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American Morning

Oil Slick Moving East; Experts Speculate LeBron James' Next Move; Morgan Freeman Hosts Show on Origin of the Universe; Living in a Plastic World

Aired June 02, 2010 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Wednesday. It's June 2nd. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.

Lots to tell you about today -- and here are the big stories we'll be telling you about coming up in the next 15 minutes.

No guarantees but BP says it hopes to have a spewing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico contained by later today. The company's cut and cap operation is underway, but time is running short. Oil is now washing ashore in Mississippi and Alabama -- and Florida could be next.

CHETRY: Face to face on border security. President Obama and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer meet at the White House tomorrow to talk about their differences over securing the boarder in that state. Brewer says if the feds want to challenge the state's new immigration law, she'll see them in court.

ROBERTS: And is there a god? How's that for a simple yes-or-no question? A new Science Channel television series examines big questions like that. We're going to talk live with the executive producer and host, Academy Award winner, Morgan Freeman -- coming up this hour.

CHETRY: We'll look forward to that.

And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. You can join the live conversation by heading to CNN.com/amFIX.

ROBERTS: Right now, a mile down in the Gulf of Mexico, BP's cut and cap operation is underway.

We've got some live pictures to take a look at. Here is robotic subs with power tools, and a very large band saw tipped with diamonds trying to cut through that ruptured riser. That's a look at a huge pincer that's been lowered down from one of the ships that was cutting the tail end of that pipe.

The oil giant is then hoping to cap that well and contain most of the oil leaking from it by later today. And there's a lot riding on this risky maneuver because the oil slick in the Gulf is on the move. It's heading east from Louisiana, washing ashore in Alabama and Mississippi. Florida could be next. A large sheen of crude is lurking off of the coast of Pensacola less than 10 miles from land this morning.

Let's bring in our John Zarrella. He's live in Dauphin Island, Alabama, where the beaches are now being blemished by crude.

Another tragedy in this ongoing saga, John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No question, John. It's just now like domino effects, one beach after the other now as you move eastward, fears that it will be affected. And we are here on Dauphin Island, Alabama.

And the headline in the "Press Register" this morning, "Oil Washes Ashore on Dauphin Island," and the first four words that nobody here wanted to hear, "The Oil Is Here." And it got here yesterday.

And at first light this morning, my cameraman, Mike Miller, and I took a walk down to the beach so we could show the viewers exactly how much oil we saw out there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: First thing I want to do is show you just how beautiful and wide this beach is. Take a look here off to my right. You can see -- it's several football fields of absolutely white sand. There's a fishing pier that comes out here.

OK, beautiful white beach. That's what you see.

Now, let's take a look and let's see if we can spot the oil, and I know we can, because it's all over. We started seeing it from here on down. Look, here's some of the oil right here.

Look at it. You don't even want to touch it. It's just a gooey consistency on your finger. Not a good thing to do, right?

And, look, as we walk along, oil, oil. Walk a little bit further, more oil. We actually think these little pieces here, you know, that's all oil, too. It's come up.

Now, here's more of it -- oil down here. And as we walk along, we can see just about everywhere we walk -- oil, oil, oil, oil.

Here's a big piece that looks like it was deposited during high tide. That's a little bit -- about the same consistency, maybe a little bit harder. But, see, it's just like mud is what it is.

And as you walk down this stretch of beach, it doesn't stop here. You see it everywhere. There's another big piece of the oil.

Now, we understand that there's a lot of cleanup crews that are out and they're going to start working today to clean this stuff up, but here it is first light. Nobody out on the beach but us, and you can see there's plenty of oil that needs to be cleaned up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: So you can see there's a lot riding on British Petroleum's efforts to cap that well and stop this flow of oil. The lower marine riser package cap waiting on the bottom. As soon as they can now, BP has gone ahead and cut that riser pipe off so the next step now is to go ahead and lower that cap over the top of the blowout preventer in hopes of stopping most of the oil.

Of course, we know they're not likely to be able to contain all of it because it is not a mechanically tight seal. But they hope to contain most of the oil if they can get this to work.

So as everyone can see, a tremendous amount riding on this. And now, yesterday, in Louisiana, James Cameron, the director of "Avatar" and "Titanic," was amongst 20 experts, 20 scientists, who met with folks from the Environmental Protection Agency, trying to go over things that -- ideas, things that might be done, and, of course, why do they call in someone like Cameron? He is considered perhaps the pre-eminent expert in underwater videography and to some extent robotics.

