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September Consumer Prices Rose 8.2 Percent; Netflix "Dahmer" Faces Criticism; Anderson Cooper is Interviewed about Anticipatory Grief. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired October 13, 2022 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just in, minutes ago, key inflation data.
CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans here with the numbers.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And, again, John, these are the numbers behind the Fed's epic move to cool inflation.
These are the numbers behind the fed's efforts to cool the inflation. These numbers are still too hot. Overall, annual inflation rate, 8.2 percent for consumer prices. These are the prices you pay at the grocery store and at the mall, right? What consumers feel, 8.2 percent. That slows just a little bit. So, we want to see. But, still, 8 percent is something that every family still feels.
The core -- the month over month number I'm really worried about here, up 0.4 percent month over month. Economists have been telling me they expect it to tick up to maybe 0.2 percent - 0.4 percent, though, is much hotter than they had expected. And the government is saying it's shelter, food, and medical care are the reasons why these -- this inflation rate went up.
When you strip out food and energy and you look at the month over month increase, this core rate, it was still hot at 0.6 percent. So, from last month to this month, up 0.6 percent in prices. Look, this is why the Fed has been so aggressive with interest rates. We know at its most recent Fed meeting that officials were worried that they had been raising interest rates and these numbers are still too high. So, it shows the Fed has more work to do.
John.
BERMAN: Yes, and that core inflation rate, high. Very high.
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: And, Romans, you just hit on what I think is the most important question here in terms of the Fed raising interest rates. There have been some people saying, OK, it's too much already. You're raising rates to high. You're going to force the economy into a recession. But they're raising the rates and inflation is still high at this point.
ROMANS: Yes, you know, they were criticized for acting too late and now they're being criticized for acting too aggressively, worried about what kinds of dislocation that could cause in the global economy, because it's not just the Fed raising interest rates, it's a lot of the other central banks are as well.
And this is not a U.S. problem. Let's be clear. We have a global inflation problem. Around the world, central banks are raising interest rates to try to get ahold of what is a global problem with high prices.
BERMAN: Yes, but if you think of interest rates as a fire hose, they're not going to be able to turn off that hose anytime soon with inflation persistent like this.
ROMANS: That's right.
BERMAN: That's what the thinking must be.
Christine romans, thank you very much.
[08:35:03]
The new series from Netflix about Jeffery Dahmer is now one of the top shows on the streaming service. Why the show and true crime as a genre now facing new backlash.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, Anderson Cooper is going to join us live as a new episode of his hit podcast releases, including a candid revelation about the loss of his beloved nanny.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) on me when I ain't done nothing wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I called you for what (ph)?
And it's too late.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Netflix's new series about the life and crimes of serial killer Jeffery Dahmer getting a lot of viewers, but also a lot of serious backlash. "Dahmer Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story," has racked up more than 700 million viewing hours in just three weeks according to the streaming service. It's the fourth most viewed Netflix series of all time, the second most viewed English language series, and it's been number one on Netflix for weeks now.
[08:40:07]
But with success has come criticism, with some people accusing the show of exploiting the families of Dahmer's victims for entertainment and profit.
Joining us now is film and culture writer Sara Stewart.
You know, Sara, what do you think about this? It kind of feels like there's this critical mass of criticism that we've heard of this genre before, but it's happening now with this particular program because of how popular it is.
SARA STEWART, FILM AND CULTURE WRITER: Exactly. I think, you know, there are few true crime shows that have really risen to this level of popularity. And I think this has made a lot of -- more people aware of the need to amplify victims' voices in a way that we haven't really thought about before. I mean I consider myself a true crime fan. I've certainly absorbed a lot of true crimes. But I think that many of us who watch a series in this genre weren't aware that victims' families were not being consulted at all in participation with these shows. And there's a lot of anger I think rightfully so about using their stories for entertainment.
BERMAN: Yes, just to be clear, this is an essay from the sister of one of the victims. I was never contacted about the show. I feel like Netflix should have asked if we mind or how we felt about making it. They didn't ask me anything. They just did it. But I'm not money hungry, and that's what this show is about. Netflix trying to get paid.
I guess my question is, if you think about some of the works over the last, you know, 50, 60 years, "In Cold Blood," "Helter Skelter," "Executioner's Song," you know, true crime is wildly popular and sometimes considered to be an art form in and of itself.
