opportunity. i'm engaged, jim and i have been engaged in civil rights events for all our careers. despite all the rules enacted, we knew we could make progress, but one of the things i thought and jim probably didn't, but i thought, jim, i thought when we had the major victories, we'd finally crossed the threshold, but what i didn't realize is you can defeat hate, but you can't eliminate it. it just slides back under a rock, and when given oxygen by political leaders, it comes out ugly and mean as it was before. we can't give it any oxygen. we have to step on it. we have to respond to it. it's not who we are. it's a minority, but if the majority doesn't speak up, it has a profound impact. that's what we've seen the last few years. we cannot, we must not give hate any safe harbor. we have to shine as bright a light as we can on it. that's the disinfectant. call it out. and you're going to be the light. you're going to have to be the light. let me close with this. the history of the journey of america, progress and possibilities written by people who sat where you're sitting right now, again, not hyperbole. it's a fact. people like jim and emily clyburn, students who met in a jail cell after standing up for what was right and just, who never stopped. in 1961, they were you. now in 2021, you are them. you're part of one of the most gifted -- this is not hyperbole. listen to me. i'm being precise. you're part of the most gifted, tolerant, talented, and the single-best educated generation in all of american history. you are. with that comes a hell of an obligation. you accept people as they are black, white, latino, asian, native american, gay, straight, transgender, abled and disabled. you see them as people. as fellow americans. who deserve respect and dignity. you're going to see more change in the next ten years than we've seen in the last 50 because of the incredible, incredible change in science and technology. you're going to see us traveling commercially in the next twenty years at 12,000, 15,000 miles an hour, super sonic speeds. i mean, the changes are going to change. but it's requiring the educated population you represent to understand it, to translate it, to move it. i have every confidence that no matter your career, you're going to translate change in a greater opportunity and happiness and prosperity for you and the world around you. when i looked out on inauguration day, i saw that south carolina baseball cap i saw, well, your hope and your optimism, that's why i asked the 22-year-old amanda gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in history to read her poem as a matter of fact, my professor wife jill was still speaking full-time and found her and asked her to speak. here's what she said in her poem. so while once we asked how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us? we will not march back to what was but move onto what shall be. a country that as bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, and fierce and free. that's who we are. that's who you are, the class of 2021. i'm not joking. that's us. that's america. we face that inflection point, it's going to change the course of history, and i'm counting on you to meet the moment. it's an enormous opportunity, an enormous opportunity. i truly believe someone standing at a podium like this at this university, 40 years from now is going to be talking about did we meet the moment? this moment? just like there's other moments in our history. did we meet the moment? in world war i? did we meet the moment, and we'll go down the list. it's going to determine what happens in the next five to ten years. it's going to determine what it's going to look like 50 years from now. i'm counting on you. i really am. i'm not kicking off the responsibility, but i'm counting on you. congratulations to all of you. merry christmas. and happy holidays. i say to the military, god bless you all and may god protect our troops, fellas and ladies. and there you have it. president joe biden in south carolina giving the winter commencement address. south carolina state university, and as you see there, sitting next to the president, the congressman in the sixth district there in south carolina, congressman jim clyburn traveling there with the president. we should also point out this is not just an ordinary commencement address. of course, president biden and congressman clyburn have been friends for a number of decades. the president is also on hand to give congressman clyburn his diploma. 60 years ago congressman clyburn not able to walk at graduation. wasn't able to walk across the stage and grab the diploma, so president biden will be presenting his friend with his diploma any moment now as well. josh letterman is traveling with the president. he is joining me now. excuse me, from the white house. my apoloies there. josh, we heard the president there spend a fair amount of time talking about voting rights as well during that commencement address. voting rights at the top of the legislative agenda. he sounded fired up. an indication of how much energy he's going to be putting into the senate to pass federal voting rights legislation? >> well, yeah. i mean, we heard the president there repeatedly using the phrase meet the moment about how this generation of graduates has to meet this difficult moment we're in. i think the president tried to use his own remarks really to try to capture what this moment is like and how difficult this is. especially as this community is facing such head