>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the well-being of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at rockefellerfoundation.org >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: top advisers in the trump administration took the stage today at the annual conservative political action conference. they're among the thousands who've gathered just across the river from washington to discuss the future of the conservative movement, now that a republican is back in power. john yang has our report. >> yang: this year's conservative political action conference, or cpac, clearly reflects the new resident of the white house. >> well i think by tomorrow this will be tpac this year. no doubt. >> yang: eight top administration officials, including president trump himself, are on the three-day agenda. today's lead-off speaker: white house counselor kellyanne conway: >> every great movement ends up being a little bit sclerotic and dusty after a time, and i think they need a new fusion of energy. and in the case of candidate trump and president-elect and nominee trump, he went right to the grassroots and brought you along. >> yang: that new energy was evident among many conference attendees. >> there's so many people and there's so many ideas and all of the speakers and everything it's really exciting. >> we know that we have a voice. the president talks straight to us now and this is our chance to talk back. >> yang: last year, at the height of the republican presidential primaries, candidate trump skipped cpac altogether. and while the trump team has taken over the schedule, the question is whether they are also taking over the conservative movement. today white house chief of staff reince preibus, the former party chairman, and senior trump advisor steve bannon, the insurgent-turned-insider, sought to show a united front. they dismissed reports of white house in-fighting. >> in regards to us two i think the biggest misconception is everything that you're reading. >> reince is indefatigable. i mean it's low-key but it's determination. the thing i respect most and the only way this thing works reince is always kind of steady. >> yang: bannon said the president's attitude is "full steam ahead." >> he's going to continue to press his agenda. and as economic conditions get better as more jobs get better they're going to continue to fight. if you think they're going to give you your country back without a fight you're sadly mistaken. every day every day it's gonna be a fight. >> yang: earlier, the executive director of the "american conservative union," which organizes cpac, slammed the "alt-right" movement, a mix of white nationalism, neo-nazi beliefs and hard-edged populism. >> we know who these people are they met just a couple months ago in washington, d.c. to spew their hatred and make their heil hitler salutes. they are anti-semites, they are racists, they are sexists. >> yang: richard spencer, credited with coining the phrase "alt-right," attended today's conference, but said he was asked to leave. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: we'll take a closer look at president trump's inner circle, and the role his senior adviser steve bannon is playing, later in the program. in the day's other news, president trump says he wants to build up the u.s. nuclear arsenal to make sure it's "at the top of the pack." in an interview with reuters, mr. trump also denounced russia's launch of a ground- based cruise missile as a violation of a 1987 arms control treaty. and, he said he supports some form of a border tax, but offered no specifics. >> sreenivasan: president trump's education secretary defended the roll-back of public-school bathroom rules for transgender students. the education and justice departments last night withdrew guidance on the issue from the obama administration. it had said public schools must let transgender students use the bathroom of their choice. at today's cpac conference, betsy devos insisted students, parents and teachers need more flexibility. >> this issue was a very huge example of the obama administration's overreach, to suggest a one-size-fits-all, federal government approach-- top down approach to issues that are best dealt with and solved at a personal level and local level. >> sreenivasan: the white house yesterday denied reports that devos opposed changes to the guidance, but was overruled by the justice department. >> woodruff: a number of republican lawmakers home on break this week are facing angry constituents at town hall meetings. some attendees have expressed concerns about president trump, as well as topics like environmental protection, and the affordable care act. in arkansas last night, senator tom cotton was confronted by shouting demonstrators who asked about the health care issue. >> will you commit to replacements in the same way you have commited to the repeal? >> everyone in this room, everyone has been hurt or helped by obamacare >> i've been helped, i've been helped, obamacare saved my life. >> woodruff: meanwhile, amid more jeers in louisiana, senator bill cassidy answered questions about his vote in support of education secretary (cheering(shouting) >> sreenivasan: attorney general jeff sessions will let the federal government continue to use private prisons. he issued a new memo today. it replaces an obama administration department of justice memo that intended to phase them out, citing sub-par management. and also from the trump administration today, there's a sign that states with recreational marijuana use laws have stricter federal enforcement in store. white house press secretary sean spicer said the department of justice will be looking into it. newly released emails show a cozy relationship between the now-head of the environmental protection agency, and energy companies. scott pruitt, oklahoma's former attorney general, was