So, John, leaving no stone unturned in trying to find some answers to clean this mess up -- John.

ROBERTS: Now, if only he could get the aliens from his film "Abyss" to put a cap on that well. Maybe that would really help.

ZARRELLA: There you go.

ROBERTS: John Zarrella in Dauphin Island this morning -- John, thanks.

CHETRY: You probably would take him up on that offer at this point. Need all the help they can get.

ROBERTS: Anything.

CHETRY: Yes.

ROBERTS: Anything.

CHETRY: Well, right now, the oil slick is less than 10 miles off the coast of Florida, as well. When you look at the maps, you can see it heading east. The wind is blowing in from the south and it means that residents should be able to smell it later today.

Jacqui Jeras has been checking out several different computer models from the CNN weather center and she joins us now with more on the forecast for the oil slick possibly hitting Florida.

Hey, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, guys. Yes. I think that's a real possibility that that's going to happen, even the next couple days across the Florida Panhandle. But the Florida west coast so far has been spared and we hope it will stay that way because the winds are going to be changing.

You know, it's a complex thing when you're forecasting this because you're not just looking at wind profiles. You're also looking at the ocean currents. And one of the big things that we've been talking about is that loop current, that deep pool of warm water here in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, that loop current has been in a horseshoe shape, but look what's been happening. It's cut itself off from the main flow. So, now we have this warm Eddy in here that's actually a little bit of good news because any oil that gets in the loop current right now theoretically should just sit here and spin as opposed to get carried down towards the Florida Keys or down towards Cuba. So, that's a little bit of good news we have going on.

But the bad news is, is that we've got high pressure, which is going to be building into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. And while winds have been southerly for the most part, we're going to start to see them pull in from the southwest. So, it's more likely that that's going to start to spread toward the northern shores here of the Gulf of Mexico. And, yes, that would include, unfortunately, parts of Florida.

Now, in addition to computer models, we're looking at satellite imagery. This is a new satellite image that we got in from NASA, and they're also doing aerial flyovers every day to continue to monitor the progress of this oil spill. So, things don't look great in the next couple weeks. I wouldn't necessarily advise you to cancel your beach plans just yet.

There are very few beaches that are closed, John and Kiran, and, of course, Florida relies on tourism this time of the year.

CHETRY: They sure do. All right, Jacqui Jeras for us this morning -- thanks so much.

ROBERTS: So, it is already, by far, the worst oil spill in U.S. history. A tragedy, a travesty, and now, it may be a crime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We must also ensure that anyone found responsible for the spill is held accountable. That means enforcing the appropriate civil and, if warranted, criminal authorities to the full extent of the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: The attorney general, Eric Holder, there, saying a criminal investigation is underway. And a possible sign of the way things are headed, the government also announced it will no longer hold joint briefings on the disaster alongside officials from BP

Tomorrow night, Larry King has an exclusive interview with President Obama as he deals with managing the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The president shares his thoughts right here on CNN, tomorrow night, 9:00 Eastern, on "LARRY KING LIVE."

And don't forget, you can get all the updates and complete coverage on the oil spill's impact on the Gulf Coast region at CNN.com/oilspill.

CHETRY: Immigration and border security will top the agenda when Arizona Governor Jan Brewer meets with President Obama at the White House tomorrow. Brewer signed the state's tough new immigration law, allowing police to question and arrest people suspected of being in the country illegally. The president has called it misguided.

CNN's John King asked the governor about their one-on-one meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, HOST, "JOHN KING, USA": When you sit across the table from the president of the United States, what is your number-one -- I don't know whether to call it a demand or request -- what is it?

GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: I think that it would probably be, Mr. President, we need our borders secured. How can we work together to get it done? We need your help. We've been putting up with this for eight, 10 years. We need it now. We can't tolerate it any longer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Brewer says that if the feds challenge Arizona's immigration law, she will see them in court.

ROBERTS: There have been 44 presidents but only four, a Fab Four, Beatles. And Sir Paul McCartney will be performing live at the White House today.

(VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: He warmed up the Library of Congress last night. Sir Paul is in town to receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. President Obama will present that award to him today. Last year's winner, Stevie Wonder, is also going to be there.

CHETRY: Exciting, huh?

ROBERTS: It's a big time -- anytime Sir Paul is in town.

CHETRY: Exactly.

