This week on "Sunday Morning" (December 31)

The Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET.  "Sunday Morning" also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. (Download it here.) 

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Hosted by Jane Pauley.

COVER STORY: Good news you may have missed in 2023
Bad news can break suddenly, but good news can be found everywhere, all the time—if you know where to look. From technology and medicine to the environment, correspondent David Pogue brings us some of the recent headlines that remind us 2023 was in many ways a pretty good year!

For more info:

• Brightline (Express rail between South Florida and Orlando)
• Reshmi Srinath, director, Mount Sinai Weight and Metabolism Management Program
• Erik Brynjolfsson, director, Stanford Digital Economy Lab, Stanford University
• Beta Technologies

      
YEAR IN REVIEW:  Top news stories of 2023 month-by-month
From wars and Congressional battles, to a former president's indictments and the box-office success of "Barbenheimer," "Sunday Morning" host Jane Pauley looks back at key events of a dramatic year.

      
WORLD: The fight for Ukraine: 2023 witnesses a war of attrition
Nearly two years after Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine and tried to solidify his hold on the Crimean peninsula, Ukrainian and Russian forces have fought practically to a deadlock, with both sides doubling down. Correspondent Charlie D'Agata reports on the war that has been especially costly for Russia, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to press the United States and Western allies for support.

     
YEAR IN REVIEW: 2023's most popular music

     
YEAR IN REVIEW: Resolved: To keep making New Year's resolutions
Studies show most New Year's resolutions are bound to fail, yet we keep still making them – and have been doing so since the time of the ancient Babylonians. Correspondent Mo Rocca examines the history of New Year's Resolutions going back millennia. He also joins correspondent Nancy Giles in looking back at their own attempts at resolutions from years past – and how did those work out?

For more info:

• Candida Moss, professor of theology at the University of Birmingham

     
COMMENTARY: The Endangered Species Act at 50: "The most dazzling and impactful environmental feat of all time"
Historian Douglas Brinkley celebrates the success of the 1973 law that finally gave legal protection to America's iconic flora and fauna facing extinction. In the half-century since the law's introduction, an astonishing 99% of the threatened species originally listed have survived. 

For more info:

• "Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening" by Douglas Brinkley (HarperCollins), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• douglasbrinkley.com
• Save the Manatee Club
• Yurok Condor Restoration Program

     
WORLD: In the war between Hamas and Israel, both sides resist cease-fire
With Hamas' deadly October 7 assault on Israel, and the Israeli government's counteroffensive in Gaza entering its 13th week, military experts are already describing this as one of the most destructive wars of the 21st century. With both sides resistant to a cease-fire, correspondent Imtiaz Tyab looks at how peace of any kind seems a long way off.

YEAR IN REVIEW: Hail and farewell: A tribute to those we lost in 2023
"Sunday Morning" correspondent Lee Cowan remembers some of the newsworthy men and women who passed away this year – activists, musicians and storytellers who pushed boundaries, defied expectations, and inspired generations with their creativity and humanity.

        
COMMENTARY: Anderson Cooper on releasing the burden of grief
The "60 Minutes" and CNN journalist talks about the propensity among many people to bury their grief over lost loved ones in silence, and how hiding one's grief can inflict an additional burden.

For more info:

• "All There Is with Anderson Cooper: Facing Our Grief" (Podcast)

YEAR IN REVIEW: Remembering those lost in OceanGate's Titan submersible
Last June an undersea craft diving to the wreck of the Titanic imploded, killing all five on board. Correspondent David Pogue looks back at the adventurers and what their loss means -- to those left behind, and to the very spirit of exploration.

     
IN MEMORIAM: Newton Minow, who saw television's "vast wasteland" 
Jane Pauley looks back at Newton Minow, a one-time chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, whose many accomplishments were overshadowed by the withering criticism he laid at the feet of commercial television in 1961.

     
YEAR IN REVIEW: 2023's most popular movies

     
COMMENTARY: R.I.P Jim Gaffigan, by Jim Gaffigan
The comedian gets a jump on the obituary writers by composing a memorial for himself.

For more info:

• jimgaffigan.com | "Barely Alive" tour dates

     
NATURE: TBD
      

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WEB EXCLUSIVES:

THE BOOK REPORT: Ron Charles' favorite novels of 2023
The Washington Post book reviewer offers his picks for the best fiction of the year. 

FROM THE ARCHIVES: The photographer's eye II (YouTube Video)
More classic "Sunday Morning" interviews with noted photographers, including a 1982 profile of Bruce Davidson, who documents passengers on New York City's subway; from 1984, Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt on capturing the "intimacies of history"; from 1995, Sebastião Salgado discusses preserving the toil and dignity of workers; from 2001, celebrity photographer Harry Benson on orchestrating boxers and Beatles; and from 2020, outdoor photographer Erin Sullivan on how - adjusting to the COVID-19 pandemic - she turned her attention to miniature scenes shot indoors.    

FROM THE ARCHIVES: The photographer's eye (YouTube Video)
Watch classic "Sunday Morning" interviews with noted photographers, including a 2001 profile of Mary Ellen Mark; from 1980, Henri-Cartier Bresson narrates an exhibition of his work; two interviews, from 1981 and 1991, of photographer-painter Chuck Close, recorded before and after suffering paralysis; from 2000, William Wegman, noted for playfully photographing his Weimaraners; and from 2002, portraitist and fashion photographer Richard Avedon looks back on his career.

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

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

"Sunday Morning" also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. (Download it here.) 

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

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

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

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David Morgan

David Morgan is senior producer for CBSNews.com and the Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning." He writes about film, music and the arts. He is author of the books "Monty Python Speaks" and "Knowing the Score."

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