sworn in as e.p.a. chief last week. more than 7,500 pages of emails from his attorney general's office were released under court order. they show pruitt and his staff coordinated with oil and gas executives to fight obama-era environmental regulations. >> woodruff: in iraq, u.s. backed iraqi forces fought their way into a military base outside mosul, and onto the grounds of the city's airport. it's part of a major assault to drive islamic state fighters out of iraq's second-biggest city. iraqi police units and army forces engaged in heavy clashes with isis militants, before seizing the airport's runway. >> sreenivasan: back in this country, officials are investigating, after an off-duty los angeles policeman fired his gun during a dispute with teenagers on his lawn. cell phone video showed the officer struggling with a 13- year-old yesterday. after other kids approached, the man pulled a gun from his waistband and fired a shot. no one was hurt, but two teens were arrested. protests erupted overnight with hundreds marching through the streets. some blocked traffic and 24 people were arrested. the officer was placed on administrative leave. >> woodruff: stocks were mostly higher on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average gained more than 34 points to close at 20,810. the nasdaq fell 25 points, and the s&p 500 added nearly a point. >> sreenivasan: still to come on the newshour, the chairman of the house homeland security committee on plans to tighten immigration policies. the changing face of the g.o.p. under president trump and his inner circle. why more white americans are dying in middle age, and much more. >> woodruff: we turn now to the trump administration's continuing push to increase security both along the southern border and at u.s. points of entry. for that i'm joined by congressman michael mccaul. he is the chairman of the house homeland security committee and represents a district in southeast texas. i asked if he believed it was necessary to build a physical wall along the entire border as the president has suggested. >> no, i don't think we - need a 2,000-mile wall done. we need a physical barrier, multi-layered approach using both physical infrastructure but also technology and personnel. those are the three main things that border patrol tells us they need and we need greativity to make a smart border to get operational control. what we saw yesterday, judy, that i thought was very interesting is how in mcallen in hidalgo county, they created a levy to protect them from floods that was in essence a concrete levy that could operate and look sort of like a ball but, at the same time, was embraced by the local community residents as being a solution to the problem that the county judge in hidalgo county told us they wanted us to go that direction rather than elected a 20-foot concrete wall. >> woodruff: it's interesting you say that. i was going to ask you about a number of other republican members of congress, your colleagues saying a wall would be part of the solution. congressman will hurd who represents a border district says the wall is the most expensive and in his words least effective way to secure the border. >> well, i think it's necessary in some places to basically slow down illegals or potential terrorists or funnel them and we essentially because of the secure fencing between san diego to become el paso, the rio grande valley sector when i was with the speaker yesterday in my state of texas, presents a challenge. you have a river there and land owners who want to have access to that river. so i think these creative solutions like this concrete levy system i think provide a creative way to do it. >> woodruff: mr. chairman, you announced today the launch of a congressional task force. you're calling it denying terrorists entry into the united states, looking for all the potential pathways by which extremists, in your word, might enter this country. how is this going to be different from what the federal government is going to be doing and spent billions of dollars doing since 9/11? >> well, we had a foreign fighter task force last congress that provided legislative solutions, some of which were signed into law by then president obama dealing with foreign fire threat from the caliphate, iraq and syria, into europe and into the united states. we're going to be examining how can we more properly screen and vet people coming into the united states. we'll also be looking at the border. we'll also look at how can you vet refugees as well. you know, i think you can enhance this process and certainly deploy ice officials at consulate offices where they apply for visas and have a higher vetting process on the front end when they're allying for the visas. >> woodruff: one of the thing you focus on in the document are american citizens crossing back into this country. we know the people behind some of the most recent terror attacks in this country in san bernardino and orlando were american citizens. but what more can you do? how do you screen american citizens without profiling them or violating their civil liberties? >> well, i think you always have to be more careful like we saw in the executive order denying lawful permanent residence in the united states. that was the glitch that i think will be remedied in short order, i am told. the case of the new york bomber is a prime example of how we could have maybe done a better job. this is where the f.b.i. opened a case, his father said he's a terrorist and, after the fact, we find out his travels to afghanistan and pakistan led him to more radicalized mosques. we didn't have that intense to vet him going into secondary screening, trying to come back into the united states. what was the result? two bombs going off one in new jersey and one in new york, and that's the kind of example of a case of connecting the dots, looking at social