winds on the issues of voting rights, on issues of systemic racism and hatred which the president also brought up. and he tried to use this speech to give fresh momentum to that push on voting rights, calling a once again for passing the january lewis legislation and other pieces of legislation. but the reality is the president knows and the white house knows that their prospects for actually getting something through the senate any time soon are very, very dim. really the way they would have to do that would be to find some way around the filibuster just in the last 48 hours, senator sinema from arizona has made clear she does not see a pathway toward going around the filibuster for any issue, much less for voting rights. the president really is left to try to call out the need for action, call out the urgency of this given the redistricting that's taking place right as we speak all around the country that's really going to change the game for elections in the future. but he is not able to tell these graduates as they are getting their diplomas today, here is the patway for how we're going to address this problem. and that's been a real challenge for the president. still, we heard him in these remarks trying to call attention to the way the other parts of his agenda have really been focussed on empowering this next generation that is coming of age, graduating from college in the middle of this pandemic. he talked about how you never get to choose what area you graduate into. certainly i remember when i graduated college in the middle of the recession, it was hard to find jobs. he called this unprecedented, the challenges these students are facing. he talked about his administration's unprecedented support for hbcus, the way he's trying to make it easier for students graduating now to be able to find jobs and have economic security, but again, the president really in a difficult position to show how they're going to make progress on policing reform, on voting rights, and these other issues that have proven to be so contentious here in washington. >> all right. josh letterman from the white house. josh, thank you. again, president biden sitting on that stage in south carolina surrounded by folks wearing their masks. the president wearing his as well. signs of the times. pandemic warning signs. flashing right now. they have our attention on this friday morning as well. they should have yours, too. in just the last 15 minutes, nbc news just learned the biden administration is going to be pushing for a test to stay policy to keep kids in school as covid cases climb rapidly nationwide. right now as you can see, lines stretching around new york city streets for covid testing as a wave of omicron and delta crashes into the one-time epicenter of this pandemic. a senior public health adviser to the city's current mayor sent out this sobering tweet thursday about case in new york city. quote, we've never seen this before in new york city. test positivity doubling in three days. and just a few moments, we'll go live on the ground to a testing center. we'll dig into how rising cases nationwide and holiday travel could complicate our covid fight. let's start, though, with the latest on the current surge of new cases with just one week until christmas now. nbc's lindsey riser is at a covid testing site. heidi przybyla broke the news story on msnbc.com about a new covid strategy for the biden administration on schools. and also with me have a doctor who is a professor at a school of medicine, also the director of the institute for auto immune and rheumatic diseases at st. joseph health. a big thanks to all of you. heidi, let's start with your brand new reporting. it has to do with a test to stay strategy for kids in school. how does that work? >> the white house is concerned about major disruptions at hospitals and schools amid omicron today. we learned they're about to outline a plan. most children learning virtually. we have new dayty and updated guidance showing the effectiveness of an approach called test to stay. basically it involves frequent rapid testing of students. at least two times a week and robust contact tracing. the game-changer here is that with frequent testing, even kids who may have been exposed which may be a lot with omicron, don't need to quarantine. the second part of the approach is a partnership with teacher's unions to get teachers boosted. omicron is prompting some school closures, and this is before it crashes ashore here. one of the new studies is based on 90 students in lake county, illinois. it estimated a test to stay program prevented more than 8,000 missed school days. the other one from los angeles county found schools that declined to implement test to stay lost about 92,000 school days. some schools are already closing with a rise in covid positivity. i've interviewed school officials about test to stay. and here's the thing. it requires a lot of man power to test kids that much. but schools are especially vulnerable given their vaccination rates. just 18 % of kids age 5 to 11 have had at least one shot. 61% of 12 to 7 age kids have had a single dose. >> doctor, what's your take on this new approach, this test to stay approach, especially as we see this wave of a new variant in parts of the country? >> well, craig, there's been a lot of pushback with regard to children wearing masks below the age of two or even being immunized. but i think it's prudent to immunize kids above the age of five and prudent to have kids wearing masks. they