Well, you know, BP has said -- they even said yesterday on the show -- that they're skeptical about these oil plumes that some scientists say have been spotted in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. We're going to be speaking with a marine science professor who's been out there on the waters and says she has proof, in fact, that these plumes are out there. So, what's the solution? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: There is video underwater as the BP's cut-and-cap operation continues where they're going to be attempting to cut that bent riser pipe and then fit a cap over top of that lower marine riser package and then suction up the oil, at least most of it.

Fingers crossed that this one works. We should know later today and we should get some news later today about it.

But meanwhile plumes, oil plumes -- you may have heard about them a lot since this spill began in the Gulf of Mexico. We are now 44 days into the disaster, and marine scientists remain very concerned about oil plumes deep beneath the ocean surface. BP is still denying they exist.

Samantha Joy disagrees. She's a professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia. She is leading a team of researchers that have been conducting tests in the Gulf and she's finding solid evidence of underwater plumes.

She joins us now via Skype. She is on board the Walton Smith research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. Samantha, thanks for joining us this morning.

SAMANTHA JOY, PROFESSOR OF MARINE SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

CHETRY: Give us an update on what you've been seeing in the waters as you guys go very far offshore and try to figure out exactly the extent of the spread of this oil. Tell us about the plumes.

JOYE: Well, we've been tracking several plumes there to the west-southwest of the spill sighting, and the most intense -- see oil in the water is very close to the spill site, around a mile away. When you move back off from the spill site --

CHETRY: We're hoping to get your -- we're hoping to get your audio back. I'm just wondering, maybe we could call. Maybe we can get Samantha to call in on the phone so that we can hear you a little better. As we know, you're on board a ship, and so the service is spotty coming into us from Skype. So you know what we're going to do, we are going to take a quick break and try to get you to call in, Samantha, so we can hear more from you.

Meanwhile, 16 minutes past the hour. We'll talk more about making it a man's world, an "A.M. Original" spears. "Women of Wall Street," Christine Romans, joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up now, 20 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning, and time for "Minding Your Business." this week we're taking a special look at how women are making it in a man's world. CHETRY: For women on Wall Street, it's always been an uphill battle but the great recession has only made things harder. Christine Romans joins us now with a look at this.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Finally women on Wall Street, we're running with the bulls only to be mauled by the bear, right? Just when they were making it, things got tough. You go to grueling business school, you nail a Wall Street job, you work 73 hours to keep it, in an industry that's two-thirds men. Women who had to work so hard to break into the man's world of Wall Street are making it just in time to have to fix it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The value of a base plan is the --

ROMANS (voice-over): When these guys want to pull their hair out, Sarah Farneti is the only one who could put hers in a pony tail. In a room of 19 sports-loving men, she's learned how to fit right in.

SARAH FARNETI, TRADER, BNY MELLON: I have a great time and I've learned a lot more about sports. I take golf lessons. At one point I could tell you all the names of the Mets players, not anymore, but at one point I could tell you that.

ROMANS: Sarah is the only one in the Wall Street dugout, is not unusual. In finance, the majority of women are administrative workers. The industry supported center for work life policy says only 14 percent are executives. Karen Peetz (ph)is one of them.

KAREN PEETZ, SENIOR EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, BNY MELLON: It is known as a man's world on Wall Street.

ROMANS (on camera): It is. It is. And why do you think that is? And has that changed since you've been in the business?

PEETZ: Well, I think it is known for that because there are mostly men at the top.

ROMANS (voice-over): In fact, not a single woman has ever been chief executive of a major financial institution. Aside from what may be a glass ceiling, the long hours are also a challenge for most women. The average workweek on Wall Street, 73 hours.

(on camera): Time when women are really hitting their peak in their professional career when they should be doing that networking is also the time they're hitting their peak in their home life.

PEETZ: Right, right, absolutely.

ROMANS: And that's something that's a real - that's a hurdle.

PEETZ: Absolutely. It's a hurdle and I think what I counsel a lot of young women about is you're just not going to have that much time to yourself if you go kind of whole hog into the job and then as equally into family then what gives is a lot of your personal time. And so many women are willing to give that up, but some aren't.

ROMANS (voice-over): A work/life tradeoff, Morgan Stanley managing director Carla Harris denies.