media. any employer is going to look at your social media before they hire you. why aren't we doing that when we screen people come into the united states? >> woodruff: president trump said something about enforcing immigration. he talked about the effort to round up immigrants as a military operation and talked about ridding the u.s. of, in his words "really bad dudes." is this how you see this? >> we have to comply with federal law. you can't just put the military in the streets of the united states rounding up illegal aliens, i think that would be a violation of law. secretary kelly came out not too long after that to correct that statement that he has no intent to dispatch, you know, military officers into the streets. we have a civilian police force in the united states for a reason, and that's our police officers, our ice agents, not the military. i think that would be a big mistake. >> woodruff: a couple of other quick things i want to ask you about. the president also said today if countries are going to have nuclear weapons, then he said the united states needs to be at the top of the back, in his words, meaning increasing the u.s. nuclear arsenal. do you see that? >> i know in my dealings with the president and looking at the salt treaty with trust in terms of how they built more capability than we have, i think all along his theme has been we want to build a greater military, one that is respected around the world. i believe the previous administration struck from some of our responsibilities as a superpower and made the world a more dangerous place. i think he's trying to project strength so he can have peace through strength in the end. >> woodruff: let me ask you, finally, about meeting your constituents. in your case it's texas tenth district, stretches from austin to the houston suburbs. i'm sure you know thousands, maybe tens of thousands of americans have been gathering at town halls sponsored by your republican colleagues in congress the last couple of weeks, many of them angry, in upset about policies of president trump. are you going to be meeting with your constituents in the near future? >> i always do. look, this is what democracy is all about. people have every right to protest whoever's in the white house without fear of persecution. if this happened in iran, people would be shot on the streets. this is the united states of america, and we have a first amendment that protects this kind of speech. i think it's part of the democratic process. i'm planning to hold what's called a telephone town hall. we have greater band width, and i will be able to reach 40,000, 50,000 of my constituents throughout my district through media technology. >> woodruff: and in person, too? >> we do meet with them. unfortunately, we had protesters at my office in austin, and we meet with them and talk to them and make sure their voices are heard, too, because, you know, we represent all americans, not just one side of the aisle. >> woodruff: do you agree with the president's words, finally, mr. chairman, that these were, in his words, so-called angry crowds that are actually planned out by, in his words, liberal activists? >> well, they are activists. we had the tea party that are activists and we're seeing this phenomenon of liberal activists who are speaking out and they have every right to do so. i think we need to respect that in this country. it's part of the democratic process. so i don't condemn them. i try to educate them as best i can, but, above all, i think what's missing right now in this country is really a tone of civility and the fact that we are all americans. i think that's a message that, unfortunately, i'm not hearing a lot from our leaders today. >> woodruff: i think a lot of people would agree with you about that. chairman michael mccaul, chairman of the house homeland security committee. thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> sreenivasan: the secretaries of state and homeland security were in mexico city today, on what was originally seen as a fence-mending mission after months of turbulence. but with new immigration policies, and president' trump's pledge to build a wall, roiling the relationship, it shaped up to be what mr. trump called "a tough trip." >> let me be very, very clear: there will be no, repeat, no mass deportations. >> sreenivasan: that's homeland security secretary john kelly, on a joint mission with secretary of state rex tillerson, days after kelly's department signaled a crackdown on illegal immigration. >> everything we do in d.h.s. will be done legally and according to human rights and the legal justice system of the united states. >> sreenivasan: this morning, mr. trump said the u.s. needed a more muscular deportation force: >> we're getting really bad dudes out of this country. and at a rate that nobody's seen before. and they're the bad ones. and it's a military operation. >> sreenivasan: in mexico city, kelly seemed to walk back his boss's words. >> no, repeat, no use of military force in immigration operations, none. >> sreenivasan: the white house press secretary later sought to clarify the president's comments: >> the president was using that as an adjective, it's happening with precision. >> sreenivasan: the visit, billed as reassurance to concerned mexican counterparts, comes amid heightened tensions between the neighbors. earlier this week, a memo from the department of homeland security vastly expanded the government's mandate to quickly deport immigrants not convicted of serious crimes. the memo also said anyone caught illegally crossing the southern border would be sent back to mexico, regardless of their home country. president trump has ordered a review of all aid to mexico, raising speculation that the administration may cut those funds to pay for mr. trump's long-promised border wall. concerned mexicans have urged president enrique