can get omicron and delta, and they can spread it, even though clinically they might not be very sick. my concern, and this is made public, that teachers and the teacher's union have to make sure that everyone has gotten their booster shot as well as ancillary people working in the schools. >> lindsey, let's talk about the increase in cases in new york. it's pretty astounding. we're talking about a 40% increase in just one day. and i don't know the situation now, but when i saw you earlier, there was a line wrapped around the corner at a covid the testing site, and it strikes me that here we are, more than a year and a half into this pandemic, and people are still having to wait in line for tests for north of two hours. what are you hearing from folks on the ground there? >> craig, your eyes didn't deceive you before or now. look at this line that is all the way down the block here at this urgent care on 57th street in midtown han matten. the line is two and a half hours long. we were here early this morning. people were lined up before 6:00 a.m. the place opened at 7:00. and it is reminiscent of the beginning of the pandemic. this is the case all over the city. you drive around and walk around and see the long lines. you mentioned the surge in cases. the governor of new york just tweeted 18,276 cases reported on wednesday. again, that's a 40% jump from day today. that's also the highest we've seen since january 14th during that winter surge. let's listen to what some people in line told me this morning. >> it's crazy. i came at 6:30. and i'm still at the middle of the line. i just saw the hospital. >> we're happy to wiet waite. it's very important at the moment for the current rise in pandemic rate. >> reporter: all right. so craig, i just got an alert also that the rockettes have cancelled their four shows today. i'm just reading it now. we regret to announce four shows cancelled due to breakthrough covid cases in the production. i just saw that show a couple nights ago. this is really reminiscent of the early times of the pandemic. we have broadway shows and restaurants closing down because of breakthrough infections among vaccinated performers and staff. so what is the city doing to try to help? they're sending out 50 0,000 rapid at home tests and about a million masks to community organizations. the frustration is real. a lot of people wondering how we're this far into the pandemic. and why we haven't learned from surge after surge. >> yeah. lots of folks wondering including myself. doctor, there's this study out from the university of hong kong. it found that this new variant, omicron, quote, infects and multiplies 70 times faster than the delta variant. and the original strain. researchers say that may explain why omicron may transmit faster between humans than previous variants. do we know why that is? what makes this particular variant so much more transmissible? >> we really don't know, craig, why that is. there is research going on right now to understand the high transmissibleability of this virus. the only good news is this does not seem to cause severe illness. particularly with regard to patients' lungs. but we have the delta in front of us. it's extremely deadly for those who are not vaccinated. and now we have the omicron behind us, and we predicted in the summer that we were going to have surges this holiday season. >> doctor, stand by. doctor walensky is talking right now. this is the covid briefing right now. let's listen in for a moment. >> we want to talk about how we can use these tools to help keep our children in school. over the past few months, cdc has collaborated with school districts across the country to evaluate a new strategy known as test-to-stay. today we are releasing cdc science on test-to-stay that allows unvaccinated children to stay in school even if they've been exposed to the virus so they don't have to miss school while they're quarantining at home. in the test to-to stay protocol, there's increased testing of close contacts after a covid-19 exposure. and that testing needs to be at least twice during the seven-day period after exposure. if exposed children meet a certain criteria and continue to test negative, they can stay in school instead of quarantining at home. cdc is releasing two mmwr reports with evidence supporting the use of test-to-stay and how well it worked in two communities. lake county, illinois and los angeles county. these studies demonstrate the test-to-stay works to keep unvaccinated children in school safely. in order for test-to-stay to be implemented safely and correctly, some key prevention measures need to be included. in both studies, masks were worn consistently and correctly. close contacts of a positive case were monitored for symptoms, and stayed home if they became ill. and those who did not develop symptoms had regular testing. test-to-stay is a practice to keep our children in school. and cdc is updating materials to help schools and parents know how to implement this promising and now proven practice. along with our multi-layered prevention strategy that will help keep our children in the classroom safely. importantly, vaccination is another critical piece in our multi-layer prevention strategies to protect our children from covid-19. i'd like to take another moment to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated. just yesterday cdc's advisory committee on immunization practices met to discuss new safety data following six weeks of covid-19 vaccinations in children