This week on “Sunday Morning” (Nov. 16)

The Emmy Award-winning “CBS News Sunday Morning” is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET.  “Sunday Morning” also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.) 

---

Hosted by Jane Pauley

COVER STORY: Wanna bet? Online prediction markets wager that you will
The people behind the prediction market Kalshi, where people can place wagers on everything from elections and sports contests to the anticipated bridesmaids at Taylor Swift’s wedding, say its users trade a billion dollars every week. But as prediction markets are expanding, this burgeoning business model is coming under the scrutiny of some state regulators and attorneys general. Jo Ling Kent reports.

For more info:

     
ALMANAC: November 16
“Sunday Morning” looks back at historical events on this date.

PROFILE: Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy: “I don’t go out of my way looking for fights”
Dave Portnoy’s Barstool Sports began in 2003 as a free weekly newspaper of gambling tips published out of his mother’s basement; it’s now a digital empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars, catering to a young, mostly-male audience that he calls “normal guys.” The provocative Portnoy talks with Tony Dokoupil about blowback from some of his site’s “locker-room”-style content; a rise in antisemitism; and how he can ignore criticism due to his “good moral compass.” 

PREVIEW: Dave Portnoy says there’s been a “definitive shift” toward antisemitism: “People are coming up with real hate”

For more info:

MUSIC: Stephen Schwartz, a “Wicked” music man
Stephen Schwartz is the composer-lyricist behind such Broadway hits as “Godspell,” “Pippin,” and “Wicked,” which was adapted into two movies. Mo Rocca talks with Schwartz about the price of his early success, and why he almost left composing Broadway musicals for good. Rocca also talks with Kristin Chenoweth, star of Schwartz’s latest Broadway show, “The Queen of Versailles.”

READ AN EXCERPT: “Defying Gravity,” a biography of “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz
Biographer Carol de Giere explores the creative career of the Grammy- and Oscar-winning composer of such treasured Broadway and movie hits as “Godspell,” “Pippin” and “Wicked.”

To watch a trailer for “Wicked: For Good” click on the video player below:

For more info:

• “Wicked: For Good” opens in theater Nov. 21
• “Wicked,” at the Gershwin Theatre, New York City | Ticket info
• “The Queen of Versailles,” at the St. James Theatre, New York | Ticket info
• “The Baker’s Wife,” at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater, New York (through Dec. 21) | Ticket info
• stephenschwartz.com
• “Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz, from Godspell to Wicked (2nd Ed.)” by Carol de Giere (Applause Books), in Trade Paperback and eBook formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org

       
PASSAGE: In memoriam
“Sunday Morning” remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week.

U.S.: When the employed are pushed into homelessness
In America we are taught hard work is the key to success. But despite having full-time jobs, many families are locked out of the rental housing market, due to low wages, soaring rents and poor credit, and have been pushed into homelessness. In this two-part report, senior contributor Ted Koppel talks with Brian Goldstone, author of “There Is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America,” about the big business of homelessness; and with families who have struggled to pay inflated rates at “extended stay hotels” catering to the desperate.

READ AN EXCERPT: “There Is No Place For Us” by Brian Goldstone
For his new book, the journalist examines why so many people who work full-time jobs with low wages are homeless in America.

For more info:

      
HARTMAN: A lesson in civics, and civility
Last month, in Surry, Virginia, 19-year-old Cameran Drew ran for a seat on the board of supervisors, taking inspiration from his high school civics class. His opponent? His civics teacher, Kenneth Bell. Steve Hartman reports on an election campaign that could be a teachable moment. 

PROFILES: William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson: When stars collide
When “Star Trek” legend William Shatner and America’s favorite astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson share the stage, sparks can fly on an astronomical level. They talk with Luke Burbank about their bromance built on an appreciation of science; the two-man show (“The Universe Is Absurd!”) that grew out of a trip to the South Pole; and how curiosity about the cosmos can help keep one young.

For more info:

       
COMMENTARY: Walter Isaacson on “The Greatest Sentence Ever Written”
As America approaches its 250th birthday, the bestselling biographer and historian reflects on the message of the Declaration of Independence, and how it is just as vital to us today as it was in 1776. 

For more info:

     
NATURE: Black Hills of South Dakota
          

---

WEB EXCLUSIVES:

MARATHON: Comfort food (YouTube Video)
“Sunday Morning” serves up just what we need: a sizable helping of stories about comfort foods:

• The appeal of mac & cheese
• Chef and food writer Samin Nosrat discusses comfort foods in discomfiting times
• The magic of pancakes
• New twists on the tradition of Campbell’s Soup
• A restaurant devoted to meatballs
• Wynton Marsalis makes a pit stop in Lockhart, Texas, a Mecca for BBQ lovers
• The humble tater tot … just add caviar
• Tortellini, a traditional Italian comfort food
• A Southern institution: The Waffle House
• Bobby Flay on the need for comfort food
• Spam, that oft-maligned canned meat, is treasured in Hawaii
• Noah Verrier’s paintings of comfort food

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Nolan Williams on a promising treatment for depression (YouTube Video)
Innovative neuroscientist Nolan Williams, the director of Stanford University’s Brain Stimulation Lab, who developed the use of targeted magnetic stimulation to treat depression without drugs or therapy, died Oct. 8, 2025 at age 43. His wife told The New York Times he died by suicide after suffering from depression himself. In this 2021 “Sunday Morning” report, Williams talked with Lee Cowan about the success in trials of his experimental treatment, called SAINT (Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy).

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Nobel laureate James Watson (YouTube Video)
In this 2003 “Sunday Morning” report, half a century after the double-helix structure of DNA was first revealed, zoologist James Watson (who shared the Nobel Prize for its discovery) talked about how the groundbreaking revelation was made. Watson, who went on to lead the Human Genome Project (and later faced condemnation for offensive remarks about race), died on Nov. 6, 2025 at age 97.

GALLERY: Notable deaths in 2025
A look back at the esteemed personalities who’ve left us this year, who’d touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.

---

The Emmy Award-winning “CBS News Sunday Morning” is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison.

“Sunday Morning”: About us

DVR Alert! Find out when “Sunday Morning” airs in your city 

“Sunday Morning” also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.) 

Full episodes of “Sunday Morning” are now available to watch on demand on CBSNews.com, CBS.com and Paramount+, including via Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon FireTV/FireTV stick and Xbox. 

Follow us on Twitter/X; Facebook; Instagram; YouTube; TikTok; Bluesky; and at cbssundaymorning.com.  

You can also download the free “Sunday Morning” audio podcast at iTunes and at Play.it. Now you’ll never miss the trumpet!

Do you have sun art you wish to share with us? Email your suns to SundayMorningSuns@cbsnews.com. 

---