Is there something different about this that makes it more objectionable to people?
STEWART: Well, I think we're just - we're reaching a sort of different moment in true crime. I agree, I mean "True Blood" captivated the entire world. And I think that true crime has always been, at a very primal level, interesting for everyone just because there is something sort of horrifically interesting about these stories that you can't look away from. But I think that there are several things that are kind of intertwined here to make this a different case.
First of all, we really didn't need another telling of the story of Jeffery Dahmer. It's not like this is a little-known story that no one knew. And also I think social media has really played into it in an interesting way in making people aware of different voices whereas before you basically had often white men telling the story of these crimes and putting out this entertainment with really no opportunity for the people on the other end of the story to tell their stories.
KEILAR: And then, you know, Lifetime has this movie out recently here about Gabby Petito, which, I mean, it feels like it just happened. Like, she was just murdered the other day. And they came under criticism as well for not consulting the family. That -- the turn around on that one was just, you know, whiplash. STEWART: And I think the Gabby Petito story is particularly
interesting because Director Thora Birch has said that she thought that the movie would be an educational one for young women. And in some ways I think that's true. I think it has some lessons to teach people about looking for the signs of domestic abuse. But at the same time, Gabby Petito's family has been very clear that they were not asked about this movie. It does feel like this crime just happened. And it just seems like it was too soon. And people feel rightfully that it's a violation of their privacy.
KEILAR: Yes, you can definitely see it from the perspective of these families, how difficult it must be.
Sara Stewart, thank you for being with us this morning.
BERMAN: All right, Anderson Cooper discusses anticipatory grief in this week's episode of his podcast "All There Is with Anderson Cooper." He will join us live, next.
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[08:48:02]
KEILAR: On this week's episode of the podcast "All There Is with Anderson Cooper," Anderson looks at anticipatory grief and talks about the process of slowly losing his beloved nanny, May McLinden, to Alzheimer's disease.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Watching her decline. Watching all the dreams I'd had of giving her a house or having her live with me when I had kids one day, watching all that disappear was -- it was liking nothing I had ever experienced.
It was a different kind of grief. Different than my mom. Different than my dad. Different than my brother. After a time May stopped speaking words. When I'd visit, she - she still knew who I was, but she'd open her mouth and the only sound that came out was a single note, like she was singing. Ahh. Ahh.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: And Anderson is with us now, along with Sebastian, who we're so happy to have him come back again with us.
Hi, buddy.
Anderson, it's so moving. And I know so many people have lost someone slowly like this are going to appreciate you giving voice to this process for them. Can you talk to us a little bit more about this concept of anticipatory grief?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I hadn't - I actually had never heard the term before and a filmmaker named Kirsten Johnson, who I interview in this - in this episode of the podcast, she's the one who mentioned it in an incredible film she did called "Dick Johnson is Dead," about her father. She lost her mom to Alzheimer's in 2007. Her father now struggles with dementia. And we actually talk to him during the interview as well.
But it's this idea, and I think it's anybody whose, you know, lost a loved one to dementia or Alzheimer's, who's dealing with that, or any terminal illness, it's the idea of, you know, seeing the gradual decline, the disappearance of somebody before your eyes.
[08:50:05]
And it's that anticipating what is to come. You know it's not going to necessarily get any better. It's going to be this drawn-out thing. And so you're already anticipating their death, you're anticipating being without them in your life, and yet they're still there in front of you. It's a - it's a particular kind of grief and it's, you know, it's, obviously, very, very difficult to deal with. And it's nice, you know, when people talk about it and to know that you are not the first person who's gone down this road.
BERMAN: You know, I never heard that concept either, until you mentioned it just now. Sort of like the horror movie where it's not the loud noise that's the worst, it's thinking -- knowing that it's going to come that I think tears you up the most inside.
We have a clip of your conversation with that filmmaker, Kirsten Johnson. Let's listen.
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KRISTEN JOHNSON: One of the classic stories I tell is him waking up in the middle of the night extremely worried that a patient is downstairs. And I can't convince him logically that the patient is not there.
So then I go downstairs with him. Then what happens, he looks around. He's like, there's no patient. And he's like, oh, you were right. And then he says, it must be incredibly difficult to watch your father lose his mind.