between the ages of 5 to 11. we now have experience vaccinating over 20 million children under the age of 17. and over 5 million of whom are under the age of 11. looking specifically at vaccine safety data from over 50,000 children, 5 to 11, we found no evidence of serious safety concerns. the most common reported side effect included pain at the injection site, fever, tiredness, and headaches, muscle aches. which we know are normal and are all signs of the body building immunity to the virus. this further adds to the strong evidence of the safety of these vaccines for children and should be an encouraging reason for those who are waiting for more data to now feel confident in making the decision to get your child vaccinated. in addition to reviewing safety data yesterday, cdc's advisory committee on vaccine experts met to evaluate recommendations surrounding the johnson & johnson covid-19 vaccine evaluating the benefits of vaccination, the safety data and rare adverse events and the covid-19 vaccines apply. following the discussion, there's a recommendation to french shlly use mrna vaccines over the johnson & johnson vaccine n. i endorse their recommendation and agree with the advisory committee's emphasis importantly that given the current state of the pandemic, both here and around the world, any vaccination is better than no vaccination. individuals who are unable or unwilling to receive an mrna vaccine will continue to have access to johnson & johnson, covid-19 vaccines. and finally, as we head into the holiday season when many will be gathering with their loved ones, i want to again encourage everyone to utilize the proven prevention strategies that keep everyone safe. get vaccinated and get boosted. mask in public indoor settings. physical distancing, hand washing, improved ventilation, and testing to slow transmission. we know that these strategies work and will help to keep you and your loved ones safe and healthy this holiday season. thank you all. i'll turn things over to dr. fauci. >> thank you very much, doctor. i'd like to spend the next couple minutes talking about the importance of covid-19 booster shots both in the current delta surge and in the inevitable upcoming omicron surge. so if i could have the next slide, let's take a look at some of the data that fortifies what i just said. this is a recently published study in the new england journal. looking at individuals 50 or older who received the booster about five months after a second dose of the pfizer. there was a 90% lower mortality due to covid-19 than participants who did not receive a boost. the mortality is low in people who were vaccinated anyway, however, it goes down to practically negligible values. if you look at the blue line compared to the pink line. next slide. now, let's take a look at omicron specific situations. in this study, one looked at three separate vaccines. the mrna of moderna. the pfizer, and then the add 26 j&j follow bid an mrna boost. if you look at the times two, which means a standard vaccination, and then take a look at the neutralization following the boost. the increment of that is really rather profound. 19 times for the one on the left. 27 times for the one in the middle. and four times for the one on the right. next slide. now also if you look at the neutralization of multiple different variants by analysis and take a look again at two separate studies, one from the vaccine research center at nih. and one from duke university. note on the left panels four weeks following the second dose, look specifically at the pink bar. there you see a rather low level of neutralization with omicron. however, if you look at two weeks post the third or booster dose, note how much it goes up. for example, if you look at the omicron comparing in the duke line, you see it is about 2,002. after a second dose, it's only 62. a dramatic increase. next slide. another example, if you look at the sensitivity of variants to neutralization, by people who were vaccinated with the pfizer vaccine, if you look again, five months after the second dose, and look under omicron, the red circles, nominal. in other words, virtually no degree of neutralization protection. again, one month after the third dose, it goes well within the protective range. next slide. if you look at now convalescent serum and look at each of the panels, on the left you have a convalescent serum six months after infection. again, the level of protection that would be projected from the antibody levels is very low as you see with omicron, the low level with the circles that are red. 12 months later, it even gets worse. but take a look at what happens if you take a person whose convalescent but you boost that person now with a dose of pfizer and wait one month. the red circles go way up into the protective range. next slide. and then if you look at actual clinical issues, take a look into a uk study about individuals who had symptomatic infection. look at delta in the blue boxes. as you go the time since the vaccine and look at the weeks which are showed on the bottom line, you get a diminution against delta, but a profound diminution below 40% effect iness with delta. when you boost, not only do you bring it up to delta in the blue. but also to omicron. what does all of this tell us? last slide. we are in the situation we are now facing a very important delta surge and we're looking over our shoulder at an oncoming omicron surge. clearly unvaccinated individuals as jeff said in the beginning, are really at a high