pena nieto's government to stand up to the trump administration. with tillerson at his side, mexico's foreign minister called for dialogue, but said his country was "worried" and "irritated" by the policy shifts >> ( translated ): in order to overcome the insults, to overcome the negative feelings - that without a doubt, today, prevail - more than words, what will matter are the actions. >> sreenivasan: tillerson said it was natural for two strong countries to disagree, but that progress had been made. >> there's no mistaking rule of law matters along both sides of border. we discussed the importance of fair treatment of all those in transit. >> sreenivasan: later, tillerson and kelly met the mexican president; he has sparred with president trump over his signature campaign promise... joining me now to discuss the trip to mexico, and how secretary tillerson's state department is taking shape are gardiner harris of the "new york times," who's in mexico city, and yeganeh torbati. she covers the state department for reuters. gardiner, let me start with you. the word choice by the president to say military operation today and secretary kelly going out of his way to make sure that everyone knew it wasn't the military, it almost made it seemed like there were two messagers, two messages, two teams. >> that's been the problem all along in the trump administration particularly in h the state department. leaders around the world are having trouble figuring out who to listen to. should they listen to the state department and rex tillerson, who is very straight, sort of a traditional republican? he's trying to keep alliances and ties across the world to our various allies, particularly with mexico. or should they listen to the more bombastic statements from trump? tillerson was in europe last week trying to calm everything down. coves mike pence, saying we value n.a.t.o., we value e.u., but those are not messages president trump has said. he's insulted the e.u. and made nateo and the same thing is going on in mexico now. just today, as you played, the president had talked to a bunch of c.e.o.s in a roundtable and he mentioned mexico five or six different times, suggesting that mexico has really been stealing jobs from the united states, has this $70 billion trade surplus and that that has to stop. he sort of said, look, i want to have good relations with mexico, but if we don't, we don't. and, so, that gives, obviously, some very difficult sometimes for the diplomats here who are trying to certainly change some things about immigration and enforcement with the mexicans, but keeping what has been a vital alliance with the mexicans because the mexicans, of course, there is not now any immigration of mexicans in the united states. most of the immigration is from central america and the mexicans are crucial allies in slowing that immigration. >> there haven't been daily press briefings since mr. tillerson took office. also in some ways the opposite of the personality of john kerry who put himself in the middle of everything, was taking questions all the time. >> right, i mean, secretary tillerson comes from a very different background, h he comes from a private sector background and in particular from exxonmobil where they weren't known for public engagement or engagement with the press. just as you said, there hasn't been a state department press briefing since january 19th, the last full day of president obama's presidency, and that has taken away a megaphone that the state department traditionally has to speak on issues of international importance, not only to put their own viewers out there but to respond to other countries, and that briefing is not just useful for reporters like myself, it's also looked to very closely by countries around the world, both allies and adversaries for clues on what is the u.s. policy toward israeli settlements, towards arrests of journalistsly turkey, for example, and things that happen around the world. it's also looked to the state department, preparing different pureios for the press briefing, sending up talking points, is part of sometimes the policy process itsself, and without that daily organizing structure, there is a little sense of loss in the state department. >> sreenivasan: we heard mexican leaders say we want to talk about immigration but also trade and security. why did they want to lump those in? >> well, exactly. for the mexicans, of course, there's a lot of issues that happen at the border, not just issues that are a concern to the united states but issues of concern to mexico. there is a huge amount of guns that come from the united states into mexico. there is a lot of bulk cash that comes from the united states into mexico that feeds the narc trafficking gangs in mexico. mexico wants to expand the list of things to talk about because this is a two-way relationship, and for the mexicans, they want to help the united states in the issues that the united states is worried about, but only if they have a little bit of help, too. and, you know, mexico, at this point, has largely been quiet. they have taken a lot of bombast from the united states, the president here, the mexican president has not been very popular. but the mexicans are the largest buyers of corn in the united states and of a huge number of other agriculture products from the united states. if things go south in this relationship, it has gone south tremendously over the last month, if it gets really worse, the mexicans can make things hurt in the united states in places where the united states really doesn't want to have it go bad. >> sreenivasan: yeganeh torbati, there is been an affair where the united states has been sideland in the trump administration and not consulted before executive orders are rolled out. >> we want to be cautious. rex tillerson has been on the job for three weeks. he's sort of getting his