CARLA HARRIS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MORGAN STANLEY: It's very important you understand this is a client business, and your mantra should be when your client says jump, the answer is how high, and you need to figure out how that works for you. But I in no way think that it is mutually exclusive, that in order to be successful in this business you can't have an outside life, you can't have a real family life, you can't have a philanthropic life. That again is a perception. That is not a reality.

ROMANS: Karen Peetz does believe attitude is about what women bring to Wall Street are improving and hopes that that will lift their stock.

(on camera): Some women who we've interviewed have told us that you almost have to be a better manager than the men because you can't come off like the queen bee but you also can't come off too soft. But you can't - you know what I mean?

PEETZ: Absolutely. There's a lot of - there's absolutely there's absolutely a lot of kind of human interaction that is different and often people say, well, you know, is it harder being a woman? I think it's actually easier because you can use some of those personal skills and you're also memorable because there aren't that many of you. So people will remember.

ROMANS: True. True.

PEETZ: And that's OK.

ROMANS (voice-over): Just like Sarah.

FARNETI: It would be nice just to say, you know, I'm the first woman to rule this company.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: She's still optimistic but the center for work/life policy surveyed Wall Street women, and found, women were twice as likely as men to want to quit amid the implosion of the industry and the mass layoffs over the past couple years because reputation matters to these women. Some are saying why stick around now? Others say though, no, it's women who are going to fix it. But to be quite honest with you, these are high-achieving, very bright women. In many cases they're not making it on Wall Street because they don't want to. They make it on Wall Street, then they decide to go someplace else.

ROBERTS: Right, right, right, and if they had been in charge in the first place, none of this would have ever happened.

ROMANS: We'll never know the answer to that but maybe you're right.

ROBERTS: Christine, thanks.

ROMANS: Sure.

ROBERTS: Tomorrow, we look at the hard hat hitting the glass ceiling. Fewer than 15 percent of people employed in construction are women and many of those jobs are behind desks. But Deb Feyerick will visit one woman on the job site who is trying to have America rebuild at ground zero, "Making It In A Man's World," tomorrow, only here on AMERICAN MORNING.

CHETRY: A lot of questions about to what LeBron James, basketball star of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is going to do when he becomes a free agent quite soon. Well he talks about that. Is he leaning to any particular team? CNN's new contributor sports analyst Max Kellerman next.

ROBERTS: And Morgan Freeman's next challenge. Cosmic mysteries. Is there a god? What is the universe made of? Are we alone? Questions his new series will try to answer. Twenty five minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Welcome back to The Most News In The Morning. The NBA finals get under way tomorrow night, but this morning no one is talking Lakers/Celtics. It's all about LeBron James.

CHETRY: Right, everybody wants him. Who does he want? We still don't know. King James has spoke on the Larry King about his next move when he becomes a free agent possibly on July first. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, HOST: Do you leaned at all toward the place you know the best? I mean, do they have an edge going in?

LEBRON JAMES, BASKETBALL PLAYER: Absolutely. Absolutely.

KING: Your home team.

JAMES: Because this city, these fans has given me a lot in these seven years and, you know, for me it's comfortable. So I've got a lot of memories here and so it does have an edge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And that's from an interview that you'll be seeing Friday night on LARRY KING LIVE. Meanwhile joining us now is our new CNN contributor who covers the sport world, Max Kellerman. Great to see you this morning, Max. So what do you think, did he leave any clues, or were you reading too much into him answering Larry's question about Cleveland.

KELLERMAN: I mean the first thing is why is he talking now, right? Why is he doing it on CNN instead of ESPN or a sports network. ROBERTS: Because it's Larry's 25th anniversary and he always gets the big interviews.

KELLERMAN: Clearly that's the case. But from LeBron's point of view, the branding on Larry King and CNN actually sends the signal that he transcends sports, which he clearly does. Here we are talking about him some more on CNN. And the timing of it during the NBA finals clearly upstages the finals.

But yes, Larry lead him, he boxed him into talking about Cleveland by asking him that question the way he did, and LeBron very quickly was thinking on his feet clearly because the answer he gave put the onus back on Cleveland. So that if he doesn't wind up back in Cleveland, hey, it's not his fault. They were the favorites. They must have messed something up hopefully is the thought the fan would be thinking the way LeBron kind of boxed Cleveland right back after Larry boxed him.

ROBERTS: So where do you think he's really going to go?

KELLERMAN: It seems to me the logical fit is the New York Knicks. They're way under the salary cap. They have enough to sign LeBron James plus one other superstar.