risk of serious involvement including hospitalizations. the fully vaccinated are doing much better off, but as i've shown you in the previous five or six slides, the optimum protection is fully vaccinated plus a boost. so the bottom line of what we've been telling you all along, it is critical to get vax knitted if you are vaccinated, as critical for optimal protection to get boosted. back to you, jeff. >> thank you, doctors. with that, let's open it up for some questions. over to you, kevin. we've been listening to the white house covid-19 response. we heard from dr. fauci there, but before him, the head of the cdc confirming that the new variant, the omicron variant is, in fact, going to become the dominant variant in this country within the next few weeks. still with me, nbc's heidi przybyla and doctor robert laheda. we heard the head of the cdc confirm all the reporting you shared with us before she started her speech there, this new test to stay policy that the biden administration is looking to imp implement. highly, when do we expect this to take effect, the test-to-stay strategy? >> good question. the positivity rate, for instance, during the last surge and really since the beginning of the pandemic was what we looked at in various communities to decide should schools stay open or do kids need to quarantine? here's the difference. if the schools have the resources, and that's a big if when you consider the personnel and testing kits required here. if they have those, the children can be tested twice a week, and even if they're confirmed to have been exposed to covid, then they can stay in school as long as they are testing negative. i've done a lot of interviews on this subject. the schools that have done this successfully, have taken quite a while to stand up the programs. they're resource intensive. they take a lot of resources and personnel. many schools that don't have in this place are going to find it hard to turn this overnight. the one saving grace we have here is the holiday break. so schools can make some progress on that, but again, access to testing is also critical here. as you see all the long lines with people demanding increased testing. >> is the federal government going to pay for all the tests for kids? >> right now that is not the plan. right now there is money that has gone out to states that can be used. but they're not going to be having a new revenue stream. they may remind schools there's money they dedicated and allocated to them to use for these tests, but again, it also depends on availability. we've seen pressure on the fda to get many more tests approved, because we don't have as many even today approved for at-home over the counter use as they do in europe. >> you also have to wonder if this is not just going to turn into another situation of the haves and have notes. you're going to be well-resourced and well-staffed schools able to do this. and you'll have other schools where a lot of the kids look like me, they're not going to be able to do this kind of -- this testing. doctor, simple question here. you got a -- lot of folks hopping on airplanes and trains for holiday plans. a lot of these folks, they've been vaccinated, boosted as well. what is your advice? what is your guidance as we head into the holidays with regards to travel and covid? >> if your plans are in place, you should go ahead and do it, but wear a mask, wash your hands, and mitigate. just as we did at the beginning of the pandemic. the best thing is to make sure the people you're with at your christmas party or family dinner are all vaccinated. and all have the boost. because now the three shot deal is going to be the standard norm for fully vaccinated. that's very important. i don't think people should panic. i think i'm hearing a lot of fear mongering, and i don't think it's warranted. just be sensible. that's the big term right now and my advice. >> i like that. i like that. be sensible. no fear mongering here. doctor, enjoy your holiday if i don't see you before. heidi with the breaking news and the brand new reporting. heidi, thanks as always for your work. we're also watching former police officer kim potter's trial in minneapolis. we expect potter to take the stand today in her own defense. when that could happen and what we should expect when it does, next. does, next it only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging. ♪3, 4♪ ♪ ♪hey♪ ♪ ♪are you ready for me♪ ♪are you ready♪ ♪are you ready♪ the airport can 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scent set the mood. feel the difference with downy. now you know. right now we have our eyes on minneapolis in the courtroom where kim potter is on trial for the shooting death of 20-year-old donte wright. the court is in a break right now. the defense called its first witness of this morning. dr. lawrence miller, an action error psychologist. that's his area of specialty. the other one they plan to call today, kim potter. and we're told that could happen at any moment now. shaquille brewster is following that trial from outside the courthouse. i want to bring in a legal analyst and civil rights attorney and former prosecutor. shaq, let me start with you. again, court right now in recess. how soon could we expect to see potter on the stand? and what have we heard from the defense so far this morning? >> reporter: well, it's possible, craig, possible that potter will be on the stand in about 20 minutes when court resumes. we know the defense said that plan to call two witnesses