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Extreme Weather Across Globe Triggers Flash Flooding, Wildfires; One Dead After Hurricane Lala Lashes Hawaii's Big Island; Ukraine Launches Massive Drone Attack Deep into Russia; CENTCOM Commander Visits USS Abraham Lincoln Amid Morale Concerns; Boston Researchers Aim To Help Diagnose CTE In Living Patients; Israel Has Rejected Trump's 15 Point Peace Plan; Cardinals Rookie Hits 3 Home Runs in 3 At-Bats. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 16, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's really beautiful and incredible. But this is something I've never heard before.

The last song you sang was about this river behind us. Can you tell us the meaning behind that song?

GANZORIG, MONGOLIAN THROAT SINGER (through translator): The meaning of this song is about our heritage. It's our hymn. This beautiful, famous song is praising this river, and it has been sung for 75 or 80 years now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Sunday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. We begin this hour with the extreme weather across the globe. In Hawaii, damage assessments will start tomorrow after Hurricane Lala dumped up to 30 inches of rain across parts of the Big Island. The storm triggering life-threatening flooding across multiple islands. Officials say one person is confirmed dead and more than 200,000 people are without power. Lala has since weakened to a tropical storm.

Meanwhile, in the Midwest, days of heavy rain have led to dramatic flash flooding in Indiana, where raging waters ripped open a roadway in Indianapolis. Governor Mike Braun says President Trump intends to approve the state's request for federal assistance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE BRAUN (R), INDIANA: And I just hung up with the president about 15 minutes ago. They're in the process of galvanizing FEMA to do a declaration, which then speeds up that process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And the extreme weather isn't limited to the United States. European countries are battling record heat and wildfires. So let's start here in the U.S., where more than eight million people

across the Midwest remain under flood watches. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking the next threats in the region and across the U.S..

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: From severe thunderstorms to flooding to heat, we've pretty much got it all on the map today. The severe thunderstorms are really going to be focused here just to the east of the Rockies so areas of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and then spreading east with that system.

You also have the potential for some very heavy rainfall and flooding, yes, unfortunately, in some of the same areas that have been dealing with flooding for the last week. That includes the Ohio Valley. But now the focus really starts to become more of the mid-Atlantic, especially for today. So areas of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and even portions of eastern Ohio.

We've already had ongoing showers and thunderstorms throughout many of those states so far today. It continues through the evening hours. Again, you can see by about 10:00 tonight, still some heavy showers around Washington, D.C., to the east of that spreading into areas of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York. But you also have this cluster here throughout portions of the Midwest.

So areas right around St. Louis going to be looking at some more strong thunderstorms moving in overnight. And then even as we get into the early portions of Monday, Cincinnati, once again getting hit with some very heavy rain. Same thing around Louisville, but you also still have a lot of showers that are wrapping up across the northeast. So folks headed out on their morning commute, say, in Boston, New York, could be looking at some showers and thunderstorms around the area that you could have to contend with.

By late Monday, again, still looking at that next round across portions of the northeast and mid-Atlantic, just adding to that potential for flooding. On the southern side the big story here is heat and record heat for some of these areas. Unfortunately, it's also going to be a multi-day event. You look at Sunday's forecast, again, 103 is the feels like temperature. So this is taking into account the air temperature but also the humidity.

A lot of those in the triple digits here across the south, not just today, but Monday and even into Tuesday. So it's that prolonged effect for many of these areas. Take Dallas, for example, the average high this time of year, 96, so we get it, it's already very hot. But every single one of the next seven days, that temperature is actually expected to be in the triple digits.

WHITFIELD: All right. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

We're going to take you to Honolulu now, where we're getting an update from Hawaii Governor Josh Green following the storm.

GOV. JOSH GREEN, HAWAII: -- passed the Big Island. And having moved past the Big Island, they are now digging out. He's going to share at 12:00, Mayor Alameda is, a press conference that details some of the specific damage that's been done in that area. I'll touch on a few of those things. Again, just wonderful work by his team. They had to -- they had to dig deep. They, I think I said, flew over this morning. They did a dawn flyover.

And you will hear now that it's a tropical storm and passing what it was like when it was a full hurricane. There was a river of water that went through Naalehu. It has washed away quite a lot. Now the severe flooding this is kind of what that looks like. That's a road that's collapsed and a small waterfall that has already occurred off of that road. Mayor will share with you that a number of bridges, the smaller bridges that connect, you know, the great metropolis of volcano down to Naalehu, right?