bearings. it's true we have a number of data points that suggest there is ant lot of consultations. the state department, rex tillerson's aides would push back on that, he's in touch with president trump sesms times a day but he wasn't consulted in change of the language for the two-state solution that happened last week. that was a surprise for him. we don't know if it was deliberate or the source of the chaos that seems to be evident at the white house now. >> sreenivasan: yeganeh torbati, gardiner harris of the "new york times." thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: as we saw earlier, president trump's top advisers presented a picture of party unity at the annual conservative political action conference, or "cpac," in maryland today. mr. trump's chief strategist, steve bannon, and his chief of staff reince priebus, dismissed the notion of any clashing ideologies within the president's inner circle. to discuss, we are joined by former npr c.e.o. ken stern. he profiled steve bannon for "vanity fair." and phil rucker, white house bureau chief for the "washington post." and we welcome both of you to the "newshour". i'm going to start with you, ken stern. since you've written about him. fill out the picture of who steve bannon is and especially what does he believe. >> little bit of background about steve bannon. he was a goldman sachs banker, got wealthy doing media deals. got into conservative media doing documentaries and met andrew breitbart, became friend and counsel to him and when andrew died took over breitbart. he transformed breitbart. when he came in, it made a lot of noise and tapped a lot of people called the complex, the hollywood actors. but then steve bannon turned it into a populist, nationalist political movement i think donald trump eventually road to power. >> woodruff: phil rucker, as somebody covering the white house, how much of the nationalist, populist movement has steve bannon brought to the white house? >> all of it. you can point to many of the acts that president trump has taken in his first month in office, and it's that agenda, it's that ideology, and it's not so much bannon is a pu puppeteer here. they both have same beliefs of pop list and nationalism and upending the structure we've become accustomed to in the post world war era. >> woodruff: ken stern, spell it out for us. today, we heard steve bannon use the term "economic nationalism." he talked at one point about the deconstruction of the administrative state. what is he saying help he wantso do? >> i think he wants to change the new liberal world order away from free trade, away from open borders. it's america first. it is a philosophy built on the notion that virtue lies with the people, and the establishment has stabbed the people in the back. he want to change that world. >> woodruff: you're saying, yes, phil rucker. >> that's exactly right. and it's interesting the language that bannon used. these are not terms we often here in the political mainstream and, in fact, some of the words like globalists, corporatist are terms you hear on the political left like the bernie sanders campaign, but this is a really different kind of movement here. it's not traditional republicanism. it's nationalism, populism and changing the structures and the way things work it mr. economy and economically in the world and at home. >> woodruff: rucker, staying with you, they tried to paint a portrait of unite today. you would think reince priebus and steve bannon were dearest friends from way back. what has it really been like inside the white house with them? >> it changed a little bit. i think early on in the white house there were these competing power structures that president trump set up on purpose. bannon is chief strategist, reince priebus is chief of staff, and we were getting reports of some tension, not only between them, but among their allies within the administration. but that seems to have cooled off a bit. there was a point a couple of weeks in where president trump told his aides in the oval office, look, reince priebus is in charge, he is the chief of staff, the process runs through him and i think bannon adapted to that. bannon is nor the ideas guy, the strategist, the person coming up with the grand plan, whereas reince residence is the one implementing it and orchestrating the process and dealing with the hour-to-hour, day-by-day activities to have the white house. >> woodruff: ken stern, is bad on what you know about steve bannon, ho how do you see him operating in the white house? how does he make his influence felt? >> i agree with phil. i tend to think of bannon as the chief ideologist of the white house, the ideas guy, the guy who is the political foster. you even heard it today the way they talked. bannon talked about deconstructing the administrative state, priebus talked about two-for-one exchanges of regulations. ben's the big idea guy, priebus is the practician. >> woodruff: does that mean reince priebus is willing to go along with the agenda steven espouses? >> they're strange bedfellows when talking about politics. if you go back to breitbart before bannon joined the campaign, breitbart is for the republican establishment. they supported against speaker rhine. they don't like things reince priebus stands for. it's an odd collection. they tend genuinely to get along, good actors, but there has to be long-term tension between the establishment and the anti-establishment. >> woodruff: what is your sense of that, phil rucker? you say they seem to be working together better in the last few weeks, but is there a fear? is there a concern about bannon having too much influence over the president? how does the rest of the white house staff read him? >> you know, there is some concern about that, but people have to remember, it's not just bannon. i mean, bannon is espousing trump's views. so if you're