And in the NBA, unless you are they Pistons -- the Detroit Pistons every 10 or 15 years figure out a way to calibrate a team just right to win a championship without two superstars. Every other team seems to need two superstars, so LeBron James plus another superstar free agent, immediately you have that nucleus and a very good chance to win a championship.

Not to mention New York is primarily a basketball town. It's known as a baseball town because of the Yankees, but it really wants to be a basketball town. In the late '80s courtside seats for the Knicks, who never won a championship and were without a kind of dynamic superstar the likes of LeBron James, were going for over $1,000 a pop 20-plus years ago.

I mean, the supply and demand says that this town wants to be a basketball town with LeBron James in fold, in the fold.

CHETRY: There were even jokes they were going to rename the Bronx Le-Bronx. They want him for sure. But what does he want? Could he -- I mean, technically he says all things being equal, he could make more money staying in Cleveland, but that doesn't matter to him, which is technically because they're allowed to pay him a little more.

KELLERMAN: He would have one more guaranteed year, so he'd make maybe $30 million more, although I'm sure he assumes he would be playing for at least six years and not five years that he could be guaranteed elsewhere.

CHETRY: But he's from Cleveland and says that family matters, a couple other clues. But also, can Cleveland win a championship? Do they have enough money to get another player? KELLERMAN: You could always maneuver with a salary cap. LeBron alone brings you pretty close. You don't need that much more than him. And certainly there's a chance that he stays where he's from and it would be a great story.

But New York is the media market, the center of the known universe, at least in that respect. And you would imagine that the opportunities here would outweigh anything that -- you know, he would become -- right now question is who the biggest star in basketball is. Is it Kobe Bryant, LeBron James?

LeBron James goes to New York, that's no longer a conversation. And there's -- Harold Bloom, the literary critic, writes about Shakespeare and how writers after Shakespeare suffered from the anxiety of influence. How are you not derivative from Shakespeare, his influence all-encompassing?

And that happened in the NBA with Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was basketball's Shakespeare. And everyone who's come after Jordan who's around his size modeled their game after him, Kobe Bryant included, until LeBron James came around and really does his own thing. He seems to have escaped the anxiety of influence.

I don't see him going to Chicago, which has been mentioned, where Jordan's already been, or L.A. where Kobe and Magic and everyone has been. New York is the logical destination.

CHETRY: The center of the new universe spoken from someone born and raised --

KELLERMAN: Every media type who comments on this, wherever they're from, they think LeBron is headed there. If they were Martian media guys, obviously Mars is the destination.

CHETRY: Either that or the Sacramento Kings.

(LAUGHTER)

Max Kellerman, great to see you, thanks.

And you can also see Larry's full interview with LeBron James on "LARRY KING LIVE" Friday night, 9:00 eastern on CNN.

ROBERTS: We're crossing the half-hour, so checking our top stories now.

The White House cautiously backing a United Nations' Security Council resolution that would call for an investigation into Israel's raid on an aid flotilla to Gaza. And 16 Americans were on that flotilla. Officials say two of them were released the other 14 still in prison in Israel.

Israel says everyone on the flotilla, about 600 people, will be free by tomorrow.

CHETRY: Nearly two months after the deadly blast that killed 29 coalminers in West Virginia, inspectors will enter the Upper Big Branch mine this morning to determine whether or not it's safe to begin their investigation.

Dangerous gases, dust, and smoke have kept crews out of that mine. The April 5th blast was the deadliest mine disaster in 40 years.

ROBERTS: And we could know by later on today if BP's cut-and-cap operation is a success. Robotic subs using power tools are cutting through a leaking riser at the bottom of the Gulf this morning. Then they'll try to cap the leak and contain the oil that's spilling out.

Meantime, though, the damage is spreading, crude washing up on the barrier islands south of Mississippi and Alabama.

CHETRY: All right, well, we are going to try yet again to talk to our guest who's basically out there on the water right now in a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. We're 44 days into this disaster and marine scientists are very concerned about oil plumes deep beneath the ocean surface.

BP is still denying they exist. Samantha Joye disagrees. She joins us once again from on board the Walton Smith research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. Samantha, sorry about the audio issues last time. You were in the middle of explaining what you witnessed on the ground.

Is there any doubt in your mind there are oil plumes out there right now?

JOYE: No, there isn't. You can -- when you're closer to the rig in particular, you can see the oil. So there's no doubt in my mind that there's oil in the water.

