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The Situation Room

One-on-One with Media Pioneer John Malone; Time Fathers Spend with Children has Increased 20 Since 1960s; Opioids Take a Back Seat in One U.S. Emergency Room. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 05, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JOHN MALONE: Country succeed. It really almost leads to totalitarian leadership because people just give up and they say they want a strong person to just do it because they don't have time to even think about it.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Do you see that happening right now?

MALONE: I think to a large degree -- I think to a large degree, it is. To a large degree, the younger population is turning to blogs and other narrower opinion type entities because they feel that they're getting a version of the facts that is more likely to be something they can agree with.

BROWN: Right. So, then, where -- what do you think the future of cable news is five or 10 years down the road?

MALONE: Well, I think that those cable news -- the types of news that are in real-time, there's always going to be enormous appetite for people to have access to breaking news. I mean, truly breaking news. If you take financial entities, take, you know, CNN or CNBC, there's always going to be an appetite to keep up with factual news that is changing constantly and hear opinions about things like investment portfolios and stuff of that nature.

BROWN: Right.

MALONE: For CNN, I think there's an enormous opportunity to take the great journalism and the span of interest that you have. First of all, just make sure it's accessible to everybody. And I know there's work going on in that regard. And I -- in fact, I had one discussion. I was in Ireland and I said, I can't get U.S. news in Ireland. And if there was an app that I could just watch CNN, U.S. CNN live, I would love that, right. And it just points out that when AT&T CNN Plus, and we took a look at it pre-merger, we said, this is not going to work, because it doesn't include CNN. Why doesn't it include CNN? Well, it doesn't include CNN because CNN is tied up in contractual agreements that we would preclude it from offering it directly to the public, right?

So, there are have been things that have to get worked through, and I'm certainly having been on all sides of this, I'm cognizant of that. BROWN: Yes, you have.

MALONE: but first of all, you got to make sure -- you've got to make sure that your service is readily available. Easy to get into, to tie into, and affordable.

BROWN: Yes.

MALONE: So, you know that -- those are the fundamental issues of attracting a large audience. And then, just making sure that you do a good job of what you do. And in particular, if there's going to be a debate on whose truth is right, you're sort of a neutral observer of that debate, I guess I would say.

BROWN: Yes. Let me just ask you --

MALONE: I think those kinds of characteristics.

BROWN: Yes. And like I said, you know, your viewpoint is really interesting given the huge role you've had in shaping the mediascape we're in right now. And you talk about the big role that your father had in your life and he still does. You say you still think about the ghost of expectations. It really resonated with me. I'm still trying to make my parents proud even though they're no longer with us. So, tell us a little bit more about why you say you were driven by a desire to please your dad, and you still are at age 84, right?

MALONE: Yes. Late in life I've come to realize that my dad was autistic and so am I. So, was I. And it took my parents a great deal of effort to break me out of that isolation. And getting my dad's attention was the most important thing in my life and sort of continued to be even after he died. That I wanted to please him. I wanted to break through and have a relationship with him, which continued to motivate me through my whole life.

[10:35:00]

And I -- after I left home, I would latch onto other mentors. They were father figures, and I wanted to please them. And I think it's one of the motivators and probably one of the reasons I was successful in various roles through my career.

BROWN: When did you find out that you had high functioning autism?

MALONE: Really, when it started to show up in my grandchildren. And then, I look back at the family tree and I could see that on my dad's side. There's a history of what today we would call, you know, functional autism.

BROWN: Yes.

MALONE: But uniquely, perhaps, high IQ.

BROWN: Yes. I mean --

MALONE: But the lacking in social skills, lacking in in whatever one type -- you know, autism is many things, but lacking in -- let's just call it emotions. Just being able to relate to other people and wanting to be more isolated.

BROWN: Right. And you talk about this all in your book. Obviously, autism doesn't define you, but you've also used it as a superpower to get to where you are and your career and the legacy that you have created for yourself. John Malone, thank you so much for coming on the show and talking to us. Congrats on your book. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

BROWN: Why are men and boys falling behind? That is a question I've been looking into. I'm a mom of two young boys and I'm curious about this. So, I'm examining that question from different angles. For the second day of our series, we look into fatherhood. A 2018 study from the Pew Research Center shows that 63 percent of fathers say they spend too little time with their children. But on the bright side, the data shows that since the ninth show, I should say, that since the 1960s, the time father spends with their children has increased by over 250 percent.

I recently met with Richard Reeves, author and founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, which uses evidence-based research to understand the challenges facing this population. Reeves says fatherhood is a load-bearing wall for our society, and that children, especially boys, need a father figure in their lives to thrive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: How important are dads in the life of a boy?

RICHARD REEVES, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR BOYS AND MEN: I've come to believe that fatherhood is a load-bearing wall for our society. And what I mean by that is that we can hold in our head the idea that there are all kinds of families, and I'm sure that people listening to this conversation will become -- have families in all shapes and sizes, but nonetheless, the role of fathers in the lives of their sons and their daughters, but especially their sons, is absolutely fundamental.