[16:05:08]

Those little bridges, when they get damaged, people can't get in and out. Sometimes we have to go through ranches to get people in and out. There's a little hospital down there, which I took a call for many years in the call room there, isolated. They lost power to those small hospitals. But we have generators. So everyone is safe and healthy. But boy, a lot of work ahead. You can also be sure that when you have 28 inches of rain, they had 20 inches of rain in some areas.

There's just going to be a ton of landslides on the Big Island. Again, our team at Sniffen with his county team, just like Ed Sniffen with the mayor's team here, they're out and about moving all that debris. But you're going to continue to hear about loss of power. We'll get more updates for you on that. But about 200,000 individual households lost power. And it's going to take time for HECO to get that back online. I believe we were flying some of their personnel over to Big Island to get them there.

The other things that you need to know, don't take it for granted yet today, as mayor said, there's still winds out there and one big gust can move a large vehicle around. That's why they're very smart to suspend some of the bus work. We just can't have those kind of accidents. You'll get more from our experts on that.

This is what the rainfall looked like. It was actually 32 inches of rain in Laupahoehoe, 32 inches of rain. Unbelievable. And you know, in in a short period, just a few hours when that happens, they were getting two inches of rain per hour. That means all kinds of damage. And frankly, that's going to be major recovery.

I was on the phone with Senator Schatz this morning. I was communicating with Secretary Mullin, the Homeland Security director, and they've become very familiar with us. After the Kona Lows. You know, the volcano erupted last week, though it stayed intact in the park. We have all kinds of issues that have been occurring. There's a little earthquake off the coast of Kau last week.

These things keep happening. And in Washington, D.C., they don't even know what we're talking about. Sometimes when we tell them all these things happen. But when they saw these pictures, they knew. Here's the illustration very quickly of the inches of rain. You know,

apologize for the small print, but it tells you that, you know, in many places it was over two feet of rain. And so what you'll hear from Mayor Alameda is, number one, 100 houses or more are damaged and lost. Thank God it appears that no one died. There was one car accident, which we're not sure if it was completely connected to the storm or not.

But I got to tell you, if you're out driving around in a storm with winds and rain like that, really turn around and go home, because it's dangerous. And one accident can then lead to many others as the -- as the police and fire and EMS guys will tell you.

This is just the outlook. It basically says that a little bit more activity today and then tomorrow we should be fine. Not really going to be too much of a problem except for the rebuild. All airports are essentially open, but we've had a lot of flights canceled, 52 cancellations statewide for Hawaiian Airlines today. They paused until 10:00 a.m. just now for reassessment. Honolulu is open. Two of the four runways are operational. Lanai Air flights before 10:00 a.m. were canceled.

Yesterday I believe we had 190 flights that were paused or canceled. So people are going to be catching up on their travel. The harbors were closed. They're now beginning to reopen Honolulu Harbor. I'll let again our experts dive into that. But the harbors are good. They haven't sustained too much damage.

This is the highway closures. And you can see, Highway 11, the road that goes down from Hilo down to the south had many, many different areas that were closed. So it's going to take time to reconstruct that. So people should know that it's going to be difficult to get kids to school.

We'll make some comments more about that. We're going to have to repair Naalehu School. This in the wake of having to repair the other school, which was, Konawaena, which was badly, badly damaged in the Kona Low. So a lot of school work is going to happen, but were going to assess all these roads.

Maui also got hit pretty hard, too. The mayor and I can share with you, nothing as bad as the southern part of the Big Island. Just to give you a little idea of how we operationalize this, we have 226 National Guard on the job. Many thanks to General Logan and his whole team. We will send more. I've also been in touch with people that are at Pohakuloa, the feds, the military there are going to be more than willing to help us. We'll probably use their aid to get there.

We've had a bunch of high water vehicles here. Mayor and his team requested them. Of course, we'll always do that. They had them saving lives down in Naalehu.

And then finally, these are just some of the contacts which, you know. Please, if you have any questions, go to these Web sites and we can share (INAUDIBLE) -- WHITFIELD: All right. Apologies, we lost that signal. It's a little

dicey there coming from Honolulu there. Hawaii's governor, Josh Green, there breathing a bit of a sigh of relief after what was Hurricane Lala is now Tropical Storm Lala brushing by many of the islands there.