CHETRY: It's interesting because we spoke with --

JOYE: There's also a lot of gas.

CHETRY: Go ahead. Go ahead. We spoke with BP's managing director Bob Dudley yesterday, and he said that scientists are out there, they're looking for plumes and they haven't seen them, they haven't found them yet. So he keeps saying that there has been no evidence of plumes being found there. Is BP being disingenuous?

JOYE: Maybe they're not looking in the same places we are. I don't know. I really can't comment because I don't know where they're looking. But I can tell you that both oil and large quantities of methane and other -- they're derived from all reservoirs in the deep water. And it's nearer the leaking platform than it is away from it.

CHETRY: Tell us, first of all, what is so troubling about the underwater plumes? What kind of impact can these plumes have on sea life?

JOYE: The biggest impact is that they stimulate microbial activity, which is good because this microbial activity degrades the oil and the gas that's in the water. The flipside of it is that it draws -- that microbial activity draws oxygen concentrations down. And we've been measuring respiration rates, so oxygen consumption rates by microorganisms in the deepwater plumes, and the rates are among the highest I've ever seen anywhere. They're very high.

So the troubling concern is that oxygen concentrations can get drawn down in these deepwater plumes.

CHETRY: And that effectively chokes off the sea life there, including all the way down the food chain. So, yes, it is quite a disturbing situation.

And as I understand it, more testing is being done right now to figure out exactly what this -- what these plumes contain and exactly where they may be originating from.

Samantha Joye, thanks so much for joining us on board the research vessel right now in the Gulf where you're conducting your experiments and research.

ROBERTS: It's 37 minutes after the hour now. Morgan Freeman's next challenge, cosmic mysteries. Is there a god? What is the universe made of? Are we alone? Morgan Freeman will try to answer some of those questions when he joins us coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 41 minutes past the hour right now.

Actor Morgan Freeman has played god in the movies, but a new role has him asking is there a god and what exactly does that mean?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN FREEMAN, EXEC. PRODUCER AND HOST, "THROUGH THE WORMHOLE": Every culture claims a god, an all-powerful entity that created the world and directs our fate. But why do we share this belief in the cosmic creator? Did we dream it up to serve a need in our psyche or culture? Is god really out there, up there?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: That's a big question. That's from the first episode of a new Science Channel series titled "Through the Wormhole," and Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman is the executive producer, host, and narrator, and we're pleased to have him with us this morning. It's great to see you.

FREEMAN: Good morning, John. Good morning, Kiran.

ROBERTS: I saw a couple of episodes of this, one about is there a god, another one about what holds the universe together, dark matter. And I'm wondering, your involvement in this, as a kid, did you ever lay out on a summer night looking up at the sky wondering all of these questions?

FREEMAN: Yes. I grew up in Mississippi, one of the darkest places on the planet. Back when I was a kid we didn't have all those lights around.

ROBERTS: So you could see lots of stars.

FREEMAN: So when you looked up, that's what you saw. Yes.

ROBERTS: And what did you think when you looked up?

FREEMAN: I had no idea what I thought then, but it was very fascinating. As you grow older and you read more and you start looking up and seeing the things that have been identified as something else, you know, like we look up and we see Orion's belt, stars that are billions and billions of miles apart, but we've created something out of them that makes them all hang together. How does that happen?

Astrology. You ever think about astrology?

CHETRY: Oh, yes.

FREEMAN: Yes. Does it have an effect on you?

ROBERTS: I read my horoscope just this morning. "Big things ahead for me in the next couple days."

CHETRY: And you've said before, Morgan, you're a man of god. When you did this and so many of these questions were posed --

FREEMAN: When did I say I was a man of god?

CHETRY: You're not?

FREEMAN: No, no, no, no, no.

CHETRY: You're a man of faith.

FREEMAN: Faith -- big difference.

CHETRY: All right, so the question of faith leads us most of the time to a god. What is your view of faith?

FREEMAN: The question of faith is whatever you actually believe is. We take a lot of what we're talking about in science on faith. We posit a theory, and until it's disproven, we have faith that it's true. If the mathematics work out, then it's true until it's proven to be untrue.

For instance, if you remember, there was one point when we had mapped the universe and we knew what all of the matter was, we knew where the end of the universe was. and then we got the Hubble telescope and uh-oh.