And whilst a lot of what we do as parents is very similar to each other, like most of what parents do is completely transferable. I don't know. You've got young kids, right?

BROWN: Yes.

REEVES: Would you agree with that?

BROWN: I always say I'm living parallel lives with all these other parents out in the world, you know, no matter what our background is or --

REEVES: And most of it. There's no -- I mean, there's no feminine mystique to changing a diaper.

BROWN: Yes.

REEVES: Right?

BROWN: Yes.

REEVES: Right? There's -- like there's nothing about that says, oh, I can't do that. Sorry.

BROWN: Yes.

REEVES: If I had tried that, it's like, sorry, men don't do that. Like my fingers don't work that way or something.

BROWN: Right, exactly.

REEVES: So, that's true. But it's also true that fathers do bring something and mothers bring something a little bit distinct to the parenting enterprise, actually, especially when kids get a little bit older, like when they get into teenage years, et cetera. It turns out that dads are really important for kind of teenagers and adolescents, girls and boys, but especially boys, getting out into the world, kind of learning how to navigate the world, take some risks.

So, again, at the risk of stereotyping, but true on the average, dads are a little bit better encouraging their kids to take risks. Moms are a little bit better at keeping them safe. And so, the stereotype here would be throwing your kid in the air, right? You throw your kid in the air and catch them. When dads do that, they get a spike in the hormone oxytocin, which is like the bonding hormone. Moms get that spike from being physically close to their kids. Dads get it from throwing them in the air.

Now, I find that a beautiful difference. All right. We can both hormonally change, we can both bond with our children, but we just do it a bit differently. And in the case of dads, it is more through that kind of physicality. It is through some of that play. Not that dads can't cuddle and that moms can't throw their kids in the air.

BROWN: Of course. Right.

REEVES: I'm not suggesting that, but I'm going to suggest that if you kind of wander around any kind of park like this or just that, and I -- and you see a parent throwing a kid in the air --

BROWN: It's probably the dad?

REEVES: Probably the dad.

BROWN: And it's probably -- I mean, I've definitely been guilty. Be careful, make sure they -- their head doesn't hit the ceiling. You know, I'm --

REEVES: That's right. So, you are fulfilling the maternal one. And that creative tension between moms and dads I think is really good. BROWN: Yes.

REEVES: I think it's like you need both, right? So, you don't want one parent to be completely reckless. You don't want the other one to be overly safe.

BROWN: Dad, they're better getting the kids out of the house and engaging in that free play.

REEVES: Yes. Out of the nest a little bit. Taking some risks. Learning how to kind of navigate the outside world, et cetera. And there's just a tension there. There's -- and I said, I think it's a really great and creative tension. And as soon as you get into any of these differences, as soon as you start to say there are some differences in what moms and dads bring, or the way men and women are, you really quite rightly run into this suspicion, where is he going with this?

[10:45:00]

Are you about to say not only is one different, but one's better, right? And this is why women should stay in the home, for example, like women are more caring, so they should stay at home and raise the kids, right? Where are you going with this thought?

And because people are afraid of that you might be going there with this thought, we actually end up, I think, not being willing to entertain the fact that there are, on the average, some differences between dads and moms, and they're awesome. And one isn't better than the other, but they compliment each other.

If, for example, you're raising kids in a same sex relationship, say two women, the women that I know that I've spoken to about this in that situation, work very hard to have father figures in their kids' lives. I find that lesbian couples raising children are actually the least hard to persuade that having some men around their kids is a good idea, right? They're the ones who are most aware of it. Probably because of their own circumstances.

And so, I don't think this has to be interpreted as some sort of traditional nuclear family argument, but I am very worried that we, again, inadvertently send the message to dads if they're basically just extra moms.

BROWN: So, what is your advice to the dads out there watching this?

REEVES: So, Jonathan, again, has this really great example where he says, imagine a parent who's being pretending to be a predator of their child, right? There's a parent who's chasing their kid around and they're a tyrannous rex, and they're going to catch them. They're going to eat them, right? It's always dad. And as he's --

BROWN: Although, I did the tickle monster last night. I was chasing her around being the tickle monster.

REEVES: That is a very fair response. Tickle monster, granted. But tickle monsters, don't catch.

BROWN: That's true.

REEVES: Kill and eat the child, right?

BROWN: That's interesting.

REEVES: And so, where --so if you've got some -- if a parent is pretending to be a predator that could potentially catch, eat, and kill the child, obviously not for real.

BROWN: For real.

REEVES: In case --

BROWN: We have to caveat that.