going to war with bannon, you're going to war with the president, too, and i think more traditional republicans in the white house, even if they have been schooled to think differently about these issues ideologically and even if they personally might feel something different, this is trump's belief. it's his agenda, it's his world view. it's the things he is trying toism pent as president, and bannon is guiding him, and leading him in that direction, but the other staffers have to kind of go along or get lost, if you will. >> woodruff: and that sounds like the making of a tense situation, ken stern. >> it really does. >> woodruff: well,eth certainly something that has all our attention right now. ken stern, phil rucker, we thank you both. >> thank you. , judy. >> sreenivasan: stay with us, coming up on the newshour, an oscar-nominated documentary on the syrians who risk their own lives to save others in the country's civil war. and a daughter's take on her mother's life as a pioneering filmmaker. but first, the second of a two- part look at the declining life- expectancy for some middle-aged white americans. last week economics correspondent paul solmon examined the role prescription painkllers and alcohol may play in the trend. tonight, he explores how the economy and the job market may be involved. its part of our weekly series, making sense, which airs thursdays. >> reporter: the hardee's in maysville, kentucky: a popular hangout for the senior set. martin sauer used to work for the sheriff's department, where he says he saw his share of saturday night drunks, but nothing like the current opioid drug epidemic. >> people get hooked on it and can't get off of it, or don't want to, causing a lot of younger generation to lose their lives. >> reporter: and by younger generation, sauer means his middle-aged neighbors, who, as we reported last week, are experiencing a stunning rise in premature deaths due to alcoholism, suicide and drug abuse. but why? >> the health crisis here is particularly among white working class or white people with a high school and no more. for those people the economy's been very hard for a very long time. >> reporter: predictably, angus deaton and anne case, economists who have documented the dramatic decrease in life expectancy, say an obvious place to look for a cause is the economy. >> it used to be with a high school degree you could get a job, that actually could provide for your family. and the disappearance of those may lead people to feel a lot more stressed. >> reporter: indeed, in the period covered by their study, 1999-2014, inflation-adjusted income for households headed by a high school graduate fell by 19%. well away from the ivory tower, on the ground in maysville, wayne pendleton has lived the change. >> maysville when we moved here was a pretty well flourishing little town right here, but we've lived here what, 17 years? and you can just name the stuff that's left here. you can't take a job away from a guy 55 years old and expect him to start all over again. >> even at my age it's depressing not trying to do something. >> reporter: despite four heart attacks, sherman saunders still wants to work. >> that's not someone else's responsibility to take care of the family. it's supposed to be yours, you have to go to work to do that yourself. >> most of the men aren't working. >> reporter: marcy conner, a nurse specializing in substance abuse, has a close-up view of the downward spiral. >> all of a sudden you lose your job. so here is a male with no identity. he's not working, he's supposed to be a provider for his family, he can't even do that, so that low self worth along with that hopelessness feeling, we start seeing tremendous depression. so how do you relieve depression? you can relieve it with drug use, alcohol use or suicide. >> reporter: conner's own husband died of alcohol poisoning. >> poured alcohol down his feeding tube until he died. >> reporter: the husband of best friend becky manning also killed himself. >> he blew his head off. >> reporter: joseph manning had been a truck driver for 30 years. >> and then he retired at 55, which then gave him nothing to do. then he started getting depressed and then we would go to different doctors and they would just try different drugs and those never worked because they caused side effects which made him feel worse about himself. >> reporter: weight gain? >> yes, he gained weight. >> reporter: libido? >> absolutely, where i'm worthless, i can't be here for my wife. >> reporter: so when you hear about the end of work, the jobs that, like truck driver jobs which will be replaced by-- >> absolutely >> reporter: --self driving cars, you think... >> what are these men going to do? yeah. >> and this next generation, i think you're going to see the death rate continue to climb. >> reporter: local doctor craig denham buys into the economic hypothesis. >> economics is a major component. job availability is a major component. >> reporter: so case closed? economics explains the epidemic of suicide and overdose deaths ravaging america's white working class? not so fast, say case and deaton. >> because europeans have suffered too in this, jobs leaving the country, but we don't see them killing themselves. >> yeah, you know, spain suffered. the unemployment rate went from 5% to like 25%. and health improved. >> reporter: and what about working class black americans? >> african-americans' rates of death from suicide, drug overdose and alcohol have been flat. they have not risen. >> it's not as if stress is something new to the black american population. we've been dealing with stress for quite a long time. >> reporter: economist darrick hamilton. >> the impact of stress is not new, so that's why you're probably not seeing an uptick the way it is for whites. we're used to struggle. unfortunately. >> and also there's this argument on the other