[16:10:08]

However, it did result in one death right now, about 200,000 households without power and some 100 or so houses that have been damaged or lost. We'll continue to watch, the lingering effects from that storm.

All right. Now, overseas, Moscow says it shot down more than 800 Ukrainian drones overnight in one of Kyiv's largest aerial attacks of the war. The targets included areas around the Russian capital, where many of the country's elite reside. In this video, you can see a large fire tearing through a warehouse south of Moscow following one of the strikes. Russia says at least six people were killed in today's attack.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russia continued its onslaught with missiles and drones causing the fire in Kyiv. The president says at least three people were killed. The attack comes as both sides continue to trade long range drone and missile strikes.

For some perspective now, we're joined by Ambassador William Taylor, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

Ambassador, I mean, how do you assess all of this? Ukraine's president, you know, has been asking the U.S. to sell him more Patriot interceptors. What do you think the dynamics are right now?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Fredricka, the dynamics, as you've just described, both sides are badgering the other or bludgeoning the other. And this is having an effect on civilians in both sides. The Ukrainians are focusing on distribution of military equipment. They're also starting to go after the facilities that manufacture these missiles.

The only thing that the Russians have to do damage in Ukraine is, and its big damage, are these ballistic missiles. And as you just indicated, the Ukrainians used to be able to knock these down, defend against those missiles. Now they can't because they don't have them. They've been used to a great degree in the war in Iran. And there are just not that many missiles that the Ukrainians can use to defend themselves.

WHITFIELD: A variety of strategies are, you know, being executed by Ukraine as of late. It is trying to hit some warehouses, which is like the equivalent of Amazon. But this time, you know, in Russia. Impactful?

TAYLOR: It certainly is impactful in that it disrupts supplies going to the military. The Wild Berries, this like Amazon, provides military equipment to soldiers on the front. But they also affect the distribution of goods to the Russian people. The Russian people who have not been exposed to this war are now being -- they now see it's coming home to them. So they're having an effect. That said, what really is going to be effective against these ballistic missiles is going after these manufacturing facilities.

WHITFIELD: And then flip side to that, Russia has, you know, blocked Ukraine's export of grain through the Black Sea. What are the wider implications of that potentially?

TAYLOR: So that could have an effect on world food, and that could have an effect on people all over the world who depend on Ukraine for their supplies of mainly grains, but also sunflower oil and other important facilities for them. And the Russians have done this before. There had been an agreement not to do that, but the Russians violated it, and now they're picking it up again.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ambassador William Taylor, always great to have you. Thank you so much.

TAYLOR: Thank you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East making a visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln as that carrier's extra-long deployment puts a spotlight on the strain on sailors who have been at sea since Thanksgiving of last year.

Plus, not one, not two, but three homeruns in his Major League Baseball debut. We'll introduce you to the rookie who spent years in the minors before finally getting his crack at the big leagues with this historic debut.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:52]

WHITFIELD: As concern grows about the well-being of the crew members aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, visited them this weekend on the aircraft carrier as it supports the U.S. war with Iran.

Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, called the record-breaking deployment, quoting now, "one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era," end quote.

CNN's Julia Benbrook is following this from Basking Ridge, New Jersey, near where the president has been spending the weekend.

Julia, what more do we know about the admiral's visit?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a new statement from CENTCOM chief Admiral Brad Cooper, where he is calling this recent visit that he made to the USS Abraham Lincoln, quote, "awe inspiring." And this visit, it comes as there are concerns about the conditions on the ship and the mental health of those on board.

The Lincoln has been deployed for nearly nine months as it has been supporting operations in the Middle East, and its combat mission has prevented it from making stops at friendly ports, to gather supplies and to let the sailors rest.

[16:20:03]

This has led to a number of family members voicing concerns about those that are on the ship, and a crew member servicing the ship recently told CNN that morale right now is very low and that there is this regular strain on some of the essential amenities.

Cooper, in this statement, said that out of the 11 active aircraft carriers that the Lincoln is actually among the lowest cases related to mental health right now. He went on to say this, quote, "This doesn't mean that all is perfect. Find any of the nearly four million Navy veterans in America today and they will likely tell you that service at sea for long periods isn't for everyone. It is uniquely challenging and tough, and every single one of us, including me, reacts to stressors in different ways."