today and they processed through the first witness. we'll keep an eye on whether potter is the first witness to be called. the first witness was a psychologist who the defense brought up to help explain what they say happened when potter yelled taser, taser, taser and fired a gunshot into the heart of donte wright. he's explaining essentially it being tunnel vision. using terms like action error and slip and capture and teaching the jury about those terms while not directly saying potter suffered or went through that or experienced those conditions. the prosecution and cross-examination, some said they're not widely accepted. you heard the phrase junk science at one point. i want you to listen to what the jury is hearing in terms of action eror what she says is caused by hyper focussed. >> when you're in an extremely emotional state, you zero in on the thing that seems most dangerous and critical, and because that aspect of the situation, the thing that is causing in your mind the greatest peril and danger, you're tuning out everything else. >> reporter: it's important to remember here that the defense, their main job is to poke holes in the case of the prosecution. the prosecution is arguing that kim potter acted recklessly or with negligence when she pulled her firearm instead of her taser as she says she intended to do. they're arguing that even if she meant to pull her taser, that that wasn't appropriate under the guidelines and the training of procedures of the police department, but the defense so far has pulled up. we saw this yesterday. their own expert and the former police chief of the brooklyn center police department that said what kim potter did, even if she used the gun and meant to, even that was justified based on the policy and procedures. you're getting a sense the jury is getting a lot of evidence they're going to have to weigh when it's eventually in their hands. >> all right. shaq brewster outside the courthouse. thank you as always. christen, let's talk about this action error psychologist first as shaq mentioned. digging into the idea that stress and fear and panic can degrade performance. the prosecution started the line of questioning by showing that he has done work for police departments in the law enforcement community, and talked about the columns he's written. why and how does that help them? >> it shows his bias and shows that he's not to be trusted. in other words, all of his testimony which was basically that it wasn't kim potter's intent. she wasn't even reckless. it was beyond her control because it was so automatic is not to be trusted on its face because he's a biassed witness. >> let's pivot to kim potter. there have been a number of trials where the defendant has testified. it gives them an opportunity to appeal directly to a jury. how far could her testimony go considering the circumstances of this case, christen? >> i think her testimony can go pretty far here. i think in this case -- in many cases obviously the defendant does not have to testify. but in self-defense cases as well as case kind of diminish and to kind of give a narrative of what happened, kim potter really does need to take the stand so that she can minimize or poke holes in the prosecution's case. specifically, i expect to hear from her that she intended to arrest mr. wright. she intended to do so because there was a bench warrant out for his arrest. she was concerned he had a weapon and concerned about sergeant johnson whose arm was inside the vehicle, he was worried mr. wright could get away. she'll need to testify to poke a hole in the prosecution's narrative that her actions were criminally negligent. because if she is able to testify to those things, it will be consistent with what her experts have put on, and that is that not only was the use of a taser justified, but the use of a gun was also justified such as to diminish any recklessness that would have occurred. >> potter's team also called character witnesses on thursday who testified that she was kind and patient. a great teacher. had a positive reputation on the force. this is like all these cases, they're not decided on cable news channels or in the court of public opinion. they're decided in that jury room. we can't get into their minds, but how far do character witnesses usually go with appealing to a jury? >> you know, depending on the nature of the charges, they go really far. and when you're talking about a death, they really go very far. particularly where you have someone like kim potter who doesn't have any criminal charges behind her as well as testimony that she's a peaceful officer and the character witnesses even went as far as to say she's law-abiding and follows police policy and she was a role model. but in this case, i thought it was pretty damaging for the defense. because here you have a young, dead man whose life was cut short by an officer whose time on the force was longer than mr. wright had on this earth. right? and so there's no question that a mistake from someone who is a veteran who is a role model should not have occurred. that's why i think it really, to me, came in as a negative thing for the defense. >> christen gibens-fedden. always appreciate the analysis and insight. thank you. thank you. also this morning, we could find out whether ghislaine maxwell plans to take the stand in her sex trafficking trial. it's the defense team's second day of testimony. maxwell is expected to tell the judge her testimony on testifying. her legal team indicates they