ROBERTS: It's not quite there. It's a little further on. FREEMAN: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: And all of that really gives you a sense of perspective as well. Back in the early days we thought the world was it, and then we found out there was a solar system.

FREEMAN: Right.

ROBERTS: And then we found there was a galaxy. And then we found there's not just this galaxy, there's hundreds of millions of them, and maybe are there other universes as well.

When you sat there looking up and now when you -- with the benefit of years behind you now, do you get a sense of, wow, where do we fit in to all of this? Give me some perspective here.

FREEMAN: That's kind of what we're examining -- where do we fit in here? Out of all of these billions of -- we call them stars and galaxies, really. Out of all these billions of galaxies that have billions of solar systems, are we it? Is that all there is?

ROBERTS: What do you think? Are we alone?

FREEMAN: No, no, no, no. We're only alone in this section of the Milky Way.

ROBERTS: This zip code.

(LAUGHTER)

FREEMAN: Exactly. I think that there are -- life has evolved in many, many, many other places. The question of is there a god on the other side of that? If there isn't a God, is it just a cosmic crapshoot?

CHETRY: And that's the question. Is there room for science and faith to come together, a belief in God and a greater understanding of science?

FREEMAN: We have -- we've spoken to a religious man who was a scientist. It's in the first episode. And you'll hear what he has to say about it. He was a scientist first and then he shifted over and he said the two are compatible, he thinks. So --

ROBERTS: It does raise a lot of questions. I mean, it just sort of expands your horizons when you're thinking of all that.

FREEMAN: Yes. And the first thing that comes to mind for me, because I'm a really big fan of science fiction and science fantasy, space travel.

ROBERTS: Oh, yes. You want to go up?

FREEMAN: No. I used to want to go up. I'm 73. ROBERTS: You could still do it. Richard Branson is --

FREEMAN: Yes. He's invited me.

ROBERTS: Yes.

FREEMAN: And he said, you should do it.

ROBERTS: Why don't we go up? Well, what are you waiting for?

FREEMAN: I want to go somewhere.

ROBERTS: You don't want to just go up there.

FREEMAN: Just go up and come down. If you're going to go to Mars, it think, I'd like to do that, I'd like to take that shot. Other problems with is it that -- we say there are such distances that we're never going to be able to really think seriously about space travel.

That's not so at all. Once we figure out the space/time --

CHETRY: Continuum --

FREEMAN: -- continuum, we'll lick it because the one thing that defines humans is that if we can imagine it, we can do it.

CHETRY: You know that that whole thought has sort of been put to the test, as we take a look at this catastrophe in the Gulf. A lot of people say we can figure out how to put a man on the moon. Why can't we figure out how to shut off this oil?

FREEMAN: We'll figure it out. We just can't do that overnight. It'll be figured out and it'll be accomplished. But we're just, you know, we're -- this is all experimental.

Everybody is saying now, the President should do this, the President should do that. We've got a lot of shoulds out there but no one has ever tried this before.

BP -- you know, we're all guinea pigs --

ROBERTS: Yes.

FREEMAN: -- just like the professor said that I saw on -- I think it was on this show -- he's on somebody's show, and he was -- he was saying this has never been done before.

ROBERTS: Yes, well, here's a whole new series that you could tackle.

FREEMAN: Well, we may have to get into it.

ROBERTS: Hey, I wanted to ask you. You have such an incredible range as an actor. You recently played Nelson Mandela, you know, in a terrific drama, "Invictus," you've been in comedies, "Bruce Almighty", playing God. Is there one particular genre you like better than another? And you know just to talk about "The Bucket List", which you also appeared in.

FREEMAN: Yes.

ROBERTS: Is there a character or a person who is on your bucket list that you want to play?

FREEMAN: Oh, yes, absolutely. There's always, you know, if you're -- as actors, we want to go keep going.

ROBERTS: Yes.

FREEMAN: I learned about a deputy U.S. Marshal back in the days of Judge Isaac Parker, who cleaned up supposedly Indian territory back in the 1880s. And this guy's name was Bass Reeves (ph) now, I mean, you don't hear a lot of stuff about Bass Reeves. Nobody's ever tackled him. He was one of the most well-known deputy marshals in the west in his time.

ROBERTS: So you want to be Bass Reeves.

FREEMAN: I want to do Bass Reeves.

ROBERTS: All right.

FREEMAN: Yes.

ROBERTS: Well, I'm sure that you'll make it happen, like so many other things happen.