So President Donald Trump himself reacted to some of these concerns recently, and he seemed to dismiss them. He struck a bit of a different tone. He said that he believed that this lengthy deployment had not gone on nearly long enough. Those comments are drawing criticism from many. He did also say that the Lincoln would soon travel out of the region, that it would be replaced by a very similar ship, and one official did tell us that that swap was previously planned -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Julia Benbrook, thanks so much.

All right. Coming up, there's a new effort to diagnose a deadly brain disease linked to repeated head trauma in living patients. We'll talk with one of the lead researchers about getting former NFL players to participate in this potentially groundbreaking CTE study.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:26:11]

WHITFIELD: All right, a first of its kind study aims to break through what is currently impossible in sports medicine, diagnosing CTE in living patients. CTE is a degenerative brain disease with similar characteristics to Alzheimer's that's linked to repeated head trauma from contact sports or even military combat. Previous studies have shown that repetitive hits to the head, even without concussion, can result in CTE. But a formal diagnosis only comes from an autopsy.

This new study is evaluating brain scans and other health metrics of former football players against a control group of Alzheimer's patients who did not play contact sports.

Joining me right now to discuss is Dr. Michael Alosco, co-director of clinical research at Boston University's CTE Center. He was also one of the lead researchers of this ongoing study.

Doctor, great to see you.

DR. MICHAEL ALOSCO, LEADING CTE STUDY: Hi, Fredricka. Great to be here. Nice to meet you.

WHITFIELD: Nice to meet you as well. So let's start with why is it so difficult to diagnose CTE while a patient is alive?

ALOSCO: Yes. I think, you know, we're dealing with a progressive brain disease and you can think of Alzheimer's disease. We've been studying Alzheimer's disease for years and years and years, and we've gotten to the point where we can be confident in that one. CTE, we really just started to characterizing what that disease looks like in the brain through people who have donated their brain. And so we know what to look for now.

Now it's about gathering all of this data so we can put the data together. And it's kind of like a puzzle, putting the pieces of the puzzle together so that we can come up with the most accurate diagnoses. So there's a lot of pieces here, and that's what we're trying to do.

WHITFIELD: So what kind of insights are you looking for with these trials? Meaning like, how do you get some of this data from a living patient? Is it, you know, more than an MRI? What does it entail?

ALOSCO: Yes, it's pretty -- it's pretty extensive. It's usually about a day and a half visit to our center. And we're doing things like asking them a bunch of questions. So we call that a history, taking a history of the patient. But then we're looking at pictures of the brain, taking a brain MRI. We're doing PET scans. So we -- so CTE is a disease characterized by abnormalities of a tau protein. We have this really great technology now where we might be able to visualize that.

So we're doing that. We're doing blood draw. Can we detect CTE in the blood? And then we're doing a bunch of thinking and memory tests assessing the mood and behavior. So we're attacking this from all angles because this disease can affect a lot of different areas of the brain. And we're trying to find out where and if we can find out where, then we're going to get to the point where we can really accurately diagnose it.

WHITFIELD: So in order to do studies like this and have a great outcome, you need candidates. You need some of these living patients. Who are some of the recruits, so to speak, that you've been able to get?

ALOSCO: Yes, exactly. It's really a partnership with people who are willing to volunteer their time to come out, spend a day and a half with us and allow us to really, you know, do take pictures of their brain and do all these things I talked about. So we're really grateful for the -- for people who played in the National Football League, college football players, and really all people who have had this history of head trauma we're interested in. So it's been a great partnership with our participants.

WHITFIELD: Of course a lot of parents of young athletes, you know, are very concerned about letting their kids participate in contact sports like football or even soccer because they're afraid of these kind of, you know, head injuries. How do you suppose this study or the outcome of this possibly helping to change the game or the approach to amateur and professional sports?

ALOSCO: Yes, it's a great question. You know, I think of this study in our research broadly in two domains, right? So one is we're on -- we're studying people who are older, 50 years or older, and we want to be able to detect CTE in life because if we can detect it, then we can really start to pursue treatment trials, right?

[16:30:05]

But the other arm of our research is really investigating what are the long-term effects of these repeated head traumas, or repeated hits to the head. And we've been doing this for a while now, starting back in 2008, and we've raised a lot of awareness. And that awareness, you've already seen changes, right? You're seeing people play flag football until longer. You're seeing different techniques. You're seeing changes to things like soccer and the age you can head the ball. You're seeing changes to when you can check in ice hockey.