side that whites have been ahead for so long that when they see their world coming apart, even though they're still doing much better than blacks, then they see equalization as oppression. >> the group that they studied is one that has by almost every concrete measure been falling behind in recent decades. >> reporter: economist bob frank has devoted much of his career to the study of inequality. >> life is graded on the curve. it's not how well you do in absolute terms, it's how well you do relative to your competitors. >> reporter: or relative to your own past. >> if you're in a chronic loser position, i think that's a position that just wears people down eventually. >> reporter: psychologically and physiologically, as low status is linked to decreased serotonin in the brain, which can cause dysphoria-- a state of intense unease and distress. >> if you're exposed to having low status in a chronic way and experiencing protracted feelings of dysphoria, it's not surprising that many people would turn to drink and drugs as a way to alleviate such feelings. >> reporter: in fact, according to a recent study by economist alan krueger, middle aged men who have dropped out of the labor force report notably low levels of emotional well being and more than half take pain medication every day. >> and so if you suffer enough and your kids are not doing very well and the world's going to hell in a handbasket then suicide either directly or through painkillers or alcohol might seem like a not completely crazy thing to do. >> reporter: there is, we should acknowledge, another take on the rise in so-called deaths of despair. >> i don't buy into the" everything fell apart so i can't do nothing." i still believe in the american dream >> reporter: anthony flannery, who works long hours in health care, and on funding his dream of making music full-time, doesn't dispute the data. he just doesn't think they provide an excuse, or even much of an explanation. >> so people that lay around and give up, i don't relate to it. it's like okay, i can understand getting knocked down and i don't know what to do. i'm overwhelmed. i get that. i've been there countless times. but you have to get focused, pick yourself up, find a direction and make it happen in your life. and for your family. >> reporter: but if the problem is a decline in moral fiber, what would explain that? too-easy access to remedies that seem to cure all problems, until they become the problem themselves? or, longer term, the deteriorating economics of white working-age america, relative to any and all expectations. for the pbs newshour, economics correspondent paul solman, reporting from kentucky. >> woodruff: next month the syrian civil war will be entering its sixth year. the united nations estimates that more than 400,000 syrians have been killed, and more than 10 million people have either fled the country or been displaced within it since the war began. a documentary that's up for an oscar on sunday attempts to put a human face on that conflict. jeffrey brown has the story for our series, "beyond the red carpet." >> brown: they are images at once shocking and strangely familiar: the daily destruction of syria's civil war. but the oscar-nominated documentary short "the white helmets" aims to get beyond the numbness of this conflict now dragging into its sixth year. >> the syria conflict has been going on for so long, it's so upsetting, and people feel so powerless. the story of the white helmets is a story of hope. >> brown: director orlando von einsiedel and producer joanna natasegara are best known for" virunga," their oscar-nominated 2014 documentary about a team of congolese national park guards who protect gorillas from poachers. in "the white helmets" they profile a volunteer group of first responders working to rescue victims of the ongoing assault on cities like aleppo-- a group that's been featured on this news program and others. since 2013, the white helmets, whose official name is the syrian civil defense, has by some estimates saved 70,000 people. >> what we found most extraordinary was who the rescue workers were: this group of everyday syrian civilians who had decided not to pick up a gun, had decided not to leave syria, and instead had decided to stay and every day risk their lives to save their fellow citizens. and they're builders, tailors, bakers, just normal people. they're truly real life heroes >> brown: what was it like to meet them? >> it was really nerve-wracking at first. we didn't know if they would live up to this incredible story we that we thought we had found. and actually what we found was people that were even more heroic and inspiring than we had thought. >> brown: there is this moment in which a baby is rescued from the rubble, which is just incredible. it's almost, you couldn't believe you're watching what you're seeing, right? >> yeah. the tragedy is scenes like that are playing out every day inside syria. but this particular rescue, the very fact that it's been documented, it acts as a moment of hope and something to rally around. really there is still hope in syria and there are very brave people doing incredible work. >> brown: for safety reasons, interviews and some of the filming were done in turkey, near the border and away from the immediate danger. but the filmmakers found a way to get a close-up view. >> usually in our work we would be on site in a location, even in a war zone, filming ourselves. the white helmets themselves said, "please don't do that because actually you put our teams at greater risk as well." luckily we didn't need. we were very lucky to find a young white helmet called khaled khateeb whose work in photography had been used by the "new york times." we brought him out to the turkish/syrian border and we paired him with our own cinematographer. they worked together for five weeks to learn a common