could rest their case after just 12 days of testimony if the defense does rest, closing arguments in that case could happen as soon as next week. it's one of the hardest things lots of women and their families go through. but infertility can also be really difficult to talk or learn about. my friend and my "today show" colleague explores why in her new documentary stories we tell, the fertility secret, she's going to join us. next. it only 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taboo that it's not even talked about. certainly not as openly as perhaps it should be. well, now, now there's a new documentary called stories we tell. the fertility secret. and it's looking at to the change that. it's airing this sunday, 10:00 p.m. on msnbc. it follows five women of color as they reflect on the physical and mental pain of infertility. no topic is off limits from ivf to sur ga si to fibroids. take a look. >> when i would lay down, you would see a mountain. flat stomach, mountain. i thought i wonder what this is. that middle mountain was a fibroid. i finally got a name for it and now i can fix it. what was supposed to be 30 minutes was six, seven hours. when he went in, he said there was endometriosis lesions everywhere. his first comment was how did you bear this for so long? finally somebody sees me and somebody can understand that i'm not crazy, after all. >> sheinelle jones, my co-host on the third hour of "today," a dear friend, executive produced this film alongside her producing partner, andre gaines. he also produced the film. what inspired you to want to dive into this issue and explore infertility? >> hi, craig. you know, i have been dealing with this issue for years behind closed doors with so many of my friends, including my sister-in-law, and when i tell you years, i mean i it will you mean, maybe the last 15, 16 years i've dealt with this. i've had former colleagues who would go off and have surgeries to remove fibroids and be at work two days later as if nothing happened. i would be like, are you okay? it's fine. some of those girlfriends who did that over and over, now we're in our 40s are having problems. i have friends that were freezing their eggs, friends looking for surrogates. we weren't talking about it, and i'm tired of these women carrying the secret as if nothing is wrong. i started to feel enough is enough. and i think as a society we're ready to hear their stories and make a change when comes to talking about fertility. >> andre, these are emotional stories to tell but so important. as i said to you guys this morning, i watched it yesterday. i learned a lot. andre, what made you want to join sheinelle in taking on this project and what stood out to you most about the experience? >> well, first of all, sheinelle and i have been friends for a long time, we went to college together 100 years ago. and so when she called me to want to be able to tell this story, you know, it's in the title, stories we tell. there's so many of these stories that happen behind closed doors or happen in secret. and this was a big one. it was one that it was really time to actually bring to an audience and bring to television, bring to film and get these stories out there. and these women who opened themselves up so much were just incredibly heroic. once i heard some of the details of their stories, i said this is a real project here. this is not just a passion thing, we really should do something about it. >> sheinelle, what do you want people to take away on sunday night when they watch? >> you know, there are a couple of things. i'm a mother of five, from a mom perspective and dad perspective, we talk about all these things to do about parenting. i've been so busy in that bubble that we forgot a section of the population, perhaps larger than our own of people who would love to get to that space, so i wanted to be the bridge i think as a mother and andre as a father, he has little ones as well, i think we can do better supporting these men and women and couple ofs going through this. all of these women are married, their husbands have been nxt to them, they're hurting too. they can't talk about it. i also think as a society it's time to change the narrative on how we view femininity not talking about it. there's so many vails around femininity and women feel we have to be strong we have shirts that say i am strong, i'm resilient. it's a point the strength comes from our own detriment and we're not healing from it. we talk about mental health, this is a huge part of it, it's your wives, sisters, cousins, aunts struggling right now. that's why i call it the fertility secret. i will tell you, i was intentional about bringing in my circle of friends because i knew they'd be honest. women of color we disproportionately have fibroids, i don't know why. one thing think i'll say, studies show there's this notion, 50% of med students believe women of color have a higher threshold of pain, you put those things in a pot i come to you say i'm hurting, some of those women haven't felt heard, seen, we want to change that. >> yeah. >> this project certainly does that. i'm proud of you. congratulations. i know how long and how hard you've been working on this. andre gaines, welcome, welcome to the family. you can watch 'stories we well, the fertility secret" this sunday 10:00 p.m. eastern only on msnbc. and we will be right back. snbc and we will be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ downy's been 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