So, you've seen a lot of these reforms, and you've seen it also in the National Football League, all the different rule changes and policy changes they've made that have been great. And if we can get those to trickle down to the younger levels, that'll be even better.

WHITFIELD: So, fascinating. All right. You know, everyone commends you on this incredible work and the breakthrough kind of research that you're doing, because it certainly offers new hope. All right. Dr. Michael Alosco, thank you so much.

DR. ALOSCO: Thank you. Appreciate it.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, Hamas leader is set to meet with Trump envoy, Jared Kushner, after Israel rejected the latest deal. We'll take a look at a new push to get the Gaza ceasefire plan back on track.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:35:00]

WHITFIELD: President Trump's son-in-law is in Egypt hoping to find a way to get the Gaza peace talks back on track. Sources tell CNN Jared Kushner met with the new leader of Hamas along with the director of the Board of Peace, which is the U.S.-led body created to oversee the post-war Gaza. Israel has rejected the Trump peace plan for the Palestinian enclave, a move slammed earlier today by several countries in a joint statement. All this as near-daily Israeli military strikes continue in Gaza. Oren Liebermann has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: As the Trump administration tries to push forward the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement in Gaza, U.S. envoy Jared Kushner is here to try to push forward that stalled agreement, holding meetings in Egypt and Israel to see if it's possible to make progress here.

But he's walking into an incredibly difficult diplomatic situation. On Sunday, Kushner held meetings with Hamas' new leader, Khalil al-Hayya, who was also the chief negotiator at the time of the previous ceasefire agreement back in October. He also met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He is a key mediator between Israel and Hamas and was one of the key elements in getting that previous agreement. On Monday, he'll meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The real question here is, is it possible to make any progress here? Hamas has, from their perspective, made clear their position. They have agreed to disarmament, but they refuse to begin that process until there's the deployment of an international security force to Gaza to take over security, and Israel starts withdrawing from the more than half of Gaza that it occupies.

Until then, Hamas has made clear they're not moving forward on disarmament, except that international security force doesn't exist in any real way that's deployable to Gaza, and Israel has made clear they have no intention of withdrawing at all from the territory they occupy in Gaza until Hamas fully disarms, something Israel is skeptical will actually happen.

And that is the situation Kushner walks into, in which he's trying to see if it's possible to move forward with the agreement. He also has with him Board of Peace Director General Nickolay Mladenov, who has met with the parties before. But these difficulties here have existed and continue to exist as Kushner and Mladenov will try to push forward these agreements.

Meanwhile, the mediator mediating countries as well as several other Arab and Muslim states put out a joint statement on Sunday condemning Israel for its rejection of the Trump-brokered 15-point agreement that's supposed to move forward the ceasefire in Gaza. In a joint statement, they said, such rejection confirms that Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory.

We'll see if that statement influences Kushner's thinking at all and the amount of pressure that he's willing to put on Israel to try to make progress here in what is and has been an incredibly difficult situation to try to manage and to try to make progress on.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, a booming industry promising bigger muscles and more confidence, but at what cost? We'll go inside the enhancement craze from social media influencers to athletes pushing the limits.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:40:00]

WHITFIELD: All right. This evening on CNN's The Whole Story, a deep dive into an old problem that's finding new appeal. Steroids and other performance enhancing drugs are known for sometimes catapulting and then derailing the careers of elite athletes. But now, PEDs are surging. Not for sports, but for looks. Young men seek them out, aiming to build up their bodies, often driven by online influencers like Ryan Johnson. Our Isobel Yeung profiles Johnson. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN JOHNSON, FITNESS INFLUENCER: Follow me back over here. Come down here as part of the morning routine. And we got some syringes right here. Get the little air bubble out of there. And that's good to go. And all you do is you pick a fat area. And you go to --

ISOBEL YEUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you have any fat areas?

JOHNSON: Oh, yes. So, like right over here is where I'll typically go. It's like the back fat. You don't even feel it.

YEUNG: Where do you do all your research?

JOHNSON: Just online, you know, online. YouTube, there's a lot of good creators out there who know their stuff. Reddit's a great place to hear about, of course, nerds like to talk on there, but then also real-life experiences.

YEUNG: Is that worrying at all that you -- you know, you're taking these drugs but you don't fully understand them?

JOHNSON: No, no. I mean, these all were created by scientists and stuff like that. You know, they've been out for years.

YEUNG: I guess not everything that scientists make is always good, right?

