically, she says the answer was right in front of her, and everyone else. In beer. Ganz cooney they were singing beer commercials, children were. laughs well, so obviously, they had learned. Stahl theyd learned the jingle . Ganz cooney so if a commercial could teach beer, couldnt it teach one one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten . Stahl and that became the model ganz cooney spelled out in her 50page report proposing what would become sesame street. Ganz cooney and we did. We created little commercials. Boys and girls, have you met the 26 letters called the alphabet . Stahl the new show had a particular target lowincome children who were arriving at school less prepared than their middleclass peers. So ganz cooney deliberately made the set a gritty new york street urban kids could relate to, with an interracial cast that got the show banned early on in mississippi. Nationwide, though, it was a hit. Kids and parents loved jim hensons muppets. Girl 8, 9, 9, 10, 11. You got pretty eyes. Kermit so do you. Stahl and testing showed kids who watched were learning. Sometimes the lessons were about real life mr. Hooper im your neighborhood friend, mr. Hooper. Stahl as when the actor who played beloved shopkeeper mr. Hooper passed away, and the show decided to address the subject of death head on. Big bird tada adults oh, look at that. Big bird i cant wait till he sees it. Say, where is he . Stahl you could have changed actors. Ganz cooney yes. But we decided sesame street had always dealt with the real. And it was real, so we decided not to just replace him and call the man mr. Hooper and hope they didnt notice. Maria uh, dont you remember we told you mr. Hooper died. Hes dead. Big bird oh yeah, i remember. Well, ill give it to him when he comes back. Susan big bird, when, when people die, they dont come back. Big bird ever . Stahl over the years, sesame street did segments about other challenging subjects, like skin color, disabilities, and prejudice. Gulliver in my neighborhood, birds only play with birds, so im not playing with a snuffleupagus. Snuffleupagus ohhh, that hurts my feelings. Stahl less wellknown is a branch of sesame, separate from the tv show, that creates online videos like this, and other materials. Theyre called social impact initiatives, and theyre targeted at specific communities of kids. Abby this one is where i live with my mommy, and this one is where i live with my daddy. Stahl . Like children of divorce, kids from military families. Elmo its like a robot hand. Stahl . And the nearly three million kids with a parent incarcerated. Muppet my dads in jail. Stahl the focus on autism began as one of these social impact projects, with videos. Mom my son louie is six, and he has autism. Stahl . And an online animated storybook about a little girl named julia. The initiative was so well received, sesame decided to bring julia to the broadcast which meant designing a new muppet. Rollie krewson this is our eye drawer. Stahl look at that this is where muppets are born, at the jim henson workshop, at the work station of master puppet creator rollie krewson. Krewson the male eyes have no eyelashes. And the female eye have eyelashes. Stahl because julia has autism, were there special challenges in building her . Krewson yes, actually, because when she gets upset, she flaps her hands. So she has two separate sets of arms. She has a set of arms that does this and then she has a set of arms when shes fine and okay. So they would switch on set. Big bird high five, julia. Stahl and of course every muppet needs a puppeteer. But, not every puppeteer has the connection Stacey Gordon does to the role. Gordon is the mother of a son with autism. She traveled all the way from phoenix to audition for the part. The idea that there will be a child with autism on sesame street tell me what that means to you. Gordon it means that our kids are important enough to be seen in society. Having julia on the show, and seeing all of the characters treat her with compassion. Stahl and like her. Gordon and like her. Stahl thats big. Gordon yeah, its huge. Stahl gordon told us she channeled her sons experiences for a tough scene where julias heightened sensitivity to noise triggers a meltdown. Julia noise, noise. Alan the sirens are bothering you . Gordon its important for kids without autism to see what autism can look like. Julia break, break. Gordon had my sons friends been exposed to his behaviors through something that they had seen on tv, before they experienced them in the classroom, they might not have been frightened. They might not have been worried when he cried. They would have known that he plays in a different way, and that thats okay. Stahl he didnt have that. Gordon he didnt stahl but maybe stahl kids from now on will. Gordon and thats a beautiful thing. Abby you want to play now, julia . Julia play, play, play. Stahl also beautiful to gordon, the message of inclusion at the heart of one of the episodes most memorable scenes. Ferraro they decide to play tag together. But julias so excited that shes jumping up and down. Thats a thing that can be typical of some kids with autism. Abby oh, julia, youre bouncing like a rubber ball. Boing, boing, boing. Elmo boing, boing. Julia boing. Ferraro and then it turns into a game where theyre all jumping like her. So it was a very easy way to show that with a very slight accommodation, they can meet her where she is, and get something out of it themselves. Elmo this is fun, julia. Abby hey, its a whole new game, its boing tag julia boing abby ah now im it big bird you know, i think id like to be a friend of julia, too. Stahl she is going to be a recurring character . Ferraro thats the hope. Stahl and will she become a major character . Ferraro well see. Stahl youd like to have her become a major character, i can see. Ferraro i would i would love her to be. I would love her to be not julia, the kid on sesame street who has autism. I would like her to be just julia. Elmo yeah, we really like julia. Shes really special to us, miss lesley. Stahl julia, are you having fun with your new friends . Julia fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. Elmo thats a yes. laughs stahl since our story first aired, sesame street has shot a new episode featuring julia, to be part of the shows upcoming season. Hello, sofia. For a look at how 60 minutes reports its stories as well as interviews with correspondents and producers, go to 60minutesovertime. Com sponsored by pfizer. Needles. Essential for him, but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. Because there are options. Like an unjection™. Xeljanz xr. A once daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. Xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and joint damage, even without methotrexate. Xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. Dont start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. Tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. Your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. Tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. Needles. Fine for some. But for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. Ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. An unjection™. Oh no, the fridge just died. Dont worry, at lowes we offer free next day delivery on instock appliances. Get up to 40 off select appliance special values at the lowes labor day savings event. Im bill whitaker. Well be back next week with another edition of 60 minutes. When you have allergies, it can seem like triggers pop up everywhere. Luckily theres powerful, 24hour, nondrowsy claritin. It provides relief of symptoms that can be triggered by over 200 different allergens. Live claritin clear. Wherwhere we always welcome you, thats texas. Exas. Where we always find a way, thats texas. vo just one touch. Ith introducing fancy feast creamy delights, with just the right touch of real milk. Easily digestible, it makes her favorite entrees even more delightful. New fancy feast creamy delights. Love is in the details. Captioning funded by cbs and ford. We go further, so you can. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org captioning funded by cbs previously on big brother the duos of josh, maven and jalex were left in the game. And paul was secretly orchestrating a war between all three. Alex and jason, theyre the strongest duo. We need to separate that as soon as we can for sure. I said it from day one. You and josh need to lay low. I love you, jason jay. With the cowboy ruling the roost congratulations,