REEVES: What's happening in the kind of chase around, right, the tyrannosaurus rex is going to catch you. I'm going to eat, gobble you up, what's happening there is the child is kind of afraid, but they know it's dad and it's kind of fun. And then he's going to pick them up and it's going to -- but also, like, they're a little bit afraid. And so, they're going through -- they're learning. They're learning a little bit about fear. They're learning a little bit about how to survive in the world where there could, for example, be real predators, right, thinking about this historically. And that's just a great difference that kind of dads can bring, which is there's a certain energy that they bring to the parenting enterprise that is good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And our thanks to Richard. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

BROWN: Well, this morning, we are paging Dr. Gupta about pain. Sanjay visits an emergency room in Brooklyn where doctors are using new methods to manage it with opioids as a last resort. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Is opioids still sort of the therapy of choice?

DR. LUKE WEBER, ER SHIFT LEADER, MAIMONIDES MEDICAL CENTER: Opioids is one of our therapies, but we take a lot of pride here in offering a wide variety of pain modalities.

DR. GUPTA (voice-over): It's called opioid optimization, and it is pioneering work designed by this man.

DR. SERGEY MOTOV, EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN, MAIMONIDES MEDICAL CENTER: Did you fall at all? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

DR. GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sergey Motov, an emergency medicine physician and research director at Maimonides.

DR. MOTOV: We decided to use (INAUDIBLE) as a primary, analgetic of choice, obviously after patient's agreement and resort to opioids only as a rescue.

DR. GUPTA (voice-over): That's right, opioids as the last resort for pain instead of the first. It's standard operating procedure here now, and they have found most of their patients are quite satisfied.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Sanjay spent more than three years researching pain management for his new book, "It Doesn't Have to Hurt," and he explains more about the shipped away from opioids.

DR. GUPTA (on camera): One thing I want to make clear is that opioids can be a lifesaver for a lot of people, but there's no question at the same time, we have overused them. In that emergency room you just saw, instead of using opioids as a first line therapy, they will use things like ketamine. They will use nerve blocks, they'll even use virtual reality. I saw a 76-year-old man who came in with a broken hip who ended up getting a nerve block and did not require opioids.

So, this isn't opioid free, but this is opioid minimized ERs. So, you're not seeing as much opioid use, and I think that is starting to be the shift that we're seeing all across the country. Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Sanjay, thanks so much. Watch "Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: It Doesn't Have to Hurt" this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. And Sanjay will be back next hour to answer your questions about managing pain.

Well, coming up the spat overshadowing the Eagles win over the Cowboys on the NFL's opening night. Our Coy Wire is in Philly this morning. Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. Here in the City of Brotherly Love, no love lost between two heated rivals. We'll run you through some of the highlights and one regrettable low light just for spits and giggles, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:55:00]

BROWN: Well, new this morning, incredible dash cam video. Have you seen this? A car flying over several lanes of the highway during rush hour traffic on Long Island. It landed against a tree on the other side of the highway. Police say the seven-year-old driver had a medical episode before the crash. He only suffered minor injuries and no other vehicles were hit, thankfully. Well, the NFL season has kicked off in dramatic fashion. The Philadelphia Eagles wasted their Super Bowl banner and got the W over the Dallas Cowboys, but a spat before the game's first snap is getting all the attention. Let's go straight to CNN's Sports Anchor Coy Wire. So, Coy, and bad weather and bad behavior reigned a bit on the Eagles' parade.

WIRE: Oh, my goodness. I've played nine years in the NFL, seen a lot of ball. This is one of the wildest NFL season openers I can remember. We had spats on the field. We had lightning. We had people getting spat on. It was a beautiful night in Philadelphia. The Super Bowl banner being unveiled for the defending champions. Philadelphia's own Boyz II Men singing the national anthem, fireworks going off. And then, a different type of fireworks.

After the opening kickoff, Eagles star defender Jalen Carter spit on Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. Carter is ejected from the game. And from a different angle, you can see that Prescott actually spit first towards the ground when two -- they were far apart. Carter walked over and he just spit right on Prescott's chest. The Eagles actually lost two players before their first snap. Another player getting injured on the opening kickoff. Things did calm down and the Cowboys offense came out hot, scoring the first touchdown of the new NFL season. They scored all 20 points on their first four drives.

The Eagles started out on fire too, scoring touchdowns on their first three drives. Star quarterback Jaylen Hertz leading rusher for the Eagles, two rushing touchdowns. 21-20 in Philly at halftime, but in the third quarter, a huge storm rolls in. And we had a weather delay. And Cowboys Trevon Diggs, he got so hungry, Pamela, at one point, he walked over to where the fans were in one of the clubs and got some food.

After more than an hour, the game continues and this was the moment. About two minutes to go, Cowboys all pro receiver CeeDee Lamb standout star on the night, seven catches, 110 yards, but he misses what would've been an incredible catch on the fourth down. So, the Eagles hold on to pull off a 24-20 win on this wild and wacky opening night.

And tonight, Pamela, a colossal clash, clash between the Chiefs. And we also have the Chargers. It's going to be a carnival of a gridiron glory. You have this showdown going in Sao Paulo, Brazil. So, get your (INAUDIBLE) ready or whatever you'll be sipping on. We have more football tonight.

BROWN: All right. Sounds like fun. Coy Wire, thank you so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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