[16:45:00]

JOHNSON: I don't know. For my personal research, it's been good.

YEUNG: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. Fascinating, disturbing, frightening. Isobel Yeung with us now. You're not the one who's disturbing, but just hearing that, I mean, it sounds like, you know, he believes he's well- researched, but then there's also kind of like, let's just take a chance. I mean, how big of a problem is this kind of laissez-faire attitude?

YEUNG: Hi, Fredricka. Yes. Well, I mean, it's a growing phenomenon. I mean, Ryan is just one of a growing number of influencers, of podcasters, of looks-maxers, people you might have seen on your social media feed who are promoting the use of these performance-enhancing drugs, so things like testosterone and steroids, in order to achieve this hyper-masculine ideal that so many young men are looking for right now. I mean, Ryan himself is just 22 years old. He told us that he makes tens of thousands of dollars every single month advising young men on what performance-enhancing drugs to take, how many of them to take, how to transform their bodies to look just like his. I mean, this advice goes, you know, in the face of the advice that every single doctor I've spoken to on this subject says, which is that you shouldn't really be taking these drugs unless there's some kind of medical necessity to do so.

And in fact, many of them warn of the very serious complications that could arise from taking these drugs, particularly, you know, cardiovascular issues, psychological issues, sexual issues. There's so many things that could go wrong in the long-term by taking these drugs. But that said, the amount of people who are taking them does seem to be increasing. In fact, testosterone prescriptions for men grew 50 percent in the last five years. That's according to Epic Research.

And so, what our documentary is really hoping to explore is are the companies who are selling these drugs, you know, preying on the insecurities of young men, or are they providing opportunities for people to live a better, enhanced lifestyle, which is what they say they're doing?

WHITFIELD: Interesting. As lucrative as this might be for Ryan Johnson, you also spoke with another user who had drastically different outcome and experience. Tell us about him.

YEUNG: Yes. So, we spoke to a young man called Micaiah. He was just 15 when he started taking performance-enhancing drugs. He said that he felt very insecure, that he was bullied for the way that he looked. He said that he was very skinny as a teenager, and he turned to social media. He started seeing on his feed, and obviously the algorithms kept feeding him, you know, more and more stacked individuals who were taking these drugs, and he saw a very simple solution, which was to start taking them.

He got into bodybuilding, and he started taking a cocktail of very potent drugs. And very quickly that escalated. At one point he said he was injecting himself 12 times a day.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

YEUNG: I know, it's insane. And at the age of 20, he said that he suffered heart failure and a heart attack. I mean, obviously Micaiah's story is extreme, and we were able to speak to many people who said that they saw many, many benefits of taking drugs like testosterone. But I would say that from having dived very deep into the data, that it does seem like it's still catching up in terms of to what extent it is safe or not to be taking these drugs.

WHITFIELD: Incredible. All right. Isobel Yeung, thank you so much for bringing this to us. Of course, we'll be watching to see more of Isabel's report on this week's episode of The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper. Watch "Stacked: Inside the Enhancement Craze" at 8:00 p.m. Eastern here -- right here on CNN, and the next day on the CNN app, starting tonight.

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[16:50:00]

WHITFIELD: You could probably call it the best Major League debut of all time. Cardinals rookie Joshua Baez becoming the first player in Major League history to hit three home runs in his first three career at-bats. Think of it as throwing three touchdowns in your first three passes in the NFL or maybe three number one hits with the release of your first three songs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSHUA BAEZ, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS ROOKIE: It's unreal. I really can't put it into words, but it's honestly just a dream come true. To be honest, I was just trying to stay calm and just trying to embrace it. The only thing was just to have fun. I had no idea that I was going to be able to hit three home runs in one game. It's just surreal right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Nice. And it was a surreal baseball day as well for the Lombard family. On August 4th, with his parents in the stands, shortstop George Lombard Jr. homers in his big-league debut with the New York Yankees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 0-2. Hit in the air. Deep left field. (INAUDIBLE) is back. George Lombard Jr. has entered the yard and left it. His first big league hit. His first big league homer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And ditto, that same day, 1,200 miles away, his younger brother, Jacob, also smashes a home run during his debut as a shortstop with the Jupiter Hammerheads. They're the single-A affiliate for the Miami Marlins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A tenth of an inch. But they have no challenges remaining the rest of the game. Breaking ball. Hit high in the air. Deep left field. Going back. As Haskins he turns, and this ball is gone.