CHETRY: Thanks for dropping by.

ROBERTS: Morgan Freeman it's great to talk to you. Thanks so much for dropping by.

CHETRY: Thanks for being with us and happy birthday, by the way.

FREEMAN: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Get up in space. You'll love it, even if it's only a short ride.

FREEMAN: Oh, I'll take it, I'll take it.

ROBERTS: Well, you can watch the series "Through the Wormhole" it starts next Wednesday, June 9th, 10 p.m. Eastern on the Science Channel. Thanks again.

FREEMAN: Thank you.

CHETRY: It's good to see you this morning.

Well, still ahead, harmful chemicals in plastics. One woman's challenge: she wanted to try to live without plastic. It proved to be -- she proved to be much, much harder than she ever imagined. It's 49 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's 53 minutes after the hour.

Time now for your "AM House Call": stories about your health. Plastic, it's everywhere. And it seems just about everything we buy is wrapped in it.

CHETRY: There are growing concerns though, about the chemicals in some of those plastics and what type of effect they may have on our bodies.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us one woman who decided she was going to live without plastic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to say one word to you, just one word --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you listening?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir, I am.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Back in the '60s, the future was laid out before us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plastics.

GUPTA: It wasn't hard to figure out. Think about it.

Plastic is everywhere. We buy it, we use it, we dispose of it. Americans throw away 2.5 million bottles every hour and generate enough plastics in one year to shrink wrap the State of Texas.

One woman wanted to change those statistics. And what started as an experiment for Jean Healge has now turned into a way of life.

JEAN HEALGE, LIVING WITHOUT PLASTIC: So I think for me in the beginning I definitely was concerned about -- about the chemicals in plastics. I was hearing here and there that there may be some chemicals in them that are not good for our bodies. And so I started to just see if it was possible to get plastic out of my life.

I mean, when you go through the snack aisle, there's pretty much nothing that's -- that's packaged in a container that is not made of plastic.

What I ended up doing is making one trip to whole foods usually and buying my rice and maybe some flour and some cereal and some snacks out of bins. And then I might, will probably make a separate trip to a farmer's market or something like that where I can get local produce.

GUPTA: But how does Jean translate those habits from the grocery store to her own kitchen? She makes her own bread, yogurt, even toothpaste made with cinnamon and another unusual ingredient.

HEALGE: Some people I think thought it was crazy that I was using good vodka for the toothpaste.

GUPTA: Yes, you heard her right. Vodka in her toothpaste for a disinfectant. It does take creativity to avoid plastics and time, but just how much?

HEALGE: You know, making bread from scratch can take a bit of time. But I think everyone can do something like this.

GUPTA: But there are two things she absolutely can't live without.

HEALGE: I kind of am all American, and I really like ketchup and mustard, so I have a ketchup and I also have some yellow mustard. I can't remember when I bought that, but I do have a few things in my refrigerator that are made of plastic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Well, is your town, your home, your family polluted by toxic chemicals? Don't miss the start of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's investigation beginning tonight. "Toxic America" starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

About 4 1/2 minutes to the top of the hour. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Just about a minute to the top of the hour. I have to say it was such a pleasure having Morgan Freeman in here.

CHETRY: He's wonderful --

ROBERTS: He is.

CHETRY: -- one of my favorite actors. And then when you meet somebody in person and they're just as genuine and just as kind, it's a treat.

ROBERTS: And, you know, that voice, too, Morgan Freeman. He's like James Earl Jones. James Earl Jones is a fabulous actor, as is Morgan Freeman, but James Earl Jones was as much the voice as he was the actor.

CHETRY: Right.

ROBERTS: And it's the same thing with Morgan Freeman, which is why he does so much work in narration, "March of the Penguins", other documentaries.

CHETRY: But then also -- I mean "The Shawshank Redemption", that was one of my favorite movies and part because of him.

ROBERTS: Yes. He was great.

CHETRY: And he is 73 years old, looks fantastic.

ROBERTS: Doesn't he, though?

CHETRY: Good for him.

ROBERTS: Yes. Wow. Great to have him in.

Don't forget that new series "Through the Worm Hole" on the science channel. We'll let you switch away just for a little while and watch that.

Continue the conversations on today's stories, go to our blog at cnn.com/amfix.

That will wrap it up for us today. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you again tomorrow.

CHETRY: Meantime, the news continues. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.