language. >> brown: were there surprises for you in this process? i assume you knew something about it going in, but ... personally taken away is we knew going into this project just how the physical stress and the physical violence that the white helmets experience on a daily basis. but we were really shocked by the emotional toll this work takes on them. even inside turkey, which is relatively safe, the guys at the end of the training every day when they got their phones and they connected to wifi they'd suddenly get this barrage of messages about the day's bombings. they'd find out that colleagues had been killed or family members or friends. it was so shocking and yet despite all of that these guys still have hope. >> brown: and at the end of the film one of the white helmets says, "tomorrow will be better." what is the situation for them today? >> they have all dispersed now. the teams from eastern aleppo are obviously no longer in eastern aleppo. they're a target for the regime and eastern aleppo is now under regime control. they have gone on to join white helmet centers in other area of syria and are continuing to do their work, but who knows what is next for the conflict. we certainly hope for the best, but things aren't looking to improve any time soon. >> brown: some news since our interview last week: after initial fear they would not be able to enter the u.s. following the travel ban, it looks like white helmets cameraman khaled khateeb and the group's leader, raed saleh, will attend the oscars ceremony this sunday. and you can stream "the white helmets" now on netflix. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown from los angeles. >> woodruff: check out all of our coverage of potential oscar winners on our website, pbs.org/newshour, search for "beyond the red carpet." >> sreenivasan: now to our brief but spectacular series, where we ask people to describe their passions. kathleen collins was one of the first african american women to direct a feature film, "losing ground." having passed away from cancer in 1988, she is remembered tonight by her daughter, nina collins. nearly 30 years after her death, collins has restored her mother's work, including a book of her short stories, entitled "whatever happened to interracial love?" >> my mother was one of the first black women, i think the second black woman to make a feature film in america. she wrote, produced, and directed "losing ground." she made the film in 1982, this is before "the cosby show," which for me was the big, the first, the first time we really saw black middle class americans in popular culture. really it had just not been seen. i think that's why the films weren't released in their time. i turned 47 this year and my mother died when she was 46 and last year was a difficult, complicated year for me. her work was being released, i was the same age she was when she died. i was really lucky to have a mother who made me think i could definitely do anything. she was enormously capable, but it was also hard. i think she was pretty depressed. she was always writing. she was always in her room typing. and kind of distracted. she had first gotten cancer when i was 11, and then had a recurrence when i was 15 and then a third recurrence when i was 18 and she kept all of that a secret from me. then i went off to study abroad for a year. i came home from europe and she was very, very sick. and she died two weeks later. and the only thing that she was explicit about was that she wanted me to take care for my brother. it was incredibly stressful and we had no money and i felt abandoned and didn't know what to do. i collected all of her writing that i could find and all of her photographs and copies of everything and i put it in this big trunk that i found in our house. i really couldn't go through it, it was just too painful. and then in my 30s, so you know almost 20 years later, i was going through a difficult time in my own life and kind of realized that i hadn't looked at my history enough. i started looking through this trunk and reading her journals and her letters. there were screenplays and plays and short stories that i had never read and an unfinished novel. it was a huge treasure trove of material i had "losing ground" restored really so it wouldn't be lost. when lincoln center announced they wanted it for this festival, we didn't expect what happened to happen and suddenly we started getting all these reviews. i woke up to the "new yorker" review on my phone and i just couldn't stop crying. it's bittersweet. she's been dead now almost 30 years and i can't imagine what she would feel if she knew all these things had happened. i feel like i'm championing my mother, i'm bringing her work to light, and i'm also working through my own relationship with her, i think as i get older i'm able to understand better what she was going through and to forgive her for some of the things that i missed. my name is nina collins and this is my brief but spectacular take on my mother. >> sreenivasan: you watch additional brief but spectacular episodes on our website, pbs.org/newshour/brief. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, a study shows that bees can learn new tricks from other bees. we look at why small brains don't necessarily equate to less intelligent species. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: and that's the newshour for tonight. on friday, as democrats meet this weekend to elect a new leader, we look at the party's path forward. i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org boom! hello, i'm julia child. welcome to my house. what fun we're going to have baking all kinds of incredible cakes, pies and breads right here in my own kitchen. pastry chef, gale gand puts her training as an artist to good use in creating such delightful desserts as this towering napolean and this fettuccine ice cream sandwich.