COOPER: Wow.
JOHNSON: Oh, like -
COOPER: So he had the self-awareness of what was happening to him?
JOHNSON: Yes. Yes. That would go in and out. But when it was in, you know, it's like a knife in your heart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Wow.
COOPER: Yes.
BERMAN: And, Anderson, you said one of the reasons she was so great to talk to is she -- she talked to you about the importance of being able to get to know someone even after they die. What does she mean by that?
COOPER: Yes. Yes, this is a concept to me which kind of blew my mind, and I just think it's so important and it can give hope to so many people. It's this idea that your relationship - just, death is not the end of your relationship with that person. And I know maybe that sounds like too, sort of, out there. But when you think about it, you're - you will continue to have a relationship with the person who has died. I continue to have a relationship with May McLinden, this nanny I had for 15 years, who was really a mother to me, as close to me as my mom and my dad. And I was -- I stayed involved in her life for the rest of her life, even after she no longer was my nanny.
But my relationship with her changes. Having children, having my kids, I understand May in a different way than I did before. I - I know what she was doing when she was caring for me. I see her in a different way.
And Kirsten was talking about that. And I think that's a really important idea that you can get to know somebody -- even after they're gone, you can get to know them in a deeper way by reading something that they wrote or going through their things or, as you evolve, you know, as you become - as I become a 55-year-old man, I can better understand what my mom went through when she lost her husband, my dad, when she was 50, or when, you know, when -- I can understand things as a parent about my parents that I didn't understand before.
So, even they're - that they're no longer present, they are still very present in your life and your relationship with them evolves. And it -- to me, that's a really hopeful thing because it - it means that that love that you have, that bond that you have, it's obviously different and you wish they were there, but it - it evolves and you can still talk to them and have a relationship with them and understand them in a new and deeper way.
KEILAR: Anderson, what kind of reaction have you been getting to this incredible series?
COOPER: Yes, it's been really extraordinary. I mean it's been overwhelming. I've received, I can't tell you, how many thousands of direct messages from people on Instagram, which is generally the way I communicate on social media at all. And it's just been incredibly deep messages of people talking me about the losses they've experienced and how they've dealt with it and what they're taking from the podcast and ideas for the podcast. And I - it's just - there is an ocean of loss and an ocean of grief. This is the most universal of human experiences.
Someone DMed me today saying, like, we all talk about birth and talk about that freely, we don't talk about end of life, we don't talk about death and loss as freely. And I think this is a conversation a lot of people would like to have because not having it doesn't make it go away. Not having it only makes you feel just more lonely and isolated as I've felt for a long time.
KEILAR: So true. It is so important what you're doing, Anderson, and I'm so glad that we get to talk about this with you this morning.
Thank you so much for sharing some time with us.
COOPER: My pleasure. Sure, my pleasure.
KEILAR: And Sebastian, as always. See you later, bud.
COOPER: He's very mellow.
KEILAR: And be sure to - he is. He's so like -- he's so cool about this always.
You can be sure to check out the latest episode of "All There Is with Anderson Cooper" available now wherever you get your podcast or you can just scan the QR code on your screen, give you a second, with your phone to find the podcast.
[08:55:01]
BERMAN: All right, breaking news, CNN has learned that a U.S. citizen has died in Ukraine. We're told that it happened in the Donbas region. That's in this eastern part of the country. CNN is working to confirm the identity of the American. The State Department wrote in part, we are in touch with the family and are providing all appropriate assistance. Out of respect for the family's privacy during this difficult time, we have nothing further to add. The State Department did not indicate the manner of death. For context, there are some Americans fighting in Ukraine against Russian forces.
Back in just a moment.
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BERMAN: Budweiser's Clydesdale herd is growing by two. The Missouri ranch that breeds the horses announced there is a new colt and filly.
[09:00:04]
At birth, Clydesdale foals stand about 3 feet tall and weigh about 150 pounds. How about that?
Incidentally, Anheuser-Busch recently announced the end of its more than 33-year exclusive deal with the Super Bowl. The Clydesdales stared in 30 Super Bowls commercials since their 1986 debut.
Our congratulations to the whole Clydesdale family.
KEILAR: Yes, hats off to mom.
BERMAN: CNN's coverage continues right now.