[16:55:00]

First hit, first RBI, and first professional home run for Marlins' first-round draft pick, Jacob Lombard, and we are tied at one here in the third.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: Insane. It's in the blood. The brothers both homered in their second-plate appearances of the night. Both hits were off- breaking balls, and according to the MLB, both homers had nearly identical launch angles and speed. This afternoon, I spoke with Judy Prado Lombard, George Jr. and Jason's mom.

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JUDY PRADO LOMBARD, JACOB AND GEORGE LOMBARD JR.'S MOTHER: These boys have worked so hard, and watching those videos, I can watch them over and over again.

WHITFIELD: And I bet you do. I would if I were you. So, take me back to that night. I mean, I know you watch the videos to kind of relive it, but really tell me how you were thinking and feeling. What was the pit like in your stomach? And how did you manage knowing what was going on with 1,200 miles apart?

LOMBARD: Well, honestly, the nerves were real. I mean, we were -- there's something about having your debut as a young kid, first professional game, another thing, doing it at Yankee Stadium, you know, legendary. So, the nerves, at least for me, I kept just looking at my son like, I hope you're holding on OK because I know my nerves were -- it was tough.

And then, needless to say, after the game started, he seemed like he felt right at home. And luckily, he's a very even keel kid. So, he handled it great, and we couldn't be more proud of him.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. How incredible. I mean, your husband, George Sr., I mean, he's a bench coach for the Detroit Tigers after his own professional career. So, you kind of have a sense of what this world is like, and probably a big sense.

But, I mean, can you describe what this moment was for him? Because when we look at the video of just both of you nearly, you know, falling off the bleachers there, describe for me what you were thinking and feeling. I mean, something tells me, though, you were also kind of planning your whole lives around this kind of moment.

LOMBARD: You know, it's funny you say that because even though you dream about that day, when it gets there, it seems so surreal. Like, it speeds up on you. You just can't believe that you're actually there, and you're sitting at the stadium. And I'm trying to take it all in. I told my husband, I'm like, I don't want to get on my phone. I don't want to take a picture. I don't want to take a video. I just want to soak in the moment because this is such a special moment.

And you hear 50,000 people yelling your son's name. It just, it's surreal. Like, there's no other way to explain it. And my husband kept saying Detroit Tigers were really gracious in letting him be there for that special moment. They valued it as well, which was amazing because he was out in Seattle with the team. And he kept saying the whole time, I can't imagine if I wasn't here for this. I would have never forgiven myself. It was such an emotional moment for all of us. I mean, the work that goes into it. And my husband, he's been in baseball pretty much his whole life. He understands the greatness of that moment. And he's like, you know how difficult it is to just to hit a home run in a general game? He's like, to do it at this moment. He's like, it was just, I still, it's hard for me to put into words.

WHITFIELD: Oh, it's so great. I mean, this is a, like you said, when you have been on the path of helping to shape your kids in sports like this, this is a dream come true. You all are actually living that dream, but you put in the work too, mom. You were taking them to practices, the games, the camps, travel ball, all of that.

So, then for this to kind of come to fruition this way for you, I mean, while you may have dreamt it, was part of you also kind of thinking I don't know, this seems like a reach. And then now here you are.

LOMBARD: Right. I mean, it's like, you know, when your kids have this wild, crazy big dream and you just support them along the way, thinking like, it would be amazing, but you know, it's one in a million. So, let's see how this goes. But it does. There is a time where you kind of sit back and you say, you know, like the hour, the minutes, the hours, the days, the years, you know, those were long.

There was countless practices, countless -- you know, the part that people don't really see behind what has gone into this. And just the amount of days of the practices, of tournaments, of driving, of everything else that has gone into it. But at the end of the day, it's so worth it. I would do it a million times over because to see their dreams come true like that, even though it's just the beginning of his career and there's a lot more he wants to do in the game, just that first step was really great.

WHITFIELD: Well, wonderful. Congratulations to you, the entire family, the entire journey and endeavor. All the best. And what a great inspiration you all are.

LOMBARD: Thank you. And I appreciate you having me on the show. Thanks.

WHITFIELD: Absolutely. Absolutely. Thanks for being with us. All right. Thank you, Judy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And from those incredible high points to this sad news from the world of baseball, the MLB just announced that Tommy John, the legendary Yankees pitcher, has passed away.

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